Episode 41- The Knight of Love
In the Real, few things are decided by big battles. There are no called out attacks, sudden reversals or surprise revivals. Few situations are brought to a close by a single, decisive blow. Almost no one changes for the better.
Rather, it is the small moments that do us in. The dish not put away. The empty toilet paper unchanged. The wrapper not picked up. Repeated, unchangeable behaviors that reliably cycle as surely as the tremors along a fault line. Slowly, but surely, these little moments, these indiscretions, march us inch by inch to the End of All Things- the Great Silence.
And yet when we arrive at the cliff overlooking that unknowable abyss, we are always surprised.
This is the genius of the Real- that we can be prodded along so constantly, yet unknowingly, toward the same destination.
I once read that as a million raindrops someday fill an ocean, so to do our most benign behaviors someday fill the sum of our spirits.
Imagine reversing the composition of an ocean.
Perhaps that’s why we find stories so comforting. We want to see the Impossible Change.
In the Real, few people ever change.
But in stories?
Ext. valley of the bones morning
Violence at the campfire- the new guest, Temperance, is in process of attacking with seemingly no provocation. Fiery arcane energy leaps from his raised, full cup. The intended target is Alice, still seated on the ground. Pale Horse and the Queen of Swords are scarcely able to react, the Pale Horse able to call out a single word of warning to Alice as the magical bolt travels toward her.
PALE HORSE
ALICE!
From Temperance’s cup, the fiery bolt arcs toward Alice, only to be cut off by a spear of water arcana. Alice turns to see the Knight of Cups raising his own chalice, a rusty, copper thing, enveloped by the blue aura of arcane Water energy.
KNIGHT OF CUPS
(surprisingly intense, full of knightly energy)
STAND DOWN, TEMPERANCE, OR BEAR THE TIDE OF CUPS.
ALICE
(surprised)
Woah, the old man is really strong.
Temperance retracts his fire back to his cup. At first, he appears stunned by this defiance, but then he cocks his head, a lopsided smile forming on one half of his face, the corresponding eye squinting shut. He fixes his gaze upon the Knight.
TEMPERANCE
Fire and water, yes, very proper, very equal. But and I, Knight of Cups- we are not equal. Not remotely.
KNIGHT OF CUPS
(straining under the effort of maintaining his raised goblet)
I bear the crest of the Ace of Cups. I carry the Cup of Love that ever runneth over. I will not flee in the face of my oath. I declare myself the Knight of Cups, defender of the Alice. If you be honorable- declare yourself, that I might send a prayer on your behalf upon your death!
Temperance raises his empty chalice. Around his body, a dark blue aura gathers which swirls about his body, causing his robe to ripple, his golden locks of hair to float. As he speaks, this aura turns from dark blue to pitch black.
TEMPERANCE
I am Temperance of the Major Arcana, child of the Sun, who owns all that falls beneath his golden gaze.
KNIGHT OF CUPS
(righteous fury)
Then you admit it- you’ve abandoned The Tower- and your oath!
TEMPERANCE
I have abandoned NOTHING. I have always been in service to one ideal, tin soldier of Cups- equity in all things. The Sun is the only being in all of Arcana who can promise such a thing, make it a reality. Do his rays not shine equally upon the heads of both the guilty and the just? Even a CHILD could see there is no greater equality, no greater balance, no simpler equation than that of The Sun. I will hear no lectures from the unenlightened. So disappear into emptiness.
Temperance raises the empty chalice from which the pitch black arcane energy emanates. A flash of white light peaks from the chalice- followed by the bass drop of a small sonic boom- a shaft of sharp, black arcane energy erupts from the chalice racing toward the Knight. Water spears leap from the Knight’s goblet, but each spear is feebly cast aside by the roaring black spike as it rushes its trajectory toward the Knight.
As the Knight’s life expectancy reduces to a matter of seconds, he resigns himself, closing his eyes in the face of the coming onslaught.
KNIGHT OF CUPS
A proper ending for a knight. A death in defense of Love.
The Knight clutches his goblet to his breast place and takes a deep breath as the arcane spike threatens to overtake him…
