Alice swiftly clapped a hand over her mouth.
Then she sensed something was off. Parting her fingers, she spoke through the gaps:
"No, thank you. I don't miss it at all."
She firmly rejected the World's suggestion.
Their exchange made the others realize this rule was not just another of Alice's whims. It seemed to stand for something—though heaven knew they had initially thought it was simply another product of Miss Fortune's eccentricity.
No one had imagined it was some mysterious ritual. That was largely down to how Alice behaved at Tarot Club meetings.
During the Tarot Club's usual chats, before the Hermit arrived, the main storyteller had generally been the well-traveled Hanged Man.
The World must have had plenty of experiences too, but he rarely spoke. His main role was... stopping Alice from saying outrageous things.
After the Hermit joined, she and the Hanged Man became the main storytellers. Alice alone still had flashes of inspiration and said wonderfully strange things from time to time, only for the World to stop her.
For instance, Alice had once asked Emlyn, the Moon, whether vampires could taste human food. If they could, why did potions taste so awful?
Audrey had then learned, to her surprise, that vampires did eat human food, rather like humans eating snacks. Alice had supplied that comparison too.
Of course, Alice occasionally offered suggestions that were... unexpected.
For instance, after learning that people in the Forsaken Land of the Gods had to survive on unpalatable Black-faced Grass, Alice had asked in confusion:
"If that's the case, why don't you ask Mr. Fool to grant you food?"
How could a god's grace be used for something like that?
It would have been as shocking as Audrey discovering one day that it was not Mr. Fool's Blessed who needed