The High Tower—the only card that was never a good omen, whether upright or reversed.
If the upright High Tower represented "chaos," "sudden change," and "destruction"—or, in the words of an old almanac, "the days are in conflict; nothing is advisable"—
Then the Reversed High Tower did not represent the opposites of those words. On the contrary, you still had to face that chaos and sudden change. It was simply that, in the reversed position, you had one extra sliver of possibility.
Just as the card depicted: the tower toppled into the deep sea, while the person swam upward, toward the surface.
Zheng Qing felt very sorry.
He had not expected to draw such a terrible card for Colmar.
Just as he was hesitating over whether to draw a second card, the owner of Sakura Tavern spoke first.
"Whether a collective prospers has never depended on the height of its mainstream culture, but on whether those at the margins also have the right to survive. I do not ask for much from this world. I only hope the North District Wizards can escape their repressed fate, and that this world can change, if only a little.
"Back when Professor Yi analyzed the Reversed High Tower in divination class, he always liked to use positive phrases like 'persevering through adversity' or 'a glimmer of life.' But we all know that even if people barely survive destruction, the pain and harm they suffer can never truly be erased."
At that, she raised the bottle in her hand and took a fierce swig. Then she wiped the corner of her mouth and cast a sidelong glance at the tavern's only customer. "So... do you need me to interpret your card?"
Zheng Qing had been sitting upright, listening with a solemn expression. Caught off