In Ur Garden; Up Ur Tree

[onlytolerable]

 Sophie learned her lesson during the Arcana incursion. She'd spent far too much time buried in old tomes. On more than one occasion, she'd had to be carried to bed. So now, she paces herself. She gets the same amount done as she searches in vain for mentions of past magical failures--at least they have jumping off points--but she makes time to take the occasional break and clear her head.

That  still doesn't explain why the 8 of Diamonds is seen outside scrambling up trees.

Curiouser and curioser.

Comments

[onlytolerable]

"A purist?" Her look grows far away. "Copyright dates would be interesting to know. They could be Arcana buildings, still. The inscriptions on the artifacts were in Old French and other Romance languages.

"Do you ever wonder what happened to the original occupants? Someone, somewhere is experiencing similar problems unless there's more of a temporal problem than we know."

[uncutclarity]

"That would involve going back in, and I'm pretty sure I can't get away with that one," Avery says. She's not even sure where the protests would even begin, but probably with Silas.

"Do you think time travel is possible, Sophie?" There were just so many....oddities.

[onlytolerable]

"Goodness! Don't even think of doing that. I'm not sure you and the queen should have explored the buildings even before we knew they weren't safe. You could--" She shrugs. "We can't lose anyone else, especially not leadership." Not now, not ever.

"Anyway, Einstein's Theory of Relativity proves time travel is possible, though I doubt the human race is anywhere near traveling at the speed of light. As for other types? I honestly don't know. Before the Arcana I'd have said an entire castle couldn't appear out of nowhere...."

She drifts off thoughtfully. What had anchored the Arcana's castle to Deck lands? It hadn't been as stable as Deck structures, but something had kept it here. Was similar magic bringing these new buildings?

[uncutclarity]

"I'd be tied down, pretty much immediately, even if I just suggested it." Still, it was a shame the couldn't. Maybe they could look over the stash of confiscated objects.

"It was the strangest thing," she says, setting that aside for just now. "It was like they'd left in the middle of things, years and years ago. There was a chicken soup on the stove, but it was nothing but bones."

[onlytolerable]

"Sounds like Bermuda Triangle legends." Should she look up mysterious disappearing buildings in history? No. Silly idea. She still thinks they must be coming from the Arcana. Then again, the Deck exists. The Chess Set exists. How many similar places might there be?

[uncutclarity]

More than just them, assuredly. Perhaps it was another world no one had heard of, or maybe some of the Arcana were more connected to Outside than it seemed. She couldn't know, and that's what frustrated.

"My dad said that coming here was a big like falling into the Betmuda triangle, so that might not be so far off."