"No. Not a pleasing thing at all." Arabella replied as she inhaled deeply, she raised her right hand, and in this moment did something that defied the rules. Using the fingertips of her left hand, Arabella slowly pinched the tips of her fingers on the right, and removed the white silk glove, exposing the delicate porcelain flesh of her hand, her palms scarred from the amount of times she had dug her nails into them, causing herself to bleed and of course a great deal of pain. "We don't want anything getting in the way, do we?" Arabella wasn't so much asking as generally commenting. Setting the fabric aside, she lifted her right hand above the cards, a few inches or so, but certainly less than a foot above.

Her hand moved from left to right above the worn deck, and not long after she began Arabella could detect the strangest thing she had ever felt. A sort of tickle in her hand, a kind of pull. A feeling so strange she wouldn't be able to describe it if asked. Almost other worldly. But if she moved a little further, the feeling would vanish, further still and it would return. "It's like they're calling to me." Arabella pushed the words out, loathe to acknowledge it, but what she was feeling in her hand could not be denied.

"This one." Arabella motioned, careful not to touch the cards as instructed. "This one." Another, "These two." Arabella kept going, the feeling having largely vanished from areas where she had selected the offending cards. "And this one." Another swift motion, Arabella's hovered over the deck a few more times, she felt nothing. "I think... that's all." Arabella stared now at the crone. A little bit of fear shooting through her body. "Alright... let's see what you can do with that." The Queen shuffled somewhat uncomfortably in her seat, just staring at the cards that the crone had pulled at her insistence.

--

Arthur nodded as his father spoke. "Good to strive, that's right father." He affirmed the man's words and to an extent one could agree with them. But their definitions of what it meant to strive were polar opposites.