Death wasn’t his only tool now, but it was still his best. Once he’d locked the knife and the tree in his mind, once he’d found that focus, the rest had started to come back. Thinking, remembering, were still difficult. His mind wasn’t working right. He still couldn’t touch his magic the old way.

Instead, he’d subsumed himself in the power of the cards. He couldn’t think, but he could find the images. He could use them to build himself a new language. His world became a vivid canvas of abstractions, of the images that resonated with their own meaning, their own magic.

First they came to him. Death was always with him, but he began to pick out other shapes hidden in the branches, in the cracks, or even swirling in the gray overhead. The Pyre is there. Then the Wylde. The Demon. The Conquerer. Samir sees them, considers.

He tries to summon his own ideas. Not more of the Powers—those are dangerous and he isn’t ready for those. Instead, he journeys through the Courts. Each suit tells a story, and this is the first test—can he find those stories? Can he make them real around him?

Air is what comes to him. The journey. His heart is yearning, since he is trapped, has been trapped for a very long time. He follows the path, from the hopeful beginning, through loss and pain. The struggle against the unknown and, finally, the end of the journey.

This is air, though, so even the end is unstable, a conclusion that isn’t as solid as it seems. Fitting, in here, where his hold on his own mind is tenuous at best.

Ice is more solid, but in a brittle sort of way. So easy to shatter. So easy for purpose to be corrupted. He follows that path to the end, but it is unfulfilling.

Fire next, the suit of passion. Samir has never known passion. He tries to wrap it into his desire to escape, but that is desperation, a different emotion. He can’t make the connection.

Water is a quest for freedom. To this, he can relate. It sinks into him, and he moves with it.

He is in the cards now, as Stone appears. Now he feels them as the images play out around him. Responsibility and sacrifice for duty. Next, possessiveness. Claim on what doesn’t belong to you. Samir focuses on that. It can be useful. Isolation is too much. Hope is too much. The final card: destruction. Betrayal that crumbles everything to the ground.

Moving through the Courts have done their part. He is now with the cards. The cards are with him. He still can’t think, but he doesn’t need to think. He only needs to craft, to feel, to let his subconscious work.

Because now, he has a plan.