Somewhere, far away from the main four, stood a tall somewhat transparent staircase.

Folle walked up several steps, which made his breath speed up due to the lack of physical condition. This though didn’t stop him from clenching his fists and enduring the pain in his legs even after he climbed up them. It was true that he could always float up and make his life a billion times easier. But when he remembers how stern the other Arcana look when walking up to them, he hopes to get taken as serious this time. He is carrying important news after all.

Once he got to the top, Folle squatted down towards the stairs to cheer for the tiny dog who struggled a few steps down. The stairs seemed enormous to his small size,

“C’mon puppy!”, Folle shouted before he clapped his hands at the dog who struggled a few stairs below him.

“It sure has been a lot of time since I last saw you walk up those stairs by yourself.”

Folle turned around with a confusion visible on his face, as he looked straight at the person who had spoken to him.

A teenage girl stood in front of him, and it didn’t take him long to recognize who it is.

“Stella!”, Folle exclaimed, his eyes widening for a moment.

He didn’t waste a single moment as he flew into an embrace with the girl with a warm smile.

Stella, or in formal known as ‘The Star’, is one of the Arcana siblings. She didn’t show up a lot at the family mansion. Most of her appearance looked as if based on Strength, so she later ended up overshadowed. Since Stella never had a special trial assigned to her, she spends most of her time in the ‘awake’ world. There, she has a task of finding people for the trials. But more than often ends up neglecting the job and spending time at lakes and rivers. She finds the flowing water rather comforting.

Stella’s appearance was like Strength’s, though she differed in some things. She had curly blonde hair, on top of which didn’t stand a flower crown, unlike Strength. She had much darker skin than Strength, who had pure white skin while Stella had a much darker complexion. Stella had brown eyes, which wasn’t odd in Arcana who spent most of their time in the ‘awake’ world. But the natural eye color of the Arcana was an intense bright gold color. Like Strength, Stella had a floating sign above her head. Stella's sign was of an eight-point star, while Strength's was an infinity sign. Stella and Strength dressed the same, but Stella tried to differ herself from the other, so she cut her dress. Today, Stella wears a white dress with the same flower pattern on the chest as Strength, but her dress is shorter. While Strength's dress reaches down to the ground, Stella has her cut a little above her knee. Needless to say that such a need for a style change is still not accepted by The World.

“So, how have you been?”, Stella said with a welcoming smile. She returned the hug from the somewhat smaller Folle, ruffling his blond hair in the process.

Folle stopped for a moment, remembering the reason he even climbed up the stairs for. But he decided to forget it for the moment, not wanting to burden Stella with the fact she had to take part in a meeting. The whole reason she has been spending most of her time in the 'awake' world is to not have to be in meetings.

“I’m fine, today I got to guide a new group.”, he replied after a few brief moments of silence.

“Something tells me that they are a troublesome bunch.”, Stella uttered, cutting him off at his last word. At that moment her voice seemed to morph into a darker tone.

Was she in a bad mood?

That didn’t sound like Stella at all in that single moment.

“What?”, Folle said, his eyebrows furrowing for a moment.

“What ‘what’?”, Stella asked, chuckling as she found the wordplay kind of entertaining.

“You said something?”, Folle asked. She stood silent for a moment. Folle guessed that she is trying to remember what she said moments earlier.

“No, I didn’t. At least I assume I didn’t. I’m most likely exhausted.”, she denied as she let go of Folle before she took a few steps back.

“Anyways, I’m going to sleep, see you later.”

Stella left Folle to stand by the stairs with a confused look on his face. She left him wondering what she meant a few sentences prior.

After a few seconds, his previous thoughts hit him. He remembered the sole reason he even came all this way.

Right, for the shadow man.

Folle stopped at the gate of the start of the front garden. He looked in and around where his sight could reach before taking his first step onto the rocky path. The path led far out of his view and lead all around the garden.

He took each step with caution as he looked at the life in the garden around him. The plant life in there was in white or very light pastel colors. The trees stood low, their branches hanging like willows and the flowers were in all shapes and sizes. The biggest flowers were even taller than Folle himself, who was around five feet and two inches.

He was quite surprised when he found no trace of Sospeso, in formal known as ‘The Hanged Man’ in the garden. This struck Folle as weird since Sospeso usually spent his time hanging from the trees in the garden.

“Hello! Terra?!”, Folle shouted for the other Arcana he knew was going to be in the garden. His voice echoed through what seemed to be an infinity of a garden. Soon after he heard a shift not too far from where he was standing and a shout:

“Hey, I’m right here, fool boy! Come right up!”.

A thin hand peered out from behind one of the thick trees, signaling Folle where to go.

Folle walked off the rocky path and headed towards the tree where he heard the shout from. Once he got to the tree, he stood in front of the sitting figure underneath there and bowed.

“Cut the crap, Folle. Catch this.”

This attitude took Folle by surprise and he wasn't ready to get hit in the head by a pair of new sewn pants. The pants were like his current ones, though being of a different color. Upon taking the pants off his head, he also noticed a new flannel, which he had been needing for some time.

“..Thank you.”, he replied in a soft voice, folding the clothes he got over his arm.

This was The World, usually addressed as Terra. As Terra is the oldest sibling and the main one of them, everyone at first insisted on using their formal name. It took some time to normalize calling them 'Terra' which involved a lot of arguing along the way.

Even though they looked like a man, Strength advised Folle to refer to Terra with the pronouns ‘them’. After that fact, Folle didn’t actually listen to Strength ramble on. Some words still stuck to his mind about Terra having a ‘final fight form’. Folle had never seen the form when it came to Terra’s trial but still trusted Strength. He actually thought of Strength as one of the more truthful Arcana siblings.

Terra doesn’t have that much of a special appearance. Their hair is white, which often braided lays down their back. Their skin is a dark olive color, which strikes everyone as weird as Terra isn’t exactly fond of the summer sun. Some even suspect that he might be painting his skin this way, though it's an outrageous claim. Their eyes are the intense golden color like of everyone else. They are very tall, being the second one in height charts in the group. Death actually towered everyone at almost ten feet.

Terra is the tailor of the group, making everyone's clothes look as if they were gods. Even though they are the tailor, they always seem to dress plain. The clothes they wear daily are usually turtleneck sweaters and a same pair of leggings. Even though the Arcana don't seem to feel hot and cold, some say they have seen Terra wearing flannels on hot days. Some siblings say it may be that way since they saw humans wearing light clothes during summer. Some even theorize they spend time in the 'awake' world. Many don't believe that though, as their eyes would've changed and they wouldn't always be in the garden.

“No problem, kiddo.”, Terra said. They seemed to stretch their words along with their body as they tried to straighten their back. Sitting hunched over on the ground the whole day would always do a number on their back and neck.

“Anyways, you don’t come here often at all. It feels like the last time I saw you is when you were born.”, they said before snorting.

Folle laughed for a few moments. But he put a stop to it as soon as he saw Terra's serious face, looking at him right in the eyes.

“Is something wrong?”, Terra asked as their voice dropped to a frightening low.

That stare always did something to Folle, who felt the words drop right out of his mouth all In one moment.

“There is something wrong, we need to call a meeting right away!”, the words broke right out of Folle’s mouth. After that, for a split moment, he felt panic before swinging back to normal again. He swayed back as he felt his eyes going back into his head, but stopped himself in time. He stumbled back

Terra seemed to be in their own mind, watching somewhere completely far from where they were.

“I agree.”, they suddenly said, breaking the silence as they stuck the large needles they were working with into the ground, supporting themselves as they stood up, now completely towering Folle, “The shadow entity is nothing to be joking with.”.

“Go into the meeting room, you can sit at my place. You will be the one telling the story.”, Terra once again said. They pointed at the mansion for a moment before they left for what Folle guessed was to call the others.

Folle felt anxiety running through his body. It chilled him that the shadow entity was something Terra recognized. As much as he didn’t want to doubt his sibling, he felt that they had something to do with everything.

In the window of the mansion protected by thick black curtains, a foggy entity cackled.

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