While his parents and even Cara gushed over the cookies Art had made, Asher managed to get his hands on the principal's letter. It was actually a decent recommendation based on the experiences he had so far. The school had seen that he was catching on in combat on the very first day. 'If they only knew it was a complete accident.'
Asher was reading more small examples like this and found that almost all of them were accidental, even the philosophy class was mentioned. Mr. Richards apparently sent in his own recommendation saying that Asher had a deep mind. 'I have no idea what a deep mind is but if it's good then it's good.'
Even more surprising was the fact that the aura reading was outlined saying that Madam Weaver saw great promise in his future. 'I really need to thank her. She is wicked confusing but pretty good about helping out with my powers.' Asher was starting to realize that the blessing of circling a random class was more so than the ones he had chosen. It was like the fortune telling and astrology class was made just to give him the right ideas about his powers.
"Well you better teach me how to make all of this. Mom thinks I can't cook but I will be proving to all of you I can cook better than anyone!" Cara was getting more rambunctious hearing that her mother wanted Art to start helping with dinner.
Asher heard this and felt his skills would be needed. "I am a much better cook. I will teach you don't worry. Just call me master chef." He pointed a thumb at himself as he stood to bring his dishes to the sink.
"Please Mrs. Ronan, don't worry. I will help and also prevent the worst from happening." Art was deadpan as he said this. Asher's mother nodded with slight fear in her eyes.
Asher and Cara couldn't understand why the two were sharing this look but quickly disposed of the train of thought. The three had homework left to do and they needed to get it done before bed.
With the dishes dealt with they headed to their rooms. Art had a heap of chemistry notes to write over since they were scribbled on lab papers and Asher was becoming curious to what the tarot deck could do. He was about to tear it open and play with it but sadly his academic homework stole his attention. The hours passed as he tried to focus on other classes and just as he was about to break he managed to hit a rhythm.
He hurriedly pulled out the deck of tarot cards and placed them on his cleared table. 'Step one trace your finger on the edge of the deck to add your aura.' Asher did this feeling silly but didn't wish to mess anything up.
'Step two ask the deck a question.' "Will I have a breakthrough in understanding of my powers tomorrow?" This was something weighing on him, he still had no idea of the scope of what his powers did. The range and the exact strength was all still a mystery.
'Step three shuffle the deck.' Asher started to shuffle the cards in to a random order. The patters on the back were mixing up here and there but shined slightly with the gold paint on the black background.
'Step four pull one or many cards. It will depend on how you feel.' Asher was stuck on this step. He had no idea how many cards he was feeling and how to know what feeling would tell him to stop. 'Can't I just pull every card if I wanted?'
Asher started to pull cards, the first he set still face down in front of him, he grabbed a second then went for a third. As he placed the third he heard a thump thump thump down the stairs. "Art honey are you alright?" Asher's mother yelled from the living room.
"Poor Art, he knows not to rush down the stairs with his socks on…' Asher felt bad that Art would need to start padding his butt however he saw that he only had three cards. 'Well I might as well stick with them.'
The first car he decided to turn was a simple jester. The detail was simple and the hat easy to identify. 'The fool? Does this mean that I won't know what's going on?' Asher looked at the card a little longer. 'This deck is messing with me, it has to be.'
He shook his head thinking that this was all going to be bogus anyways so he might as well continue. The second care he tuned was an intricate wheel. 'The wheel of fortune, huh so this one is good and bad luck? Does this mean i will be a fool with good and bad luck...this is dumb' He felt that he was still being insulted by the cards.
Asher looked at the third car wondering if the insults would continue. The third card was a character with fire in their hands. 'The magician...looks cool. I wonder if this means i will be able to use my power actively? Or wait, am I going to get a fire ball spell!?' Asher's mind was wandering to insane places.
Having this fantasy in his head he was able to make himself feel better that the cards had basically been insulting him. However he wrote down what he thought they meant and decided that having madam Weaver give him a better estimate and reading in class tomorrow would probably go better. He put the cards aside and got up to head to bed. However as he stood up he bumped his table causing the card in the top of the stacked deck to fall on to the ground.
Asher picked it up looking at it wondering why only one car had fallen. 'Physics is weird, I'm glad I don't need to take that class yet.' When he picked up the card he was looking at an ancient looking chariot pulled by bulls. 'The chariot upside huh? Let's look this up for fun.'
Asher pulled up the meaning of an upside down chariot in tarot cards on his laptop. ' lack of control, lack of direction? Are these cards just mocking me for fun? I have control and direction, I want to be a hero!' Asher cursed out the cards before putting the chariot card on top with the three he had pulled prior. Madam Weaver was going to get an earful about the mean cards she had given him.
Like the day before sleep was but a blink of an eye. Before he even realized it Asher was slamming a hand down on to his alarm clock with the great desire to crush it. He needed to get up and work out again before heading off to school.
The groans of someone walking down the stairs spurred him to move faster. By the time he reached the front door he was amused to see that Art was trying to put on his gym shoes with as little effort as possible. Cara just stood there smiling devilishly. "Looking a little stiff there Art." Asher was trying his best not to laugh out loud.
"Bro, how do you deal with this ever day? I felt like my legs were going to give out on me the second I stood up." Art was rubbing his thighs trying to get them to stop screaming in pain.
"That's what you get for not eating enough protein to fix up those torn muscles. Now you get to experience a real fun workout. Let's get on the move." Cara said each word with joy since she knew that the two of them would be suffering just a little behind her. She may have been starting an intense rivalry with the two.
"You heard here, time to get running. Just stretch really well when we get to the park. We will try and get some extra protein shakes on the way home from school so we don't end up crawling to class later." Asher no longer made fun of Art since he too was still feeling the soreness in his legs and hips. They screamed for him to go back to bed.
The two of them trailed behind Cara, the same as the day before however Art had learned the tough lesson and was keeping a slow pace with Asher. The two were able to make it to the park pretty fast without any problems. However as soon as they approached they were surprised to see seven people wearing matching workout clothing there already.
Cara was speaking to the tallest one like she had met them before. "Oh you two finally caught up huh? Get over here and meet the body training club. They are ranked pretty high in the clubs since they always seem to win their physique competitions."