Deception || Jack Wilder [1]

| 02. the empress

"whatever is about to follow, whatever the grand trick is, is really going to amaze."

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MAEVE MANAGED TO RESEARCH everything there was to know about the two tarot cards she received in the span of the 30 hours she was given before the meeting.

"The Empress." Maeve read aloud as she took a sip of her water; she propped her feet up against the coffee table in the center of the room.

"Upright: Fertility, femininity, beauty, nature, abundance-no." She started typing on her computer. "Not specific enough." Once she finally settled on a better site, Maeve continued to read. "This card often finds those exposed to strong bursts of creative or artistic energy. That creative energy may not be in the form of a painting or art project, however: This card also suggests a very strong possibility of pregnancy-"

She immediately paused and looked weirdly at the computer screen.

"Great." Maeve rolled her eyes and decided to find information on the Ace of Wands.

Since all of that research only took up a couple hours, Maeve was forced to try and do something else. The time went by agonizingly slow. Her nerves were all over the place and not once did she think of going out to perform magic.

But Maeve did go down to the coffee shop and get her usual: a slight roasted coffee with cream and two packs of sugar.

She drinks coffee when she in nervous; this was a bad habit she developed during finals in her sophomore year of high school. Maeve was so nervous that she couldn't sleep until it was around 5 o'clock in the afternoon on March 28.

It was 2:30 in the afternoon when she finally woke up on March 29. All that beauty sleep put an immensely happy expression on her face as she got up to get ready.

Maeve decided on wearing a short flowy scarlet tank top with spaghetti straps, light blue ripped skinny jeans, her signature black converse, and her famous leather jacket. She applied a quick thin layer of make up: concealer, contour, eyeliner, and mascara; before checking the time.

The clock read 3:45 when she finished touching up; about an hour left. Maeve decided to go down to the coffee shop to kill time. Ordering her usual, she sat on the bar stool in front of the side window. Maeve immediately became engrossed in the world around her, which consisted of people running late and cars swiveling by.

Checking the time once more, she decided to walk to the building. Maeve made her way a couple blocks down before taking a left. She followed the map on her phone and made it to the place with 15 minutes to spare.

Maeve got a better look at the building from across the street; it didn't look as bad as she thought it would.

Walking inside, Maeve groaned at the sight of stairs and no elevator. She grumbled, ascending the first flight of stairs. "You think with some fancy ass card they could afford a better place."

Maeve started to hear a slight conversation as she continued upward. "So, apparently none of us was the only one chosen. Let me be the first to kick my ego to the curb." Maeve could make that out as an older man, probably with no hair and a killer sense of humor.