The Alien Tarot Master
Once we stepped off the train, we followed Tesla to his laboratory.
What a coincidence that I happened to be taking the train in a rush to get home, too. This is working out nicely.
Tesla had actually invited us into his very own home.
Somehow we'd sweet-talked him into not only conversation but a personal invitation to his workshop — the quest was progressing smoothly.
"Is Tesla normally this friendly? I expected someone more guarded."
Visitor C whispered in a low voice as we trailed behind him.
Since we'd heard he was a genius obsessed with his experiments, an off-putting image was easy to imagine. In truth, I'd read that he was stubborn and not exactly adept at dealing with people.
He's probably leading us into his personal space for the sake of the quest, though.
After all, the Tesla before our eyes was nothing more than an NPC inside this tower.
"Gah—!"
Then Tesla suddenly let out a startled yelp and swatted hard at his own shoulder.
Was he brushing off dust? For that, his hands were rather dramatic about it.
Before Visitor C and I could exchange a puzzled glance, he fixed us with a piercing look.
"Miss. Would you tie your hair back more tightly? A strand of it has touched my shoulder."
"Ah — yes. Of course."
One long strand of the woman's hair had apparently landed on Tesla's shoulder.
Visitor C hid her sour expression and hurriedly pulled her hair back into a tighter ponytail.
"Friendly, was I saying? My mistake. Geniuses, honestly."
She grumbled under her breath, quiet enough that Tesla couldn't hear.
I agreed with her to a certain extent.
Is there even such a thing as an ordinary genius?
Then again — an "ordinary genius." It's a phrase that can't exist in the first place.
On the way into the laboratory, the air grew thick with the smell of metal.
"This is my home, and my laboratory."
Now that's just obsessive.
Layers upon layers of papers covered the room — experiment logs, equations no layman could decipher — alongside a vast array of research equipment.
The space was saturated with science, yet remarkably, it didn't feel cluttered.
"You said you have a keen interest in electrical experiments, so you'll be well acquainted with alternating and direct current."
Tesla left us standing dumbly in the middle of the room as he went to inspect a transformer.
His gaze stayed riveted to his equipment. Even mid-conversation, his hands never stopped moving — a small detail that said everything about the man's character.
"You know quite a bit about my circumstances. You must be rather a sharp investigator."
"Haha."
I had to answer carefully, so I fussed over my words and ended up deflecting with a laugh.
A single slip of the tongue from me right now could bend the entire course of Tesla's future.
"What is that?"
Visitor C pointed at an enormous machine that wouldn't have looked out of place in a science fiction film.
Tesla shook his head firmly without so much as glancing at her.
"It is still unfinished. I cannot explain it yet."
"Oh, I see."
"However—"
Just as Visitor C was about to lose interest in the machine, Tesla continued without letting the sentence die.
"However, if word has reached you from Mr. Edison... then demonstrating the power of alternating current would be no bad thing."
He pulled down the lever of the machine he'd been fiddling with.
At once, a tremendous light erupted from the sphere mounted atop the apparatus — lightning, jagged and zigzagging.
CRAACKLE—!!
Flame-like electricity spat from the blue-tinted orb, the kind of glow you'd expect to see in a divination ritual. Bolts burst forth in every direction.
"Kyaaagh!"
Each time the machine disgorged its electricity, a shrieking roar went with it, loud enough to hurt the ears.
Only when the machine wound down could Visitor C and I finally lower our hands from our ears.
"Whew..."
Spots still danced before my eyes.
It was a mystical spark display you might pay to see as a stage effect at a magic show.
"Even Edison's company would struggle to lay hands on a high-voltage apparatus like this."
Watching us, still stunned from the sudden demonstration, Tesla boasted about his invention with utter composure, without so much as blinking.
An early prototype of the Tesla coil, then...
The high-voltage device Tesla created — the Tesla coil. Judging by the era, he'd only just begun testing the thing.
And yet here I was, seeing in the flesh those root-like sparks I'd only ever read about in books.
I rubbed my aching eyes and marveled in silence.
"So. What do you make of my alternating current?"
"......"
Visitor C and I said nothing. We simply pressed our lips shut.
Of course Tesla is brilliant. But I can't tell him alternating current will still be used far into the future.
Our purpose is to correct Edison's mistakes.
There was no need to go out of our way to persuade Tesla into a comfortable old age.
For now, the best move is to keep a measured distance — not trust, not hostility.
"Impressive. Seeing a workspace equipped for experiments like this, I'd say the people interested in buying your technology may already be narrowing down their candidates."
"...Do not test me with ambiguous words."
Tesla's demeanor sharpened all at once, and he glared at me.
He must have judged that I wasn't some parasite after the rights to his AC technology, like Westinghouse.
Well, fair enough. Why would a researcher and a gypsy ever buy up science patents?
What we needed to extract from Tesla was clear.
First, reinforce his confidence in his alternating current, so that his future doesn't change. And second, obtain the information — or the opening — to get a meeting with Edison.
"This gypsy is a diviner who communes with the extraterrestrial and reads the course of future civilization."
"I'm — what?!"
I introduced her with both hands pointed at Visitor C.
She nearly choked, letting out a strangled shriek.
A fortune-teller in contact with outer space. That was a scam of genuinely grand scale.
But it'll work, won't it?
For the briefest instant, I caught it — Tesla's pupils trembling, ever so slightly.
This was a man fascinated by new hypotheses, and above all, by anything "extraterrestrial."
His gaze swept over Visitor C, brimming with that razor-edged curiosity unique to scientists.
You can't get thrown out here. We absolutely have to finish the Tesla route right now.
I know next to nothing about tarot, but either way, it's a craft that can reach into the human heart — genuine ability or sheer salesmanship alike.
Use your tarot and your silver tongue to finish our objective. Please.
Maybe she read the desperation in my eyes.
Visitor C gave a small nod, planted a hand confidently on her chest, and looked up at Tesla.
"Yes. Through these cards, I can communicate with beings from beyond the stars."
Fwoosh—
As Visitor C spread her arms, tarot cards materialized between them.
In this world of machinery and metal, an entirely different genre had just intruded.
So that's her Perk — something tied to tarot.
The cards floating in midair fanned out and shuffled themselves, no hand required.
"?!! What technique is this?"
"...Investigator?"
When Tesla asked in astonishment, Visitor C shot me a look begging for rescue.
It said, clearly: you started this con, so see it through to the end.
Thank goodness my face isn't the dramatic type. I didn't blink, and I cast the next lie without a hitch.
"That is proprietary technology, already sold to another company. I'm afraid I can't discuss it."
"Hm. A gypsy and an investigator who sell technological patents."
Tesla's mouth curved — not in mockery, but something else. Watching him study the tarot cards, superstition by his lights, with genuine fascination, I could tell my mention of the extraterrestrial had landed squarely.
"The beings beyond will answer me through these cards, telling me of the future electrical civilization."
"You mean to see whether my alternating current becomes that civilization."
"Precisely, Mr. Tesla. My cards possess a Perk effect: they read the future — and then fate flows exactly as the reading dictates."
"Perk?"
"Gypsy parlance. The cards are random, and so is fate."
At her enigmatic phrasing, I chewed over her words. Having invoked the word Perk, this explanation was obviously not for Tesla alone.
She's explaining Perks to me.
Read a target's future with the cards, and destiny follows the spread. The cards, the fate — neither decided by her own will at all.
A Perk with a brutally strong luck-of-the-draw trait.
If Tesla draws badly, this woman's own life could be rewritten.
Tread carelessly, and things turn dangerous.
Would it be the wiser choice to skip Visitor C's Perk entirely and simply talk Tesla around with words?
"Among gypsies, there's a saying — 'all or nothing.'"
Then Visitor C, still pretending to address Tesla, slipped in a proverb only a Korean could possibly understand.
Tesla, naturally, understood nothing and merely shrugged.
"What does that mean?"
"It means that while you can never know how fate will be decided, if someone is someone you may never meet again, it's no bad thing to stake everything on the attempt."
At her convoluted explanation, Tesla frowned.
None of it bore any resemblance to the actual meaning of the saying.
It was a clever maneuver to speak to me alone, behind Tesla's back.
Decoded: since we may never meet Tesla again, she's telling me to gamble on her cards.
"But staking everything without conviction or proof may be a reckless undertaking."
"I haven't the faintest notion what 'all or nothing' means, but I agree with this researcher. I can always justify my actions with sound reasons."
Blissfully unaware that the conversation had turned to himself, Tesla declared his confidence outright.
As I'd already established, his convictions need no persuading. The one we must persuade directly is Edison.
Which means Tesla's fate has to be pinned here — fixed in place so it wobbles as little as possible.
Visitor C's tarot ability could lock his destiny to match the historical record.
But the cards are random, so it would be a gamble—
"And in this world, once per sitting, the cards can be Jujak-ed."
"Jujak?"
Jujak!
Again, the term left Tesla stranded, and he showed visible displeasure at it.
I, however, caught her meaning instantly.
Say "manipulation" and Tesla would see right through us — so she'd shrewdly swapped the word for our own coinage.
"It's how gypsies express it. It means a prophecy beyond the ordinary."
"Oho. Gypsies seem to keep many a riddling cant among themselves."
Once she called it gypsy speech, Tesla accepted that it lay beyond his understanding and grew docile again.
I barely suppressed a burst of laughter.
"Jujak," an extraordinary prophecy. She really will tell any lie with a man from the past in front of her.
No genius alive could bridge a generational gap of more than a hundred years.
Anyway — so the cards can be manipulated exactly once per floor.
In that case, there was no reason not to try it. I'd never planned on using tarot for Edison anyway.
Edison would be hard enough to coax with talk of outer space, and above all, divination is far too extreme an instrument for patching up a partial mistake.
"Gypsy. Let us perform the Jujak."
"...Yes. I'll perform it."
Visitor C and I exchanged one last look.
The pack of cards drifting in midair sailed forward until it hovered right before Tesla's face.
"Now, draw a card."
"Not three?"
"Three is fine too. I was going to keep it simple so as not to waste your time."
"It must be three."
Stroking his mustache, Tesla insisted on exactly three.
I seemed to recall reading somewhere that he had a fixation on the number three. The half-remembered detail flickered through my mind.
"Very well."
Visitor C accepted his request without so much as raising an eyebrow — apparently the number of cards drawn carried no penalty.
I'm a complete stranger to tarot, so I'll just keep quiet and watch.
If a moment came that called for the manipulation, I could help then. For now, I resolved to observe her ability from the sidelines.
"You mustn't look at the backs."
"Right. I shall draw three, then."
Tesla drew three cards without hesitation and gathered them into his hand.
The moment his selection was complete, the remaining cards suspended in the air vanished.
"Then let the reading begin."
Visitor C took the cards from Tesla's hand and turned them over one by one.
As if laid upon an invisible table, the three cards came to rest on empty air.