The Fool and the High Priestess

Revelations and Reunions

   Both Aiyana and Libertà were nowhere to be found. Naturally, Nova was very irritated. He wanted to know what was going on. How did Aiyana and Libertà know each other? Why was Jolly so affectionate towards Aiyana? Aiyana had also called him Uncle Al. Did Jolly go by a different name?

"What's wrong, Nova?" Felicità asked.

"Nothing!" He seemed to be saying that a lot lately.

"Where are Libertà and Aiyana?" Debito asked. He had tried to give Aiyana a nickname, and it hadn't gone over well. Aiyana had slapped him and there was a red mark on his cheek.

"Hurry up!" Nova heard Libertà hiss.

"Ow! It's not like I can quicken the process!" Was that Aiyana? It was her voice, but the speech pattern was different.

A pause. "My God, Aiyana. Turn around. I'll put on the... What did you do, anyway? Get ... to a fire?"

"I'd ... it on... actually." What the heck? Nova looked at the others in confusion.

"Yeah, right. My Tarocco isn't even ... How the hell would I burn you? Walking disaster... not in battle."

After a few minutes' wait, the two of them finally emerged, Aiyana wearing a new shirt. Actually, it wasn't exactly a shirt, more like a tunic. Libertà did not look as if he had woken up on the floor or a sofa. Both of them, however, looked as if they hadn't had a good night's sleep. Aiyana's arms were bandaged, and it seemed like her torso was, too.

"You promised an explanation," Nova stated.

"Yeah, we did." Libertà agreed. Was he stalling? Now that wasn't like him at all.

"How about, we ask a question, and you answer," Nova looked around. They all seemed to be in agreement.

   "First off, what's the relationship between Aiyana and Jolly? Why did she call him Uncle Al?" Aiyana blinked. She, Libertà, and Jolly suddenly burst into laughter. Everyone inched away from the dark-haired alchemist.

Aiyana wiped away tears from her eyes. "First of all, Jolly's birth name is Alessandro Serafin, which he still uses sometimes. He's my first cousin once removed. By the way, Al, Is Luca your son? You look awfully alike. And he's the spitting image of dad in his old photos."

"Yes," Jolly said calmly. "What I'd like to know is how you two know each other."

Libertà flinched. Aiyana started tugging at her hair- a nervous habit.

"Ah, not that question," Nova heard Libertà mutter. The two of the were silent for a while.

"Well?" Mondo demanded.

"We met at the orphanage,"Aiyana said flatly.

"No," Nova asserted.

Felicità frowned."No?"

"You mentioned that your parents knew that you joined the Family. You also said that your grandfather wasn't pleased. Jolly and Luca are obviously still alive. You couldn't have met at the orphanage because you aren't an orphan; you wouldn't have been there."

"Whoever said that I had been one of the orphans? I was just there," Aiyana said calmly.

"What is this place?" Felicità inquired.

"That, I can answer," Jolly said. "The Serafin family has long been connected to the Lady of Time and the Tarocco, as Nero Serafin created the rest of the cards- at one point, The Fool was the only one- and so, members of the Serafin family can take people to the White Fortress, a place unconnected to time and space. That means no one knows we're missing because they are frozen in time."