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Tarot was consumed in total, featureless, darkness, his heart was racing, his breathing was labored and the short heavy breaths that rushed from his lungs faded quickly into the stagnancy of his surroundings. There were no walls for the sound of his panting to reverberate off of, he was running, just running through a never ending abyss, no sound came from his feet instead each step just fell silent against some nonexistent surface beneath him. Glancing downward somehow he could see his hands laid out in front of him as a faint luminosity surrounded them and revealed the pallid skin mottled with crimson stains. It was blood and Tarot knew exactly who's blood it was. The lifeblood of his master was on his hands, a substance that Tarot could never wash away. The Galley Master tried to scream but a tight grip encircled his throat and caught the shriek before it reached his lips.
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Tarot boosted himself from his mattress and into a sitting position, darkness became light once again and the abyssal world was torn asunder, the walls of his cabin rising up in its place. The pale man was screaming, his voice rasp. During his nightmare something stopped the noise from coming out but inside his room he must have been screaming during the entire ending of his dream. The Galley Master's cries weren't very loud only audible enough to fill his room, the sound probably didn't reach any farther than his closed cabin door.
Tarot's pale face was flushed pink, his brow slick with perspiration, his chest rising and falling as heavy breaths wheezed from his throat. He threw a groping hand against his chest and felt the rapid beat of his heart pounding underneath. The whites of his eyes were bloodshot as he moved his hand down to his abdomen, there was still a bit of tension but his muscles weren't nearly as tight as they were before, he could actually sit up now and soon he'd be able to walk the ship effortlessly again. His breathing was slowly returning to normal, he squirmed and kicked off his boots sending them rolling end-over-end to the corner of his cabin. He laid back against his bed and with a flick of his wrist and twist of his sleeve the Galley Master produced a playing card. A seven of hearts, he held the card aloft and then with a snap release he sent the card spinning through the air then repeated the motion with another card.
Card after card... each one traced a complicated series of loops and arcs before sailing into the opened mouths of his overturned boots that remained in the corner of his room. Tarot must have spent an entire hour just throwing cards until his boots were filled to the brim and his deck was empty. During the hour Tarot reflected on the nightmare he had, it was a familiar dream, he was trying to escape the thought of getting his master killed.
"Master Crowe"... he said breathlessly as he began to reminisce
Two whole years after his death Tarot managed to hold onto the image of his master. He was a swarthy middle-aged man with a full beard, tall and muscular, a renowned demon-blood that stalked the back alleys near the port where Tarot grew up. He spent five years under the man's tutelage when he reached the age of twenty. The man had a nasty drinking problem and often took his drunken aggression out on Tarot but for those five years he was the closest thing to a father figure he'd ever known. His master helped him perfect the art of illusion, trained him to believe that the hand is quicker than the eye and always managed to show up whenever Tarot got in over his head which happened more often than not. Over their five years together Tarot had become a carbon copy of his master in every way but appearance and alchohol addiction, his master became so impressed that he gave his apprentice the name that he bears to this day.
Tarot let loose a grim laugh and muttered a few words through the corner of his mouth "And how did you repay him? By getting him killed in an attempt to save your pathetic life." The galley master shook his head in a defeated way and climbed off of his mattress. He moved forward crossing the room over to his boots and after cleaning them out he slipped them back over his feet then proceeded through his cabin door and out into the hallway to wander around the Fulmine looking for the captain.
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