MS-0003 · The Cross · card 3 of 7
Silver Tongued
He spoke the truth as it came and again as they could bear it, and neither was the lie.
- Element
- Fire
- Tense
- Past / testimony
- The hand
- That gave without looking back
The card
Two streams pour from his mouth in perfect balance — one molten and unruly, one crystalline and exact — and neither is the lie. His hand rests at his throat, the trace of every time he chose which language the room could bear. He speaks the true thing and then translates it into the acceptable thing, and both are his. This card names the cost of carrying two tongues: not hypocrisy, but the daily labor of making what came through you survivable to others.
To sit with
What do you still translate before anyone has asked you to?
Who could hear the first version, if you let them?
Related cards
SisyphusThe card before.The weight that wore him down is what wore him open.
The ConduitThe next card.Catching the lightning was the easy part; the work was slowing it enough to land.
The MotherThe section's first card.What she carried through the dark is finally out, and it is not finished — only born.