Fleeting Moment
Value: 1
Mysteries • Rats • Mirrors • Stone
Meanings: Lost time, elusiveness, agility, reaction
Time moves inexorably forward. Sometimes it moves so quickly that we lose track of it. We try to watch, we try to pay attention, and yet it’s gone. Mercurially, it slips through our fingers. Time can move so rapidly, in fact, that we can lose time. Look at the clock—it’s 6:22. Look again, seemingly a moment later, and it’s 8:05. They say that there was once an hour that came after midnight, but eventually it moved so quickly that it disappeared altogether. If that’s true, perhaps it’s the fate of all time, and the midnight hour will flit away next. Time is elusive and impossible to hold, no matter how you try. It’s a force even the gods fear.
Divination: Quick and decisive reaction is the advice suggested by this card. The implication is that something is going to happen, it’s going to happen soon, and it’s going to happen fast. One must be ready. This could be a threat, or it could be a valuable opportunity. Either way, one has to react to it with agility (physical, mental, or both) or this elusive event will flitter away, leaving only its results behind to show that it ever even happened.
Game Narrative: Something strange happens with time, or the perception of time. An NPC escapes from confinement. An elusive figure (perhaps a spirit or a legendary beast) makes a brief appearance. An NPC performs a feat of amazing agility.
Joy: The PC manages to dodge an attack that would otherwise harm them. The PC acts and reacts so quickly that they gain another action. An attempt to hold the PC or somehow restrict them fails.
Despair: Time passes suddenly and the PC has no memory of it. An NPC foe reacts impossibly fast and avoids an attack or spell.
Blink and it’s gone—a moment too quick to perceive. But your whole life is made of such moments.