Disclaimer: I don’t know what’s wrong with me today, but I keep making egregious typing errors. I think I ironed them all out here, but nobody is perfect.
The skeleton bet his shirt, but looking over his shoulder, I see he’s got the winning hand. The others have folded save for the dark prince. His eyes flit to his cards a moment, but quickly return. Staring down his dead opponent, he throws a few papers and a couple of rubies into the pile.
The skeleton manages to smile, though I’m not sure how, and lays his cards on the table: The Broken Heart, the Hangman, and the Waning Moon.
“It’s a good hand,” smirks the prince, “and with the Princess and Judas already in play, I don’t think my hand can beat it.”
The withered, fleshless claws reach for the treasure.
“But of course,” he continued, “It’s only waning from the dealer’s perspective, your perspective. Across from you at this end of the table, the card is upside down. If you will, it’s very much the Waxing Moon from here, and alike with Judas, an inverted Judas is only one who seems to betray. Fred,” he turned to his left, “You laid the Princess down, and to both of us,” here he turned back to the skeleton, “she is sideways, horizontal, lying down. From my perspective,” he continued, “My hand tells the better story.” He lifted a card from his hand, “In fact, you have the whole story backwards. It began with death and betrayal, but death isn’t the end.”
“Death’s always the end,” the skeleton growled, “That’s why they call it death.”
“The story only began with death. She was betrayed by her lover, sent brokenhearted to the gallows, but the thing about death, with her lying down like that—it’s a fine interpretation to say she is dead, but I say she is only sleeping,” and here he laid down the simplest of cards, the Wildflower. “Spring,” he said, “a new life.” Lifting the next card, he went on, “Not just for her, but her child.” He laid it down, Mother with Child. “Finally, since it is a new moon, and the beginning of a story, not the end, I remind you that the inverted Judas only appeared to be a betrayal, and her heart was mended when she saw everything in the light of day,” he placed the Sun down next to his other cards.
“That’s an interesting perspective,” the skeleton mocked, “But the game’s not played that way.”
“No, it isn’t,” agreed the prince.
“And I won,” the dead man said, pulling the winnings to himself.
“That’s a matter of perspective,” said the prince.
“Oh?” the skeleton asked. “Is it a matter of perspective that I get these,” he held the two rubies up to where his eyes should be, setting them in the empty sockets.
“Of course you get those, it’s in the contract.”
“What contract?” a ruby fell from his face.
“The contract you just won.”
And it was so. There, thrown in with the rubies, were some papers, a contract. With that realization, it was a matter of perspective to say which of the two of them had won.
Tale Told 