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The Page

She knows everyone in the world, and these are their names:

  • The Magician
  • The Popess
  • Strength and her friend Temperance
  • Star
  • Death
  • The Knight
  • The King
  • The Queen of Swords

And herself, of course, the Page. So when she meets the man in the worn blue coat she doesn’t know what to call him.

“I’m the Emperor, my child,” he says. “Emperor Norton the First. Not Emperor here, of course, just a state visit, a diplomatic consort mission envoy. Where am I?”

“The world,” says the Page uneasily.

“Ah,” he says, “but what do you call it?”

She calls it Summersend.