Tony shifted in his stone seat breaking the contemplative silence with the practiced ease of a man who refused to be intimidated by the infinite. His eyes were like two blue lasers fixed on Aryan.
"Okay," he said, leaning over the table, his forearms resting on the cool stone. "This has been bugging me for a while."
Aryan glanced at him, a flicker of amusement in his calm gaze. "That's going to be a remarkably long list, Tony."
"No, this one is specific," Tony countered, his expression tightening, the engineer in him demanding a variable be solved. "How did you know the honorific? The first time we were here, you spoke it like you'd been practicing it in the shower for years. How did you know those specific words?"
The table went quiet. The swirling gray mist seemed to stall in the air, as if the castle itself were listening. Even Namor turned his predatory gaze toward Aryan.
Aryan didn't hesitate. "I was the first," he said simply.
Wanda blinked, her brow furrowing in confusion. "First… how? You make it sound like there was a line."
"When I was first summoned to this place," Aryan continued, his voice dropping into a storyteller's cadence, "there was someone already present. Someone who held the keys before I did."
Tony straightened, his scientific mind immediately categorizing the new information. "Someone like us? Another guest?"
"Yes," Aryan replied. "But not from this universe. His name was Klein Moretti."
A ripple of profound unease passed through the group. The idea of other universes was a theoretical physicist's fantasy, the idea of a predecessor was something far more tangible and unsettling.
"He wasn't one of us," Aryan went on, his gaze drifting toward the shrouded throne at the head of the table. "Not in the way you're thinking. He belonged to a universe that had already reached its conclusion."
T'Challa's gaze sharpened, his regal composure masking a deep seated curiosity. "Conclusion? A world does not simply… end."
Aryan nodded solemnly. "They saved it. Every member of their group did their part against impossible odds. When their story reached its final page, the Sefirah Castle moved on… seeking a new universe to anchor itself to. Our universe."
A heavy silence followed.
Tony frowned, tapping a restless rhythm on the armrest of his chair. "So… we missed the party? We're just the clean up crew?"
"Yes," Aryan said calmly. "All of them had already departed. That final gathering, as I heard from Klein, was their last visit to this reality. A farewell."
Namor crossed his arms, his powerful muscles rippling under his golden armor. "Then why was he still here? If the story was over, why did this Klein remain behind?"
"Because," Aryan replied, meeting Namor's intense gaze without flinching, "Klein was like me. He was the first in his universe. The one who arrived before the rules were written, before the chairs were filled. When the others departed for whatever lies beyond, he remained behind for a time… to close things properly."
Wanda swallowed, her voice a mere whisper in the vast hall. "Alone?"
"For a time," Aryan said softly. "Long enough to pass on what mattered to the next era."
Tony ran a hand through his hair, a nervous habit he couldn't quite shake even in a phantom body. "Let me guess. He dumped the user manual on you and clocked out?"
A faint smile crossed Aryan's face. "Something like that. He explained the honorifics. The structure of this sanctuary. The reason it exists across the veil. He told me what they called themselves… the Tarot Club."
Namor tilted his head, intrigued by the name. "A collective?"
"Yes," Aryan confirmed. "Each member represented a different card from the Major Arcana, a different identity and different goals. They helped one another across the world… but they were never truly face to face in this hall."
Wanda's brow deepened. "What do you mean? They sat at this table, didn't they?"
"They didn't know each other's real names. Or their true appearances," Aryan explained. "Their trust was built on shared action and results."
Tony let out a low whistle. "That's… efficient. Safer, too. And absolutely terrifying from a psychological standpoint. A board of directors made of ghosts."
"They believed true closeness created weakness," Aryan continued. "Distance kept the balance of power."
Aryan's voice remained steady, a calm narrator of a history no one else knew. "He only explained what this place was… and what it could eventually become. That is why, when I first introduced myself to the three of you, I did so as 'The World.' In the era of the Tarot Club, the chair I sat in belonged to that card. Each chair at this table is linked to a different tarot card, a different conceptual destiny."
He paused, looking around at the unmasked faces of his own circle. "During our second meeting, it was Tony who made the request. He didn't want to talk to shadows or masks, he asked for the 'unveiling' so that everyone could see each other, know each other and… as he put it… properly annoy each other. Everyone agreed and that was when the fog lifted from your forms for the first time."
Namor's eyes flicked to Tony, then to T'Challa and Wanda, a new understanding dawning. "So, you were all once strangers behind masks."
"Total strangers," Tony confirmed with a smirk. "I just figured if we're going to be talking about the end of the world, I'd like to know if the guy sitting next to me has a decent haircut. When the fog actually dropped and I saw a prince, a CEO and a Sokovian refugee... well, let's just say my jaw hit the stone floor harder than yours did today."
Wanda smiled faintly at the memory. "It was terrifying. One moment you are alone in your head, surrounded by phantoms and the next, you realize the person you've been debating with is a man you've seen on the news every day."
T'Challa inclined his head in agreement. "It was a moment of profound vulnerability. But Tony was right… without the masks, the trust became real. We saw the weight each of us carries in the world outside this place."
Namor looked at the group, a new layer of understanding settling in. He had stepped into a circle where the world's most powerful and secretive figures had already stripped away their anonymity to stand as equals.
Wanda asked quietly, her eyes searching the endless fog as if looking for a ghost. "Do you think he's still watching? Klein?"
Aryan shook his head. "No. His role ended the moment I stepped into the light. The door is ours now."
Tony smirked, trying to regain his usual bravado to cover the sheer weight of the revelation. "So the senior member finally clocked out. Typical corporate transition."
"More like," Aryan corrected, his voice soft but firm, "he made sure the door didn't close behind him before he left."