Keene made a snake on the ground which flipped one way, then the other, then swept her arm over the cards so that they riffled up into a fan. She twitched, and they seemed to disappear altogether, until she produced them once again in their little cardboard box and handed them over. The boy accepted the gift, and Keene in return gleaned from him a confession of something—a desire, a question, a long-held nightmare—and resolved it on the instant. The boy, smiling now, ran away to join the others without thanks, and Keene for one moment seemed to be perfectly content. Her expression did not change when she and Neith made eye contact a moment later, and yet somehow Neith felt her disappear again, and knew not to mention the cards or the boy when they met a few moments later by the buffet table.