The world was rejoicing, to begin with.

After all this time a party like this was a sight for sore eye. Hearts and Diamonds dancing elegantly across the ballroom. Clubs and Spades chatting amiably around tables stocked with the finest foods. The kingdom was alight with laughter and a lazy forgetfulness. Sorrow and joy, it was thought, couldn't exist all at once, and on this night the kingdom had eagerly chosen to experience joy.

So there was dancing, and singing, and joying like the kingdom hadn't seen for a long and weary age. And why shouldn't there be? Birth was something to be celebrated. A new life had begun; a new Darkner to share in their lots in this shadowy world, whatever those lots might be.

The fact that the newborn birthday boy was the Jack of Spades might also have something to do with it.

But who could be cynical at a time like this? Certainly not old Seam. Not he, known throughout the land as the brightest-hearted idealist there could be.

So why did he find himself skulking around the edges of the merriment, shuffling out of the way when a dancer would come too close to stepping on his tail? Shouldn't he be in there among them?

"Seam!" he heard a Rudinn exclaim, mispronouncing his name waving a mug of something cheap in the air. "Celebrate, won't you?"

"Show us your moves, old cat!" a Hathy piped in, dancing for joy.

"Come join the fun!" said a Darkner he didn't recognize.

Every time he would smile, perhaps join for a paltry time, and be shuffling out of the way again ere long.

He used to love parties. He used to love every strange and happy creature in the kingdom. Why, then, was this feeling so empty?

With his one good eye he took a long look around the castle banquet hall, trying to figure out what was missing. What it was that made him feel less like a joyous participant and more like an outsider peering in at a strange form of theater.

The first, most obvious, and likely most telling detail were the faces in the crowd. Darkners, all of them. Darkners were lovely folks, but without Lightners anywhere to be seen, something was missing from the whole world. Like puppets without handlers, one might go so far as to think.

But the absence of Lightners was something he'd gotten used to a long time ago, even back when two good button eyes had stared out of his head. Theirs was an absence that no longer itched at him any more than his missing eye.

Perhaps it was the more subtle absences that nagged at him. The obvious, yet not so obvious fact that the celebration in the King, Queen, and Jack of Spades' honor had none of them to be found.

He'd checked. Seam had been at the celebration from the start—helped to organize it, no less!--and had seen neither hair nor head of any of the Spades' royal family throughout all of it. The others were there; the King and Queen of Diamonds were decked in their fanciest jewels, and the nobles of the Clubs and Hearts mingled with their subjects like no royalty had done in what felt like a short forever. Indeed, Seam struggled to remember when all of the other kings had even been in the same place. The warm family connections of old had left with the Lightners, and they'd lived mostly sequestered from one another.

Was it really so odd then that the royal house of Spades would be absent? Three of the suites alone was strange enough. The new prince could hardly be expected to be a part of any noble function, at least one that he didn't sleep or cry through, and the Queen had... a number of reasons to be absent.

But surely the King of Spades would at least make an appearance, if only to thank the kingdom for so zealously celebrating the birth of his first son? His guard detail had been here from the beginning, standing firm by all the exits. Who were they guarding if not their liege? If they guarded the other kings, why were there only Spade soldiers holding weapons and standing with primed magic?

Detail after detail sucked the joy from Seam's cotton heart. There was something wrong with tonight. He just didn't know what.

Yet.

Enough of this. He needed to get some fresh air. Fresher air. Everything smelled like a dusty closet, but at least he could enjoy the mouldy smell in peace and quiet. His button eye spun around a moment, and with a potent spell he made himself invisible to the eye. Easily he slipped away from the festivities, passing the scowling Spade soldiers and heading down the castle hallways on his own as he so often did.

Perhaps if he'd known what was going to happen that night, he would have stayed until the end.

Then again... perhaps not.

As it had happened, he instead ventured down the castle halls at random, enjoying his sad solitude. The Card Castle had a different feeling altogether to it at a time like this, when the hallways were empty and the court was congregated all in one place. He walked through the shadows on his own, not caring where his old paws took him.

It was only just beginning to feel dull when it was interrupted by a jingling as though of bells, followed by a strangely accented voice right behind him.

"Sulking all alone," the voice said, sounding amused and confused all at once. "How unbecoming when there's a party going on!"

Seam stopped where he stood, turning his head just enough that his button eye could see the funny little man who'd appeared behind his back. Despite the uneasy feeling the night brought him, he found himself smiling in spite of himself.

"Is it sulking if I enjoy the quiet?" he asked dryly.

"Uee hee hee!" the little man laughed. "Who said anything about you? The whole kingdom's sulking in their merriment back there. The real party's here!"

The weirdness of the statement made Seam laugh, a dusty, cottony sound he didn't hear enough these days.

"You never fail to see things differently, do you?"

Jevil put a solemn hand on his chest, hanging upside down with his bent tail hooked on a lantern. "Seam my good fellow, I honestly haven't the foggiest what you're talking about. You're strange, strange, but ever so much fun."

"I wouldn't think I am, tonight," Seam replied. "Shouldn't you be in the banquet hall? A jester has his duties too, such as they are. They could use some jokes."

"Why?" Jevil grinned. "They fill the position so neatly themselves!"

They shared a laugh, and Seam continued prowling down the corridors. Somehow Jevil was never far behind him, despite the fact he never seemed to walk. He always was just... there, whenever Seam turned to look. If he was being honest, it was a comfort to have someone with him in the dark.

"Might I ask you two questions?" Jevil asked after a while.

"I can grant you that much," Seam said in reply, a wry smile twitching at his stitching.

"Excellent!" Jevil exclaimed, clapping his hands together. "That was my first one. My second is... how do you think the story ends?"

Seam paused, cocking his head to one side. The court jester had been phrasing himself in strange ways of late, and he'd found he'd needed to put increasing thought into his answers. Of course, the strangest part of all the strange sayings was that in a strange way, they weren't really that strange.

"I think," he said finally, "that depends on whose story you're asking about. We all have different stories, you see."

"True, true!" Jevil cackled. "And what's more, we all have thousands! Every memory's a story. This will just be one of your many."

"So you're asking how the night will end."

"No, no, this story! But if it helps, think of it as this night."

Seam scratched at one of his ragged ears, thinking for a moment.

"...the night, most likely, ends with a great many Darkners falling into stupors they'll wake from with headaches in the morning. But those are their stories. As for mine... I probably wander till I tire, and curl up for the night with unanswered questions."

"That's a very reasonable guess," Jevil replied, a gloved hand on his chin. The thoughtful expression looked bizarre on him, somehow, though Seam knew he was far from a simpleton. "I think it's missing something, don't you think?"

"Like what?" Seam asked, raising a sewn-on eyebrow. "A confusing conversation with a clown?"

"That would help," Jevil mused. "But I think it's a twist we're missing. Can you think of a twist?"

"The halls, for a start," Seam chuckled. He turned another corner, the next hallway as dark and still as the last. At least, until Jevil appeared from nowhere in it, turning around in a circle.

"Uee hee hee!" he laughed, holding his chest. "We jokers are two, I see! But you fail to see my drift."

He floated slightly into the air, floating aimlessly like a speck of dust.

"I don't think anyone sees your drift," Seam said. "Especially not these days."

Seam found himself hesitating, before asking a simple question.

"...what's changed?" he asked finally. "You speak in more riddles than you used to."

Jevil met his eye, and his smile seemed... deeper than usual. As though not only his mouth, but his eyes, his hat, and his body and his tail were all joining in the expression. "Everything's changing," the jester replied. "That's what it means to be in this spinning world. If everything stayed the same from the beginning to the end, well... that just wouldn't make for a good story, would it?"

He turned a full circle where he stood, and was juggling balls that had appeared from nowhere. "That's where the twists come in, uee hee hee!"

"Again, you see things differently," Seam replied, smiling at his friend. Was friend the right word? Friends liked and understood each other. He found he rather liked Jevil because of how much he didn't understand.

"Maybe," Jevil said, turning his head as though distracted. "I see things I shouldn't, shouldn't. Maybe that's both of us."

There was silence for a moment, which seemed completely out of character for the jester. Seam decided to break it with another question.

"Since we speak of things that shouldn't be seen," he said, "I'm quite certain my spell of invisibility is still fully operational. How, then, did you find me?"

Jevil was smiling again in an instant, eyes dancing with mirth. "Oh, that's a secret, secret! But I'll tell just you. Listen close. You'll only hear it once."

He leaned in, speaking in a quiet tone that seemed unfamiliar with his voice. Seam's ears twitched, and he listened intently.

"I," Jevil said, "can do anything."

And like a blink, he was gone.

Seam found himself laughing, amusement and exasperation all in one. That was what Jevil always brought in a neat jester-shaped package, and he wouldn't see the little man be anything else.

And so he resumed his lonely walk through the dark, turning halls at random. Or, perhaps, according to the whims of thought he hadn't known he'd had. Who could really say for sure?

All he could know—all that he would ever know—was that one way or another, he'd drifted towards the throne room of the King of Spades. He wondered if this was trespassing, but decided the court magician could visit the throne room any time he pleased. It was certain, in addition, the King himself wouldn't be here. He'd be in his personal quarters, spending time with his new son and his recovering Queen.

That was reasonable. Yet somehow, as Seam drew near he could hear his majesty's voice, speaking in a low rumble in the dark.

"The world," said the king, "is rejoicing, to begin with."

Another voice said something in a low voice, something Seam couldn't hear. But he recognized the voice. As he inched forth from the shadows he saw the King—the one King of Spades—kneeling before a figure who stood cloaked in shadows. He kept on speaking, and though Seam couldn't make out a word of it he knew the voice all too well.

It was the Knight.

"Yes," said the King, head still downcast. "Necessary. Necessary, and good. Even so I cannot bear to watch."

Another low rumble. Another mysterious sentence, which even unheard sent a shudder down Seam's body.

"If any knew what we were doing..."

The King shuddered as well. Seam had never seen him to be so wrapped in thought. So wrapped in fear. "But, they will know soon enough. After tonight the balance of power will be tipped. The world will never be the same."

The Knight rumbled something quiet, and Seam could make out only the tail end.

"...the world revolves."

"Quite," the King replied.

Somehow Seam knew here and now that what was being discussed here in this chamber, as the Card Castle partied without a care, would decide the fate of the world. The thought terrified him, as much as the murmur that was the Knight's voice.

And yet that terror was nothing compared to what he felt when he somehow knew that the Knight was staring at him despite his invisible form. Or perhaps through him was the better term.

"What was that?" the King asked. "An eavesdropper?"

He stood up to his full height, and his cloak fluttered away in a breeze that didn't exist.

"I will make swift work of that."

The room lit up with magic as a barrage of glowing spades appeared in the air, lining up facing Seam's position where he stood invisible. They sped forward all at once, a barrage of blades spelling certain death.

If Seam had been a young and freshly-sewn cat, perhaps he would have frozen in fear. Or perhaps not. He had after all survived to be the wily old magician he was now. And with his magician's eye, attacks like these spelled only moderate difficulty.

He willed his SOUL to weave up and down amid the slashing spades, avoiding them without taking a hit. The King was swift with his attacks and clearly a dangerous fighter, but the games Seam would so often play with Jevil made this life-or-death moment feel like the true child's play. Even so he knew he couldn't survive indefinitely if the King kept up his assault, and who knew what the Knight was capable of. The spades grazing his SOUL made his stiches seize up with tension, and he drew upon that emotion to fuel his magic. Rather than strike back he cast a spell—the simplest of illusion magics. It was a mere sound; the sound of a SOUL shattering.

The King cocked his head as he heard it, and his smile—no, his leer—widened.

"Much better," he said. "But still, in case we've been found out, we should act now. I'm sure the drinks have been out long enough to dull suspicions."

The Knight agreed. And in a horrible moment, perhaps the most horrible moment in this nightmare, Seam realized exactly what he was agreeing to.

His cloth paws were light on the ground, soundless even as he ran as fast as he could back to the banquet hall. Surely, just surely there was a way to stop this. The King and the Knight had the advantage of preparation, but where there was determination there had to be a way.

Perhaps not.

He heard the sounds of revelry as he drew near, only to realize with a sinking feeling in his cotton that they were no longer the sounds of rejoicing. They were the sounds of screaming Darkners and magic attacks striking SOULs.

He was still invisible when he bounded into the banquet hall, for whatever that was worth. There was a sight that would haunt his nightmares for years to come.

The Spade soldiers had blocked all the exits, and fired their magic attacks into the crowd. The resplendent King of Diamonds was most obvious to see down on the ground, knocked unconscious by the sudden firing squad, but a quick glance around confirmed the Kings of Hearts and Clubs had been subdued just as easily. The rest of the court was in shambles, shrieking and falling to magic spades whenever they tried to rush the exits.

This was a turning point in the world. The balance of power had truly revolved, and left not four but one King in control of the Card Castle. From this moment on the King of Spades would rule this world, his newly born prince the only heir to his glory and the Knight now drawn into a position he could use to bring darker, yet darker ruin upon the land.

Seam didn't know that at the time. But in this nightmare, his memories were coming back.

"Chaos... chaos!"

The familiar cackle was right behind him again.

"What a dream—what a twist! It was a dream all along! Who could see that coming?"

Seam didn't turn around. Now aware this was a nightmare, he remembered how his perhaps-friendship with Jevil had ended. With the whole world in prison, and the jester the only free man left standing.

"This was a turning point," Jevil said, his voice merry and his hat jingling. "For me, for the kingdom, for everything! But then, every point's a turning point. The world just keeps turning. Nothing stays the same. The world revolves to make the sweet dreams we know!"

"I should have done something," Seam whispered. He wished he could squeeze his button eye shut. That or claw it out.

"Why? Why?" Jevil replied, sounding amused. "Such sweet chaos will always spring out of its box. The world revolves. Nothing you can do, do!"

He spun around in place, laughing like the last sane man in the world. Maybe it was because of this night that Jevil had descended down his dark path. Or perhaps... that turning point would have happened anyway. Perhaps choices didn't matter. Perhaps nothing mattered.

The sound of the fields outside his shop began to bleed into the screams, and he knew it must be morning now. He must be waking from this nightmare to start another day of lonely hoarding. At least then the dreams of the past would be further away.

"What a shame, shame," Jevil said, resting a gloved hand on Seam's shoulder. "Going back to sleep already? Well, dream deeply old cat! We'll be here when you wake up!"

Seam awoke.

Alone in the Dark.

His button eye slowly stopped spinning, and he rose and gave the tired stretch of a cat that should have unraveled years ago. The memories, he knew, were twelve years old and would only grow fuzzier as time kept marching on. And his life, the life that stubbornly kept on going, would keep losing that purpose he'd lost.

The world had rejoiced, to begin with.

He wished it had frozen that way.

He wished it hadn't kept revolving.