Three of Cups and Three of Swords

The friendship and the wound, drawn together, and the tradition is specific that the third figure is what connects them. The Three of Cups is company; the Three of Swords is a truth that pierces. The pair is most often read as pain arising inside the group rather than from outside it.

The pairing most associated with a third person, and it is worth saying plainly that the tradition reads it that way while the cards themselves describe grief and company rather than an act. Nothing here identifies anybody or establishes that anything was done.

A close working group in which something honest and unwelcome has been said. Read as the cost of candour among people who like each other.

Both cards involve three. If the reading is running toward accusation, the more useful question is which three, and whether the third is a person at all.