Wonderland: 8

When the sun light started to invade the castle windows on the next morning, Vincent would love to tell the queen he had an amazing night of sleep and forgot about the terrifying sight of the rabbit being carried inside bleeding. But that would be a lie.

He spent a lot of time that night just observing the night sky. Was it always that deep? Did it always seem like it held so many secrets? What kind of things did the stars murmur about when they were alone?

Obviously, that was not all he had done. He also spent some time trying to come up with an armor for the queen and trying to understand all of the info she had already given him, but that too, seemed as hard as discovering the stars secrets.

The queen had returned, elevating her castle from the ground and making it into a floating shining fortress. She was feared by those who haven’t seen her yet and loved by those who did and even so, loved and dreaded, with a floating castle so high above the ground, some kingdom have had the courage to try and attack her… This ended up with the bunny being hurt.

Who the heck was mad even mad enough to mess with the queen?!? She was a known sorceress and scary as well! The last reign of the queen had been so bloody the nearest rivers had spent months, even after her exile, blood red. Who would even be suicidal enough to mess with her?

Although, the queen did say that training didn’t mean a thing in Wonderland to keep on being the stronger one in something, he didn’t understand it that well, but still, trying to fight the queen wasn’t usually a good idea. He knew. He tried.

He was pretty sure that time they were only able to exile the queen because Alice had helped, but he was now petrified by the mere thought that someone in Wonderland was powerful enough to threaten the queen.

If someone was powerful enough to threaten the queen, where was this person when Wonderland needed help exiling the queen in the past, not only that… Would Alice’s help be enough to help the queen drive it away? Would Alice even want to help? Would Alice even come?

He noticed too late he was clenching his fists too tightly. When he looked at them, his joints were all whitish then ever and he suddenly felt ashamed the queen saw how he looked. Could it be that he was afraid to be by her side? Or was it that he didn’t trust her to keep the kingdom safe?

He didn’t feel like it was any of those two things, but there was a little voicy inside his head hammering those were the only two options. And he was mortified of thinking about the queen getting angry at him for not trusting her.

He was still trying to get along with the voice inside his head when he heard knocking on the door. Before he could answer, or even try not to panic thinking it was somehow the queen because of his thoughts (?), the door opened up a little bit and a real tall dark haired girl walked in. She wasn’t dressing the same way the maids usually did, but she did bring a glass on her hands.

- How may I… help you? – the hatter felt rather confused, although he recalled seeing the girl before in the castle, they hadn’t met before. – Is something the matter?

- You must be tired, after spending the whole night awake, I thought maybe you needed a little bit of this before going downstairs.

- Who…

- I’m Ella, as you already noticed, my uniform is different from the other maids. I serve the queen directly and the other maids usually work beneath my orders.

He wish that answered all of his questions, but that wasn’t even close. How did this girl know he didn’t sleep? What was in the glass? Was everything alright with the queen? Why was the maid commander there?

But of course, that girl didn’t look like she would laugh if he started asking everything at once like the queen had done a few nights earlier, so he decided to try and play her game…

- So, are you, like, a maid-master or something?

- More like personal maid to the queen, therefore I know her tastes really well and the maids usually look for me until they know how to behave in front of the queen. – she handled him the cup. – Also, nothing that happens inside this castle goes on without me noticing it. Especially at night.

For a second the hatter could swear he saw stairs shining in her hair, as if hidden by the different layers of it. But that was impossible, of course, so it was probably just his imagination.

- Would you like to join the queen for breakfast? Since most of her guard is still recovering, she is eating in her room.

- I-I couldn’t… It’s not proper that I enter the queen’s room.

- It was an invitation made by the queen, so I don’t get to consider it proper or not. Besides, the queen has the habit of taking work to it and most of the times I’m the one who gets to put everything in order after her meetings with her council.

- Council?

- Yes. Billac, Willard and Jack are part of the queen’s guard as well as her council. Jack is the army councilmen. Willard the one responsible for all magic in the kingdom, from the castle doors-out and Billac always help her decide political engagements and international meetings. I’m her counselor for in-castle decisions.

- Wow, I didn’t know. I always thought she decided everything on her own.

- She did before. But she doesn’t. Not anymore. Should I tell the queen you declined her invite?

- Do you think I should go?

- Are you asking me to help you decide?

- Yes.

The girl was almost taller than Vincent and he was one of the taller man in the castle, nearly as tall as the Jack. She looked him in the eyes with a confused look. She crossed her arms as well as caressed her brows, before replying as politely as she could, although it was obvious she didn’t enjoy time-wasting.

- The queen can be really different, but she is still a queen. I don’t think is up to us to get a say on her orders. If the queen tells you to go and have breakfast with her, you should go.

- Yes… You are right. I’m sorry for taking too much of your time. I’ll just grab my sketches and a pencil and paper and join her.

- Ok. I’ll wait you outside, please, drink it as well, it’s a special coffee mixture we do here in the castle. It will help your mind to think and your body to stay awake despite having a sleepless night.

- Thank you.

The girl just nodded and then left the bedroom, when the hatter reached his bedroom door, the black-haired girl was still waiting for him on the hallway. He handed her the cup and she hold it with both of her hands in front of her body while she began to walk.

It wasn’t that much of a ride. Considering how big the castle looked like and that Vincent really thought they would have to go up a tower or something… They didn’t even changed floors, just walked some different hallways until reaching what seemed to be the end of it. A huge double door with a cup-pattern in it marked what the hatter believed was the queen’s room.

- That was… Fast.

- Thought the queen would have put a rebeller as far as possible from her room? - and that was probably the first time Vincent saw the black-haired girl have a smile on her face, as if she really was enjoying herself. – Yeah, I suggested her that, but she told me it was silly of me, since it would require a great amount of courage of you to accept her invite to begin with.

- Courage?

- Yes. The queen seems to have great esteem for you. I think you were only curious. Mad-curious about it. But I doubted her you would ever stain you clothes on blood for her as Bilac do.

For a second, the hatter bit his lip, almost as if he was offended by the girls words, he then looked her in the eyes, some kind of rage maddening him from inside.

- Harsh words for someone that don’t even seem to have the heart-mark, huh?

The girl laughed. She then held the cup only with her left hand and took Vincent’s hand with her right one, taking a step closer to him and putting his hand on her skirt. He could feel the cloth. It was really light and soft, but the hatter felt his cheeks starting to heat up when the girl began to use his hand to pull her shirt up. Higher and higher until he, for some reason he couldn’t quite understand, as she was really pretty despite being mean, he took his eyes away from her legs.

- Open your eyes, hatter. I’m not seducing you.

He hesitated for a few second, but then, opened his eyes again, just to see a huge heart-mark covering almost half of her thigh.

- No mark, huh?

The hatter had fell silent, removing his hand from her skirt and looking down. He felt somehow left out, it seemed as if only him in the castle didn’t have the mark yet and he didn’t have a say in anything. Not that anyone never denied him something before that girl, but still… He felt terrible.

It was then that the double doors opened in a single click, the queen was behind them, bare feet hammering impatiently on the floor and arms crossed while she looked the girl.

- We don’t pressure anyone into the vow, Ella, and we don’t bully those who don’t have the heart-mark yet. I thought we had made that clear.

- Of course, m’queen. – the girl answered with a smile, not that she looked worried with the consequences. - I only worry about you, but I know I mustn’t. Excuse-me then, you already got who you desired.

The two exchanged a heated glare for a second before the taller girl left both of them alone, the queen let out a sigh, as if she was tired or just getting used to it, and opened way so that Vincent could enter the room.

- Sorry about it. Please, get in.

The hatter followed her and although he tried not to watch everything around him, since he was at her room, it was impossible not to notice how big it was. They weren’t even in her bedroom, it looked more as an office, with several bookshelves, tables full of papers and maps and a smaller table next to the terrace with the breakfast.

The queen pointed him a chair and seated on the other one. They were face to face on a smaller table than the morning before, and somehow he felt really closer to her, which made him feel strange, but, at the same time, thinking about everything during the night made him notice there was a lot of things he wanted to ask…

- You smell like Ella’s special awakening coffee.

- My queen?

- I imagine that you didn’t sleep well, if she gave it to you.

- I… I’m sorry, I didn’t sleep.

- You don’t need to apologize. I’m sorry if what happened yesterday made you worry and you didn’t sleep. I failed on my mission to protect you all. So I should be the one apologizing.

- Oh no, that’s not it. I’m not afraid of getting hurt. – the hatter lowered his eyes when the queen lifted hers, he tried to caught on his lost breath and then continued. – I was trying to understand everything, but so many things changed, I was also trying to think of a way to help. But, I was so confused with everything, I couldn’t even focus on drawing the armor.

- Don’t worry, your armor will be help enough for me.

- But I can’t design a good armor if I don’t know what are you up against and what are you good at, my queen.

For some minutes, the queen seemed to just think about what he had said. He needed information, she could see that pretty well. But she was trying to protect them all by not giving any of them more information then they needed… Even so, if he was already losing his sleep, keeping him in the dark wasn’t going to do him any good. So she decided to give him some more information… At least, what she believed could be useful for him.

#alicethroughtthelookingglass #wonderland #aliceinwonderland #english