Stayne didn't want a war. He could care less about the Frabjous Day, or prophecies, or that stupid Jabberwocky. What Stayne wanted was power, and with the Red Queen wrapped around his finger he had it. True, she was not only repulsive but supremely irritating—but that was just the price he had to pay for power, and at least she wasn't very perceptive. He kept his little dalliances quiet and put up with her wretched simpering and caresses. It was worth it.
Damn that big-eared woman, anyway. What business was it of hers if he enjoyed a private conversation with a pretty young woman? It would take weeks before he could convince Iracebeth he was faithful now. Best to say the girl seduced him. Who was to say it wasn't true, in a way? She was so beautifully… large.
It was a shock to realize she was The Alice. It made sense, though. She had been such a pretty, captivating child, practically begging to be tarnished and led into trouble. The Old Court has still held influence in those days, though, and the only troubles she encountered were whimsical. Now that pretty child had grown into the ripe verge of womanhood, and simply knowing that she was The Alice sharpened the edge of his hunger. The innocence of childhood still clung to that woman's body, and he itched to divest her of it, to posses and plunder and destroy. He was a knave, after all. Despoiling innocents was practically part of his job.
The Hatter had gained a taste for that sort of thing, it seemed. It amused Stayne to no end that high-minded, noble Tarrant Hightopp burned with the same violent desires he had so many times decried. There was no mistaking that fiery possessiveness in the Hatter's eyes. Stayne chuckled to himself. At last, his old enemy would be brought down by his own honor. What could be more delightful?
Stayne didn't understand in the least. He was just the sort of greedy, selfish, self-centered person who couldn't believe that others might be motivated by something different. He felt nothing but lust and the desire to destroy that which was pure.
He could not understand that in the darkness of the Hatter's madness, Alice shone like a star, and that even a madman knows to treasure a star when it is within his reach.
