Time moves forward, time moves back, and the game continues. The shadow who is and is not a man blinks, and the girl in front of him shatters. In the crystalline fragments of his vision, he sees her in multiple, every possible iteration flickering in and out of view. It is dizzying after a moment, and he blinks the vision away as quickly as it came.
Her voice cuts through the fog of magic, grounding his mind. "I said," she begins, enunciating much more carefully than necessary. It is a mild rebuke, and one he cannot help but be endeared by. Even now, Alice speaks to him as though he were only very strange, as though he were not the deadliest thing walking in this world neither of them belong to. "What story will you tell me today?"
"No story today, little one. I am very tired." Though he cannot maintain their proper game, he desperately needed this reprieve. Something is very wrong in the Castle, and it drives him to distraction that he cannot do anything about it. "But, lest you become bored, we can play a different game. Ask me anything you like, and I will give you one true answer, and two false ones."
Time after time, he is led back to two places; the whispering dusk of Port Royal, and Wonderland. This place, he thinks, is the strangest of the worlds. Not because of the nonsense magic any fool could see; even Vexen can tell that isn't all there is to this place. No, it is the strange, wandering heartbeat of the land that intrigues him.
The land seems to alter itself to protect its own heart, folding its core deep within itself, where no one can reach. No one, of course, except this little girl, to whom it opens itself freely. She has been marked by it, claimed though she has not yet become a part of it. He wonders if when she finally does, it will close again and lock her out.
"Where are you from?" Her question shows her mood; for some time now, Alice has been trying to tip his hand, so she might understand her strange guardian better. He hasn't let her 'discover' anything he isn't willing to have known, but it's not surprising that those tidbits wouldn't be enough for her. She is altogether too clever for her own good.
"Where am I from? A good question. I am from Wonderland. I am from a village no one knows the name of. I am from a place that is nowhere, and made of nothing, a place you cannot find without falling half out of existence. Which is true?"
Her exasperation is plain. "That's not fair. You cheated. Two of those sound clearly wrong, but I know the third isn't true." Alice considers a moment, foot tapping. She might have a guess, he thinks."Is it the village?" He gives a Cheshire Grin.
"Perhaps."