Alice woke. She coughed up a great deal of water, bitter and salty. A basin was pressed suddenly against her chest: she continued to choke up salt water into it for some time before she was able to focus on the hands that were holding it. Once her convulsions ceased, the hands withdrew the vessel carefully. They were not her mother's hands: they were not her sister Margaret's.

"Are you feeling better?" came a soft, familiar, voice.

"Not particularly." said Alice half-mindedly. She hurt all over, and the back of her head was particularly sore. "I - cough, cough, cough – I'm not sure - cough, cough - I've ever felt quite this badly. "

"Not to be rude." she added, with sneeze.

Mirana, the White Queen of Underland, set the silver basin down on the floor beside her, and held out a handkerchief to the girl, where she had been propped up in bed. Alice took it and wiped her mouth, before blowing her nose loudly.

"Thank you," she said. "This is a very strange dream. I don't remember ever having it before."

"What is the last thing you do remember?", asked Mirana. She was seated in a chair nearby, and her hair and gown and skin as colorless as ever Alice remembered. Her full lips, which always seemed to be on the verge of a calm (and sometimes very frightening) smile, were very red.

"I - a ship. A storm. Was that a dream?"

"Most assuredly not."

"I saw a walrus over the side, when I was out on deck. It was very peculiar."

"The Walrus did his best. " said Mirana. "I will truncate his oyster ration for it, I assure you."

Alice stared for a moment, baffled. She glanced around: the room she found herself in was small, square and dark. A very odd painting of something halfway between a bull and a turtle was hanging on the wall directly in front of her.

"However – cough, cough – could you know about the walrus?" Alice asked Mirana, pushing aside the covers, and scooting herself on the edge of the bed. It took considerable effort, and she had to brace herself to get her feet to touch the floor.

"You're here because I sent the Walrus for you," replied Mirana.

"But it was only a very small storm!" protested Alice, "And I slipped and fell overboard only /because/ I was so surprised to see him!"

"Perhaps you did." Mirana smiled, and shrugged gracefully. "The Oracularum was not very clear on that point. It merely showed me a ship, a storm, and the Walrus bringing you back to Underland, and so I sent him for you. Besides, if you didn't /want/ to fall overboard, why were you out on the deck during a storm in the first place?"

"That's irrelevant," cried Alice, "I can't just disappear! I was going to China!"

"Not anymore, I'm afraid," said Mirana. "Besides, you are needed here. I need you to find the Hatter."

"Find the Hatter? Have you lost him?"

"He's set off to see the Absolem in the Outlands: and we haven't heard from him since. I did caution him not to go until we'd summoned you, but he said the cause was quite urgent, and beyond waiting, even for his Alice."

"That's a pity," said Alice, frowning. "Why should he want to see Absolem so badly, of all people? And why should he go alone?"

"He has his tempers," said Mirana opaquely, "As we all well know."

"The Scot," said a small voice, and a little mouse hopped up onto Alice's bedpost, rapier at her hip. She eyed Alice with a resentful eye.

"Mallymkun!", exclaimed Alice. "It's good to see you again!"

She meant to ask more about what - had meant by "The Scot" - but the Dormouse didn't let her.

"That's Dormouse to you! When will you be ready to go, eh?" asked the Dormouse, hopping onto Alice's chest, and giving her a little prod with her boot.

"Why - now - if you like - " said Alice, reluctant to be outdone by someone the height of a teacup. She leaned forward and tried putting her wet down on the flagstones again. They were cold, and she teetered a bit with the effort.

"Perhaps,' said Mirana, laying a graceful arm on Alice's, to stop her trying to get up, "Dormouse, we should tell her what she will be looking for, first?"

"Besides Hatter?"

"Yes, besides Hatter."

Despite Mirana's arm, Alice leaned forward and put her weight on the ground again, testing. "That would be helpful," she said, blinking hard, her vision clouded a bit dizzily.

"It's quite simple," said the Queen, rising to her own feet and waving her white arms for emphasis. "Hatter seeks the Oracular Egg beyond the Outlands – and you shall find it before him, and bring them both back safely home."

"Oh?" said Alice. "What's an Oracular Egg? And what has it got to do with Absolem? I thought you said he was involved."

It seemed to her Mirana's explanations were the sort that only led in circles, towards more questions. Rather like her arms.

"When a ruler is about to be dethroned," interrupted the Dormouse, as though she were reciting from a book, "the Absolem Worm grows wings: and when the next ruler is crowned, it flies out across the Outlands to the Oracular Isle. There it lays an egg. The newly crowned ruler must then send a Champion to fetch the Egg from the Isle, and bring it back to Underland, where it will hatch and continue the Oracularum. Those are the Rules!"

"Thank you, Mally," said Mirana, "Alice, as you are my Champion, the privilege falls on you of seeking out both Hatter and the Oracular Egg."

Alice frowned. She said: "And at the end of it all – will I return home?"

"I imagine there must be some way," said Mirana. "There usually is. But I must read the day of your departure in the new Oracularum: and we cannot have a new Oracularum without a new Absolem, which must come from an Oracular Egg. Which only you – my Champion – are tasked to find."

"Very well," said Alice, to whom it all made only the strangest of sense, but who was quickly slipping back into her usual custom of allowing dreams to be dreams and reason as they wish. In any case, this was at least a dream with clear goals, where she would be allowed to do something – unlike even a ship's deck on the way to China.

Mirana clapped her hands. "Then it is decided! You shall be outfitted, and you shall leave to find Hatter – and the Oracular Egg - "

" - within the hour!" finished the Dormouse eagerly.

"On the morrow," said Mirana, rather severely. "Have a care, Mally – she can still barely walk. I won't have her falling over in the castle court: and besides, it will take some time for me to find the Frabjous Map. Go saddle the Bandersnatch, and see the tea-things are all secured - and I shall equip Alice myself."

So the dormouse scampered off, muttering to herself about the slowness of humans and the latenesses of Alices, while Mirana sent a score of frogs to the Royal Wardrobe, and had her outfitted her warmly for a voyage of undetermined length as Underland best thought an Alice ought to dress. This did much to improve Alice's temper and, to a lesser extent, her chill - though she still had a bit of a cough.