I heaved one last sigh as the Heart twins and DIAMONDS made their way into the room along with the Heart Royals. "So, oh wise JACK of Spades, what's your brilliant battle plan?" The boy always seemed to be two steps ahead of anybody in Wonderland. I used to admire him for it, especially once he began to reach my age, because he had used it to keep me alive a few times when I left the Kingdom on other Quests, solo missions, or to help settle little disputes within or outside of our Kingdom. But he began to seem sinister to me, tricky and bratty. I stopped taking advice from him, not ready to turn to his twisted lifestyle.
Alani looked up from where she stood. "Battle plan? What are we fighting this time?"
I was almost stunned by her question. Was she being serious, or joking? She had to be joking; all of Wonderland seemed to know about what had been going on. Even if she had only arrived a short amount of time ago, it seemed preposterous. "How could you not know. . ." I shook my head. A small grin played its way onto my lips before I continued talking in the same, cold tone, leaning forward in my seat, almost taking pleasure in scaring her senseless. "Gruesome, emotionless," I said, taking my time with each word, "perfected fighting and killing machines. And half the time-"
"Now, now, SPADES. There's no need to speak of those . . .things, yet. Not everybody is here." A gentle male voice interrupted my one-sided conersation. A sturdy looking man strode into the room through the vast doors, followed by a timid appearing woman.
"My King, my Queen," I noted respectfully aloud while instantly standing and placing a fist over my chest with my right hand. The King raised his hand and I bowed once to him, and once to the queen before sitting again. Daniel raised an eyebrow, probably wondering why I never did much more to him than making it obvious I resent showing him any signs of respect at all.
The King was dressed in a regal looking blue robe that flowed behind him as he confidently walked into the room. His crown was elegantly perched upon his head, the black, green, and blue stones shinning even without very much light. The silver and black steel that held them in place glistened as he appropriately sat down next to his son, Daniel – which meant no more snarky glances over in that direction, less I wish to be punished. A sash hung over his shoulder like silver silk. The Spades symbol was adorned all over royal robes that looked similar to Daniel and mine as they seemed to change colors, like staying one wasn't good enough for the most powerful King in Wonderland. He sat down and beckoned for the queen to also sit next to him, leaving an empty chair next to Daniel.
The Queen made quick, even strides over to her husband's side where she promptly sat down and smiled at me and Daniel. Her tiara shimmered and the light that bounced off the stones made it seemed like the whole thing was dancing. A royal blue veil covered the back of her head. The top part of her dress was actually a very large Spades symbol which ended at about her waist line and the skirt half only brushed up against the bottom of her knees.
A few minutes later something was licking my fingers. The rough tongue scratched against the back of my hand as I turned my head to look down. A small smile played its way across my lips as I recognized the polar bear.
"Kimijo!" I yelped joyfully. Standing up I bent over to pick up the little polar bear, snuggling the poor little guy to death. One of the first mistakes of the morning. As an ACE of Spades, or just like any Soldier for my Kingdom, we are trained to show no emotion – even off the battlefield. Whoops.
". . . Ehh. . . sorry about that. He still isn't. . . ahh. . . good at following orders." A familiar voice rang against my ears. I turned to see my good friend walking towards me with a huge smile. His sandy hair brushed in front of his hazel eyes, partly covering them.
"Jase," I stated bluntly with a nod.
"You can do better than that," the young teenager teased, leaning forward. He gave me one of his apologetic smiles, which he actually had to use quite often.
"You're late." What in Wonderland was he doing, with my Royals along with the other Heart ACES, their Royals, and the Royals of DIAMONDS watching? The Mads would be here soon as well.
"Ahhh . . . right. Well. . . I was uhh. . . busy at the house." He pulled away and sheepishly put his hand behind his head and gave a light chuckle. Another one of his smiles came into play.
It was all I could do not to scold him or playfully punch him in front of everybody. So instead I just shook my head and chuckled along with him. "As Sorcerer of Wonderland. . . Just keep doing whatever you're doing."
"Will do!" Jase said as he ruffled the ACE's hair and kissed her forehead.
Seriously. What was that? Rewind.
Did he seriously just kiss me in front of everybody? I seriously hope nobody saw that.
Granted, it was only on the forehead, like he always does, or the occasional cheek, but he knows how I roll when it comes to my job as an ACE. I am to have no affection placed toward another person, even childhood friend are not allowed. Heck, my Royals have no idea that I even talk to him.
Let alone kiss him.
So much for being a good little ACE today. Better break out the throwing knives and toss some at the Guards while I am at it. I internally groaned, and gave myself a mental 'strike number two'.
I did my best to make it seem like I was completely oblivious to the absolutely obvious affectionate action that Jase had made. I only figured it was something friends did, after hanging out with Jase and the JOKER twins for so long. All three of those boys did little tricks like that to me, so I believed it was the natural thing to do to a friend. But by the way most people in the room were looking at me, it was obvious that they did not believe that same things that I did.
When it came to the ACES, I could hardly count them as friends. None of them remembered her after they had died recently. And even though some of them had been back for a few months, I had been too busy running solo missions for my Kingdom and training to really make any pleasure breaks in my schedule – even for Jase or the JOKERS.
I looked up to see that the meeting room had filled up almost all the way while I was drifting off with my thoughts. It seemed like only the ACE of Clubs was missing from the meeting, which was supposed to start ten minutes ago. But these things were rarely on time anyways, so you could hardly blame her. She lived so far away too and unlike DIAMONDS, CLUBS could not run at lightning speed.
Speaking of the devil, the ACE burst through the doors on the meeting room. The first one to speak up was the Mad Hatter.
"You're really late this time, CLUBS!" He exclaimed from where he stood all as he laughed loudly, the sound echoing off of the walls of the rounded room. The ACES face twitched, probably in suppressed anger.
"Oh, hush your mouth, Hatter. She probably got held back by something at her Kingdom," the white rabbit, mainly known as White told the other Mad nervously, all while tapping his foot, trying to control his irritation. "I mean everybody but me has been late at least once in their lives," he continued, showing a bit of arrogance, while his soft pink nose twitched. The Hatter only rolled his eyes and retorted with;
"Then do you no longer remember the jelly incident? As I recall- "
"SH-SHUSH. YOU GUYS DID THAT ON PURPOSE TO ME."
The hatter went on and on, listing all the times White had ever been even the tiniest bit late. The other ACES either stifled their laughs or happily cackled along with the Hatter as he continued to tease White. Eventually, the Queens gave in as well, laughing just as hard as the others. The only ones not joining in with the bellows of the meeting room were the JACK's of Hearts, and of course Spades, along with all of the Kings – who all seemed to simultaneously facepalm – as if they had rehearsed it. It was a weird sight, seeing the Queen of Spades laugh by the side of her husband who retained a completely straight face as he starred at the bickering Mads.
I cracked the smallest smile when Chesh took it upon himself to swipe the Hatters tophat, quietly purring as he did so. I looked over to Daniel, surprised to see him no longer with his hand on his face, but looking at me. The smile fell from my face, and a faint blush crept to my face as a cold feeling swept over my body – embarrassed that I had been caught showing emotion in front of my Royals.
That damned boy only cracked his own smile, like he had won something in catching me.
Aiden, the JACK of Hearts, stood up from his seat and placed his both of his hand on the table. "SHUT UP," he shouted over the din. "We need to discus whatever it is we were all called here for, not some petty dispute between the Mads." He received a few nods before sitting down again, the King of Spades taking over his place as speaker for the moment.
As my King stood, I noticed White slap the Hatter before hushing once again. I almost burst out laughing right there.
"Any questions before I begin?" The room remained quiet before he continued; everybody eager to hear more.
"Now, you may be wondering whyan ACES meeting was called to order," the King took a pause before continuing with his informational 'speech'. "As you may have heard, there is a threat in Wonderland. This threat is very deadly, or the I and the rest of the Royals would not have called for a meeting to take place," he looked in my direction and nodded.
In return he got a panicked ACE. I really hadn't been expecting this. Typically it was the King or maybe even a JACK that was the one who explained the threats and war tactics were, not an ACE. We may intervene, letting the others know how we feel about the conversation, or let out any pieces of knowledge we have concerning the topic, but as far as I know, an ACE has never started a meeting off.
Another nod came my way.
With a sharp inhaling breath, and quick glances over to Jase who sat on my left, and then to Daniel sitting across the table, I stood up.
My King sat as I began to speak of the impending threats.
Licking my lips before beginning, the first few sentences came out shaky, "this threat is one of the biggest we have seen in years. Or at least, I have been told that by my King." I became more sure of myself as I continued on, "as some of you may have heard, there are mysterious deaths accuring all over Wonderland. We, the Royals of Spades and I, believe that they are being caused by a group known as MIMES. Now, we believe that the MIMES are not just a group of people out for the blood of random citizens, but that there is a driving force behind them, giving them targets to search out, and possibly terminate."
"Like a King. . ." Alani muttered half to herself.
"Yes," I replied, hiding a small smile. "Like a King. Somebody to make sure everything runs smoothly."
Alani raised her hand before piping up. "The Kingdom of Hearts has been having one of the highest death tolls lately. Allen and I were wondering if there were just more MIMES in our Kingdom, or if their targets all seemed to be over in our area."
Thinking for a moment before continuing, I told her: "we're not quite sure how many MIMES are in a Kingdom at one time. There may be a certain amount, or just random amount of them running about the Kingdom's cities and palace areas. But there's a single catch. One that's incredibly important. Within the group of MIMES at the Kingdoms, there may be a leader. Or a head MIME." I took a pause, trying to figure out how to word the next part. Imagine there is the King, running the entire operation. Well, to make sure things get done the way you want them to, you assign a Queen to look after your JACK's. Is everybody understanding this?"
Everybody seemed to nod or at least murmur a response, so I resumed with the information. "There has to be a reason behind all the killings, otherwise the main leader, the King in this case, would never gain anything."
The Mad Hatter questioned me, "and what would that purpose be?"
That one question, the one I lacked an answer to, pretty much shut me down. ". . . We don't know," I answered sheepishly. "It's not exactly clear yet."
Chatter amongst the group increased as I sat down, no longer knowing what to say or do. I turned my attention to Jase and Kimijo, who smiled and me and licked my fingers encouragingly.
~~ Ten minutes later ~~
I watched Kimijo squirm out of Jase's lap as he spoke to Daniel about the MIMES issue. With two paws on the table, the polar bear pulled himself onto the table top without being noticed by anyone else.
Beginning to wonder what he was up to as he waddled to the center of the table and reared up on his hind paws, I turned to speak to Jase, reaching out for his bicep, as Kimijo's eyes flashed blue and the sapphire light shown across the room almost blinding the meeting participants momentarily. A strong female's voice rang throughout the room and echoed off the walls.
'Six heroes put to the test,
to save Wonderland and all the rest,
to find the lost Kingdom at any risk,
Unequivocally this odyssey will spare no bliss.
Tables will turn, tempers will rise,
all for the chance to obtain the golden prize.
Seven silent killers stalk them unnoticed,
the Temptress will have to remain focused,
to remain control over her pawns,
before all of them have gone.
It wont be long until seven turns eight,
and one utters checkmate.
A loved one lost guides both parties on their expedition,
while a boy of high erudition,
is loyal only to one,
Even while facing these perils the citizens will not run.
As a certain one shows the world he is duple,
the Black Kingdom begins to topple.'
The bear fell back down onto its four paws and looked at Jase tiredly. The young Sorcerer scooped up the small bear, bringing him close to his own face.
Already used to Kimijo having to do things like this, I reach over to scratch his ears, knowing he was always tired after having to do something to that extreme. "Again, Alice," I hear Jase quietly mutter the question into Kimijo's cream fur. "Constantly using poor Kimijo as a vessel."