The man was tall – as tall as Elliot, even – and dressed in a simple grey jumper and trousers. His mousy brown hair fell in waves to his chin, each side tucked neatly behind his ears, and he sported a short, stubbly beard that reminded Alice of Gowland. The smile he wore was subtle but kind.
"Have we met?" asked Alice.
"Not yet, though I'm so glad the day has come." The man came to a stop before her, took her hand in his and pressed a kiss to her knuckles. "You're even more lovely close up."
"Oh. Thanks." Not wanting to anger him, Alice allowed her hand to linger in his for a few seconds before pulling it back. "If we've never met, how do you know who I am?"
"Everyone knows who the Outsider is. I feel like one of the last people in this world who hasn't met you yet." The man's smile widened. "My name is Raphael. Welcome to my home."
Once again, Alice found her eyes wandering around the cavern. She still couldn't believe the size of it. "Your... home?"
"Well, I should say our home. I don't lay claim to this place, even though the people here look to me as their leader. This is a community where everyone's voice is heard."
A community... Looking around, Alice couldn't think of a better word to describe what she could see. Many of the faceless were laughing or talking to one another animatedly. She even spotted a group of children playing some sort of board game in the far corner.
"You're probably surprised a place like this exists in Wonderland, aren't you? Come on, let me show you around."
Raphael wrapped his arm around Alice's shoulder, making her jump. He pulled back quickly. "Ah, my apologies. Here." He pulled up his jumper to reveal a handgun, which he took out. For a horrifying moment, Alice thought he was going to shoot her. "You know how to work this, don't you? Take it."
Alice had no choice but to do as he said. The gun was slightly smaller than Boris's and plated with a gold-coloured metal instead of silver. She remembered Ace telling her once that only one kind of gun was available for the faceless to buy and sell. This must have been one of them.
"Nobody here would dream of hurting you, but I want you to feel safe," said Raphael, beckoning. "This way."
He set off in a slow pace across the room. A pair of faceless waved at him as he passed. He smiled back at them.
"We're still in Wonderland, you said?" asked Alice once she'd caught up.
"Naturally."
"Which territory?"
Out of the corner of her eye, she watched Raphael's expression harden slightly. "We don't like to think of ourselves as belonging to a territory. That's the whole point of this community. We're an autonomous group who doesn't conform to the rules of this world."
"Wait." Alice tapped Raphael's elbow, prompting him to stop. Perhaps it was still the after-effects of whatever she'd been drugged with swimming around her head, but she felt like she was trapped in some kind of dream. "You mean to tell me you've all broken away and formed your own settlement here. Is that even allowed?"
The man chuckled. "You act as though the rules of this world can't be bent a little. As an Outsider yourself, you are an affront to those same rules. Besides, nothing bad has happened so far. Until recently, that is." He started walking and beckoned to her again. "Come."
They walked to the other side of the room together, Raphael pointing at the various structures and explaining them to her as they did so. He seemed friendly, Alice thought, at least on the outside, though she was still wary not to let her guard down in front of a man who'd kidnapped her and kept her chained to a bed, even if he did explain that it was to stop her from running off and getting lost.
"After all, these caves run all through the mountain," he said. "Even I haven't explored them all myself."
"Mountain?"
Raphael gave her a knowing smile and stopped in front of a wooden door that fit almost perfectly in a gap in the wall. He pulled out a key and unlocked the padlock, then ushered Alice through before him. The passage on the other side was completely dark except for a pinprick of white that she assumed to be a distant light source.
Once they were both on the other side, Raphael closed the door, cutting them off from the noise and energy of the main chamber. The space smelled damp and earthy. Alice gripped the gun in her hand, ready to react if anyone suddenly jumped out of the dark to apprehend her, but all she could hear was Raphael stepping around her.
"Tread carefully. The floor's a little uneven," he muttered.
Alice took his advice, moving after him with slow steps. At one point, her foot came down at an angle on a bump and she almost tripped, but managed to catch herself on the wall.
"I guess it would have been too much to install some lamps here, too, right?" she mumbled, not bothering to keep the sarcasm from her voice.
"If we had lights here, we'd run the risk of being spotted."
Alice was about to ask him what he was talking about, when she found her eyes drawn to the light up ahead. This time, she felt sure that she was looking at daylight. What's more, a light breeze had begun to blow gently against her face.
When she finally reached the end of the passage, her heart leapt.
She was looking down on Wonderland through a natural window about a metre wide. From this height, the world looked like a map: she could see the Clock Tower with its burnt out windows, and beyond that, the Hatter Mansion, while on the right, Heart Castle cast its shadow from on top of the rocky plateau where it stood. Closer were the Amusement Park and the village that Alice called home. Then, directly underneath them, she spotted an even more familiar sight.
The lake where she and Boris trained was a shimmering blue disc under the noon sun. How many times had she stood at the side of the water and looked up at these mountains, not knowing that there might be a whole other world inside them?
"I had no idea," she breathed.
"Of course you didn't," said Raphael simply. "We keep ourselves hidden well."
Placing a hand on the wall to steady herself, Alice turned to look at him. "What's the point, though? Why not just live normally like the rest of the faceless?"
"And become a slave to the role-holders? No, thanks. I've done my share of that." Raphael snorted softly. "This must all be coming as a shock to you."
Alice thought back to the maid who'd attacked her, how she'd described her living situation as 'hell'.
"A little," she answered truthfully. "But things haven't been right for a while now."
"I know. That's why I wanted to bring you here." Raphael turned to the window and looked out across the landscape. "We may be fairly isolated, but that doesn't mean we don't keep track of what's going on. I know about the attacks that have been happening recently. I watched the Clock Tower burn from this very spot. But you have to understand. That had nothing to do with us."
Alice held her breath. She knew what was coming up. "You know who did it, though, don't you?"
Despite his lack of eyes, Alice could sense that Raphael was staring at her from the side. "A while back, a group of us decided that enough was enough. We were fed up with the way the role-holders treated the faceless. Nobody cared if we were hurt or even killed. Not that it's their fault. It's just the way the world works. The role-holders take centre stage and we faceless are the background players.
"So, we ran away. Came up here. Made a life for ourselves in a place no-one would think to look for us. For a while, everything was fine, but then it became clear that there were some of us who held... different viewpoints about how we should go forward.
"Once I was free and my anger had passed, I held no ill will towards the role-holders. Others wanted revenge. The arguments became more and more common, and then they started turning into fights. People were considering going back to their normal lives. So, I did what I had to. I threw the offenders out told them to never return while they were still bent on revenge. I haven't seen any of them in a long time, but they're the ones I suspect are causing all these problems."
Alice remained quiet for a few seconds as she took all that in. Her head was spinning with questions, trying to match the pieces up like a jigsaw. "But why wait until now? If the other group hate the role-holders so much, why haven't they made a move before?"
"Maybe something's changed recently that they want to take advantage of."
The answer hit Alice at once. "Ace."
Nodding, Raphael said, "With the Executioner out of the way, there's nobody around to stop the faceless from attacking the role-holders directly. It seems they want to use this time to do as much damage as they can."
Executioner... Alice had never heard anyone call Ace by that title before. She thought back to Julius's words that time she'd brought him the clock: Ace was more than just a collector for me. He helped maintain the order of this world.
Perhaps this was precisely what he'd been talking about.
"Are they the ones controlling the afterimages, too?
"I couldn't say for certain, but I'd imagine so." Raphael clicked his tongue in irritation. "If they're hoarding clocks, then I hate to know what else they have planned for the future. Luckily, their attacks are sporadic right now. Nobody's gotten hurt, as far as I know."
An image of Blood's wounded side came to mind, but Alice didn't argue. After all, nobody had been killed, and surely that was what mattered most.
Suddenly, Raphael turned and grabbed her shoulders. She looked up into his face, and for just a moment, she thought she could see the outline of a pair of eyes in his empty sockets. It must have been a trick of the light, though, as the moment she blinked, they were gone.
"Alice, you have to promise me you won't go looking for these people. They're dangerous." His voice dropped to a more serious tone. "There's a chance that they'd use you to hurt the role-holders you're close to."
"Like Blood and Julius?"
"Precisely."
Alice's eyes widened. "The other night, one of the maids at the Hatter Mansion attacked me, but we captured her. Blood and Elliot said they were going to..." Her words trailed off. For some reason, she couldn't say the word 'torture' out loud. "They're going to question her."
"Hm." The faceless furrowed his brow, as if considering something. "In that case, I need to speak to her. She could give us information about where the group's hiding. We'd finally be able to put an end to this mess."
"Blood wouldn't let you have her," said Alice.
"No?" The smallest hint of a smile lifted Raphael's lips. "We'll see about that."
Before Alice could ask him what he meant, he pulled his arms from her shoulders and began to walk back along the passage. "You're a smart girl, Alice, to take all this so well. I'm glad I finally got to meet you."
There was an undertone of longing to his voice, as if he were thinking of something that upset him, but his next words returned to normal. "Come on. I'll show you the rest of our home, and then you can go. Unless you'd like to join me for dinner?"
"Oh, no. That's kind of you, but I've got to get back. Blood's probably worried about me."
"Right. The Hatter." Once again, Raphael's voice changed slightly. Then he beckoned. "Well, come on. I've got to lock the door. You wouldn't want to be trapped here alone in the dark, would you?"