"Find the Pale Royals!" continually echoed in her head, forming a sort of mantra that she walked to. But even that couldn't drown out her discomfort or her insistently frightened thoughts. There was absolutely no one there; the entire city was like a tomb. A stark, black-and white tomb. But even for all its bleakness it was pretty, in that unusual Wonderland way. There was a strange sort of symmetry, as though... she couldn't exactly form the words to describe it in her head. It was as though the far side of each house or building was like that of the house next to it, yet nothing like itself. Each building was grey, which seemed only to add to the quietness of the place. The stars were dim, as though the poison of Wonderland had spread even to them.

Then she heard the thumping. She turned and found a white chess piece sneaking off over a bridge, headed away from her. "Wait!" she called. It stopped and faced her. It was a pawn. Slowly she raised a hand, which it followed with its single, unblinking eye. She raised her other hand until it was level with the first, and brought them both slowly down in front of her. She hoped that she was communicating a lack of weapons.

"Umm..." she stopped. "Can you help me?"

It stared curiously at her.

"It feels very strange, talking to a chess piece," she said. Still it stared at her, blinking only once in several minutes. Finally she sighed and walked away, cutting across the board without paying much attention to the pattern of the squares.

"I've never seen a piece that could move like that," a strange voice sounded nearby. It was the pawn! She hurried back to it.

"You can talk!" She was incredibly relieved until she realised that what she had said could have offended it. However, the pawn didn't seem insulted, merely puzzled.

"Yes... what are you? What piece?"

She blinked in confusion for a moment before she realised what it meant. "Oh! I'm not a chess piece. I'm a human, and my name is Faith."

"Faith!"

"Yes. Er, where is everyone else? I'm so confused... there's nobody here."

"We're all back fighting. I must deliver a message to our King."

"Then may I follow you?" She was eager to reach the one that seemed to hold most of her answers.

"No!" It was surprisingly forceful. "Anyone who is not a pawn that follows is immediately beheaded, without question."

Faith did a double take. "What?"

"They are beheaded. Now can you please move? Pawns can only go one direction at a time."

"Oh," she said, moving out of the way. "But how might I reach him?"

"Take the Challenge at the gates," the pawn replied.

"Ah." She nodded as the pawn continued on its way. "Damned little buggers," she muttered, not liking the sound of any sort of Challenge that the sadistic little hunks of marble could devise.

"Lady Faith!" the pawn called. She ran up to it, hoping it would tell her of another way inside. "How did you get in here?"

"Through that lovely Silent Room," she said, hoping that the pawn couldn't read her mind. The thoughts passing through her head were not kind, and were generally aimed directly at the little wanker. The pawn gasped.

"You solved the riddle!" it beamed. "The White King will be most pleased!"

"But-"

"She is wise as well as violent!" it shone with happiness, as though the Red pieces had just been destroyed.

"No, I-"

But it was useless to try and get through its ecstatic exterior - it seemed to have made up its mind about her. Happily, it hopped off. She stared after it. "Violent?"

She found the gate without much trouble - getting through was the problem. It had been closed for war purposes, and no amount of yelling, cajoling, pounding or pleading would get it to open. A low chuckle sounded behind her, startling her out of her current barrage.

"Having trouble?"

"Cat?"

"However did you guess?" he asked dryly, appearing on top of a plaque, lazily curled up. She rolled her eyes. "You didn't read the poem, I see."

"I'm not reading another bloody poem," she snapped. "The last one I read could've got me killed."

He sighed. "They are usually important here in Wonderland, especially in the Pale Realm."

"Yes but not everyone can heed them and still be sane when they're done!"

"Faith, why are you in Wonderland at this moment?"

"Because I - oh..." she trailed off, catching his obvious meaning, and turned pink at the cheeks. "Oops... wrong choice of words, I suppose."

"It was the right choice of words... only you aren't the one that should be saying them," he purred.

"Yes, Cheshire, I love you, too," she muttered disgustedly. He had one-upped her yet again.

"Now," he said, patiently talking her through, "You are a friend to the Pale Royals, are you not?"

"Yes, I am," she answered, not sure where this tangent was headed.

"Then wouldn't it be sensible to recognize that fact?"

"Yes..."

"In a manner that would make it possible for them to realise your purpose here?"

Faith paused. "I think I see what you're getting at." Cat purred agreeably, and his tail twitched slightly in pleasure.

"Then address the gates, and if you're not a total dunderhead, they should open."

Feeling slightly ridiculous, Faith faced the gates. "Friends, I accept the Challenge!" she yelled. And slowly, the gates began to rise.

"Well done," Cat told her, grinning widely. "Now enter the Pale Realm of the White King."

Faith stepped through the gates, and was immediately greeted by a bishop. She jumped back, surprised, but relaxed when it made no move to harm her. It merely glared at her suspiciously.

"What manner of piece are you? You are not shaped like us, yet neither do you resemble the Cat or the Rabbit."

"I can't imagine them needing to go through anything like this. I'm Faith, and I wish to see the King." That seemed to have absolutely no effect on him, she was disgusted to note.

"You have accepted the Challenge," he said, making no effort to turn it into a question. She nodded, more as a statement than an answer.

Slowly he moved out of her way, and she stepped forward. The moment she reached his square a strange change came over her. She couldn't move her feet at all, and she felt exceptionally heavy. A little disconcerted, she tried a quick kick, but only fell over. To her alarm, she was thoroughly unable to get up, and her arms seemed very short and useless. And what was this? A staff? "Right..." she muttered, but she didn't sound right, either. Irritated, she somehow managed to prop herself up with the staff and look down. What she saw nearly made her fall over again. She was a chess piece!

The other bishop was watching her curiously. "What?" she asked peevishly. It said nothing, merely pointed to the right. She tried to move forward, but couldn't; there seemed to be a strange wall blocking her movements. Then she remembered the rules of chess and smacked herself upside the head - Bishops were only allowed to move diagonally. She sighed and turned to face a black square that was up and to her left. The bishop seemed to be pointing that way. "How do I move?" she called back.

"It is determined by will here; do you not know that? Merely will yourself to move, and you shall."

She started forwards, delighted that she could move so fluidly. After a few squares, she got to wondering what the Challenge was. It was only just in time that she noticed the missing square and stopped. She changed direction, trying to go around, and had just traversed a square when a huge spike came down just behind her. She whirled around and it came down again. And again. And again, and she realised just how lucky she had really been. And how pathetically careless.

She changed direction again, watching anxiously for another pit or spike. There was one a few spaces to her left - didn't want to go that way. Her right seemed safe... never mind. She cursed inwardly, wishing that the pits weren't so bloody hard to see.

She sighed and turned back to the spike, went forward one square, then down. There didn't seem to be too many traps in that row. Except for a row of spikes that constantly shot up around the edges of a square about six squares away. Faith was just relieved that there seemed to be nothing in between. "Yeah, but things are never as they seem here," she reminded herself. "...What a cliché nowadays. But so true in this place," she murmured.
Then she stopped. Not of her own will - she simply couldn't move forward. Tentatively she stuck a hand out, feeling for an invisible wall of some sort. There was none. She couldn't see her feet; when she bent over, what she could only assume were her knees got in the way. Finally she backed up a square and saw an inconspicuously small (but effective) ridge that prevented her from reaching the next square.

Disgusted, she turned again and went around, crossing what now felt like the only 'safe' square on the board. She slid to the left of the spiky square and continued forwards, mentally preparing herself for any new challenges that the board could bring. Fortunately, nothing else that was terribly serious or alarming happened. Just annoying in that she sometimes had to take five squares instead of two, courtesy of the various traps lying about.

She looked up as she neared the end to see a small, hidden sign that said, "Bishop's way - speak the password now, friend."

She stopped short. Password?! "Oh my bloody god!" she hissed in the sign's general direction.

"Move!" A bishop behind her yelled rudely. She turned.

"What?"

"Move! I bear an important message for the King!" A pit to her left, spikes to her right.

"There's nowhere to move TO!" she called back.

"Then speak the password and move forwards!" She took a deep breath to calm herself and faced him.

"I'm sorry, but the Cheshire Cat neglected to tell me about any passwords, and as such, did not tell me what they were."

The bishop rolled his eyes. "I would have thought that if you were an ally, he wouldn't NEED to." His eyes narrowed. "Providing that you are as you say."

"I am," she said irritably. "I'm Faith. Trouble is, after I took this ruddy Challenge I went all freaky."

The bishop glared at her. "You are the same as me. Are you calling all bishops freaks?"

"Not really," she shrugged. "But it's rather disconcerting when you look human one moment and then the exact opposite when you move forwards a few inches."

Now he stared at her as though she were mad. Which she probably was. "In plain, unhindered English, if you don't mind," he said.

She was staring at the riddle again, completely ignoring him. He said the same thing, louder this time.

"What? Sorry," she said, turning. Fuming, he repeated himself again.

"What did I say?" she asked, not remembering. He allowed himself a growl of frustration.

"You do not remember?"

She thought. "Oh, now I do. What I meant was that it's a little weird when you look like yourself one moment and something else entirely after you move forwards a few steps."

He blinked, letting it sink in. Faith had the distinct impression that he was not as smart as he made himself out to be. "Perfect," she muttered. "An opposition full of arses and allies full of chumps." He didn't hear that, thank goodness. After it had time to sink in, she would probably be in trouble, even if she was a-

"Friend," she said suddenly. The gates slid open. She grinned. "That was nice."

She had figured it out without Cat's help!