General Samien appeared, followed quickly by Maggot. "Two birds with one stone," he said. The young man nodded. For once, they were in agreement. And since it had been the Queen's second least-favourite person in the world to kill her, they were equally uncertain about their future standings with the Queen.
The two walked over to the edge to see what had become of the two, and were beyond shocked to observe the two fighting a ferocious battle as they fell. It was a combination of words and weapons, with him blasting her at every opportunity he got, and her retaliating viciously with whatever weapon was nearest. Eventually they landed on a broken chunk of wall, where still they fought, heedless of the frequent tilting and spinning of the platform.
Faith dived away from his sceptre once again, and stabbed at him. He evaded and knocked her across the platform, but she was up again and charging. "Don't you ever die?" he hissed, angry.
"Not against you," she mocked, and took out the mallet, waving it threateningly at him. He was so close to the edge...
He didn't realise it. "You're only trying to intimidate me, aren't you? Foolish girl, it will never work. You couldn't harm me. You're not strong enough."
"These petty speeches are always what gets the bad guy killed," she said, and swung with all of her strength. He stumbled and found his base more than halfway off the edge. Frantically he tried to use his weight to pull him back onto the wall, but Faith threw her knife at him a final time, and he toppled off.
Faith looked up, trying to figure out how to get back up. There was a chair pretty nearby... so she jumped onto it. Only about forty more feet to go. Great, she thought sarcastically. A big vase was just above her. She jumped and swung herself onto it. Then she jumped to the left, catching a big pillow. She was stuck there for a moment, but things in the void were always moving...
As she progressed up, the young man turned to Samien, in shock. "I don't believe this," he said numbly. "That fall was at least forty-five feet; how did she survive?"
Samien paused, contemplating. "She must have been on top when they landed; he cushioned her fall."
"Rather uncomfortable pillow," the young man observed.
"That's certainly a keen observation," Samien said dryly. "Now we have do decide what to tell the Queen. She may want us to take a more active role in Faith's destruction."
"...Us?"
"Yes. Meaning, you will get your hands dirty every now and then, Maggot."
Maggot glared at him. "Why do you always call me that?"
"Well... shall we go over similar characteristics or will it suffice to say that I don't like you?"
"I don't give you any rude nicknames," Maggot complained. "And I don't hit you. And I don't like you, either."
"If you talked to me less, I wouldn't do these things," Samien said, rolling his eyes.
Faith had just reached the last object away from solid ground when she heard the sounds of an argument. A petty one, at that. She glanced up to see who it was, and ducked back down when she saw her two most favourite people in the world.
Though, they didn't seem to be waiting for her. In fact, they seemed to be arguing, and rather childishly at that. Samien seemed to be rather calm, but the other one... he was rather irritable.
"Honestly. Don't you appreciate anything I do for you?"
"What in hell have you done for me?" Samien demanded. He was rather angry all of a sudden.
"I practically gave you those locations."
Samien seemed to flinch. "The bulk of those locations were outdated, wild goose chases. You'll have to do better."
Maggot seemed put out. "What about-"
"Where is Faith?"
Maggot peered over the edge. The wall platform was empty, except for the King's crown, which had not joined him for his fall. Faith was nowhere in sight. "It seems she has fallen as well," he said. He sounded satisfied.
Samien grabbed him by the collar. "Do you realise what this means? No? It means that she may not have died. It means that she has every possibility of landing somewhere safe and simply making her way back here. She may be set back, she may even be set forwards. But unless we have definitive proof that she's dead, she could be anywhere."
"You're certainly worried," Maggot said smugly.
"Have you noticed my troops lately? They're probably the most mindless things in Wonderland, and they're in a stage of near mutiny."
Maggot laughed. "Are they?"
"Yes," Samien said wearily. "Fortunately, I can still say it's your fault and have them believe me."
It took all of a second for that to sink in. "You would not dare!"
"You're right," Samien agreed. "But only because our poor, misguided Queen holds you in her favour."
"Ooh, she'll love being called misguided," Maggot said.
"Let's go," Samien said suddenly. "We have much reporting to do."
"Agreed," Maggot said gruffly, as though agreeing was the last thing that he seemed to want to do.
They used their own respective means to vanish, and Faith finally hopped onto the platform, staring up at where Samien had vanished. That guy was too weird.
"James. James!" Halden looked up at Jessica, who was beckoning him into the sitting room. He reluctantly got up, unwilling to leave a puzzle that she had given him a few hours ago. It was one of those terrible ones where you had to find out the pets, drinks, house colour, house position, nationality and the smokes of the respective owner of a house. It had occupied him for a while, that was for sure.
He came out and saw Jean. His eyebrows raised, and he extended a hand. "Jean. Hello."
She shook it gingerly. "Hi," she said. "Um, I was wondering. D'you have anything about Faith? I mean, why was she locked up in Rutledge?"
"Jean... that's something that I may not be able to tell you."
"Why not?" she demanded. She sounded angry.
"There's a law called 'Doctor-Patient Confidentiality Rights' that forbids me."
"Well, I'm one of Faith's best friends. If we can find her, I want to know what's wrong so that I'm not always imagining the worst. And I promise I won't tell anyone else. Not even my mom."
Halden sighed. He hated this type of decision. But maybe it would benefit Faith if her best friend knew. He paused, trying to figure out how to explain it. "My guess is, no matter how much you deny it, Faith did, in fact, tell you about Wonderland in her stories."
Reluctantly, Jean nodded.
"That had something to do with it. She was set to be released at one point, when she started talking to the Cheshire Cat, I'm assuming. That made them put her back inside the mental ward, although Doctor Levan didn't think that it had anything to do with her sanity-just an overactive imagination, maybe."
"How d'you know about the Cheshire Cat?"
"Partially because Faith told me about him, and partially because he used to come and torment me."
"Torment you?" Jean was incredulous. "How?"
"Mocking me. Telling me that I wasn't good enough for what was to come."
"What??"
"I went through something of a down phase at two points in my life. The first was when my brother committed suicide when I was fourteen. The other was when a very good friend died."
"And he was mocking you then?"
"No... in a crazy way, I think he knew and was trying to prepare me for the inevitability. But as for why it was him- something that was more Alice's creation - I have no idea. Anyway, Faith was put back in the mental ward. Then Doctor Levan died and Reynald took over, turning Rutledge's into the hell-hole it is now."
"So... that's when what happened?"
"That's when Faith became, essentially, impossible. There were many, many doctors and none of them succeeded in treating her, much less getting through to her."
Jean was beginning to doubt. "Why did she get impossible?"
"The doctors only said that they seemed to be making good progress when she would start talking to air and then become totally uncooperative. She would essentially tell them that they were through and then she just wouldn't talk."
"Okay. So that's her medical situation. How did they treat her there?"
"Under Doctor Levan, she was fine. But then when Reynald came, bringing Emelia with him, it changed. Reynald is really the worst thing that can happen to a patient, and Emelia is a bitch if you put it mildly. And I don't use that word lightly."
"Whoa. I think I've heard of Emelia."
"She was almost an heiress, but then I got in the way."
Jessica then came in, bearing drinks. "Sorry for interrupting," she said, smiling. He knew that she wasn't sorry at all.
"Liar," he teased. She shrugged and laughed.
"Should I go, or may I stay?"
Halden gestured towards Jean. "It's probably best that you make that decision," he said. She nodded.
"I don't really care. Just so long as I get answers."
"Okay. Jess, do you remember Emelia Levan?"
Jessica shuddered. Apparently she did, and the memory was not pleasant. "Unfortunately," she said. "That woman is probably the worst insult to womankind everywhere."
"So you can imagine how she treated Faith," Halden said, turning back to Jean.
"Lower than the amoebas that make up dirt, I'd imagine."
"Pretty close to, although there was a certain degree of respect there." He shrugged. Jean and Jessica stared at him.
"Faith took a lot from her, but when she retaliated, Emelia wouldn't go near her cell for weeks. The first time, if I remember correctly, Faith gave her a black eye and a split lip, and in a somewhat more recent occurrence, stole her shoes and smacked her when she tried to get them back."
Jessica and Jean both cheered. Halden shook his head and laughed. "You two are horrible."
"Well, it's what she deserves, trying to pick on someone like Faith," Jean said proudly. Halden cocked his head questioningly. "When we were little, before the fire, the three of us would usually spend time on the grounds or something. Faith was the most patient of all of us, amazingly enough. But anyway, it would take over a month of teasing and heckling from Jeremy and me before she'd snap, but when she did, wow. It was fun to watch, when you weren't on the receiving end of it."
"She'd beat people up?" Jessica asked incredulously.
"Nah, but she sure knew the right ways to make us cry. I mean, we were eight. Being called a bleeding bugger was enough to make me cry back then."
"What about Jeremy?" Halden asked.
"It took a bit of effort, but once he called her something that she hated, and she turned around and smacked him in the shoulder. It didn't bruise cause she wasn't very strong, but it turned bright red and he got all watery eyed. He wasn't a wimp, don't get me wrong. But when your twin sister, who's about six inches shorter than you hits you that hard, you're shocked."
Jessica laughed. "So it was more the self pity thing?"
"Pretty much."
Halden leaned back, prepared for several minutes of conversation, but Jean surprised him by turning straight to him. "Did she ever tell anyone else about Wonderland?" she asked. Her voice was a little suspicious.
"Not to the best of my knowledge," Halden said. "They wouldn't have believed her if she did, anyway."
"D'you think she's crazy?" Jean asked.
"No."
Later on, he was reading (and taking a break from the damned puzzle) when somebody knocked on the door. Jessica started to get up, but he beat her to it, and she settled back down. He opened the door, and was more than a little annoyed at seeing Cheshire there again.
"May I come in?"
"It depends," he answered coolly. "Do you have anything worth saying, or are you only here to annoy us again?"
"I annoy you? Dear me, how dreadful." Halden rolled his eyes, and as he did, an extraordinarily strange thought crossed his head. He shook his head to get it out, though. It was ludicrous. "Headache already?"
"No. Just a rather strange thought."
"Ah. And what might it have been? Strange thoughts seem to be prevalent when I'm around."
"I am very unsurprised," Halden replied tartly. "Come in."
He stepped aside, and Cheshire entered, casting a just barely neutral glance at Jessica. She stared coldly back. Apparently she hadn't quite forgot that little incident of his last visit.
"Anyway, I come to bring you news of Faith."
"Well how do you know?" Jessica burst out. Cheshire stared coldly at her.
"Your husband has guessed the answer. And it is with he that I intend to speak, not you."
Jessica glared at him furiously and stormed out. Halden turned to him, eyes icy. "If you ever speak like that to my wife again, then I will personally see you out."
Cheshire sighed and nodded.
"What do you mean that I've guessed?"
"That strange thought? It was written all over your face, James. Cheshire Kitt Mara Danlor-wend the eighth. Cheshire, my usual title. Kitt, short for Kitty, a synonym for Cat, which you no doubt knew already."
"And Danlor-Wend is an anagram for Wonderland, I know."
"And eight squared is the number of squares on a chessboard. Yes, you're very smart," he said dismissively. "Unfortunately my natural form seemed to scare your wife, so I probably shouldn't change back at the moment."
Halden wanted proof, though. "If you are who you say you are, I'm not believing a word you say until you show me."
Cheshire rolled his eyes and vanished. Then he reappeared a moment later as a rather gruesome, grinning cat. Halden winced somewhat. "Yes, charming, aren't I?"
"Yeah. Right."
"You're a harsh critic," he sighed, a great big fake one. "In any case, do you believe me now?"
Halden nodded.
"Good. Then, what I wanted to tell you, is that Faith is in danger, somewhat."
"What do you mean?"
Cheshire lowered his voice. "Forces are working against her both from outside and inside Wonderland. Reynald is beginning to experiment on his patients with various and sundry hypnotics. The Red Queen may have figured out that we also took Faith's body into Wonderland. If she dies there, her body will re-materialise back here, and will permanently remain a vegetable."
"What do you mean?"
"I mean that Faith will have no mind left. I haven't told her, nor do I intend to."
"But doesn't she need to know the stakes?"
Cheshire sighed. "If only it were that simple. She's getting stronger now. But there is still enormous pressure on her as it is. If she knew exactly how much it may overwhelm her. If she knew EVERYTHING, I think that alone would be enough to render her useless from worry."
"I think that you're underestimating her."
"My first view of her in Wonderland was not a positive one. I don't want to take chances."
"But that was a long time ago."
"Yes, and she has come quite far."
"You never told me what Mara was for."
"It's a name she assumed to hide her identity for a while, but later discarded."
Damn. Cheshire really didn't miss a trick. "All right, so she started out rather badly."
"She sucked."
Halden sighed. "You really have no clue about when tact is involved, do you?"
"Oh, I do. But there's a difference between tact and lying and you definitely did the latter."
"That's just plain cruel."
"Did I not say that she's improved?"
Halden sighed. "All right, I give up."
"Very good. Faith has improved, I'll warrant that. But she has several very dangerous enemies. And the Queen is working on some type of spell or potion or... something that will put Faith's body back here on earth. And if that happens, there is an amazingly good chance that Reynald will try something."
"So what the hell am I supposed to do?"
Cheshire sighed. "I had hoped that, as a native to this world, knowing full well how its laws and customs work, you could tell me."
"It's true that Faith was my patient for a little while. But we are still subject to Reynald, because he operates the asylum in which she stays. And believe me, it is not easy at all to move a patient out of a certain facility, no matter how high your influence."
"And in Britain, you're still fairly bottom of the barrel?" Cheshire said smugly.
"Cheshire!" The smirk on Cheshire's face did little to assuage Halden's utter disgust. "Now, why did you appear to me when I was younger?"
"We all knew that there was something rather special about you. They elected me to watch you, but just watching wasn't very fun." Halden's fists clenched.
"So it was all some sick prank!" he ground out.
"Quite the contrary. In fact, it's better that you saw me. You could relate to Faith more, therefore making her a little more open, and therefore again more willing to face her inner self."
"And here she was, telling me that you're full of riddles," Halden scoffed. Cheshire glared at him.
"Judging by all of our other conversations, I had wondered if you were clever enough for them." Halden glared back. Even a casual observer could have seen the veritable electricity emanating from the two. "Unfortunately, I have a rather special friend that I must check on now."
"Why don't you leave her alone?"
Cheshire barely glanced back. "Who says that it's Faith?"
He turned and started walking towards the door. As he did, he started to disappear from the feet up. Jessica came in just as his left thigh vanished, followed quickly by his right. He raised a mocking eyebrow at her shock and vanished completely, leaving a wide grin for a few seconds, before that vanished too. Jessica appeared to be ready to either faint or scream-Halden wasn't sure which. He darted over. "It's okay," he said quietly. She stared at him like he was crazy.
"OKAY?!" she asked, her voice getting higher in pitch than she cared to believe. "That man just vanished in front of me!"
"It's all right," he said again. "I'm not sure if I should tell you what it is exactly until you've calmed down a bit."
"Calm? I'm PERFECTLY CALM!" she said tightly, her voice rising again. Halden winced.
"Let's wait a few minutes, Jess. I'm going to go get you some water. Sit down."
"I am NOT one of your patients," she said firmly. "I'm your wife."
"I realise that," he said quietly. He guided her to a comfortable chair and she promptly sat down. He walked to the kitchen to get her a glass of water, and mentally rehearsed what he would say. His hand trembled somewhat, and he wasn't sure if he believed it entirely himself.
He forced himself to be calm and came back. Jessica was sitting where he had left her, fidgeting very impatiently. She almost snatched the water from his hands and took a long drink. As she calmed, he started telling her about Faith and Wonderland, and eventually the Cheshire Cat. When he was done, she stared at him, long and hard.
"James... It sounds like you're going crazy."
The two walked over to the edge to see what had become of the two, and were beyond shocked to observe the two fighting a ferocious battle as they fell. It was a combination of words and weapons, with him blasting her at every opportunity he got, and her retaliating viciously with whatever weapon was nearest. Eventually they landed on a broken chunk of wall, where still they fought, heedless of the frequent tilting and spinning of the platform.
Faith dived away from his sceptre once again, and stabbed at him. He evaded and knocked her across the platform, but she was up again and charging. "Don't you ever die?" he hissed, angry.
"Not against you," she mocked, and took out the mallet, waving it threateningly at him. He was so close to the edge...
He didn't realise it. "You're only trying to intimidate me, aren't you? Foolish girl, it will never work. You couldn't harm me. You're not strong enough."
"These petty speeches are always what gets the bad guy killed," she said, and swung with all of her strength. He stumbled and found his base more than halfway off the edge. Frantically he tried to use his weight to pull him back onto the wall, but Faith threw her knife at him a final time, and he toppled off.
Faith looked up, trying to figure out how to get back up. There was a chair pretty nearby... so she jumped onto it. Only about forty more feet to go. Great, she thought sarcastically. A big vase was just above her. She jumped and swung herself onto it. Then she jumped to the left, catching a big pillow. She was stuck there for a moment, but things in the void were always moving...
As she progressed up, the young man turned to Samien, in shock. "I don't believe this," he said numbly. "That fall was at least forty-five feet; how did she survive?"
Samien paused, contemplating. "She must have been on top when they landed; he cushioned her fall."
"Rather uncomfortable pillow," the young man observed.
"That's certainly a keen observation," Samien said dryly. "Now we have do decide what to tell the Queen. She may want us to take a more active role in Faith's destruction."
"...Us?"
"Yes. Meaning, you will get your hands dirty every now and then, Maggot."
Maggot glared at him. "Why do you always call me that?"
"Well... shall we go over similar characteristics or will it suffice to say that I don't like you?"
"I don't give you any rude nicknames," Maggot complained. "And I don't hit you. And I don't like you, either."
"If you talked to me less, I wouldn't do these things," Samien said, rolling his eyes.
Faith had just reached the last object away from solid ground when she heard the sounds of an argument. A petty one, at that. She glanced up to see who it was, and ducked back down when she saw her two most favourite people in the world.
Though, they didn't seem to be waiting for her. In fact, they seemed to be arguing, and rather childishly at that. Samien seemed to be rather calm, but the other one... he was rather irritable.
"Honestly. Don't you appreciate anything I do for you?"
"What in hell have you done for me?" Samien demanded. He was rather angry all of a sudden.
"I practically gave you those locations."
Samien seemed to flinch. "The bulk of those locations were outdated, wild goose chases. You'll have to do better."
Maggot seemed put out. "What about-"
"Where is Faith?"
Maggot peered over the edge. The wall platform was empty, except for the King's crown, which had not joined him for his fall. Faith was nowhere in sight. "It seems she has fallen as well," he said. He sounded satisfied.
Samien grabbed him by the collar. "Do you realise what this means? No? It means that she may not have died. It means that she has every possibility of landing somewhere safe and simply making her way back here. She may be set back, she may even be set forwards. But unless we have definitive proof that she's dead, she could be anywhere."
"You're certainly worried," Maggot said smugly.
"Have you noticed my troops lately? They're probably the most mindless things in Wonderland, and they're in a stage of near mutiny."
Maggot laughed. "Are they?"
"Yes," Samien said wearily. "Fortunately, I can still say it's your fault and have them believe me."
It took all of a second for that to sink in. "You would not dare!"
"You're right," Samien agreed. "But only because our poor, misguided Queen holds you in her favour."
"Ooh, she'll love being called misguided," Maggot said.
"Let's go," Samien said suddenly. "We have much reporting to do."
"Agreed," Maggot said gruffly, as though agreeing was the last thing that he seemed to want to do.
They used their own respective means to vanish, and Faith finally hopped onto the platform, staring up at where Samien had vanished. That guy was too weird.
"James. James!" Halden looked up at Jessica, who was beckoning him into the sitting room. He reluctantly got up, unwilling to leave a puzzle that she had given him a few hours ago. It was one of those terrible ones where you had to find out the pets, drinks, house colour, house position, nationality and the smokes of the respective owner of a house. It had occupied him for a while, that was for sure.
He came out and saw Jean. His eyebrows raised, and he extended a hand. "Jean. Hello."
She shook it gingerly. "Hi," she said. "Um, I was wondering. D'you have anything about Faith? I mean, why was she locked up in Rutledge?"
"Jean... that's something that I may not be able to tell you."
"Why not?" she demanded. She sounded angry.
"There's a law called 'Doctor-Patient Confidentiality Rights' that forbids me."
"Well, I'm one of Faith's best friends. If we can find her, I want to know what's wrong so that I'm not always imagining the worst. And I promise I won't tell anyone else. Not even my mom."
Halden sighed. He hated this type of decision. But maybe it would benefit Faith if her best friend knew. He paused, trying to figure out how to explain it. "My guess is, no matter how much you deny it, Faith did, in fact, tell you about Wonderland in her stories."
Reluctantly, Jean nodded.
"That had something to do with it. She was set to be released at one point, when she started talking to the Cheshire Cat, I'm assuming. That made them put her back inside the mental ward, although Doctor Levan didn't think that it had anything to do with her sanity-just an overactive imagination, maybe."
"How d'you know about the Cheshire Cat?"
"Partially because Faith told me about him, and partially because he used to come and torment me."
"Torment you?" Jean was incredulous. "How?"
"Mocking me. Telling me that I wasn't good enough for what was to come."
"What??"
"I went through something of a down phase at two points in my life. The first was when my brother committed suicide when I was fourteen. The other was when a very good friend died."
"And he was mocking you then?"
"No... in a crazy way, I think he knew and was trying to prepare me for the inevitability. But as for why it was him- something that was more Alice's creation - I have no idea. Anyway, Faith was put back in the mental ward. Then Doctor Levan died and Reynald took over, turning Rutledge's into the hell-hole it is now."
"So... that's when what happened?"
"That's when Faith became, essentially, impossible. There were many, many doctors and none of them succeeded in treating her, much less getting through to her."
Jean was beginning to doubt. "Why did she get impossible?"
"The doctors only said that they seemed to be making good progress when she would start talking to air and then become totally uncooperative. She would essentially tell them that they were through and then she just wouldn't talk."
"Okay. So that's her medical situation. How did they treat her there?"
"Under Doctor Levan, she was fine. But then when Reynald came, bringing Emelia with him, it changed. Reynald is really the worst thing that can happen to a patient, and Emelia is a bitch if you put it mildly. And I don't use that word lightly."
"Whoa. I think I've heard of Emelia."
"She was almost an heiress, but then I got in the way."
Jessica then came in, bearing drinks. "Sorry for interrupting," she said, smiling. He knew that she wasn't sorry at all.
"Liar," he teased. She shrugged and laughed.
"Should I go, or may I stay?"
Halden gestured towards Jean. "It's probably best that you make that decision," he said. She nodded.
"I don't really care. Just so long as I get answers."
"Okay. Jess, do you remember Emelia Levan?"
Jessica shuddered. Apparently she did, and the memory was not pleasant. "Unfortunately," she said. "That woman is probably the worst insult to womankind everywhere."
"So you can imagine how she treated Faith," Halden said, turning back to Jean.
"Lower than the amoebas that make up dirt, I'd imagine."
"Pretty close to, although there was a certain degree of respect there." He shrugged. Jean and Jessica stared at him.
"Faith took a lot from her, but when she retaliated, Emelia wouldn't go near her cell for weeks. The first time, if I remember correctly, Faith gave her a black eye and a split lip, and in a somewhat more recent occurrence, stole her shoes and smacked her when she tried to get them back."
Jessica and Jean both cheered. Halden shook his head and laughed. "You two are horrible."
"Well, it's what she deserves, trying to pick on someone like Faith," Jean said proudly. Halden cocked his head questioningly. "When we were little, before the fire, the three of us would usually spend time on the grounds or something. Faith was the most patient of all of us, amazingly enough. But anyway, it would take over a month of teasing and heckling from Jeremy and me before she'd snap, but when she did, wow. It was fun to watch, when you weren't on the receiving end of it."
"She'd beat people up?" Jessica asked incredulously.
"Nah, but she sure knew the right ways to make us cry. I mean, we were eight. Being called a bleeding bugger was enough to make me cry back then."
"What about Jeremy?" Halden asked.
"It took a bit of effort, but once he called her something that she hated, and she turned around and smacked him in the shoulder. It didn't bruise cause she wasn't very strong, but it turned bright red and he got all watery eyed. He wasn't a wimp, don't get me wrong. But when your twin sister, who's about six inches shorter than you hits you that hard, you're shocked."
Jessica laughed. "So it was more the self pity thing?"
"Pretty much."
Halden leaned back, prepared for several minutes of conversation, but Jean surprised him by turning straight to him. "Did she ever tell anyone else about Wonderland?" she asked. Her voice was a little suspicious.
"Not to the best of my knowledge," Halden said. "They wouldn't have believed her if she did, anyway."
"D'you think she's crazy?" Jean asked.
"No."
Later on, he was reading (and taking a break from the damned puzzle) when somebody knocked on the door. Jessica started to get up, but he beat her to it, and she settled back down. He opened the door, and was more than a little annoyed at seeing Cheshire there again.
"May I come in?"
"It depends," he answered coolly. "Do you have anything worth saying, or are you only here to annoy us again?"
"I annoy you? Dear me, how dreadful." Halden rolled his eyes, and as he did, an extraordinarily strange thought crossed his head. He shook his head to get it out, though. It was ludicrous. "Headache already?"
"No. Just a rather strange thought."
"Ah. And what might it have been? Strange thoughts seem to be prevalent when I'm around."
"I am very unsurprised," Halden replied tartly. "Come in."
He stepped aside, and Cheshire entered, casting a just barely neutral glance at Jessica. She stared coldly back. Apparently she hadn't quite forgot that little incident of his last visit.
"Anyway, I come to bring you news of Faith."
"Well how do you know?" Jessica burst out. Cheshire stared coldly at her.
"Your husband has guessed the answer. And it is with he that I intend to speak, not you."
Jessica glared at him furiously and stormed out. Halden turned to him, eyes icy. "If you ever speak like that to my wife again, then I will personally see you out."
Cheshire sighed and nodded.
"What do you mean that I've guessed?"
"That strange thought? It was written all over your face, James. Cheshire Kitt Mara Danlor-wend the eighth. Cheshire, my usual title. Kitt, short for Kitty, a synonym for Cat, which you no doubt knew already."
"And Danlor-Wend is an anagram for Wonderland, I know."
"And eight squared is the number of squares on a chessboard. Yes, you're very smart," he said dismissively. "Unfortunately my natural form seemed to scare your wife, so I probably shouldn't change back at the moment."
Halden wanted proof, though. "If you are who you say you are, I'm not believing a word you say until you show me."
Cheshire rolled his eyes and vanished. Then he reappeared a moment later as a rather gruesome, grinning cat. Halden winced somewhat. "Yes, charming, aren't I?"
"Yeah. Right."
"You're a harsh critic," he sighed, a great big fake one. "In any case, do you believe me now?"
Halden nodded.
"Good. Then, what I wanted to tell you, is that Faith is in danger, somewhat."
"What do you mean?"
Cheshire lowered his voice. "Forces are working against her both from outside and inside Wonderland. Reynald is beginning to experiment on his patients with various and sundry hypnotics. The Red Queen may have figured out that we also took Faith's body into Wonderland. If she dies there, her body will re-materialise back here, and will permanently remain a vegetable."
"What do you mean?"
"I mean that Faith will have no mind left. I haven't told her, nor do I intend to."
"But doesn't she need to know the stakes?"
Cheshire sighed. "If only it were that simple. She's getting stronger now. But there is still enormous pressure on her as it is. If she knew exactly how much it may overwhelm her. If she knew EVERYTHING, I think that alone would be enough to render her useless from worry."
"I think that you're underestimating her."
"My first view of her in Wonderland was not a positive one. I don't want to take chances."
"But that was a long time ago."
"Yes, and she has come quite far."
"You never told me what Mara was for."
"It's a name she assumed to hide her identity for a while, but later discarded."
Damn. Cheshire really didn't miss a trick. "All right, so she started out rather badly."
"She sucked."
Halden sighed. "You really have no clue about when tact is involved, do you?"
"Oh, I do. But there's a difference between tact and lying and you definitely did the latter."
"That's just plain cruel."
"Did I not say that she's improved?"
Halden sighed. "All right, I give up."
"Very good. Faith has improved, I'll warrant that. But she has several very dangerous enemies. And the Queen is working on some type of spell or potion or... something that will put Faith's body back here on earth. And if that happens, there is an amazingly good chance that Reynald will try something."
"So what the hell am I supposed to do?"
Cheshire sighed. "I had hoped that, as a native to this world, knowing full well how its laws and customs work, you could tell me."
"It's true that Faith was my patient for a little while. But we are still subject to Reynald, because he operates the asylum in which she stays. And believe me, it is not easy at all to move a patient out of a certain facility, no matter how high your influence."
"And in Britain, you're still fairly bottom of the barrel?" Cheshire said smugly.
"Cheshire!" The smirk on Cheshire's face did little to assuage Halden's utter disgust. "Now, why did you appear to me when I was younger?"
"We all knew that there was something rather special about you. They elected me to watch you, but just watching wasn't very fun." Halden's fists clenched.
"So it was all some sick prank!" he ground out.
"Quite the contrary. In fact, it's better that you saw me. You could relate to Faith more, therefore making her a little more open, and therefore again more willing to face her inner self."
"And here she was, telling me that you're full of riddles," Halden scoffed. Cheshire glared at him.
"Judging by all of our other conversations, I had wondered if you were clever enough for them." Halden glared back. Even a casual observer could have seen the veritable electricity emanating from the two. "Unfortunately, I have a rather special friend that I must check on now."
"Why don't you leave her alone?"
Cheshire barely glanced back. "Who says that it's Faith?"
He turned and started walking towards the door. As he did, he started to disappear from the feet up. Jessica came in just as his left thigh vanished, followed quickly by his right. He raised a mocking eyebrow at her shock and vanished completely, leaving a wide grin for a few seconds, before that vanished too. Jessica appeared to be ready to either faint or scream-Halden wasn't sure which. He darted over. "It's okay," he said quietly. She stared at him like he was crazy.
"OKAY?!" she asked, her voice getting higher in pitch than she cared to believe. "That man just vanished in front of me!"
"It's all right," he said again. "I'm not sure if I should tell you what it is exactly until you've calmed down a bit."
"Calm? I'm PERFECTLY CALM!" she said tightly, her voice rising again. Halden winced.
"Let's wait a few minutes, Jess. I'm going to go get you some water. Sit down."
"I am NOT one of your patients," she said firmly. "I'm your wife."
"I realise that," he said quietly. He guided her to a comfortable chair and she promptly sat down. He walked to the kitchen to get her a glass of water, and mentally rehearsed what he would say. His hand trembled somewhat, and he wasn't sure if he believed it entirely himself.
He forced himself to be calm and came back. Jessica was sitting where he had left her, fidgeting very impatiently. She almost snatched the water from his hands and took a long drink. As she calmed, he started telling her about Faith and Wonderland, and eventually the Cheshire Cat. When he was done, she stared at him, long and hard.
"James... It sounds like you're going crazy."