Alice truly wished she was holding the Vorpal sword and not an iron poker. However, as long as Time feared her she supposed even Mally's pin needle would be effective against the force that had been the cause for so much grief for herself and others. Seated in a velvet armchair, she watched as Time paced back and forth before the unlit hearth as they waited for Death to arrive.

Assuming that Death would accept his invitation.

"He never arrives when I ask," Time stated nervously. "He collects either too early or too late, usually late, or fashionably late as he says, though he says that just to spite me I think."

"Would Death come quicker if you were dying?" Alice asked, tilting her head to the side. Time stopped and set his eyes on the woman seated in his favorite chair, unsure if she was making a threat or a joke.

"I can see that Ilosovic's temperament has rubbed off on you," Time started and looked at Tarrant, recalling that the man had been temporarily drafted as Mirana's Champion. "Surely you don't want the Knave to return, do you, Tarrant? Would you do nothing to stop this from happening?" Time asked in a last-ditch effort of turning the tables on Alice.

Tarrant's attention was on a pile of books settled around him. Books on birds of all sorts as well as books and manuals on woodworking. Upon hearing his name, the Mad Hatter looked up and considered the question.

"Not particularly, no," Tarrant replied as he closed the book in his hand and set it aside. "But I suppose it would be nice for me to have the chance to send the Knave back to his grave myself," Tarrant continued, the comment made Alice shift uneasily within her seat but Tarrant held no shame on the blunt response. "But enough of the worm, do you have any idea why a raven is like a writing-desk?"

Time, frustrated with the Mad Hatter for not acting to his will, was left speechless at the question but an answer came from a deep baritone voice.

"Because they produce notes, though they are very flat," stated a man dressed in simple black clothes and a finely tailored white coat. Everyone rose to their feet and to attention to greet the sudden arrival of Death as he emerged from the fireplace.

He was not at all as Alice would have imagined him to be. She thought he would be a skeleton or someone who looked closer to dying than living, but Death was rather attractive, strong, and youthful-looking as ageless as he was. He had a dark complexion, a neatly trimmed beard, and his coarse hair was cropped neatly.

"It is good to see you brother," Death spoke as he stepped out into the open. "Tell me, why don't we see each other more often?"

Time rolled his eyes and his head along with the gesture. "Because Death, you make for poor company. All your doom and gloom and endings. You are necessary, but you aren't the first person I would invite over for tea."

Death wasn't surprised by the warm welcome he received from Time. Though he was a little confused about why he was invited at all. Until he spotted Alice.

"Ah, so the legends are true!" Death said with a smile and neared Alice who extended out her hand out of reflex but Death held up his. "Oh, no, you wouldn't want to do that. Unless of course, this meeting of ours is for you to cross over?" His face now expressing concern.

Alice frowned and quickly dropped her hand and shook her head. Death placed his hand over his chest and breathed a sigh of relief.

"Oh good, and here I thought Time somehow convinced you to throw your life away for Iracebeth!" Death said with a chuckled and turned away to inspect a nearby bookshelf. Alice knitted her eyebrows together and set her eyes on Time who held up his hands in defense.

"It is an option!" Time said as Death made his way towards a staircase to explore the rest of his brother's home. "I mean, I know I just said that Death is not my favorite person, but his realm is not so bad. You would still get to reunite with your husband, and now that I think about it, it would be very beneficial for us. You would no longer have to deal with these ingrates while you spend out your afterlife with your beloved Knave and Iracebeth could help me restore some order around here." Time said in a dreamlike voice. "Oh, what I would give for one of Iracie's predictable tantrums."

Alice remembered the poem Stayne delivered to her upon her arrival in Deces. 'Be sacrificed, to return the Red, Take plight, leave the land to White, Or become a Queen of Black'. The legend didn't feel any less ridiculous from when she first heard it, although it did make far more sense today than it did yesterday. Alice moved away from Time and the rest of the group, following after Death as he descended deeper into Time's library, calling out for books by exact titles and placed them under his arm as they answered his call.

"Sometimes I envy my brother," Death admitted out loud, not necessarily speaking to Alice, but it wasn't every day he would be able to converse with the girl turned legend or any living being for that matter. "He gets to experience everything that ever has or will happen while I watch from afar, only getting to be witness to things in most individual's final moments. It's unfortunate at times, not everyone is happy to go, but once Underlings, Outlanders and Overites cross over I tell them that it isn't over, it's just like starting a new book," Death said as he handed a book to Alice, careful to not touch her himself.

Alice paused and surveyed the title of the book handed to her. "How to Come to Terms with Death". Alice frowned and set the book on a railing before quickly stepping around Death and blocked him off from advancing any further.

"Mr. Death, if you would please hear me out for just a moment," Alice insisted as Death turned around, knowing that there were more books to be had upstairs anyway. "I need to speak with you on a very important matter!"

"I really do hope this isn't about Iracebeth," Death said as he set the books he collected down on an end table as they made it onto the landing of a floor. "I'm not necessarily fond of the woman myself, and ordinarily I would love to get her off my hands, but truthfully my job has been so much easier since her passing. I remember one day she had executed 5,672 tadpoles in a single sitting! It took me weeks to get them all to stop crying, the poor little things," Death recalled before turning to face Alice again with three roses in hand. "Neither I nor my brother can sway your mind so if this is really what you want I cannot stop you."

Alice's eyes went from Death's face to a few floors above where Time, Tarrant, Chess and Mall were watching them. Alice felt an uneasiness in this moment and turned her attention on the roses in Death's hand, each of them a different color. Red, White and Black. Just like the crowns of Underland. Alice reached out and plucked the black petaled flower, earning a delightful cheer from Death and a groan from Time up above.

"If that's all I think I will be on my way then!" Death stared as the other two roses wilted in his hand and he discarded them over his should and moved to take the books he had collected but Alice slapped the top of the pile with the fire poker in her hand.

"Death, please, I have an important request," Alice pleaded softly. Death provided the woman with his undivided attention and Alice pulled the iron tool off the stack of books and set the poker against a bookcase and the black rose upon a shelf. "It concerns my husband," Alice said nervously.

"Ah, Ilosovic Stayne. A terrible tragedy with that one," Death said as he moved to a chair that had a stack of books placed on it and tilted the furniture piece so everything on top slid off and he took a seat. Alice approached Time and knelt before him with a sorrowful face. "Granted the man isn't a saint, and maybe some justice has been restored, but I struggle to find who deserves such a fate."

"That's why I need to talk to you," Alice said placing her hands into her lap, careful to not reach out and touch Death. "I'm painfully aware that Ilosovic isn't the purest of heart. He has done unforgivable things but there is some good in him and I don't think he deserved what has been given to him either." Alice's gaze went to the floor, wanting to avoid the desire to shed tears. "I wish to bring him back you see. We- we have a son now, Charles is his name. He'll be 6 years old soon and he has never known his father beyond what little I've been able to freely speak. He looks so much like Ilosovic but I assure you he is far kinder than him, truly he is the sweetest thing," Alice said lifting her chin up and smiling brightly. Death returned her smile with his own sympathetic turn of lips.

"For years I had been hoping that Stayne would find a way to me, or that I could have returned to save him before… before it was too late," Alice whispered as she wiped at her eyes with the cuffs of her coat. "But I am here now to ask you for your help. Please, restore Ilosovic to me. And if not for me than for my son."

Death sighed heavily and clasped his hands together. He kept his eyes on the woman and he shook his head.

"You have my deepest apologies, Alice. Truly, you do, but I am unable to provide what you ask for," Death said, causing Alice's expression to darken. "It is simply out of my hands," Death continued as Alice rose to her feet, now standing taller than Death and stared at him, irked at the response.

"You were willing to allow me to trade my life for the Red Queen's, how would this be any different?! I can't abandon Charles, so I'm unable to trade my life for anyone else's but please sir, I beg of you to bring him back!" As Alice raised her voice she did not take notice to Death pulling a thick white ribbon from his pant pocket, nor that he began to wrap the material around his hand so that no portion of the skin of his hand was exposed. "If you require a life for a life just say that instead- but please at the very least let me say goodbye to him!" Alice cried as Death's clothed hand cupped Alice's with care, his dark eyes full of remorse for the woman.

"Alice, believe me if it were within my limits to reunite you with Ilosovic I would. I know that the nature of my being may suggest otherwise but I appreciate life and all the treasures it holds. I suppose that's why I collect souls, to keep and cherish them, no matter the damages that they have caused or suffered from," Death said as he stared up at the former Champion of Under. "But I cannot give you that which I do not have," Death said outright, making Alice tense.

"... Come again?" Alice asked, not noticing that Tarrant and the others had approached her side. Death released his hold on the woman and began to unlace the cloth from his hand.

"I can't give you Ilosovic Stayne for he is not with me," Death rephrased in hopes of getting Alice to understand the situation. "That man has escaped my grasp more times than I care to count, and frankly I've grown tired of the rain checks for our official introduction. I feel as though he ends up on my calendar at least once a week but our appointments seem to always be canceled last minute."

Alice's eyes searched Death's face for a hint of a joke but he looked as honest as one could be. She then turned her attention to her friends and Time who all watched her in anticipation. Alice's gaze focused on Time who seemed conflicted on the news.

"That explains more than I thought," Time said as he sat back on the end table that held the books Death collected. "I didn't think Mirana was capable of lying, but that clever little minx is full of surprises." Time muttered as he pulled out a black patch in the shape of a spade from his vest pocket and held it out to Alice who took the offering with caution. "It was my will, nay, my hope that Stayne would be delivered to Death-" Time said as he rubbed the back of his neck. "If we failed to catch you, which we did, I figured that if he wasn't alive you wouldn't have as much of a reason to come back and stay, but clearly I did not anticipate your attachment to old friends," Time said casting a look to Tarrant who frowned, confused why Time grouped him into the Black Queen's circle. "Mirana told me that the deed was carried out, but still, I grew weaker even with you gone from this world. I just assumed that the damage you had done was irreversible."

As Alice held the familiar relic in hand, everything began to come clear and at first, she smiled. Ilosovic was alive. But if his state of being was enough to garner the sympathy of Death, then this wasn't a moment to be happy.

"Stayne is alive?" Alice asked in a whisper as she clutched the leather patch. Death nodded in reply.

"Painfully so," stated Death. "Yes."