Alice had been free for months now. And she was handling it as best as she could. She missed papa. And with every passing day she longed for something familiar. She knew she didn't really want to go home and be a prisoner again. The tower had been a cage. But it had been her home. The only home he'd ever known. The only place she'd ever been until her seventeenth birthday. She almost missed it. The walls had felt like they would collapse over her sometimes and the silence bad lead to her not sleeping. And she thought maybe the tower had hurt her stomach somehow because once she left it stopped hurting after she ate. But she was still bloody alone. And as much as papa had taught her, there was no way he could have prepared her for everything this world and other worlds had to offer. She loved being free, really. But it hurt to be free and alone. She had no one. Everyone she met thought she was weird or crazy. She didn't mind. Papa always told her "all the best people are mad." And she believed him. And besides, they'd be a bit mad too had they spent as long as she had without even being able to touch the world. At least now she could go wherever she wanted to whenever she felt like it. Which she did. She didn't want to stay still. She'd spent so long in one place that staying in even just one kingdom for long brought back memories of the sleepless nights and the times she'd go to tell papa something only to slide into the floor and just cry. And yet she wanted to go back. She wouldn't go back, she didn't want to be a prisoner again. And if she looked for a cure for papa they'd be together again, and he'd make it all better with a hug and whatever advice he'd have. Sometimes she could think of what he'd say, but not always. She didn't go back but sometimes when she was lying awake at night wishing that she'd found a cure she'd think about going back to her tower. It had been a cage and a prison, but it was a gilded one and she missed the only place she'd called home. She knew it wasn't the tower she missed but it hurt too much to think about what she was really missing. So, she just reminded herself, no Alice no one in their right mind wants to be a prisoner. You'll find a cure. And she'd cry because sometimes she didn't think she would.