Forsaken Salvation

„In Otherland?" the Queen repeated, „But this is hardly possible?"

"We… don't know yet, my Queen," the Hatter replied slowly and hesitantly. As there would be not much of an answer from him, the White Queen stepped past him to Alice. She had noticed the distressed look on the face of the blonde girl.
"Does this mean I can't go back?" she asked.

Queen Mirana took Alice's hands and squeezed them, tenderly as usual: "No, of course not. You come from there. But you have to understand, it is very difficult for an Underlander to go there, the bigger he is, the more of the potion will be needed. This is the reason why we always sent McTwisp, as he is very small, but big enough to not …" she made a face like almost throwing up, lifting a gloved hand in front of her mouth, "be eaten." She looked Alice deep into the eyes "Alice, I'm very happy to welcome you back here. You are in direly needed."

Alice knew that it wouldn't be easy when she decided to come back, but actually here, she remembered, that she really hadn't the necessary qualities of a warrior. The Vorpal Sword she once used was reserved for slaying Jabberwockies, as the Queen had told her six years ago, it would loose its power if used against something else. How should she swing a weapon without knowledge or help by magic?

The Hatter had listened carefully but inwardly troubled. Why had Alice even asked? She was hardly here and wanted to leave again? When he finally met her at the garden party, she hadn't appeared to be very happy. Whatever held her up there? Could Underland ever be a concurrence? Of course, for the Hatter Underland was the best country to live in, as it was his home and although horrible things had happened, he thought of it as ideal. He couldn't imagine Otherland before, but now he could compare, yet found nothing speaking for it in favor.

The Queen walked back to the stairs and just sat down there, although that didn't beseem for a Queen, usually. "So you were in Otherland but don't know why, and you have changed significantly and…" she looked compassionately at Mallymkun "probably involuntarily and don't know why, either."

The two Underlanders nodded in agreement. The Queen looked up with Alice "And what happened to you?"

Alice shrug her shoulders "I don't know much more, I was in another country for years, some days after I came back, the Hatter found me and asked me over. He looked different then, his eyes were smaller and the hair brown, but when we talked his eyes became normal again. It's similar with Mallymkun, she shrunk since then. It was quite a shock to see them both in this condition, but it seemed like the only solution was to come back here together. I had hoped you had more information."

When the Queen listened to her, her dark eyes started gleaming from inside and one brow grew into a delicate frown, just for a second.

"Maybe it would help if we knew what happened before they arrived in Lo… Otherland."

"Yes," the Hatter added "This is a good idea."

Alice looked at him with soft eyes "What is the last thing you can remember?"

"I…" he started, having a definite image before his mental eye, but when he wanted to speak it, it seemed to drift away –the same way was it with all the images he tried to think of, until he finally found one that didn't slip away. He put his mental hands firmly around it, so that it wouldn't disappear, and remembered the castle from the outside, the garden and the nearby woods.

"I… remember that there was trouble in the west," he said, then twitched nervously, his throat feeling dry like a desert he croaked "And there was fire!" Bad images appeared in front of his eyes, the burnt ground, Stayne, the Jabberwocky burning his clan to death.

"It was a fire pillar!" Mallymkun added "It was far away but reaching the sky, it was already dark, so everyone could see it..."

The Queen nodded while listening, then shut her eyes for a moment "I remember the night you speak of, however it was four days before you departed to investigate the matter."

Alice stopped breathing for a moment; Hatter and Mallymkun were investigating a 'matter'?

The Queen had several loyal knights and vassals, why ever should she send a simple Hatter, who had the reputation to be very mad (although she didn't think he was that mad. Just bonkers. Like all the best people are).

"The pillar burned for two days when we had gathered everyone to look into it, I trusted you to take care of yourselves, like you always did.

However when my knights returned empty handed and all that was left was your hat, I feared for the worst. I had the direction searched that you were told to go, but there wasn't a single sign you ever went there."

The Hatters eyes blinked "But… I remember the woods," he said, Mallymkuns and Alice's head turned around in a surprised manner.

"I am sure," he said, "That wasn't the forest we had lived in, it was another, the western one. The trees are much redder there and broader and the crowns are still green and big and there are more ferns and…"

"Hatter!" shouted Alice and Mallymkun in unison.

"I am fine," he croaked, trying to loosen a bowtie that wasn't there.

"This is a very mysterious matter and I see no other solution than to investigate the situation near the west border anew," the Queen said, "Now that our champion is here, I'm sure things will turn to the better."

She made an uncomfortably, for rarely seen, serious face: "They ought to. The situation in the past year has worsened," she said quietly, although there was nobody left in the hall but them.

"Wraiths have invaded the border regions and strange things happen under the earth, it often shakes or suddenly melts with fires coming from below, often accompanied with more sightings of wraiths. It can only be connected with that event at the west border, because every time a team was sent there, the aggressions stopped for a short bit, through no long. We have to find out what happens there and who attacks our beautiful country, otherwise it will be an empty country, for all the Underlanders are here."

She was a benevolent Queen, of course she had granted the refugee sanctuary, but if she was quite honest the noise drove her out of her mind.

None of the three in front of her looked very comfortable with the new task, the underlandian ones because they felt insecure, Alice because she felt bad that they felt bad.

Queen Mirana sighed "Come with me," she said, "I think I can help." As Alice already knew, alchemy and magic was one of the hobbies of the White Queen and she seemed to be doing well with them. So they followed her out of the hall, where her guards were waiting. They escorted them to another part of the castle that was way more serene. They were led to a kind of big open kitchen that Alice remembered from her last visit, although it had changed a bit. What didn't change was who she found there, in a blue jacket hopped the Marchhare around. Exactly in that moment, he took notice of them "New Guests!" he exclaimed and threw a mug. Alice really didn't want to know the court expenses for mugs and cups if he had lived here for the past year, which was probably the case. However the Queen seemed to be fond of his cooking and had never reacted angrily, instead she had developed a similar evasion-reflex like the Hatter and Mallymkun had.

"Marchhare!" exclaimed the latter and run towards him, but the Marchhare didn't recognize her. He turned to the Hatter who just wanted to greet him, happy to see his old friends. However the Marchhare didn't recognize him, either. Instead he began to shake and jolt "Big girl!" he exclaimed "too much, strange people!!" he hopped around, leaving the dormouse behind, who felt even worse.

The Queen laid a hand on her shoulder for a moment, gently shoving her out of the way. "Alice, will you help me?" she ordered in her usual gentle voice and Alice came to her.

"What can I do?"

"We need two big copper pots," the Queen listed "Put them on the stove, yes, exactly that way, heat them up. You do this well!" The Queen walked around the big table and took some glasses and small barrels. "Ground two of these," she said and gave Alice two ear-shaped fungi, some dragonfly-shaped cobs and small, green peas that looked like eyes. Alice tried not to think too hard about the origin of these things and grounded as she was told.

While Mirana put some other things on the table, letting Alice pour water into the pots, she explained: "I think you were spellbound by the Gzum-Glamour. It is a spell that turns you into the exact opposite of what you want to be - Alice, not the bat-wings, they come later, take these dead man's fingers…"

Alice was unbelievably happy to see the corpse fingers again, just not really.

"I think it tells us something what you have become… maybe you should think about it," she smiled "It could help to solve this riddle. However," she poured a little bit of red liquid from a bottle into the pots, then shrugged and poured the rest in it, as well, "It is quite basic and I know how to turn it around. It is just a bit complicated, but we…" she gestured to Alice that she could put the bat-wings in, "we are well equipped."

When the bat-wings landed in the pots, there was a loud puff and some violet smoke steamed from the copper.

The only thing left in every pot was a tiny portion of a dark-red potion.

Alice had to put it into two mugs while it still steamed, but the steam soon turned green and the potion itself blue, then seemed to have cooled down.

"Drink this," the White Queen said to her two underlandian subjects, smiled and hoped for the best.

Water, fingers, bat wings, Geezlebroth, Flabbynarth… she listed to herself. That should be all, I don't think I forgot something this time.

Both of them stepped near, not irritated the slightest by the strange receipt, both grabbed the mugs in anticipation of finally turning normal again, simultaneous they lifted the mugs to their moths and drank.

Mugs clattered to the ground, gross tasting liquid spilled on the floor. A squeaky voice screamed of joy.

Down in the clothes of a maid moved something and soon Mallymkun stepped out of a sleeve, with a makeshift cloth made from the bonnet. She beamed overly happy when she saw her tail again, embraced it and danced in a circle "I'm myself again!" she exclaimed "I'm a beautiful dormouse again! Oh thank you, my Queen. I would swear you all my greatest loyalty if you hadn't had it all the time."

Mirana smiled, but then she turned around to the direction Alice was staring.

It was the Hatter; he stared at the bleak table in shock. The mug was absolutely empty, still cramped into one hand, yet the Hatter hadn't changed a bit anymore.

"How is this possible?" he asked with a breaking voice "Why didn't I turn back?"

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TBC

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A/N: Why you didn't turn back? Because it would be too easy, hun. There lays a bi~g journey in front of all of you.

I hope all of you readers enjoyed this chapter! ^_^

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