I do not own The Looking Glass Wars or any of its characters. Test run.

Terrible

Ace watched his friend deal the cards, an unpopular game involving all of his favorite things. Gambling, a stack of small paper cards based on the different card soldiers as well as face cards marked with the faces of the many greatest queens and kings of history. And, of course, his favorite cards, the Aces. He didn't much care which suit, though the Ace of Spades was the most valuable in the game, thanks to an ancient hero whom he was named after.

As he watched, his friend slipped a King up his sleeve. Normally, Ace would call him on his cheating, but Ace had managed to store an Ace of Spades on his own last shuffle, and an Ace of Hearts before that. Finally, the cards were dealt, and Ace's friend grinned, casually, and almost flawlessly, swapping his King into his hand in place of a less favorable card. However, as he was distracted with his switch, Ace swapped his own cards. As his friend laid down the fourth highest hand in the game, Ace calmly lay down the third highest, four of a kind, in this case, the four aces. Ace's friend leapt to his feet, shouting that Ace was a cheat, only for the two in his sleeve to fall out.

"I may be a cheat, but I'm a better one than you," Ace said. "Pay up."

His friend swore and shoved the money to Ace, who accepted his winnings and stood. As he did, a Milinery soldier set his hand on his shoulder.

"Your father would be disappointed," the soldier said.

"Then he shouldn't have gotten himself killed," Ace said.

"Let's go," the soldier said. "You've got training to do."

Ace sighed and nodded, following him to the palace grounds and to the room tucked away in a corner of the castle where he was allowed to train with his weapons. His choice of weapon was a unique one. Sharpened, metal playing cards that he threw as projectiles with slowly-increasing accuracy. His father had invented them and mastered their use during the civil war that ended twelve years ago, and even Hatter Madigen still hadn't reached Ace's father's level of skill with them.

Ace pulled on his special gloves with metal plating inside of the fingers and palms to protect his hands from the sharpened cards, then hurled a card, sending it spinninc across the room into a target, though about halfway between the bullseye and the left side of it. He turned, hurling a fan of them at a cluster of straw silhouette targets, only for only two of the five to hit. he rolled his eyes, continuing to practice with no meaningful progress for most of the day, training throughout the entirety of the Inventors' Parade, before finally being allowed to leave. He quickly collected his cards before hurrying to the palace, looking for the princess. It was her birthday, and he was already late to give her a gift due to his training. Finally, he found her and Dodge Anders, his other best friend, dancing together. He grinned, hurrying over and winking at Princess Alyss as she spotted him. Then, just as he reached them, she twirled away from Dodge and into Ace's arms, he and Alyss dancing away from Dodge, who glared after them.

"Happy birthday, Alyss," Ace smiled.

"Thank you," Alyss smiled. "See, Dodge? Someone reapects my feelings enough to not call me princess."

Ace chuckled and they danced for a few more minutes before he stepped back, pulling a long, thin box from inside his Milinery jacket, holding it out to her. She opened it and grinned instantly, hugging Ace. Inside the box was a necklace of tiny golden cards. He slipped it around her neck, linking it in the back, and she smiled radiantly. However, just as she did, a high, self-important voice began to shout orders, all petter and involving making him look as good as possible or be as comfortable as possible, the voice drawing close with each order. Ace smoothly pulled his cards from their pouch, beginning to shuffle his deck one-handed. As he did, Alyss instantly adopted an amazed expression just before Jack of Diamonds entered, instantly glaring at Ace and Dodge.

"What are you doing?" Alyss asked.

"I'm practicing being a royal personage," Jack of Diamonds said. "What does it look like I'm doing?" He paused, eyeing Alyss's two necklaces. "The question is, what are you three doing?"

No one answered.

"Playing mushy, mushy love with the princess, are we?" He laughed and approached Alyss, touched the jabberwock tooth hanging at her throat, a gift from Dodge, Ace assumed, then lifted the necklace Ace had given him.

"Leave those alone," Dodge warned.

"Sweet Princess, when we're older and you're my wife, I'll give you presents of diamonds and more diamonds, not the rotten teeth of stupid animals," Jack of Diamonds promised.

"Just go away," Alyss pleaded.

"You heard the higher ranking royal," Ace said. "Leave."

Jack of Diamonds turned to face the two common-born children. He put a finger to his lips and pretended to be deep in thought. "Let me see now…ah, I've got it. Eenie meenie miney moo, I'm more important than you."

Before Ace could stop him, Dodge's fist had connected with Jack of Diamonds' face, knocking him to the floor. Within seconds, Jack of Diamonds had scrambled to his feet and fled toward the gardens. Instantly, Ace grabbed Alyss's hand and fled the other way, Dodge running after them. They reached the life-size sculpture of Queen Issa and Dodge pressed a ruby set into the front of her crown. Instantly, a passage into the wall opened, and the three children sprinted down it.

"Where are we going?" Alyss asked.

"Away!" Ace said.

As they ran, Dodge was all business, while Alyss and Ace were cheering with laughter, both making jokes at Jack of Diamonds' expense. Finally, Dodge ahoumdered open the exit of the servants' tunnel and they stepped out into Wondertropolis. The effect of Alice's appearance was instant, and every single citizen around them knelt.

"Uh, yeah," Dodge said in a loud voice to no one in particular, "she looks a lot like Princess Alyss, doesn't she? But her name's Stella. She's nobody."

Confusion spread through the people before them. However, it was short-lived, because soon, Bibwit Harte, Alyss's royal tutor, appeared behind them. Alyss immediately shouted for them to run, and as they did, Bibwit's robe sprouted the flourescant feathers of tuttle-birds, ballooned around him, and lifted him into the air. Ace didn't even question this, instead simply running away with Alyss and Dodge. He knew it was Alyss's imagination at work, likely on accident. Her imagination was remarkably strong, and its abilitie to profuce or alter anything in accordance with what she imagined was amazing, enough to make Ace jealous.

He refocused on where they were going and realized they were inside the Everlasting Forest. He slowed to a stop, realizing where his feet were instinctively carrying him, only to see it up ahead. Alyss noticed the gap in the ground ahead and walked over to it, Dodge and Ace following, staring down at the body of water below, surrounded on all sides by a crystal barrier and cliff faces.

"What is it?" Alyss whispered, partly in awe and partly because she didn't want Bibwit to track her with his super-human hearing.

"It's called the Pool of Tears," Dodge answered, also whispering. "They say that if you fall in, it takes you out of Wonderland, but no one knows for sure. People have gone in, but nobody's ever come back."

Alyss said nothing.

"People sometimes come here and wait for the return of those who've fallen in," Ace whispered, glaring at the water with eyes full of hatred. "They cry and let their tears drop into the water. That's how it got its name." He kicked a stone into the water, watching it sink out of sight. "But they're fools for waiting here. No one comes back from there. No one can. Anything and anyone who falls in is gone. Dissolved, or stolen away by a monster, or erased from reality, or whatever. Nothing that goes in will ever return."

Alyss stared at him for a moment before hugging him. "That's how your dad died, isn't it?"

Ace trembled. "I was sick and he went for a run in the rain. Said he couldn't excuse a day without exercise, and that I'd be alreight for an hour. Six hours later, I went to find him, but all I found were my cards, his cards, hanging from a tree over there, and a spot where the ground had given way. The tree tried to catch him, but the harness slipped from being wet, and he fell in."

"That was the day you were brought to the palace doctors for treatment, wasn't it?" Alyss asked, still holding him. "You were so sick you almost died."

"Everyone said my dad was a hero, but he was just a cocky, arrogant fool who abandoned his sick son for some exercise and died as a result."

"We should head back," Dodge finally said.

Alyss nodded and hugged Ace for another moment before tugging his hand to pull him away from the Pool of Tears. They returned to the palace's main gate, Alyss using her imagination to disguise herself before they reached the city. At the gates, she showed the guards who they were and ordered them to tell no one she had been there. However, at the same time, she found a small, golden kitten brushing against her leg. When she pickdd it up, she found a ribbon around its neck wishing her a happy birthday, and she instantly hugged the cat, carrying it inside with them. However, as soon as they were inside, it jumped down and sprinted away.

"Nooo, Kitty!" Alyss said.

Ace watched it go before sighing and looking around. "I've got to get back to training."

Alyss nodded, hugging Ace before he split off. However, he didn't get more than a few minutes of walking away before he stopped, staring at a pool of blood spreading from around a corner. He instantly pulled his cards from their pouch, for all the good they'd do against a trained fighter, and crept forward, peeking carefulky around a corner. What he saw stunned him. Half a dozen guardsmen lay strewn about the floor, all of them brutally murdered with axes, clubs, and spears, judging by the wounds.

"Hey, you!" Ace spun, raising his cards, and spotted a pair of card soldiers running at him.

Both living machines stood roughly double his height, their vaguely humanoid bodies covered in blood, and the two halves of their card shell on their back, separated by a few inches at the waist. Their legs were shaped like the digitigrade hind legs of a jabberwock, their hands had two metal fingers, hinged in the middle to curl around their weapons, and their slim, rounded heads had six curved horns reaching upward from the backs from their heads. One of the two, a Two card from what Ace could see from his card shell, held a spear in his hands while the other brandished an axe, this one a Three.

"Kill him!" the three shouted as the pair charged.

Ace's right hand snapped out repeatedly, sending cards flashing at the two of them from the top of his deck. The Two card's head spun into the air as a card sliced through its slim, square neck with a metalic shriek. The Three, on the other hand, suffered several cards stabbing into its chest before it collapsed to the ground. A moment later, a hand landed on Ace's shoulder and he spun, only to stop seeing it was a guardsman.

"Let's go!" the guardsman hissed in a whisper. "It's Redd. We need to retreat."

Ace shook his head. "Alyss!"

"It's too late!" the guardsman snarled. "Redd's already attacked the South Dining Room! Alyss, the Queen, they're gone!"

Ace shook his head firmly. "There would be another way out! There would be an escape route!"

"To where?" the guardsman asked.

Ace hesitated. "The Everlasting Forest. The trees could help them hide, or could hide them."

The guardsman hesitated before nodding. "Alright. We'll go and look for them."

Ace nodded, quickly gathering the ten cards he'd thrown, only four of which had found their marks, and only one of them where he'd meant them to hit, and put them back into his deck, running after the guardsman. After a few minutes, they entered a servant tunnel and sprinted along it until they finally reached the exit and fled into the city, through sheets of rain. A few minutes later, they reached the Everlasting Forest.

"The princess!" Ace said to a tree instantly. "Did she come through here?"

"Not here," the tree responded. "Deeper in, though. She and Hatter Madigan. The Cat chased them."

"The Cat?" Ace asked.

"Redd's top assassin," the guardsman said. "He killed them."

Lightning flashed overhead.

"No," the tree said. "They jumped into the Pool of Tears, and he didn't follow."

Ace's body went cold, all feeling ceasing. His cards fell to the ground, and he no longer bothered to blink as rain ran into his eyes.

"He didn't follow because they're dead," Ace said. "The Pool of Tears is a death sentence. They're gone."

The guardsman set a hand on Ace's shoulder for a moment before kneeling and collecting Ace's cards. "We need to go. If anyone else survived, they'll head into the forest to hide. We need to find them."

Ace nodded mutely. He didn't care if others survived. How could he? Alice, his best friend, was dead.

Leave a review.