I do not own The Looking Glass Wars or any of its characters.
Travelling
Ace pushed himself up, dusting ash and lava crud from his clothes with Dodge and Hatter, the others all scraping themselves off the ground or unburying themselves. A ridge they'd been on had collapsed, but everyone seemed unharmed.
"Everyone all right?" General Doppelgänger asked.
"Alyss?" Dodge asked, sounding concerned.
"I'm okay," she said. "Someone's watching us."
They all turned to a nearby cave where a pair of yellow-green eyes watched them. Then, a jabberwock's head burst from between a pair of boulders behind them, its tongue lashing out and striking Bibwit's sleeve and scoring a swath through it to his sensitive skin. Bibwit yowled in pain, retreating from the jabberwock, and they all backed toward the cave. The jabberwock sent a spitball of fire at Alyss who dove to the ground. As the fireball exploded against the wall of the cave, however, they saw the owner of the yellow-green eyes. A newborn. Ace glanced between the mother, which was rearing up, and the infant for a moment, then hurled a fan of blank cards into the air. The cards spun, expanding to roughly the size of doors, then raced past each of them, twirling around them before they all found themselves in small groups inside of a white void, watching the world outside of their cards through what seemed to be a window. Ace was with Alyss, General Doppelgänger was alone, Hatter and Dodge were together, Bibwit was with the Rook, and the Knight and pawns were all crammed into a trio of cards unceremoniously. Once they were all sealed, the cards raced away from the Jabberwock and its child, making it a safe distance before twirling once again, depositing Ace and the others on their feet, the chess pieces, save for the rook, all promptly collapsing. As Ace's cards shrunk back down and returned to their deck, Ace fell to his hands and knees, panting and wiping blood from his eyes, nose, and ears, spitting more from his mouth.
"Ace!" Alyss gasped.
"I'm alright," Ace said, pushing himself up. "Those cards are a risky gamble."
Alyss didn't look reassured, but accepted his answer. Once the chess pieces had collected themselves, they all continued on their way.
Ace walked toward the five caterpillars in the Mushroom Valley. The valley had been ransacked and desecrated by Red's forces, its former beauty now ruined. They all took in the desolation as they made their way through the valley to a clearing where five untouched mushrooms remained, each standing above a catterpillar matching the mushroom in color. They were all smoking from the same ancient hookah, the one which had gifted Ace with his powers, and upon meeting the red caterpillar's eyes, Ace nodded mutely, the caterpillar returning the gesture.
"The caterpillar counsel," Bibwit informed them all before turning to the assembled caterpillars. "Wise ones, we are in need of your assistance. We-"
The orange caterpillar raised all of its right legs in a wave running down its body, as though shushing Bibwit. "We know why you have come."
"What sort of oracles would we be if we didn't know that?" the yellow caterpillar asked.
The hookah burbled as the purple caterpillar inhaled deeply, then exhaled a thick cloud of smoke from his nostrils as his eyes rolled into the back of his head.
"Oh wise, all-seeing caterpillars," Bibwit said, "we offer you our humility and respect, and hope that-"
"I'm having the weirdest sense of déjà vu right now," the green caterpillar said.
"Duh!" the yellow caterpillar said. "Do you think, just maybe, that's because you predicted this?"
"Oh, yeah."
The caterpillar counsel tittered.
"We are saddened to see that even your home has suffered from Redd's reign," Bibwit pressed on. "Knowing who we are and why we've come, then you already know..."
But here, the caterpillars added their voices to his. "...that we come for the health of the queendom, to install the rightful queen on her throne and end these years of brutal tyranny."
Being able to see the future didn't always make the caterpillars agreeable conversationalists, it seemed to Ace, though he said nothing. He owed the caterpillars much.
"Have you brought us anything to munch?" the orange caterpillar asked.
"Some tarty tarts perhaps?" the yellow caterpillar hoped.
"Well," Bibwit said, checking his robe but finding no tarty tarts.
Ace saw Alyss begin to focus, probably to conjure some tarty tarts for the caterpillars, only for her to stop when a series of blue smoke rings floated overhead, coming from somewhere deep within the mushrooms.
"Blue has summoned Alyss," the orange caterpillar said. "He will tell her everything she needs to know."
Alyss looked unsure, but with Bibwit's urging, followed the blue smoke rings back toward their source. As she did, Ace drew a storage card where he kept emergency supplies and focused, a platter of a few dozen tarty tarts appearing over the card, Ace catching it and carrying it forward.
"Why do you have those in one of your cards?" Hatter asked.
"When fighting a losing battle, in a moment of rest, it's amazing the effect something as simple as sweets can have on morale," Ace said.
"That's true," General Doppelgänger said.
As the caterpillars munched on their sweets, Ace and the others waited in silence. Finally, Alyss returned. The caterpillar counsel sat coiled on their mushrooms, smoking contentedly. Their expressions did not change at the sight of Alyss, but the Alyssians looked at her, expectant.
"It's back in Wondertropolis," she said.
There were groans all around, only Hatter and Ace remaining silent.
"That's like entering the jabberwocky's lair!" Bibwit fretted. "Or stirring up the seekers' nest, or-"
The green caterpillar puffed a cloud of smoke at the royal tutor. The smoke enveloped him and his expression slackened, relaxed.
"Oh, well," He grinned, dreamy. "I suppose we must do what we must do."
"Where in Wondertropolis?" Dodge asked.
"I was told only that Hatter can take us to someone who will know," Alyss shook her head.
All eyes turned to Hatter, but he looked almost more exasperated at that bit of information than anyone.
"Me? How can I know anyone? I've hardly been in Wondertroplis in thirteen years. The people I knew are all dead."
Bibwit, still feeling the effects of the caterpillar's smoke, put a hand on Hatter's shoulder. "Relax, my good fellow. The oracle wouldn't say it just to hear himself talk. There's got to be a reason. Relax and think."
So Hatter thought. After several moments of silence, finally, he spoke. "There is one place. I don't know if it still exists, but I used to go there whenever official sources didn't yield the information I needed."
"Well then, that's where we'll go," General Doppelgänger said.
"Let's go already," Dodge fumed.
"Let's go carefully," Ace specified.
The others, minus Dodge, nodded, and they all left the clearing.
Hatter folded his top hat into a stack of deadly blades and placed it in his inside coat pocket. He removed his coat and draped it over his arm. "Ready?" he asked. Alyss nodded, conjured hooded cloaks for herself and the others, except Ace, who pulled a new, ragged trench coat from one of his cards, identical to the one he'd left in Heart Palace, and the Alyssians crossed the alley and entered the tavern.
They paused in the doorway to let their eyes adjust to the gloom, giving the bartender and a toothless old smuggler at the counter an opportunity to size them up. The rest of the patrons were too absorbed in their drink to notice the newcomers, slumped half-conscious on their tattered bar stools or passed out altogether.
"We don't have to put ourselves on display, do we?" Dodge said. "Let's sit down."
They had hardly settled around the nearest table when the bartender jerked his head toward a corner of the tavern, and out of the vacuous dark stepped a girl wearing a homburg hat and a long overcoat not unlike Hatter's. She approached the Alyssians to take their order.
Molly, Ace though, nodding to her, Molly returning the nod.
"You?" Bibwit said, surprised.
"Me," the girl confirmed.
"But…how did…I don't…"
It was the first time any of them had seen Bibwit Harte at a loss for words.
"My child," he said, recovering himself, "I don't know how you survived the raid on our camp, and of course it's pleasing to discover you, as it would be pleasing to find any of us alive, but…what are you doing here? You're too young to be working in a place like this."
"I'm thirteen," Molly said. "Old enough, I think, and lucky to be working at all."
"Lucky to be alive, you mean," Ace said.
"How well do you know the city?" General Doppelgänger asked.
"Better than most," Molly said.
"She's a halfer," Hatter spoke up, staring at a vein shaoed like an "h" below her ear. "Civillian and Millinery spawn. Not to be trusted."
"She's more trustworthy than most," Ace said. "At minimum, moreso than Jack of Diamond, and he was at every meeting."
"I don't need your trust," the girl said icily to Hatter. "I serve the princess…if she'll let me." With a bow too subtle for those around them to notice, she directly addressed Alyss for the first time. "Homburg Molly, at your service, Princess."
Alyss dipped her head in response. "We are looking for a certain puzzle shop. Do you know of it?"
"I think I do," Molly nodded.
"How can we be sure you won't lead us into a trap?" The question came from Hatter.
"You can't."
"Hatter, I don't think we need fear the girl," said Bibwit Harte. "And judging by the looks we're getting from the other patrons, we could use a friend in this place."
Ace's eyes flicked around once again, taking in all of those who were throwing warily or hungry looks at them. The toothless smuggler heaved himself away from the bar and hurried out, glaring at them.
"I wonder where he could be going," Dodge said, sarcastic.
"If you're afraid," Molly directed at Hatter, "you can stay here."
"Afraid?"
"It happens to everyone."
"Keep it lively, you!" the bartender shouted.
"You better order something," Molly said.
"Bring us whatever will keep you out of trouble," Bibwit said.
She nodded and left to fetch the order, receiving an earful of abuse from the bartender for her so-called laziness.
"What sort of world is it when a youngster must become a barmaid in a place like this to survive?"
"Redd's world," Ace muttered.
"She's a halfer," Hatter repeated, as if the fact in itself was enough to ward them off the girl.
"We had halfers at the Alyssian headquarters, Hatter," General Doppelgängersaid quietly. "After the Millinery went down, several members lived with us for a time. Many halfers were born under our care. They're not as disloyal as you suppose."
"Their only duty is to their own self-interest," Hatter argued.
"She says she knows the puzzle shop," Alyss said, and the table fell silent. "She's the only one the caterpillar could have meant. Look around. There is no one else."
"Assuming this is the place the caterpillar meant for us to be," Dodge said.
But Alyss had made up her mind. This was the place. Homburg Molly was the one.
"It is," she said.
Molly returned with their drinks and began setting them on the table. "You see that poster over there, Princess? The one for Redd's Hotel and Casino?"
"Yes."
"It's a false wall. Behind it is a way out. We use it whenever we're raided. The Cut is already on its way."
"Thanks to our friend with no teeth," Dodge said as Ace calmly withdrew a deck of cards from inside his jacket beginning to ahuffle them in his hands.
As he listened carefully, he heard, a division of The Cut rounding the corner into the alley, no doubt led by the toothless smuggler. The unmistakable rasping of the card soldiers' marching, steel legs echoed off the buildings. By the time it was heard clearly by the rest of the patrons inside the tavern, it was almost too late. The Cut burst in, and the suddenly sober patrons overturned tables and trampled one another in their efforts to flee. Fighting broke out. Ace, Dodge, General Doppelgänger and Hatter formed a circle around Alyss and Bibwit. The first three with their swords drawn and Ace's cards slicing through the air, and Hatter with his wrist-blades spinning. Homburg Molly steered them through the brawling soldiers and patrons, ducking to avoid the reach of pummeling fists, her homburg flattened into a razor-edged disk to shield her from the soldiers' swords. In close formation, the thirteen-year-old guided the Alyssians to the false wall, down a dank tunnel, and safely outside. The street was quiet, no hint of the violence from which they had just escaped. It could have been an ordinary night in Wondertropolis. Molly kept walking, calmly continued down the street, knowing exactly where she was going. The Alyssians stood watching her until the girl stopped and turned to them.
"Well? Come on if you're coming."
Ace shook his head and started forward, Alyss following immediately after and falling in at his side, the others catching up a moment later.
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