I do not own The Looking Glass Wars or any of its characters.
True Heir
Emerald Drive was one of the oldest streets in the capital. In Genevieve's time and before, it had been a grand thoroughfare of upscale shops and restaurants, but the wealthy and privileged gradually moved elsewhere as the surrounding streets became havens for looter gangs, imagination-stimulant manufacturers, and Wonderlanders engaged in other illicit but profitable employment. The squalor had at last reached its fingers into Emerald Drive itself, and the once-celebrated promenade was now indistinguishable from the scum-heavy streets around it.
At scattered points along the drive's ruined glory, the homeless warmed themselves around pits glowing with fire crystals, their mumbled conversations brought to a pause by the sight of a strange array of Wonderlanders approaching a shop that hadn't been open for business in many lunar cycles.
"ZZLES " was all that remained of the sign that had once declared the shop's wares. Its massive front door, through which two spirit-danes could have easily passed side by side, was locked. The single front window was covered with dust and revealed nothing.
Dodge pounded on the door.
"I doubt anyone's in," General Doppelgänger said.
Bibwit's ears twitched. "I hear trouble."
Paler than usual, the tutor removed a sword from beneath his robe and gripped it with two hands. Ace withdrew a deck from his sleeve, and sommoned his sword from its card, passing it to Alyss. It wasn't long before they all heard it. The dark sky turned darker as Redd's moon was eclipsed by a screaming swarm of seekers. The homeless Wonderlanders scattered as the seekers dove to attack with a high shriek. Each one had the body of a tuttle-bird and the head of a gwarmy, each slightly smaller than a vulture in the world Alyss had lived in until recently.
Dodge, Alyss, Bibwit, and the general slashed at the creatures with their swords while Hatter sent his top-hat blades into the thick of them alongside Ace's cards. The blades sliced through the flock, wounding and killing several, Hatter and Ace's weapons returning to them over and over. Molly flicked her own hat flat and used it as both shield and offensive weapon, digging its sharpened edges into the alien creatures when they shot toward her out of the sky with their hungry insect mouths.
One of them swiped Dodge on the shoulder with its talons, knocking him to the ground with a yelp and sending his sword clattering out of reach. The seeker circled, was coming in for the kill with its talons drawn when someone kicked Dodge's sword back to him.
"Seek this!" Dodge hissed through clenched jaw, stabbing the beast.
He rolled away from the creature as it writhed in its death throws, saw the rook and white knight battling alongside him, together with a small platoon of surviving chessmen. They'd split off upon returning to Wonderland to avoid detection, but had finally returned.
"Hope you don't mind us always showing up unannounced like this," the rook said.
We followed the seekers," explained the white knight.
"You're late!" Ace called over the cries and shriekes of the seekers as he hurled a pair of fans of cards up into the flock, then spun, the remaining cards of his now two active decks spiralling around him and above him in a tornado of lethal projectiles, shredding seekers and scattering their remains around him.
Next to each other now, standing, Dodge and the rook whirled, aiming their swords skyward just in time for an attacking seeker to impale itself on them and perish with a hideous howl. A division of Redd's Cut appeared at the end of Emerald Drive. A few of the card soldiers were armed with AD52s, automatic dealers capable of shooting razor-sharp projectiles the size and shape of ordinary playing cards at the rate of fifty-two per second. The soldiers rounded the corner and spotted the Alyssians when a Four Card let loose with a spray of razor-cards.
"Incoming!" General Doppelgänger shouted.
"Idiots," Ace grumbled, as everyone else dove to the ground or flattened themselves against the wall.
As the razor cards raced toward him, Ace extended an arm, and the cards altered their course, arcing around him and joining the cards racing around through the seekers. Another round of AD52 fire quickly followed, but this time Alyss closed her eyes and tilted her head back, and the deadly cards passed overhead and to either side. The Alyssians were in an invisible, protective bubble courtesy of Alyss' imagination.
Zipping overhead, the razor-cards cut into many of the seekers, the beasts' lifeless bodies raining down around the Alyssians and landing with a splat on the pavement before the cards joined Ace's other cards. With Redd's Cut closing in, abandoning their AD52s in favor of swords, spears, and other close quarters weapons, Hatter hurled his top-hat blades at the puzzle shop window. The glass shattered in a hole large enough for Alyss to fit through.
"Go!" he shouted.
General Doppelgänger split into Generals Doppel and Gänger, swords held at the ready.
Dodge glared at the advancing card soldiers, his words directed at Alyss. "We'll keep them busy. You just find the maze."
Alyss hesitated, clearly recognizing the difference in numbers. Homburg Molly tugged at her sleeve, and Alyss submitted. With one last glance around, then a second specifically at Ace, whose face bore a look of fierce determination and fury, she dived through the window into the shop. Within seconds, the cards were on them, and Ace began to slaughter any foolish enough to attack him at the same time as slaughtering the seekers. Finally, the last of the seekers fell, and Ace's cards flooded outward into the Cut.
A dozen facing the pawns, all ranging from Twos to Fours, were shredded in seconds. Numerous Threes were sliced apart. A pair of Fours attacking General Doppel were reduced to scrap, allowing Doppel to reinforce Gänger against the pair of Threes he was facing. A wall of cards formed behind Ace to block a pair of Fours' attempt to impale him on their spears from behind, and both leapt away, only for mkre cards to meet them from their own rear flanks. A Two attacking Hatter alongside a pair of Fours was swept into the air by a card buzz sawing upward through its torso, then shredded by a passing deck. Then, Ace spun as the biggest threat, a trio of Sixes, the highest number Ace had seen in a very long time, charged at him.
Cards flooded to his hand, folding, roling, bending, and stacking until they'd formed the silhouette of a double-edged sword with a cross'shaped guard. He slashed one of the two cards' swords aside, his airborne cards sweeping down at the other, only for it to slash the lead card, disperain the entire fan. As he moved to slash the first, however, it slammed the bottom of its foot into his chest, sensing him exploding backward through the door of the puzzle shop. He bounced off of his upper shoulders and a pair of cards attached themselves to the soles of his feet, flipping him backward onto them just beside Alyss, who held a pure white scepter with a heart adorning one end. A Four card leapt at them, but even before Ace's cards could defend them, Alyss blew and the card exploded backward out of the wall of the puzzle shop. Alyss held Ace's sword out to him, and he accepted it, his card sword deconsyructing as Ace charged at the Sixes for a second round, his cards massing around him.
The first card charged, and Ace ducked to the side, a swarm of cards racing over him, shredding it. The second leapt over the cards, slashing downward at Ace, and he twisted, pivoting and knocking the card's sword aside before slashing back up the other way. His sword's golden blade caught the light differently than nornally, seeming to glow suddenly, abd when it met the Six card, instead of knocking it back, it sliced clean through. The other Six hesitated, but before it could decide to attack or retreat, a deck of cards met it from behind, ripping it apart. Then, a seeker shot down from above, snatching a glowing cube from Alyss's hand and speeding away. Ace raised a hand, but Alyss set one of hers on it.
"We don't need it anymore," Alyss said.
Ace nodded just as Alyss slammed her scepter on the ground, the scepter splitting into dozens more before streaking outward with a wave of Alyss's hand, striking each Card Soldier in their weak point, killing them all instantly. The others began to cheer, all but Dodge and Ace. Alyss eyed Dodge warily.
Ace watched as Glass Eyes and Card Soldiers rounded the corner, only to find the spectral Alyss they'd been chasing, one conjured by the real Alyss, was already gone. He nodded to himself and returned to the others in silence, all of them continuing on their way. After several hours, they finally stopped at the edge of the Chessboard Desert, the White Knight and Rook helping tend to the pawns' wounds and have them check ammo and functionality of the weapons, mostly AD52s they'd taken from Emerald Street. As they did, Dodge sat staring at his sword, and Ace checked and shuffled his decks, adding his new explosion card and jabberwock card to where he'd expended the last and hadn't been able to replace them yet.
"How are you?" Alyss asked.
"I'm fine," Ace smiled.
"Don't lie to me," Alyss said sternly. "You've been tired and your reactions have been delayed since we escaped the jabberwock in the Volcanic Plains. Even your cards have been moving slower. Are you okay?"
Ace sighed, nodding. "I'm tired, but I'm alright."
Alyss narrowed her eyes. Somewhere in his mind, he wondered if Alyss could tell that his powers were starting to wear out, that it was almost time for his price to be paid. She had been right about his cards slowing. Compared to the last few years, controlling his cards was almost exhausting, even for a short time. He could feel how close things had gotten. They'd be finished after the next battle, one way or the other, and so would his price.
"Thank you," Alyss finally said. "I never really thanked you for bringing me back, so thank you. And I'm sorry I didn't recognize you at first."
"It's alright," Ace said. "I don't blame you. I was always second in your heart, so not being in your memory after you repressed your childhood is understandable."
"Second in..." Alyss shook her head. "Ace, I...It's not-"
"Princess," Bibwit said, stopping beside them. "There is a lot of desert still to cross."
"And the problem of storming Mount Isolation, so ideally suited for defense," added general Doppelgänger. "We'll need an army greater than Redd's."
"Our objective is to remove Redd from power," Alyss said after a moment, loud enough for Dodge to hear. "Our objective is the Heart Crystal, not vengeance."
Dodge didn't look up from his sword, but Ace could tell he'd heard.
"Where Redd is, that's where we'll find the Heart Crystal," said Bibwit. "She'll want to remain close to it to maximize her strength."
"But can you conjure a force of the size we'll need, Princess?" General Doppelgänger asked.
"I don't know," Alyss admitted.
"You must try," Bibwit said.
Alyss nodded, focusing, and everyone turned to watch, even Dodge. For a moment, there was nothing. Then, a sea of troops materialized. Except, there was a problem, one which caused Molly to begin laughing, though she immediately apologized. Ace walked to the troops with Bibwit and knelt, lifting a miniscule soldier, no more than a foot tall. It was a toy soldier, but a lifelike one, despite its short stature.
"The princess is too far from the Heart Crystal," Bibwit said. "She cannot defeat Redd from here."
General Doppelgänger split into the twin figures of General Doppel and General Gänger and the two of them paced, in perfect step with each other.
"Well, we have to get to her somehow!" General Doppel said.
"But without an army of soldiers that are of a more normal size," said General Gänger, "our cause is lost."
Alyss watched the toy soldiers for a moment before Ace saw an idea form in her eyes. He stood, only to stop, sensing eyes on them. He turned, eyes sweeping the desert around them, but he saw nothing. Alyss and Hatter both seemed to sense it as well, as they both also looked around warily, Hatter tensed and ready to extend his weapons and Alyss gripping her scepter firmly.
"Hatter," Ace said in a cool, warning voice.
"Yes," Hatter nodded. "It's him again. That one from London."
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