Possible Side Effects, Ch. 13

[wanderamaranth]

Possible Side Effects, Ch. 13: Mice and Magpies

AiW WiP.

Disclaimer: Don't own, don't sue.

"Does she know?" the Magpies asked their companion, the very bird that Alice had seen in the home of Hatter's parents. He shook his head in a nugatory manner, and the other six birds rustled anxiously.

"Nay, I was enough for her in that moment. She has been using our Bridge, aye, but she hasna clue that is where she is being led." The Magpie, whose name was Deagmond, hopped closer to his wife, Cantara. He lifted one wing carefully and draped it across her back, and the seven birds together bowed their heads in a moment of silence.

It was Cantara who broke the stillness first. "She has the box now. Surely that will lead to at least two of us being needful?"

Soothingly, Deagmond agreed. "Oh, certainly. For she wouldna have had the depth of emotion necessary to call to us were the possibility not there. They have traveled the Bridge; we know they are True."

At this one of the other Magpies spoke, a proud creature named Bifrost. "Time has always been kind to our kind. We must believe he will continue to do so, for us and those we Watch."

"So we wait." Cantara said, not sounding very happy about the prospect.

"We wait." confirmed her husband.

"A night of rendezvous, Across the autumn sky." she sighed. "I hope it is enough."

***

A memory, even more vague than the others from when she believed Underland to be a dream, surfaced. Alice was seated between Mirana and Iracebeth. Iracebeth's head was of a normal size, which seemed as preposterous to her now as her unfortunately sized globe had when she'd seen that, whilst she played croquet. She (that is, Iracebeth) kept chuffing her with familiarity upon the arm, and smiling just as widely at her as her sister on her opposite side.

They asked her questions concerning logic and arithmetic; and while Mirana exceeded Iracebeth in Underlandian logic, Iracebeth had greater strength with sums. Both had agreed, however, that…

"They told me I'd never be a proper Queen if I could not do my sums." she fretted to herself, just under her breath.

"What's that?" the Mouse demanded. "It's rude to speak aloud to oneself at a register just below what the other persons in an otherwise easy listening distance can understand, you know." He remembered just whom he believed he was addressing at the last moment, and hastily tacked on a, "Your Majesty" and a sketchy bow.

A smile that didn't quite reach Alice's eyes was his answer, and she bent down and extended her hand to him. Without hesitation, he calmed upon her palm, and she placed him upon her shoulder. "Would you be so kind, Sir Mouse, as to direct me back to where the Knave is located? Unfortunately, he is indeed my travel companion for the remainder of this journey."

She couldn't properly see him, but Alice could feel the rodent puff up in self-importance. "You needn't even ask, your Ladyship! I shall direct the way." Alice considered the box once more, guilt at how she found it warring with the burning desire to present to the Hatter some form of tangible evidence that his entire life had not been immolated when the Jabber attacked. In the end she decided to bring it, and she tucked the key into one of her pockets. The box itself was too large to fit into a pocket, so she carried it, intending to place it in her travel pack when she reached the camp.

"Where ye be intending this journey to end at, Your Majesty?" Snellum inquired.

"Please, just call me Alice." she said, knowing an argument with him about her crown or lack thereof would likely just exasperate herself, and she already had a great tension in her head, as though a metal band wrapped around her forehead.

"Alice then, as you please." Snellum agreed. "The question is the same."

"And what question was that?" Alice asked, as she'd only been half-attending what the Mouse said, her mind on the box, Queens, and the Hatter.

A small huff on impatience stirred the hair by her ear. "Monarchs." she heard grumbled, and she stifled a giggle. "Where are you going?" he said, aloud.

"Marmoreal."

Tugging her hair, the Mouse directed her to go down a different path then the one she'd been going to take, and Alice obligingly took it. "I've been ill, and I am hopeful that the White Queen will be able to assist me."

"She does enjoy being useful." Snellum agreed, "And furthermore to those that are feeling poorly. But just why are you traipsing in the countryside, if you are not well?"

They had reached the camp for the night, and the Mouse asked his last question just within hearing distance of Stayne. He whipped around and saw Alice, his eye flashing. Briefly taking in the mouse, the ashes coating her apparel, and the bags under her eyes, he growled, "A most excellent question. Alice, care to illuminate us?"

Hugging the box closer to her person defensively, Alice said, "I was curious."

Already expecting an answer to this effect, but accepting it nonetheless, the Knave's shoulders sagged a bit, in exasperation or relief, she could not tell. The sun glinted off the box lid's inlays as Alice pulled it to herself, and Stayne started a bit at the sight of it. How, in the brief amount of Time she must have had while he was indisposed, had she managed to find that? It would have been too convenient for it to be destroyed with everything else on the Hill, wouldn't it? He was certain it was the one that belonged to the Hatter; his luck could go no other way.

His eye focused in on the box with a narrow intensity. "Where did you find that?"

The overwhelming urge to hide the box behind her back came over Alice, and she did not deny it. Stayne knew what the box was, and he was most interested in it, Alice deduced from his behavior. If he was so intent on the box, it must be something important.

Just as well she did not open it then; she could honestly say she had no idea what was in it. She knew, deep in her bones, that it was not something she wanted Stayne to ever place his hands upon, if the gleam in his eyes was any indication whatsoever. More than a small part of her pouted in disappointment; she'd really wanted to know its contents, but now it was clear to her that her knowing at this moment may have negative consequences.

Snellum quivered from his spot on her shoulder, not any happier about the situation than Alice herself. If it had simply sat still, it would not have attracted Stayne's attention once again; but as it often is in cases such as the unfortunate Mouse's, his very nerves gave him away.

"That mouse-!" Stayne made as to snatch Snellum right from Alice's shoulder, and she jerked just out of reach. The Mouse was the reason he'd awoken in the first place, and embarrassment that he'd been caught sleeping at all while he should have been guarding his Queen had him wishing the creature harm.

"Don't you dare!" she snapped, and the Knave looked surprised at her vehemence. "This Mouse is my friend." Her eyes narrowed, the warning clear. "He stays."

Lips quirking, Stayne lowered his arm. "As her Majesty commands." he said, irony clear in his tone. She'd inadvertently given him the opening that he'd waited for, and his stomach twisted in anticipation. It couldn't be this easy, could it? Maybe his luck was changing after all.

"I am not a Queen!" Alice said. "I don't understand why you insist I am."

"And I do not understand why you insist you are not." Stayne rejoined. "If you wish me to leave your friend" the word friend was sneered out the corner of his mouth, as if it pained him to speak it, "in peace, then you will have to order me, as my Sovereign. I will accept no one else's command save Queen Alice." A bit of triumph flashed over his features before he could conceal it. "If you are not she, then the Mouse is at my mercy."

Alice knew there had to be a reason why he was so intent on her calling herself a Queen. It was there in the set of his shoulders, the gleam in his eye. He was too eager by half for her to do so; but why?

"Please, your Ladyship. Show me mercy. Offer me your Protection." the Mouse nearly vibrated off his perch in his fear. "Tis said the Knave of Iracebeth is worse than C and D." Alice had to think a moment on what the Mouse meant by C and D, before recalling that was what she called Cat and Dog in its presence, in her childish attempts to be tactful, years before.

What difference would it make if she said she was or she wasn't? They were just words. She opened her mouth to say it, just so the man would stop being such a bully. The Knave decided she had hesitated too long, though, and this time successfully snatched the long-tailed rodent off her shoulder. Fist squeezing tightly, his lips pressed in a thin line as he obviously put his considerable strength into grinding the poor creature into paste.

"Stop! Stop it!" she cried, flying to his hand and pulling ineffectually at his fingers. His grip simply tightened, and even through her tears she could see the Knave was squeezing just lightly enough to not kill the Mouse outright; he was still in a great deal of pain. "How can you be so cruel?" she demanded.

The Knave looked down, and nearly stopped right then, as he was undone by Alice's tears. He had always found women's tears to be amusing at best, an ineffectual tool they wielded in an attempt to have power over him at worst. These tears, however, were not shed as a feminine ploy, nor did they entertain him. His grip loosened slightly, and the Mouse gasped desperately.

"Stop denying what you are." Stayne insisted.

"Why is this so important to you?" Alice asked, instead. Stayne watched her for a moment, and, not seeing what he wanted to in her countenance, squeezed hard, again, and Alice could practically hear Snellum's small bones breaking.

Desperation for her childhood friend filled her. "Stop, Stayne! Just…" even knowing it to be a Bad Idea as she did it, Alice shouted, "I command you to stop!" She pressed her eyes tightly closed, half expecting the sky to turn black and thunder to peal down from the sky at her proclamation, but when she was not soaked to the bone by rain and stuck dead by lightning, she cautiously opened her eyes.

Sunlight still filled the clearing, making the devastation from the Jabber's attack on the Hill even more magnified. She was insane, to even think of considering Stayne a friend, when he was one who had helped to create this barren landscape, this horror of life…Where did he go? She expected him to be towering over herself, and he was not. She looked down.

Kneeling at her feet was the Knave, his head bent so that all that was visible to her was his black hair; he had released the Mouse, and laid it with obvious care just by her left foot. It lay there, gasping and coughing, attempting to get air back into its abused body.

He looked up at her, relief profoundly etched on his features. Relief, and a kind of blind devotion that unnerved her. He looked as besotted with her as he had in her dream of the Queen's garden, and Alice thought for a moment she would vomit. Was this the path that led to that damned future? Would she get there not out of malice or spite, but from good intentions on an unclear path?

"My Lady." Stayne groveled, and reached up, took the hand of her unbroken arm, and kissed her ring finger. "Queen Alice. I bind myself to your service." Practically burning under the intensity of his regard, Alice was silent as he continued, "From now until the End of Underland."

The very air seemed to pause at his statement. It was only after a heavy moment of Time that Alice could breath again. "What was that?" she asked, frightened.

Stayne himself looked a bit out of sorts. "That…was Underland itself. She came to Witness my Oath." Stayne had always wished to be an important figure, to have Underland's regard. Now that it was on him, he was uncertain as to whether he enjoyed the sensation or not. Too late to be thinking of that now, he sighed.

Should have thought of that before, as he knew that Underland had always taken a keen interest in Alice, he thought. He wondered briefly if he would still be able to carry out his plot with this type of binding in place, then decided that he would be able to. After all, it wasn't as if he was attempting to depose her; he simply wished to join her upon the dais she deserved to be upon. That was not vow-breaking in the least. He breathed a small sigh of relief.

***

He woke slowly, a haze across his vision. That haze, he soon came to realize, was in fact the Letter that had materialized just after Alice left Somewhere Else. There was no envelope, just the piece of Paper, tri-folded. He removed it from his face, and unfolded it. A familiar swirling dot in the center soon collasced into an image, and with a start, the Hatter realized this was the same Paper he had given to the White Queen. How was it in his possession, once again?

The image was one with which he had an aching familiarity. The crumbling houses of Hightopp Hill sketched across it, and he winced in pain, the memory of that day very clear. The Paper was not done, however, for in the very center of the picture, a young woman with long hair knelt in the remains of one of the homes.

"Alice…nay." he breathed, fingers tracing the figure's sobbing outline. "For what reasoning would you have to go to that Forsaken place?"

A commotion in the hall just outside his room had him shoving the Paper beneath his pillow, instinct driving the motion. The door burst open and Mallymkun skittered into the room. She dove immediately under the bed, and the Hatter sat up straight, not knowing what ever could cause such an action. He'd not even seen her since…how long had it been? "Mally?" he queried, and then was silent as Chessur skidded into the doorway. He stopped stock still upon seeing the Hatter up and awake.

"Well this is awkward." Chessur purred, leaning against the doorframe. "I had so been hoping you were still…indisposed."

Mirana arrived a few moments later, breathing heavily. Upon seeing the room's occupant awake, however, she tried to straighten her posture as much as possible, fingers tracing the air. Dimples on either side of her smile showed the strain of the action. Her nostrils flared wildly as she attempted to catch her breath that way instead of wheezing through her mouth, as she really needed to.

"Hatta!" she gasped, "How good to see you present once more!"

The man in question's eyes flicked from the Cheshire Cat, to Mirana, and tried to roll themselves to see Mallymkun, but she was still under the bed, and the Hatter had not yet learned how to see through solid objects. Not wishing to remove his gaze from the Cat, (lest he get hit in the head with another wayward rock) he did not stick his face under said bed, just kept it turned forward, where it would be most useful in spotting errant behavior from tricksy felines.

Not for the first time he pondered the usefulness of taking one part or another of yourself appear elsewhere, as the Cat could. What multitudes of pleasantness and mischief could be accomplished with such a talent?

"The company ye keep is decidedly poor, yer Majesty." Tarrant sniffed, and although he spoke to Mirana, his eyes still remained on Chessur.

Scrabbling, then a huff of disgust announced Mallymkun's arrival on top of his bed. "She herself is not the best company for Chessur to be keeping, either." The Dormouse sat heavily upon the pillow by his right ear, and he could hear her pull her stick-pin from it's scabbard, and the slight whiz of the air as she bandied it about. "Please do be careful." he murmured, and the whizzing by his ear stopped. "Sorry, Hatta." she whispered, sheepishly, then said in her usual voice, "You two are bad influences upon one another, you are!"

Chessur and Mirana shared a long look. Entire conversations were carried out in that look, including a brief argument; (Hatter was impressed that they were able to do so without saying a single word at all; the only person he had ever been able to do so with had been Alice; and funnily enough, Chessur himself, when they were still on better speaking terms, and most recently, at his failed execution.) and then finally, Chessur sighed. As entertaining as it was, Tarrant was not in a patient mood.

"Someone had best be telling me something quick-like, hmm? What is the purpose of the conversing without speaking? I do not like the Idea that it may be about me."

A brief moment of silence followed his demand, before Chessur hopped upon the bed and curled up on the end, turquoise eyes serious despite the grin. "What do you recall of the Royal Children of Crims?"

Mallymkun huffed, and Hatter looked at her quizzically, but answered the Cat's question, in his own way. "There are a great many green pigs in the Tulgey Woods. The Tweedles do so enjoy chasing them."

Smiling wider, Mirana stepped forward. "So there are. I enjoy ruling, but Underland is not pleased with being run by one Royal alone. All others of the Royal Lines were executed during Iracebeth's reign. Ideally I would like my nieces and nephews to fill the vacant thrones. However, if only one or two are able to be found, placing them at Salazem Grum would be most prudent indeed. It is a large city, and could do with the benefit of a capable ruler there, sooner rather than later. Iracebeth was able, and before her illness, even well-loved, despite her Dominion Over Living Things. I can not believe her children would be any less capable. They are of age now, after all."

"If you think your sister was such a good Queen, why not just cure her and place her back on her throne?" Mally growled.

"She has become too much a symbol of pain and suffering for the peoples of those lands. And I fear her ambition would not leave, even when the sickness did. Once a path is uncovered, it is difficult to turn down another."

"You've told him this much, Mirana." Chessur smirked, nodding almost imperceptibly at Mallymkun's silent threat.

Mirana's fingers abruptly stopped tracing sigils in the air (as she had been doing in an attempt to make the atmosphere more pleasant) and pleated them into the folds of her skirt, a shy little girl. "N-no."

"Come now." The Cat stood, one arm on the bedpost, eyes burning with anticipation. "He may be willing to 'help', as you put it, hmm?"

"And if you don't tell him." Mallymkun threatened darkly, "I will. You know I heard you and this beast speak." She gestured violently towards Chessur, and he actually looked insulted for the briefest of moments before sliding back into his ever-pleased complacent expression. "I certainly meant no disrespect in listening in on your private conversations, Mirana, but when they concern me and mine, then I will take note. Aye?"

Mirana studied the ground where she stood for several moments. The Hatter began to wonder if she would speak at all, even though she was in the attitude of one whom was preparing to speak, it was best not to assume such a thing would occur. She was a Queen, after all, and they were notoriously changeable creatures.

"There is the possibility that none of the Red Royal Children will be found alive. If that is the case, I will require a child, Tarrant."

Whatever expectations the Hatter had held for her speech, if indeed he held any expectations whatsoever, did not include that. He must have looked as alarmed as he felt, for she hastened to add, "No, friend. That is…not precisely what I meant."

She took a few steps towards the bed, and stopped when she saw the Hatter cower down, as if he were trying to burrow through the mattress to escape her advancement. The blanket had been pulled up nearly to his chin, an unintended frightened gesture, like a maiden protecting her virtue from an unexpected male visitor. Soothingly, she said, "No, no. It is not…although…" Mirana paused, as she had already told her Hatter she would not lie to him further, not even a White Lie, "I would not be averse to the idea of being…present, when it was conceived--"

"Ye'd have to be, no?" he stuttered. Mirana was his Queen. He didn't think of her as a woman; she was a Monarch, and they were a breed apart. One simply did not even consider having relations with one of them! He'd never had a second of thinking of her that way, certainly not the way he thought of--

He stopped that Idea right where it was, as he was very, very afraid Mirana was going to order him to service her, and while it would likely be bearable to do so, he most definitely did not want to be thinking of Alice's just-right woman shape while doing so.

"No, I wouldn't." Was the White Queen blushing? It was hard for her to hide that she was, despite the amount of powder on her face. Pink and red showed up so well against the lack of color the white provided. He knew he most certainly was. Mirana was not done speaking, though. "Not if my Champion carried the babe for me."

The Idea of Mirana propositioning him was odd; this was downright illogical, even for Underland.

"You'd have to bear a child before Alice could carry it, your Majesty."

Mallymkun shifted uncomfortably by his head, and the Hatter absently reached for her and placed her at his side. Chessur blinked heavily and sighed again. "You know, I do have better things to do than allow your little drama to play out." He smiled, not looking the least bit in a hurry to be off anywhere whatsoever. "Tarrant, do not be dense. She wants you to sire a child on Alice."

A kaleidoscope of images and words blurred across his vision. Temporary elation that his orders would be so pleasant indeed was almost immediately quashed at the realization that it could be an order, and that neither he nor Alice would be allowed to come together in that most natural of ways, with both he and she wishing to touch feel taste hold--

"Hatta?" Mallymkun asked, softly. She hadn't shouted, nor yet stuck him with her pin. She just laid a small paw on his hand, and said his name very carefully, as if the word itself were glass and could shatter with too sharp of a pitch directed at it. "Yes, Mally?" he said, absently, and then came back, all three of the room's occupants staring at him.

"I feel unequal to this conversation whilst laying down, your Majesty." he said, chin lifted slightly, lost dignity beginning to be found.

Chessur snickered. "She is not going to assault your person, Tarrant."

Mirana shot the Cat the dirtiest look one can possibly give a being while still smiling at them. (She felt she had frowned quite enough at the Cat in the past week; why, she'd nearly used up her quota of Allowed Frowns for the month, and that simply wouldn't do. What if she needed one later?) "May I sit, Hatta?"

Without waiting for his permission to do so, Mirana floated to a chair at his bedside and sank into it, sighing. The Hatter was struck by the similarities and dissimilarities between this and the not so unrecent past, when the White Queen had visited the Mill House after his drinking of the Blood. It all seemed to revolve around the Blood of that horrid beast, the Jabberwock, in one way or another; how he wished it had never been known to Underland!

Of course this time the chair was not too small for her, and the surroundings matched her pristine whiteness; he was the odd one, with his patched clothing and uncontrolled hair. He never felt quite so shabby as when he was in Marmoreal. Why, when Alice had been here, herself a wonderful shining creature, with her blonde hair and gentle eyes blending in so seamlessly with the Court, and he'd arrived from Salazem Grum, he would have felt unequal to the splendor of the Estate indeed, where it not for her gracious smiles, the genuine gratitude the shown through, that she was so very pleased he had been able to escape…

"I need an heir." Mirana said, as quietly as Mallymkun had spoken, when pulling him from the brink of the Badness. "But I am barren." Shame colored her features, and sorrow colored her voice smoke grey.

As Chessur had said to Mirana earlier that day, the Hatter was mad, not stupid. He sat up a bit straighter in the bed, the protective blanket he'd still had pulled up near his chin to save his virtue finally lowering. "Ye mean for me to get Alice with child, and then take the bairn from us?" It was not something he would like to think of his Queen of being capable of doing, yet it needed to be asked.

"Would you provide that, for your Queen, if I asked?" the curiosity lilting her voice was disquieting. She then shook her head, blonde hair barely stirring with the motion. "No, Tarrant, I would not take the child from you."

"Once again I am in the position of begging your forgiveness for misunderstanding, your Majesty, for if that is not what ye mean, I have no Idea what it is you could mean at all."

"It is…" her voice faltered, but she rallied herself and said, "It is much as has been said. I would be pleased should you and Alice produce a child. I would be there, for every step of the process."

"Ye want to watch?" he goggled. He'd barely accepted the impossible idea that Queens are women as well as Monarchs; he did not know if he'd be able to believe possible that they also had the same carnal desires that every other woman would, and from the sound of it, some extra ones besides. Perhaps if she were to tell him tomorrow, when he was not so full up of current impossibilities?

The Hatter could have sworn he heard Chessur hiss in laughter, at him or at the look on Mirana's face, he could not say. Either way, he saw no humor in the situation.

"I believe she wishes to be a more active participant than that, dear fellow." the Cat wheezed, rolling onto his back and exposing his belly in obvous amusement.

Mirana rushed to fill the suddenly charged silence. "I would not be stealing the child, Tarrant." As she said his name, she laid her hand on top of his, the lightest of bread-and-butterfly touches. "It would not be just my child, or just yours, or Alice's…it would be…ours."

**
A/n: The line in italics at the first part of this chapter as spoken by the Magpie Cantara is from a poem called "Fairy of the Magpie Bridge" by Qin Guan, as translated by Kylie Hsu. I will post this poem in entirety at a later date; for right now, if you read it, you'll have spoilers for future chapters, as I am...borrowing...ideas from it for the story. If you don't mind being spoiled, look it up. It's a beautiful poem.

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