entranceway | Fourth Deal ✒ Voice ✒ it all gets buried in the end

Well, that was particularly spectacular, even by Wonderland's standards.

[drier than the friggin' Sahara. and whether it's truly over or not, Gold has other issues on his mind.]

I thought we might be done with flesh-eating beasts after the Jabberwocky was felled, but clearly we required an encore. [and speaking of encores..]

Which brings me to my real point. Where I'm from, seeing the future or even knowing the future does not enable you to prevent it. Try as one might, the more you attempt to sort out the puzzle, the more the pieces tend to fall into place, precisely as they meant to. Bearing that in mind, I have to wonder if we've truly prevented the terrible future that was spoken of last year or if we've merely locked it into place.

Of course, Wonderland has never followed the rules any particular realm sets for magic. It picks and chooses as it wishes. Strange, isn't it? All these different worlds, all these different types of magic, and so many of these events hearkening back from our own worlds. It does make one wonder about the true nature of Wonderland.

[a brief pause] Something to think about.

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[bless u, James. now we're getting somewhere.]

It would add up to what we know of Wonderland. It was just one more game to stir us into action and move the pieces along. One that worked, because regardless of whether or not a person believes a future can be changed, the fact remains that once presented with a terrible fate, everyone will rise up to change it.

The real question is... who precisely is the chessmaster here?

[Mr. Gold does have a point there. If you dangle something horrible in front of everyone, of course they'll take the bait.]

Hm. My first guess would be one of the Queens, probably the Queen of Hearts. They've even literally played chess with us before to settle squabbles, and flattened out the chessboard hills into a playing field.

[He doesn't sound terribly sold on that idea, however.]

I dunno though. I feel like that's almost too obvious, perhaps. But I can't think of anyone else we've seen who would be pulling the strings.

It could be the Red Queen, I suppose. Barring that particular instance, she's altogether... too quiet. Unless you know more about her than I do.

[She gives him a Blue Fairy vibe. That is a horrible vibe to have.]

Hm...well, I do know she wasn't always here - or at least she wasn't always around and known to us. She used to be sealed away with the Vorpal Shield behind some door with a riddle on it, and incorrect guesses would let out monsters. The door's vanished since it was solved, and I have no idea how she got there in the first place or why.

[It could be all sorts of things. She could have been an innocent captive, or she could have been sealed away for being too dangerous. James has never really been sure what to make of her himself - it's hard to trust someone who declares herself your queen suddenly.]

[well, that's a promising detail and fits with what he's been theorizing.] So she's apparently not very forthcoming with that particular bit of information?

[He considers that for a second.] Which means there must be a greater power in Wonderland than her or her sister.

None of them are ever forthcoming with information, really.

[Gold does have a point though. As much as James wants to blame the Queen of Hearts, he's starting to think it's less and less likely that it's actually her.]

That leaves two options then, doesn't it? Either it's one of the others like them, or it's someone we haven't had the unfortunate pleasure of meeting yet.

[Or at least, that's what he would assume.]

Well, I would hope we could rule out the lizard and the dormouse, but I'm not willing to rule out anyone just yet, though I'd be more inclined to suspect the Duchess, if anyone.

Mm, I think I'd rule out the Dormouse too - it can barely keep itself conscious most of the time.

[Unless it's controlling things in its sleep somehow, that's probably not the person behind it all.]

It wouldn't surprise me if it were the Duchess. She is the one who ran off with the Sword, and if the point of that was to make things more difficult for us then it's certainly in line with everything else that happens around here.

[MAYBE THAT'S WHAT THE DORMOUSE WANTS YOU TO THINK, JAMES.]

She does enjoy making things more difficult for everyone. And she has obfuscating stupidity on her side- enough to make anyone doubt that she has any real schemes beyond what's laid out before us.

[Plus she seems to come and go as she pleases.] Does anyone know where she keeps herself when she's not haranguing us?

I don't think so - I'd imagine we'd have tried breaking down her door for that Sword already if we did.

[He sounds sort of dissatisfied with that answer though.]

She's got to be somewhere when she's not around though, right?

Indeed. Which means there's either another realm she keeps herself in like the Queen of Hearts and the Mirror side, or there are parts of Wonderland we haven't uncovered yet.

It makes enough sense. If there's one secret side to Wonderland, then there's no reason there couldn't or wouldn't be others. I suppose that'll make trying to map this place a bit more difficult than I'd imagined.

[A different person might be put out by that, but it sounds like a challenge to James, and that makes it more interesting, honestly.]

Difficult, but incredibly informative, either way. Though this does bring to mind that map that Ms. Zatara found while she was here. The one that reacted poorly to her magic during the Duchess's riddle.

[There's a pause on James' end.]

She found a map? What do you mean it reacted poorly? Did she destroy it?

[James does love a challenge, but he's been working on a map on and off, when he has the time, for the entire time he's been here. The idea that someone just found a map and then accidentally destroyed is a special level of infuriating. But, maybe he shouldn't jump to conclusions.]

...Or is it still here somewhere?

It was part of the locator spell she used to find the sword- I doubt it showed the entire land, and I think it erased itself shortly afterwards, but it led her to a poem.

[and here, he types it out:]

This tool you see will surely nod
To hidden treasure where it lies.
Yet one alone lets it divine,
For share and share alike yields not;
It bows just to the first in line.

[James copies that down in a hurry on some nearby parchment.]

Thanks. I'll keep that in mind for my own map work.

[He wouldn't want to accidentally erase his work casting a locator spell on it, after all.]

...Maybe all those riddles led to wherever she keeps hiding. [James sounds cautious about that though - he's so sick of being led on by Wonderland.]

Well, she's certainly fond of them. And has anyone ever truly solved one of them?

[To be honest, there might not be an answer to any one, but all of them together...]

I don't think so. I was stuck on the other side of the mirrors the last time she gave us any though, so I might've missed it if anyone had any fantastic epiphanies while I was gone.

[That's usually what happens to him, unfortunately.]

I wonder if anyone's ever kept track of all of her riddles, despite them not being answered. It might be worth looking into.

It might be! It's the closet thing we've got to a lead right now.

Indeed it is. Thank you, Mr. Potter.