Wonderland: Origins of the Oraculum

Chapter Two

The throne room was buzzing with incomprehensible conversation. I had entered through a side door, while the King and Queen would make their way through the main entrance.

The dais where the thrones were sat hauntingly empty. There were two matching, grand thrones for the King and Queen, the King's throne at the center. To the right was a low, red ottoman. My seat. The one I was required to take every time council was called. I was always the first to arrive.
The Queen once told me that this platform is power. We three should feel it as we sit and look down on all those who stand that half-meter below. They are our responsibility, our adoring crowd... I always thought them to be our prisoners. And I never felt power sitting here. Just every eye, stabbing the unspoken slander into my skin.

I knew what the court said of me. They hid behind their hands, sneering their sniveling poison. Their comments were far worse than Breccan and Audrei's spitfire grievances about my weight.
Some whispered that I was the daughter of the White Queen. Some whispered I was the King's bastard child he had in an affair, and that the Queen had granted me mercy out of love for her husband.

I think the most shocking claim of all is that I'm a sign from the spirits of Underland that Alice will return.

Alice.

How shocking that one little fairytale can have such a haunting effect on people. People swear that they had seen Alice. That she came from the Other World. That she would save Underland from the tyranny of the Queen. She clearly didn't succeed. How could she? People told her story recounting that she was no older than six.

Nevertheless, Alice was just a myth. But I was grateful that people scattered in the halls when they saw me coming because they fear they have seen Alice again.

I was the only one that seemed to know it was pure blasphemy.

I blinked once, hard, forcing myself out of the rabbit hole and back to this moment. Every courtier present was whispering about me. I knew because they twisted their heads to peer in my direction every now and then, sneering down their noses when they turned back.

One day... one day this court will be destroyed...

One day...

One day...

I hadn't realized I'd snapped my fingers or drifted into a vision until I had paper in my lap and a scream lodged in my ear canals. A quill was slipped into my fingers, ghosts taking over to imprint their message.

That 'one day' felt closer than I dared to admit out loud. Especially in front of all those who benefitted from this rule. The prophecy lingered so close that I was sure I could taste smoke, blood... hear shrieks off the walls of-

"DAANYA!"

A flat palm drove a blow against the back of my head. In my weakened state of self, I was knocked to the floor. My cheek slammed into the carpet. It hurt more than it probably should have.

I stared up at this towering mass of a woman, a blur of blood hair, moonshine skin and mad-as-a-hatter makeup. Her gargantuan head was inflated with a smoking hot rage that should have sent her floating to the stars.

Voices around me cackled at my misfortunes, but the sound was so muffled that they almost sounded like squawks and growls. These were the predators that would kill me. Maybe today would be my last.

"My dear. Are you alright?"

The King's voice. Sets of small hands and one greater pair helped me up.
"Focus on me, my dear. Focus on my voice."

My eyelids fluttered ferociously. I tried to take some deep breaths, but it was like diving into a shallow pond.

Pond. Blue. Focus.