Blood Marriage

Eleven: In Which Missy Causes Chaos

Xavier was not in the bedroom when Alice woke up. It was a relief to find herself only in the company of Missy, who was soundly asleep. Her little chest moved up and down as she breathed, tail slightly twitching now and then.

It had been three days since her escape attempt and resulting head wound, and she hadn't left the bedroom once. Xavier would bring her meals and things to entertain herself with, but she felt very closely watched, even more so than usual.

Even so, Xavier was the only person actively watching her.

She was starting to get a little suspicious that he might be the only person in the castle, after all, but the soft footsteps and occasional noises from castle staff proved otherwise. It was only that Xavier didn't let her interact with many of the other residents. Even etiquette lessons with Lila had come to a screeching halt, and he didn't seem inclined to have her resume them.

Alice put down the sketchbook that she'd already half filled with doodles and drawings. She wasn't an incredible artist, but it passed the time. There were a few books on the side table, as well, but they seemed to be a bit of a random selection. Among the titles were Little Women, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, The Jungle, and Heart of Darkness, along with two volumes of collected short stories.

Of the lot, only The Wonderful Wizard of Oz managed to hold her interest. The Jungle was too gruesome, Little Women too wordy and boring, and she'd made it about ten pages into Heart of Darkness before falling asleep with the book in her lap. She found herself picking up Dorothy's tale again, opening it to the bookmarked page. Missy had been enjoying hearing Alice read the tale aloud, but they could always go over the parts she missed when the little possum woke from her nap.

Dorothy and the Scarecrow had just entered a forest with some particularly irritated apple trees when the door to the room opened. Alice jumped to attention, expecting to see Xavier walking inside, though he'd only left her a few minutes ago.

However, it wasn't his crystalline antlers that peeked through the threshold, but another fae.

"Willow!" Alice gasped, dropping the book onto the bed beside her. The jolt from the drop roused Missy, who gave a toothy yawn and stretch before she scrambled up onto Alice's shoulder.

"I told you I'd be back!" she said, smiling. "Sorry it took a minute. I had to be careful."

"It's okay. Found out anything?" Alice asked, beckoning Willow over. Her friend perched on the edge of the bed, shaking her head.

"Nothing. I've looked at what I could in the library, but it's difficult to hide in there, and my Shadow form can't pick up books to read. How about you?"

"I'm under strict watch, if ya couldn't tell," Alice grumbled. "I've been tryin' to poke at him about my magic, but he won't budge. Just says I need to rest."

To be fair, he wasn't entirely wrong about that. Willow's medicine had healed the vast majority of the damage, but three days wasn't enough for the bloody wound to completely close. She had a fresh bandage on, but it still needed regular changing.

"Okay, so... Let's think about this. Besides animal speak, what else do you do?" Willow asked, tilting her head slightly in a way that was reminiscent of Florian's mannerisms. It made sense that they'd grown up together— they had some of the same quirks.

"Um... kinda nothing," Alice admitted. "I can do basic things, but they're never as strong as my sisters or my ma, even if they do them the exact same way. Why do ya ask?"

As annoying as it was to admit that she didn't have an incredibly specialized or flashy skill set, it was just what they had to work with right now. And, the longer that Alice sat with that information, the more she was starting to realize that it... didn't really matter to her.