The Melancholy of Wonderland

Phase One, Go!

Hours and several much-needed tea breaks later, Anya finally had a rough plan formed. She called together her allies and broke down her grand scheme.

"Here's the thing; between us and the Queen of Hearts, there's one major difference and that's information. I'm more than certain she has spies everywhere, while we've only got the people in this room," Anya said. "If we're going to win, then we have to find out what's going on out there. The queen already knows and is probably taking countermeasures. If we don't do something soon then you can forget having a rebellion. The queen's a few steps ahead of us. There is one thing we can act upon, though."

"And that is?" Raven looked at her expectantly.

"Compared to the Queen of Hearts, I have the population's trust," Anya told him. "I proved that the queen was blatantly lying to everyone. It sounds like they're putting their faith in me. All we have to do is act on that trust. Because of that, our main focus should be to catch up to the Queen of Hearts in terms of firepower.

"But we're going to have to do this slowly. Once we get the snowball rolling, it'll only get bigger from there. We'll have to wait a bit after the first push. That's why I'm counting on you, Raven. You're the key to making this whole thing work."

"Me?" He balked. "What can I do?"

"You've said it yourself: being a noble basically means sitting around and greeting people. We're going to use your connections to encourage people to break the Code of the Heart. And I don't mean breaking it outright. I mean small things like setting down teacups on the table instead of on a saucer. Eating apples without cutting them. The rules that reach out to control the lives of the citizens, small rules that can be dismissed by common sense; that's what we're going to destroy. If the majority of the population ignores those rules, then the hold the Code and the queen have on the citizens is going to be pulverized.

"Once that happens, it'll be easy to rally citizens to our cause. The Queen of Hearts is probably going to be provoked into attacking. Wherever her soldiers are stationed, they're going to be ordered to confront the citizens and try to force them to obey the Code. But if we here in the City of Aces start actually fighting back, then people in other places are going to do the same. I'm not saying we should fight them head-on, that's suicide. I'm talking cheap tricks, espionage, and sneak attacks. Approach them from their blind spots and take them out one at a time. It doesn't matter whether we win or lose, as long as the queen has more casualties then we do. As long as we can heavily injure the queen's forces, then we're okay; especially since people can't kill each other because of the Central Book."

"Oh, the queen's guards aren't actually human," Aster said. "They are basically puppets. The only human guards she uses are for her hearings. That's why you were lucky back there. If she had been using her regular guards then you would have been killed."

"Really? Even better then. We can actually give the queen a scare. She's cautious, but I've made her impatient and nervous because of my speech. Right, after the first battle we're going to use our former connections to draw people to the City of Aces and form a dang army of our own. I'll be making the ulterior moves but any former battle personnel can formulate war tactics. We're going to do everything and anything we can; after all, we're not going to win this war by sitting back like goody-two-shoes. The first rule of fighting is to not play fair. Does everyone understand?"

The people seated around Anya nodded their heads.

"Okay, let's get started then. I asked Kyle for a map of the sewers earlier." Anya took it out. She had made marks on key points of the map, such as the exits and possible escape routes. Anya pointed at one and said, "Since the sewers lead out of the city and spread over the entirety of it, we're going to use it to get the word out. Kyle, Liliana, Aster, that'll be your job. Tell people by word but make it subtle. We'll also give you flyers to put around. If you see any posters of the Queen of Hearts, tear them down or vandalize them. Iris and I will make the flyers, and Raven, begin organizing key people to tell the plan to. Ready? Phase one is officially in motion!"