>>6326916“You’ve got a look in your eyes. Don’t even have the decency to quit, do you?”
“Quitting isn’t something I’m known to do. Will you answer my questions?”
She shrugs her shoulders, “Maybe.”
“What did you do to that woman?”
“I sent her far away. Not anywhere dangerous, mind you, but no extra luxury than what she’ll already gain from being a ‘Stranger.’ Ah, perhaps you will have to deal with her in the future? I doubt that will be a normal confrontation.”
You nod your head, can’t really expect anything else from a question like that. Now to go for the kill, “You’re from a book, aren’t you? ‘Alice in Wonderland’ is its name. Though I can’t say you act similarly to the character in that. Well, other than you’re a brat-”
“Pfft-!” You expected many things to happen when you brought out this card, such as perhaps shock or even awe. What you did not expect was for the little girl to almost keel over laughing, “Hahaha! You actually found that thing! How’d you even get your hands on it?”
“The Inquisition-”
“No, that’s rhetorical. Just didn’t expect you’d actually go out and do that.”
“Was I not supposed to?”
“It’s kind of embarrassing, you know? To have a ‘stranger’ reading a book written about you when you were still a child. Though I guess I should be used to that.”
“It was written about you? What do you mean? Are you a-”
“Stranger? I suppose I never formally introduced myself, did I?” She performs a mock bow. “Greeting, my name is Alice Liddell; I’m from Oxford, England.” I was born in the year of our Lord 1852. I like to play pretend, read, and explore realities outside of our own.”
“The hell?”
“Not exactly,” She says as she dramatically prances around the room, inspecting the most minute of details. A shocking display of aloofness, you should write notes. “I wasn’t lying when I said this is the edge of the world, you know? If you walk far enough from Lindan in a straight line, you’ll eventually get here. It doesn’t even matter which direction you go!”
“No, that can’t possibly be true. Past Lindan, there’s the Merchant Provinces, the Demon Wastes, the Empire of Hemreich, the Kingdom of-”
“And what’s past those?”
“Well, there is…”
“Further.”
“That would be…”
“Your head's starting to hurt, isn’t it?”
“I- what? No, we just haven’t had the need to go that far. Everything is in Lindan. Everything we need to live a good life.”
“There’s plenty who would disagree.”
“Well, the poor are always complaining you simply can’t get them an inch or-”
“I’m not speaking about them, you classist. I’m talking about the people who come from reality, from the real world. Earth.”
“So that is it! You’re a Stranger! You have been all along! This must be your Cheat Skill then, uh, Godly Power or something.”
