The time Alice and Mirror, her clone, passed with Nikoletta way faster than expected.
The Hearth Eater proved to be an extremly valuable source of info about the Sky, the Forest of Glass, the Hearth Eater, the Fourth Ring, and the Lightbringers, to the point that most of what Nikoletta said was quickly forgotten.
There was just too much stuff, some of it weird or counterintuitive.
Some important things were not overlooked, though.
According to Nikoletta, the Golden Door acted like some sort of weid portal things leading to a completly different place, another Room.
Some Rooms were similar to the Forest of Glass, but other were extremly different. The size of a room, the power of gravity, the brightness level, the temperature, the number of Doors... all of that, and a lot of other things could change a lot from a Room to another (however, very few Rooms possessed conditions deadly enough to instantly kill someone, although there apparently were some.)
All of the Rooms, together, formed what Nikoletta called the Sky.
The Sky in itself was a rather strange. According to Nikoletta, there were at least several hundred of thousands of Room in the Sky, making it a really big place. It was extremly easy to get lost here, because apparently, some beings among the most powerful were able to destroy and create Doors and even sometimes Rooms.
After all, the Forest of Glass had been created by a Lightbringer... even if that Lightbringer paid the price of such arrogance.
But all of that, the Sky, theses Rooms... that was for later.
The most important thing for Alice was knowing what laid behind that Golden Door.
And Nikoletta knew which Room the Golden Door of the Glass Forest led to.
It led to... the City of Flowers, a rather familiar name.
Sadly, Nikoletta wasn't of much help here. She of course knew what the City of Flowers was, and some other things about it, but these things were very obviously outdated facts.
At best, she seemed fairly certain that the City of Flowers was very far (so, a lot of Room to go though) from the Temple of Light, a place where, according to her, she should go to.
But Alice could not help but stay doubtfoul at all of what the First Blade of the Fourth Ring was saying.
The last time Nikoletta had been in another Room was apparently something like a century or two ago, if not even more. And a world, or a city could change a lot during a century or two.
Alice knew it: with her luck, the city was going to be completly ruined and lifeless. The message from Nikoletta's friend was also a proof that there were some problems with the City of Flowers.
She also wasn't sure if Nikoletta was completly truthworthy. Sure, she seemed kind and helpful, but so was Mirror, and Alice still didn't trust Mirror fully.
Just like Mirror, Nikoletta was hiding things.
Who was the Stranger ? Why was Nikoletta not mentionned in her message ? Why had the Stranger even written a message like that in the first place ? Why had the both of them fled ? If this place was truly the mirror's stomach, then how was Nikoletta still alive ? How were the animals here still alive ? Why was Nikoletta so hateful towards Mirror ? What was the thing that Nikoletta called souls, exactly ?
All of these questions, Alice asked them to Nikoletta, only to be met with evasive answers.
Alice was tired of these people who pretented to help her just because they had hidden motives.
Nikoletta wasn't a good person trying to help a lost little girl, she was a person helping a Lightbringer because... well, Alice had no idea. Revenge, maybe ?
Or was it some way of paying respect to the Stranger ?
Alice couldn't care less.
Mirror, Nikoletta... they were probably even worse people than the white-haired clone who tried to kill her.
At least, it was easy to understand what she wanted.
"Alice ? What are you thinking about ?"
Alice looked around, slowly getting back into reality.
The Hearth Eater was nowhere to be seen. Perhaps she was hunting something for the two girls to eat, or she was just letting the two stay alone for a bit.
"I was thinking about how pretty the City of Flowers was, lied Alice. Nikoletta makes it sound as if it's even nicer than this forest."
"Alice... I'm sorry to say that to you, but I really doubt the City of Flowers we will be visiting will be the same as the one in Nikoletta's memories."
Alice had deduced that already, but she reacted as if she was surprised:
"Why would you think that ?"
"Don't worry about it."
Alice almost laughed. Mirror was so accustomed to using whatever means she had of predicting the future she failed to notice that one could arrive at the same conclusion with a more limited knowledge.
Alice changed subject. There was something she wanted to say to her clone for a while:
"Anyway, it looks like I was right."
"Right about what ?"
"I'm the original Alice, and you're the clone."
"I don't want to talk about that."
Mirror seemed hurt by Alice's remark. The young girl wondered: was Mirror acting, or was she really hurt ? There was no way for her to know for sure.
She remembered Nikoletta's warning: she souldn't trust Mirror too much. The Hearth Eater even asked if she should kill her on the spot.
Which, in Alice's opinion, that Nikoletta was crazy, but so was Mirror to be honest.
Her ? Nah, she definitivly wasn't. Wanting to kill yourself, hearing strange voices, not feeling anything while witnessing a murder, always lying about being fine....
Alice was normal, in her totally unbiased opinion.
"Alice, are you listening to me ?"
Alice turned towards Mirror.
"To be frank, I..."
Suddenly, Nikoletta appeared from nowhere, as she liked to do.
How could a creature so massive be so stealthy ?
And how much of the conversation had she overheard ?
"It's time for you to leave. If you stay here longer, permanent damage will be done."