The night had ended.
Alice looked at the street.
In front of her was a sight that was barely believable.
Twenty-two Two Mouths corpses.
Some were mangled, some were burned. All were in a pitiful state.
Their unholy blood was all over the place.
Alice could not help but be surprised. Even Killer wouldn't have been able of such a feat.
She looked at her friend, wich was lying down on the floor.
"Mirror... How did you do that ?"
Mirror smiled. A tired smile. Although she looked uninjured, there was something about her that made Alice thinks it wasn't that simple.
"We will talk about that later. For now, we need to find a way to leave this place as soon as possible. I don't know how long us two could survive here."
"But... how are we going to enter the tower ?"
"That... I'm sorry Alice, but I'm spent right now. You're going to have to find a way yourself."
Alice gave her friend a weird look.
"How ?"
"Your Name is Seer. Use it."
"Why don't you do it yourself, then ?"
"I just told you. I'm exhausted. Let me rest."
Alice focused.
She didn't really know what she was trying to do exactly (she used her Name only once before, and it wasn't even on purpose ), so she just closed her eye, calmed down, and tried to find whithin herself what she was looking for.
Time passed.
Even more time passed.
But nothing happened.
Alice opened her remaining eye, frustrated.
"Mirror, could you tell me how I'm supossed to activate my Name's power ?"
She recieved no reply, so she repeated her question, this time looking at Mirror.
Alice then noticed that her friend was sleeping. She hadn't lie about being exhausted.
Alice hesitated. Should she woke up Mirror, hoping for an advice ? Or should she let her sleep ?
Time was against her, so maybe the first choice was the best, but Alice wasn't capable of bronging herslef to do that. Mirror just risked her life to save her, so denying her rest felt just... cruel.
"I can help you if you want."
That voice, who seemed like it was talking in her own head, Alice recognized it instantly.
It was Killer's voice.
"I don't trust you."
"Come on ! I saved your life, and you still think of me as someone suspicious ?"
"I will stop considering you suspicious when you explain to me who or what you are."
"I can't do that."
"Why ?"
Silence.
"It's better for the both of us if you don't understand who I am... I wasn't sure at the start, but now that I understand, I feel... worse than before, in a way. If you learn it too, you might try to kill yourself again. There are some things in life it's better to not know."
Silence.
"Okay. Can you still help me, please ? I need to use my Name, else me and Mirror are going to die."
"I will help you, don't worry."
Alice smiled.
"Thanks."
"Are you ready ?"
"Of course I am."
"The first thing you should do, is forget the world around you. Forget Mirror, forget the City of Flower, forget all of your past memories. All that remain now, is my voice, and you. Imagine there is an empty space, and your alone inside."
Alice did exactly what Killer said.
"Now, you should add something to this space. Your Name, Seer. Think about what this Name means to you. Think about the powers such a Name might have."
Alice thought about it. What does being a Seer means ? It means seeing things that other can't see. What are the powers linked to this Name ? There is only one power linked to this Name. An incredible one.
Knowledge.
Her Knowledge became like a spear in her right hand.
"Now, think about what you want to use your Name for, in this case, find a way out of the City of Flowers. Focus on that, materialize this wish in your head."
Alice did so. In her head, the wish to find a way to escape the City took a weird material form, in the shape of a Golden Door.
"Now, use your Name to..."
Alice wasn't able to hear Killer voice anymore, or rather, unable to make sense of what she was hearing.
She didn't need her (or his, actually) help anyway. She was well past the point where everything seemed hard to do. Now, the rest came to her naturally.
Using the spear of knowledge she made, Alice hit the door with all of her strenght.
The door broke, leading to knowledge.
A new vision came.
A vision of the past, understood Alice immediatly, without really knwowing why.
It was a vision in the City of Flowers, like last time, but now, the City was plunged in darkness.
It wasn't all that dark however, there were fire everywhere that lighted the place.
Alice saw a bunch of warriors, led by a giant woman which was probably Stranger, fighting against a terrifyingly large amount of Two Mouths.
It was truly a disaster. Apart from Stranger, slmost none of the humans seemed capable of killing their foes, despite being heavily armed.
But then, the vision... shaked ?, and Alice saw a new scene.
It was still night, and there were some faint sounds of fighting.
And here, alone, there was a man.
He looked like he was around the age of twenty-five, and wore black clothes.The most striking thing about him though, were his eyes. Two hypnotics, strangely disturbing red eyes.
The man walked as if to not be seen, and arrived near the red tower main entrance, illuminated by some torchs.
Two guards were stading there, probably because most of the men capable of holding a weapon were fighting with Stranger.
The man with red eyes killed the two guards with frightening ease, and without making any sound.
Then, he approached the door leading inside the tower, and whispered, in a barely audible voice:
"I killed six dragons."
The door quietly opened, letting the red-eyed man enter, and then closed.
As soon as he entered, the red-eyed man met someone.
A little girl more terrifying than everything Alice ever saw.
It was Isa.
The red-eyed man bowed.
He begun talking in a language that Alice was unable to understand, but was quickly stopped by Isa.
"We should talk in english, just in case someone saw this scene somehow."
"Okay, lady Isa."
"Besides this... took you long enough to arrive."
"Sorry, lady Isa. My master really wanted to know how well our shemes are going, so he sent me."
"Your master ? King Philip The Third ?"
"With all due respect, lady Isa, it's King Philip the Fourth."
"Whatever. You know I could have been the one sending him a messenger ? This way is riskier."
"We know, but, with all due respect, no messenger were sent."
Isa froze for a split second, before regaining her composure.
"Well, I guess it's my fault. I forgot about you guys, to be honest."
"We don't hold that against you... So ? How is our little project going ?"
Isa smiled.
Alice felt as if a dragon just roared.
"It's going great ! The Two Mouths you guys use are perfect for the role they are meant to fulfill, and you killed her son at the perfect timing. In a few days, Brandon is going to get infected, and that will finally shatter Stranger's spirit. In less than a year, our plan will be finished."
"I can't help but think that just killing her would be easier."
"That's why you're just a messenger, while me and your king decides things. Of course killing a Lightbringer isn't that hard for someone like me, but it's also not that useful, because another one is going to replace her. It's far less impactful than just making a Lightbringer stop fighting us, or even better, turn on our side."
"There are things I still don't understand."
"What ?"2
"You're a great mage, aren't you ? Why not just control her mind to do that sort of thing ?"
"You're dumb or what ? You think the Godess of Light is going to stay in her damn temple if I do that ? Well, she might, but still, I don't really want to fight a god right now. We have to get crafty, sometimes."
Akward Silence.
"By the way, since when does the door leading here work with a password ?"
"Since I arrived here. I'm the one who made it work that way."
The vision ended.