"Mirror, wake up !"
Mirror opened her eyes, still sleepy.
Alice looked excited.
"What's the matter ?"
"I found a way to enter the red tower !"
Mirror was still sleepy, yet she was able to understand what Alice just said.
She got up as fast as she could.
"Really ?"
"Yes, really."
"Where do we go ?"
"The front door of the tower. I know of a way to open it."
A few minutes later, Alice and Mirror were standing in front of the wooden door that was somehow capable of withstanding even Mirror's blows.
"So, what do we do now ?"
Alice ignored Mirror's question.
"I killed six dragons."
"Hum ? What ?"
The door opened slowly.
"A password ?" said Mirror, surprised.
"Yeah." replied Alice.
As the door opened, the two children entered the tower.
The entrance of the tower wasn't anything special: the walls were made in the same red stone as the exterior, and the floor was made of a wood similar to the one used to make the door.
"It's dark."
In fact, Alice wasn't even sure how she was able to see anything at all, since there were no light.
Maybe she finally begun to use what Mirror named the Seer sixth sense ?
Yeah... that was probably that. The way she was seeing thing was too alien and strange to just be sight. It was something more... profound.
She was able to know the general shape and colors of her surroundings in a 360° angle, but it wasn't as simple as that.
How did Mirror fought while having to rely on such a weird sense ? And against more than twenty horrible monsters ?
Alice found that unbelievable.
Was Mirror lying to her, or keeping secrets from her ? No, that couldn't be.
Alice trusted her friend. She wouldn't do such things, right ?
"They can make unbreakable door, but not eternal torchs ? Seriously..."
Alice froze. Suddenly, she forgot about her previous doubts. There was something more important right now.
"Mirror, I think something isn't right..."
"Why ?"
"There were no torchs or things like that in the houses, you remember ? Yet, when it wasn't nighttime, they were always more or less lighted up, no ?"
Alice sensed Mirror frown in the darkness.
"You're right, that's weird. Any idea of why it's like that ?"
"None."
Even though Alice said that, she was pretty sure this was Isa's fault. That... wolf in sheep's clothing seemed to have played a big role in the City of Flower's downfall.
"Well, it's not like we can turn back now. Let's go to that fifth door."
"Are you sure... You know, I'm starting to regret going here... There is four other Doors, you know ?"
"You're the one who told me that it wasn't possible to use them ?"
"Well, yes. But I didn't use my Name to know for sure."
Mirror thought for a bit.
"No. I think it's better to go to that fifth Door."
"Why ?"
"Nikoletta didn't told us about it. That's why."
Alice and Mirror resumed walking in the entrance's hallway.
After a bit of time, the two girls found a staircase made of the same stone as the wall of the tower, and they begun going up that staircase.
Going up... Going up... Going up...
Steps after steps.
Seconds after seconds, mintutes after minutes...
At some point, it became apparent that something was wrong. Yes, the tower was really high, but still... Alice and Mirror should have found a door or something.
The fact that the staircase wasn't even curved, but going in a straight line, was also a pretty obvious giveaway that something supernatural was happening.
A few days prior, Alice would have been surprised, or scared. But she saw a lot since her arrival in the Sky: her own reflection crossing a mirror, another trying to kill her, a voice in her head, and strange and creepy creatures like Nikoletta or the Two Mouths.
Not to forget the whole:"you cross Door to go to parallel mini-world thing", as well as her very strange dream linked to her Blessing of Name.
Mirror stopped, before stating the obvious.
"Something isn't right."
Alice almost rolled her eyes. The sentence "Something isn't quite right" could be used to describe her whole life after she got into the Sky. And even in her life before, somewhat.
"I know, but what do you want us to do ?"
Mirror stayed silent for a few moments before answering:
"Isn't that obvious ? Use the Name, Seer, the Name. The same thing you did to find the password to this place."
"I thought you could do it yourself ?"
"Yeah, I can. Probably. But I'm still tired."
Alice found the excuse a little... tedious, as having visions wasn't really tiring. However, she was too respectful towards Mirror to call her out.
She saved her life, after all.
Alice focused.
She remembered how she managed to find the password of the red tower the first time.
She made a sort of mental space in her head, imagined the word "Seer" as having some sort of physical form, and used it to find a way to get to the top of the tower.
This time, for some reason, it didn't work.
Alice tried again, harder this time. Yet, she still wasn't able to use her Name.
It was strange. Visualizing the word Seer as a mean to accomplish what she wanted was easier than the first time she did it, but using that word was the problem.
It was like there was an invisible wall beetween her and the knowledge Alice wanted.
"I can't do it."
"You can't ?"
"I don't know... maybe this place restrict the use of this kind of power ?" guessed Alice.
"In this case, why are we even able to see in the dark in the first place ?"
Alice searched an answer, but she frankly had no idea.
Actually, she had absolutly no idea of what to do.
Lost, she asked Mirror:
"What do we do now ?"
Mirror thought for a bit before giving an answer:
"We only have one choice, don't we ? Going up thses damn stairs, and hope there will be something up there..."