"I really don't get what these people want." said Alice to Killer. "These last few days, they fed me, gave me clothes, and a roof... but like, why ? I don't understand. What do they want from me ?"
Killer stayed silent. Maybe she, or he, wasn't able to hear Alice for now. Or maybe Killer was just a jerk who didn't reply just to make her angry.
To be honest, Alice still knew next to nothing about who Killer was, and the strange dream caused by Grimm's weird... potion ? wasn't that helpful, and Alice struggled to remember what happened in that dream clearly.
Suddenly, Eloy called her name, and Alice slowly got out of bed.
Just like every morning since she arrived in the village, Grimm was there.
"Niltse."
"Niltse" replied Alice.
From what she learned, this word meant "Hello" in the language the Fire Clan was using.
For some reason, Grimm wanted to make her learn this language. On paper, this may seem like a pretty good idea, but there was a small issue. In a few months, Alice was going to become like Brandon, which honestly seemed like a fate worse than death. And learning how to speak with the people of this Room was going to take longer than just a few months.
But it wasn't like Alice had a choice. She had no clue about the location of the nearest Golden Door, and the Room she was in was bigger than every other Rooms she encountered so far.
Except Earth, probably. But Earth wasn't a Room. It wasn't a part of the Sky, it was a completly different thing.
Right ?
"Alice ?"
The young Lightbringer followed Grimm outside Eloy's house. The old man was with them, of course.
While walking, Grimm couldn't stop talking about the Fire Clan, and the village in general. However, since Alice barely knew the language he was using, and did not utilize her Seer's Sixth Sense, he could have talked to a rock instead.
Finally, when Alice and her... father ? arrived in front of the shaman's house, they stopped. Then, Grimm entered.
"What is this guy doing ?" whispered Alice in english.
Again, Killer was silent.
When Grimm came back, he was carrying two items.
The first was Alice's knife. The one she found back in the City of Flowers, the one she used to threatens Killer, the one she used to attack Shapeshifter when he was disguised as Will, the one she used to defend herself from the Two-Headed Tiger before Sarah's arrival.
Getting this knife back...felt wonderful. In a sense, this weapon was her best friend.
After Mirror of course, but Mirror was dead.
The second item...was a piece of wood with an interesting shape.
It was a mask.
"Grimm... is that a gift ? From me ?"
Grimm couldn't understand her... yet, he still said "yes" in his language.
Alice looked at the mask, which in a sense was kind of a helmet.
This... item... was special. Alice felt it. It was the same feeling she had about Sarah's bow.
It was a magic item.
This was something made using at least a bit of soul selling. Alice wondered what would be the price of such an item, in one of the more developped country of the Sky. It would be very expensive, probably. Someone sold a part of his soul just to create this, after all.
And this someone was probably Grimm. The skin around his wrist was gone, now. He was closer to death than before.
Why did he sacrifice even a tiny bit of himself for a gift to her ? Was it the same reason why Mirror gave her whole life to kill Brandon ?
"People in the Sky are weird" thought Alice.
She took the mask in her hands and immediatly noticed that there was only two holes, for her right eye and her mouth.
After all, there was no need for a third hole.
Alice laughed, surprising Eloy and Grimm.
The mask was made of wood, but Grimm used some kind of paint to make it white with red lines.
Three red lines, to be exact. On the side of her face that was in an awful state.
Alice trembled a little, but then, she put the mask on.
And she immediatly understood what was magical about it.
"Alice, do you understand what I am saying ?"
"Grimm ? What the hell ?"
The young soul seller laughed.
"The mask I just gave you, it has the power to traduct all kind of language. It took almost a week to make it... But it was worth it !"
"This is amazing..."
"Indeed."
Alice could barely believe it.
Using soul selling to create an object with such a power.... could Mirror had done it ?
To do that sort of thing, Grimm was probably a very talented individual.
"So... Grimm, can I ask you a question ? Why the hell do you made me learn some words from your language if you were planning to create that ?"
"I don't know, it was just funny."
"Funny ?"
This wasn't a word Alice used, or heard, often.
"Eloy ?"
"You can call me father."
"Eloy, could you explain to me why you adopted me, at least ?"
"It was just to help you."
"What a bad liar." whispered Alice, so that Eloy wouldn't hear. "Can I ask you two another question ? Do you know the location of one of the Golden Door."
Suddenly, Grimm's and Eloy's faces became... somber.
Alice said something she shouldn't have.
"So, you're also searching for it, then...what we call the Door of Despair." said Eloy.
"Yes, do you..."
"Alice. Give up on going there immediatly. The Door of Despair is located on the southern edge of the jungle, somewhere in the Wind Clan's territorry. However, it is protected by one of the Four Beast, Quetzacoatl."
"The Four Beast ?"
"Yeah. They are named Xipe Totec, Tezcatlipoca, Huitzilopochtli and Quetzacoatl. Any of these four monster is as strong if not stronger than a powerful Clan. I beg you, Alice, just give up. Do you not want to stay here, despite being treated so well ?"
Alice stayed silent for a while.
She remembered Brandon's happiness when he was allowed to die.
Finally, she sighed:
"For me, staying here is worse than dying."