Kiyomi followed Acacius into the house and took one look at it. Then she promptly turned around and started to walk away. "That's not how houses work," She hissed to herself. "This isn't real. Can't be."
“Are you coming or what?” he called after her. “You can’t keep running forever!” Then his voice turned pleading. “Please, Kiyomi, come back.”
"Houses don't work like that. They are the size that they look or are smaller, not bigger. I'm going mad. This isn't real. None of this is real. Let me go home."
“Wonderland is mad. Nothing works how it’s supposed to here. I thought you knew that. Maybe I chose the wrong girl,” Acacius sighed.
"That isn't how the world works. There is no magic, and there are no houses two storeys bigger than they look. It doesn't work like that." She sighed. "And yeah, maybe you did choose the wrong girl. Maybe me being the daughter of the famous 'Alice in Wonderland' has nothing to do with any of this."
Acacius swallowed the lump in his throat. “But you have the right aura…I’ve seen you in my visions, how could I be—?” He stopped talking as his vision faded out, replaced by a vision. In it, Acacius cried over the bodies of all of his friends while Kiyomi was nowhere to be seen. He coughed, the air becoming harder and harder to breath.
On the outside he had gone completely still, like a statue.
"What? Having another one of your visions? What do you see? Armageddon?" She wasn't normally this rude, but this whole Wonderland thing was freaking her out. "I just want to go home. Why won't you let me?"
Acacius blinked, coming to again. He hadn’t registered a word of what she said. “Hmmm? Whining again, I presume?” he asked tiredly. Suddenly, his whole demeanor looked tired and worried.
"Acacius. I need you to understand this." Kiyomi could feel that the atmosphere around the cabin was quite dead, and it could be seen if someone was to look at it properly. "I can't just click my fingers and make everything better. It doesn't work like that." To make a point, she clicked her fingers. To her surprise, the whole area became bright and full of life.
Acacius’s eyes widened. “Kiyomi…you just did!” he exclaimed. With his each word, he seemed slightly more full of life. “You just did! Come on! We have to get working on a plan! Even you have to admit that worked!”
"That couldn't have been me. I don't know how that happened. That shouldn't have happened." She stared at her fingers in disbelief, in something that shouldn't be possible. That wasn't her, was it?
Acacius sighed. “Come on, please. Just stay for one more day at least…” he pleaded. He gave her a charming smile in hopes it would help.
Kiyomi stared at him and then sighed. "Fine. But it's not going to be because of that stupid smile of yours. I want to figure out why I was able to do that just then. And don't say magic."
Acacius laughed. “I wasn’t going to, darling,” he responded, peppy again. He grinned at her. “Come on in.”
"Take that grin off your face or I will force you to take me home. Let's just go to this Wonderland Council or whoever you were telling me we had to go to."
“You don’t even want tea first?” Acacius asked, his smile dissipating. There was still a telling twinkle in his eyes, however. Despite Acacius’s more serious expression, it was clear he was smiling on the inside.
"If you don't have my lemon and peppermint herbal tea, then no. Let's just go. Get this over and done with. The quicker this happens, the quicker I can get back home."
“I have whatever kind of tea of tea you wish,” Acacius replied, doing his best to smother a grin. “There’s a treacle well around here that can taste like anything you desire. It’s actually great for if you’re sick, too.”
"Treacle? You mean like maple syrup or molasses? I'm pretty sure those only have one taste. They can't change." The last thing Kiyomi wanted Acacius was that they were in Wonderland, but she knew he would.
“Sweet, naïve girl,” Acacius sighed. “That’s not treacle! You’re thinking of sap…or something. Treacle has many properties that maple syrup couldn’t dream of having! Do you want some?”
"No, treacle is any uncrystallised syrup made through the refining of sugar. Unprocessed maple syrup is just that, as is honey."
Acacius sighed. “You didn’t answer my question. Why do you insist on making everything so difficult?” He was ready for a nice cup of treacle tea, himself.
"Why do I make everything so difficult? Because this isn't right, Acacius! I'm not used to this! Magic isn't supposed to exist! I'm not supposed to be able to do any of this stuff!"
“And yet you can,” Acacius retorted, getting tired of the same argument. “What’s that earth saying? ‘Seeing is believing?’ You saw it.”
"That's not what the saying is used for." She stared at him, daring him to defy her. "I'm telling you now: we need to go to this Wonderland Council. I want to leave, and they seem like they're gonna be more helpful than you."
Acacius stuck out his bottom lip in a pout. “Fine…” he complained. “Let’s go then so you can save Wonderland and then just ditch everyone here and go back to your world.”
"That's exactly what I've been trying to tell you this whole time," Kiyomi sighed. She looked at Acacius pointedly. "Well, come on. I don't know my way around. You're the one who was born here."
Acacius sighed. “I know this will make you all annoyed and skeptical, but the location of the Wonderland Council isn’t always the same place. You have to have been there, which I have, to know the way.” He pulled a locket out from under his shirt, the actual locket part now visible instead of just the chain. “This locket is special. It’ll help me know which way to go. All you have to do is follow me.”
"And what do you think I'm gonna do? Run off and explore? I've seen this place too many times, Acacius. Too many times have I been put in danger in the real world because I tried to explore. That's why I'm gonna follow you, and that's why I'm not gonna explore."
Acacius narrowed his eyes, a muscle in his jaw ticking. “Okay, I get it. Let’s go then,” he grumbled, turning and walking in a seemingly random direction. He began humming to himself, not seeming too upset despite his momentary anger.
