The Trouble with Time, Part 2.17 - Lucidity

"You met a Fallen Star?" Alsebah is looking between the three of them, incredulous. Kevin nods. "You're kidding me. Wow."

They stumbled through Alsebah's door well past midnight after having trekked all the way from Deneb's cave to the door in the dark. They thought of digging out lamps, but after getting used to the dim light of the flowers in the cave, the brightly shining starts and the third quarter moon in the sky seemed like enough light to get around.

Alice was dead tired and all she wanted to do was go to sleep, but for the first time in days she also felt right. The turmoil of emotions was still there, but it had been pushed to the side, mostly replaced by pure, hard resolve, burning brightly inside her. She felt clear-headed, lucid, fully focused on the task ahead and what needed to be done.

"Well, your friend clearly intends for you to infiltrate the castle," Alsebah is saying.

"We should go in tomorrow..." Alice begins to say, but Kevin cuts her off. She gives him an ugly look.

"Tomorrow? No. Absolutely not."

"We have just under five days left. We're running out of time. We can't sit idly by and wait for the time to slip away..."

"This could well be the last thing in this crazy scavenger hunt," Kevin sounds tired. Alice grits her teeth. "It's the castle. Where else would the king keep a Heart? This is it. The last piece of the puzzle. We should make a plan, prepare, find out where exactly we need to go once we're in. That place is huge. We cant just go stomping around and expect no one to notice, even if we are wearing guards' uniforms."

"Well, then I suggest we sneak instead," Alice says dryly.

"I'm sorry, Alice," Sam jumps in. "I agree with Kevin. It makes sense this is the last stop, and we should go in as prepared as possible."

Alice simply stares at them for a second, then gives out a laugh, short and sharp.

"What if it isn't?" her voice is steady. "What if it isn't the last thing, and we push this back so much we won't have time for the rest? And Vanessa has to stay here forever? We can't take the risk you're wrong. It's cutting it too close. It's been almost a year since Vanessa sent the things to Deneb, maybe the king moved the heart since then and it's not there anymore, and we'll need time to track its new location down."

"What if we go in tomorrow, but don't know what we're looking for, so we get caught and locked up somewhere?"

"We know where we're going, though," they both just stare at Alice. "It's on his left. That's what Deneb said."

"Alice, not only was it her guess, not knowledge of the place, we don't know what that means," Sam's voice is turning pleading. "Left what? Left chamber off the throne room? In the throne, on the left side? On the left side of the castle? What ever that means. On the guard to his left?"

"In the guard to his left?" Alsebah chimes in. The others fall silent for a second.

"In the guard?" Alice finally asks. Alsebah shrugs.

"That's one place to keep a Heart," she simply says.

Alice rubs her forehead.

"I'm too tired for this," she mutters.

"You know what we should do?" Sam says and stands up. "We should all go to bed. Sleep on it. And tomorrow morning make a plan with fresh heads. One that will actually make sense in the light of day."

They rise their eyebrows questioningly, and the others nod, more reluctant than they should be, considering it was the best suggestion anyone had made since getting back to Alsebah's place.

~x~

Alice is sipping her whatever-the-drink-is-called at the table in the morning, having had the best night's sleep in a long time, despite the late night, as Sam walks into the room, yawning and stretching, still in their pyjama.

"You know what I started to wonder yesterday?" they say as they get themself a cup. Alice sets down the note that came in the bag. It isn't another hint. It simply says:

Can't wait to see you again.

                                V

She's tried all her senses on this one, encouraged by the scent left in the previous one. They even tried heating it, to see if it has some invisible writing on it, like what people do as kids with milk of lemon juice. If there's a further hint in it, she can't find it. Maybe they're getting close enough she can't give them hints anymore, or they would point too directly to where her heart is.

"What?" she asks as they settle on the seat next to hers.

"We never thought to check the size of the clothes," they say and take a sip. "Which is odd as it is. But also, we don't know who they fit. There's two sets of the uniform, but you're the only one she knew was coming back. Or trusted. Or expected. Whichever. The point is: who is the other uniform planned for? Me? Or Kevin? Someone else?"

"Probably not someone else," Alice says as she stands and makes her way to the bag. "If she expected someone else to make it here with me, I have no idea who it would be. And if I had to guess between you and Kevin to do something like this for us, I would put my money on you every time."

She brings the bag back to the table and starts to dig out the uniforms. Sam takes one of the jackets and spreads it out.

"This looks too big for either of us," they say, pulling it on just to be sure. Alice nods.

"That's clearly for Kevin. I guess Nessa did expect him to come with me after all," she says as she unfolds the second one and pulls it on. She frowns, bends her elbows a bit.

"It's a bit tight," she says as the sleeves pull up to fully expose her wrists when she bends her arms.

"Maybe she didn't remember your size exactly," Sam suggests. She gives them a look. They lift their hands up. "Or maybe she only had access to a limited number of them, and none of them happened to be your size."

But her heart is already sinking in her chest as she pulls off the jacket and hands it to Sam. They hesitate a moment before taking it and pulling it on. They move their arms around, button up the front. It fits perfectly.

"The uniforms aren't for me and anyone," Alice says quietly. "They're for you and Kevin."

A huge wave of the helplessness and hopelessness of not being able to do enough, of having to sit by as the hours tick away, hits her newly polished determination, making it shudder.

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The topic for tomorrow is Addition.

~matleena