The Wonderland Rift

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OOC Link: The Wonderland Rift [OOC]


18+

For reasons still unknown to him, Lordy Lordshire noticed the increase in guards from the Kingdom scattered around the city. It seemed to be every corner he went there was another one waiting.

He scowled as he passed by one and spat in his direction, "Filth."

He couldn't tell the guards reaction under his helmet, but he made no movement. They were used to the harsh treatment in this part of the city. Not many people were fond of their presence, as it usually meant the Capitol was ready to collect taxes from them.

"We won't have to worry about them much longer," Lordy said, making his way down an alley in the center of town.

A set of pearly whites shone beside him. He unlocked a door at the side of a building to find his team of rebels scattered about a large room. Some of them raised their glass in a toast for his arrival. He raised his cane in response.

"Madam Tabitha, my dear," Lordy said, looking down to his right, "Fix me a drink will you?"

There was a whisper in his left ear, "I'm over here."

Madam Tabitha Marxil Kitshire flittered her tail under Lordy's nose, and spun around in the air, lounging on her back as she meandered to the makeshift bar.

"What'll it be, Lordshire? Your usual? Or might I suggest something a bit more tasty? I'm preferential to milk, myself."

Lordy flinched a little when he realized Tabitha wasn't where he thought she'd be.

"Oh anything, as long as it's dark and it's on the rocks," He said stroking his beard, "Also, none of that sweet stuff. Make sure I can feel it burn my insides the whole way through."

He made his way towards a table where a few of his partners were playing card. They instinctively passed him a hand as he waited for Tabitha to return with a glass for him.

Tabitha Kitshire sighed and plopped down on the bar counter, startling the bartender as she allowed herself to be shown. She smiled at him, curling her tail around his hand. He jerked it back instinctively and returned her smile awkwardly. "What can I get ya?"

"Oh just something dark and sinister." She pulled up a tall, thin bottle with her tail from under the counter. She feigned inspecting the label (she doesn't care about unimportant things like reading) and handed it over to the bartender. "Oh, also milk, please."

"Of course, Miss Kitshire."

"Oh, didn't you hear? I've been promoted to Madam. Please call me that as often as you can."

"Oh. Of course... Madam Kitshire."

Tabitha closed her eyes in utter delight.

Two glasses, one dark and one white, slid to her place on the counter. She wrapped her mittens around each --thankful she has opposable thumbs-- and floated back over to where Lordshire now sat with some disgruntled gamblers.

"Winning the kingdom some money, boys?"

Vincent Kingsly didn't often travel outside of the Capitol, and it was nights like this that reminded him why. There was a stench in the air as he traveled down the street that made him wonder how people weren't getting sick just by breathing. He took note of each of the guard he passed on his journey, some of whom he had trained with back in the castle. He was thankful that some of them seemed to recognize him, normally on missions he would be a loner. Not that he minded. It just put his mind at ease that he may have backup if things went south.

But that's only because his target tonight was a little more high profile, a notorious gang leader named Lordy Lordshire. Everyone knew of him, but he's never been convicted of any crimes, which made it difficult to simply take him away and lock him up. No, the King had greater plans. He wanted him dead.

Vincent never really bothered to ask why, it was none of his business. He simply followed orders.

As he watched Lordy spit at a nearby guard and turn down an alley, he made sure to make haste so he didn't lose sight of him. Lordy seemed to be talking to himself before he disappeared through a random door on a shady building. There was nothing special about it. If he wanted, Vincent could have easily picked the lock and went in, guns blazing, but tonight, he had a better idea.

As he approached the door he listen carefully. There were quite a few voices inside, and it did not sound like a small room, as it may have looked. Slowly, he raised his hand and he knocked twice.

Mercury found himself doing another lowlife job. Instead of being tasked to international relations, like he was trained to do and tasked with up until a month ago, he had been strung along on stupid menial tasks, like suppress the local riots, subdue a chatty maid, "keep an eye" on local chatter. Boring stuff. Stuff that didn't matter. Stuff he could do in his sleep.

Like this task.

Mercury was given a mission about two days ago: investigate a local gathering of people claiming they are rebels to the kingdom. The usual suspect; these kind of gathering seem to always be people who used to love the kingdom until it stopped benefiting them personally and then they grouped up and developed a place where they can vent their frustrations. It never ended up anywhere, and it made it easy for people like Mercury, Eyes, to round them all up in a nice little bow and... question them.

That was, until yesterday. This group has a leader. A lord? Or, well, someone who calls himself a lord. And this someone was a mystery to Mercury and the Eyes in general. So, Mercury had to take this a bit slower, until he gathered enough information to paint the bigger picture.

But, apparently, someone higher up did not enjoy his slower pace on this.

Enter the soldier not-discretely-what-so-ever following Lordshire to their gathering place. Must have been orders from the general. Bleh. Mercury never did like when military folk got in Eye business.

So Mercury followed the soldier following Lordshire into the alley. Mercury knew better than this soldier, and kept to the roofs and railings above the walkway. Someone will hear about this tonight, Mercury would make sure of it.

No way. Did the soldier... just knock on the door?

Mercury jumped down to the alley, landing softly and rushed over to the soldier, yanking him to a crevice, hole-in-the-wall beyond the door, which was barely enough to fit both of them. But it had to do.

"Are you insane?" Mercury breathed out. Before the soldier could respond, Mercury covered his mouth as the door opened, and closed a moment after.

Lordy heard the knock, but he was sure it was one of the guards coming to ask about the noise. He looked at one of his partners and tilted his head to the door. They immediately got up to go check.

He picked up the cup Madam Tabitha had brought for him and took a slow sip. She grinned next to him as if she was expecting something.

"Yes, yes. Excellent choice. I think you're getting better at figuring out my taste my, dear." Lordy said to her.

"Sir," Everyone turned to the man who checked the door, "No one is there."

Lordy raised an eyebrow. A prank maybe?


---

Vincent felt the mans grip around his mouth. As the door beside them shut, the man removed his hand and looked at him. His face was scarred, but not unfamiliar. The way he carried himself made it obvious he wasn't from here.

"Mercy?" Vincent asked.

The man glared at him, confused, "What?"

"You're from the Capitol? You trained at the Royal Castle, didn't you? I saw you there a few times. The King spoke very highly of you." Vincent pointed to his face, "Of course, that wasn't there before."

Tabitha curled around Lordshire's neck. "Perhaps it was a knock from a game?" She purred.

---

Mercury hesitated. "Not here. Not now." The voice sounded familiar, but the darkness of the alley blanketed most of the features of the guy far too close to him.

Dammit. His mission would have to wait.

The cards would have to wait. Lordy got up from his seat and finished his glass of rum before setting it down on the table.

"No one from around here would pull a stunt like that," He glared at the door, "And no one in this room was knocking, right?"

Everyone was silent.

Lordy cleared his throat, "Well then, I'll be right back."

He grabbed his cane and felt Tabitha's presence beside him as they made their way to the door. For a moment he wondered if he was walking into a trap.

---

"If you don't mind, could you back up a bit? The only time I've heard about people being this close is when they're about to kiss." Vincent kept eye contact with the man, "I mean, unless-"

The man took a step back, "We have to go, that was a bad move."

"Are you talking about me knocking or you pulling me away from the door, because I only planned for one of those."

The man glared at him.

"I'm Vincent, by the way. Vincent Kingsly."

Tabitha twirled around in the air. She wondered if this was some kind of game. Lordshire did like his games.

"Perhaps I should go first? I don't mean to be rude," she purred, "but I am far stealthier than a man in a cane. When I want to be."

---

Mercury halted. Vincent Kingsly. Vincent Kingsly. That name sounded familiar. That was a time before he was an Eye, though. Memories he didn't want to dig up, not right now.

Mercury grunted and tugged Vincent down to the end of the alley. It was a dead end. The door behind them opened back up. Mercury pressed two spots in the brick wall, and a passage opened up. "Through here. Now."

Lordy smiled at Tabitha, "Well if you insist, Madam. Just give me a shout if there's anything suspicious."

Tabitha gave him a sly smile and opened the door ahead of them. To anyone on the outside, it would look as if the door was opening itself. He was thankful to have Tabitha by his side. She was one of his most loyal, and useful, partners.

He twirled his cane in his hand as he waited for her to come back with news.

---

As the brick wall opened, Vincent couldn't help but be in awe. He'd heard of secret passages like this one before but never been through one in person.

"So, I know you're name is Mercury, we just called you Mercy at the castle." Vincent said, the man not slowing down.

The continued down for a few more moments before they made a turn.

"You're not much for talking are you? The King always said words were our greatest power." Vincent continued to pry him for information, "Listen, are we going far? I have a mission to get back to."

If the man wasn't going to give him any details, he couldn't rationalize a reason to stay with him. Yet still, for some reason, he felt compelled to keep walking with him.

Tabitha, the sleuth. Tabitha, the sneaky. Tabitha, the SPY. Ah, the more titles people knew her by, the better.

She floated out into the alley. Twirling around, she glanced to and fro the alley. No one around. General chatter continued in the main road. But, there was... something that happened on the other end of the alley. She danced to the end of the alley. Nothing but a wall.

Boring.

---

Mercury halted, turning on Vincent. "Your mission is over. It should have never even started."

On second thought, maybe it would've been better if he went first. Lordy knew he couldn't trust anyone's instincts but his own, and that thought was only strengthened when he watched Tabitha float on back as if she'd seen nothing.

"Thank you for checking, my dear. I think I'm going to go into town to see if I can find something really quickly." He opened the door and took a step outside, "I need you to watch the crew to make sure they are all behaving."

Tabitha didn't seem very happy about him leaving her alone.

He looked into the room and raised his voice, "You all remember! Madam Tabitha is in charge until I get back!"

He heard cheers of agreement and took that as his cue to leave.

He made his way back up the alley, to the guard he had spit at before. he put on his most sympathetic voice as he approached him.

"Oh Mr. Guard, sir. I'm sorry for anything I've done to you, but please, I need your help. I think my friend is hurt, she's in the bar down the road and she can't get up."

The guard shifted in place for a moment. Lordy knew he didn't want to listen, but a guard is still a guard, no matter where they are.

"Please, I don't think she'll make it if we don't hurry." he started making his way up the street, and thankfully, the guard followed.

He turned away and set his sights on the nearby bar. A wicked smile came across his face as they approached the door.

---

They both stopped.

Vincent stared blankly at Mercury, "I'm sorry, I only take orders from the inner circle. I can't abandon my mission without a reason."

Mercury sighed and rubbed his temple.

"You still never told me who you were. I'd like to at least know why you were following me. Did they send you to help me?"

Tabitha, no, Madam Tabitha puffed out her chest. Yes, she truly was the one in charge here! Lordshire can do whatever he wanted to do out there. He always was trying to find mice to chase in some futile effort to stake a claim.

Her days of cat-and-mouse were long gone. She preferred... bigger prey.

She cleared her throat. "Bring out the... catnip!"

The group sat in silence, glancing at each other. Oh, right.

"Bring out the, uh, sunweed!" The group roared to life, and two men went to the back. "Don't forget the catnip, too!" She demanded, settling into her invisible throne. Ah, it was nice to be appreciated.

---

The Inner Circle? Damn. Something's up.

"No more questions until we get to somewhere more... secure." Mercury faltered. He had never brought an outsider into one of the secure rooms before. Then again, he had never had to deal with the Inner Circle poking their noses into his business before. Stupid politics.

"It's just ahead. Tight squeeze. Stay close."