Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Alice’s eyes fluttered open. When they did, she didn’t look around.

They were glued to the white ceiling, her mind lost in an attempt to think.

As she tried to gather words in her head, she heard screams around her. Screams about how she woke up; to get more doctors; to contact the rest of her family. There was a distinct scream on her right side, something about wanting to talk to her first. She was too busy with herself to respond to that quickly, though.

For the first time, she heard people. 

For the first time, she’s somewhere else.

Yes.

It took her a moment to realize and think, This isn’t Arcaea.

Right. There was no…

No glass.

No chilliness.

No stiffness. 

The only stiffness was from her back – she was laying down, perhaps for a while now. What she laid on was a little hard, but had a cushion-y feel to it.

A hospital bed, she realized. 

The same one she saw in that memory long ago.

This wasn’t a memory, right? She checked again –

The smell of flowers beside her. 

The faint beeping of medical equipment elsewhere.

Sounds of rushing doctors and even things falling on the ground.

The sound of her own breathing.

With that realization, more thoughts came: 

I went home.

I’m alive.

I’m not sick anymore.

I’m not in Ar –

“Alice,” the same distinct voice choked out. She tried to turn her head but the resulting force was too much – she ended up turning her entire body. It must have scared the person, because they – he – said, “Woah, you’re energetic. That’s – that’s great.”

Sitting next to her was a man, probably of graduate college age. He had brown hair and pale eyes that seemed to have lost their spark long ago. His face curled into an attempt to beam at her, making up for his weary look. 

He looked like Tenniel. Just no red eyes or a glossy, clean look to him. 

He seemed like an actual person. Flawed but kind.

“Tenniel?” she asked anyway.

“Tenniel? That’s my middle name, silly. Close enough – I’m Cedric,” he made a poor attempt at chuckling. “It’s okay. It’s been awhile.”

Cedric. That was a name she, indeed, hadn't heard in a while. She first heard it from a memory in the world of glass, something she realized she still remembered. A thousand years of wandering paid off after all. That was a thousand years of new, empty memories. 

This was the real world, though. How many years has she missed? How many new events, people, and facts have she never learned?

Actually, she realized it was more of something… incomplete. Some things don’t seem to add up or answer everything correctly.

Something was wrong despite her escape being done so right.

She spun her head behind her. She somehow knew there was a clipboard with her name and following files on it.

Her name: Alice Liddell.

Her condition: A terminal illness she couldn’t even pronounce. It even seemed rather blurry when she tried to view it. Odd.

“I was asleep?” she asked Cedric, hoping to find any sort of explanation.

He uncomfortably folded a little in his seat. Now she noticed he had something in his lap, covered by his oversized white sleeves.

“A coma, yes. Hit your head somewhere and it happened... You were here for three years,” his voice became quiet. 

But if I was in a coma, then why does the clipboard say otherwise? Didn't I see a memory of myself awake?

And terminal illnesses meant she was supposed to have died, right?

That was why she landed in Arcaea.

But she wasn’t a doctor, so who knows? 

Additionally, maybe she escaped to a world that wasn’t quite where she started off at. Similar, but not the same world. But that was okay, she was alive again. 

… Right?

“You’re alive,” Cedric reassured her. Though it sounded a little bit insistent, she nevertheless tried to smile at the fact. 

With that said, he relaxed his shoulders and sat back with a relieved expression. Now Alice noticed a piece of paper in his lap.

“You still draw, right?” She managed to smile a little.

She remembered he was an artist. She wondered what he might think of her adventures in a wonderland, and if he might want to doodle them – she wondered what his artistic take would look like if she simply described it to him.

Cedric’s eyes turned a little bright. This time he gave a loud laugh as he bashfully scratched his head. 

“You remember! That’s amazing, I can’t believe it,” he beamed. 

He continued to laugh. Man, he really was a simple person – just someone who wanted to be remembered for his art. And he was.

Alice peeped down to see what drawing was in his lap.

Her heart fell. 

It seemed to be a pencil drawing of herself in a nice dress and hat. In that gray artwork, she was skewered through with rough, sharp points that jutted out of the ground. What were those points? Ice? Metals? Primitive spears, even? 

… Glass?

Even as Cedric’s laugh came to a halt, the noise remained deafening. It was like mad laughter ringing in her ears, jeering at her. Taunting her. 

Maybe even reminding her.

Had she missed something in those last thousand years in Arcaea? Maybe a memory of how Cedric grew to hate her?

Was that correct?

To comfort herself anyway, Alice chuckled along. 

She didn’t know her brother really wanted her dead. 

Chapter Text

Weirdly enough, the hospital let Alice go rather quickly. Just a few tests and questions – then she was good to go. She even got to wear a simple white dress to exit with.

Maybe it was a good thing? She didn’t know how the coma treatment process worked and thought that maybe she should have stayed for a little longer…

She didn’t know. Maybe she was anxious because Cedric might have hated her. She would rather avoid being with him too much. 

She could only hope it was only, say, an artistic expression. 

The two of them were walking into the bright and blue-colored lobby when they saw a tall man. He ran towards them in a comical manner, something Alice only saw in cartoons and comics. He came so fast he almost hit the coffee table by the chairs, making a yelp noise.

“Alice!” he went so close to her she swore he was going to hug her. But he didn’t, stopping in front of her. “I can’t believe it.”

Now that he wasn’t moving, she could observe his features. He had a short mop of brown hair very much like Cedric did, with a funny ahoge that seemed longer than necessary. He had blue eyes behind his rectangular glasses.

Notably, he wore a suit and carried a suitcase. Did he just get off work, or left work early to see them?

Most importantly, he was…

“Dad! How’d you get here?” Cedric piped. “Aren’t you supposed to be at work?”

“Yes, but the hospital called me and my director let me go. He understands that this is a very big moment for me,” their father looked like he was going to cry. Then he set his suitcase down and clutched Alice’s shoulders. “Alice! Do you remember me? Did you forget anything?”

“I didn’t forget anything. In fact, I feel really fine,” Alice smiled at him. 

Okay, not too fine. The things she learned in Arcaea was a little too much for her, and it really did destroy her at times. Even finding out Tenniel was only an illusion, the memories that led to nowhere, the crushing loneliness… 

At the same time, though, it was safe to say that she’s now relieved to be back home. Somewhat – not counting Cedric’s disturbing drawing he quickly hid away after. The only awkwardness here was trying to catch up to everything, to find that spark for loving life.

“You should have stayed at work,” Cedric said. She thought he was being mean and blunt at first, until he added, “You really didn’t have to end your shift early for that. I was going to drive Alice home and take care of her first.”

Their father shook his hands and chuckled. “No, no. Don’t worry, I’ll drive you kids back home, like I did during your elementary school days!”

Without really meaning to, Alice let out a joking “Eek!” Even Cedric did so at the same time, even adding a statement about how they’re grown children. 

Ah, mutual sibling reactions. It wasn’t that they were annoyed, it was more like being treated as babies by a loving father. Embarrassing but wholesome. 

“You’re driving my car?” Cedric rubbed his neck. “It’s my car, and I have a license. You won’t even like it and –”

“I insist,” he laughed more. “I came here on a bus because I was planning to drive you kids home myself. Don’t worry, kid. I won’t laugh at your car.”

So they did. 

Their father took the driver’s seat of Cedric’s black car. Alice and Cedric were in the back seats, each at a window so that the middle seat was empty. 

“I really like what you did with the car,” Alice complimented. She turned to her left to look at him, wanting to see if his reaction was positive. But Cedric was gazing outside the window. She added, “The rabbits behind us, and the dice and playing cards hanging from the interior rear view mirror. Nice decorations.” 

“I like it too. It’s rather clean,” their father said. 

“Heh. Thanks, guys,” was all he said.

Then they left the parking lot of the hospital and left.

Blue skies.

Lots of clouds.

Buildings – convenience stores, gas stations, restaurants, banks, and more.

Mundane everyday objects – traffic lights, fire hydrants, bus stops, and street lamps.

The rickety and zooming feeling of being inside a car. 

Somehow, this felt much more than simply being inside a memory. Alice was experiencing all of this herself – she was alive.

It didn’t last for too long, though. 

Her father wanted to start a conversation.

He asked a really bad question. “Hey, Alice. Mind if you tell us what happened in Arcaea?”

“Excuse me?” Alice asked.

What?

It was one thing to think about telling them about that one day. It was another for them to actually know about Arcaea.

Where did she even begin to tell them? How would she ask their father how he knew?

It confused her, even though she should have had a rational reasoning for that. She was an adult, god damn it. Albeit one supposedly in a coma for three years and not dead from a terminal illness.

She supposed it wasn't everyday you went to a world full of glass and confusion.

“Arcaea, you know,” her father nudged with a look in the mirror. “You were there, right?” 

“Um…”

“She’s still in shock, Dad,” Cedric sighed out. “Don’t confuse her.”

“Yeah…” Alice sighed out, trying to play the part of someone confused by their looney dad’s behavior. So she quickly changed the topic, “Was I really in a coma?”

“Yes!” He stopped at a red light. “Oh dear, Cedric is right about confusing Alice. She’s not doubting the coma, right?”

“I thought I had a terminal illness. I think Mom had that too, right? The same disease?” Alice tentatively asked. 

One, she didn’t want to mention the clipboard that kept blurring out on her. Two, she wasn’t sure if the person from one memory she found was their mother. 

“No, no. Mom’s okay, she never had a disease at all,” the light turned green again. Then he hit the gas pedal. 

“She… didn’t?” Alice raised an eyebrow.

“No. Mom’s still here,” Cedric added. 

“Mom? Did our father remarry?” 

“Nope, I would never!” he exclaimed, turning red a little. He looked like a silly schoolboy with a crush. “Your mother is the most wonderful person ever, I would never choose another woman at all.”

Alice’s heart fell even more.

She swore she saw a memory of younger her and Cedric gathering around their ill mother – a woman with long, blond hair. She, too, was destined to die of a terminal illness. Perhaps Alice’s original self got it from her.

But here, their mother never died. 

Somehow.

That made Alice dread coming inside the house when the car finally pulled into the driveway. 

It was a silly feeling. She should not be afraid of an average looking suburban house!

“Get inside, twerp,” Cedric teased with a slap on her back. 

So they did.

The inside of the house was rather nice. It had brown tiled floors with a brown sofa and TV on the right side. On the white walls were various paintings of rabbits and tea parties. Nothing seemed to be out of place or otherwise cluttering the room.

“Wow,” Alice breathed out.

“I’m glad you like it. It used to be a little more shabby,” their father said, taking off his shoes. Then he called out to Cedric, “Go to your mother’s room and call her out, she’s taking a nap. Then we will get the table and food ready for Alice.”

“Mhmm,” Cedric nodded.

“Alice, you may have a seat at the wooden table in the back.”

“Okay!” she clapped her hands. 

She went to the table as the two men took a left, where the hallway was. Likewise, it was simple and without anything trashing it – it was just a large, square table with three chairs on each end. 

She realized Mom was still alive. If four people were eating there today, there should be four chairs. Maybe someone put the other chair away because Alice was gone.

“Alice, what do you want to – oh,” her father came back. “There’s no chair for you. I thought we had four chairs out, that’s weird. CEDRIC!”

“Yeah?” She looked at the hallway and saw his head poking out a room. 

“Where did the other chair go? I thought we always had four, in case Alice woke up again.”

Cedric pulled his mouth towards one side, looking both confused and… dishonest? “I don’t know, actually. Let me check the shed to see if someone put it away by accident.” Alice wasn’t sure if he was really lying, though.

Even as he swept past her to open the screen door nearby, he had an odd flair to him. 

Maybe he was just tired today. He probably saw better days and times. 

“Sorry about that, we’ll get everything up shortly,” her father rubbed his head and gave another nervous laugh. “In the meantime, welcome back to the family!”

Alice smiled at him back, but it didn’t erase the confusion and the slight horror she felt inside. 

Chapter Text

This woman was not their mother. 

Alice knew that right away despite the similarities. 

Their ‘mother’ walked out of the hallway and to the table, her face groggy from waking up. She had light brown hair that seemed blond here and there, fit with an off-white ribbon in her head. She had brilliant yellow eyes reminiscent of Cedric’s pale ones. She wore a short and comfy, dark gray dress.

Whatever happened to the woman with the long, blond hair? Who also had blue eyes much like Alice did?

This woman seemed… stiff. Inhuman. If she sprouted horns, Alice wouldn’t have been surprised.

A changeling? A demon in disguise?

Who…?

“Alice! Are you there? Still sleepy?” her father clinked the desk with his fork. Now everyone was seated at the square table – their mother sat at the side adjacent to his, with Alice taking the other adjacent side. Cedric was at the side across from their father. “Okay, that was a bad joke. No more anything that reminds you of the coma.”

Of course Alice wasn’t thinking of the coma. She was thinking of their supposed mother.

“You’re not our mom,” Alice gently pushed away her plate of steak. 

She looked at the pale woman for a reaction. The woman widened her eyes a little, but Alice thought it looked more like acting.

“Kid! Don’t say that,” their father shook his head. Then he added, “She must still be in shock. Or she really did forget something after all.” 

“Stop treating me like I am forgetful! I mean it, I just know,” Alice insisted. Why must her first day back in the real world be so confusing?

“Terribly rude, awfully rude,” the man lightheartedly noted. Then he cleared his throat. “Alice, I’m being serious. I’m just worried since you’ve been adamantly denying the coma and your mother’s existence.”

The table went silent.

The only faint noise was that of Cedric chewing on his steak, as though discreetly exiting the conversation.

Their supposed mother placed a hand on their father’s shoulder. “It’s alright. We all need to take it slowly. Perhaps we can start by asking what Alice did in Arcaea all this time.”

That topic.

So it wasn’t only their father who knew. She knew about Arcaea too? 

“It’s alright,” the pale woman continued. “Arcaea is over now. We’ll be a normal family again and take care of each other. If you’re comfortable, you can tell us what you want us to know.”

She did think about telling Cedric first, mostly because he liked drawing and again, she thought about describing the land to him.

Frankly, her parents were different people. What did they want to know? They weren’t around as much.

There wasn’t a lot to say – or, well, there was if the said thousand years was worth anything.  

Did the journey matter at all? Did she even learn anything then? The grueling search for memories, the meaningless landscape, the lies of Tenniel…

Tenniel.

He remembered her brother.

Did her brother know him? 

Remember him at all?

In fact, he didn’t even indicate whether he was aware of Arcaea or not…

“There was Tenniel in Arcaea,” Alice prefaced. She asked Cedric, “Do you know about him?”

Cedric said, “Nope.”

Their father frowned. “Cedric, has anyone ever told that you’re a terrible liar? Don’t try to troll Alice, you definitely know.” 

Cedric looked like he swallowed his steak a little too hard. “Maybe a little, but like… I don’t know him exactly, if that makes sense. Beats me.” 

“Who is this Tenniel?” their mother asked. “Is he a good person?”

“He accompanied me for a bit,” Alice mused. “He was rather silly at times, calling himself handsome and treating me like a kid.”

Strangely enough, she somewhat missed him despite the lies. Nowadays, she would have comfortably traveled side-by-side with him without finding out. 

What about with this world? If she landed in the wrong universe, should she wing it instead of asking about the contradictions?

“I’m glad he kept you company. Arcaea is a lonely place,” their mother sipped her cup. 

“It is,” their father said.

“How do you guys know about Arcaea?” Alice asked. She wondered if they have been receiving supernatural signs this whole time, or if they just… somehow knew. 

“A family thing,” their father shrugged with a bashful smile. Their mother faintly smiled.

Then they both laughed like it was some inside joke. To fit the mood, Alice chuckled too. She would have to find out their ‘psychic talents’ later, then.

Cedric wasn’t laughing. 

Odd, Alice noted. Ever since the car ride home, he’s been switching from cheerful to minutes of silence and tension. 

… Like someone in an act, perhaps.

“Cedric,” their father stopped laughing, his comically long ahoge still wiggling. “What’s wrong, kiddo? Never seen you this quiet at meal time before. Your sister just woke up, where’s the hype?” 

“Oh, sorry. I was too focused on dinner,” he sat up after finishing the dish’s broccoli. Taking his empty plate and other wares, he walked to the kitchen sink. “Catch you guys later?” 

“I sort of expected some more family bonding!” their father called out. He wasn’t mad or anything – it sounded more like a plea. 

Their mother patted his back. “Give him some time. It’s been three years, this must be a shock to him too.”

Cedric simply dumped the plate, cup, and utensils into the sink without washing them. The clattering of kitchenware was loud, almost making Alice jump. 

“Wait up, Cedric!” Alice sat up as well. She left the remainder of her food where it was and then ran after him in the halls. “I want to tell you about Tenniel…!” 

“Our children are so weird, what gives?” she heard their father joke behind her.

Their mother said in response, “Leave them be, they're not little kids anymore. They're grown adults.”

Even as she still called out for Cedric, he didn’t turn around. At the end of the hallway, he opened a door and went inside.

Alice barely made it time, calling out his name once again.

“Cedric…” She realized she had shoved herself through his door. He must have meant to close it, because his eyes widened upon noticing her.

His room?

Horrendous.

Unfathomable. 

She couldn’t make out the furniture and the floors. There were multiple easels, post-it notes on walls, and printer paper scattered around the room. So much that the entire room itself seemed more like an Eldritch canvas than a living, breathing person’s room.

On all of the easels, post-it notes, and printer papers? 

Drawings. Drawings of various styles and in different colors. 

Drawings of Alice – sometimes skewered like in his earlier artwork – and drawings of various glass objects: shards, vases, eyeglasses, stained glass windows and patterns… 

She heard something else, too.

Or, well, not quite heard.

It was an unfamiliar thought, but it was so clear and loud that it almost sounded like an audible voice:

Writ deep into Arcaea’s heart is a name that shouldn’t be here. 

Chapter Text

“Alice!” Cedric yelped. 

He shut the door. It made a loud noise like how he loudly dumped the kitchenware. 

"What... is this place? Is this actually your room?" Alice asked him. She looked around, wondering why this room reeked of insanity.

"I wouldn't know," he said. "This is the first time I've seen it in such a mess. I wonder what happened here."

Alice wouldn't know. She didn't think this place was real, actually - if she remembered correctly, she saw memories of her brother's room before. It was not cluttered and maddening like this one.

Speaking of which, the thought-noise in her head kept repeating. It became more intense the closer she was to Cedric.

Writ deep into Arcaea’s heart is a name that shouldn’t be here. 

Writ deep into Arcaea’s heart is a name that shouldn’t be here. 

Writ deep into Arcaea’s heart is a name that shouldn’t be here. 

Maybe this room represented his current state of mind, perhaps? If so...

Maybe her brother was not who he seemed.

“You really do know about Arcaea, right?” she tentatively asked. “More than just Tenniel’s existence… Is that right?” 

A post-it note flew off a wall. It fluttered like a leaf amidst the silence, dropping to Cedric’s feet. 

“I…” 

“The name in Arcaea’s heart. That’s you, right? Or is that me?” Alice gulped. “... Or is that us? Are we all dead? Are we in Arcaea?”

“No. We’re all alive.”

Who was he fooling?

They were probably all dead still. 

Maybe this wasn’t the real world after all. A memory, or another trial that Arcaea put her through. 

An anomaly, even.

“Cedric, has anyone ever told you that you’re a terrible liar?” she echoed.

“...”

If all of them were alive, maybe it was just Alice who was the ghost.

Maybe the woman with light brown hair – their mother – was a ghost too. However, she wasn’t quite dead – she just wasn’t the right version.

Wait…

Maybe that woman was the name that shouldn’t be in Arcaea?

Sounds about right. She took their mother’s place – hijacking a memory, like. Or just powerful enough to seek Alice in Arcaea, then put her into the real world. 

“That’s not our mom,” he suddenly switched the topic. Either he knew what she was thinking or he cleverly escaped Alice’s trap. 

“You know, too."

Cedric let out an uneasy chuckle. 

He lowered his voice. “That woman is from Arcaea. I don’t know who she is, but it’s best if I act like nothing happened.” He looked up at the ceiling. It had graffiti all over it, with concerning phrases like WHY WHY WHY and I AM GOOD ENOUGH. “Try not to piss her off too much, okay? I’m going to do the same.”

“What’s going on? Does that mean you know more about this situation? Why did I have a coma and not a terminal illness?" Alice bombarded him with questions. That led her back to the question about this place. "What’s wrong with your room? Why do you keep drawing weird pictures of me?” 

"I said I don't know!”

The phrase Alice kept hearing in her head slowly went away. No more cryptic nonsense about a name etched in Arcaea’s heart.

Now it was just silence, with an occasional flick from a post-it note or the sound of paper falling off the furniture. 

“What happened during these past years, then? Did you hate me?” 

“I don’t quite hate you.”

Quite.

Quite.

So he did, to a degree. 

“Quite? But why?”

“I would explain it to you, but Fake Mom is here,” he hushed her. “That’s the bigger issue, and I’m not a fan of it.” 

“I don’t like Fake Mom either,” She sighed out in relief. 

After all these years, they found something new they had in common. Maybe she will put aside her curiosity for Cedric’s ‘hatred’ for now.

“You somehow know about her, though. I still want to know how. When did you first see her?” Alice pressed. 

Cedric placed his hands into his white jacket’s pockets. “A little before you woke up, but I tried to ignore it.”

“How do you know Fake Mom’s from Arcaea? She looked like a regular person in real life, if her stiffness and pale complexion didn’t count.”

If Cedric was speaking the truth, then it could be inferred that Fake Mom did something – she must have been the reason Alice’s reality was confusing. 

Cedric sighed. He reached out a hand and put it on Alice’s head. 

“Try not to worry too much. I’m sure we’ll figure s –”

Alice blinked for the last time in his room.

Then her eyes fluttered open. When they did, she didn’t look around.

They were glued to the white ceiling, her mind lost in an attempt to think.

As she tried to gather words in her head, she heard screams around her. Screams about how she woke up; to get more doctors; to contact the rest of her family. There was a distinct scream on her right side, something about wanting to talk to her first. She was too busy with herself to respond to that quickly, though.

For the first time, she heard people. 

For the first time, she’s somewhere else.

Yes.

It took her a moment to realize and think, This isn’t Arcaea.

Right. There was no…

Wait.

This seemed familiar. 

Hold on –

Alice quickly sat up.

She turned her head to her right, where she knew Cedric was sitting with his strange artwork. 

In her head, she kept thinking of Fake Mom – that she really might be the culprit. 

Despite that, she automatically shouted to Cedric, “What did you do?” 

Chapter Text

Alice touched her face.

Now she remembered: She wasn’t connected to any medical equipment when she woke up.

Was that another proof something was wrong?

No medical equipment, perhaps no coma. Maybe she spawned in the hospital bed with nothing in reality. 

“What? I didn’t do anything. I did nothing,” he said.

Another lie, right?

With that said, she turned her hands to Cedric. 

She tackled him, sending her body off the hard bed. They both landed with a thud.

“Alice! What are you doing?” He grabbed her arms and pushed her back.

“You did something,” She said confidently this time. She didn’t care if it was accusative – she refused to be treated like a naive child.

“I didn’t! I just got here!” Another lie.

He panted, sliding away from Alice. 

“I’ve been here before. This is all wrong,” She said.

The faint beeping in the background seemed to go faster, matching Alice’s heartbeat. She anticipated an answer from him, but didn’t get it. He stood up after sliding away, keeping his gaze away from her.

What truth is he hiding? Why doesn’t he want to face me? She sat on the floor wondering.

Several doctors and other hospital staff entered the room. Cedric faced them, nervously picking at his brown jacket. 

“Alice is in shock,” he said.

Alice stood up. “No I’m not!”

“She attacked me! I don’t know why!” 

“There was a reason why!”

They argued with each other just like that. Several doctors discussed amongst each other in the background, wondering what was going on.

“Excuse me,” one of the doctors rang. “Let’s settle this peacefully and slowly. Calm down and start from the beginning.”

Alice gasped. 

The doctor that spoke was Fake Mom. Despite looking very much like a doctor – with the white coat and light brown hair in a bun – she still had an alien aura to her. 

First this woman played the role of their mother, and now she was one of the hospital staff. 

Alice looked at Cedric, wondering if he noticed the same thing. 

Something in his face briefly said he did, but he said, “Okay. We’ll start from the beginning.” 

So Alice’s eyes fluttered open. When they did, she didn’t look around.

They were glued to the white ceiling, her mind lost in an attempt to think.

As she tried to gather words in her head, she heard screams around her. Screams about how she woke up; to get more doctors; to contact the rest of her family. There was a distinct scream on her right side, something about wanting to talk to her first. She was too busy with herself to respond to that quickly, though.

For the first time, she wanted to get out of here.

So she spun to her right.

She tried to tackle Cedric again and demand an answer, but he wasn’t there. 

So who screamed in his spot?

“Miss, everything’s going to be okay,” Alice turned around and saw the doctor version of Fake Mom. The woman stood over her bedside with a warm and concerned look.

“What’s going on?” She asked despite knowing very well this mess might be because of her.

Fake Mom opened her mouth.

And nothing came out –

Because Alice’s eyes fluttered open.

Again. 

Any attempt to speak, to move, to think –

Only resulted in opening her eyes.

It was like that for the next fifty loops.

It was like the world refused to let her look for anyone. 

The entire ordeal felt like it only lasted mere seconds. Despite that, Alice felt like going mad.

She wanted to cry. She had no one to ask about this and no one willing to help her.

Her brother was weird, Fake Mom kept haunting reality, and she learned nothing.

Would anyone stop this...?

Finally, Alice’s eyes fluttered open. When they did, she definitely looked around.

In the many loops before, she had awoken to beautiful daylight and lively sounds. But as she tried to gather words in her head, she noticed that the room was dark. The ceiling was cracked and moldy; the flowers beside her had wilted; and even the striped outfit she wore was covered in dirt and stains. The room’s furniture appeared to have been thrown around in rage.

Only moonlight illuminated the place through the window.

No noises – no doctors, no beeps from the medical equipment. 

No Cedric rejoicing.

Alice gasped when she found herself on her feet, having been able to leave her bed at last.

Just… where was she?

What happened to reality?

Was she even… home? 

Did home ever exist or was this place a figment of her imagination? Or a figment of Arcaea?

She tried to call out for doctors.

No one answered.

“Cedric?”

…

No response.

She opened her room’s door.

She peered into the dark and dusty, crumbling hallway. 

She saw him.

Cedric was right there, in the outfit she saw from her last memory before death. He wore a brown hooded sweatshirt with a white shirt underneath. He had looser slacks over his legs along with comfortable, simple shoes. Notably, he looked pristine and heavenly compared to the setting’s mess. 

Like a… god. A god in the shape of her brother. 

“What did you do?” Alice echoed.

“Nothing.” 

Chapter Text

“You’re lying again,” she said calmly and surely. No more crying out like a little kid.

“Not.. really,” he said with slight resignation. 

“It’s not just Fake Mom doing something, right?”

Fake Mom and Cedric’s actions weren’t mutually exclusive. Reality hurt her head enough, and now she was dealing with two people behind the loops. 

She didn’t want to wait for his response. “Don’t ever do that to me again, please.” 

Cedric hesitated as he walked forwards. “I’ll try not to. Sorry, it was just because of how Fake Mom was here. I took care of her.”

Whatever that meant. 

He probably noticed the hurt and distrust on her face. He put his hand on her head. “Let’s take a walk outside, okay?”

Alice accepted the offer despite it all.

So they went outside.

Strangely enough, the world outside wasn’t ruined like the hospital – every building remained intact, every street and sidewalk seemed clean. 

There were several oddities, though – all the lights were off, from every single street lamp to the stores and apartment complexes; there were no vehicles in sight, not even in the parking lots or an occasional one whizzing by; and especially no ambient noises that would fill up Earth. No car screeches from afar, no rumbling from freeways, no distant conversations.

It was like the world had gone into a coma instead of Alice. 

It scared her a little, to be honest. Arcaea already gave her a fear of liminal spaces.

She had Cedric, though. Weird and mysterious, but still with a flair of his usual silliness. Maybe he would say ‘surprise’ and say this was a prank.

She could only hope as they walked side-by-side in the streets.

“Where am I?” She asked. 

“You’re almost home. We just need to walk several blocks.”

“No. Where am I? This place, the loops, the lies.”

“Um,” he scratched his head. Probably thinking of some lie, because he got distracted and almost hit a pole. He dodged it and answered, “Like I said, almost home.”

“I’m in Arcaea, aren’t I?” 

He stopped in his tracks without a response.

…

So there’s the answer. 

“So I never made it out,” Alice concluded. Then she took her words back and said, “But this can’t be. I must be okay, there’s no way  –”

“Slow down!” Cedric interrupted her. “You’re thinking too fast. I have the answer, I just don’t know how to explain it.”

“This is Arcaea! We’re all dead here. You’re dead too, right? Maybe this is a memory from the future? Alternate life? But I died, there’s no way I’m in a memory where I was alive after all.”

“Slow! Down!” Cedric raised his voice louder. He madly shook his hand in front of her face. “I think this is what Arcaea calls a, what? Oddity? Mystery?”

“An anomaly,” Alice realized.

She remembered what anomalies were in Arcaea. 

They were shards that stood out from the rest.

In the last a thousand years, Alice only ran into an anomaly once. She found it in the white sky, hovering with a blue glow. She didn’t view its contents, but her head hummed the word ‘anomaly’ the moment she saw it. 

Is this what this world is? An anomaly?

If that was the case…

“You’re not my real brother, then. You’re just another projection from a memory – the real Cedric might have never hated me,” Alice concluded. The thought of that was half saddening and half comforting.

“Woah there! I don’t hate you that much. You’re still endearing, twerp.”

 “Or, again, you’re dead like me.”

“‘A’ for effort in that theory. But the thing is, I’m alive through and through,” he teased her in the darkness. 

“What?”

“I found this place. I found a strange shard, the anomaly you just said.”

“...What?”

Cedric made a frustrated noise. Was Alice expected to understand after everything? “I’m not dead, I’m not like Tenniel. I found my way into Arcaea and saw you here.”

Somehow, Alice didn’t believe that.

He probably caught that. “You don’t believe me, don’t you?”

“It should be impossible. I haven’t seen anyone else here in Arcaea. For all I know, I might be the only person here,” Alice backed up, having wanted to run away but couldn’t. She found herself hitting a pole by accident. “You’re also not dead. Arcaea is for dead people.”

“I’m a… special person,” he hesitated again. It was like he struggled choosing the right word.

What did he mean? A magician? A god?

“What can you do?” She asked.

“Anything you ask.”

She gulped. That was a broad prompt. 

“Then show me proof that this is an anomaly.”

The sleeping world of darkness collapsed. It was like a stage with its curtains, rods, and props falling down and whirling away. 

Even then, she knew in her heart that they were still within this dream. They didn’t teleport out of it.

The two of them found themselves in a white world. Decayed buildings dotted the blinding landscape, reaching into the clouded skies. Shards of glass speckled the scene, many of them flying at reduced rates or unmoving. 

This was… Arcaea.

They saw someone here in Arcaea.

And Alice gasped.

That person was her, skewered through with multiple translucent sharp points. 

Glass, she realized – Arcaea shards had landed and compacted together after ceasing movement. She realized they clumped together to the point of becoming icicles that held her in place. Speaking of which, this image of herself even seemed glassy. 

Her blue eyes seemed unwavering and thoughtless. Blank and dead. 

Who knows how long she stood there with no sign of life, surrounded by forgotten memories?

“This is you,” Cedric could not have been any more obvious. Then he pointed to a strange shard above the frozen Alice’s head – it had a notable blue glow to it. “And that is what I saw floating above your head.”

Alice’s eyes twitched. “What’s this? Why am I not moving? I don’t … I don’t remember giving up. I keep moving forwards to find my way home.”

“I don’t know, I kept trying to talk to you but you didn’t budge. Who knows what really happened before the anomaly came? I think it tried to grant your wish despite you giving up at some point.”

She continued to stare at him. “You’re lying.”

He widened his eyes. “No I’m not! I’m just telling you what I saw!”

“How do I know this isn’t another one of your tricks? Why did you lie to me before, and then give up and reveal your godhood?” 

Come to think of it, she should have asked him for an explanation on his powers. How come no memory shard depicted him playing with his powers?

Had he never shown anyone his gift? 

What if Cedric was a fake as well – another anomaly Arcaea created?

The scene of Arcaea broke away, whiteness turning into little flakes and the sky growing walls. Then they found themselves at the broken hospital again, in Alice’s room.

Alice noticed she was on the dirty floor, but she didn’t know how. Though, based on the position of her legs, it seemed like someone had pushed her down.

She saw Cedric with a curved, orange blade placed at his throat. Behind him was a woman with long, light brown hair. 

It was Fake Mom. 

This time, however, she had long black horns and pointed ears. She wore a black and orange dress with tattered ends, which blew along the turquoise fires from her scythe. 

“So you’re the one who entered this place,” she glared. 

Chapter Text

“Mom?” Cedric asked, his face illuminated by the scythe’s turquoise flames. Even as they danced along his body, he wasn’t burning. 

“Don’t act innocent. You tried to fend me off fifty times, but that won’t work now,” Fake Mom warned.

She pressed the orange blade harder, right where his jaw met his neck. Cedric stood stiffly, fingers splayed out as though demonstrating he wasn’t armed. 

Alice crawled forwards, the dust and grime soiling her hands. “Stop! He’s my brother!”

“Not all siblings come with good intentions. He is going against the purpose of this anomaly, this nonexistent memory.”

“I just wanted to see Alice,” Cedric nervously said. 

“What is the purpose of this anomaly?” Alice asked. So many questions, so many things happening at once.

What was Fake Mom going for?

“Whatever it is, I’m trying to get you out of the anomaly. It’s okay,” he responded. 

“He’s lying,” Fake Mom hissed. “He’s not here to get you out – he’s here to alter it for selfish gains.”

Selfish gains? Alice wondered. 

“Who are you? What’s your name?” she asked Fake Mom. “Did you travel here like Cedric did?”

Her expression was still shrouded by the dark room despite the flickering flames. “You can call me Lethe. I’m just like you and the other women in Arcaea.”

So there really were other dead people here.

Lethe continued, “I found you frozen like the other women. The anomaly shard over you. When I entered it, I realized that you were living a separate life here. I theorized that the anomaly occurred because you wanted to live on despite giving up. Nobody can get out of Arcaea, so the least I can do is put you under my protection.”

Cedric was right. He wasn’t lying about her predicament after all.

The other women, too. Just like her, they gave up after a thousand years.

They froze too, but she didn’t know if any part of their mind survived like hers did.

Alice felt some regret after the realization. 

“Protection?” she asked. 

“I look after the memories I collect. I believe that they are stories of the past – souls of those long before,” Lethe explained, still having a tight grasp on Cedric. “Finding your anomaly and your frozen self supported my beliefs, especially since we’re both denizens of Arcaea. I have watched you the entire time.”

Even then, the truth didn’t stop the onslaught of questions.

Who was the villain? Who could be trusted? 

Was Lethe being truthful about protecting her? Was Cedric trying to do the same thing? But he said he tried to get her out of Arcaea, right? Did their goals and ideals somehow clashed with each other?

“What did my brother ever do to you?” Alice finally stood up. 

She refused to believe he was here for ‘selfish gains’ and to mess up the anomaly. If that was the case, how come he wasn’t fighting back? If he were evil, he should resist and fight Lethe right away.

Unless he believed he was that powerful.

“I sensed a disruption in the anomaly. I restarted the loop in hopes I could catch the culprit, but he hid himself all along,” Lethe explained. “It turned out the one behind it was someone you already knew – someone impossible.” 

Alice almost stuttered. “Impossible?” 

“Living people shouldn’t be in Arcaea. From my understanding, men are not allowed in Arcaea, either.”

Alice’s heart fell. 

She remembered Tenniel. In the end, he was an illusion – a projection, a feeble attempt to recreate Cedric. 

There was no brother here.

If Lethe’s words meant anything, no dead men wandering Arcaea, either. 

“I’m here, aren’t I? I did an amazing feat, I’m amazing,” Cedric said, loosening his body a little. His joke darkly reminded Alice of Tenniel’s own pride. 

“You remind me of her. Keep up that confidence and I won’t take you so lightly,” she warned. “You’re alive as well. It should be much easier for me to kill you this time.”

“I just want to see Alice, what else do I have to beg for?” Cedric raised his voice. 

Alice couldn’t tell if he teleported or if he moved so quickly. 

But there he was, having escaped the scythe’s threat and now in front of Lethe. 

The ruined hospital ruin, illuminated by the turquoise flames and Cedric’s radiant self, seemed darker than ever. It was like the anomaly was counting towards its last moments, doomed to fall under the two fighting powers.

“Now you’re begging?” Lethe twirled her weapon. “You weren’t begging before when you wandered around here playing god - thinking you can steal her away from me, when I'm the one with lifelong capabilities to protect –”

“SHUT UP!” Cedric shouted with uncharacteristic rage –

Though, she swore she saw him angry in a memory before –

Lastly, she saw him raise out his hand and snapped his fingers.

Before Alice could take in any of Lethe’s words, the cool ground below fell into a million pieces. 

Alice fell down the hole. 

She kept falling and falling, until she swore she was in another land.

Only, it wasn’t.

She knew she was still in Arcaea somewhere, just not herself…

Definitely not herself.

This was someone else’s mind and memories. They were memories that have never showed themselves in Arcaea.

They were Cedric's memories.

Chapter Text

Cedric knew he was special since, well, forever.

It started as a mental twinge during his toddler years, romping around at the park.

He couldn’t rationalize the feeling or understand it, but he knew he could get the playground swings to move by themselves. He could beckon his parents over if he really needed them. Sometimes his bad dreams and worries would come true. They'd go away just as quickly if he wanted to stop worrying.

Those were not coincidences. Deep inside, he knew.

When he was young, he tested a theory.

“Can we get a cat?” he asked their father at the square table. 

He asked just to be polite.

“Can is a good question! I don’t know if we can…” he quickly swallowed his food. He muttered something about them recently having Alice.

“I want a cat though. I wanna name it ‘Felis,’” Cedric pressed. “I want a cat! I want a cat!”

Their mother – their actual mother – with the blond hair chuckled. “One day.” 

One day came – well, it was the next day. A russet-colored cat found its way to their house, with a broken leg. The family felt bad and took it in for some time. Eventually, it grew attached to them and they took it as their pet. 

They named it Felis. 

Cedric’s theory was confirmed. He could wish for things. Now all he had to do was learn how to not do anything bad by accident.

But: Where did his powers come from? Why did he have them? 

The question quickly faded away for now -

About Felis – poor guy didn’t last long. The cat only lived for two years before getting run over by a car. They found out when the regular biker visited their door, dropping a paper bag with a note attached: I saw the poor thing across the street and thought I should tell you. 

Cedric kept sobbing. Alice sobbed too, even though she was too young to understand why.

Why cry, though? He could wish for another cat, he liked having company.

But as Alice grew up, he found a companion in her.

He loved her as much as his friends from school. In fact, as Cedric grew up, Alice and his friends were subject to his powers.

His friends ‘randomly found’ extra money in their wallets. Alice’s missing notebooks often appeared by her bedside whenever they went missing. Sometimes he would prank their parents by temporarily making their keys go missing.

If he felt like it, sometimes he would finish his homework without lifting a pencil. 

That’s where the problem came in: Life was boring if you could get everything done and fulfilled with special powers. Cedric thought he made the right decision when he wanted to do things the way normal people did… even if it was manually doing homework. 

Also, what satisfaction can you get if you got everything illegitimately? Or if you magicked people into appreciating you?

There had to be something out there he could work for. Something that required skill, not powers.

Drawing.

He wanted to become a beloved artist without using his powers at all. 

And he hasn't told anyone about his powers.

How would they react?

Would they fear him? Try to respect and worship him? Accuse him of cheating his way into art industry fame?

Whatever. He needed to put all the bad thoughts away. 

It helped that Alice was the first one to approve of his dream. She needed an artist to complement her author persona.

How about their parents’ reactions? 

Their mother approved too, since she did digital art commissions in her spare time. 

Their father chuckled it off, but that worried Cedric the more he grew up. Especially after their mother passed away.

Cedric was in college when he fully realized it.

“Cedric, you should pick up another major or choose a minor,” the man shook his head, sipping the tea at the dining table. “An art major won’t help you much.” 

“But I want to be an artist,” he insisted from the table’s other side. 

“Oh, you can! I was just saying, that’s all,” their father blankly stared at where their mother used to sit. His long ahoge flopped sadly today.

“I can be a famous artist! Think about it!” Cedric forced a smile. 

“It’s highly competitive, right? I was thinking you should take after Alice and write something, too,” he suggested.

Cedric frowned a little. 

That was one of the many ‘hints’ that their father supported Alice’s hobby more.

Then he added something he shouldn’t have. “Alice loves writing. She could become an English teacher, or write for the daily newspaper. She could even write the next episode of Family Guy, wouldn’t you agree? We should watch that together sometime.” he joked. 

Cedric ignored him. It was as though their father tried telling him there was no hope in an art career. 

It was as though Alice was better. 

He knew their father loved them equally. He knew, because he asked a coin and it landed on heads – the heads side was for ‘yes.’ Though, Cedric chalked it up to probability and not, say, his god abilities.

Could he magick his dad into supporting his art career? He could, but again… It wouldn’t feel genuine. It wouldn’t feel like he’s a person. What’s approval if you force someone into loving you?

To think that Cedric could have done everything he needed to if he wasn’t a chicken.

Would he have been brave enough to tell the family about his powers?

Would he be able to give Alice the same abilities?

What if in an alternate universe, they were gods in partner?

…

What if he prevented their mother from dying?

What if he brought her back to life? 

What if he made his father happy again?

What if he prevented Alice from getting the same terminal illness?

What if he revealed himself before she died?

What if…?

No. No more what-ifs. 

Now it was just Cedric and their father left.

“You can’t just draw all day!” their father suddenly shouted across the table. It seemed so uncharacteristic of him. “Please focus on what’s happening.”

Cedric crumpled the napkin – he was drawing on it for reasons he forgot – and tossed it into a nearby bin. He swept his brown hair aside. 

“Of course I’m going to think about that, you’re just mad,” he said.

“Mad? Of course I am, no parent should be deciding whether to empty out their daughter’s room or leave it the way it is,” he muttered. Then he sighed. “We just gotta do what we gotta do.” 

“You’re always mad!” he accused him. “You’re just mad that Mom liked to draw too, and now you’re too upset to even look at my art.” 

Their father widened his eyes. “Cedric –”

“Alice this, Alice that. You’d do anything to avoid art.”

Cedric tried his best to calmly walk to his room. It failed, though, because he gave his father a sarcastic goodbye wave. 

“Hey, kid…!”

Cedric had already stomped into his room.

Unlike in the anomaly, his room had clearly defined furniture – a desk by the window with a gaming computer glowing blue and red; a cork board beside the window with to-do lists on sticky notes; and a well-done blue bed.

He did have artworks and posters on the walls. However, they were also clearly defined – canvas art of landscapes he drew himself; official posters for Kalpa and One Piece, and miscellaneous pieces of printer paper he drew on. 

Here… he was normal.

Cedric slammed himself into his blue bed and shoved the pillow over his head.

Here in this ‘memory,’ Alice could hear his thoughts loud and clear:

This is unfair.

I can’t be like Alice. I can’t do anything meaningful without my powers.

Chapter Text

Life was too short to be worrying about their father’s ‘favoritism.’

So, in the meantime, Cedric spent his time being petty. It was the least he could do to have some semblance of power and worth.

Making their father’s keys disappear twice as frequent. Swapping cars around in parking lots, hoping they'd confuse people later. Have strangers' hair stick up and dance in public. And his favorite trick from watching Jojo: Turn some kids’ money into butterflies, have the butterflies land in his hand, and then make them unfold into money again.

Even then, nothing felt satisfying.

He quickly realized being a troll and thief isn’t letting his art career go anywhere. It was not moving the Liddell family anywhere, either.

It was still just him and his father – uncomfortable meals, forced giggles and waves, and unspoken hurt. Deep down, they loved each other but couldn’t say it.

He slammed himself into his blue bed again. 

What can I do? He asked himself. How could he make the family whole again?

One day, he shoved the pillow over his head. A stupid idea came to him:

He could find Alice, right?

Afterlife is somewhere, right? People were always talking about heaven this, reincarnation that. God and Satan, blah blah.

Should I look for Alice? Cedric’s face peeped out under the pillow, pale eyes widening. 

Was it worth it? 

Alice wasn’t here now, ha.

He’s an only child now. He had all the time in the world to legitimately make their father appreciate his career. 

At the same time, it couldn’t hurt to check. Maybe the house’s atmosphere would stop being so somber if Alice were here. 

And their mother, too. He wondered if she was waiting somewhere with Alice.

Well, that’s assuming they didn’t reincarnate or ‘moved on’ yet.

Cedric went for it, anyway. This little planet was too limited for someone like him. He needed to see where his powers could take him – if he could even get to Alice.

In a heartbeat, he disappeared from his room.

He tried to find their mother and sister.

He tried finding their mother first, but her voice was nowhere. Maybe she moved on.

Cedric did hear Alice's 'voice.' Something about it felt a little off. A changeling? An impostor? A devil luring him somewhere? An Echo of the past? 

Whatever. He could find a copy of Alice's soul somewhere and still be satisfied.

He walked in the darkness, his brown jacket’s hood thrown over his head for some privacy. He walked towards a shining world in the distance. Somehow, its aura was wrong – lawless and nonsensical. It hit Cedric like a wave, like a sea.

There was one law – there has to be. That law wouldn’t let him in.

Why? Did it sense that he wasn’t from there? 

Alice was in there, though. He needed to break through this bright world.

He wondered for a while…

“You should be careful,” a blunt, mildly condescending voice said.

He turned around. He saw a woman with long, pale hair dressed in some type of military garb. Or, well, he thought it looked like one. He mostly noticed her unsettling blue eyes.

“Oh?” Cedric put his hands into his pockets.

“You’re here for something too, aren’t you?” 

Cedric flinched a little. Should he lie or…?

“Sorta,” he said. “What about you?”

“Similar boat. I'm halfway done with what I wanted to do, so I am coming back to this world. Coming back, you see!"

A little theatrical and flamboyant, he thought. Almost a little prideful, too. Somehow, he didn't like her behavior. Whoever she was, however she acted – it shouldn’t matter in the long run, right? 

Was she like him, though? Same powers?

If that was the case, is that why she ‘warned’ him?

Why did he have to be careful?

“The world – Arcaea – will reject you. You have to inscribe your name into its heart,” as though sensing his confusion, she told him. Her mouth curled into a wicked-looking smile - perhaps it was her version of encouragement. "Go inside, go inside! Test your might."

“Um, oh –” he looked at the white world before him. 

Inscribe his name? 

“Go try.”

It sounded like she was taunting him, even if that wasn’t her intention. The way she stood with a hand on her hip didn’t help.

He raised out his hand. He sought for Arcaea’s heart, whatever that was. 

He found it.

He saw everything, absolutely everything. Something in his head told him it was unintentional knowledge. It seemed forbidden to even know.

He wondered if the woman saw this, too.

This girl, Hikari, was a ‘god’ like him.

This world, created by the girl.

Yet, her world was faulty. 

It was meant just for her, but pulled in dead people across various realities.

It didn’t even allow men.

No wonder.

Cedric was not only still alive – he was also a man. Two laws said he couldn't enter.

Such a flaw in the design!

She was another god, but her powers were awry. Cedric wanted to meet this Hikari one day. Maybe they would be great friends in another universe.

He only just realized how lonely it was to secretly have powers.

Cedric then thought of the woman from earlier.

The woman beside him was probably like him, but he didn’t like her. She was creepy.

She was nevertheless insightful, though.

She said he had to inscribe his name, and then force Arcaea to accept it. 

He could! He could!

He was powerful, perhaps even more than Hikari. He could.

There he put it: Cedric Tenniel Liddell. 

It was like putting a knife into the heart of the world, and then twisting it. Arcaea’s aura became mad and overstimulating. It was as though it was furious, trying to force Cedric out and perhaps even kill him. Because if he wanted in, he had to die.

Eventually, its aura stopped writhing. The sea of madness became as calm as a tidepool. 

Its aura felt like a breeze coming at him.

It accepted me, right? Cedric pulled out and went back to the darkness.

The woman was still there, her strange eyes glistening with intrigue.

“Nice job, you’re one interesting young man,” she said. He hoped it was an actual compliment. 

“Thanks,” he smiled a little. 

“You have a lot of potential and power in you. I wonder if we will cross paths again. Let's cross paths again, shall we?"

Cedric considered exchanging names but had a bad feeling about it. He didn't want any foreign entity to follow him back home, or whatever. 

So he simply waved goodbye to her and entered the white world.

He said 'hello' to Arcaea.

Chapter Text

Alice tumbled over, sending several glass shards flying into the sky.

She noticed that the ground was as white as snow. It was as white as the clouded sky above, which had even more glass shards.

She noticed her elegant blue dress. It had several holes that strangely seamed themselves closed – she was ‘whole’ again. She even felt a hat on top of her head. 

White. White. White. 

Glass. Glass. Glass.

She had her haunting realization: This was Arcaea. 

Her dream, her only hope - dead. She never got back home.

Her anomaly was no more.

“Alice!” Cedric cried out. He wore the same cozy outfit with the jacket. “You – you’re free. We should leave now.”

He raised out her hand. 

Alice was on her knees. Now knowing everything about him, she hesitated. 

He noticed. “Come on, Alice. You’re out of the glass that skewered you. Let’s go –”

Lethe appeared behind him.

She swung down her scythe for a kill.

Without looking back, Cedric raised his hand out. His hand met the blade, successfully blocking the hit without bleeding. 

He didn’t flinch. 

“I would really appreciate you leaving us alone,” he said.

Lethe pulled back. She hovered in the air for a brief moment, her yellow eyes furious.

“What is your motive? You're still alive, you're not even dead. You came all the way here with your dark feelings and scheme – you don’t love her, is that right?” she asked. 

Cedric looked like he wanted to speak, but he held back from it. He could only stare at her.

Alice saw his memories. “He wants to take me back home. He wants to fix the family.” 

Lethe landed onto the ground. "He's jealous of you, Alice. Whether he hates you or not, whether he's truly jealous or not... However he feels, it's because of you. I know it relates to his jealousy.”

She walked towards Cedric.

She pointed her scythe at him. “You also think you are a god. In your case, it seemed like you couldn’t find peace in your world. You’re trying to take your sister for yourself, for reasons I am not entirely sure yet.”

Where was Lethe pulling out these assumptions from?

Cedric was only a lonely person – someone who had no other god besides him, someone who wanted the same love Alice got. 

At least, that’s what his memories showed…

Alice looked at his face, hoping to see a visible reaction.

Cedric’s face seemed more furious this time. 

“You didn’t show her everything, did you?” Lethe accused. 

Alice finally asked Cedric, “What’s going on?” 

Cedric ignored her.

Lethe lowered her scythe. “You lied to her. During the loops, in your fit of anger... You wished you could have removed her existence. You wished you could be the only child. That's why before she woke up again - before I finally caught you - you probed the memory and pretended to be the only child.”

The sky above remained bright, but the glass gathering gave the illusion of it dimming. It especially darkened Cedric’s face.

"Like I said," Lethe continued. "In this dream: Manipulating your father to pay attention to you more. Delaying Alice from waking up..."

Alice turned to Cedric.

“Is that true?” she asked.

He gave a weak smile. “Yes.”

Her heart broke.

He truly was ambivalent: In between his ‘not quite’ hate and attempt to bring her back, he still greatly desired for belonging.

So much that he wished to be the only child. 

In an effort to be happy. To not be jealous anymore.

He even wished she was gone, even if it was only in anger.

He needed a hug, most of all. 

He didn’t need to get murdered by Lethe.

Alice… really didn’t know what to do in this situation.

She didn’t have the means to stop both of them from fighting.

So she only watched. 

“There’s no way for dead people to get out of here, anyway. There's no way you can fulfill your plans. So the least I can do here is protect Alice and keep her dream alive. I need you to go away,” Lethe said.

“Me? Go away? I’m just here to bring her to the real world,” Cedric hissed. “If anything, you need to get out of her brother’s way.”

“You think your will is worth more than mine? You really do think you’re a god."

“In name only, more like! I don’t know what I am - I could be human - but I want to do good by getting my sister.”

“You are acting like a god! Being high and mighty, no? What good is it if it's for yourself?” 

Cedric pointed at Alice, and then back at himself. “I’m her older brother. I’ve lived with her for over two decades. I know what’s best for her – if she wants to be alive, then I will let her be alive again.”

“But you never asked, did you? Asked if she wanted to stay in Arcaea or go back home? You’re trying to rip her away from here,” Lethe pointed out. 

He reached his hand out to a nearby shard. The glass quickly floated away as though repulsed by him. 

Cedric chuckled. “Back at you. Looks like we have something in common after all.”

Chapter Text

Lethe swung her scythe again. 

In a heartbeat, Alice jolted up and ran towards Cedric. 

She jumped in front of him. 

Shock flashed in Lethe’s eyes. As the scythe came down, she turned it aside so that Alice caught its heel.

“Alice…!” Cedric gasped.

Lethe widened her eyes. She loosened the force on her scythe. “Why are you protecting him?” 

“He’s good at heart, I know he is. I can show you,” she said. 

She thought of how she could project Arcaea shards – illusions of life’s beauty. Alice wondered if she could show Cedric’s good side to Lethe. Would that be enough to convince her?

Her hands still on Lethe’s scythe, she looked up.

If only she knew which shard in the sky had wonderful memories of Cedric.

Lethe pulled her weapon back. “Those are your memories, Alice. All you’ve ever known about him is that he’s really kind. He’s slowly unveiling his true self.”

Alice continued to stare at her. 

No matter what, she refused to let a dead stranger control her.

Maybe Lethe was wrong.

She pointed her scythe at them – no, just Cedric. He stood behind her, after all.

“People like him never lead to anything good,” she continued. “Especially when it comes to tampering the memories I tend.”

When Alice blinked, she noticed he was now behind Lethe. He leaned into her ear. “Again? It sounds like you’re projecting Arcaea trauma onto me.”

Lethe spun around, sending white dust everywhere. 

Cedric disappeared just as quickly. He rematerialized behind her.

“What bothers you so much?” he said. 

She spun around again, swinging the blade at Cedric. Just like earlier, he blocked the attack by raising out his hand. 

“You want to take something away from me. You’re just like Saya,” Lethe accused, her voice as quiet as ever.

Cedric scowled. “But you tend to memories, right? If that’s the case, then Alice isn’t a memory. She’s a person… Like you.”

“She has her anomaly, her home. You’re ripping her away from it!” 

Cedric pursed his lips. He raised an eyebrow.

"You’re crazy, you’re obsessed. Alice would never love to be with you.”

Something about Lethe’s expression broke – her eyes widened and her mouth was agape. 

It contrasted her mysterious yet warm and protective personality. 

This time, Cedric failed to hold back the blade.

His hand fell away with a shout. 

And Lethe’s scythe went down.

“Cedric!” Alice ran forwards, reaching out in a futile attempt to save him.

As the blade hit his body, he exploded into a million playing cards. They scattered all over snowflakes.

Alice reached out for one of them. The moment she took one, the cards lit up and disintegrated. That reminded her of how her projected memories disappeared.

Lethe’s cry broke her train of thought.

She quickly looked at the woman. 

There was a long cut on her pale cheek. 

Its color was red – red like human blood.

Alice supposed that even horned people – no, reapers, because Alice realized that’s who Lethe was – bled, too. 

Right next to Lethe was Cedric. He had a playing card in one hand, which was edged with Lethe’s blood. 

For a while, there was no new reaction from either party. Lethe continued to stand in shock, bleeding. Cedric stoically remained there with the bloodied card out. It was like when TV shows slowed-down an action scene, stretching it out for the audience to watch. 

“I don’t know who Saya is, but she fought you, right? Maybe she saw through your obsessive behavior,” Cedric wiped blood off the card. He put it over his mouth, obscuring his reaction. “You could never accept Arcaea, if you keep acting like everything here is a soul.”

“I’m not like Saya! I accept my duty to the fullest. I’m not heartless like she was – like you ,” Lethe hissed at him.

Time resumed with a quick gust of wind. Cedric’s playing card flew away uselessly, now lost among the shards.

Lethe quickly made a motion with one hand.

What did that mean?

Was she summoning something…?

In a heartbeat, Lethe spun around –

And Cedric screamed, making Alice flinch.

She focused her attention again.

Lethe’s scythe slung over her shoulder, harmless as ever.

Lethe’s other hand, however, had a grayish blue cross. She wasn’t holding that before.

She held onto the cross like a knife, its short end being the ‘hilt’ and the longer end being the ‘blade.’ 

The longer end stabbed into Cedric’s side, staining his jacket red…

“C-Cedric,” Alice stuttered. 

She was afraid –

For him.

But she shouldn’t, right? He was a god, he could wish for anything. 

He wished to be here, he could wish to make himself whole again.

Then he could wish for them to leave. To exit Arcaea.

“Look who hurt me. Look who is the monster here,” Cedric said. His expression was somewhere between anxious joking and boasting. 

“I am no monster,” Lethe dug the cross deeper. 

Cedric screamed even more. He grabbed onto her arm in an attempt to pull the cross out. A feeble move that only a powerless human could do. 

Why is he doing that? He’s capable of escaping using his powers. Alice wondered. She thought that maybe he was scheming something, hence the helplessness.

At least he was capable of something.

Alice had no chance with a god and a reaper.

Right?

She supposed she could do something. 

That was to make a wish, to choose whether to remain with Lethe or go home with Cedric. After all, that was the core reason why they fought. 

She needed to be confident, to have her voice heard for once.

She needed to make a choice.

Chapter Text

“I want to go home with Cedric,” Alice announced.

Lethe turned her head back. Her yellow eyes were wide. “You can’t. No one here can go home – we’re all dead.”

“Cedric’s not like us. He’s a god, he can make things happen. He can take me home.”

“Even gods bleed – They even have faults within them. Just because he can doesn’t mean he should.” 

Lethe pulled the cross out. Cedric’s blood splashed onto the white ground. 

He stumbled onto the earth, clutching at his bleeding side. 

“Knock it off,” he heaved. “You can’t do a fraction of what I can do. It’s hopeless.”

He snapped his fingers. 

In a blink, his stained jacket became spotless. The rip stitched itself up.

Cedric folded into a criss-cross position. “With that said, please leave us alone. We’re going to leave peacefully.”

“Peacefully?” Lethe readied her scythe, the cross disappearing into turquoise flames. “You attacked me.”

“You attacked me first! I wasn’t even planning to kill you!” 

“You tampered with the anomaly. You’re interfering with my duty.”

“You’re taking my sister away from me!” 

Lethe walked towards Cedric. She gently tapped his head with the scythe’s tip. 

Using her other hand, she wiped away the blood on her face, “You’re still talking about that? You’re full of contradictions, wavering between loving and despising her. Wanting her gone, yet attempting to take her back.”

Lethe sighed out. The glass shards hovered above three of them like vultures.

She quietly added, “I pity you, young god. I really do.”

Cedric frowned. “I’m not a god.”

In a blink, he disappeared from his spot.

Alice heard him speak from behind her. “I’m human. My feelings are flawed; they don’t make sense half the time.”

“It’s how you react to your flawed thinking,” the reaper didn’t turn around. “Throughout the loops, throughout this whole time… you’re playing god. You want everything for yourself, could you even call that human?”

In another blink, he appeared behind Lethe. 

“I’m not like Hikari, the creator of this world – Arcaea,” his voice turned colder. “I’m not like you, who is always clinging onto the past –”

“You’re clinging on, too. Long after Alice died, you still believe you don’t amount to anything. Some part of you believes that bringing Alice back will fix the family,” Lethe contemplatively turned the scythe in her hands. She still didn’t turn around. 

“I’m moving forward. I’m –”

“If you were moving forward, you wouldn’t even be here. You would have used your powers to, instead, live the way you’d always wanted: Loved and noticed.”

Lethe didn’t have to turn around.

The hollow look on Cedric’s face said she landed a silent hit. 

Even Alice found herself frozen by Lethe’s words.

Her brother, who wanted her gone yet planned to bring her back.

Her brother, still seeking validation.

Her brother, incapable of moving on.

He truly was lonely, a combination of secret godhood and missing approval. 

“I… have no words,” Cedric said. 

“You concede. That means you admit I’m right,” Lethe finally turned her head back. She had a tense expression. 

Cedric dug his hand into his hair, tousling it out of frustration. “You’re not right, you’ll never be right. I’m not letting a horned freak tell me who I am.”

He took a couple steps back and waved his hand up. 

The white sky shook, and then it turned into blinding colors. A vortex appeared in the sky, filaments of colors pulsing. It resembled an eye surveying all of Arcaea.

“That’s it – I’m leaving with my sister,” he announced. “I’ll make everything right again.”

“Make everything right?” Lethe gripped onto her scythe harder. “You’re going to have to leave Alice here to do that.”

“You heard her! She wants to go home, and she will.”

“NO!” the reaper cried out. 

She turned around fully this time. 

And she jumped forward, readying her scythe.

“Stop it!” Alice jumped in front of Cedric.

Just like last time, there was a flash of shock in Lethe’s eyes. In a second, she relented and slowed herself down. Alice once again intercepted the scythe, catching onto its heel. 

“Please let us go!” Alice pleaded.

“Stay out of this, please,” Lethe’s eyes bore down on her.

Cedric gasped. “T-thank you, Alice.”

The sky pulsed even more, dripping down lightning and rain. Violent gusts of wind tossed glass shards and white dust everywhere. The sky spurted out more unnatural noises – whirring, thunder, and howls – to the point even Lethe looked at the sky. She pulled back her scythe.

What’s going to happen to us? Alice wondered. 

How powerful was Cedric, really? 

For him to enter Arcaea and then damage the sky to escape?

Will everyone else in Arcaea be able to come out? 

Will this… will this destroy all of Arcaea?

Chapter Text

Alice started to float, and so did Cedric.

“No, no,” Lethe shook below them. “You can’t leave, the dead can’t roam amongst the living.”

“Cedric’s going to find a way,” Alice remarked.

The sky’s colors shifted and stretched apart, allowing the dark gate to open up further. Winds rolled around as the sky howled even more. The onslaught of wind was so strong that it blew Alice’s hat away.

At last, the vortex drew them in. 

Alice gasped. Not because of the exit she awaited for, but because Cedric’s body broke apart. His limbs melted into a catastrophic mess, his face nearly unrecognizable. He reached out what was left of his hand and snapped his fingers.

Just like that, he became whole again. 

“Sorry,” he chuckled as they floated closer to the gate. “Arcaea tried to reject me again, so I had to deal with that.”

“That’s not going to be me, right?” Alice gulped. The winds grew even stronger here as though Arcaea didn’t want her to leave. 

“I won’t let that happen.”

“Alice!”

They turned around.

Flying behind them was Lethe, sitting on her scythe. It reminded Alice of how witches flew on their broomsticks. 

“You saw what happened to your brother,” Lethe called out. “Arcaea will destroy you if you try to go through its seams. The only safe solution is to stay and live inside your anomaly.”

“It won’t destroy her. It tried to remove me despite already putting my name inside its heart. That’s it,” Cedric clarified.

So he really was as powerful as she thought.

To inscribe his name, and to do it again once Arcaea gave up…

“That’s all to say, really. We won’t ever come back here,” he announced with a silly wave – Alice couldn’t tell if he was joking or being sarcastic. “Goodbye!”

“No!”  

Cedric ignored Lethe and held onto Alice’s arm. He pulled her through the gate.

Alice cried out –

She noticed her body was turning into glass threads. 

Her hair, her clothes, her limbs – they all split into tiny, prismatic parts. Not a single drop of blood shed because her insides, too, unraveled into glass. 

What’s happening? She thought despite her head splitting apart. 

Even as she fully became ropes of glass, she could still feel –

She felt scared, although the process didn’t hurt.

It felt more like pinpricks of chilliness. 

“Uh…” she saw Cedric beside her. He still held onto her – the mess of glass tangles. “It’s okay, I think you’re alive.”

With a yank, the two of them finally crossed to the other side:

The pitch black void Alice saw in Cedric’s memory.

Before either of them could react, Alice heard a chilling voice.

“Hello, hello again…”

Cedric gasped.

“... Cedric.”

Alice nearly tumbled over in alarm. Speaking of which, that’s when she realized her body melded back into shape. Glass threads slowly became hair, clothes, and limbs.

“You again,” Cedric backed away. He positioned himself behind Alice, holding onto her reformed shoulders.

That’s right, it was the same woman with the pale hair and strange eyes. 

With a finger, she fidgeted with her infinity loop-shaped earring. “You looked like you were struggling.” 

Cedric looked down at Alice. “Sort of, she was turning into glass threads when we came through.” 

“That’s a normal thing. I experienced that, too.”

Alice raised a brow. Did this woman take someone from Arcaea?

Cedric then asked, “How do you know my name?”

“Strange, strange. Your name is a sensitive topic?” the woman eyed him. “You don’t resemble fae folk. I guess you don’t like people knowing your name, then.”

“Uh,” Cedric didn’t know what to say.

“We were just leaving,” Alice quickly explained to her. 

“And what are you doing here again?” he asked her.

“Still on my quest, you see. My quest!” Just like in Cedric’s memory, she had that flamboyant flair in her response. 

“Oh, I see,” he poked Alice to usher her forward. “I don’t know how you know my name, but this will be the last time I’m here. So goodbye.”

“Already? You two looked like you were chased,” she pointed out. Her mouth curled into an amused smile. “Care to tell me the problem?” 

There was a loud noise behind them.

They turned around.

The gate to Arcaea was still there. Spools of glass threads came through, inciting a gasp from Cedric. 

The mysterious woman gazed at the new mess of glass. “Interesting, interesting…” she looked at Cedric. “You should close the gate next time, lest someone else comes through. I assume this is the person chasing you?”

“Yeah,” Cedric nodded. Then his blue eyes lit up. “Wait, can you… Can you buy us time?”

“It’s ‘may,’” Alice teased him. They needed to be polite to a potential helper!

“Oh, shut up.” 

“Buy you guys time? Time, time, time,” she sang the last bit to herself, musing. “So you two really are chased.”

“Yes, by some obsessive horned woman. Like, a reaper. You know, those thingies in the afterlife who collect souls and have a scy –” Cedric tried to explain.

The woman interrupted him with a fascinated expression. “A reaper! I’ve heard a lot about those. I have never seen one myself."

More glass threads emerged from the gate. In fact, they slowly started to take form.

“She wants my sister,” Cedric added. “She’s going to follow us endlessly.”

The woman walked towards the gate. She chuckled, “I see. I’ll help, then! In fact, maybe it's time I should add one to my collection.” 

Chapter Text

“Collection?” Cedric tilted his head.

“I have a feeling she kidnaps people from Arcaea. Or, well, somewhere else,” Alice said.

“That doesn’t sound nice!” 

Alice looked at the gate again. Lethe had already finished forming, her expression as tense as ever.

“Nevermind,” she furrowed her brows. “We have a bigger issue that’s definitely not any nicer.”

“What? What’s not nice?”

So she grabbed onto Cedric’s arm.

They started running, shooting past the mysterious woman. Cedric kept yelping during the entire run.

“Stop!” he pulled back, awkwardly wobbling to a stop.

“Stop?” Alice pouted. She stopped as well. “I want to go back right now!” 

Cedric yanked his arm away. He put his hand onto his hips.

“Oh look, someone’s showing more visible excitement!” he jested. 

Alice gently slapped his face. “Of course I am, we’re getting closer to home and I’m no longer confused. Why do you want to stop?”

Cedric pointed at the woman and Lethe. They stood directly in front of each other. The scene seemed ominous in the dark void, only lit by the light of Arcaea’s outer shell. 

“The least we could do is make sure we’re not getting followed,” he explained. 

With both arms, Lethe swung out her scythe. She appeared as intimidating as she could, but the woman did not react with fear.

Instead, she smiled and lifted a gloved hand. With that gesture, the gate behind Lethe closed shut. 

With that done, she lowered her hand. Her strange eyes glimmered in the dark.

“Oh my, my, my,” she hummed to herself. “My first reaper. I looked through a thousand worlds and veils, but I could never find one until now.” 

Lethe furrowed her face. “And who are you?”

“My name is not your concern,” she chuckled. 

She walked towards Lethe and raised out a hand. She ran her fingers across one of Lethe’s horns.

“A reaper with horns, one of the less common depictions of such creatures. That’s interesting. Interesting, indeed,” she mused.

Lethe swung her scythe, attempting to swat the woman away. The woman, however, swiftly backed away.

“I will politely ask you to move aside,” Lethe said. “I don’t have time for this.”

“Your time is better used for this,” the woman chuckled again. “I’ve always wanted to find a reaper.”

“Move aside,” Lethe repeated slowly this time.

The woman just kept chuckling. She turned around and pointed at them.

“You kids should leave right now,” she called out. 

Then her chilly gaze directed itself to Cedric.

“You, young man, I cannot thank you enough. Thank you for this moment! Thank you for another encounter in this transient space! I shall receive my gift now,” she fully laughed this time, her other hand pressed against her temple. 

“Yikes,” Alice cringed at her theatrical personality. 

“Erk,” Cedric made an awkward noise while cringing. 

They can’t just stay and cringe forever.

So Alice grabbed his arm again, running into the darkness. 

Behind them, Lethe protested how she wasn’t a gift and plaything.

Behind Alice, Cedric protested too.

He kept saying he wanted to watch the face-off and see this woman’s abilities. He kept insisting that they needed to make sure Lethe wouldn’t follow. 

Alice just ignored him.

She wasn’t a kid. 

She didn’t need someone telling her what’s best or what to do anymore. She trusted her judgment, and that judgment was to run.

Especially when she heard Lethe crying out behind them – crying out in pain, in fear. 

Cedric was one god, but this woman… to think she was another, oh no… 

Had she subdued Lethe that quickly?

Whatever. She didn’t need to know that right now.

What she needed was said loud and clear to Cedric, “Make a wish, take us home!” 

Chapter Text

Alice’s eyes fluttered open. When they did, she automatically looked around.

There was no white ceiling this time. She saw a night sky polluted by light, barely showing any stars. 

This time, she felt more ‘in tune’ with herself.

For instance, there was a pressure in her chest.

A good one.

That was breathing. She vividly felt herself breathing!

Another instance, her back felt hard. Rolling around a little, she realized she laid across a park bench. 

Her fingers ran along the bench. She felt its clear wooden texture.

This was like the anomaly… only, more vivid. More alive.

This was the real world.

“Alice,” she turned her head and saw Cedric looking down. He smiled. “You’re awake. We escaped!”

He helped her up. 

Once Alice got onto her feet, she realized she was no longer in her Arcaea outfit. Instead, she wore a casual blue dress. Courtesy of Cedric’s powers, perhaps – she needed something normal to wear in real life. 

She looked around.

The nearby playground was devoid of children. The skate rink to her right had no skaters. There wasn’t anyone else in the park, not even a late night jogger.

“What time is it?” she tentatively asked. 

She hoped they didn’t land in the wrong reality, one with no people. 

Cedric pulled out his phone. It said 11:02 PM.

“I’m surprised that’s your first question,” he chuckled. “You should be asking about going home! Or something along the lines of Phew! Lethe isn’t here! ”

Okay, he did have a point. She did worry about Lethe – and in extension, the fact that her time in Arcaea was still a fresh memory. They can expect Lethe to swoop down any moment now, really.

But like any average person, she worried about the time.

“It’s late,” she noted. 

“I mean, fair. I left our house around 4 PM to go on the Arcaea adventure.”

Alice gasped. His entire time in Arcaea – the loops and escaping Lethe – took seven hours in real life? All of that felt like a couple hours at most.

“Dad must be worried! You should be home by now!” Alice said. 

Cedric frowned a little. Somehow, it looked like reminding her about home was a mistake. “I mean, not like he cares. I think.” 

He cares. Alice frowned too. Their father did not favor her over him!

“How about we get you something to eat first?” He changed the topic.

Alice made a ‘hmm’ noise.

In Arcaea, she had no need to eat. She could attempt it with a memory, but the food tasted bland. There was no real dining experience.

But here… she could eat again.

“Fine, may I get something sweet to eat?” she asked.

“Sure. I know the best place.”

They went to Divided Heart Japanese Crepes and Sweets. 

Alice saw this place in several memories. It was a place owned and operated by a Japanese family. 

The inside had several red and blue tables lining the white walls. Red and blue garlands hung from the ceiling, dangling stars and ribbons. 

“You again! I knew you would come,” a male worker called out from behind the counter. Behind the counter was an open-view kitchen area. 

He had a mop of blue hair and wore a name tag labeled ‘Haru.’

Do they know each other? Alice wondered.

“We were just about to close, tch tch,” Haru teased as they walked up. 

“Late night snack again,” Cedric slapped his hands on the counter. “Don’t worry, I’ll pay your family fat tips for bothering you guys.”

“Hard-earned money or magically duplicated money?”

Alice gasped. How did he know?

Cedric wasn’t fazed. “Hard-earned money.”

Haru laughed. Then his gaze turned to Alice.

His eyes widened. “What the fuck. Is that –” he cut off when a man entered the kitchen from the back area. He lowered his voice. “Your dead sister?”

Cedric was about to answer, but the man behind Haru spoke up.

He said something snappy in Japanese. Haru responded back in the same language, to which the man simply left the kitchen impatiently. 

Haru shook his hand. “Erm, we’ll talk later,” he went back to normal volume. “My dad’s crabby that we’re getting customers near closing time. Let’s get your orders first.”

Alice noticed there was a menu taped to the counter. Cedric pointed at the Japanese crepe with blueberries, raspberries, and whipped cream. 

“I’ll take the usual, the Shirahime crepe,” he said. “With a scoop of matcha ice cream on top.”

“May I get the Kou crepe?” Alice pointed at the strawberry slices and jam crepe. 

“That’ll be it?” Haru tapped the register.

“That’s it,” Cedric confirmed.

He paid with his card and then threw money into the tip jar. After that, they took a seat. Haru went to the kitchen to make their crepes. 

Once their crepes were done, Haru delivered them to the table. The crepes came in a conical display so that they stood neatly. 

“This looks delicious,” Alice awed. She could smell how sweet it was – truly the first time she smelled anything so vivid.

“My fourth Shirahime crepe this week,” Cedric rubbed his hands. 

Haru pulled a chair towards their table. He sat down.

“Okay, care to tell me how and why you brought your sister back to life?” he asked.

“I care more about how you met Haru,” Alice poked Cedric.

“We’ll answer that first, then,” Haru said. “He ordered some boba here last week. I caught him using both hands to text on his phone… while his boba cup was floating as he sipped on it.” 

Having taken her first bite, Alice almost choked while laughing.

“To make it worse, I asked him about that and he was so surprised – He dropped his boba!”

Alice laughed harder.

Cedric just facepalmed. “Don’t say that out loud!”

“Him finding out is an important thing, and you didn’t show it to me?” Alice tilted her head. She thought about Cedric’s memory montage. 

“I didn’t think it was a big deal,” he shrugged. “Not like Haru’s going to tell anyone.”

“I can’t! The government will literally arrest me if I do,” Haru shushed. Then he pointed one hand at Alice, and the other at Cedric’s face. “Okay, back to the question: How and why did you bring your sister back?”

Chapter Text

“Um,” Cedric started but never finished. 

“You can’t just say that!” Haru grabbed onto his shoulders and shook him. “What were you thinking? Next you might be plotting to end the world.”

“Calm down! I’m not going to end the world!” 

“It starts with magically duplicating money,” that sounded funnier than actually serious.

Haru then buried his face into his hands. 

“Okay, let’s start here: What are you hoping to gain out of this? Did she – Alice, right? – even ask to come back?” he asked. 

“I did ask to come back,” Alice took another bite of her crepe. 

She left out Cedric’s real plan: Fixing the family and to make their father happy again. It was immature, so she didn’t want to embarrass him.

Maybe he’d answer that himself?

“She did,” he confirmed. “I mean, it seemed like a reasonable request.” 

“There’s a bigger reason than that. You can’t let go, can you?” Haru insisted. 

Cedric didn’t answer. Nobody else spoke, either, leaving the store’s light humming in the background. 

Haru leaned back in his seat. “Look, I don’t know what your issue is. But even then, you have to let dead people be.”

“Even if they want to come back?”

“...Yeah. I mean, are you even confident you brought back the right person? What if she was a demon or like, a fake? A copy?”

Cedric bit his crepe. “I’m confident that’s Alice.”

“I’m confident I’m myself, too,” she said. She definitely didn’t have horns or extra limbs. 

“Okay, but she’s legally dead – are you going to magick everyone into accepting her? Which means brainwashing us?”

“Hey,” Cedric changed the topic in between bites. “This means I can now bring back Anri for you – ”

Haru madly shook his head. His face became puffy and his eyes slightly watered.

“No thank you! I moved on!” he waved his hands. “It’s hopeless arguing with you. Meanwhile, I can’t even convince you to give me infinite gems on Flight Rising – ” 

“I’m not a genie!” 

“Well, you granted your sister’s wish!”

“I had a reason!” 

Just like that, they kept arguing. 

Alice didn’t realize she finished her crepe already. That was so delicious and it kept her calm during the conversation. 

Apparently, she didn’t want to stick around for this. She couldn't believe two grown adults were arguing like children. It was cringe.

“I’m going to the restroom for a bit,” she said.

“Didn’t you also magick your neig – oh,” Haru acknowledged her. “Alright.”

“I did not magick any of my neighbors,” Cedric protested.

“Did too! You told me!”

"I think you meant my father! As in, his tie and not his mind!"    

Alice made her way towards the entrance, sighing. My brother is weird. 

On her left were the customer restrooms, which she claimed she was going to.

She then looked back at them. They were still arguing like kids.

So she left the shop, hoping they wouldn’t notice.

They actually didn’t. She guessed the door’s lack of bells helped.

That meant Alice could go anywhere she wanted. 

She saw the memories during her past a thousand years in Arcaea. She saw the pieces that helped her figure out her identity.

She knew how to navigate this place.

In this small city, she had friends. She had people who knew her, who remembered wonderful things about her. She had her favorite places and a home, too. 

It was dark, though. She didn’t even have a phone or a legal identity.

What if someone kidnapped or murdered her? What if she actually got lost despite her knowledge?

Oh. 

Cedric would find her anyway, it’ll be okay.

Guess the race is on, then. She realized.

Let’s see how far she could journey before he intervened. 

She was a wanderer – an explorer – after all.

She got things done quickly.

In just thirty minutes, she already visited the places she knew: Peering into several restaurants, standing under notable trees, and noticing bus stops she recognized. Said places were so simple, they almost made her tear up.

To see people being ‘human’ late at night… This is to live. This is life, not Arcaea.

She can't just cry. She had a next task: Cross into the nearby neighborhood. 

Out of all her friends, the one closest in proximity right now was Lewis.

She saw him in several memories. Based on the context, she figured they were very good friends. She vividly remembered what his house looked like – a regular suburban white house with several rabbit garden decorations. The most notable rabbit figure was that of one wearing a waistcoat and monocle. 

That’s exactly where she went.

And she found it. 

She knocked on the door.

How am I going to explain this? She wondered. Would Lewis believe her story about Arcaea?

She practiced the explanation in her head. Unfortunately, she didn’t expect Lethe to open the door.

Alice nearly screamed, before realizing this woman with light brown hair was not Lethe.

She was Lewis’s mother.

It was his mother who screamed first, anyway.

“Alice! T-this… this can’t be.”

She stared at Alice head-to-toe. Then her face contorted into true terror. 

She clutched her necklace. 

Alice realized that the pendant was in the shape of a cross.

“A demon, a demon, a demon,” Lewis’s mother kept repeating. She muttered something about Satan’s servant.

“Ma’am?” Alice tilted her head. She didn’t remember Lewis’s mother being so reactive – though she supposed it’s not everyday you saw dead people. “May I ask for Lewis?” 

“Begone!” she screeched at Alice.

By the time she pulled out her phone, several other houses turned on their lights. 

Some people even looked out their window. 

“Dear, what’s going on?” a male voice in the back asked. 

Lewis’s mother turned around. She gestured at her phone.

“I’m calling the police and I demand a normal explanation for this. Lewis’s friend is alive. She’s dead! She’s dead!” 

The tall husband appeared at the door.

Fearing further conflict, Alice ran into the night. She ignored other voices in the neighborhood.

I should have explained to her! She regretted it. 

She hoped it was a one-off situation.

Even then, a new thought popped into her head: Maybe the living world had no place for the dead. 

Chapter Text

Great advice: Don’t walk around at night by yourself, especially if you’re a dead person.

Every person she visited screamed at her – they called her an impossibility, a figment of imaginations and dreams. Similar to Lewis’s mother, some even called her a demon.

She expected at least one person to stop and listen to her.

Unfortunately, that logic didn’t work in her hometown.

Everyone was just too quick to point and shout.

Somehow, she even got the police to be involved. With so many strange reports, they had no choice but to take action. Alice wondered what else would happen – what if there was a secret organization that took care of strange occurrences? 

Well, they didn’t exist… But then again, Cedric existed. What’s next? Raining unicorns and dragons?

Whatever, she needed to hide. 

So Alice waited in between an alleyway, cold and alone. She tightly crouched beside a metal trash can. 

She wondered if Cedric would get here before the police found her. 

Lo and behold, the trash can next to her started rattling.

The lid popped off and Cedric rose out. He was covered in trash, the highlight being a banana peel on top of his head.

“Yuck,” he said. “There you are!”

He attempted to exit the trash can. However, his movements caused it to fall over. There were metal clanging noises alongside Cedric’s yelp. Trash littered the ground. 

“That went wrong,” Cedric crawled out, his head bobbing. Alice imagined circling birdies over his head.

He stood up and attempted to scrape the mess off his shoes. Realizing that all of him was soiled, he snapped his fingers. In an instant, he became clean and stainless again. 

“That took you a while,” Alice muttered.

“Sorry about that, Haru and I thought you took a while in the restroom,” he shrugged. “And then his dad made me stay to clean up the store. That’s what I get for coming in late.”

“And not arguing with everyone you come across?” 

Cedric shut his mouth and gave her a weird stare. 

“I was just saying,” Alice shifted in her seat. “That sounded like a bad argument. He even seemed offended when you offered to revive someone.”

“Oh no, Haru and I are always jokingly arguing like that. But you do have a point about me offending him, because that’s how it got worse,” he conceded. 

“Is everything good now?”

“Yeah, I apologized. Guess there was some karma for me back there.” 

Cedric put the trash can upright again. He pushed it back to its original spot, concealing Alice’s body from the street. He tippy-toed over the mess and then crouched beside her.

“So, why did you leave?” he asked.

Alice made a ‘hmm’ noise. “I didn’t really like the conversation going on, that was it.”

“Okay, fair. But how did that lead to you hiding here?”

“I tried visiting some people I knew. It backfired and they don’t believe I’m alive. Lewis’s religious mother even called me a demon.”

Cedric shook his head. “We live in a religious area, Alice. Don’t go anywhere without me, because stuff like this will happen.”

He wasn’t suggesting he could wipe everyone’s memory, right?

Would that also count as brainwashing? Haru sounded like he had an issue with it. Not even Alice was on board with that.

“Were you planning to wipe everyone’s memory?” she asked.

Cedric’s eyes widened. “What? No! That’s terrible,” Something must have occurred to him, because he then said, “Well, unless they start coming to our house and asking for you. Then that's bad, I won’t let that happen.”

That made Alice worry. 

“This might be a mistake. I don’t think getting out of Arcaea was a good idea,” Alice admitted. 

“You’re saying that now? After repeatedly insisting on going home?” 

“Unless you change the world to accept me, it’s not going to happen. No one cares about me here anymore,” she sadly said. 

Or, well, the proper term would be moving on. She’s dead, she’s long gone. Late at night, she was simply a passing figment of imagination. 

She sighed. “It’s incredibly lonely here… More lonely than being in Arcaea for a thousand years.”

Cedric shrank in his seat, the alleyway’s darkness shrouding him more.

He awkwardly laughed. “Heh… Guess that’s what we have in common, then.”

“Huh?”

“It’s lonely being like this.”

“‘This?’”

“This.”

He pointed at a banana peel on the ground. It started dancing.

“I don’t like being the only person with these powers. People like Haru think I'm going to enslave humanity's mind, or they act like I’m a genie.”

Oops. She, too, expected him to save the day with people.

"I don't want to tell people, though. They might think I'm a freak. Or maybe an SCP, and then the government takes me away to do experiments," he sighed. "But even then, that just makes me more lonely. I can't pick a side."

He made the banana peel stop dancing. 

“I wonder if Dad knows,” he said quietly. “Maybe that’s why he expects a lot from me. It’s not a bad thing, right? He cares about me. If anything, if a parent doesn’t expect anything from you, it means you’re a lost cause and – ”

“You’re overthinking it,” Alice said. “Dad’s just tired and lonely. Even then, he still cares about you.”

“Do you think I should have done something about that?” 

“Huh?” 

“Maybe I could have prevented it?” 

Alice didn’t say anything.

Cedric gripped his brown hair in frustration. 

“It’s useless. I’m using my powers wrong.”

Silence.

After a while, he said something else:

“I wish I didn’t exist.”

Alice immediately hugged him. She almost expected for him to actually disappear.

Some part of him must have wanted to belong here, because he didn’t vanish. Instead, he hugged her back.

So they hugged like that for a while.

Chapter Text

After a while, they left.

That was because an alleyway door opened up. An intimidating woman with red and white hair looked at them strangely. She tossed out her trash, mumbling something about how there’s always weird people here – that they might be homeless. 

Cedric thought she might have been in a bad mood tonight. So before they left, he wished for her favorite treat to manifest. It turned out to be white chocolate, and he left that at her door as compensation.

They entered the street.

“Okay, now you hide under here,” he put his brown jacket over her. “No one will see you now!” 

“Can’t you just teleport us home?” 

“Well, I can, but I don’t trust myself. I once tried teleporting myself to school instead of driving, because I was lazy. I landed at the University of Calgary in Canada by accident.”

Alice gasped. “How did that happen?”

“Because I was thinking of my high school friend at that time! He went to Canada for that university.”

Alice put the hood over her head. “You’re very silly.”

“Pfft. Yeah, I can’t argue with that.”

So they started walking home. Throughout the walk, Alice kept hearing buzzing from his pocket. 

Cedric pulled out his phone and looked at it. With a few flicks, the buzzing stopped. He put his phone back into his pocket. 

“Is that Dad?” she asked.

“Yeah.”

His expression became uncomfortable. 

“I don’t think I’m ready to go home,” he stopped walking. 

“Why not?” Alice looked back. “We went through the trouble fighting Lethe. We even asked that mysterious woman for help. Let’s go.”

Cedric begrudgingly agreed. 

“Hey,” he said after a while.

“Hmm?”

“Thanks for hugging me.”

Alice stared at him. She eventually smiled. 

“No problem, you’re a cool guy.”

After a while, they reached their home. It was the same house in the anomaly – simple and suburban. Cedric’s black car was in the driveway. 

He unlocked the door and gestured inside.

She stepped into the house.

The inside of the house was rather nice, although the only source of illumination was the light in the back.

It had brown tiled floors with a brown sofa and TV on the right side. On the white walls were various paintings of rabbits and tea parties. Nothing seemed to be out of place or otherwise cluttering the room.

Wait. 

The square-shaped table in the back – it only had two chairs. 

The sight of that made Alice feel bad.

“Kid? Is that you?” their father’s voice came from somewhere else. “Where were you? I called you repeatedly throughout the day!”

Cedric didn’t answer. He only closed the door behind them. He also took the jacket off Alice and hung it onto a nearby hook.

Their father continued speaking. “Your car was left in the driveway, so I assumed you were with your friends. You also never come back past midnight, so what gi – ”

He stepped into the room. 

“Oh.”

Even their father looked the same as he did in the anomaly. This time, however, his brown hair’s signature ahoge was short. Meaningful haircut, perhaps? He also wore a casual shirt – coupled with the tired face, it seemed like he was about to sleep. 

Their father adjusted his glasses. “Oh my god…” 

He tentatively walked closer. He flicked a nearby switch on, and now the room was fully lit. 

Even then, he rubbed his eyes and stared at Alice. 

“The phone calls were right. You are alive – you, you....”

How is he going to react? Alice held her breath. Would he also freak out? Would he cast her away? 

He didn’t do any of that. 

Instead, he teared up. He pushed a hand towards his eyes, burying them.

“I don’t believe this. Why?”

Neither Alice or Cedric answered. 

So he asked another question.

He asked, “Did I do something wrong?”

“Wrong?” Alice asked. 

“Did I not do something right before you… died?” their father clarified. 

Alice didn’t know how to answer that.

Their father looked so cheerful in the memories. Even in the anomaly, he was a bumbling and welcoming father.

He didn’t do anything wrong.

He loved Alice, he loved Cedric.

He loved their late mother. 

Unless…

“She’s back because she’s amazing,” Cedric said. It didn’t sound like a compliment at all. It just sounded… defeated.

“Surely I’m not dreaming, right? Alice – she’s amazing, yes – but people just don’t come back from the dead,” their father nervously chuckled. “I'm just dreaming, I'm just - ”

“They can,” Cedric interrupted. “Especially if they are remembered and loved.”

With that said, Alice felt strange.

Something was wrong. 

Very wrong. 

It wasn’t her that was affected, no.

Instead, she felt a shifting of reality – a change in laws, a change in what was meant to be. 

A change in existence.

It wasn’t her becoming any realer, no.

She looked at Cedric.

He had the door open. Instead of the darkness of the world outside, the exit was white.

… Like the light at the end of the tunnel.

She heard Cedric’s thoughts in her head.

I wish I didn’t exist. 

But I also don’t want to die. 

I don’t know where I’m going now. I just don’t want to be here, that’s all.

Maybe I’ll find my own anomaly one day, live a lie like you did.

Or I can be like that woman who saved us – wandering forever, finding new worlds.

I can find a place where I’m happy.

Like Hikari tried to.

You and Dad stay safe, alright?

Bye, Alice.

Chapter Text

“Don’t leave,” Alice said.

“Huh?” Cedric asked without looking back. 

Even their father spoke up. “Hey, don’t leave.”

Alice wondered how their father was speaking.

Reality felt so thin now, it was as though time was coming to a stop. It was like the world slowly broke away – like that epic battle she witnessed in Arcaea. Everything centered on this moment now… it felt like their father wasn’t supposed to be aware.

Cedric must have had the same realization, because he looked back. 

“You’re not supposed to see this,” he said, teetering the door back and forth. 

Alice gasped. “Did you just try to control our father’s mind?”

After all his denial… he did it. Alice couldn’t believe it. 

He shrugged. “So what? It’s only for a few moments.”

He snapped his fingers. Their father remained just as perplexed, and Cedric stared at his hand. He tried snapping again, but there was still no effect.

“This has to be a nightmare,” their father denied. “There’s no way you’re leaving this world or have special powers. Don’t leave, please.” 

“‘Don’t leave?’ Why are you caring now ? You never cared before,” Cedric raised his voice. “Maybe no one else cared this entire time.”

“What? We do care!” their father raised his voice as well. 

“I care,” Alice affirmed. “So does Haru and your other friends.” 

“Everything went downhill after you died. I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Cedric shrugged. 

Alice frowned. So the Arcaea depicting Cedric as angry did have some truth. Only, she had never seen it this bad. His mini fight against Lethe had more composure!

“Kid,” their father said. “Nothing went downhill after Alice died. Yes, we had a rough time sorting everything out and my jokes were insensitive… Even then, we love each other. Right?”

Cedric’s face furrowed. “Too bad. You love Alice more than you love me. You'll never like me or whatever I want to do.”

“He doesn’t! He loves both of us equally!” Alice protested. 

“What do you know? You’ve been in your own little world this entire time.”

“I have memories of all sorts. I know."

She envisioned the memories she saw in Arcaea: They came from everywhere, from living people to dead people. They were both forgotten memories and fresh memories. 

“People care about you. I know they do.”

“They don’t.”

With that said, Cedric ran out the door and into the whiteness. 

Alice called forth all memories even though it shouldn’t have been possible. This wasn’t Arcaea, so why did she feel the need?

Whatever. It didn’t matter.

She called for all that would change Cedric's mind - memories from her, memories that she found, and memories that she didn't know existed. She even called for memories from other people.

Alice needed them to project into this plane.

And they did. 

Cedric didn’t run far. The white world outside transformed back into the darkness, only that of a different time.

A copy – a memory projection – of their father walked past him. Cedric turned around with a gasp.

“Cedric? Are you home?” their father called out. Then he looked at the bag in his hand.

Inside were new art supplies. 

“It’s your birthday! Where are you?” their father walked around the living room, taking no mind to the real Alice and father. He quickly ran out to check for Cedric’s car, having forgotten about it. “Okay. I’ll just put the gift in your little art studio.” 

He did.

The memory flashed forward.

Cedric came home, weary and in his university’s dining hall uniform. 

He never came into the art studio that night – One of the many times he never wanted to look at that room.

He never picked up his gift that day.

The house fell into pieces and dripped away. It faded into several other memories:

Young Cedric showed his first artwork to their parents. They praised him repeatedly.

Him with a young Alice. He drew pictures for her first story, giving her much delight.

Their mother was on her deathbed. She reminded the two of them that they’re special and loved.

Cedric visited Alice in the hospital for the last time. He read her stories and manuscripts while she gazed at his artwork.

Cedric was angry at his father’s innocently insensitive remark. As a result, he refused to look at his art accounts. He was unaware that there were new positive comments on his work. 

A house full of young adults. They conspired to paint him large artworks of Miya and Sylvia from Kalpa. They knew they were his favorite characters and thought it’d be a great idea.

They suspected he was capable of making it himself, but insisted on doing it anyway. Because it was right and generous.

Haru on a facetime call with a girl, explaining how there’s a customer who always came in for a Shirahime crepe. He kept thanking the mysterious customer for keeping the store afloat.

A memory she didn’t know she had: Haru and Cedric bonded over the silly incident that exposed his powers. 

Every night, their father prayed to never lose Cedric. He kept praying for Cedric’s coldness to go away, to be forgiven. 

Lastly, the most recent memory: Their father outside Cedric’s locked room, unaware he went off to Arcaea. He mostly just talked to himself how Cedric was wonderful, hoping he could come out. He never did. 

The memories finally fell away completely. They were now back at their house, with Cedric outside the door safe and sound. 

Alice felt bad because he looked just… sad. 

Their father? Even more so. 

“I get it now – it’s not a black and white issue,” their father sighed. He buried his face into his hands. “This isn't a dream. I disappointed Cedric without meaning to, and now he doesn’t want to come back here.”

There were sounds of footsteps. When Alice looked at the door again, Cedric was already inside the house.

“After seeing everything, I’m going to stay," he announced.

Chapter Text

“I’m sorry,” their father quietly said. “I’m sorry for crushing your confidence and making you doubt everything.” 

Cedric shut the door without saying anything.

The world returned to them. Time became more pronounced, and so did everyone’s presence. The dizzying feeling went away. 

Alice could hear her own thoughts again. 

Her first thought was to look at herself.

Uh oh –

She noticed she seemed… translucent. 

Like a ghost.

She didn’t have to ask herself why or what was happening.

She knew, alright. The answer entered her head the moment she could think again.

“You’re disappearing,” their father confirmed her fear.

Alice fell to her knees. The two men rushed forward, kneeling down to see what was wrong.

“I know,” she responded. “I – I’m …”

I’m done being alive. I fulfilled my purpose.

I fixed the family, but in a different way.

“It’s because I fixed the family,” she said aloud. “I showed you two what it means to care about someone else – That we’re still family.” 

“Family,” Cedric said quietly. 

“We’re still family,” their father affirmed. 

Running his hand through Alice’s hair, he muttered to himself that maybe this was a dream after all. Funny, because earlier he accepted it wasn’t.

Because there was no way his dead daughter visited him. There was no way his son had special powers.

“It’s not, all of it’s real. I brought her back because I thought you liked her better,” Cedric said.

He finally sat down. He leaned his back against the nearby drawer.

“Because I thought I was alone. I thought no one appreciated who I wanted to be – alone as an artist, alone as… this.” 

He unfolded a hand. Several orange-black butterflies flew out towards the light. Eventually, they disintegrated into nothingness.

“I would have never used my powers to hurt anyone, control them, or otherwise use them for selfish gains,” he sadly said. “But here I am. I’m sorry, Dad. I’m sorry, Alice.”

Alice felt a tingle. 

She realized she became further translucent. 

With every apology, with every reconnection… I’m disappearing. My job really is done, right? 

She remembered: The living world had no place for the dead. 

Even then, she had hope. 

She hoped that she would disappear to somewhere nicer. Somewhere unlike Arcaea.

Looking at their father, she realized he must have been thinking the same thing.

“This is what people would call unfinished business – the thing with ghosts,” their father mused. He stopped running his hand through her hair. “Seeing us happy is your greatest wish of all. A perfect wish.”

He then looked over her shoulder – over at Cedric. 

Their father chuckled. “Kid, you’re all good. I’m not mad at you – no! And you absolutely didn’t have to hide yourself. The Liddell family is known for their miracles, after all.”

Alice gasped. So did Cedric. 

His powers, her ability to project memories here, their father’s resistance to Cedric’s magic…

They were miracles?

“What? We were destined to have powers?” she asked.

He laughed. “No, I’m just trolling.” 

Even then, he winked – whatever that meant. 

He cleared his throat and looked at Cedric again. “Hiding that all along, it must have been hard and lonely. It must have been confusing.”

“It was,” Cedric confirmed. “I wish I knew what I am.”

“We’ll find out together!” their father offered.

With that said, Alice became even more clear. Lifting up a hand, she almost fully saw the tiled floor through it.

“I should have said this forever ago,” their father continued. “I should have reminded you two that you’re both amazing. You’re so different yet so precious. I love you both equally, and that will never change.”

He chuckled. He muttered something under his breath about how sappy his words were.

Again, Alice became more clear. 

She closed her eyes, fearing that she might fully disappear in a heartbeat. 

When she opened her eyes again, she realized she wasn’t gone yet.

And this time, Cedric was beside her. 

So forth, the two Liddell men wrapped themselves around Alice.

“You go now, Alice. Don’t forget to say ‘hi’ to your mother for me, I miss her lots,” Their father said. It was only a way to feel better, because he then made a choke-sobbing noise. 

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” Cedric repeated, digging his head into her hair. “I’m so sorry – ”

“You don’t have to be sorry,” Alice said. “You’re just hurt, that’s normal. That’s… human.”

Another tingle. With Alice becoming even more clearer, it looked as though the Liddell men were hugging thin air. 

“I’m glad to see you, though. Thank you for coming here, even for just a bit,” their father told her. “I’m also glad I could see Cedric for once, too.” 

“I’m glad, too,” Alice quietly said.

“Mhmm,” Cedric nodded a little. 

At last, their father added, “The two of us are going to make things work, and then we’ll move forward. It’s the right thing to do.”

Cedric hesitated a little. But at long last, he said the wonderful, quiet words, “We’ll move on.”

Alice felt it in her heart – this was the moment she was finally disappearing.

Just like that, she became nothingness. 

The last thing she saw of them: The two falling forwards for a hug. It was something she realized she never saw in her life. 

It warmed her heart, it made her feel better. That's who the Liddells were this entire time: Caring, loving people.

That's who we are. She affirmed. Forever. 

And now, she confident about the journey onward.

Where was she going, though?

It wasn’t Arcaea, that’s for sure.

Then she saw something.

What she saw wasn’t as scary as she thought.

Her eyes glowed in wonder.

And she asked herself, “What is this place?” 

Chapter Text

Cedric set the hydrangeas onto Alice’s grave.

He heard that they had several meanings, ranging from apologetic to admiration. He didn’t care, though. They were Alice’s favorite flowers, and that was the only thing that mattered.

Last week felt like a fever dream. Entering a nonsensical afterlife, fighting a reaper, meeting a nameless woman, bringing back his sister for his ploy… 

Attempting to directly magick a person… 

And it didn’t work…

He somewhat understood why his father thought this was a dream.

But it wasn’t. It happened.

The family got better, they moved on. 

Alice’s collection of memories hit him in a way he never expected: Cedric felt like he belonged now. He was happy with himself. Most of all, he could admit that his plan was immature. He could finally be an adult, thinking of other things besides jealousy - yearning for a house, a high salary, maybe finally start budgeting since he's in his mid-twenties...

He was –

“Alright,” their father broke his train of thought. He was in his suit, having been fresh off his work shift when they visited. “Let’s get going, you have work to do for Quesera. Then you have an interview for another workplace tomorrow.” 

“I can manage,” he said. Drawing new character art for Kalpa wasn’t the hardest thing ever.

“You also have to do some apartment searching, too!”

“It’ll be easy! I won’t take a while on it.” 

Their father winked. “Of course, everything’s easy for you.”

Cedric laughed. He imagined Alice laughing, too.

It was funny, really, to have someone else know about his powers. To be treated so casually felt pretty good. Their father never thought of him as a cheater, someone who used his magic to get through life – it was only light jokes about being capable.

Being an honest person, that’s who Alice wanted him to be. 

“Hey, Dad, you might be mad at me for this,” he said. He remembered an idea he had a couple days ago.

“Hmm?”

“It sounds childish, but I want to go on a side quest real quick. The actual adulting stuff can wait.”

He gasped. “Another side quest!”

“It’ll be quick, I swear!”

“You’re not looking for dead people again, are you?”

Nope.

He needed answers.

He needed to know who he was and why he had powers. 

That is, if their father was only trolling about Liddell miracles. 

Not answers from a paper. He once thought about doing that, but he genuinely feared what it might tell him. He didn’t want to find out the truth like that.

If he was going to fear, he wanted to do so with a journey. 

Find other people like him.

Maybe they, too, wanted answers as well.

“There’s people like me out there. I know, because she’s the reason I found Alice,” he announced. “I want to find Hikari.”