"Not unless you are inclined to assign cosmic significance to the insane ramblings of a formerly-brilliant madman," she says in a dry tone. "The Wandering Seer sometimes reveals glimpses of the future, to those who pay attention. But they do not seem to be consistent with each other, let alone paint enough of a picture to be useful."

"There totally is a prophecy! Tell me."

Everless sighs. "As I said, the Seer's words are neither clear nor consistent. He cannot even seem to decide from one day to the next whether our new ruler, once we have overthrown Marcella, will be a King or a Queen."

She smirks. "Isn't it curious that I can't seem to decide whether I'm a girl or a boy from one day to the next?"

The raven hops back onto the table, the better to peer at Sadde's face with each eye in turn.

"Well. That could explain quite a few mysteries."

"This is kinda more evidence for the 'vivid hallucination' hypothesis."

"I see the logic." Everless nods approvingly. "I would be happy to assist in any way I can with your efforts to confirm or disprove said hypothesis; however, believing myself to be real, I must request that you continue to act as though you were not in fact hallucinating until such time as you can be certain."

"Yeah that's the winning strategy, nothing to lose if it's a hallucination and good otherwise."

"Excellent! Now, I should really introduce you to the rest of the Resistance," Everless declares, "and fill you in on what you need to know. To begin with, has anyone told you exactly what the Queen does to those who break the law?"

"Nope. You seemed to imply it was a fate worse than death."

"That is...a fair description." Everless shudders, fluffing her feathers and hunching down between her wings. "The Queen...has some way of stealing people's hearts. They continue to walk around as they always did, but - changed." She seems to be at a loss for how to describe it.

"The Wandering Seer is one of her victims. Before, he was the Red King's most trusted adviser, and accounted the wisest in the land. Now, he can't keep in the same time for more than five minutes."

"See, where I come from a heart is a muscle that pumps blood, but I somehow don't think this is what you mean here. I'm also not sure what 'keep in the same time' is supposed to mean."

"People call them 'hearts' because, when removed, they look like red heart-shaped jewels a little smaller than a fist. A closer approximation of their apparent function would be...'soul', I suppose," she clarifies.

"The Seer has always been capable of perceiving the past and the future. When he lost his heart, he lost his anchor to the present. He can no longer reliably tell it apart from the other few dozen points in time he is experiencing at any given moment."

"...I see. Can a heart be restored?"

Everless nods approvingly. "It may be possible in principle, but, as only the Queen knows how to remove hearts, only she would know how to restore them."

She sighs. "Even were it possible, we would first need to recover the hearts themselves. They are kept guarded in a secret location, worn by the Queen personally, or decorating the chests of her most favoured - and most loyal - courtiers, the Hearts." The capital letter is audible.

"Is this the best location for us to talk about this stuff?"

"Good point. Follow me!" Everless takes off flapping down the hall. Unless Sadde has gotten turned around - which is possible - they seem to be heading back the way she came. 

Yeah she's not really paying attention anymore, this is too insane. She'll just follow.

The corridor fades back into a forest, this time bright and sunlit. Everless leads the way confidently, circling back every so often to make sure Sadde is still following. 

"We are going to meet the Mad Hatter," she explains. "He will be able to put you in contact with the leaders of the Resistance, and his house is a safer place for me to explain the political situation." 

"Oh, there's a hatter who's also mad, of course there is."

"Haven't you ever heard the saying 'as mad as a hatter'? I suppose it might have gone out of fashion," Everless remarks. "You see, the traditional method of hat-making involved the use of mercury, which..."

Her voice fades away as she flies off, forgetting to slow down for Sadde as she gets caught up in explaining.  

She runs after her!

No matter how fast Sadde runs, she can't seem to catch up with Everless, and she quickly loses sight of the raven. 

She finds herself in a strange forest, where the trees grow in odd shapes and the grass is varying shades of blue, yellow and purple. There is a path visible a few feet away through the trees. 

This was presumably intended, and if not, she'll need to have Words with this Raven at a later date.

She follows the path.

The path continues to be a path through a forest, which might be almost surprising at this point. The grass continues to be multicoloured, although there begin to be fewer blues and yellows, and more purples and reds. 

A little way down, she comes upon a hill to her left. It is perfectly round, treeless, and covered entirely in red grass. A figure in black armour is just barely visible around one side.