"An excellent thought," she agrees.

"However, some of the Inquisitors have the ability to track by scent, and other attributes which are less easily changed." 

"Ah. Yeah then it's a limited resource, and I'm not sure how to best use it. I also don't have a very complete strategic picture of the whole thing."

"What do you wish to know?" she asks, setting her teacup down to fold her hands in front of her.

"I will share with you what I can, although some information must be more closely guarded, for an array of reasons."

"If you know more about magic than Everless, that helps. Other than that, what resources you have access to, in the form of personnel and tools and weapons and territory and knowledge..."

She laughs, rather unexpectedly. 

"I doubt anyone but the Hearts knows more about magic than Everless. But the rest, I am better placed to answer. 

"The Resistance controls no territory outright, with the exception of this house and one safehouse whose location I am unwilling to disclose at this time. Weapons are similarly limited, mostly due to the fact that carrying a weapon without the correct authorisation is a crime."

"How many people are there? And for that matter how many people are there in the whole kingdom, and working for her? And what's the social organisation like?"

"I am reluctant to give out exact numbers for the composition of the Resistance," Araminta says, "even in a safe place and to one I have no reason to believe would willingly betray us.

"On the side of the Queen, there are the ten Hearts, each of whom has several underlings, with the exception of the Ace, who works alone. In total, the Hearts and their subordinates number one hundred and eighteen, although far from all are combatants. This count does not include the Queen, King, Prince, or other miscellaneous courtiers, only those servants who are unshakably loyal to Marcella, and are missing their hearts."

She shakes her head. "As you have no doubt guessed, the two qualities appear to be somewhat correlated."

"With the Wandering Seer as the exception.

"I'm somewhat constrained in my ability to plan without knowing what resources are at our disposal, but anyway. What would a victory look like?"

"I understand, but I do not have permission from every Resistance member to share their names, and it is widely acknowledged that the more people who know a secret, the greater the chance that it will be revealed," she explains. 

"In the ideal case, a victory for the Resistance would be Marcella dead or otherwise removed from any possibility of regaining power, the stolen hearts restored to their rightful owners, and the Red King or one of his direct heirs on the throne of Wonderland. Those are Prince Lionel, now the Ace of Hearts, and - apparently - you yourself, if it is true that you are the child of Lionel's sister."

"You said one hundred eighteen—how many people are there in Wonderland?"

"Approximately two thousand, although the Two of Hearts could provide you with more accurate figures," she says ruefully.

"A census is taken every few years for the purposes of tax collection, but the results are never published."

He chokes on his own spit. "Two thousand? That's, like, how many people live in my neighbourhood."

"Wonderland is quite small, only around twenty-five square miles. There are four villages, the palace, and various loners such as Hatter, who lives in the middle of the woods away from everyone else," she enumerates. 

"You must have seen Wonderland from the air when you arrived; how large were you imagining it to be?"

"I had been imagining what I saw not to be the whole of Wonderland. How long has Wonderland been around?"

"I haven't the faintest idea," she admits. 

"Our history goes back through thirty-five years of Marcella's rule, five of the Red King reigning uncontested, and three hundred of intermittent war between Red and White. Before that, we have only rumour and legend. But Wonderland certainly existed and was inhabited long before that time."

"Before as in hundreds or thousands or millions of years?"

"Perhaps not millions. But I really don't know." She sounds rather put out by this. 

"Are you entirely certain this is relevant to our strategy, or are you merely indulging curiosity?"

"Mostly indulging my curiosity, partly trying to figure this place out and 'has no history past three hundred years ago' says something about the genre we're in. Are there creation myths?"

"Several, each more ridiculous than the last. If you wish to be regaled with the various beliefs of credulous folk regarding the origin of Wonderland, I suggest you ask Everless," she says primly.

"Now, may we return to the current strategic situation, or do you require further information on our more recent history?"

"Is there any information on your more recent history you think would be useful for me to have? Perhaps other attempts on the throne, the Queen's tragic backstory, something like that..."

"So far as I am aware, Marcella has no 'tragic backstory', although that information comes with the caveat that I know very little about her life at all before her coup. There have been three attempts by the Resistance to oust her from power over the past three decades, all of which, evidently, failed."

She pauses in thought. "Although I have not heard of any attempts by other agencies, it is possible that they were covered up by the Five of Hearts, as our less spectacular efforts were."

"With a population as small as Wonderland's, I wouldn't be surprised if this was the only bit of resistance. What were the attempts and how did they fail?"

"A year or so after the original coup, a small group of the Red King's former advisers attempted to break into the palace and liberate Prince Lionel. However, he had already been indoctrinated to regard them as the enemy, and fought them off until Marcella arrived to deal with them."

She looks grim. "All but one were caught, and offered a choice between execution and heartlessness. They chose execution, to a man."

She pauses in case Sadde has any questions.

...okay yikes. He has no questions.

"The second attempt came after ten years of preparation and gathering of resources," she continues when it is clear that Sadde has nothing to add, "and its failure is the reason I can no longer travel openly in Wonderland."

She explains, "I had secured a minor place in Marcella's court, along with several other agents, while Faramund amassed an army to attack the palace from without. The plan was that Marcella would be caught between the two groups, but one of our inside agents turned traitor and revealed the plan to the Queen. When our agents began to be arrested one by one, I and several others left the palace and fled across the border. Without anyone left inside to sabotage the defenses, Faramund's army was not capable of meaningfully besieging the palace, and was driven back."