Being in England is kind of weird. But good weird. Mira's never actually been out of the country before, but when Dad had an alumnus thing at Oxford he offered to bring her with him, and she said yes.
It's both more and less different from the States than she was imagining.
"The tunnel is, um, it's a way between the worlds?" She scratches her ear.
"Uh, people call it the Rabbit's Hole, because I'm the one who uses it. I go up to the surface world and collect - things. For the Queen."
The rabbit's ears droop.
"I probably shouldn't tell you. It's supposed to be secret," she says apologetically.
"Huh." She'll leave that be for the moment, then. "So is this place literally underground?"
"I think so? All the passageways we've found lead up, at least."
Walk walk walk. This sure is a big labyrinth. It's hard to tell how close they are to the exit, what with all the turns.
"The sky looks the same in both places, though." And indeed it does, if Mira decides to look up at the narrow strip of sky she can see between the hedges.
"Yes, that's - what I meant to say."
She hops along in silence for a few seconds.
"Um...did you have more questions? I feel like you had more questions."
"I'm not quite sure where to start! I think some of them are probably insensitive--but you have magic here?"
"Yes!" she confirms, bouncing slightly more than usual.
"The Queen has a lot of it, and she gives it out to her favourite servants. I don't have any, it's too dangerous for it to be taken out of Wonderland."
"Her Majesty is the only one who knows how to get magic out of Hearts," the rabbit explains.
"It's dangerous because we don't know if it would work the same outside Wonderland, and even if it did, there's a risk I might drop a Heart and it would get lost. If that happens here, the Queen can just send her servants to get it back."
"They're kind of - hard to explain?"
She thinks. "You'll see some when you meet the Queen; she's always wearing a few round her neck. They're called Hearts because of their shape - they're jewels, not actual hearts. That would be disgusting!" Shudder.
"If you touch one, you can cast a spell from it, then it takes a while to come back, I don't know exactly how long. I think different Hearts do different things, but I don't know much about them? I've never used one."
"I'm not sure."
She looks slightly worried, ears going almost flat.
"I've...never asked?"
"Exactly!" Her ears perk back up with relief that Mira understands.
"I don't really need to know, do I, if I'm not using them? I'm sorry I can't answer more of your questions, though..."
Up ahead, a gap is visible in the hedges, through which the palace can be seen.
"And if you've known about all this all your life it wouldn't seem an obvious curiosity."
"I suppose," she agrees.
"Oh - there's probably a lot of stuff I'm leaving out because I think it's obvious - "
She tugs at one of the ribbons on her bonnet, not quite pulling it out of its bow. It seems to be a nervous habit.
"Well, of course. I'm the one who wants to know, that makes thinking of the right questions my problem."
"Um. Alright."
The White Rabbit doesn't seem to know what to say to this.
"So...what else would you like to know, before we get to the palace?" They do seem to be approaching the end of the labyrinth, now.
"Oh, well...she's the Queen?" the White Rabbit begins.
"I'm not sure what you want to know about her. She's beautiful, by all accounts, and she's very good at magic... She's supposed to be a better ruler than the Red King, but I'm not old enough to know if that's true."
"Well..."
She seems a little hesitant to answer, but gives it a go.
"She's - not nice, that's not the point; it's not...'nice' isn't what a queen's for? I'm not explaining this very well." Her ears flap as she shakes her head.
"Um...she likes being shown respect, I guess? She - it's not that she's not emotional, I'm sure, she just never shows it - "
They've reached the edge of the labyrinth, and are about to pass through another gate like the one at the entrance. This one is guarded by a pair of topiary dogs.
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