Page 65 of Knot My Wonderland

As we continued along the glowing moss path, I noticed the ward consciousness within me growing more active. It reached out tentatively toward the temporal currents flowing around us, not to resist them but to learn from them. Through that connection, I began to sense the deeper rhythms of the Forgotten Lands—layers of time stacked like pages in an infinite book, each one containing different versions of possibility.

We walked in relative silence for what felt like hours, following the luminescent trail through landscapes that defied comprehension. I passed a grove where the same tree existed in multiple seasons simultaneously—spring blossoms on one side, autumn leaves on another, winter bare branches reaching toward summer's full canopy. The contradictions should have been jarring, but somehow they felt natural here, as if this was how time was supposed to flow when freed from linear constraints.

"Alice," Heart said quietly, falling into step beside me as the path widened. Through our connection, I felt his curiosity mixing with concern. "Your magic—it's responding differently to this place. The patterns beneath your skin are brighter than I've seen them."

I glanced down at my hands, noticing he was right. The silver traceries had spread further up my arms, creating intricate spirals that pulsed with each heartbeat. More unsettling, they seemed to be moving of their own accord, shifting and rearranging themselves like living tattoos.

"The Forgotten Lands recognize the First Queen's pattern," Varik said without turning around, his voice carrying across the strange acoustics of the timeless forest. "This realm existed before the division—it remembers what Wonderland was like when magic flowed freely."

Chi's form flickered with what might have been envy or concern. "Careful, Alice. The realm's recognition could be as dangerous as its rejection.”

"Dangerous how?" I asked, watching the patterns shimmer beneath my skin.

"The Forgotten Lands might try to... keep you," Chi explained, his form solidifying as he moved closer. "Places with consciousness tend to collect what they find valuable."

I shuddered at the thought, but the ward within me seemed unconcerned—almost welcoming of the realm's attention. Through our connection, I sensed no malice in the timeless forest, only ancient recognition and something like relief.

"It feels like it knows me," I admitted, trailing my fingers along a tree trunk that aged and renewed itself beneath my touch. Where my skin made contact, the temporal fluctuations stabilized, as if my presence anchored that small piece of reality.

"Because it does," Varik said, pausing to study a fork in the moss-light path. "Or rather, it knows what you carry." His wild green eyes held mine with uncomfortable intensity. "The First Queen spent considerable time in these lands before she unified Wonderland. Some say she learned to transcend linear existence here, which is how she eventually merged with the realm itself."

Heart's grip tightened on his sword hilt, ruby eyes scanning the shifting forest with new wariness. "You're suggesting this place taught her how to... ascend?"

"Not taught," Chi corrected, his form rippling as temporal currents brushed against him. "Prepared. The Forgotten Lands don't instruct—they simply reveal what already exists within a person." His teal eyes found mine. "What they're revealing in Alice is the same potential that once transformed a simple dreamer into Wonderland's living consciousness

The revelation hung in the air between us, heavy with implications I wasn't ready to face. I turned away from theirwatchful eyes, focusing instead on the strangely beautiful chaos of our surroundings. A butterfly with wings like stained glass fluttered past, its lifecycle visible as it aged and renewed with each wingbeat.

"So this place might... accelerate whatever's happening to me?" I asked, trying to keep my voice steady despite the fear coiling in my stomach.

Varik nodded, his expression grave beneath the brim of his hat. "The temporal currents here respond to potential. They'll amplify what's already developing within you."

Through the Heart Stone, I felt a surge of protective concern from Heart. He moved closer, his ruby eyes tracking the increasingly complex patterns spreading across my exposed skin.

"We should rest soon," he said, his voice carrying an authority that made his fighters snap to attention.

"There," Varik pointed ahead where the moss-light path curved around a cluster of ancient stones that hummed with their own inner rhythm. "Those standing stones create a temporal eddy—time moves more slowly within their circle. We can rest there safely until the path reveals our next destination."

As we approached the stone circle, I noticed each monolith was carved with symbols that seemed to shift and change when I looked at them directly. The air within the circle felt thicker, more substantial, as if we were moving through honey instead of atmosphere.

"Much better," Chi sighed as we crossed the threshold, his form immediately stabilizing into solid flesh. "The stones anchor reality—I haven't felt this corporeal in centuries."

Heart's fighters spread out around the perimeter, their movements becoming more coordinated as the temporal stability eased their disorientation. Martha checked on the scarred young man, who seemed to have settled into a consistentage somewhere in his mid-twenties, the flickering between youth and elderhood finally stilled.

"Better?" Martha asked, her weathered hands gentle as she checked his pulse.

"Much," he replied, his voice stronger now. "It felt like I was being pulled apart and put back together over and over." He glanced around the stone circle with newfound respect. "This place... it's alive, isn't it?"

"Everything in the Forgotten Lands has some degree of consciousness," Varik confirmed, settling onto a moss-covered boulder that obligingly shaped itself into a more comfortable seat. "The stones, the trees, even the path we're following—they all remember what Wonderland was like before the division."

I sank down beside one of the carved monoliths, immediately feeling the silver patterns beneath my skin respond to its proximity. The symbols etched into the stone began to glow faintly, resonating with the magic flowing through me. As I watched, they rearranged themselves into configurations that looked almost like written language—though in no script I recognized.

"They're trying to communicate," I whispered, pressing my palm flat against the stone's surface. The moment my skin made contact, images flooded my mind—visions of Wonderland as it had been before the courts divided it into warring territories.

I saw vast libraries where knowledge flowed freely between realms. Gardens where impossible flowers bloomed in harmonious chaos. Cities built from crystallized dreams where beings from all corners of reality lived in peaceful coexistence. And at the center of it all, a figure with silver-touched hair who moved through the landscape.

I didn’t know I was in a trance, or even hear my name being called as more and more images were shown to me. Things that happened, things that could happen…and things happeningnow. All shown to me so quickly I felt myself almost disconnect with my body as I let myself fall deeper and deeper into the visons being shown.

Chapter Twenty- Four

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