Searching For- Graias Alice In Action In-all Ca... -

“Left, now,” croaked the first.

Then the middle sister plucked the eye from her socket and placed it in Alice’s hand. The eldest dropped the tooth into Alice’s other palm. It felt warm, like a sleeping coal.

“She gave us back,” said another.

At the lake’s bottom was a door no larger than a rabbit hole. Alice knelt. Searching for- Graias Alice in Action in-All Ca...

“You’ll what ?”

When the Jabberwock’s cousin—a thing of rusted gears and leather wings—swooped down, Alice did not run. She spat the tooth into her hand and bit through a falling portcullis of black iron, creating a door where none existed. When the mist grew thick as muslin, she held up the Graiae’s eye and saw, through their ancient sight, the hidden seams in the world.

Alice had not intended to fall again. She had simply been trying to return a borrowed book to her neighbor, an eccentric collector of antiquities, when the stair beneath her foot gave way like a hinge of rotten cake. Down she tumbled—past ticking clocks, through a film of silver mist, and into a sky the color of a bruise. “Left, now,” croaked the first

Silence. The gray tide held its breath.

The first sister held up a single yellowed fang. “You want to go home? Then you must act . Not tumble. Not cry. Act . But the only door is at the bottom of the Cinder Lake, and the lake is guarded by the Jabberwock’s cousin.”

Alice nodded. She tucked the eye into her coat pocket—where it immediately rolled to face forward—and slipped the tooth between her teeth. It fit like it had always been there. It felt warm, like a sleeping coal

“Lend it to me,” Alice said. “Just until I reach the door. You can see through it still—I’ll carry it in my palm. You’ll watch everything I do. If I lie or falter, you’ll know. And you can take your tooth back as well—I’ll bite through any rope or chain I find.”

The fall this time was short and soft. She landed on her neighbor’s rug, the borrowed book still clutched in her hand. Outside, rain tapped the window. Everything was ordinary.

She walked anyway.

She placed the eye and the tooth on the final step, where the Graiae could retrieve them later. Then she pulled the handle.

The three sisters stopped.