Her Kingdom, a nothing. Bereft of any caring touch. Of Ignorant touch. Of those fingers petty and cruel. A vast nothing, a blot of a blight among the ramshackle homes. In this neighbourhood of forgotten houses. Shingles falling, siding torn and faded. Paint chipped and wood splintered.

Passed the creaking wood, the rotten stains, a sign and sigil of her worship. The long decayed corpses, and cleanly picked bones. Once a gruesome, and macabre warning set forth by Gilroy, now just more evidence of this...nothing.

To the door, hidden and abandoned, still locked. Everyone might have forgotten, allowing this nothing, but fear lingers. Piercing sharper then blade or fang.

The stairs hardly hold her weight, but they service. Alice smells rot, and shit and fetid water.

Burnt wax and wick.

She had expected this, pressing a hand to her chest and pressing down. Hard. It's not enough, it hurts, heart aching, but she can still pretend to breathe.

"I need a full account." she would later tell her ghoul, "Every detail you can see, and learn of the squalor my home has fallen into."

Once they were a Regency. Once they held Court. Once they were a Kingdom Deep.

Once upon a time, the beginning lingers. This isn't a beginning, Alice was here for that, this is just an....addition after a cliffhanger.

New water, new stone. With some Blood and sorcery...yes, once would come again.