Catherine scoffed. "Jest is dead. What use would the heart be? I have no one to love."

"Ah, but that is where you are wrong," Elsie smirked.

If Cath still had a heart, it would have skipped a beat. "W-what?" She stammered, collapsing onto her bed.

"Your precious court joker is alive. Unfortunately, getting to him will not be easy."

"Jest is alive?" Cath repeated slowly.

No. He couldn't be. She had to be wrong.

Right?

Right?!

It wasn't possible. Cath had watched as Peter Peter lifted his ax and-

No, it had to be a joke, a misunderstanding.

Elsie nodded. "He is alive. Unfortunately, getting to him won't be easy. I haven't been to Chess myself, but I know that the White Queen is angry and he is in hiding. We will have to search for him."

"B-but how do you know about the White Queen if you haven't been in Chess?"

"Why, I spoke with Time myself," Elsie grinned. "Now, I must get to work on returning your heart."

Cath lay down on her bed and felt a dagger plunge into her chest before everything went dark.

—————

When Cath awoke, Elsie was sitting at the edge of the bed, fiddling with her dress. "Hello," she grinned.

"What happened?" Cath frowned, glancing down at her chest which didn't seem to have a mark.

"Why, I returned your heart," Elsie stated as though it were completely obvious.

"But there's no mark, no scar, not even a scratch," Catherine gaped.

Elsie shrugged. "It's the treacle."

"May I ask how," Catherine began, her voice breaking, "how you know that Jest is alive?"

"My sisters and I saved him," Elsie said sadly. "We brought him to the well and the treacle cured him."

"But...but Hatta said-"

"Hatta is a madman. He doesn't know what he's talking about, unless we're talking of hats."

Cath nodded slowly. "So...we will have to go to Chess?"

"I'm afraid so. It won't be so easy to enter undetected," Elsie grimaced. "Are you ready?"

Catherine gave a look of confusion.

Elsie sighed. "We're going now. It's much too dangerous for us to leave during the day. Leaving under the cloak of night will be safest."

"O-okay," Cath stammered. It was all happening so quickly. She had only just gotten her heart back. That alone was hard to comprehend. But seeing Jest again? Her beloved court joker? Her one true love? That was even harder to imagine. "I think I'm going to faint."

"Well, save it for later," Elsie reprimanded. "We don't have time for it now."

Cath nodded and got dressed, quickly pinning her hair up once more so that it would be out of the way.

The two carefully climbed out the window, dropping to the soft grass below.

Raven cawed and swooped overhead, resting on the queen's shoulder. "Going somewhere?"

"Oh, Raven," Cath sighed. "It's Jest. He's alive, Raven. Alive! And- and we're going to go to Chess to find him. He's in hiding."

"Jest? Alive?" Raven choked out. "He's alive? And you're sure?"

"Elsie, Tillie, and Lacie were the ones to save him," Catherine nodded.

"I know where Jest is. If you are correct and he is alive and in hiding, I know. There's this place...well, it's too much to explain now, but I'm coming with you."