“...Blessed, am I really?”

Even though it was said multiple times to her, no, many times, she always had that inkling of a feeling about said notion. It could be considered as a weird turn over to her mood, but it was not out of no reason. In fact, she had a good personal excuse for her current sourness.

Despite having left her life as Kei Etsuko, only perhaps holding onto that one light known as Violet Hawthorne, Marilyn hasn't exactly fully forgotten the neglect she felt during that previous life. Scars never truly would fade away, but they could be changed in perspective.

She had tried to do so, to view Kei Etsuko as simply a vain attempt, and that her current life was her main and true one. But now that she knew the Eyes of Heaven were because of that version of her…

“Is that so…?”

She spoke again. There was no smile, no warmth. She was just out-of-the-blue sour and depressed.

“Marilyn, I implore you to calm down, do not frustrate yourself over this.” Sophia would say to her, “...please. It is for your own good.”

The Sage’s tone was very genuine. She truly did wish for her safety here, especially because Marilyn had been doing so well. Marilyn relapsing right now would not serve anyone well at all.

And Marilyn frowned, curled her lips, tightened her jaw. She tried not to be reminded of that life, she tried not to be reminded how she was ‘blessed’ with a bad life, she tried to not remember her previous mother, who ruined it all with her irrational emotions. And…

“...you’re right. Sorry.”

She succeeded, taking a deep breath afterwards. She lightly slapped her own two cheeks with the palm of her hands as she did, shaking her body to try and clear her thoughts and bad emotions.

It was a silly exercise. But if it worked well for some people who did them, why shouldn't she try to do it? Distracting your brain from wandering off into some dark thoughts was always a good reason to do these kinds of things.

“You tried to associate your current blessings with your past self.” Sophia stated, “It's best for you to not do that, even if your Origin Factor was manifested because of that, Marilyn.”

“Yeah…yeah…it really doesn't make any sense to do it.” She said, “It's way behind me now, I should be healing more from it. I don't want to relapse and go back to that state during my childhood again.”

Sophia paused a little, the teacup that she held slightly shaking from her grip. It felt as if she knew what that phrase Marilyn said would entail for the future…

“...Correct. It's best that you try your hardest not to, for your own good, and for your loved ones.” The White Rabbit responded, sighing softly. That phrase was more so a hope for the girl, that she would do so if grief does indeed struck.

The nightly atmosphere of the Sanctuary still held that sense of tranquillity in the air. It brought a degree of calm and control for the two of them. Marilyn for some time would observe said surroundings, as the butterflies would now be accompanied by glowing bioluminescence from another type of creature.

“Fireflies…that’s a nice view.” She said, smiling for a bit, before turning towards Sophia again. “I…have a question, two questions actually. One is probably not that important.”

Sophia took a sip of her tea, raising an eyebrow. “Go right ahead, Marilyn.”

“I’ll go with the unimportant one. How did you…do all of this? I’m really curious, with your Veil and warping of reality, it’s almost…”

“Godly?”

“Y-yeah, godly. Couldn't find the right term, so let's use that.”

“Well then…” The teacup she held was now empty, and Sophia would begin to explain herself more as she poured another round into it. “Let's just say, I’ve reached the point where I could be considered a Personification, a pinnacle of sorts, so to speak.”

“I thought you said you weren't…?”

“I wouldn't refer to myself as one, despite the technicalities being true.” She said, “It just doesn't fit me. But nonetheless it's true, I’ve reached my pinnacle, hence my power.”

“Soo, the concept-level alteration…your reality being imposed, and—”

“That whole prank I did to you two years ago and now? Yes, it was all me using that power.” Sophia replied, smiling, chuckling even. “A more or less casual demonstration for the most part, only the Veil took some effort to maintain, some.”

“...right. Do you think I’ll be as strong as you?”

“You have quite the potential, considering you already understood my spatial manipulation towards you.” Sophia said, “If you train your magic more, you could reach the point where you could manifest your own wonderland. Veils in general aren't always considered a pinnacle, but they are considered as quite deep into the path in reaching it.”

“I see, duly noted, then. What else can you do?”

Sophia became silent, “Hmm…not disclosing.” She stated simply, “There's little chance I would even use those extra powers, let alone the ones I’m using right now on any meaningful scale for the foreseeable future. I prefer things that are simpler yet still effective.”

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“Like…?”

“A gun.”

Marilyn blinked, “That is…definitely simple. I think Vincent thought so at least.”

“Indeed it is. A quite simple yet effective solution to your fighting problems.”

Marilyn couldn't really argue with that, firearms such as those are pretty easy to use and understand when compared to magic. But since she liked to learn, she preferred the harder path, Sophia and Vincent can shove their—

Intrusion detected.

“Rude, you know how I do things, right?” Sophia closed one eye as she said that, sipping her tea.

Marilyn pouted. Sophia really liked to make these kinds of comments without warning, it was quite startling to her. “It's also impolite for you to read my mind in the first place, Sophia.” Marilyn retorted.

The White Rabbit responded with a chuckle, “Alright, what shall be your second question then, oh Chosen Person?”

Marilyn's breath hinged for a slight moment, as she thought of the weight of this second inquiry she was about to ask of her. She wanted answers, but she did not know if she would gain some sort of insight, or just more questions.

But she had to try, no point in delaying.

“Sophia, why am I immortal?”

Marilyn fired that question simple and direct, and for good reason. She wanted to know that answer fast, even if it confuses her, she wouldn't want to be left in the dark about this particular nature of hers. And a question phrased like that could ould perhaps make it more precise in what she wanted to know.

“My my…that was indeed an important question.” Sophia remarked, “Are you willing to find out, even if it does confuse you in the end?”

“Yes, that much is obvious, you know that already.”

“Welp, looks like I’ll have to spill the tea about it.” She remarked again, swirling her tea around with a teaspoon, “Marilyn, are you aware of how this world came to be?"

“Kinda…? The Onlookers made it, right? Are you saying they also made me immortal?”

“...That last one was a whole brand new unrelated sentence. But no, they weren't the ones that gave you that gift.” She said, “Something far higher, to the point that notion itself is irrelevant, as it stood outside of the term surpassable, gave you that power, Marilyn.”

“What do you…?”

“Let me finish, please.”

“R-right, sorry, continue.”

Sophia cleared her throat, “This world that we exist in, including the Onlookers, is just one cycle out of an endless amount, the present iteration of existence.” She said, “It's akin to how we are in the present era of this world, with its ages and epochs, but every time an iteration ends, a whole new cosmology is born from its ashes.”

Marilyn furrowed her eyebrows slightly in confusion, Sophia was not making sense at all to her. Present iteration? Cycles? Something higher than the unreachable Onlookers? What did this have to do with her being immortal even?

“These endless cycles…all of them exist because of one force. In fact, calling it a force, or an entity, would do it an injustice,” Sophia began. “It simply is—beyond object, beyond being. It is the underlying truth. The Origin.”

“Origin…?” Marilyn echoed, the word familiar but foreign at the same time. Was this different from the origins they all possessed? She couldn’t tell.

“I don’t mean the origin we all carry,” Sophia clarified. “I’m speaking of the Origin—a fundamental, indivisible, changeless, and unsurpassable totality.” Her voice was steady, almost reverent. “Everything—everything—stems from it. Even the abyss that existed before creation, where the Onlookers first emerged. It existed before the void itself came to be.”

Marilyn’s confusion deepened. The more Sophia spoke, the more reality itself seemed to fray, unraveling into incomprehensible layers. Cycles? Origins? Abysses? It was too much. She thought about her immortality, the one thing she could cling to. But what did any of this have to do with that?

It felt as though the fabric of the world was being pulled apart, but instead of answers, there were only more questions—each more vast than the last.

Sophia studied Marilyn’s expression. “Trying to explain the Origin any further is useless,” she said. “The more words we apply, the more it slips from understanding. So, we’ll stop here.”

With that, the air around them seemed to lighten, as if a pressure had lifted.

“In simple terms,” Sophia continued, “your immortality was a gift, granted by that same unsurpassable truth. But how far that gift extends, or why it was given to you, I don’t know. All I know is that your situation is unique. And that is why you were chosen.”

“You…make no sense, at all. Are you saying that I'm some cosmic experiment? All I heard was gibberish you know?"

“I know what you're saying there is not literal, your brain is just trying hard to process what I said, but I was putting it in a simpler way.” She said, “There are just too many unknowns to your circumstance, but I hope that answer would suffice. You are simply double blessed, I must say.”

“How do you even know all of this, again…?”

Sophia answered with a brief silence, “That secret I will keep to myself, it's something you don't want to know, Marilyn, or else you'd just have a severe headache.”

The sudden ringing of a church bell, of which there weren't any could be seen, was heard by the silver-eyed girl. It caught her ears, her head turning to try and find the source of that noise.

“Ah, seems like that shall be it for today. Quite the exposition dump I’ve given you, isn't it?”

“Apart from the Eyes of Heaven, and your powers, I don't really understand anything.” She said, “That bell, you set that up didn’t you?”

Sophia laughed softly, “Well, no use denying it, so yes it was just me. It's time for you to leave, so we shall meet again when the time comes, Marilyn.”

The alternate world around the girl began to distort and turn into particles of light. And quickly enough things began to disappear around them. All that was left undisturbed being the tablet set, but that too wasn't spared when their entire surroundings turned white a few moments after.

It was akin to an end to a dream, waking up from one's sleep. The sounds the entirety of Wonderland made as it faded away was that same old church bell's chime, but it too was being distorted, unraveled into something that was hard to make out, its loudness fading away.

Marilyn stood up in panic, in fear of falling from her disappearing chair, yet also because of her growing confusion over all of this in general. “Wait, my reason for being here, being chosen, being blessed, what for!?” She yelled out.

Sophia also began to fade away, but she still smiled, as a visible tear fell down from her eye. Marilyn wasn't sure for what reason, because she wasn't dying here. “Your sister has the answers you seek, so why don't you go and ask her yourself, oh Chosen Person?” She replied.

And after hearing that, after seeing Sophia fading into white, her tear visible, Marilyn was left with more questions than answers. Things to seek, things to reminisce about. As she thought so, she too then disappear from that alternate dimension, the Sage’s Wonderland, and back to the place from whence she came.