1-800-LUKAFEVER!

First Visit:

On her journey home with the White Rabbit (Luke) in tow, serving as her guide, Lily stumbles across another familiar face: Liam Lovett. In the real world, he goes by the alias Love Bishop and, here, apparently refers to himself as the Hatter.

By now recognizing the trends of this new world, where everyone resembles her loved ones but fails to acknowledge her, Lily decides not to remind the man that he is, in fact, her cousin from the waking world. Instead, she holds back a somewhat bitter smile as he regards her with the same hostility Liam would show toward those he's unfamiliar with and expounds about his role, alongside his companions, the March Hare (Engel) and the Dormouse (Isabel). Or perhaps Lily meant "companions" in the broadest sense, as the Hatter appears to regard caring for the Hare and Dormouse as a chore, similar to how the real Love regards "babysitting" those younger than him.

Just before leaving, the White Rabbit remembers that he has a letter to deliver to the Hatter. However, taking advantage of the opportunity to help Lily gain the Hatter's favor, the White Rabbit gives Lily the letter to deliver to the Hatter instead, which is sealed with a heart-shaped stamp and accompanied by a vibrant red rose, leading Lily to believe that it is a love letter of some kind. And while Lily never learns the contents of the letter before the end of her journey, she does notice that the Hatter is in a much better mood after reading it.

Second Visit:

Some time into her second visit to Wonderland, Lily once again stumbles across the tea party to find the March Hare and the Dormouse, but no Mad Hatter in sight. It's then that the White Rabbit finally clued her in that the Hatter, now referred to as the King of Hearts, had taken the throne from the now former Queen, and now resides in the castle, with a new Hatter soon to take his place at the eternal tea party. However, before Lily can fully process this information, the March Hare presents a worn letter to Lily, which the Hare was ordered to give her by the new King, should she ever return to Wonderland: an invitation to join the royal court. She wondered how long he had been holding onto it.

Out of curiosity, Lily returns with the White Rabbit to the castle and is greeted with great warmth by the new King, who treats her as though she had never left. With a glee almost uncharacteristic of "Liam," he announced his marriage to the Knave, whom Lily knew as the smoking Caterpillar (or Francis, in the real world) during her first visit, and he attributes their successful courting to her delivering his letter to him all those hundreds of years ago.

In fact, he attributes everything about his current situation to this letter, including the battle for the crown and his ascent to royalty, making Lily and the White Rabbit realize they are unintentional accomplices to the conspiracy. While Lily, being pure-hearted, is naturally wracked with guilt over what she unintentionally helped cause, the White Rabbit wisely whispered that this information is something they should keep to themselves for now to avoid any further conflict.

After revealing that world-shattering information, the King reiterates his offer for Lily to join his court. However, understanding that she cannot stay because her home is in the real world, she politely declines. She notices in his eyes that the King, who is Liam in every way, including personality, is trying hard not to take her decision personally.