The call echoed through the nameless dwelling.
"Ari, Ari! Ari-Ari-Ari-Ari-Ari!"
Moments later, a boy of seventeen laden in loose black clothes slid into the kitchen. A chain hung from his pocket and a scar adorned his left cheek. His auburn hair had red and black streaks, his gloves striped red and black. The boy scowled, rebellion and disrespect shining in his eyes.
"What, mother?" he spat quietly, almost inaudibly.
The woman smiled blithely, oblivious her son's tone and mood. "We're having steak for dinner. I need you to go and get me some bread and potatoes."
Ari felt a pang of memory, and his expression softened a bit. He knew it would do no good to argue (or try to get Annie to do it), so he turned and exited the kitchen and walked to the door.
"Ari!" another female cried out. Ari spun around, this time smiling warmly. He knew that voice… The expression of happiness seemed unfitting on his usually glum, sullen face, and yet, it brightened his features immensely.
The one who had called his name was not his mother, but his love. At the top of the stairs, right underneath a portrait of a woman with red hair, was the daughter of the one to whom this world owed its existence, the real girl, not the doll: Marlene. She smiled softly back at him, and started down the last few steps.
"Where are you going?" Marlene asked. "May I come?"
The boy nodded, still wearing his smile. His eyes moved to her shirt for a moment, recognizing it as his old striped one that he had abandoned for a shirt more…black. Marlene noticed his gaze and gripped the shirt's ends at her mid-thigh.
"Well… you never wear it, so I thought…" But when she looked up and still saw his serene face, she let the sentence end there, realizing no other explanation was needed.
Ari took her hand in his, and together they set out to Tenel.
As the two entered Tenel's main gate, Ari looked to his left past Marlene, whom was still holding his hand, to Julia. Julia's eyes widened then narrowed at him, but Ari just shot a quick glower at her and they walked on.
"People here…they only notice you when I'm around…" Marlene said, half asking, half thinking aloud. "How could they not see you, so sweet, so kind…" She pushed open the door to the Bakery.
"I'm…the kind that is lost in another's…shadow…" Ari replied quietly, his voice taking on a wistful tone for a moment.
"You certainly are! Especially with those black clothes! Boy, if you don't get outside more, your pale skin is gonna fade altogether!" The woman behind the counter bustled up to Ari and pressed a soft loaf of bread into his hands, then caught sight of the scar on his face. "What happened to you? You ought'a get that looked at," she suggested less loudly.
He shrugged off the bakery woman's concern; he had been injured during the fight with Beiloune and didn't heal it, feeling lost as he parted ways with his comrades afterwards.
As he and Marlene left, Ari glanced down at his shadow, long and tall in the evening sun.
It was on the way home with Marlene and the bread that Ari heard a girl call his name, only this vocalization was a shriek flooded with emotion.
"Oh my god! Ari! Ari, is that you? Wait!"
Annoyed and angry, Ari turned around quickly. He saw Rosalyn running to him, parasol-less and with other differentiations in her clothing. She came up and collapsed at his feet, out of breath. Ari shifted his foot so that a little dust kicked up in Rosalyn's face.
Marlene bent a fraction. "You are the Hero Rosalyn, yes? Hello."
Rosalyn jerked and looked up. "M-Marlene? But…" Then her gaze fell onto Ari and his new attire. She shrieked again. "Ari! Ari. I-I've just…come from Madril. S-Stan is… he's taken over the city, half-destroyed it… I need…your help!" she choked out, still gasping.
Marlene looked, puzzled, to Ari for a moment. "Stan?" she queried, and her face lit as she said it. "Ah, yes! The Evil King!"
Ari himself was grinning; a strange sort of smirk was on his face. He knelt down to Rosalyn's face level. "Has he now? Interesting?" He chuckled and stood. "I knew he could do it. Marlene."
The girl stepped closer to him, knowing he was going to suggest something. Ari cast a look down at Rosalyn before speaking.
"Would you like to see Madril with me? I'd like to talk to Stan." He waited for her reply, and Rosalyn herself had frozen in place, eyes wide.
Marlene needed only a moment's thought. "Of course!" she replied. "I would like to see him for myself."
The Hero below them sputtered in shock. "A-Ari! You're saying…saying that you're not going to help me, but that fake king?! How can you do this?!!" she cried.
As Rosalyn got to her feet to continue, Ari cut her off by raising his arms.
"I…I followed Stan for so long, an unwilling slave. Now, that adventure had brought me love—" At this he dropped his arms and took Marlene's hand in his, "—and I have had nearly a year to reflect on all that has happened… I now see only one future, one that I will share with my love, and that future is Stan."
Drawing her rapier in a blink, Rosalyn brandished it, not as a threat but to give her erratically shaking hands something to focus on. "How can you do that, Ari? Stan is evil, the Great Evil King! You know 'justice' will prevail… I…I don't want to hurt you…" The arm holding the rapier fell her side, and kindness flooded into her eyes—she believed she had gotten through to him.
Ari just laughed, and picked at his black clothes. "Don't you get it, 'Roz? I am the shadow, now. It is time for me to return to my master." He turned to Marlene and spoke to her in a completely different voice. "Shall we go, my love?"
Marlene nodded, and as she still gripped his hand, she departed with Ari. The loaf of bread lay on the ground in front of Rosalyn, discarded full minutes before.
Rosalyn picked up the loaf and decided the best thing to do would be to tell Ari's family what happened. After that, she would try to recruit her companions—hopefully they'd help her, even though the majority of them were former Evil Kings, if that influenced anything.
Turning toward the large house, Rosalyn began walking under the twilight sky and the shining stars.