Star chirped a few times and fell silent. She continued to hover more or less behind Illisaith but was slowly, almost unconsciously, drifting toward Rosalyn. Her light had dimmed, possibly from worry and possibly from shame.

After a long, contemplative silence, Rosalyn said, "It must have been horrible to be trapped for so long."

Star seemed to shrug. "To be trapped, yes. But to be alone was worse. Lightless Void is a part of me; we are two halves of a single entity." With an unreadable, but probably impish, glance between Stan and Illisaith, she added, "Mirror images."

As one, Stan and Illisaith scoffed derisively, then glared at each other. Ari hid a smile as Rosalyn rolled her eyes. Star pealed with laughter. She was beginning to like these two humans: Ari, so quiet and good-natured; and Rosalyn, who so devoutly followed Star's own path. She and her brother had once walked openly among humans. They had been loved, revered, and they loved the humans back. Those days were long gone, now, but she missed them. It had been aeons since she had met a decent human, let alone a likable one. It was like being home again…

Then there was Stan. Void would like Stan, but Star didn't think she cared much for him. She had expected him to be like Illisaith. Granted, he had told her that he was very pointedly trying not to be Stan, but she hadn't known exactly how different they would be. Illisaith was blunt and rude, but he was only mean when he forgot himself. Stan, by contrast, was evil incarnate, and would have been flattered to hear it. He didn't strike her as the type of person who would ever give a genuine smile like Illisaith occasionally did. She liked Illisaith. Most of the time. She didn't like Stan.

She chirped in embarrassment as she realized that she hadn't been listening to the last several minutes of conversation.

"Well, I think we should help her," Rosalyn was saying.

"Well then, you go right ahead," Stan responded. He made a shoo-ing motion at her. "I'm going after James and Natasha."

"You do that then. Ari can come with me."

"Hey, he's my slave! He stays with me!"

"He's not your slave, idiot Evil King!"

"Ah, not again," Ari moaned.

"What was that, slave?" Stan barked.

"Nothing, Your Majesty…"

Appeased for the moment, Stan went back to his regularly scheduled squabble with Rosalyn. Illisaith was laughing quietly, though at who exactly was still up for debate. Star drifted towards Ari and whispered, "Are they always this?"

He grinned. "Nope. They're usually worse."

"I do not understand how you can enjoy its company," she said in a confused disharmony. "It is not a very pleasant human."

Stan may have been ignoring everything else around him except his argument with Rosalyn, but he heard that. He whirled around. "How dare you call me human?"

Star squealed and fled to the safety of Illisaith. "Back off," he snapped. "Or I'll make you regret it."

While Stan decided whether he'd rather be scathing or insulting, Rosalyn said in an attempt to sooth, "Star, honey, Stan's a demon. Not a human."

"A…demon…?" Star asked, her voice quaking. "Young one, you lied to me!" She backed away quickly.

"I never claimed to be a human reflection!" Illisaith objected, injured by the accusation.

"A lie by omission is still a lie!" She shot straight into the sky and fled to the north, across the lake. Illisaith yelled for her and started to follow.

"Why bother?" Stan asked with great disdain.

Illisaith about-faced. He seemed almost as enraged at that moment as he had when he'd first been allowed to turn on James. "Maybe I'm not like you," he growled menacingly. "Maybe I care about her." He changed to his shadow form and sped after her without waiting for the response he knew would follow. He knew what the response would be, anyway, since he was hearing it in his own head. That voice was getting much easier to ignore.

"Wow…" Rosalyn breathed, looking after him. "He's really not like you."

"And good riddance, too," Stan grumbled. "Now, if James is looking for…"

"You really don't care about anything other than yourself, do you?" Rosalyn interrupted him. Ari groaned inwardly and wandered a few feet away. This wasn't going to end well.

Stan gave her a look of pure incredulity and replied in obvious confusion, "What else is there to care about?" Ari sighed in cautious relief. Maybe it wouldn't be a replay of Madril after all.

Apparently, Rosalyn had been expecting her blurted question to spark an argument, as well. She opened her mouth to speak, remembered she was talking to an Evil King, and shook her head instead. "Never mind," she said wearily. "What were you saying?"

Stan glowered for a few moments more. "I was saying, they probably went to the Library in the Necropolis to find this Lightless Void." He grew thoughtful. "Of course, to have done that, they would have to have found another way in."

"Could they have repaired the Stone Circle?" Ari asked since Rosalyn did not appear inclined to.

Stan gave Rosalyn a bemused glance before turning his full attention to his slave. "Not unless they managed to dupe some fool Hero into doing it, and then he would have to have power like Porky's." He glanced side-long at the object of his latest jibe; she just looked back at him, completely unimpressed. He almost seemed disappointed.

"So how're you guys going to get there, then?" Rosalyn asked.

This was very unlike Rosalyn. "You're not going to demand to come?" Stan burst out without thinking.

She folded her arms and shrugged. "Well, I can't, right? That's what KT said."

This time, Stan's disappointment was in obvious evidence, although he didn't realize it. Rather than pursue the matter, however, he motioned to Ari to follow and started walking toward the Transverse Tunnel that would take him back to Triste and, more importantly, the ruin on the other side. Rosalyn watched them go; they actually made it almost twenty feet before her conscience kicked in, and she ran after them.

"How can you stand him?" Rosalyn asked Ari after Stan's latest attempt to get her to argue with him.

Ari shrugged. "I dunno. You get used him after you're forced to be around him for a while."

"What are you saying about me?" Stan demanded from somewhere ahead. He was actually walking for a change of pace.

Rosalyn bit her lip. She was not going to argue with him. She wasn't. Under any circumstances. She took a deep breath and went back to her conversation with Ari. "But he's so…so…"

"Annoying? Aggravating? Irritating?" Ari laughed. "Believe it or not, he's not that bad usually."

"That's the only way I've ever seen him."

"Yeah, of course. He has a reputation to maintain. He can't be seen being decent to a Hero; what would people say?"

Rosalyn covered her mouth to smother her laughter. "So he's only like that when I'm around, is that it?"

"Eh, not just you. It's everybody. I see him when he's being himself, though. I'm just the slave, remember; it doesn't matter what I think about him."

Rosalyn gave this a great deal of thought. Just when she thought she had it all figured out, one of them said or did something, and she had to discard all her theories to make new ones. She thought she actually had it this time. "So…that's why you continue to obey him?"

Ari shook his head. "Kind of, I guess. Mainly though, it's because he saved Annie from that pig latin curse. He said he'd do it if I would be his slave for life. He held up his end of the deal."

Rosalyn glared at the ground. She was so sure she had that time. She knew Ari was a noble boy; he would have made a good Hero. But she had never actually thought of that before, that he might continue to be Stan's servant out of a sense of honor. It was kind of ironic. "But…he doesn't even care…"

Ari shrugged again and remained silent. The fact was, he knew Stan did care. Stan had, frantically and violently, gone out of his way to save Ari's life when it would have been considerably easier and more economical to simply find a new slave. It was not the first time the Evil King had done something to accidentally prove he cared, and it probably wouldn't be the last.

But he couldn't exactly say that to Rosalyn, could he? Especially with Stan just a few feet away. Stan might throw a tantrum and starting pouting again. Ari tried to hide a grin and failed miserably, but no one was paying attention anyway.

Moving over water was not fun. Illisaith was trying to stay on top of it where he could see Star, but it was taking a great deal of effort. It wasn't as though he was heavy as a shadow; he had no weight to speak of. He wasn't sure what it was about water, but he had long since decided that he didn't like it. He was getting tired. Fortunately, it looked like Star was slowing and loosing altitude.

He finally caught up to her on a strange beach, a good hundred miles or so off every map in the region. "Star…" he panted, pulling himself out of the water and back into his true form. "Star…stop for two…two minutes…would you?"

She was kneeling on the ground; her wings twitched slowly, and she made a strange, sad sort of keening. Her light was so dim, it had almost gone out. Illisaith cursed himself for nine kinds of a fool as he dragged his feet up the beach to collapse next to her. "I didn't…mean to lie to you…" When her only response was to raise the volume of her keening, he continued. "I didn't even…think about it…Come on, Star…"

That little voice in the back of his mind that belonged to Stan grew louder as he tried to catch his breath. It wanted to be angry. In fact, it wanted to be incensed. It wanted to make Star pay, though for what, it wasn't quite certain. He shoved it away, but still spoke a touch more forcefully than he meant to.

"What do you have against demons, anyway?" he demanded. "I not even a real one. I'm just a reflection of one."

"Demons are black, like my brother," Star whispered finally. "They destroy; they cannot create. I do not like demons."

Illisaith glared. "I'm not even a real one…" he said again. "Besides, how was I to know you couldn't tell? When's the last time you saw a human with pointed ears and yellow eyes?"

Star got very quiet, then. "I saw a human with jaundice, once," she said very slowly. "It had yellow eyes…"

Illisaith continued to glare.

"It points out my lapse in intellect in a most undesirable manner…" she muttered to herself. "Might brother young one grant pardon?" she asked sheepishly.

The little voice in the back of his head demanded that he despise her, no, destroy her for her insolence. He mentally stomped on it and gave one his rare, mockery-free smiles. "If you'll call me by my name, I'll forgive you," he teased.

Star's light flared brightly for a second before returning to normal. "Of course, brother young one."

Illisaith sniffed in mock indignation and crossed his arms, turning away. Suddenly, he found himself engulfed in light, sound, and heat and was nearly knocked to the ground. Star let go before he could formulate an objection, or even a desire to. "It was a human embrace," she said thoughtfully. "Do demons embrace?"

Illisaith thought for a moment. He was reminded of James and Natasha, but was uncertain whether or not that counted. "You know, I wouldn't know. Come on; let's go back. And when we get there, I'll teach you the nuances of gender."

"What is gender…?" Star asked, honestly perplexed. This was going to be a great trip…