Illisaith was beyond astonished to hear a faint yet disturbingly familiar voice grumbling, "…getting really sick and tired of walking back and forth across the entire length of this stupid world of yours…" He stopped and tilted his head to listen for the rejoinder.
Right on cue: "You're not even walking. Why don't you think about poor Ari once and a while?"
"Who cares about him?"
"That poor kid…" Illisaith whispered. He couldn't help but find it humorous, especially since the boy was so tolerant of the abuse. Deciding to pretend that he was not aware of them yet, he went back to the deck he had been helping to erect. He had tossed his shirt and jacket aside and was now standing bare-chest-deep in frigid water. A few yards away, the former Bubble Evil King was completely submerged to aid in sinking some of the posts that would hold up the bridges. Farther out into the lake, the children were playing a strange kind of tag game with Star. It seemed to involve a lot of yelling about who was "it" and very little actual tagging. They were mainly just trying to leap out of the water high enough to catch Star, who kept flitting away.
"Hey, fake, wannabe Evil King," Stan yelled after they had gotten closer.
"Is he talking to me?" the giant fish monster asked as he re-emerged.
"No," Illisaith groaned. "He's talking to me. What do you want?" The last bit, of course, was yelled back as loudly as possible. He waded back to shore where he tossed his screwdriver onto a pile of sundry other tools and tried to pretend that he didn't notice Rosalyn stop suddenly and stare, although he wasn't certain how convincing he was. Stan didn't seem to notice, anyway, as he came back out of Ari's shadow.
"Having fun?" Stan sneered.
"Oh, yeah, it's great," Illisaith responded haughtily. He gestured at the construction and added, "I get to screw all day." Not a quip Stan would have gone with, but he found it hysterical nonetheless. Ari snickered. Rosalyn continued to stare; Illisaith continued to pretend he did not notice. "What do you want? Another fight?"
"Eh, maybe later," Stan shrugged. He was definitely back to normal. "I see you found your friend." He put a sarcastic twist on the word.
Illisaith bristled. "What's it to you?"
"Absolutely nothing. I just need to get into the Mirror World."
Illisaith couldn't take it anymore. Rosalyn's mouth had fallen open slightly. He decided to rescue her before she started to drool. "Trying to catch flies?" he taunted. She snapped her mouth closed and turned bright red.
Ari covered his mouth to hide his laughter, but Stan, being Stan, did not even bother. "She's not having a good life right now," he explained in mock sympathy. "I finally taught her to fear me."
"I am so not even scared of you, Stanley," she objected loudly. Then she grinned in as close an imitation of his most evil expression as she could muster. "It's kind of hard to be scared of someone who gets beaten by girl."
Illisaith threw back his head and laughed. "That headline was true?" he exclaimed delightedly. "You got beat by a girl? Tell me that was you, woman."
Rosalyn nodded happily. "You bet it was."
Ari was trying desperately not to laugh at Stan. It made things easier. But he couldn't stand it anymore. "An hour and a half," he said, ignoring Stan's scowl. "He beats off close to fifty Heroes in about five minutes and then gets trashed by Ros."
"Slave, I order you to stop laughing!" Stan yelled. Unfortunately, this only made everyone laugh harder.
"You should have seen Madril," Rosalyn went on. "Those poor people." She made a token attempt to stop laughing long enough to sound sympathetic, but it didn't work out.
"It was worse than what I did, I take it," Illisaith remarked.
"Oh, yeah," Ari agreed. "The entire bottom level, in ruins."
"Nice. Very nice."
The laughter finally drifted to a halt; Stan was pouting, which almost started it up again. "Are you children quite through now?" he asked sanctimoniously. "Can we finally get back to the reason we're even here?"
"Simulacrum, right?" Illisaith verified. He shrugged. "Well, I did know of one way, but I incinerated it after sending you there, so…"
"We thought you might be able to open a way in," Rosalyn said, cutting off Stan who was about to say much the same thing. Everyone ignored the griping and groaning that followed.
Illisaith scoffed. "He can't do it; what makes you think I can? Why do you even want to go there anyway?"
"We need to get into the Diablerie," Stan said, interrupting Rosalyn who glared. Apparently, it had become a contest to see who could explain first. "I think those fool traitors are there."
"Oh, okay. I am certainly all for killing them. Hey, Star!" She had been keeping one eye on the party while she continued to play. Now, she chimed discordantly as she hurriedly floated towards them. "No, everything's fine," Illisaith assured her. "Do you know how get into the Simulacrum or the Diablerie?"
She chirped a few more times, trilled a laugh, and replied in a more understandable language. "I know several ways to reach the Mirror World. Reality is very thin, you see, and easily torn through. But I do not know how to reach the black realms, I fear."
"Whatever," Stan said with a dismissive wave. "Just get us to the Simulacrum."
"It is not so easy, dark one," Star reproached him. "You may not care for the damage you cause, but I create. I will not destroy. While I can merely create a rift that will send you there, I would much rather create a doorway that can be sealed again."
"So you'll need a mirror," Illisaith muttered. "Great. Just keep it away from me."
"It would also be best if we journey to the location where such a door was made previously," Star continued. "Reality will be thinner there, and less damage will be caused."
"We?" Illisaith asked dubiously.
"Yes, we," Star answer loftily. She twittered and chimed for a long time at the end of which Illisaith shuddered comically.
"No," he whined. "Don't do that."
"Do what?" Stan demanded.
"Like I'd tell you. Can I at least dry off first?" As he gestured at himself, still dripping wet, he pretended not to notice Rosalyn turn bright red again.
"Extrie! Extrie! Read all about it!" a newsie was calling out as the mismatched party entered Madril. "Evil King Stan Apologizes To Hero's Club!"
"What?" Stan exclaimed. He very nearly yelled at the boy, but decided that a certain other party member was to blame and was, therefore, a more fitting outlet for his wrath. "You…" he growled menacingly as he turned on an extremely self-satisfied Illisaith.
"That Mr. Big is an interesting fellow," Illisaith replied impishly. "He was more than happy to quote me on my world views. Too bad he keeps getting my name wrong…"
Ari looked at his shoes. He would very much have loved to retreat, but it wouldn't have helped since Stan had possessed his shadow, supposedly to aid in telling the difference between himself and his reflection.
"You must not fight," Star chimed. "Poor Ari is trapped between you. You must contrive to be pleasant."
"Why?" Stan demanded. "He's the slave; he's used to it."
Ari had to nod at that, but he gave Star a gratified look.
"Well, maybe he shouldn't have to be used to it," Rosalyn interjected. "I mean, look at him. He's afraid to even talk when you get like that."
"It's not that I'm afraid to…" Ari began, and was subsequently ignored by everyone but Star. She simply looked at him quietly as Rosalyn and Stan continued to bicker about him as though he was not there. She glanced at Illisaith who was overseeing the altercation with a strange look on his face. Once she realized the two combatants were not going to stop anytime in near future, she sighed, spread her wings, and emitted a sharp, high-pitched noise that made fingernails against a blackboard seem positively musical.
Rosalyn, Ari, and Illisaith clapped their hands over their ears; Stan cried out and fell back into Ari's shadow. "You will not fight!" Star asserted when she had their attention again. "Not with brother Ari among you! You do not see it…him when you fight."
"Ah, he's used to it," grumbled Stan's muffled voice from somewhere near the ground.
"It…he is sad for it, yes, young one?" Star held out her hand to Ari. "You must speak for yourself. I will do so no longer, for it is the same as they."
Ari suddenly found himself the center of everyone's undivided attention. Unfortunately, "everyone" included most of the people on the upper level by now. He looked around in bewilderment.
"Oh, for pity's sake," Rosalyn muttered. "Okay, everyone! Show's over! There is nothing more to see here. Go on about your business." She made slow headway against the grumbling crowd until Stan erupted from Ari's shadow to tower imposingly well above everyone's heads.
He raked his hand across the empty air and roared, "Get out of here!" The crowd dispersed very quickly. He returned to his normal size and glowered at Rosalyn as thought daring her to reprimand him.
Instead of rising to the challenge, she turned back to Ari. "Okay, I'm sorry we ignore you so much. What did you want to say?"
He rubbed the back of his neck in embarrassment. "Um…well…I mean…I am kind of used to it…"
"There, see?" Stan said triumphantly.
"Shut up," Illisaith said menacingly. "I think I'm going to agree with Star on this one. Speak up, kid."
Ari glanced around again. It wasn't that he was shy, although he was. Seventeen years of barely being recognized as existing will do that to a person. He was quiet. He had always been quiet; he would always be quiet. Sure, he could talk when he wanted to. When it was just him and one or two other people, he was more than happy to join in the conversation. Unless one of the other people happened to be Stan. Then it sometimes got difficult. He sighed. "Stan makes me nervous," he admitted.
This pronouncement was followed by complete, disconcerting silence. He had fully expected an outburst from behind him and probably right in his ear, at that. Instead, he heard nothing. After a second or two, Rosalyn prompted him to go on.
It wasn't that he was afraid of Stan. He did not honestly believe that Stan was going to hurt him in any way, save possibly to deafen him. It wasn't that Stan treated him like a slave; he was Stan's slave, after all. And when it was just the two of them, he had absolutely no problem speaking his mind because Stan didn't care as long as Ari was respectful about it. It was just when Stan was around other people. He seemed to feel this persistent need to prove to everyone that he was evil and bossing Ari around and reprimanding him for every little thing was apparently the best way to do that. He did not want to say this out of fear that Stan would start in on him. No, fear wasn't the right word. Maybe cowardice was better.
"I don't like getting yelled at," he said quickly and winced slightly. The continued silence from the guy behind him was not as heartening as he thought it should have been. Still, he'd fallen this far into the hole. It couldn't possibly get much worse.
"And I don't like being called 'slave' all the time," he continued. "My name is Ari. And…I don't like getting interrupted." Well, no fear of that for the moment. No one else even looked like they were considering speaking. "And I don't like being ignored. Or having the two of you constantly argue like I'm not even here. Especially when it's about me. It's like I'm not even allowed to make my own decisions in life. I mean, I expect that from him," he gestured behind himself. "But he's my master because I agreed to it, and I'm sick of you constantly telling him off for it, Ros."
Rosalyn looked like she was about to apologize, but did not. Perhaps she was waiting for him to finish. Perhaps, she just realized she wasn't going to get the chance. Now that Ari had started, he was finding it difficult to stop again. He suddenly realized he was pacing and had been for some time.
He turned to actually face Stan. "And I'm sick and tired of you hiding in there and then complaining about being tired. I'm tired; you're not even doing anything!" Did Stan just cringe? "And I'm sick of how you're always going on about evil you are and throwing your weight around. It's like you have some kind of inferiority complex, or something. You actually feel threatened by a frickin' reflection!" He gestured at Illisaith, who had started laughing quietly. He agreed whole-heartedly to that statement. "And Rosalyn! And random people we meet on the street! And children!" Wait, was Stan's head somewhat lower than it had been thirty seconds ago? They were almost eye-level. "And I'm sick of the abuse! I know I'm worth more than that, and so do you!"
Ari turned around again and stared at his shoes. "I think I'm done," he muttered.
The enraged outburst continued to not happen. Rosalyn looked sheepish. "I'm sorry," she said very quietly.
It was on Ari's tongue to say that it was all right, but he couldn't seem to get the words out. It wasn't all right. Finally, he said just as quietly, "I forgive you…" He could do that, at least.
It was his turn to look sheepish now as he glanced at Illisaith...who was grinning… "Good show, kid," he said folding his arms. He meant it, too.
Ari shuffled his foot. "Uh…I didn't mean to call you…that…"
Illisaith made a dismissive gesture. "Eh, I don't care. It's true. Besides, you said it to provoke him, which I am all for."
"You are not very pleasant to your creator," Star teased. "Young Ari, does it not please you to have said what you have wished for long?"
Ari shrugged. He was all talked out now, but he felt obligated to say something. "I think I'd feel better about it if he'd say something."
There was definitely something wrong. He had given Stan multiple reasons to object forcefully. Now, rather than speak, Stan merely ducked back into Ari's shadow. It was difficult to read his expressions when he was in his shadow form, but Ari thought he was pretty good at it.
Stan was not pouting. Ari could not figure out what the continued silence might portend, but he was as certain of that as he was of anything. Stan was not pouting. He was not sulking. He was not having a tantrum. This was something serious.
"Um…" Rosalyn was hesitant to say anything now, but she needed to change the subject. The tension was almost a solid mass, and they needed to distract themselves with more mundane matters. Like where they were going to spend the night. "We're probably not going to make it to Tenel before dark, and I'm not sure I want to be there when it's dark anyway. So where are we going to stay tonight?"
"In the inn…" Illisaith ventured, wondering why she would ask something so bizarre.
"Uh…you mean the one Stan and I trashed?"
"Oh, right. We'll stay at the Mirage."
"You're kidding right?" Rosalyn asked. "That's a bar!"
Illisaith grinned. "It's an inn, too. I know the hostess; she owes me a favor." He beckoned them to follow.
"Do I want to know why the hostess at the Mirage owes you a favor?" Rosalyn asked suspiciously.
Illisaith did not stop, but he turned to give her another of his strange looks as he asked rakishly, "Why? Are you jealous?" Although this was not actually Stan, the ensuing dispute was apparently inevitable.