The sun going down in the Rumille Plain was a sight to see. The light, as it hit red stone of the cliffs, bathed the world in a rich orange. The stormy season was finally beginning to taper off, which meant that the sky was relatively clear, for once. The air was crisp with cold from the slowly approaching winter, but not so cold as to be unpleasant. It would have been beautiful if the situation were not so grim.

"Why would brother Ari flee?" Star asked miserably. This was not the first time she asked, and Illisaith still did not have an answer. "I am to blame for this…"

"No!" Illisaith said harshly. "You're not! Now, you're getting on my nerves with that crap!" Star flinched. Her friend was angry, obviously, but he had never spoken that forcefully to her. He stopped and sighed. Without looking at her, he said, "Sorry. I'm just not in a good mood, right now. The only person to blame for this is that stupid vampire, and I'm not going to let you let him off the hook for it. It was his fault, not yours."

He resumed walking toward Rashelo; Star followed behind him. "Perhaps that is so," she admitted. "But were I not so hesitant, Ari would be with us still."

"You can't change your nature, Star."

"You have."

Illisaith shook his head and laughed mirthlessly. "Oh….no, I haven't," he informed her. "I've tried. I have certainly tried, and the only thing I've succeeded in doing is giving myself schizophrenia."

"You are learning; you are young yet. I have watched you, young one. You are not like the dark one. You are…one of the good guys…?" Illisaith looked at her out of the corner of his eye, and she tittered merrily. "I am learning slang. I am doing well, yes?"

"Heh. Everything you do is perfect, Star," he laughed.

"You are a cad, young one," she teased.

A blue flash of light caught their attention and brought them back down to earth. In front of the now-active Stone Circle stood a woman in a black dress and hat. She walked toward the two, but stopped several paces away. Illisaith stopped as well, but Star drifted forward to get a better look.

"You're like me," Illisaith said. It was not a question, but the woman nodded anyway.

"I am the one you called to," she said in complete monotone. "My name is Kestra."

Illisaith folded his arms and narrowed his eyes. "So what do you want, my eternal gratitude?"

"Be pleasant," Star said sharply. "She did aid in your freedom, yes? I am called Radiant Star or simply Star if you prefer."

Kestra's eyes widened in surprise. "You are the Eclipse? No, we will speak of it another time, if you are willing. I come to you now to tell you that your friends have crossed the mountain."

"How do you know?" Illisaith demanded suspiciously.

"I have been watching them," she admitted. "But I can say no more. I'm not permitted. Cross the mountains; they need your help." She turned and walked back into the Stone Circle. Just before she disappeared, Illisaith called out, "Thanks!"

"Come, young one," Star urged. "We must make haste." They hurried back to find the trail that led through the mountains.

"Shouldn't we have reached Triste by now?" Rosalyn muttered wearily. She sat down on the ground to pull her boots off and rub her aching feet.

"Did we go through the Transverse Tunnel?" Stan asked. He had continued to not show himself since they left Arlington; indeed, he had barely said two words to her.

"No, we went over the mountains," Rosalyn answered irritably. "You know, if you'd pay a little attention, you might know these things."

"If we went over the mountains, then no, we would not have reached Triste by now; and in case you forgot, I…can't…see."

Rosalyn shook her head. "Now, I know why this irritates Ari so much," she muttered. "If you can't see, then why don't you just come out here?"

"…maybe later…"

"Well, then quit complaining about-" Rosalyn broke off as something occurred to her. "Um…Stan, you can come out of there, can't you?"

"Of course, I can!" Stan roared without showing himself. "I just don't want to."

Rosalyn was beginning to have doubts about that, but she decided to play along, anyway. "Right. Fine. So, why aren't we in Triste again?"

"The Transverse Tunnel is a place where space is kind of…folded up," Stan attempted to explain. "It's like you're being teleported to somewhere else."

"Oh, wow," she breathed. "How far away is it?"

"I'm not really sure." He didn't seem inclined to elaborate, so Rosalyn stood and resumed walking, although she was loath to do so. The mountains had finally given way to a grass plain. It had been kind of pretty at first; the way the wind blew the grass made it look like an emerald ocean. Unfortunately, it got very old, very quickly.

Rosalyn was worried and bored, not a good combination. She wanted someone to talk to, to tell her worries to, but the only person around was Stan. Without actually being able to see him, talking to him felt too much like talking to herself. Of course, she didn't really want to talk to him anyway since their conversations invariably ended up in major disputes over minor points.

Stan was thinking along much those same lines. He was bored to tears, blind, and lonely. He did not want to talk to Rosalyn because she would ask questions that he was not in the mood to answer. Like why he didn't want to come out of her shadow. But there was no one else to talk to, and he was starting to feel claustrophobic and lonely. He was not surprised that he missed Ari; Ari was company. Ari kept him from being lonely. Ari was always there, and he almost always knew when to just shut up and let Stan rant. He always knew just what to say, too. Stan didn't want to find a new slave. He wanted his old one back. He was lonely. And bored.

And lonely.

He never used to get that lonely. He used to love being alone; it was the only time he had any piece with four siblings. Then Pollack had come and stuffed him in a bottle for three hundred years; nothing had been the same since. He growled quietly at his predicament.

If Rosalyn heard, she didn't say anything. The silence went on for a long time, made longer by monotony and concern for their friend. Finally, Stan decided he could not take any more. "Any sign of him yet?"

Rosalyn sighed. "No, not yet. Why do you even care, anyway?"

Stan would have rolled his eyes if he could. "Why do you keep asking me that?" he demanded sardonically. "What do you care what I care? I thought, according to you, I'm human."

"Well, obviously, I was wrong," she admitted. Before Stan could celebrate the confession, she went on. "Humans care about each other. You don't care about anything but yourself."

"So what's your point?"

Rosalyn stopped and glared down at her shadow. "My point is that I saved your life back there, and you don't even care! And I'm beginning to regret doing it!"

"Then maybe you shouldn't have!" Stan yelled back at her. He was glad she had helped him; there was no mistake about that. But he was not exactly going to admit that to her, was he? Rather than continue yelling, Rosalyn dropped to the ground and started to cry. "Ah, not again…" Stan moaned.

"Shut up! Stupid Evil King!" she wailed. "This is all your fault! I try to be a good Hero, and you always mess things up!"

"How do I mess things up?" he demanded at the top of his voice.

"Because you just do! You got Ari hurt, and now he's gone insane, and I shouldn't have let him go in there with you!"

"Well, who's fault is that?"

"Mine!" Rosalyn shouted angrily. "It's mine!"

They both fell silent. After a few minutes, Rosalyn stood and resumed walking. "So what's out this way anyway?" she asked, still sniffling a bit.

Stan didn't answer; he was preoccupied with his current train of thought.

"Stan?" Rosalyn said a little louder. "STAN!"

"What?" he demanded.

"I asked you what's out here."

"Well, how should I know? What, you think I'm omniscient or something? You know, despite all my grand intelligence, there are some things even I don't know!"

"Oh, never mind…" Rosalyn huffed angrily. "What are you so touchy for, anyway?"

Stan didn't actually mean to reply; at the very least, he didn't mean to tell her. "I'm powerless, stuck in your shadow, claustrophobic, bored, and lonely!" Stan mentally cringed, but the expected laughter failed to begin.

"So he did take your power…" Rosalyn said quietly.

"And what do you care, anyway?" Stan demanded. "You're the Hero. You're supposed to be trying to kill me, yet you save me! Then you force me to reveal that I am, in fact, weak! Now, when you should be celebrating my weakness, you're acting like you actually feel sympathy or something, which is a weak, human emotion that I don't need or want from you!"

Rosalyn took a deep breath and forced herself to remain calm as she finally figured out what was wrong with Stan. He was humiliated, ashamed of his weakness. She kept her voice level as she said, "There's nothing weak about sympathy or caring about other people. It takes a lot more guts to run into a fire to save someone than it does to just save yourself."

"What it takes is stupidity," Stan argued. "What's the point of trying to save someone if you're both just going to be killed?"

"The point is that you tried," Rosalyn answered. "But I wouldn't expect a stupid Evil King like you to understand."

When Stan answered, he sounded in slightly better spirits. "Oh, I understand just fine. Humans are insane."

Rosalyn shook her head and chose not to pursue the conversation any further. Instead, she asked, "What did he do to you, anyway?"

Stan went silent for a very long time. Rosalyn could tell that this was a question he really did not want to answer. Finally, however, he did. "I'm a Shadow Demon, Pink. The key word there is 'shadow'. My body is mostly power, and my natural form requires that power to remain…ah…intact."

"By power, you mean your magic?"

"…No. It's a different kind of power. It's…it's the power that's created when light strikes an object."

"That's power?"

"Of a sort. Light hits something and makes a shadow. We Shadow Demons have that power inside us. Without it…my body looses cohesion. He stole that from me; that's why I was fading, and that's why I have to borrow your shadow. It's the only thing holding me together right now."

Rosalyn stopped and looked down at her shadow. "How?"

She could tell he was trying desperately not to bite her head off for her ignorance, which actually pleased her. It meant he was grateful to her, after all. When he started speaking, his voice was a bit strained, but he was trying to be civil. "Light is hitting you. It's creating a shadow. I'm in your shadow. You are holding your shadow together, which is holding me together."

"Oh…" Rosalyn said, understanding at last. "I get it. Will you ever recover it?"

"I will when we beat Ari."

They both went silent as the implication of those two words sank in. "Beat Ari." They were going to have to fight, and possibly kill, their best friend. And they had to do this because of Natasha.

Rosalyn started walking again. She knew where to go; her Hero sense was pulling her there. She sucked in breath between her teeth and said, "I…will…kill…her!"

She said it with such passion and anger that Stan was stunned, but he was also impressed. She'd never displayed any sort of real anger before, as far as he was concerned. She got mad at him for picking fights and being a pain, but that was different. That was just Rosalyn being way too uptight and prissy. Stan approved.

"Tell you what," he said. "Just to show my goodwill, I'll let you take the first stab at her."

Rosalyn snorted. "You mean considering you can't? How nice of you."

"I'll be able to by then."

Rosalyn laughed. "You know, if you really want to show your 'goodwill', you'll fix my shadow."

"Heh heh. Alright. As soon as I get my power back, I'll fix your shadow."

"Uh uh. No way, Stan. That's what you said last time. I want you to promise me you'll fix my shadow, and then I want you to keep that promise."

"I'll think about it."

"Stanley!"

The cheerful bickering went on for a long time while they followed Ari, but underneath it was the concern only one of them was willing to express.

Incubus stopped finally. This was a good place, he thought. Thanks to the power he had stolen from Stan, he had a keen awareness of Rosalyn's location; she was slowing, which meant she was tired and would be easily defeated. Stan, of course, had already been dealt with. He settled down to wait for his victims to arrive.

Deep inside his mind, Ari roused himself slightly. He knew what Incubus knew, and he was not yet so far gone that it didn't register. They were looking for him. They had joined forces to look for him. They were his friends, after all. Carefully, so as not to arouse Incubus' attention, he set about trying to wake himself up the rest of the way.