With Kairi's somewhat frantic direction Sophie came down for a jarring but otherwise perfectly acceptable landing, which she defined as one where neither craft nor passengers broke anything critical when they hit the dirt. Her already heavy, sodden dress picked up a layer of dust as she walked to the door and hammered on it, Sophie trailing behind. The façade of curls the hairdresser had erected with hot irons and pomade had crumbled under the onslaught of the weather and hung in clammy strands against her face. The crown had slipped too. She tried pulling it off and it got tangled in her hair. She pulled harder.
"How'd it—nevermind," Markl said when Kairi pushed past him and, having finally succeeded in extricating the tiara from her snarled hair, threw it against the wall with a forlorn clang. Sora had been trying to sleep off the aftereffects of his heroism in Sophie's cot and shot awake at the noise.
"What happened?" Riku asked, rising from his place at the table. It was now sunset, far past the time she'd told them to expect her.
"I messed up," she said despondently. "If you were planning on going out somewhere tonight, don't."
Sophie looked similarly sorrowful, but crushed it down and affixed a concerned maternal expression on her face and tut-tutted at her. "You ought to change before you catch a cold, Kairi, come on."
Kairi sighed. "Right. Markl…do you mind if I borrow your bedroom for a bit to change?"
"Nuh-uh. Just…um…don't open the closet door, or you won't be able to close it again."
"Sophie? Do you think you could help me get this horrible thing off?" Kairi said, unable to strike the pleading completely from her voice. Luckily, Sophie did not mind at all, and followed her into the bedroom. She struggled valiantly with the wet laces before Kairi huffed impatiently and found her a pair of scissors from Markl's desk. They snicked through the ribbons lashing on the dress and corset until Kairi was standing in nothing but a damp shift and feeling more like she could breath again. Sophie disappeared for a bit, drying off herself, before she stumped back down the hall, having scrounged up a clean towel and one of Howl's larger coats. Kairi took them both with profuse thanks.
"Princess Kairi?" Sophie asked hesitantly as Kairi scrubbed at her hair with the towel as if it had done something to deeply offend her person. "What happened to Howl, when Madame Suliman transformed him?"
"Just Kairi, please. I actually quit the princess gig a couple years ago. And…she didn't transform him. It was a spell of releasing, I think. It was meant to pull out the stoppers that keep that beast confined, not impose a shape from the outside."
Sophie sat down heavily on the edge of Markl's unmade bed with her skirt clutched tight in her two fists. The curtains were drawn and the light filtering through seemed to be play tricks on Kairi's eyes, since her profile seemed less harsh, her hair more voluminous, her cheeks fuller.
Kairi stopped scrubbing and let the towel drop to her side. "Were you scared of him?" Kairi asked gently.
"No. Not of him. For him," she admitted. Her voice had smoothed too, losing the gravelly distortions of an aged throat. For one disorienting moment Kairi saw double, a vision so fleeting it was blink-and-you've-lost-it, of a young woman no older than she with strands of silver hair twining over her shoulders that sparkled in the fading sunlight.
"Oh?" Kairi said, taking a step toward her. It was the wrong move. Her vision snapped back, and only the hunched old woman was curled over the bed once more.
Sophie started, realizing what she had just said, and added, hastily, "If he turns into a giant beast on a permanent basis, I'm out of a job. You know what's happening, Kairi—I don't suppose you could comfort an old woman and tell her that you really are a Strangian agent or somesuch, and the entire conversation you had with Madame Suliman about the end of the world was a very clever lie?"
"I could. It wouldn't be true," she said. "But Sora hasn't lost a world yet. All those places he told Howl about—Agrabah, the Pridelands, Port Royal, Atlantica…there's all still here and stronger than they ever were before. "
"But it happened to your home, didn't it? It could happen here. And I thought invasion by the Strangians was the worst we'd be facing," she said, and let out a gusty sigh. "You're fighting so hard for a country that isn't even your own. I know I'm just an old woman, I can't pick up a sword and fight like you can, but if there's anything I can do, anything at all to put an end to this, tell me."
"I will," Kairi assured her.
The front door slammed again. "Howl's back!" Markl hollered redundantly up the stairs.
Sophie bent to retrieve the sodden, torn, and slightly bloodied ruin of her dress before following Kairi down the stairs. "Hello, Howl. I think Markl and I ought to do a basket of wash since the rainshower's done with," she announced, with forced cheerfulness. "Anybody have laundry?"
"Now? But I wanted to hear—" the boy complained.
Sophie shooed his whining away. "Grab those things off the chairs, and the soap and line and tub. Come on. Wash day's not so bad with two people."
Grumbling at the unfairness this, Markl collected a mound of clothes and the appropriate equipment and shuffled out of the door. Kairi mouthed a 'thank you' at Sophie as she passed by with the washtub, which she acknowledged with a sad and knowing smile.
Once the door had shut and Markl was out of earshot, Howl spoke. "That didn't go as well as I'd hoped. Madame Suliman has only gotten more stubborn, not less." He pulled a chair out from under the kitchen table and sat down in it, back to the fire, and folded his arms over the back. "I had not expected her to resort to violence."
"Violence?" Sora asked. "It was that bad?"
"No. It's worse," Kairi said savagely. "I couldn't convince Madame Suliman, she knows about Sora and that he was captured with a Keyblade, and she almost ran me through with her staff trying to pin Howl."
"Maybe there's somebody else we could try? The King himself? Maybe a disguise? A something?" Sora offered, without much conviction.
Kairi shook her head vehemently. "I'm not done, Sora. She knows what the duty of a Keyblade Master is. The Heartless told her. And since the Heartless are technically Crown property, guess what that makes us."
"Enemies of the Crown," Howl supplied casually. "You all can now be shot on sight—congratulations. As such, I would recommend you don't return to your hotel."
Sora paled. "You're not serious. I mean…we haven't…they wouldn't…"
"After what we found, you honestly don't believe they're capable of that? " Riku asked him, voice tight.
"What you found?" Howl said, suddenly stiffening.
"We decided to do a little investigating behind the black door marker," Riku said carefully, waiting to see how he'd react.
Howl sighed and looked over his shoulder. "And you let them, Calcifer? You knew that my problem to deal with. Nobody else's."
Calcifer rose up higher, puffing himself up against the logs, although his voice wavered. "I didn't let them. I encouraged them."
The shadows in the room seemed to lengthen and grow thick and sticky. Howl rose, and regarded Calcifer with subtle fury in his voice. "You disobeyed a direct command. The guardian was too powerful and too clever to risk more lives trying to overcome it."
Sora levered himself up from the bed, grimacing a little, and planted himself between Calcifer and Howl. "He did the right thing. That wasn't a problem you could have solved yourself. Riku and I killed the Heartless guarding the Keyhole and sealed it."
Kairi and Howl both looked startled. "Nice job," Kairi commented. "At least somebody got something useful done today."
"And we saw how your government tried to 'deal' with it—bombing the research facility into oblivion before it had been fully evacuated, to keep the Heartless from spreading. Like that helped," Riku said bitterly.
Kairi's head snapped to look at Riku. "WHAT? No…never mind," she said, shaking her head. "I believe it after what I saw today—Madame Suliman all but admitted they've been making Heartless of the conscripted wizards, like the cousin of that poor girl Sora rescued in Market Chipping. They don't write home because they aren't human enough to remember they ever had one."
"Are theredepths the court sorcerers won't sink to? And…mother of….," Riku muttered, as another unpleasant realization hit him. "Now that she knows Wizard Pendragon is just one of your aliases, won't her goons come knocking here? We're not any safer in this house than outside, and for that matter neither are Grandma or the kid."
Howl didn't look overly concerned. "That's a problem I intend to remedy in a moment. There's an abandoned shopfront in Market Chipping that ought to serve the purpose nicely," Howl said.
"What purpose?" Kairi asked.
"We're moving," he said, and walked over to place hand on the front door, pausing to affix each of them with an almost pleading look. "And don't tell Markl any of this. He doesn't need to know. Not yet."
He pushed open the door and leaned out over the frame. Sophie was kneeling at the lake just outside the door and trying to scrub gravy out of one of Markl's shirts. He resumed his usual tone of faint amusement to address them. "You can finish up in a moment, Sophie. Markl, how would you like to help me move before we have to entertain some…uninvited guests?"
Markl whooped, jumped up from his pile of clothes and dove for the door. "Sorry Sophie, but magic beats laundry any day," he called over his shoulder.
Howl stopped him with a casual hand across the doorframe. "If you can tell me how many parts rock salt to ground wyvern bone for a binding circle, you can mix it."
"Seventeen to one unless it's a new moon, Master Howl. Which it isn't," Markl answered confidently.
"Excellent. The new packet is in the front drawer of my desk." Markl tossed off a quick thanks to his master and pounded up the stairs. Howl was about to turn away from the door when something caught his eye. He squinted into the sunset. "Sophie? Have I gone mad or is there a scarecrow helping you string up the wash line?"
Kairi rose from her place and felt herself smile faintly. "He's very helpful, whoever he is. He guided Sophie to the Castle, or rather the other way around."
Howl stepped up to the banks of the lake to regard the scarecrow. "Must have escaped from someone's vegetable patch. Can't say I blame him—must have been deathly dull with no one but the birds for company." He looked out over Sophie's head to address it. "You'll have to stay out here for the move. I don't think you'll fit under the roof."
-ooo-
The trio were expecting more in the way of pomp and show for the moving spell, but all it required was several sacks of salt, a piece of schoolroom chalk, and a lot of painstaking measurements. Howl firmly rebuffed Sora's offer to help, so he, Riku, and Kairi gracefully escaped to the meadow a few ridges beyond the house while Sophie puttered around the kitchen bullying Calcifer into cooking dinner.
The house was much too close for six people, each with their own secrets to hide, and was as smothering as the meadow was free. Many of the wildflowers were wilting and closing in the near darkness, but the fragrance hadn't faded. The three of them walked slowing across rolling hills, jumping streams and rocky outcroppings, until they reach the shore of another lake and the tiny cottage perched on the banks. The door was unlocked, but it smelled dusty and disused, and Sora instead sat down on the stone porch with his legs dangling over the edge above the water. Kairi and Riku joined him.
"It think," Sora said, reticently, "that we ended up on the wrong side." He held out his hand and summoned his Keyblade. The action was as effortless as breathing, but its familiar weight and indisputable power were less comforting in his hand than they'd ever been. "Things always turned out, somehow, before we came here. It wasn't hard to figure out who I was supposed to use this on." He set it down across his legs and traced the warm curves and angles with his other hand. It was a peculiarity of Keyblades, that they lacked steel's characteristic chill against the skin, like a living thing; sometimes it felt as though they were, since they did, after all, chose their own masters and guide them in their own fickle ways to victory. Except, it seemed, this time. Sora released it and watched the reflection of the light flare and die in the pond below.
"Well I don't think there is a right side," Riku announced. "Just two sides that are wrong in different yet equally creative ways. According to Howl the Strangians are firebombing the whole damn coast, even places that haven't got any strategic importance besides being full of innocent people, and Ingary's turning the Heartless loose on them in return. Sure, you get to pick the flavor, but they both taste like shit when you take a bite."
He tilted his head low to look at Kairi, who was gazing into the deepening violet of the sky. She leaned forward, squinted at the darkness, and smiled. "First one. Make a wish."
"Wishing away your problems doesn't work," he replied impatiently. "Not on stars, dandelions, birthday candles, or even magic lamps. If you want something fixed you've got to do it yourself."
"I wasn't. And by the way, you're both wrong, you know," Kairi said calmly. "By assuming there's only a 'good' and a 'bad'." She paused to breathe deep of the perfumed air, the rich muddiness of the lake, and the peace of this place. "The King of Strangia lost his only son. If his soothsayers are right, and he is somewhere in Ingary, what would you do in his place? Riku…I know you and your dad didn't always get along, but he took it so hard when you disappeared, even after Naminé messed with everybody's heads. We ended up talking a lot that year, since we both knew in our hearts you had gone for some terrible reason but couldn't quite catch hold of why. If he'd known what happened to you, I have no doubt he would've dove into the Darkness himself to try to bring you back.
"And if Howl was right, and no one from Ingary knowingly kidnapped him, how far is too far for Madame Suliman to go to defend her homeland from an invasion, since her enemy is so overpoweringly strong? She kept her heart intact for thirteen years controlling the Heartless. Can you imagine that? Thirteen years when Xehanort barely lasted one. She may have gotten scared and desperate now, I'll admit, but she can't be an evil woman."
"Why are you defending her?" Riku snapped. "You just told us she almost spit you like a fucking marshmallow on campfire night!"
"I think she was aiming for Howl," Kairi replied.
"That is incredibly not the point."
"If you're going to propose we kill her, don't," Kairi said, suddenly fierce. "She isn't Malificent. She's a human being, and I will not ever, ever go along with a plan that involves wiping someone out because we don't agree with her politics unless there is no other way."
Sora groaned. "You're right. I didn't think about it that way before, but you're right. We have to find Prince Stephen. That's the only way out without making a decision I don't…I don't think is ours to make. We protect people from the Heartless. Not from each other." He chewed on his lip, thinking for a moment. "There's a ton we don't know about Keyblades and Keyblade Masters and everything—but I have this feeling that if we start choosing one people over another, trying to push and shove things the way we want, we end up on the wrong road."
"Some say the Keyblade master saved the world, while others said he wrought chaos and destruction upon it," Kairi quoted. "That's what I mean. We can't become that. We're better than that."
"That's nice," Riku said. "It really is. And if I happened to agree and we could make both sides see how fatally dumb they're being without spilling a drop of blood I'd be right there with you. But we don't have time. There's been hunters out searching for this Prince for more than a year. How are we supposed to find him before the Heartless torch this place?"
"It's not hopeless," Sora said stubbornly. "If he hasn't come back by now someone or something is stopping him. We take it down, or bust him out, or unenchant him, or whatever it is. Kairi's got a knack for seeing who people really are. That's got to help."
"I guess," Riku said, without conviction. "But you rely too much on luck, and mine sort of sucks. He could be anywhere on this whole planet. What chance do we have of actually finding the guy?"
"You're so pessimistic sometimes, Riku," Sora said, although he couldn't answer the question.
"I'm not a pessimist. I'm a realist. The universe isn't an amusement park," he said. He looked over at Sora and raised a hand to slap him on the side of the head.
"Augh! Riku! What was that…oh," he said, when Riku showed him the now flattened mosquito before rubbing his fingers clean on the stone.
Beside him Kairi twitched, looked down, and whacked the bare triangle of her collarbone with the heel of her hand. "Want to head in? They think I'm dinner too."
Sora got up and stretched. "Okay. Tomorrow we start looking for Prince Stephen for real. Madame Suliman's agents know what Kairi and I look like, but they've never seen you, Riku. That's something," and didn't add, 'I hope it's enough.'
-ooo-
It was the scent of simmering soup and baking biscuits carried on the wind that led Sora, Riku, and Kairi back to the castle, under the light of the rising moon. It was a homey, comforting kind of smell, and did a great deal to chase away the disappointments and horrors of the day. They were all rather surprised to find they were looking forward to dinner when they crested the hill on which the castle was resting. Markl yelped and leapt up from what he was doing when he saw them making for the door, to bring them a lantern and make extremely sure nobody smudged his and Howl's magical preparations by accident. With utmost care they had measured a perfect circle of salt big enough to contain the body of the castle, slashed with straight and curved lines at seemingly random points around the circumference. Howl had rested the boxy salt spreader against a boulder and was eating a small bowl of soup under Sophie's watchful eye. Despite being a grown man, he had the same sort of look on his face one might find on a five-year-old whose mother had presented him with a plate of steamed broccoli.
"Help yourself," Sophie said to them. "There's lots. Biscuits are on a plate under the tea towel."
Markl giggled when he saw the skeptical look on Riku's face and fetched his bowl from where he'd left it on the grass. "Sophie's a good cook. Don't mind Master Howl—he hardly eats anything. Me? I'm going for seconds. I'll bring you some."
He ran into the house and came back with a tray, four bowls, some spoons, and a small mound of biscuits, which had been only slightly sloshed on. Markl divied up the content of the tray, and Sora, Riku and Kairi had their tastes and decided the youngest member of their odd little group was spot-on about Sophie's cooking. They took up places in the grass beside Sophie and Turnip Head (which Sophie had christened the scarecrow in absence of a proper name), to eat and watch the last of the preparations.
Calcifer carefully sidled the castle over until it was directly over the center of the circle, and Howl shooed everyone (save Turnip Head, who was too tall to fit in the door) inside for the completion of the ritual. The second step took him all of five minutes and involved scrawling an identical circle symbol on the floorboards with a piece of chalk. He rose and inspected his work, hands on his hips. "Nearly done. You all might want to get on the table or desk for this. Or at least stay away from the walls."
Sophie tsk-tsked about that, but acquiesced, provided everyone took off their shoes first. Howl delicately worked Calcifer free from the hearth with a dustpan, who clearly would have been sweating had he possessed skin. "Be gentle with me. Please?" he pleaded. Howl only laughed and stepped into the chalk circle. He raised his left arm and inhaled deeply. The room filled with a sensation of expectation and power, so thick it made Kairi and Riku's hair stand on end, and would have done the same to Sora's if it wasn't already there by default.
With a loud pop, a green couch appeared to Howl's right and banged against the floor, followed by new tables complete with vases of flowers, a cabinet, and a coat rack. Two pretty picture windows puffed out like soap bubbles on either side of the front door. The old wallpaper stripped itself from the plaster, and the walls themselves stretched like putty around the much large kitchen and dining room. There were muffled bangs behind them as new bedrooms and bathrooms sprang into being on the first and second floors. After a few seconds Howl put a stop to the lighting redecorating, and he drifted slowly back to the floor and calmly replaced Calcifer in the fire grate, which was the only part of the house that hadn't changed at all.
Riku slipped off of the desk, where he'd been perched with his legs tucked under him. "I have to say…that was impressive." He—and just about everyone else with hands in Radiant Garden—spent a good portion of their time doing that sort of thing the mundane way, with a lot of time, sweat, and paint rollers.
Markl leapt off the table and jogged a quick circuit around he room, giggling delightedly the whole way. "This is great Master Howl, it's so big!" he said, and zoomed through their front door into the courtyard that had sprouted there.
"I added on a room for Sophie…and a guest room," Howl said. "Come look." He turned and saw Sophie wasn't behind him. She gasped under her breath and slipped off of the table as if in a daze, crossing over to the window that opened onto a view of the railroad tracks. She ran her fingers up and down the wood grain of the windowframe, tasting its familiarity. "Sophie?" he asked quizzically.
"It's fine, Howl. I like it just fine," she lied through her smile.
Howl didn't notice. "I got you some clothes, too, but you can open them later." He took her by the hand and led her to the front door. "There's a new color on the dial, too. See?" He pushed open the door and the breeze that swept in kissed the dusty air with the scent of thousands of wildflowers.
"That's amazing!" Sora said, who had the best vantage point of the meadow. The profusion of flowers was breathtaking, and under the sunlight it would have been almost too beautiful to be real. He was about to follow them when Kairi dashed across the room and grabbed him by the sleeve before he could pass the threshold.
"Wait," she said quietly into his ear. "Let them have some time alone."
"Time alone?" Riku said from across the room. "You said that in the same way we need time alone. Which is gross."
Kairi shut the door and sat down on the newly arrived couch. Calcifer was watching her expectantly, as if he were very, very interested in how she meant to explain herself. "Sophie isn't what she seems. For that matter, neither is Howl. Or you, Calcifer. I don't think she's much older than we are, if even. And Howl is…that, I haven't figured out yet."
"Gold star stamp for Kairi, if I had one," Calcifer said. "She was cursed by someone very powerful and really petty."
"Cursed? Oh. Ohhhhh…" Kairi breathed. "Poor Sophie."
"No kidding," Calcifer said, "and not to mention poor Howl and especially poor me."
"That's not what I meant," she answered, shaking her head. "Why didn't I see this before? I think I know who did it to her—this horrible old bag Sophie and I met on the way into the palace." Sora's eyebrows pinched themselves together. Kairi was charitable about others almost to a fault, and if her first impression was that bleak, the old witch must have been nasty to puppy-kicking proportions. "The Witch of the Waste," she said. "Sophie was absolutely furious at her and I couldn't figure out why."
Calcifer sucked in a breath and shuddered. "That'd be in character for her. You know where Howl got the idea to spread rumors he devours maiden hearts? Her. She goes after the opposite side. Tried to get her paws on Howl once, but he's a slippery bastard when he wants to be. Others weren't quite so lucky. She turned any boy that she overcame into one of her Heartless slaves, and anyone who ticked her off, man or woman, she cursed in all sorts of creative ways."
Kairi made a disgusted noise. "Having your heart torn out isn't a fate I'd wish on anyone, but she comes very close. And that's exactly what I think happened to her. The only reason she got a palace invitation was so Madame Suliman could use her to make an extra-dangerous Heartless."
"What a shocking twist," Riku said, deadpan. "I had my money on a nice civil tea. Maybe with scones."
Kairi nodded. "I know, I know. But Sophie's curse is still in effect…it wasn't broken when the caster died, so I'm not sure how much more we can do to help her. Howl, though…" she said, and paused, drawing her knees up on the cushions. Calcifer leaned forward over the logs, hanging on her every word. "He's not a Nobody. I know that much. He has a heart around here somewhere, because he almost lost it to Darkness back at the palace."
"You mean like what Ansem's Heartless did to Malificent?" Sora asked, cringing in sympathy for the absent Howl.
"Sort of. But he didn't want it like she did. He fought it like mad. For a little while he turned into this huge bird…sort of a cross between a hawk and a crow, 'til Sophie screamed and broke Madame Suliman's spell." She turned around to look at Riku with her wide and pleading blue eyes. "You've been there, Riku. You could help him."
Riku turned away from her gaze, unable to meet it straight on. "Just because I've overcome my desire to wipe that lovesick smile off his face with my fist doesn't mean we're buddies now."
"I'm not asking you to do it for me. This world needs him, maybe as much as it needs us, to survive this. Please, just consider it. He seems so alone here—he chose to turn against his old life, his master, his future…everything. He was there when the Heartless overran the research facility and couldn't save a soul, and for his efforts everyone he's ever known except Markl and Sophie think he's a coward and a traitor."
Riku growled inwardly. Kairi had an expert touch at appealing to his better nature. It made holding a nice grudge nearly impossible. He was about to respond when the doorknob rattled and Markl came bounding up the steps in excellent spirits.
"We've got a new hat shop and they left all their stuff here! Come on, Sora, I wanna see what you look…" he said, but trailed off when he noticed the conversation stopped abruptly when he entered, and the somber looks on their faces wasn't lost on him either.
Sora crushed his concern firmly down beneath a wide smile and got up. He put a hand behind Markl's back and steered him back in the direction from which he'd come. "Did you find a nice Sunday bonnet for me?"
Markl giggled. "I was gonna say tophat, but whatever you want."
But before they'd made it to the welcome mat laid in front of the stairs, the door banged open so hard it dented the banister, and through it came Sophie, quite literally flying up the staircase. She tumbled onto the rug and into Markl, who hadn't had quite enough time to dive aside. The door slammed behind her, locked itself, and the dial clicked off of the new yellow section that lead to the flower meadow into the one marking the Waste outside Market Chipping. Kairi gasped, shot to her feet, and rushed over to where she was sprawled, sure the poor woman had broken something, but Sophie groaned in annoyance rather than pain and sat up without assistance. Markl peeled himself up off the floor, rubbing the back of his head and grumbling loudly.
"Are you okay? What the heck was that about?" Sora asked, kneeling down next to her.
Sophie shook out the arm she'd rolled over and nodded. "Yes, yes. Howl was showing me his…my new cottage out in the meadow. We spotted a battleship in the sky, don't know whose it was, if that even matters. He waved his arm around a little and broke the wings somehow. They didn't like that at all, and sent a swarm of flying creatures out after him. He sprouted wings and tossed me in here." Sophie sighed gustily, something she had been doing rather often, lately, and whispered, "I hope he's all right."
Markl made a face. "Yikes." He crawled over next to her and took hold of her thumb with soft hands that had only just lost their little-boy plumpness. "Don't worry too much, okay, Sophie? He's done this before. He takes off sometimes for hours or even days, but he always comes back."
Sophie looked slightly more relaxed, but only slightly. "That's good to know, Markl. Thank you." With Sora's help she worked her way to her feet and shook off her skirts.
"Are you sure you're okay?" Kairi persisted, unsure if her elderly bones were as resilient as she claimed. "I'm a more than decent healer."
"I won't need it, I don't think. I'm tougher than I look, but I think I've had enough excitement for today, so if you'll excuse me…" Sophie answered, brushing off the looks of concern. "Doing the mending has never looked better," she muttered to herself, and hefted the basket of clothes in the corner and the sewing kit atop it. With her eyes fixed purposely on the floor, she disappeared into the room that Howl had given her. It was piled high with packages tied in ribbon, which she ignored, and she kicked the door shut behind her.
Sora cleared his throat. "You came in here for a reason, didn't you, Markl?" he asked. Let's see what we've got in the shop." He stepped down the stairs and rotated the knob until he found the one that opened into the courtyard. Markl followed after him, subdued; his original goal of forcing Sora to put on a succession of stupid hats seemed suddenly less entertaining. The passage between the two halves of the building was a small square between the shopfront and the living area of the house, with an overhanging roof around the perimeter and a generous carpet of weeds sprouting from between the bricks. The shop was also rather small, and uncleared. Whoever had left it had left in a hurry. There was a scattering of paper over the floor and counters, and most of the merchandise was still perched on their hooks or the mannequin's smooth beige heads. Markl had lit a few of the gas lamps to illuminate the room. The flickering light cast almost ghoulish shadows of the flowered and feathered bonnets.
Sora plucked a black bowler from a nearby hook and fixed it on his head. He pushed himself up on the counter next to the cash register and inspected his new look in the hand mirror he found on it.
Markl snort behind his hand. "I don't think that one's 'you'." He jumped up and wiggled onto the counter after Sora, and perched there with his chin tight against his knees. His smile faded after a second, and was replaced with a look of concern that seemed much too mature for his round face. Sora removed his new headgear and tossed it aside. It didn't fit with the tone of the conversation he sensed on the horizon.
"Where does he go?" Sora asked. Markl looked back at him, and curled up tighter, like a snail pulling into its shell.
"He wouldn't ever tell me," Markl whispered, so his voice wouldn't carry, as if he were afraid someone else might hear through the thick walls. "I know I'm 'just a kid', but I'm not dumb. I can put two and two together.
"Sometimes he went through the black door. When he came back he was always dusty and he'd disappear into his bedroom for hours, and be snappy for days afterward. He carried piles and piles of equipment out there—really rare, expensive stuff, for spells I don't even know the names for. It got worse the more often he went, and finally he stopped. Since the war started he's been going into the Waste more and more often. When he comes back from that he always smells awful, like factory smoke, 'cause it gets into his hair and clothes and everything, and he's so tired he collapses right into bed when he gets home.
"Before Sophie came I had to look after him. I'd find crow feathers all over the house afterward. And once…once I think there was blood. Sora…" he started, and his voice cracked under the pressure of unshed tears. He swallowed against the finality of giving his fear a voice. "I lied to Sophie. I'm afraid one day he's going to leave and not come back." He sat up suddenly, and sniffled. "Mmm…sorry," he mumbled, scrubbing his face with hands. "Wizards don't cry. Wizards don't."
Sora inched over on the counter and cupped his chin in his hand, curling his body over his knees so his face was even with Markl's. "Says who? Especially if they have a good reason?"
Markl unfolded and refolded himself, then paused, chewing on a thumbnail in thought. "Says everybody. Crying about something means you care about it. And you can't let people know you care too much, because they can use it against you—especially other wizards."
Sora cocked his head quizzically at that declaration. He supposed, in a way, it was true—the Organization had tried to use Kairi against him, and Malificent had done more or less the same thing to Riku, albeit for a different end. In another way, it was the dumbest thing he'd ever heard, because if that love wasn't there, it wouldn't have given them both the courage to set Kairi's heart and the world right again. He felt a sudden pang of pity for anyone who felt the need to live their life without caring, and put his hand on Markl's far shoulder a jiggled him a little. "Just because 'everybody' says something doesn't mean it's right. If you aren't allowed to keep people close to you that you care about, what good is your magic? Would you use it only for yourself?" Markl thought for a moment and shook his head no. "Good. Cause that's a dangerous thing to do. It twists you up inside. I know sorcerers that did—they had so much power, but all they wanted from it was more power, and no matter how much they drank down it was never enough. I don't think you're like that. And neither is your Master."
"You really think so?" Markl asked.
"Of course I do. I don't say things I don't mean."
"I…know," Markl said quietly. "I guess I always sort of knew that. Figures—he's really bad at taking his own advice. He does dumb stuff sometimes, and forgets his appointments 'cause he's always off chasing some new girl every week…but he's still a good master. My parents gave me to him 'cause they didn't know what to do about a kid with such strong magic he levitated his bed when he was sleeping." Markl smiled wryly, another expression too jaded to be at home on his full child's cheeks. "They disappeared after, but he never tried giving me away. I always have enough to eat, as long as I don't mind it being cold, and he's never caned me, not even after I accidentally scorched his eyebrows off. Him and Calcifer taught me a lot. I can do some spells almost as good as some grownup wizards already."
"I thought so," Sora said triumphantly. "He does care about you, and Sophie too. Me? I have a hard job to do, and I can't just give up, no matter if I'm tired or sad or hurt or whatever. It's because of the people I care about that I can keep going. I think your Master Howl is the same way. He goes out to do what he does for you and Sophie; he doesn't want you to see what war is like."
"But I don't want him to be out there either!" Markl said, clenching his small hands in frustration. "What if he gets hurt really bad and can't get back?"
Sora wished he could give Markl the guarantee that his odd patchwork family would never be torn apart, but he couldn't. It was the nature of war—promises were broken and pledges left unfulfilled. Markl much too savvy a nine-year-old for any soothing lie Sora could tell to go unchallenged. Instead, he said, as a compromise: "Me and Kairi and Riku are going to do everything we can to end the war, so Howl won't have to go out there anymore, okay? So no one will have to fight the Heartless anymore, on any world, anywhere."
"Thanks, Sora. But how're you going to do that? There's so many—and there's just three of you."
"We'll find a way," he said. "We always find a way."