Okage Hearts

Chapter 19

I still don't own Okage or Kingdom Hearts. Sorry this chapter is late. I was busy.

Ari and his bizarre group of traveling companions that seemed to be getting larger and larger as time passed once again were journeying to Madril, where they would explore the back of the sewers. When they finally made it to the entrance to the sewer that Ari, Rosalyn, and Stan had previously entered from in their successful attempt to defeat the Sewer Evil King, Ari suddenly felt a firm grip on his arm as he prepared to enter. To his surprise, when he turned to see who it was that had grabbed him, he saw Princess Marlene grabbing his arm.

Before he could ask the Princess what she needed from him, she stated, "I do not desire for my clothes to become dirty during our sojourn inside of the sewers, Servant Ari. I require that you carry me in your arms until we reach cleaner ground, if any such ground exists in the sewer."

For some reason, he'd suspected as much, but he knew that he'd need to climb down first, so he quietly said, "I think you'll have to be on my back, Your Highness. I'll need my arms in order to get down there."

"Very well," she responded, an odd expression on her face, "That will be sufficient."

With that exchange finished, Ari found himself carrying Marlene on his back as he climbed down the ladder. She was surprisingly light, as if there was no substance to her, so it wasn't too hard to do so.

Once each and every one of them were down the ladder, the group continued down their path, heading toward the back of the sewer while Ari tried to avoid noticing the subtle glare Beiloune was giving him for some unknown reason.

As the group continued, Ari noted that the sewers were much larger than he thought the last time he was down here, but he hadn't really looked around at the time, so it was most likely always that way.

Once the band of oddities of varying professions reached the back of the sewer, where the ground was distinctly cleaner than the ground in the rest of the sewer, Ari released Princess Marlene, who promptly took up her apparently self-appointed position next to him once more. As they looked around the chamber, their attention was caught by the strange circle on the ground, which seemed to have various odd markings carved to form it.

"Hm. . ." Kisling muttered, "I don't recognize most of these runes, but a good number of them are power runes. I believe that this might be a device made to increase power tenfold. That would, of course explain exactly why so many of the Evil Kings, including our two compatriots here, Big Bull and Linda, felt an irresistible draw towards it, though it does not explain why the third Evil King in our company, King Stan, was completely unaffected by the draw of the power chamber. Perhaps it is because he is an incorporeal entity tied to a specific sentient corporeal being's life force. . ."

Stan had heard enough, however, and therefore rose from Ari's shadow and said, "Well, slave, you heard him. It's a power magnifier. Step into it so I can increase my power!"

Sighing a world-weary sigh, Ari stepped inside of the circle, causing the circle to glow. As the group around him seemed to get worried and called for him to exit the circle, Ari suddenly saw a flash of bright light, followed by darkness. Looking around once he regained his sight, Ari noticed that the group didn't seem to be looking at him. As a matter of fact, they all seemed confused.

"Where is that stupid shadow?" Rosalyn growled, her rapier drawn, "I was this close to finishing him off. Wherever the coward's gone, I'll find him."

"What are we doing here?" Kisling inquired, turning to Big Bull, "My friend, would you mind helping me find the nearest research station."

"Sure thing, Doc," Big Bull said cheerfully, "Follow me!"

"I'm heading out," Linda said, "I can't figure out why I was here in the first place, so I'm just going to go. Bye, Princess."

"Your Highness, what's going on here?" Ari asked, only to be surprised when she didn't seem to hear him. Raising his voice to what others would consider normal speaking levels, he called, "Your Highness?"

To his surprise, rather than respond to him, Marlene seemed to accidentally drop the music box, causing it to play. Picking it up, she seemed rather concerned as she said, "My music box! I am supposed to keep it safe. It is precious to me. But why?"

"Come along, Your Highness," Beiloune said, "We should probably leave these sewers. They are not a fit place for a princess to be, even if she is on an adventure."

"Very well, Beiloune," she said softly, leading her butler out into the sewers with no concern for the dirt and such covering the ground, "Let us be off to find a new adventure to go on. I hope it will be diverting."

Confused by the entire situation, Ari did what was becoming a habit for him and pulled out the Map O' Evil. To his surprise, the Map seemed to only have one location that was an actual town. Forming a point on its mostly blank sheet, the Map read, "Okay, kid, the good news is that there's this place for you to go to, which means that there must be people there. It's called Triste, but that's about all I know at the moment. The bad news is that I don't have any other locations at the moment, so that's literally the only place that you can go to at the moment. Maybe when we get there we can find out what happened to you that got rid of the shadow and made you invisible to everyone."