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I Summon the All-Seeing Eye	By : all_possible_worlds Category: +S through Z > Star vs. The Forces of Evil Views: 29523 -:- Recommendations : 2 -:- Currently Reading : 1
Disclaimer: I do not own Star Vs. the Forces of Evil or its characters. I made no money from writing this story.

Chapter List
- 18
- 19
- 20
Part III
Chapter 19: Long Live the Queen
Note: Please review if you enjoyed. Constructive criticism very welcome! I respond to reviews here: http://www2.adult-fanfiction.org/forum/topic/64957-review-responses-and-open-discussion-for-i-summon-the-all-seeing-eye-star-vs-the-forces-of-evil/
Continuity note: Chapters from 19 onwards can contain indirect post-Battle For Mewni Season 3 spoilers. This one was actually fully written before watching Nightlife, Deep Dive or Monster Bash.

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Jackie traced her fingers softly along the contours of the boy's chest. It had been over a week now since they last had been alone like this. Her heart thumped with excitement, as much the fiftieth time as it had the first. For someone who could pull a pink dress better than her, Marco was downright manly. Lean, sure, but also well toned, muscles trained over years of karate practice and months of monster fighting. She whistled appreciatively and leaned in to kiss the boy's soft lips.
Their tongues sought each other hungrily, as Jackie felt herself melt out of reality for a second. She could feel his hands reaching behind and down to cup her ass. The room around them, Marco's room, seemed to vanish, and soon it was only the two of them, floating in empty space. It was not unlike that one time in between the aerial silk ribbons.
She broke the kiss, then began tracing a trail of smaller kisses, tiny pecks on the skin as she moved down his neck, his chest, his abs. When she got down to the waist she looked up towards him, and gave Marco her most mischievous smile, as her hands began to undo the buttons of his jeans.
"Wait, Jackie, I can't do this," Marco stopped her. His tone was regretful, but his gaze firm. "Not today."
"Awww, Marco, having performance anxiety?" she joked. Jackie knew full well that wasn't the issue, and Marco knew she knew. Still it didn't prevent her from turning her frustration into a friendly jib at her boyfriend. "It happens to a lot of guys, you know? Maybe you should just relax and wait a little bit?"
Marco groaned, "It is not that, Jackie, it's..."
"... Star," Jackie finished the sentence before he could. "Yeah, dude, I know."
It wasn't only that Star could be, would be, seeing them if they went any further than that. Hell, for all they knew of that stupid spell, she had seen what they had done just now too. Jackie herself had been hesitant to be alone with her boyfriend for the last few days, precisely because she didn't know how she felt about the fact that, well, that any time they got busy, Star would be there, watching, whether she did that on purpose or not. But she knew that wasn't what Marco meant. It was not that it didn't bother him too, but he was even more worried about how the princess herself would feel.
"Tomorrow is the wake, Jackie," Marco reminded her, as if she needed to be reminded. "It just doesn't seem right, for Star to see us, you know... not when she is grieving."
"I don't see how that one is our fault, though, Marco," she scoffed bitterly. It was petty of her to say it, but damn if it wasn't true.
"No, it isn't," agreed the boy. "But it is not about who is at fault. She told me she literally can't prevent herself from watching at this point. I don't want to put any more on her plate, not now."
Jackie nodded. Marco was a sweetheart, and he was right. The skateboarder girl was still angry at Star, angry that she had been spying on them, angry that she hadn't told them, angry that she had made things between her and Marco so incredibly awkward. But in the end, that didn't matter compared to what their mewman friend was going through right now.
"Right," Jackie mussed, as she began rearranging her hair. She really should have thought about Star, should have stopped being angry at her. Her mom had died, and instead of having the time to grieve and shout and be angry like a normal teenager under those circumstances, Star Butterfly had to stay on Mewni and organize her own mother's funeral. Not to mention, after that came the coronation. The human girl remembered the Song Day celebration, what it meant for Star to become queen. How much the other girl had wished that day never came, and now that day was right around the corner, whether she wanted or not. "Guess I am just awful."
"Oh, come on," lamented Marco. "Not you too. We are all under a lot of stress, alright? It is messing all of us up."
"All of us?" quipped Jackie. "You seem to be dealing with it pretty well, dude."
"I am not, Jackie," he replied. "I am finding it harder and harder to talk to Star these days, even on the mirror. I miss having my best friend around and it has only been a week. I feel guilty I didn't stay in Mewni with her, no matter what she says. And, oh, yeah, I can't help but feel it is my fault that Queen Moon died..."
"What?! Whoa, Diaz, how on Earth or Mewni is that last one your fault?" Jackie stopped him and put a hand on his shoulder.
He paused for a moment before answering, "Well, if not for Princess Marco, there wouldn't have been a princess revolution. Without that, no Princess White. Without that, no Ponyhead dragging us to St. O's that night. Which means we would have been in Mewni at the time, and Star would have been there when her mom was attacked and she would have the wand and..."
"Dude," Jackie interrupted him again. "First of all, that is a remarkably long chain of events in which many more people than you had a hand in. Second, if we had been there, maybe Star herself would have been... for all you know, not being there saved us, saved Star. Third, there is absolutely no chance you could have predicted all that in advance! You can't blame yourself for not anticipating something no one ever could."
"Yeah, Jackie, I know but, like I said, it is messing all of us up. Still, thanks for saying it aloud, it helps to hear it from someone else," Marco smiled. It soon turned into a frown. "But it is messing Star up the most, though. I just wish I knew she was alright."
"Yeah, dude, me too."
----
"Moon Butterfly, Queen of Mewni, Honoris High-commissioner of Magic, Protector of the Lands, Preserver of the Peace, Wielder of the Royal Magic Wand, Moon the Undaunted, The Lizard Vanquisher, my mother. A week ago she left us, and in her place there is a hole in the firmament, and in the heart of every citizen of Mewni, including my own. She was just, and wise, and kind, and fierce. She put the kingdom's needs before her own, in times of plenty and in times of need. She was our light in every cloudy day, and she would not sleep until the least of her subjects was safe from harm," Star read to the empty cemetery, at night. The statues of former queens of Mewni, as well as their kings and consorts, were her only audience for this final rehearsal.
She paused to take a breath, and then continued, "She has left us, and none of us can ever hope to fill her shoes. Least of all me. Nonetheless, I shall try to be the best queen I can be in my mother stead. I am Star Butterfly, Princess of Mewni, Wielder of the Royal Magic Wand. I have spent the last year on Earth, and many of you don't know me, and those who do might not have good reason to trust my words. But I promise, with Solena, and Skywynne, and Celena, and Solaria, and all former Queens of Mewni as my witnesses, that I will try to be just and kind and wise as a ruler, and to... sniff... be half the queen my... sniff... mother was."
She had written the words over days, and practiced them until she knew them by heart, and yet every time she read them, she broke down crying. It was not her usual infantile bawling, but a slow trickling of tears, accompanied by a sharp pain in her heart like she had never experienced before; not when she lost her wand, or when she lost Glossaryck, or when she lost her book of spells, not even close.
Star was about to collapse on the ground to cry, amidst the marble tombs and sculptures, atop the soft graveyard grass, when she heard a soft slow clapping to her right. She turned around, to see Tom, in a somber black suit, walking towards her.
"For what's it worth, Star, I think you'll do a much better job as queen than I'll ever do as king," he remarked.
"Tom? What are you doing here?" the princess answered, surprised.
"Creeping, I guess, old habits..." he joked apologetically, and Star chuckled despite herself. "But really, Star, I wanted to talk to you, to see how you were doing and to, well, to offer my condolences. I don't think I can, or should, be at the wake tomorrow, but I felt I had to say something. Only now, I have no idea what to say."
"Tell me about it," replied Star.
She honestly wouldn't have minded Tom and his family attending her mom's funeral tomorrow. They were, after all, friends of the family. But royal wakes were open events in Mewni, which meant a large portion of the kingdom's subjects would be in attendance. The fact that some monsters would be welcomed, by special permission of Star, was already somewhat controversial. Inviting the Lucitors too would be, how did her mom put it: bad optics. Star grimaced, not even a queen yet and she had already had to start thinking like one, speaking like one. It was suffocating.
"Tom," she spoke quietly, barely a whisper. "I have to ask: do you think you could help me see my mom again, even for a moment? Is there any way? I already tried on my own, everything but the Seeing Eye spell... I don't trust that one now. Nothing I can do seems to work... I know you can bring the dead back, at least partially, could you...?"
"Star..." Tom sounded uncomfortable, and sad beyond measure. He walked towards her and shook his head, not quite regretfully. "Your mom is never going to be down there, and I can't take you to the other place. For what is worth, I am sure you'll see her again, though, when it is time."
"Unless I do end down there," Star mussed. She began walking towards the altar. In a table, in front of the sacred symbols, was a crystal casket, built by Rhombulus himself. Inside the casket was Moon, immobile, peaceful, as if sleeping. Not for the first time, Star wished she had at least had the chance to say sorry. For everything.
"You won't," Tom assured her.
"How can you be sure?" the mewman countered. "I have done some pretty bad things already, to my friends. I was never a very good daughter, either. And well, I have cast dark magic..."
"Star, your mom casted dark magic too, once," the demon prince reasoned. "That doesn't make her a bad person. It is about intent, and the lines you intentionally do or do not cross."
But Star was no longer listening, she had stopped listening the moment Tom spoke about her mom, as if he knew her better than Star herself did. "My mom casted dark magic?"
"Ah, well, I only heard about it back then from rumors, you know? I wasn't in Mewni at the time or anything," he clarified. "But, well, how much do you know about how your mom got that Lizard Vanquisher title?"
Right, Tom had been around back then. It was hard to imagine. The boy looked her age, acted her age, and for all she knew might be the equivalent to her age in demon years. But demons lived far longer than Mewmans, millennia instead of decades. She wondered if that made her former relationship with the fiend like, super icky. But, right now, she couldn't summon enough energy to care about something like that.
"Not much," Star admitted. "I know she fought Toffee when she was young, and maybe a whole monster army, but not much more than that."
Why had she never asked her mom about that? Why had Moon never told her? It was silly to ask. Moon never talked about the days when she first became queen, and Star never asked, because the topic was painful for both of them. It was then that Star realized that her mom had lost grandma when she was not much older than herself. She alone would have understood what Star was going through now, and now Star would never be able to ask her, because she was gone.
"She defeated Toffee with a dark spell," Tom spoke.
"Yes, I guess I knew that: 'The immortal monster will long be haunted by the darkest spell of Moon the Undaunted'," she quoted the tapestry's words.
"Except it was also a dark spell of Eclipsa, Queen of Darkness," Tom corrected her. Then, he added with a shrug, "Not really sure if it was her darkest spell too or not."
Star's mouth fell open with shock, and she couldn't think of anything to say. Eclipsa's spell? From the book? She had read Eclipsa's chapter, and there wasn't anything in there like that. But Tom proceeded to tell her the story, the best he knew. And what a story it was!
Eclipsa was alive! And Star's mom had made a deal with her, a deal for a spell that could kill Toffee in exchange for the dark queen's freedom. But the spell had misfired, or maybe Moon had realized her potential mistake and purposefully stayed her hand in the last moment. Either way, it had been sufficient to disperse Toffee's army. And, not having killed him, the magical contract remained unfulfilled. Eclipsa remained crystallized.
"Wow, Tom, I never knew..." Star grasped for something to say. Then, with a smile, she settled on "...Thank you."
"No problem. I can see why your mom never told you, but you would have learned this sooner or later, now that you are going to be... I mean, never mind, you would have known soon," Tom corrected himself. "But my point is, using a dark spell didn't make your mother dark, not when used for a good purpose."
"I don't think that's exactly what I did, though," reasoned Star, thinking back to the night she casted the All-Seeing Eye. It had definitely not been for a good purpose. Wasn't lust a cardinal sin, both on Earth and on Mewni?
"Right, Star. Let's just say that eternal damnation takes more than a prank that accidentally went over the line," Tom shrugged. "Cold-blooded murder, hurting the innocent in an obsessive quest for revenge, wanton acts of tyranny, those are the kinds of things I see queens and kings go down there for. The last Butterfly queen we got was Eris the Silent, who covered and approved of the abuses of Mewni's cruelest guild for decades, and presided unmoved over the most decadent and corrupt court your kingdom has ever seen. Even someone like that is a borderline case."
"What about Eclipsa?" the princess asked.
"Star... Eclipsa is alive."
"Oh, Right."
----
Marco glided through the darkness, flying above the ocean of emerald flames. Below him, the smoke rose from the ashes of the Afflicted Forest. Nachos, his trusted dragon-cycle companion, was the only thing between him and a deadly fall into the green inferno below. The last time he had been here, the air itself had been infused with the deadliest of poisons. But the dark clouds around him were completely inert, as if the fire had sterilized even the arcane toxins of the place. The earth itself burned, as if made not of rock but dry grass, down to the very foundations of the world.
"Hekapoo!" he cried, desperately. The squawking cries of a murder of five-eyed crows was his only answer. The last time he had come here, it had been in victory, his quest completed, his prize ready at hand. Now he felt just like the crows, struggling just to keep afloat over the hell which welcomed him.
Marco lifted his right hand, keeping the left one on Nachos' horns, his powerful muscular legs pressing against the equally strong dragon body. Sixteen years older than even an hour ago, he was in the best shape of his entire life. Neither as guild-master, nor as warrior, had he been so powerful. And yet, compared to the devastation that surrounded him, he felt so very powerless. Still, he carefully intoned twelve words of power, brought his knuckles to his mouth, drew breath, and calmly exhaled into his clenched fist. It lit up with golden light. He extended up a single finger, and all the power of the ritual began flowing slowly towards its tip.
Magic always came from somewhere. It was a lesson that Marco had learned in those long sixteen years away from home, a fact he would never have realized while he only hung around Star, back on Earth or Mewni. People like Star, like Hekapoo, like Tom, had vast pools of magic to draw from, wherever they went. Most others drew power from those around them, or from the land itself.
There was a third source of magic, however, one favored by sages and by madmen, and by the gods, when even they required help. It was the magic of barter, of treaty, of compact. It was a bargain with just but uncompromising masters. The ritual magics which Marco summoned now were one such trade: a spell to find that which was missing. The cost was to lose what had been found, to forget something one already knew, of equal value to that gained. The ancient powers only rule was fairness, and their taste was one for irony.
Without knowing, or caring, which memory he might have given up in exchange, he began tracing the word in the air with his finger. He began with the glyph for 'fire', one of the simplest and oldest in the ancient tongue of Riradesh. To the left, he continued the line to draw the blade, another simple stroke, continued into the slightly more involved glyph for 'construction'. Around the two he traced a much more complicated pattern. It wasn't exactly void, or universe; the literal translation would have perhaps been 'the empty place between the many places'. The final component meant something akin to mastery, and something akin to ownership, and it implied the feminine: 'she who knows this thing so completely as to command it as its rightful mistress'.
Hekapoo's name, in her own script, shone bright and clear in white light, even amidst the ebony smoke and the viridescent light from the burning land. It flared for a second, and then it rolled onto itself, becoming a hollow ball of brightness, flying through the darkened sky like a comet. Nachos flew behind, in vertiginous pursuit.
The spell dragged Marco into the blackness that rose from below, to a world in which he could see nothing but himself, and Nachos, and the magic shooting star that would show the way. Eventually, the meteor crossed a wall of fire, not green but bright red and golden. Marco, without hesitation, followed behind. The flames did not burn him as he passed through.
He found himself in front of a tall dead spiked tree, the same he had visited last time he had been here, now the last one standing in the entire Afflicted Forest. Around the place was a bubble of red and gold fire, Hekapoo's fire. It shrunk slowly, inch by inch. Calmly, as if in a trance, Marco dismounted and walked into the sorceresses home.
"Was beginning to think you would not come in time," Hekapoo greeted him. She sat calmly, on her knees, on the floor. The furniture inside the forge-home was gone, in its place only a simple red carpet between round stone walls. Her flame was not but a fading candle.
"You know I will always find you, H-poo," Marco spoke. He felt as if he were reading lines from a script. Inside his mind another voice yelled at him that none of this made sense, that it wasn't real. "Two hundred of you, across as many dimensions. I always did find you. I always will."
"Aw, kid, you make me blush," she joked. Then she frowned, as if suddenly reminded of something awful. "This one is going to be a little harder than last time, I am afraid."
"I take it I haven't found you yet, then," Marco continued. "This is a dream. It isn't real."
"It is a dream," Hekapoo agreed. "I wouldn't go as far as saying it is not real. Maybe it looks like this, maybe it doesn't. But I am dying, most of me, and with that, so does my world."
"How long?" asked the hero of a dozen different epics, Marco of Averx, and of K'Ahleh, and of Zonst. Marco, of Earth, the real Marco, would have been sad, and scared. In time, so would be the proud warrior as well. But now it was not the time for grief, it was the time to act, to ask any question that could help save the Forger of Scissors.
"This aspect of me will be dead by the time you wake up, perhaps for good," the sorceress admitted. "Apparently, I entered into a bargain without intending to. A ritual of sealing, you know? For a force greater than myself. The price is that I must also be sealed. Because how the hell could it be anything else, right?"
The ancient powers had a taste for irony. They could be called by men and by gods, when either required help.
"Every echo I send out, allows it one of its own of... proportional magnitude. I could risk only two aspects, neither complete." continued Hekapoo. "I would have not done even that much, if I knew I could keep this evil contained. But there are forces on top of forces here, pacts that must supersede other pacts, and a dark destiny written in the heavens that I cannot fully avert. Wow, that got a bit dramatic there, didn't it?" she smiled, bitterly.
"The prophecy, right?" Marco asked. Hekapoo only shrugged.
"If there is one, I did not hear it this time," she replied. "And don't bother telling me. I'll be erased soon enough, already said most of what I had to say. Honestly, we are wasting time now. I guess, mostly, I am trying to stall. Lame, isn't it? After living this long, still afraid to die..."
"I'd trade mine for yours, Hekapoo, if the ancient powers didn't know that for a poor exchange," older Marco spoke, truthfully. The sorceress laughed in return.
"If that could be done, I would have already traded my life for someone else, kid," she confessed. "But I wouldn't do it for you, and you shouldn't do it for me. There is one you might one day soon have to die for, you know? Save your bargain for her."
Marco raised an eyebrow. "You said you sent out two aspects of yourself?"
"Yes, one to find you, and one to be found," Hekapoo intoned. "One to explain, the other to reveal a worthy ally. Look for me to find yourself, and when we next shall meet, our roles shall have reversed."
"Is the riddle necessary, H-poo?" Marco asked.
"Believe it or not, Marco, it sort of is," she replied. Right, that was ritual magic for you after all, rules over rules over more rules. "I know, right? Lame times dek!"
They both smiled at that.
The bubble of flames crossed the walls of the place then, and all around them the stone walls became occluded by a bright conflagration, in which red and green fire danced together. Under different circumstances, it would have been almost pretty.
"Why me? Why not Star?" Marco asked, and he knew it would be his last question for her.
"Because what I have shown you is most useful to you. Because I wanted to see you," Hekapoo smiled. "And because I could not have faced Star. Not after Moon... You know Marco? Star's mom and I? We were close. You have no idea how much. No one was to know. But I don't suppose that even matters now. I lo..."
Marco woke up in Jackie's arms, crying.
----
It was the hour before sunset and, unlike the night before, the Mewni royal cemetery was packed with people. It was a beautiful place, despite its grim significance: gardens of many-colored flowers and the most vibrant greens, sprinkled with the busts of nobles and the full body statues of former queens atop their lavish crypts. Each sculpture a work of art, and each reflecting the personality of their represented monarch and the artistic style of her times. From the angular fierceness of Solaria's warring form, to the delicate dancing effigy of Solena, to the ominous empty black pedestal representing dark queen Eclipsa.
Today everyone was here early, the high and the low alike, all wishing to pay tribute and say their goodbyes to one of the most beloved monarchs this land had ever had. And to hear, with perhaps some measure of apprehension, the words of their next queen: Star Butterfly, the Yet-Untitled. A girl with tears made of honey and a heart full of bunnies, but also known for her tempestuousness and a penchant for wreaking havoc on par with a natural disaster. A wild card in terms of the future of Mewni, and one mired in rumors which cast shadows over the continuation of the royal line of succession.
Star herself hung back at first, inside the royal marquee, decorated in cerulean blue but flying the black banners of mourning. King River was with her. They waited for the crowds to finish arriving, before it was Star's turn to address her people. When it came to this sort of thing, Mewni tradition did not call for the king to speak. The king's power was at most symbolic, while the queen wielded the wand. They needed reassurance not from River, but from Star, their true future ruler. The only one who needed reassurance from King River, was the princess herself.
"It is time, Sweetheart. You can do this. Moon Pie would be so proud," he spoke, a tear in his eye.
"Thanks, daddy," she replied, hugging him lightly.
Star walked out of the royal tent, chin held high, face composed. It felt like she was barely even there, acting in automatic, a puppet mimicry of what her mother would have done, while the real Star curled in inside her head. Her black dress was the perfect balance of royal elegance and appropriate somberness, as the occasion demanded. Her nods and tone controlled and reassuring, while showing just enough of her sorrow to fit the occasion.
"I am sorry. I miss her too. Hekapoo as well! I should have been there, to fight! Who is going to be there now... to... to put me on timeout? To look over us?"
"Bhaaaaaaaaa!"
"Thanks, Rhombulus, Lekmet. We will make it through, don't worry. It is what my mother would have wanted us to do."
The words as empty as Star felt. Her eyes scanning the crowd, projecting self-confidence, seeing nothing.
"I know your mom didn't like us much, she had reasons. Yet she was never cruel. For what it is worth, Star, am sorry. It is tragedy."
"Thank you, Yvgeny."
"Call Buff Frog."
She kept sleepwalking. A foot in front of the other. Knowing that if she stopped she would fall down and not be able to stand anymore.
"Princess Star, I have composed an aria of lamentation for the fate of Queen Moon. It would be an honor if you could deign to hear it."
"Perhaps later, Ruberiot. Thank you."
Not even anger. Beyond sadness. Just nothingness.
"Star, thanks for inviting us, I am so sorry. If there is anything we can do..."
"Thanks, Jackie."
"Star..."
He ran to hug her. The guards flinched, but let him through. Like her, he had no words.
"Thank you, Marco. I... I need to keep going."
"Yes, I know."
He let go.
----
She stood in a wooden podium. Behind her was the altar, and her mother's casket. In front of her, forming an ocean of black and brown robes, crested by waves of sullen faces, was the entire kingdom of Mewni. Along with them were: the two remaining members of the high commission, Yvgeny Bulgolyubov and his family, the two humans from Earth, Kelly and Tad, and many more people Star recognized. Somewhere around, unseen, might have been Thomas Lucitor, prince of hell, perhaps Janna too. Janna could have come openly, but she had declined without explanation.
"Moon Butterfly, Queen of Mewni, Honoris High-commissioner of Magic, Protector of the Lands, Preserver of the Peace, Wielder of the Royal Magic Wand, Moon the Undaunted, The Lizard Vanquisher, my mother. A week ago she left us, and in her place there is a hole in the firmament, and in the heart of every citizen of Mewni, including my own. She was just, and wise, and kind, and fierce. She put the kingdom's needs before her own, in times of plenty and in times of need. She was our light in every cloudy day, and she would not sleep until the least of her subjects was safe from harm..." Hollow words. They meant nothing. They were all true, but they still meant nothing. "She has left us, and none of us can ever hope to fill her shoes. Least of all me."
It happened then, at that exact moment. Something inside the Star-marionette broke, and the real Star came out. She rose from the depths of her mind with fury and determination, breaking through the resignation and despair. Turning sadness into defiant anger. Crying her resistance to the heavens. Externally, Star did not move, but everyone still felt it when her look turned from one of glazed out emptiness, to a glare made of steel. Her voice boomed with power.
"So, I am not going to," she continued, going off script. "Not yet, anyways. Not while my mother remains to be avenged. While the creature that took her from us yet lives. I will seek that evil out, whatever and wherever it is, and I will end it!"
Star voice roared, her eyes flaming coals that would have frightened Tom himself. The crowds murmured, some in fervent approval, some in abject terror.
"I will not take the crown, not until I have found this abomination and repaid its cruelty a thousandfold! This I promise, with all former Queens of Mewni as my witnesses: with Solena, and Skywynne, and Celena, and Solaria... and Eclipsa as well!" she yelled, her hands grasping the podium so hard that it broke and splintered.
A quiet tremor moved along the assembled people at the mention of the Queen of Darkness' name.
"Until then," Star continued. "You shall have my father, River Johansen, River Butterfly, as your rightful king and regent. And you shall obey him like you would any Queen of Mewni. When I return, I will try my best to be a wise, and kind, and good queen. But not until I have fulfilled my promise.
I have mourned my mom, privately for days, and now here, among all of you." She let go of the wooden podium and searched inside her dark formal dress. She extended her right hand in front of herself, the royal magic wand, the symbol of her power, literal and figurative, glowing dark green, pointed at the sky in defiance. "But I am done mourning her, now I am going to avenge her!"
"Yes! That's my girl!" shouted Rhombulus, even as everyone else fell silent with shock and dread.
----
"Star, wait..." Marco ran behind her, even as the crowds parted to let her pass, cowed by the princess' cold fury.
This wasn't right. Rhombulus was wrong, this wasn't Star. Not quite. Sure, she might be impulsive and fierce and often far too ready to fight. But she wasn't the kind to just pledge murder. He could see that she had terrified her subjects. Even King River seemed disturbed. And, well, Marco was shocked too. It wasn't that he didn't understand, it was that he understood only too well what Star was thinking.
The moment she had raised her wand, the moment she had sworn herself to vengeance, the boy couldn't help but hear the words of the girl named Cass. The fragment of a prophecy that ended in Star's own death: 'Behold the dark queen ascending...'.
"Marco, I'll speak to you before I leave, don't worry," she pointed out, calmly, as he finally reached her. "Take good care of Jackie, ok? Sorry for you-know-what."
Wait, before she left? Was Star planning to leave him and Jackie behind too? I mean, sure, things had been a little bit tense between them this past few days, but still, Marco had thought it was just a matter of some time, of letting Star grieve and Jackie process her feelings. Even if Star did become queen, he didn't even consider, didn't think that they would... well, not this soon.
For a second, he considered telling Star about his dream, about Hekapoo. If there was a place to start the princess quest for revenge it was there. But, well, Marco wasn't sure he should be helping Star, not with that. He made his way past the confused guards and grabbed her left arm.
"Star, the prophecy," he finally said, quietly, so others wouldn't hear. His eyes pleading for Star not to go down this path. She turned around, wand leveled at him.
"Marco, I don't care," she replied, also a whisper. "Nothing has felt right these days, nothing until now. I have to do this. If avenging my mom is wrong, if it is the evil thing to do... then, well, call me a villainess."
She gritted the last part through her teeth, mindful of the potential audience not too far from them. Marco sighed, and let her go. It is not as if he could blame her.
The wake went on, and the funeral as well. In the absence of the princess, it was an even gloomier affair than what it would have already been before. Marco spent the night wondering, whether maybe Star was right, and he was wrong. What would he do or not do, were something to happen to his own parents? Or to Jackie? Or to Star?
----
"I summon the All-Seeing Eye," Star begun. As she said the words, she knew it was a terrible idea, perhaps one of the very worst she had ever had. To do this alone, in the middle of the Forest of Certain Death, after the ways in which the spell had backfired the last time she tried it... it was madness! But the spell was her only lead. It was the only way she could think of to find out anything more about the flaming monstrosity that her father had seen murder her mom.
She had seen Mewni, that last time she tried the spell. She had seen Omnitraxus die, and Toffee, and Glossaryck, even if she hadn't seen who killed them. What was the chance all those were not connected? How likely was it, really, that those three and Moon were unrelated? Star wasn't sure how the pieces fit together, she knew only that they did, somehow. Besides, even if the spell backfire wasn't linked to whatever had happened back on Mewni, the Seeing Eye itself was supposed to show her what she wished to see, if only she could get it to work properly.
"To tear a hole into the sky..." she continued, bracing herself for madness.
"I wouldn't do that, if I were you," spoke a soft female voice behind her. The tone was firm, yet casual. Not a threat. There was no surprise, nor fear, woven into the words. It was a statement of fact. A friendly warning. "That's not a spell you want to be casting in this state, believe me."
Star turned around to see a young girl, perhaps her own age. Her skin was very pale, almost gray. Her purple eyeshadow matched her dress. Her flowing hair was about as long as Star's own, but formed of green curls rather than straight blond locks.
"Yeah, yeah, I know, dark magic, yada yada," Star countered. She wasn't sure if she knew the stranger. She seemed, well, familiar somehow. She had met so many people that day at her mom's wake, so many strangers offering condolences, both heartfelt as well as insincere. "Look, it is just a scrying spell, and there is something I need to find..."
"A scrying spell? Oh, dear," the strange girl exclaimed, taking a hand to her mouth in surprise. Star had the weirdest feeling that she was missing something. "Is that what you think that is?"
"Well, yeah," Star spoke. She felt annoyed at the stranger. How dare she interrupt her now that she had decided to do everything in her power to find her mom's killer? How dare she presume to know what Star's spells did? No one ever knew how Star's magic worked! Even her mom would have known nothing about this one. "It is an old spell, and a bit spooky. But I have done this before, alright?"
"Yeah, so have I," the stranger mussed. Her tone slow, drifting in contemplation, or recollection. "But I also didn't know better back then. I wasn't really that much older than you, when I scribbled that one into the book..."
"When you what?!" Star shouted in shock. She turned back to the stranger, pointing her wand straight at her. The magical instrument glowed with deadly power. It was then that the mewman princess noticed the spade marks in the stranger's cheeks. "Wait a second! You are Eclipsa!"
"Well, yes," the girl shrugged. "I thought it was obvious, dear. By the way, thanks for including me in that little speech of yours. It was very moving. It is selfish of me, but it feels so nice after all the other things people are saying about me these days..."
Star didn't move her wand one millimeter. For an instant she wondered if perhaps she should be a tad bit more cautious about the names she swore stuff on. Eclipsa was evil, and like, super dangerous. Wasn't she?
"Wait, but aren't you supposed to be like, you know... crystallized?" Star whispered the last world, still struggling with the notion that she was talking to her ninth great-grandmother, who looked her age, and was also perhaps the greatest villain to ever have lived in Mewni.
"I was," her ancestor admitted, looking sad momentarily. "For a long while, apparently. I only really got out recently. You see, your mom and I made a deal..."
"... that you would be free as soon as Toffee died. And now Toffee is dead." finished Star.
She noticed that this meant she had confirmation that the visions the All-Seeing Eye spell had shown her last time corresponded to reality. All the more reason she should cast it again, no matter the risk. Then, she thought of something, and the brightness within the wand increased, turning a sickly shade of green.
"Wait! How do I know it wasn't you? You have been free for days! Did you..." she choked. "Did you kill my mother?!"
"Oh dear! Absolutely not!" Eclipsa exclaimed, looking genuinely shocked. "I liked Moon. She was such a sweet kid. I mean, I know she was not fond of me, but I would never hurt her..."
"How do I know you aren't lying?" pressed Star. Anger burned through her, ready to be unleashed at the slightest sign that the woman before her was the one responsible for her mom's death.
"Well, you don't," the Queen of Darkness reasoned, seemingly unconcerned about the most powerful weapon in Mewni being pointed directly at her chest. "I mean, if I had done it, I would certainly lie. Even if I were to tell you a spell to make me tell the truth, why would you believe that is true either? I can tell you I want the same thing you want, to see the creature that killed Moon gone. But I suppose only you can decide whether you believe that or not. Maybe, well, maybe I can show you. Perhaps I can be of assistance?"
"You mean helping me find the thing that killed my mom? To destroy it?" Star replied, doubtfully. But she lowered her aim an inch, and the wand's glow slowly faded away. This was bad, recruiting the evil queen as an ally. Then again, wasn't that the same her mom had done?
"I am afraid not," Eclipsa answered regretfully. "I mean, I am sorry, I just got out, you have no idea what that's like. I want a little while to just smell the roses, eat the candy I didn't have all those years. I know it sounds horrible. I am really sorry about Moon, really, I swear, by my own mother, and my daughter, and all the queens before me or since. But I just got my freedom, I don't want to dedicate it to vengeance..."
The princess' heart sank. Here she was, talking to the Queen of Darkness herself, and it was Star whose heart seemed to be filled with hate, the one who longed for revenge. She though for a second, about the scared faces of her subjects, about what Marco had said. But then, she thought about the body; the unmoving body in the glass casket, the cold flesh that had been her mom.
"What if I do want to do it? Vengance, I mean," she asked, her tone ice-cold. "Could you help me still somehow? What about the spell you gave my mom?"
"Are you certain that's what you want?" replied Eclipsa surprised. "I can do that. But that spell does require a magical contract. I am afraid that part is sort of fundamental to the way it works."
The green-haired royal seemed to ponder the issue for a moment.
"Perhaps, well, if you truly are sure..." she trailed off an instant before continuing, as if organizing her thoughts. "That speech you gave, what you said before, that would work. You can promise to me you will find Moon's killer and destroy it, before you become queen. That would be acceptable in exchange for the spell, and is what you plan to do anyways. Isn't it?"
Star hesitated for a second. It was one thing to make that promise to her subjects, in the heat of the moment. It was something that she could probably still take back at this point. Her mother would have known the political cost of doing that, she would have told her it was a bad image for the new queen to be seen as going back on a promise as her first royal act. But it was at least theoretically possible. This seemed a lot more permanent somehow.
"If you are not absolutely sure, though, you really shouldn't do it," Eclipsa offered helpfully.
Star felt ashamed. She never even wanted to be queen! And, well, she had to stand by her words either way. She had to avenge her mom, and she couldn't do so if she had to assume all the responsibilities of Queen of Mewni at the same time.
"I swear I will not be queen, until my mother has been avenged." Star extended a hand. Then she smiled, "with Eclipsa as my witness."
The former queen chuckled in response. As she took Star's hand into her own, a ribbon of darkness coiled around their outstretched arms, and the princess felt a tingling sensation. Eclipsa leaned down and whispered the words of the spell into her ear.
"So, will that really kill anything?" Star asked.
"Any creature, and anything living or undead, and most denizens of hell or heaven," replied Eclipsa. "As long as you hit the heart. Or well, the closest equivalent."
"Wow, that sounds really... powerful. I am kinda sad I don't have the rest of your chapter," the princess admitted. "I lost the book, and I think, I am not sure but I think, it is gone now, for good."
"Well, I lost the book once too," Eclipsa replied pensively. "When I... went away, from Mewni. I sort of made one of my own after that: a few things I remembered, a few things I found out after. Unfortunately, I was never diligent enough at it to get even all of what was in my old chapter in there..."
"Yeah, tell me about it," echoed Star. Remembering her own experiences with trying to keep her own notebook of spells after losing the book to Ludo. Meanwhile, Eclipsa began rummaging through her dress.
"Here," she handed Star a small bundle of pages, sewed together with two black covers made of what seemed to be something like fossilized rose petals. The girl winked at Star. "I don't think I will need this anymore."
"Whoa, thanks!" Star replied, as she took the book carefully into her hands, almost reverentially. She looked at it, thoughtfully, then back at Eclipsa. She was definitely not what the princess had expected. "You know? You don't really seem evil..."
"Well, thank you. Neither do you."
--------
Author's note:
This is the first chapter of this fic which has elements from what I like to call the "Habit mythos". Meaning that some elements from the excellent fic: A Habit Hard to Break (http://archiveofourown.org/works/9982967/chapters/22299020) are considered fanon in this fic as well. I call it a mythos and not a universe or a fic-of-fic, because I am not aiming at full consistency here (for one, Marco did not come back from Hekapoo's dimension with PTSD in this fic). There is also no need to read Habit to understand this fic, I will explain the things I use from there as it becomes important to know them. You should still read Habit, because it is amazing.
Special thanks to Grade_A_Sexual and Akeara4 (Habit's authors) for helping me understand the Habitverse and its rules, and thus break them in style.
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I Summon the All-Seeing Eye