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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
- 28
- 29
- 30
Chapter 29: Victory March
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Ten-thousand Steps Mountain got its name from the many irregular footholds forming the narrow staircase chiseled along its steep western face. The Kneeling Gardener got its name, instead, from its shape - a curved pinnacle of bare rock resembling a crouching giant - and from the beautiful lush meadows it overlooked to the south. Night Peak Mountain got its name from the black barren stone that adorned its tall cliff. Crow Temple Mountain got its name from the abandoned shrine at the top, and the monster that inhabited it.
They were all one and the same.
Every month, the day before the full moon, two or three young men and women from the village below, bravely and voluntarily, would go up the mountain. One or two would come back down the next day. The remaining one would stay there, as an offering to the beast. Those not kept never spoke of what happened up there, other than to report that their companion had died, and to describe the fearsome form of the crow.
It was recalled by the eldest among the villagers in Xoth'kaul that, one time, many years ago, the volunteer offerings failed to arrive to the top, and so too failed the spares to return. Perhaps, gripped by a sudden vile cowardice, they made a pact to flee the valley together. Perhaps they fell to their deaths while trying to climb the treacherous steps. Be as it might, the crow descended upon the village the next night, the night after the full moon. He passed unseen among houses and walkways, leaving no living witness. Instead, in its wake, it left dead men and frozen trees, and a trail of huge black feathers. Since then, none among their number had dared let a month pass without a suitable sacrifice to the crow.
Xoth'kaul always sent its young, rather than its elderly. While many old men and women in the village would have been happy to sacrifice themselves to spare those who still had a longer life ahead of them, the difficulty of the journey made that act impractical. Instead, the village settled on a traditional rite of passage: Go to the crow before becoming an adult, before you have wifes or husbands to miss you, or children to be made orphans. Go to the crow in groups, never by yourself, so there is a chance of being spared. If the beast turns you down, then you will never have to make the climb again, your duty forever fulfilled.
Marco had no children, and he had no one left that would miss him. Nachos perhaps, but she would be alright. Hekapoo would probably just shrug, make some remark about how he lasted longer than she expected, note how absolutely stupid it was that it was the crow, of all things, who got him, and call it a decade. Truth be told, Marco was not part of Xoth'kaul, or its compulsory death pact. He was a stranger in these lands and had stayed only one night in the forest village. He had learned about the crow only yesterday, a tale told to him by one of the village elders in exchange for a tale of his own. He had no reason to make the climb, no reason to involve himself at all with a situation that everyone else down there regarded as a sad but necessary fact of life. They had not asked for his help.
"So, why are we doing this, then, you dumbass?" spoke his companion aloud, replying to his thoughts. They sat in front of the creepy oaken sanctuary atop Ten-thousand Steps Mountain, waiting for dusk.
The cursed monster arm knew the answer, and not just because it could read Marco's mind. They had this conversation often, actually. It was a way to pass the time. Was talking to yourself still crazy if there really were two people inside you? What if, strictly speaking, you didn't need to talk aloud to hear one another but did it anyways?
"Because, that is what we do, Kar. We wander from town to town and country to country, we ask for stories, hoping it is something relevant to wherever the hell Hekapoo is hiding. When it inevitably turns out to be an unrelated bit about their local man-eating monster, we seek it out, and we kill it for them," he shrugged. "Because we are fucking heroes, or something."
"Because we have a death wish, more likely," replied the mouth on his arm, with a toothy grin.
"It's the same damn thing," Marco shot back, bitterly.
"Well, I for one am glad to see my optimism is rubbing off on you," Kar retorted. "Speaking of which: Did you notice it is not a full moon tonight, idiot? What if the fucking bird doesn't show up? We wait up here for a week?"
Fortunately, Marco never did have to answer that question. A strong wind blew around them that very moment, and the temperature seemed to drop a full ten degrees. The temple had no doors or walls, only a rooftop supported by four pillars covering a plain wooden floor. There had been nothing on that floor an instant ago, but now, it was covered in black feathers. They peeled off from the oak panels on the ground, shadows gaining volume and shape of their own. They floated around in a whirlwind, blocking Marco's sight.
He sprung up, and set himself in a ready stance, but did not attack, not until he knew what he was facing.
When the freezing wind stopped blowing, he saw himself face to face with the crow. It was huge. Twice as tall as the warrior himself, and its wings were even longer. It looked at Marco quizzically. The former guildmaster noticed he could see through the creature's body. A ghost, or a spirit. Great.
"It is not time yet, and you are not one of the children. Why then have you come?" heard Marco, although the bird's beak remained closed.
"I am Marco of Zonst, Marco of Averx, Marco of K'Ahleh," he introduced himself. "I am here to end your murderous ways!"
"Murder? My brethren are as numerous as the stars, but my killings only one per moon," the spirit answered. "I take only as many as are needed, as the children and I agreed long ago. It is their deal to make or end, not yours, and it is entirely by their choice that I nest on this peak."
"That's not what we heard," remarked Kar.
But Marco was already moving past the point of debate. He brought both hands forward, repeated a few ancient words and begun the motions of a ritual he seldom got to use. As the magic clicked into place, the creature's body seemed to become bright with a restless light and the world around them grayer and duller by comparison. Marco could see the crow's essence flowing slowly all through the shape of the being, in strange unearthly colors: a bright shade of black, a freezing crimson red, a purple beyond any purple found in the world of the living. It was obviously a spirit. It was too large and too alien to be a ghost.
The warrior pushed his two closed fists forward and held them in front of him. Without touching the crow, he forced its wings to spread open as far as he could. It cawed as Marco pinned it there, in mid air, his own will opposing that of the dark spirit. He didn't need to touch it. Physical space was irrelevant to the ritual. It was mind and soul that fought the creature, not body. The movements, however, guided the brain through the required states. Muscle memory supplemented pure concentration, thought followed action. They constituted a forming exercise, an external kata to focus his inner strength.
All around him, the small plateau around the temple became bright, lit up by hundreds of small shimmering spheres of white light. Most were the size of ping pong balls, a few slightly bigger, up to the size of a large orange. Having used the Exorcism Ritual before, Marco knew them for what they were: souls. Human souls, all trapped here by the crow, bound to the mountain, held from their next journey.
The warrior frowned with anger and determination.
If there was something Allion had hammered into him when she taught him the Exorcism Ritual, if there was something that he had seen again and again as he used the ritual to chase possessing ghosts out of places and people, was the pain that a soul experienced when it wasn't allowed to move on. A soul weighted with regret often stayed on this world, it clung to it until it became a ghost, mad with grief and pain. It was a fate worse than death. The Exorcism Ritual allowed one to free those afflicted with such unbearable condition, to take upon the weight into your own soul, while allowing the one forming the ghost to finally move beyond. It was a great mercy, with a heavy cost that was due only at the day of your own death.
The worst part, however, was that none of these souls seemed particularly heavy. They all looked like the kind of soul that should have moved on, that would have floated away on their own lightness. These weren't angry ghosts. These were innocent people held back from reincarnation by whatever kind of hellish being the crow was. Marco let his rage turn towards the bird.
The Exorcism Ritual wasn't only used to dispel ghosts. It could be used to interact with anything and everything immaterial, such as, say, a spirit. Your determination replaced your physical force, your ingenuity became your reach, your sense of self was your armor. Taking a deep breath, Marco punched at the crow's chest with his mind, just as he pushed his outstretched fist in its direction, albeit at a distance. He clawed at the spirit's center, pressing into it and burying a quality of sharpness until he cut through its non-material substance, splattering his own soul with the black phantasmal ichor of psychic butchery. A karmic evil, yet, clearly, the lesser one.
The crow's bright unearthly colors faded to black, even under the sight given by the ritual. It exploded into a snowfall of coal-black feathers.
Instantly, Marco heard a hundred sobbing cries all around him. They were not the joyful cries of the liberated. They were the sorrowful cries of those left orphan. They were the accusing cries of those who witnessed a terrible crime. The souls around him bloated into the size of ox heads, and became gray with heavy regret.
"You didn't listen..." spoke a young man's voice.
"... we were the gardeners... the crow was our teacher... our patron..." added another.
"Didn't know... couldn't know..." corrected a young woman.
"Doesn't matter. Our children and grandchildren will pay the price," retorted another.
"So will he... His soul is heavy as the mountain," a woman.
"Not just for this act alone," a man.
Marco looked horrified through the cliff, as the light of the waxing moon illuminated the forest below. Once vibrantly green and flush with life, it was quickly drying. It was as if fall and winter both advanced upon it in the span of a few minutes. Marco knew, he knew, that spring would never again come to the Kneeling Gardener's valley. That was the deal the crow had tried to explain, he realized, the other end of the bargain, an abundance and warmth purchased in blood.
"His soul is heavy with destiny, and with love."
"It will sink."
"We must pity him."
"We must pity us."
"Never pity the dead, but the living. We must pity our children, and grandchildren, and the children of their lines. The crow took us one per moon, but now hunger will take them all..."
Marco woke up startled, heart still racing from the memory of the dream, or, perhaps, the dream of a terrible memory. He slowly realized where he was: back in Star's room. The princess and Jackie were both asleep next to him, one certain mewman foot in his face. Only then did he begin to calm down.
----
Sam's accursed ballroom was the last place any of them wished to find themselves back in. Star more so than any of her friends. After all, she had actually died in here. There was a certain nasty aftertaste whenever you went back to any place in which you had previously suffocated to death, never mind the fact that she had apparently been burned to ashes shortly after. Look, it was super creepy, alright?
Still, it was one of the few places inside the damned castle - literally damned, Star supposed - that they all knew how to find. It was either here or back in her own room and, frankly, the princess felt more mortified hosting Tom and Janna there than in the huge marble-tiled ballroom. Look, dying was awkward too, but how was she supposed to deliver any sort of serious speech while sitting in the bed she had just had a threeway in?
"Hey, Star, Marco, Jackie!" Tom greeted them as he walked into the room through one of the side staircases. He was forcing a smile, badly. "Friends, buddies, pals! Did you all sleep well last night? Ah, I mean, not that is any of my business how any of you slept... no, wait, that sounded wrong... I am just asking if you are rested, that's all... Of course, if you didn't rest that's fine too, I just..."
"Tom!" Star interrupted him, blushing a deep shade of red. His rambling was only making things worse.
"Ah, sorry, Star," he apologized, then seemed to calm down. "I'll... I’ll just shut up now."
Jackie walked towards the demon prince with an unreadable expression in her face.
She was back in her white and green t-shirt and shorts. The nacre scabbard to her left, and the belt that supported it, were the only changes from her usual Echo Creek outfit. They were all back to their normal clothes, actually, all three of them. Star had conjured those this morning, rather than have them all go back into Sam's costumes. So far they had not heard any complains from the devil about that; nor anything else from him, for that matter. Not that Star herself minded not seeing Sam’s smug face ever again.
The mewman supposed she should do the same for Tom, who was, after all, still wearing the scoundrel outfit. But before she could offer, Jackie stopped right in front of him. She raised a hand as if she were about to slap him, and then, well, she just held it there.
Tom looked dumbfounded at the human girl.
"Hey, dude, don't leave me hanging," she spoke. "High five!"
Tom blinked. Then, tentatively, he returned the gesture, softly clapping his own hand against the girl's raised palm, "Ok, sure, high five... but, um, why?"
"Well, we have both been in bed with Star," Jackie winked at the demon, and at the mewman herself. "Figured you might want to welcome me to the club!"
"Jackie!!" Star shouted, annoyed.
She wasn’t ashamed of last night or anything. But maybe still a bit self-conscious. It just wasn’t the way she had expected this meeting to start, ok? Besides, what Jackie just said could easily be taken to imply a lot more than what had actually happened!
She turned towards Tom, "It's actually not like that! I mean Jackie and I," It wasn't. Was it? Well, it sort of was, and it sort of wasn't. "... look, we were both with Marco, just, well, at the same time, and..."
The demon looked from the human girl to her, first shocked, then amused. He broke out into a nervous chuckle. Jackie grinned at this.
"Way too much information, the both of you!" declared Tom. However, he seemed a lot more relaxed than before. The smile he wore now was the genuine article.
"Fair enough, dude. But, in all seriousness, are you doing alright?" asked Jackie. "You are not like, secretly still pining after Star or anything like that, right? Because, trust me, either way, it is usually better to just be honest with this sort of stuff." As she spoke, her eyes shifted ever so slightly to her right in a nervous glance.
"What? No, nothing like that!" Tom replied. He turned back towards the mewman. "I swear. Really. Look, obviously I care about you, Star, a lot, and that hasn’t changed. But, I meant what I said last night. It’s just, well, it’s a bit awkward, you know? Being the third... err... fourth wheel...? Also, that is one idiom that just doesn’t work in this sort of situation."
"Awww, Tom!" spoke the princess, suddenly realizing that she was not the only one for whom this meeting was weird. "Sorry if we all left you alone last night, after all that happened. I don't think I would have liked to spend the night alone in this super creepy castle..." Star realized, perhaps a bit too late. "Wow. That kinda stunk on our part, actually. Sorry."
"Heh, Star. Don’t sweat it. I am a demon, a prince of the underworld, remember?" Tom gave her his patented 'trying to look cool' grin. "This is downright cozy for me! It takes quite a lot spook me-eeeeehh...!"
Tom jumped up as one of the huge balcony windows opened inwards behind him with a thunderclap. A long shadow seemed to flow down into the terrace then. It came from somewhere up in the roof of the castle, and it coalesced into a pool of oily black ichor. The puddle of inky blackness caught fire then, and, from the midst of the blue fames, a cowled figure emerged.
"Ok, are we leaving or what?" asked the witch, impatiently, as she smothered the last of the blue embers with her foot.
"Well, we were actually waiting for you, Janna," replied Star unfazed. She took a deep breath and turned serious for a moment. "Look, people, now that we are all here, this part is important, alright? I am just going to say this one last time: none of you have to come with me!"
Marco was the first to open his mouth to protest. But the princess raised her hand, and they all felt silent in response. It helped that her expression really did mean business now. It helped that her hand was holding the magic wand. It helped that the crystal in the middle of the wand had once again melted into a very realistically star-like ball of golden fire, spinning inside the scepter's head. Apparently, it could do that.
"I mean it!" Star admonished. "You can all still go back. I think I can give you a way to go back. I know you all want to say no, either because you want to help me, or because you want to protect those at home that would be hurt if I fail... Oh, right! Tom, Janna, I didn't tell you yet! Well, the short of it is that Sam will destroy Earth and Mewni, and the local underworld, and a bunch of other places, if I don't kill the thing that killed my mother..." Star frowned. Clearly she was fumbling this speech of hers.
"The point is: He is forcing me to do it, not you," she continued, nonetheless. "Chances are that, if you do go with me, you are risking your life. Even in the cases where we win, where I win, you could get hurt, you could die. In the last twenty-four hours, you all came close to dying, some of you two or three times, and it has all been, at least in part, because of me. I don't want to... I can't keeping putting you at risk like that."
She sighed, anticipating their objections.
"I know I can't force you not to come with me, and won't turn away your help or close off from you if you insist on helping. I won't even say I don't appreciate it," she admitted. "But, please, think of your friends, think of your families, think how they would feel if you don't come back... Let's all do the thing none of us has been any good at doing so far, and think carefully about the risks we are taking... If you are sure, then I promise I won't ask again. But, please, really think about it."
They stayed silent for a few seconds.
"Done thinking," Marco spoke first. "And no fucking way, Star. I am not leaving you to face this alone, no matter what happens."
"Ditto," spoke Jackie. "Look, you ask us to think about our families. Well, we are. Again, if you fail because we weren't there, then our parents and friends will die too. And, well," she took the glass sword out of the scabbard, "I didn't just get this thing to hang it on a wall back home. Say what you will about Sam, but I think he already knows exactly where we are going to need it..."
"And on that unassailable bit of logic," Tom spoke, "I am in too. For you, Star, as a friend, and for my parents too. Besides, I am way tougher to kill than any of you. It’s not even like I am taking the same risks you three are. I’ll be fine."
Janna stood there, silent. As all eyes turned towards her, she said, smiling, "Oh, me? I am only tagging along until we get out of this place. I don't want to stay here, and I don't want to go back home anymore either, particularly if you four fucking up means there won't be a home to go back to anyways. So I guess I am with you all until we hit the next dimension. After that, I am going my own way. I am done..." she looked at Star, then at Tom, "... with all of you."
----
Star kept her word about respecting their choice in the matter, once she was convinced they had all thought things through. Marco was relieved. Either way he was going to follow Star to the ends of the multiverse if needed be, but he'd much rather not have to keep making the same case over and over again. They all knew the risks, but that was only the more reason as to why there was just no way he would abandon Star to face them alone. He would be there for her, no matter what, and he knew she would do the same for him.
In a way, last night was emblematic of that fact. Star had rescued them all from Sam. Then, later, when the green weirdness had gone after them, it had been Marco's quick thinking about the Blood Moon Ball that had freed them. Well, they might have not been in danger then if not for the link between them, so Star would never have been in trouble if Marco hadn't been there in the first place... Ok, fine, maybe it was a bad example. Still, he wanted to be there to help Star, and there was nothing she could say or do that would change his mind about that.
All five of them now soared through the sky above the labyrinthine stone bridges and rivers of fire of Sam's domain. To their relief, the devil himself hadn't shown up to stop them, or to 'say goodbye', or to screw with them further in any way. Star, Jackie, Tom, and Marco, all rode atop the spookiest pack of flying unicorns he had ever seen. Having lived with Star for a year, he had no small experience with scary-looking unicorns. He was becoming somewhat of an expert on those, really. Yet these were something else entirely.
They were a cross between the undead horse that had pulled Tom's carriage and the ones that got summoned by Star's Warnicorn Stampede. They were no skeletons, but they were almost thin enough to be. Each was covered in leathery black skin, clinging close to muscular legs and gaunt bodies, the rib cage visible through the emaciated flesh. The head was downright cadaveric, filled with scars and crowned by a long sharp horn, which looked as if made of forged iron. From their flanks sprouted long dragon-like wings. Despite their famished shape, they all had an unearthly air of terrifying strength about them as they glided through the sky. Each horse was clad in black steel armor. Their eyes glowed with violet fire.
Back at Sam's castle, Star had conjured everyone a hefty breakfast, which they happily ate. Not long after that, she had lifted her wand and the golden sun inside of it had turned into a sphere of purple fire as she muttered some long incantation that he couldn't quite follow. Out of nowhere, five of the monstrous horses had appeared before them. Marco still remembered the gelid breath of the shadowy beast on his face, and wondered if the thing was even warmblooded.
Star had just jumped atop her own horse with a cheerful cry of "Yay Horsie!" and a disquieting glee in her eyes.
Eventually, they each had mounted one, some more reluctantly than others. All, that is, except Janna.
Instead of accepting Star's spell as her ride, Janna had taken a step back from it, placed her left hand atop her own heart, and let out a horrifying howl. They all heard the sound of cracking bones and twisting flesh, and then the ripping of fabric as two huge bat-like wings emerged from behind the witch's cloak. They were the exact same color of Janna's own skin, and smeared with small patches of dried blood. After seeing that, Star's flying horses didn't seem that creepy anymore.
Marco tugged on the reigns of his ride, and guided it gently closer to where Jackie was flying. Frankly, it was no Nachos, but he was slowly getting used to the Hell Pegasus or whatever it was.
"Hey, Diaz!" she greeted him with a wave, gently guiding her own mount with the remaining hand. "Is riding a flying horse the coolest or what?"
"It's pretty neat, I suppose," he said noncommittally, wondering if there was any way for him to give Jackie a ride on a dragoncycle. He was sure she'd love that. "By the way, I've been meaning to ask: is no one else concerned with the fact that Janna is obviously evil or possessed or something?"
"Says the soul-bonded love-thrall of the undead princess, while riding a thestral," a voice behind and above him pointed out sarcastically. Marco almost fell of his flying horse as the troublemaker's winged form swooped down right besides him, effortlessly catching up to the two of them. He veered sharply away from her on instinct. "Relax, I am no more evil than I was a month ago."
To Marco, who had grown up knowing Janna, that was not entirely reassuring.
"Ok, Janna, I'll bite," Jackie said, riding a small current and passing Marco from below to find herself flying side by side with Janna. "What's up with the wings and flowing shadows and stuff? Since when do you have magical powers?"
"Well, originally?" the troublemaker girl pretended to think. "Since I did the nasty with Tom in the middle of a cemetery."
Jackie raised an eyebrow, Marco just frowned.
"What? Like you two are ones to judge," she shrugged. The movement sent her a few meters up as her wings responded to her muscles. "Damn! Still not used to these things... So, anyways, Tom was teaching me magic, and apparently it turns out I can draw power from him. Let me tell you, there is a lot more power inside your average demon than in all the corpses in Echo Creek's graveyard, and Tom is not really your average demon."
"Fine, I get it," Marco spoke, drawing on his own experience with magic to fill in the details Janna was glossing over, probably on purpose. "That's how you could create fireballs and shoot lightning and all that stuff we saw you do that night at Tom's place. But it doesn't explain now. Tom seemed shocked when he saw you do it and, well, aren't you two..." he trailed off.
"Broken up?" Janna said flatly. She glanced up to where Star and Tom were flying together, laughing about something. The princess punched the demon in the arm and he just seemed to laugh louder. "I couldn't care less if he fell into one of those cracks of fire right now. We are done, and I don't think I can draw power from him without being... close. Fortunately, I found a better source."
"Right," Marco said simply. "I mean, I am sorry to hear that... you and Tom," he added as an afterthought. Then, concerned, "But, well, what about that other source? What is it?"
"Marco, you really shouldn't ask questions you don't want the answer to." Janna looked at her hand. There was something there, a tattoo of a snake wrapped four times around her left index finger, covering most of the digit in black ink.
"See, Janna," Marco pointed out, "that's not exactly the kind of thing you say when you want people to not worry about what the literal hell is going on with you..."
"Right, right," she retorted. "So, basically, dabbling in the dark arts is only fine when it's your cheating girlfriend doing it? Maybe you should spend less time worrying about me, and more time worrying about her. I don't care anymore what she and Tom are up to over there, but I would have thought you might. Then again, I don't understand you guys, for all I know it is Tom's turn to bang the bug tonight!"
Marco was about to raise to the bait, when Jackie cut him off, "Janna, we do worry about Star. And perhaps, in worrying about Star, we missed some of the stuff that was going on with you. I am really sorry if that was the case. Look, we are your friends, we have known you for years. If you say you are fine, then you are fine, but I'd still would like to know what you are dealing with, exactly..."
"Fine, you want to know, Jackie? You really really want to know?" Janna grumbled back, annoyed. Then she pointed upwards, towards the open wound in the sky, towards the deep maw that was the true form of the Endless Shadow. "Sam made me an offer I couldn't refuse. His power, some of it, enough to do pretty much anything I can dream of, maybe everything Star can... I no longer have to depend on Tom, or anyone else."
Jackie paused for a second, then, very gently, she said, "I imagine there is a catch..."
"Sure there is," Janna admitted. She showed them her open palm, the viper tattoo around her finger. "Whenever I cast magic, this mark thing grows in size and inches towards the center of my body. The more powerful the spell, the more it grows. Eventually it will wrap around my torso and then reach towards my heart. It will bite it, and I will die. When I die, my soul comes right back here, and, well... you get the idea. So, sure, the ending is bad, but is not like I expected something different, you know? Not since I learned for a fact that demons and hell are real. It will be years, even decades, before I exhaust this kind of power, and until I do... the world is my oyster!"
"Sure," Marco muttered, "'Don't worry guys, I only sold my soul to the devil!'"
Janna glared at him. "At least when I pay with souls I sell my own, Marco. I don't gift my girlfriend's to the 'Dark Queen Ascending'. Bet you that turns out alright!" she said sarcastically.
"Wait a minute, Janna, how the hell do you know about that!?" Marco shouted. She had said something about him being 'soul-bonded' to Star before. It only now occurred to Marco that she shouldn't have heard anything about that.
"Wouldn't you like to know...?" Janna grinned, and with a deliberate shrug, she pushed herself far up into the air, where she begun rapidly gliding away from them.
Jackie sighed. "Marco, dude, I love you, but that was really dumb."
"I... Sorry, Jackie, I thought we agreed that the Blood Moon stuff was the only option I had last night and..." he tried to apologize.
"Not that," Jackie stopped him. "I mean, Janna."
Oh. Right.
"So, you are also worried about what she just said?" Marco asked.
"Of course I am worried! She made another deal with Sam," the girl pointed out. "Is not like Janna is an idiot. She must know there is no way that one ends any better than the one before. If anything, we got lucky back there. So there must be a reason why she was willing to take it, even knowing that."
Marco almost missed the fact that Jackie's hand had come to meaningfully rest in the nacre scabbard to her side right as she said that.
"Let me talk to her alone, ok?" she asked Marco. "I think I might have an easier time getting to her, or at least making sure she knows we are here when she wants to talk about it."
He nodded, and Jackie tugged at the horse's reins, taking off after their mutual childhood friend.
----
"See that, Star? That's one of the exits out of Sam's domain, " Tom explained, pointing at the narrow passage between two huge intersecting black spikes sprouting from two separate ground-bridges below. "It's not yet the one we want, so don't fly in between. But the portal we are looking for is very likely going to be similar."
In a standard euclidean space, there would not have been anything special behind the pillars. Certainly, if they went around the arch, they would see nothing but more burning fissures and narrow bridges as far as the eye could see. Sam's domain was, after all, spherical, albeit not quite in the way Earth was. It was oriented inside-out, with what they perceived as the ground being the inside surface rather than the outside surface of the globe. Either way, it was large enough that it looked flat. It would have taken great powers of observation for most mortals to even notice that the horizon curved slightly upwards before fading into the distance, rather than slightly downwards. Even the demon prince could only tell this because of what he already knew of the infernal topography of the place.
"Ugh, that looks really gross, Tom," Star pointed out, regarding the view on the other side of the archway.
"I know! It smells even worse! Isn't that great?" he joked.
Inwardly, Tom had to admit he was actually happy they weren't going that way. The ground on the other side of the portal was made of rotting flesh and bone, and inhabited by maggots the size of blue whales. Even flying over it would be unpleasant, if only due to the overwhelming odor of diseased putrefaction. Still, baiting Star with this kind of stuff was always fun.
"Whatever, you do you, Tom," she shrugged, disgusted. They flew past the dimensional gate, without looking back.
In a way, this was the least awkward that their friendship had felt in a long time. It was definitely less nerve wracking than the year he spent pining after her, looking for ways to get back together. But also, Star seemed in a better mood than any he had seen her in since her mom's death. That was great news! The girl was insanely strong, after all, mentally as well as physically, and seemed to be well on her way to recovering. The demon prince supposed her relationship with Marco and Jackie helped with that. Well, if that's what it took, then it was fine by him, really.
"Hey, how are you guys doing?" asked a voice behind them, as another thestral caught up to the ones he and the princess were riding. Ah, speaking of the humans...
"Hey, Marco!" Tom answered cheerfully.
"Marco!" Star greeted her boyfriend brightly, flying closer towards him. "Everything alright back there?"
"Um. Yeah. I mean, well, it is under control," the boy replied. "You know Janna. Nothing major, though. How about you? How are you holding, Star?"
"Pfff, I am fine, Marco," Star said, waving the non-wand hand around, dismissively. "This place is super creepy, but from way up here, well, this is almost fun! Yeah, totally fun... totally..."
Marco didn't say a word.
"Ok, fine! I am nervous, Marco. I am scared," Star admitted. "I keep waiting for Sam to pop out from nowhere and say that letting us go last night was just another joke. Even once we get out of his domain, well, the thing that killed my mom is out there. We barely survived the last two times we faced it. Don't get me wrong, I do want to find it. I want to avenge my mom and save Mewni and Earth, I really do. But I am also scared..."
"Yeah," Marco agreed. "Look, Star, is good to be scared. I am scared too. It means we are alert, that we are ready. The last two times, well, it caught us by surprise. It ambushed us. Now we are expecting it. You have your awesome new wand, Jackie has the glass blade, I have... well, it's a long story. The point is, it will be different this time. I know we can beat this thing!"
Star nodded and smiled again. "Marco?"
"Yes?"
"Thanks for still being here."
"I'll always be here, Star. You are my best friend."
"Awww, you two," Tom interjected. He grinned as both Star and Marco blushed ever so slightly, realizing he was still there with them.
Honestly, he felt a bit weird around those two, despite it all. He hoped the other boy wasn't mad about him and Star flying ahead. He really hadn't meant anything by that. It was, just, well, he had wanted to make sure things were all cool between them, and fortunately it seemed they were. Better than he had expected, actually.
"Look, I can leave you two alone if you want some privacy," he offered.
"Actually, Tom, I sort of want to talk to you," Marco replied. "One on one, if you two don't mind."
Ouch. What had he done now? Tom thought back to the last few hours, trying to look for something else he had messed up. Or maybe they hadn't finished talking about the thing two nights ago. Well, yeah, he could understand if Marco was still pissed about that, actually. Or worried. That too.
"Sure, Marco," Tom replied, equably. "Star?"
"Yeah, yeah, you two go ahead and have your guy talk, or whatever," she offered. "Just, tell me when we need to take a portal or change course or anything like that, ok?"
Right. Tom nodded. After all, he was their best navigator, as far as traversing hell was concerned. He had memorized the route before the night of the green lizard ghost, and still remembered the rest of the way from here. "We'll fly ahead, Star, you girls just need to follow behind us men for a bit."
He punctuated that statement with a cocky grin. Star rolled her eyes at that, but Tom noticed she was still smiling.
The demon prince and Marco flew a bit higher, and a bit faster, taking point in the group's formation. Once they were alone, Tom's face fell back into a guilty expression.
"Look, man, if this is about the other night: again, I am sorry. I'll let you land one free punch on me once we are back on the ground, if that makes you feel better," he offered.
"What?" Marco asked surprised. "No, Tom, that's... well, whatever, that happened, and we all talked it, and we reached an agreement. Look, it is not like I own Star or anything. Actually, that's kind of the problem... I want to ask you... what do you know about the Blood Moon?"
"The Blood Moon?" Tom asked. Crap! He was so busy worrying about the awful shit he had done to them recently, that he hadn't thought back to the awful shit he had put them through before. "Look, Marco, I am sorry, I was a different person back then and..."
"Look, man, I crashed your home and ruined your party that night; out of jealousy. Basically, neither of us covered ourselves in glory back then," the boy shrugged. "That's also not why I am asking. I think something happened, you know, to Star and I, that night, when we danced at the ball..."
All of Tom's three eyes went wide, and he almost fell of the thestral. "You two are soul bonded by the Blood Moon!?"
No wonder his attempts to win Star back had gone as badly as they did. He was doomed from the start! Or they were doomed. Or, well, that was cheating! That dance had been for him! It could have been him, couldn't it? But it was Marco instead. To think Tom had been apologizing to him about that night! The human should apologize to both Star, and to him!
Wait, no, no, that wasn't him anymore. Tom forced his eyes shut and counted to ten. Marco wasn't at fault. Star wasn't at fault. The Blood Moon chose the souls it joined together, it couldn't be tricked. Tom knew that. He had just hoped, back then, that if he and Star were close when the choosing happened, then maybe it would turn out they were meant to be. Instead, it chose her and Marco. As for him and the princess, it was clear, in retrospect, why that hadn't worked out, Blood Moon or no Blood Moon. The demon had simply learned some lessons way too late. If Marco hadn't been there, and him and Star had danced together that night instead, then likely nothing would have happened, and the Blood Moon would have just chosen a different couple.
"Hey, man, everything ok?" Marco asked worried.
"Ah, yes, of course," he forced a smile. "Look, it's just... such a surprise... Congratulations! No, really! It is really cool. If the Blood Moon picks you two, it really means you have something really special, something that happens only to two lucky people in all the worlds, once every six hundred and sixty-seven years..." he concluded with a genuine grin. "Well, I do keep saying you are such an infuriatingly lucky bastard!" he laughed.
Honestly, it was kind of cool to have his two best friends be this lucky, when you looked at it that way.
"Well, actually, Tom," Marco spoke, cautiously, "Jackie might have also been joined to us by the Blood Moon... last night."
Wait, what!?
Once again, only a last minute reaction on the part of the flying horse itself, prevented the demon prince from falling down from its back.
For the following half an hour, Tom listened to the weirdest tale he had ever heard, even after all that had happened to them in the past week. He was sure that Marco was leaving out a lot of the details of what occurred before and after the green ghost's attack, either for his sake or for that of Star's privacy. Tom was, honestly, thankful for that. He didn't dare interrupt until the human was done, only nodding and frowning in response as appropriate.
"So that's the situation," Marco concluded, "Bond or not, I am happy to always be there for Star and for Jackie. But I had a dream last night, and it reminded me just how dangerous it is to get involved with supernatural forces. Particularly when you don't understand how they work or what are the terms, so to speak," the boy winced. There was, clearly, more to that than what he was saying. "So, if you know anything I don't, then it might be important for me to hear it."
"Look, Marco, the Blood Moon Ball is a very old tradition," Tom explained. "I've only been to a few, and never before have I met a chosen couple. Is not like I know all of the details. The legend is that it happens every six hundred and sixty-seven years, and the Blood Moon chooses two people, usually two lovers, to have their souls, their destinies, linked for all eternity. There are some tales about that bond being used to find each others across dimensions, or to break evil curses, but those are more like fables than anything else, you never know what's literal and what isn't..."
Apparently, the part about breaking curses was at least partly true, based on what Marco had just told him. He tried to think of any other legends that might come in handy, if they were true.
"The Blood Moon appears to the lovers when one of them is in danger, and fate conspires to keep them together, that's all I know. In any case, I have never heard of it choosing three people," he added. "Sorry, Marco. That's all I got, and... wait!"
Tom turned around and shouted as loudly as he could. "Star, that's it! That's the exit we want!"
He pointed at a small cloud of fog at the end of one of the bridges below them. The strip of ground curved sharply upwards and then ended as it met the fog. Through the mist, a huge stone archway could be dimly seen, large enough to accommodate two winged horses, side by side, wing tip to wing tip. Star signaled the other two with a sort of magical flare, and all five of them made a dive for it.
"Everyone alert," shouted the princess, her voice amplified by magic. "Remember, we are leaving Sam's domain!"
They all knew what that meant.
----
Jackie's attempts to reach Janna were a resounding failure. The winged girl just ran circles around her and her horse whenever she so much as tried to get close to her. Janna didn't want to talk, and no power on Earth or Hell could force her to listen. Eventually, Jackie relented, flying behind the rest of the formation, as Tom and Marco took point.
Star joined the two boys soon after they made it past the first portal. The human girl gave all three of them some space for a change. She used the time to reflect on last night, and to check out their, decidedly creepy, surroundings.
They crossed the foggy gate out of Sam's domain into a world of empty darkness and frozen polyhedral shapes, like ice-bergs floating in the nothingness. They flew up, there, almost vertically, for hours, until they found a frozen perfect pyramid. They went into it through its base, as if it were the surface of a lake, feeling a slight and transitory wet sensation as they crossed through what had seemed like solid glass.
They came out through a black oil pool into a sunless land, where ghostly giants of shadow shambled across a marsh-like hellscape. That world's own exit was through the gargantuan mouth of a titanic corpse, the only one seemly made of flesh rather than darkness. It was humanoid. It's stomach had been cut open, and its entrails nailed to the heavenly vault, forcing it to stand up, or at least keeping it from falling backwards entirely. Jackie noticed that its exposed heart was still beating, slowly.
"Is this the most metal thing you guys have seen or what!?" shouted the demon prince cheerfully for all to hear, right before his horse made a dive for the dead giant's agonized face.
It was a good thing that Tom seemed to know where they were going. None of those bizarre paths would have ever occurred to Jackie.
The last hell they saw was pleasant by comparison: a simple barren world of cold volcanic rock as far as the eye could see. The sky had no stars, and no aurora of souls like Sam's did, but a low and diffuse white light seemed to come down from it. Up in the air, there were these huge black doors. Some just seemed to directly go to other worlds, once again having nothing behind them unless you went right through the opening. A few seemed to have a long silver staircase going upwards, but, again, only if you went directly through the gate.
Tom announced that this was the last dimension before reaching Hekapoo's domain.
Jackie's educated guess was that no-staircase meant a lateral move to another hellish dimension, and going upwards meant going back to the world of the living. A theory that seemed to hold as Marco performed his finding ritual again, at Tom's request, and it guided them all towards one of the stair-connected doorways.
It was barely wide enough for their winged horses to go through.
"Everyone, dismount after you are on the stairs, I'll stop the spell then," Star shouted as she made it through. Her horse vanishing as soon as it landed on the steps behind the door. The princess simply jumped down on the stairway as this happened.
"Man, Star." Marco was the second to land. "Are you sure we can't fly up the stairs too? They look really long."
"Oh, they are excruciatingly long," Tom offered helpfully, landing after him. "It's one hundred and eight flights of stairs total, and one hundred and eight steps in each, so... eleven thousand steps or so? One guess as to how many of these staircases are out there too, by the way," he chuckled. "But, like I was saying, if we fly too far away from the steps, they will vanish, and we will have to start over again. You really need to walk them all. There is no other way."
"This really is hell," Marco complained, overly dramatically. Star and Tom laughed, as did Jackie once she caught up to them.
"Come on dude, a little exercise never killed anyone," she pointed out. "Besides, can you imagine a place like this but with a ramp going down? That would be pretty rad for skateboarding!"
Marco seemed to doubt that assertion, which only made Jackie chuckle some more.
"Hey, guys, question, do we have any food?" Tom pointed out. "I am starving."
"UNREASONABLY VARIED FLAVORS MUFFIN BLAST!" cried Star, pointing her wand at the platform in front of them.
Out of the golden star crystal, for it was a crystal again and not a true star, came a pressurized stream of muffins, as if from a bursting muffin-filled fire hydrant. The pastries themselves were of all shapes and colors, with bits and pieces of different kinds of foodstuffs inside them. They bounced off of the ground at some speed, most of them falling over the side of the stairs, down into the dark ocean below.
Star herself caught a few in her arms as they ricocheted, offering them to the other teens. Tom grabbed a red one from the ground and bit into it unconcerned.
"Uh, isn't that kind of dirty?" Marco protested.
"Marco, there hasn't been a living soul walking this stairs for thousands of years," retorted Tom. "This is basically a sterile surface. Mmmm... coagulated blood, eyeballs, and 'Bird's Eye' chili peppers? Nice work, Star!"
Clearly the 'unreasonably varied flavors' part of the spell in action. The human boy made a nauseated face at that, and Jackie couldn't say she blamed him.
"Here, Marco, have these two," Star offered. "And Jackie, maybe... these two?"
Hers were, respectively, a sourdough and avocado muffin with egg, and some sort of mango and ginseng root cupcake. Actually, they weren't half bad. The first was like avocado toast wrapped on itself with a poached egg in the center, savory, semi-healthy, and pretty filling, some sort of brunch singularity.
"Is this a 'mole con pollo' muffin, Star?" Marco asked in surprise, after finally deciding to bite into his. "Mmm... this is... good... but soooo weird, but... mmmhf... so good! Man, thanks Star!"
Star kept a bunch of bright colored and rather sugary looking ones for herself. Behind the rest of the group, Janna picked up a plain brown one and a bright pink cupcake for herself, without saying a word.
They ate as they walked up, going around in a square spiral. It was a repeating pattern of 108 steps up, flat platform, ninety degree left turn, then the next flight of stairs. They were wide, more than wide enough for all five of them to travel side by side. Still, they naturally separated slightly over time.
Somehow, Marco and Tom paired up, leaving her and Star marching together ahead of them. Janna was all the way to the back, and after a while all of them gave up in trying to talk to her.
"So, did we just call upon the forbidden arts to get me a mango cupcake, Star?" Jackie joked.
"Haha. Nah, Jackie. That's not how dark magic works," the princess corrected her. "It would probably be something like, 'from far stars and burning lakes, I'd give my soul for some cupcakes'," she recited mockingly.
Then she looked startled for a second, as if realizing what she had just said.
They both glanced at the mewman's wand, and held their breath.
Fortunately, nothing happened. They both laughed nervously.
"Star, please, no more rhymes, ok?" Jackie pleaded with a smirk.
"Well, not for cupcakes, that's for sure!" retorted Star.
There was laugher, and then a brief pause.
"Hey, Star, I think there is something I need to tell you," Jackie begun.
Star's posture shifted a bit. She seemed worried, for some reason, which only made the human more nervous about this, "Ah, sure, Jackie, what is it?"
"I was jealous. Of you and Marco," Jackie spit it out.
"What!?" The princess almost missed a step. "But, but, but I thought you didn't get jealous?"
"So did I, dude," Jackie shrugged. "Turns out I didn't know myself as well as I thought."
"I... I can still back off, you know? Even now, if you two want to be alone... I think..." Star stammered.
"No! No, nothing like that," Jackie clarified, horrified. "Star, I am still happy you two are together, I really am. I am just saying that I can feel, well, left out, worried on whether I am as important as you two are to each other..."
"Jackie!" Star interrupted. "Marco had a gigantic crush on you before he even knew me, and he still does. If anything I have more of a reason to feel jealous."
Jackie smiled. "You know that I can argue against that, right? You know you two are closer than almost anyone else, have been almost since the day you arrived at Echo Creek, and that's without even bringing up the soul bond stuff. But that's not my point. It's not a contest. I just wanted to confess. To tell you that I was worried, and afraid, and messed up, and that's why I wanted to see you two do it. It was wonderful, it really was, and I am not worried anymore. But I feel like I sprung that up on you two under false pretenses. So, I am sorry about that."
Star frowned. "There is nothing you need to apologize for, Jackie. There is a total of one person that should apologize about that night, and is obviously the one who almost got us all killed... which is, well, me."
Jackie made a dismissing gesture.
"But, anyways," Star continued, "are you sure you don't want Marco just for yourself?"
They were getting closer and closer to the top of the stairs.
"Actually, Star, not at all," Jackie said, blushing. "After last night, I think I really want to be... around the both of you."
"Oh," Star said simply. Then, wide-eyed, she exclaimed, "Ooooh! Ah... around how?"
"Well, I don't know," Jackie tried to explain. "Look, is just, I enjoyed last night, not counting you know what, and I really liked you being there. Is not like I feel the same things about Marco and about you, and I don't expect you to feel the same back either, is just, I dunno, dude..."
Star pulled Jackie into a quick but strong hug and gave her a peck on the cheek. Then she moved away as fast as she had done that. "Look, Jackie, I am not sure I am on the same page. Looks like we don't even know what the page is. But we have time for figuring this out, right? For now, I am just glad that I have both you and Marco, as friends and as... whatever else. Is that fair?"
Jackie smiled. "That sounds great, Star."
They walked in silence for one full flight of stairs.
"Star," Jackie turned around and said, with an innocent smile, "I love you."
Star almost tripped. "Like... love-love?"
Jackie shrugged, "No idea, dude." It was the truth. "But some kind of love, anyways."
"I..." Star stammered.
"Nah, don't force it," the human girl stopped the princess.
"I think you are the most crazy-awesome person in the multiverse, then!" Star declared without missing a beat, and then it was Jackie's turn to almost trip on a step.
They reached the corner, turned left, and then, Jackie froze.
She pulled her sword out of its scabbard.
Star frowned and lifted up the wand.
"How very touching," spoke the smirking lizard as he walked down, hands behind his ghostly back.
He was on the platform before the final one, on the opposite corner of where the two girls stood. That was a distance of two flights of stairs, 216 steps up, and he was closing that gap fast, even without needing to run. The being of green flame had been waiting for them.
"And yet, despite all that, you rejected my generous offer. I suppose I am running out of options." the creature observed.
"You could just go to hell!" Jackie shouted.
Toffee's green fire phantasm just raised one eyebrow. Jackie felt dumb. That had been a stupid comeback, considering where they still were.
Emerald flames begun sprouting out of the staircase in front of the two of them as the ghost turned around the next platform. It raised a claw, and a small meteor of green flame flew towards her and Star.
With her sword unsheathed, working on instinct, Jackie took a step forward, lowered her stance and slashed fiercely at the fireball. The glass blade cut the spell in half as if it were nothing more than a papier-mâché globe, the blazes harmlessly dissipating into thin air.
A blink, and Star's mom, made of translucent glaucous in-substance, was charging down the stairs. As the creature took Moon's form, a bright energy sword appeared in her right hand. Jackie braced herself for combat.
She parried Moon's strike, deflecting it away from her body. Quickly, she tried to riposte, only for the translucent form of the Queen to jump back, avoiding the counter-attack. Before Jackie could get her guard up again, Star's mom was back in the offensive, her phantasmal blade falling towards her in a vicious slashing assault.
The green ghost's blade hit instead a glittering barrier. Between it and Jackie, a pink shielding half-bubble had appeared. Star stepped in front of the human girl then, a determined look in her eyes, her wand still raised after the defensive spell she had just cast. The bubble pushed the ghost's form backwards. Not-Moon fell to the ground, but quickly rolled herself back up and away from the princess' shield.
Before either their foe or Star could do anything else, a pair of bright red fireballs came flying out from behind the two girls, followed by a guttural war cry as Tom caught up to them. The apparition jumped back once more to avoid the attack, and turned into Hekapoo.
"Oh no, not this time," came another voice behind them. Marco, also catching up.
Jackie couldn't turn around to see what he was doing, since she was trying not to lift her eyes from the being. But she heard him say something in a language she couldn't recognize.
Tom fired three more fireballs at the creature, around the sides of Star's barrier. The Hekapoo look-alike simply cut them with the detached blades of a ghostly pair of dimensional scissors. "Nice try, kid, but, seriously, this does not concern you, and you no longer have the home field advantage."
"We don't need it anymore, H-poo," spoke Marco in a low manly voice. "Haven't you realized that already? Things are different this time around, and we are afraid of no ghosts."
He stepped in front of everyone else and pushed both hands forward as if he were trying to open an enormous double door in mid air. Marco's entire body glowed with a faint white light. An invisible force flung the fake Hekapoo's arms to the sides in response to the boy's gesture.
The ghost froze there, as if its wrists were nailed to an invisible cross. It struggled violently, but it seemed it couldn't get out of whatever was holding it. Marco frowned, sweat dripping down his forehead.
"Star, drop the barrier and finish it!" Marco shouted.
The pink glittering shield went down.
"I call the darkness unto me, from deepest depths of earth and sea..."
"Star, wait!" shouted Glossaryck, still immobilized. It was a trick, of course, another viridescent illusion worn as a mask by their duplicitous enemy.
"...from ancient evils unawoken, to break the one who can't be broken..."
"Star, sweetie?" the phantasmal emerald form of Moon pleaded to her daughter.
"...To blackest night I pledge my soul, and crush my heart to burning coal..."
"I am only doing what you asked for, Star, what your heart wished for," Toffee's ghost explained, speaking hurriedly over the mewman's muttering of the spell. Clearly, the creature was running out of options. "Ending this form won't change that."
"...to summon forth the deathly power..."
The being began shifting one more time, and this time, it wasn't any of the people Jackie had seen the monster imitate before. It was some sort of midget bald bird, barely taller than Glossaryck had been. It had a misshapen curved beak, a head way too big for his body, and a long braided beard. All of it rendered in burning green spectral fire. She recognized it as the same person that had once stolen Star's book of spells, that night of her own first date with Marco. Just, you know, without the clown costume.
"Alright, fine, kill me again, won't you?" the chicken-like dwarf squawked. "Whatever, go ahead, blow me to bits! No big deal. What else should I have expected? Gratitude? Nah. Of course not! I suppose you also don't want to know how you called me to this reality. We can all try this again once you get to the rest of me. Only, well... I hope you dinguses don't expect to find us in a talking mood then. Go on, princess, make it quick!"
Star frowned. The wand still pointed directly at the center of the pitiful creature.
"You want to talk, 'Ludo'? ...Fine. Talk."
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I Summon the All-Seeing Eye