A/N: Hey all! This is probably one of my bigger ideas that I have been having such trouble getting down. Ever since Cleaved, I've been wanting to try out a new telling of the story. Obviously, it won't be a beat for beat retelling with only light pieces shifted up. How much does change is currently unknown! You could call this the prologue, though, with the real big shifts coming soon!
And yeah, this is another Janna and Marco centric fic. Not necessarily Manna/Janco, buuuut...I think any of my regular readings might be noticing a pattern. More to come in the future!
It was a small tremor, practically microscopic. The magical shockwaves that flowed through him were like constant stampedes of elephants and rolling thunder, while this one felt barely heavier than a beetle's footfall. Just a tiny pinprick of cold and emptiness.
Glossaryck winced, tucked between the pages of the spell book and simultaneously in the infinitude of the magical realm. That pinprick was digging into him like a dangerously persistent leech. He could feel when something shifted in the magic; when different dimensions pulled more and greater channels were opened up. When Star used a spell or the queen entered her Butterfly form; when the Magic High Council used their abilities or a young upstart dabbled in things far more dangerous than they had any right to.
More importantly, though, he experienced the flow of magic at all points. Not just in space, but also time. That's why this small dot of emptiness uneased him so, as it came from somewhere in his future. A future where he no longer was, where any of them were. A future where magic was killed.
Focusing on the pain of that timeline, Glossaryck poured himself into it, wondering what could have caused this. He was no fool, he held no fears of death or desire to preserve himself immortally. But that timeline was already set in stone, some version of himself already whizzing along the flow of time into one of his infinite possibilities of death. So now it was up to this version to make something brand new.
"Now that you've found your little book," Janna said, arm hooking around Marco's shoulder, "Let's make some magic with it."
"I don't need your help, Janna!" Marco said, ignoring the false sultriness to her tone and rebuffing her with a final, "Thank you."
"Whatever," Janna said, shrugging and hopping a few steps away, "You'll need me soon enough, Marco. Cuz I've got your house keeeys."
Marco growled lightly under his breath, before cracking the giant tome open. "Gotta stay focused," he said to himself, muttering, "Mewberty, mewberty, mewberty..." Marco flipped past pages and pages of the book, only finding odd spell illustrations and talismans tucked inside. "Ugh, this doesn't make any sense! Isn't there a glossary in this thing?"
Suddenly, the book shifted under Marco's touch. It shifted like it took in a breath, and the pages began to turn themselves rapidly. As it neared the back cover of the book, a tiny blue figure floated up and out of the pages. "Did someone say Gllllossaryck?"
"Whaaa-...?" Marco stammered, leaning away from the eldritch literature. This was turning into a much stranger exchange than he ever prepared for.
"Because that's me! Sir Glossaryck of Terms! At your service, milady," said the small floating figure. Marco raised an eyebrow, then scowled as the rest of the sentence registered.
"Ah, I'm not a milady," Marco said, trying to cut through the points. The tiny blue man, Glossaryck, looked him up and down.
"Could've fooled me," Glossaryck said, reaching a six-fingered hand out and floating the book closed. "Goodb-...!" That was when Glossaryck realized. While the circumstances leading to the unfortunate future were still a mystery, he knew that following his first instincts would lead to that result.
"Uh, everything alright?" Marco asked as the little blue man had stopped in mid-closing of the book. "I kinda need to help Star, and fast."
Glossaryck considered his position. His knee jerk reaction was to slam the book and refuse service to anyone that wasn't a magical princess. However…
"Ah yes, I suppose I do serve the owner of the book. And for now, that seems to be you." Glossaryck finally said, letting the book fall back open. "How can I be of service?"
"Uh, well Star's been acting real strange all day," Marco said, finally happy that something was working out today, "She said she's going through mewberty."
"Ah yes, strange spots popping up over her body?" Glossaryck said, "The growth of a few extra limbs and wings from her thorax?"
"Yeah she's had spots popping up all...wait, did you say wings?"
"That I did, my boy. But for now, that's unimportant," Glossaryck adjusted himself to the current time and, given the burst of unrefined magical energy he had sensed, calculated Star would be returning to normal at about 3:57. Or not, but that didn't matter right now. "You were looking for information?"
"Well, yeah!" Marco answered, exasperated, "What can I do to fix Star?"
"There's nothing you can do, I'm afraid," Glossaryck shrugged, "Mewberty is a natural part of life. Uninvited and completely unavoidable, like getting sidelined by a tire thrown down a hill."
"What? That's not an option," Marco said, "There's gotta be something to get Star back to normal."
"Of course there is, and that's to just be patient, kid. And stay away from her, if Star's anything like her mother she's likely quartering off some boys."
Marco grunted in irritation. Great! Awesome! Guess he's just on the sidelines again! At this point he wondered where Janna was; if there was no point to finding Star, he might as well go get his keys back.
"Now then, in the meantime, we should discuss your plans of study," Glossaryck said. Marco's eyes shot back up.
"My plans...study…?" Marco asked absently.
"Yes, and was there someone else rifling through the book before? I believe I felt another presence as I was handed off."
"Oh, uh..." Marco fumbled for his words, confusion growing by the syllable, "Well Janna had you for a bit, so..."
"Ah, wonderful. I don't believe I've ever had two pupils at once, perhaps that will shake up the results this time around."
Marco shook his head, "What are you talking about? Me and Janna, pupils? Are you nuts?"
"Listen, kid," Glossaryck said, floating himself closer to Marco's face, "I'll be really straight with you. My first instinct is to shut the book or ask for some pudding. Then somewhere down the line, I'd teach Star Butterfly certain aspects of magic and hope it all ends well. And I just found out my first instinct ends all magic."
"Wha-huh? Wait, back that up, what do you mean?" Marco asked, concerned and curious.
"Long story short, I think I need to throw in a wildcard or two. I need to muck up the timeline a bit and hope for the best," Glossaryck shrugged his shoulders, "It wouldn't be the first time. Had I not intervened, Star would have been sent to Saint Olga's instead of Earth. I can tell you, that timeline was particularly unfortunate..."
"Alright, timeout," Marco said, holding his hands up in the air, "This is all getting to be too much. I don't even know what you're asking me to do here."
Glossaryck rolled his eyes, lacing his twelve fingers together. "I'm asking you if you'd like to learn some magic of your own."
That hit Marco like a ton of bricks. "Magic…?"
"Yes, as it seems miss Butterfly has handed ownership over and I have landed in your capable hands."
"But how could I even do any of that! Star's, like, a completely different species! I think the whole mewberty thing kinda proves that, don't ya think?"
"Magic isn't some gland in a person's body," Glossaryck explained, seeming chuffed by all the questions. Didn't this kid understand the great gift he was being offered? "The only difference between you humans and mewmans is the exposure to magic. And that's easily remedied."
Marco felt like his head was swimming. This was a whole lot of information, and he felt a little bad for having this conversation without Star present. Maybe he should discuss it with her, get her feedback on this. Glossaryck tapped his fingers impatiently before Marco.
"This is a one time offer, kid. No follow up sales or extra coupons for one free magic upgrade. You either go find that Janna girl you mentioned and we make this all official, or I find some other point to muddle up the timeline."
Tensing up, Marco finally conceded. He couldn't lie to himself, with how cool magic seemed he was certainly interested in learning a thing or two. Glossaryck watched the contemplation, and checked on the watch he materialized.
"You've got 10 minutes before Star changes back and I take the chips off the table," said the floating blue being, "You can either rush off to Star like your first instinct says, or you go get your new classmate and enroll in my class. Up to you."
Marco heard a small commotion behind him, coming from the direction of Star's locker. Despite this, Marco looked off in the direction Janna had run off to before. Marco cursed lightly.
"You promise Star's going to be fine and normal again at the end of this stuff?" Marco asked seriously. Glossaryck placed a hand on his chest while raising the other into the air.
"Book's honor," he said, "Probably."
"Probably?!"
"Get going. You only have 8 minutes and 52 seconds left."
Marco cursed, then stood himself up and made his split decision. Selfish as it may have been, he was not going to turn down the possibility of learning magic of his own. He hopped over the gigantic book, heading hopefully towards Janna.
"Hurry, kid! You don't want someone else snatching the book!"
"I get it, I get it!" Marco called back, peering around the corner of one school building, "Janna! Where are you?!"
"And bring me back some pudding!" Glossaryck called out, finally settling himself back into his place between the pages.
He had to admit to himself, this may not be his most well thought out interference in the stream of time, but with the prospect of magic being destroyed, he'd try just about anything. Besides, as Marco ran off to fulfill his end of the bargain, Glossaryck felt the calm serenity of the future once more. Nothing empty, nothing cold.
They were on the right track to keep magic alive, now.