Star had just come to the bitter realization that her spell book had been stolen and gone for good, right as the portal she conjured had collapsed just before her very eyes. The sorrow she felt in her heart, as Glossaryck stood there impassible while she was reaching out to him, was unbearable… Marco just entered the smaller cave, as small dirt pebbles turned to boulders falling from the ceiling, as the boy shouted:
"Star, we gotta go, the cave is about to…" he couldn't finish his sentence as the blonde girl, already left…
Turning his back to the now covered entrance to the small room, Star had gone to, in order for her spellcasting to be her only focus, he saw his friend sobbing, faint sighs leaving her mouth. For a split second he didn't know what should he do, but then, instinctively he remembered all the times he was down in the dumps, and she helped him get back on track. Marco, slowly walked towards her, and with a loud thump, he threw himself right next to her. For a second, her crying stopped only for a painful moaning voice to say:
"I messed up, Marco…"
"Well, I am sure we can fix things, like we always do…"
"You know, what?" she said suddenly getting up, a broad genuine smile crossing her face. "I made my mistakes, now I just have to repair them, right?"
"Yeah, sure," Marco nodded scratching the back of his head in slight disbelief.
"Great, then, let's go," she said grabbing her dimensional scissors and cutting a hole through that reality, back to the Diaz household.
There was something, unknown to them. The whole event had been overlooked by someone… None other than the King and Queen, alongside a mysterious figure, one who had never been seen before. Not, very tall, about the size of our mignon King, perhaps an inch or two over his head, but with an imposing look, nonetheless. Neither royal figure was able to see his face, nor hear anything, as he was just standing there silent and sturdy, while his foot was beating a very unsettling rhythm on the marble floor. No one was able to make a sound, until…
"You saw that, right?"
Without hesitation, the Queen answered:
"Of course, I didn't turn blind overnight. What is your point?"
"The same point the evaluation tomorrow will tell you as well. That your daughter's skill level is superior to that of yours, and is only rivaled but that whose name you wished to exclude from the spell book."
"And how is everything you say valid?" the Queen replied with a hint of hatred in her voice.
"You don't know who I am, do you now?"
"You stormed into my castle, plucked yourself in this room and stared blankly on a window for twenty minutes. I pretty much want to throw you out in the garden then blast you off, but since you managed to sneak past all my guards, I am intrigued and wish to hear you out, before you will take your leave."
"Good, then take a sit, madam."
"I prefer to stand up, thank you,"
"I knew you would say that…" with a swift hand gesture, a chair appeared in the room, and the Queen was shoved, gently albeit, on it.
"Oh, I see you know the ways of magic," she exclaimed, her surprise being masked by her royal apparent apathy. "Are you a fellow mewman?"
"I am, and I am not at the same time. But that is not about me, right now. It is about your daughter. Gaze upon this improved All-Seeing Eye spell, it can be manipulated to show past time events. I will show you something not written in any of your fancy spell books." The arrogance in his voice was involuntary, but it still was sensed by the Queen, who frowned ever so slightly. The King remained oblivious to the situation and soon left the lounge to perform one of his seemingly mindless tasks.
"What are you going to show me…?"
"If you're asking for my name, you will get it, but after I made my point across."
"I am waiting, stranger."
"Even, Star, who is a lot stronger than you has difficulty in making this happen, let alone control it, so mind giving me some time to spare? We have plenty left."
"What are you exactly doing?" the Queen asked, while our mystery man was shaking his hand, trying to fast forward clips, on an unseen screen.
"Done!" he suddenly exclaimed, as a purple haze suddenly formed, having a yellow eye in its center. The eye, opened to reveal a scene that the Queen knew nothing off… Star was watching through a spell, similar to the one she was being spied through. She was dismayed, as she saw Marco and Jackie were having a good time, as they shared a skateboard. Her look turned from sadness to grief to jealousy as, with a seemingly involuntarily spell cast, she had popped one of the wheels causing them to fall. The screen then paused.
"That's it?" the Queen asked, a bit annoyed.
"Call it exhibit A. I also have an exhibit B, are you interested in it?"
"Frankly…I am not. You have yet to show me anything comprehensive or worth analyzing. So, unless your wish is to be painfully ejected from this castle, I would advise you to leave now."
"Your threats do not scare me, and besides, this is not about you, this is about Star. So you have a choice to make what is best for your daughter, or make what is worse."
"How, dare you barge into my castle, take my precious time and then, perhaps worst of all, criticizing my parenting which has been nothing but world class this whole time?" As her rage build up, she was slowly morphing into her six armed, winged form. After reaching the pinnacle of her change, her anger had also hit its maximum. As if she were to chase away a fly, the same motion was used to conjure a force pulse whose force was immense…Enough to break the glass chandelier into millions of pieces and shatter all the windows, while the sturdy table, fell to the ground, broken. As the sawdust settled, so did the Queen. She landed on the same chair she was shoved in, earlier. A short gasp exited her immovable emotionless lips, as her force pulse left the boy unscathed.
"Yes, are you done channeling your anger into a destructive form? I can also be eloquently official as you are, and I am perfectly able of annoying you more and more. Now, my question to you is, will you be able to commemorate your years of complete apathy and stay put as I expose my final bit of… footage, or you will let yourself be consumed by this tragically unroyal and wayward rage until there is nothing left of your castle apart from that indestructible chair I summoned?"
"I…" she was barely holding back her anger, but in the end with a heavy sigh, she accepted her "fate".
"Now, look at this sucking portal, your daughter had created. It's perfect, it's doing its job of well…sucking Ludo, as that little pet is known as, but look what happens, when the same characters come back in the scene…The spell is set out of balance, and it backfires, letting Ludo go free and steal her book, while she is struggling to not be thrown into the void. Now, do you understand the point of my quote unquote presentation?"
"That you are a sad little boy, who spied on my daughter in order to find meaningless fodder to fill my precious time with?"
"Yes, thank you for the condescendence, I appreciate that you believe you're so much smarter than I am. But here is where you are wrong. Let me ask you a question. Eclipsa is said to have been the most powerful out of the entire royal line. Have you really, never stopped to wonder why?"
"No one knows why she was the best of all, but…"
"This is because you are so stuck up you can't accept she had found out the way you are so keen on inhibiting. You've come to the point of even creating a school that destroys emotions and transforms royalty in lifeless husks, devoid of any sort of feeling whatsoever. And your daughter is the living example that this is wrong. She had become stronger than ever, by using her emotions to empower her spells and this is involuntary. Now, Eclipsa figured this out and used it to do… what I know you have engraved in your brain. She was evil, and of course her spells were powered by hatred, but your daughter is not. She is brave, kindhearted, generous, helpful and what-not, but… she has her shortcomings…"
"I don't have to hear that twice…"
"Save your mean comments for when you managed to cause harm upon me, not to your living quarters. Now, her shortcomings are not what they appeared. Her apparent lack of skill is… just that…for show. She has a certain style which she mastered, and due to its spontaneity, it's completely unpredictable, therefore uncounterable. Now, she has never felt anything…poisonous to her soul. Yes, sadness, grief, angst and anger are things every individual had felt, these are not bad. They form character. But… envy, wrath, gluttony, lust… you know those 7 things…are. And since she had felt jealousy towards that girl, she had lost her purity."
"I see where you are going, but I see no reason to lengthen this conversation any further. Your point has been made across. What do you suggest?"
"Star has been left with no instructor, as Glossaryck was kidnapped alongside that book. Allow me to go there and take his place."
"Humph…" The Queen looked surprised. She got up from her seat, and started pacing towards the broken window. She stared at the setting sun in the distance, as she seemed too preoccupied over that last sentence…
"You came here, uninvited from God knows where. You had barged in my room, and lectured me about my parenting and magic skills. You had arrogantly presented meaningless facts and wasted my time… You had presented me things I hate to admit I didn't know and wasn't interested in knowing. And this is only to…ask the permission to teach my daughter how to cast spells more efficiently? Why?"
"As mean-spirited as I may seem, and as disrespectful as I may seem towards royalty, I do care about little things like this. I also didn't want you to send an entire army of magical forces after you would've found out that a mysterious magic being showed up to the door of the Diaz household…"
"True. That is an action I would've considered. Now, I give you my permission,..."
"Still asking me for my name, right?"
"This is the first question, the second would be who and what exactly are you, and the last would be why are you doing this?"
"Scott, a regular human, whose parents were far from regular, and I do this, because of my history. Now, since you had bestowed upon me your permission, I shall take my leave. Let me remind you that you wanted just answers, that I had delivered, however incomplete. Goodbye, Queen."
"Aren't you going to need a pair of dimensional scissors?"
"I have gained enough experience to render Hekapoo's forging useless." After he had finished talking, a portal instantaneously appeared right beside him. As he stepped into it, one last line escaped his seemingly conceited mouth.
"And even while I am destroying one of the Council's members lifetime work…Star still surpasses me by a long shot. Also, sorry for your room. I will call it my bad."
He waved goodbye and as the portal closed, the Queen sighed with relief.
"Please, at least let him set my daughter straight…"
She laid defeated and exhausted as if the life was sucked out of her by this strange encounter… With a heavy heart she sat down on her new chair, contemplating the disaster her own hot-headedness had caused. Suddenly, she felt a slight breeze fill the chamber, but she attributed it to the broken window. However, the slight breeze soon developed into a real hurricane inside the room, making her unable to see what was happening. As sudden as it brewed up, as soon it died out. The Queen's living quarters were left as if anything ever happened. A small remainder still left. A little note was dancing in the wind. It read:
"I heard that…"
Loud knocks were resonating in the empty living room.
"I'll get it," Star yelled as she slid on the railway all the way down. She opened the door, slamming it on the wall.
"Hello, there mysterious stranger, what is your purpose on this planet?" she asked in the voice of a strangled man, trying to sound witty.
"Well, Star Butterfly, my purpose is to teach you how to better control your spell-casting."
"Woah, straight to it…"
"Who is it?" Marco asked from the kitchen?
"Just a boy who says is here to replace Glossaryck and help continue my training."
In an instant Marco appeared in the room, checking the weird looking stranger. For him, anyone who wore a jacket, leather or black anything was suspicious looking.
"Who are you again?"
"Hello, Marco…" Scott said in the calmest tone anyone could've pulled out.
"He knows my name…" he said nervously." How does he know my name?" he turned to Star.
"I don't know…" she said in a childish muffled tone, sounding like a scared girl from a horror movie cabin.
"Look, I don't want to make things weird or anything. Your mother was worried now that you have been left without a spell-book and sent me here to help you catch up. If you want to know more about me, I will be glad to sit down and answer all your questions."
"Good, because I have a lot of them…let me get a notebook."
Those words were fatidic… Two hours of meaningless questions later…
"Great, you know my measurements, my preference in dressing, my likes and dislikes, my favorite food…How about you ask something meaningful for once?"
"Hey, all that I've asked is meaningful. It creates your profile…" Marco jumped defensively.
"Yes, but unfortunately I am here to teach Star magic, not to enroll on a dating site…Now, Star I've noticed you didn't say a thing in over… Oh, look, two hours and a quarter…Any questions?"
An awkward silence followed. No one was saying a thing, mainly because Marco was trying to find a better comeback, or to find out another meaningless question, as Star was half dozing off, half paying attention to the little unicorns flying on top of her room, and zero percent paying attention.
"Star?" Scott asked in a demanding, yet somewhat soothing tone.
"Wha…?" She replied as if she just woke up.
"Do you have any questions about me and my, as you funnily put it, purpose here?"
"Nah, I am a learn-as-you-go kind of person. Just shoot straight." She talked in a very changing tone, from amused, to a careful whisper of an edgy person… It was lovely to hear.
"Great, then mind if I perform a test right away?" Scott asked, seeming a little impatient.
"No, problemo," she swiftly answered.
"Great, Marco would you mind leaving us alone for this?"
"Oh…no, I don't even know that much about you, I am NOT leaving you alone with my friend. For all I know you would kidnap her and turn her in to a Quest Buy sloth for cotton candy," Marco exclaimed, as Scott smiled to himself, seeing the glint of hope in Star's eyes.
"Ok, then, mind sitting near that wall, we need a lot of empty space. You can supervise everything that happens, is that going to be ok?"
"Fine…" he was still visibly uncertain of Scott's intentions, so, with a frown, he accepted his position in this encounter.
"Now, Star, I would like you to cast a simple spell, not like that you had to cast at your evaluation…"
"How do you…" Marco started his annoying question, but was cut off by Scott:
"Please, save your questions for the end, I will gladly answer them then, ok?"
"Fine…" he retreated pouting.
"Ok, what should I do? " Star innocently asked.
"Conjure a portal, as you did before, trying to hide things from your evaluator. I can see you raising an objection Marco, please keep it in you."
"Just a portal, okay, easy-peasy."
With a few swift flick of her wand, she created the portal, Scott asked for. As she was focusing on keeping it stable, Scott started projecting images in front of her.
"Now I am going to test your reaction to different stimuli, it means images in case you're wondering. Just focus on keeping the portal open, ok?"
His slideshow was simple. A picture of a kitten, a picture of her mother, then one of Ludo, one of Buff Frog…It was a slideshow of everything Star had interacted with and for which she expressed affection or hatred. As the images never seemed to end, Star was visibly getting bored…
"How much longer is this going to take?" she asked exasperated.
"Only two more images left."
The next picture was one of Marco, specifically the one right before the dance, Star had missed in order to resurrect a dead clown. Her eyes glimmered, as the hearts on her cheeks involuntarily changed shades of red. The portal itself got bigger and it seemed to have grown in power, starting to suck in the furniture around it. However, that image was soon gone, being replaced with an image of Marco and Jackie sharing a kiss. That shine in her blue marbles faded away, and disdain crossed her face… She wasn't sharing the same feeling as before. The energy she was projecting from the wand, turned from bright red to a pale green. Instantly he started to destabilize. Instead of acting like a black hole, it now spewed up all that it seemingly had swallowed over the course of a couple of months. Seeing as it now got out of control, Scott intervened and shut down the portal. Star fell to her knees, recognizing a strange feeling she had before, leading to the same consequences.
"You ok?" Scott asked comforting.
For a second she stayed there silent, but then she stood up, looked at Marco, then at Scott, and a frown darkened her expression. A split second later she raised her wand and shouted out her signature "Super Narwhal Blast", but her attack was stopped by Scott instantly.
"Star, please, you don't have to do this."
She didn't say a word. Instead she kept shouting attacks one after another desperately trying to blast off the person who hurt her, deeply.
"Star, you can't hit me with anything, please calm down and listen," Scott calmly said.
Still no reply… her attacks grew in intensity and frequency. Scott was still immovable, as her attack grew stronger still. Nothing she threw at him seemed to damage him, and sorrow engulfed her so much, she couldn't be stopped to listen to reasoning. Any Warnicorn Stampede, every Rainbow Blast, every Cotton Candy Laser, had no effect even if her despair grew with every failure… Suddenly she dropped her wand. Letting her be completely driven by emotions. Scott recognized this attack. He knew what power it had before, when used to open a magically shut door. The hearts on her cheeks started glowing and so did her eyes… She started floating above the ground, a strange pink-blue tint emanating out of her. It wasn't long until Scott knew what would follow was going to be devastating.
The room was filled with light, as soon as Star unleashed her inner energy. She fell to the ground, leaned over, panting as she was exhausted from such a strong attack that drained her of almost all the power she had stored inside… Scott was still sitting there, completely untouched.
Desperate, Star raised to her feet, wobbling towards him, trying to hit the boy with a simple punch, but she fell powerless right before landing the blow. Scott was touched. He crouched over to her, and whispered:
"He did not see anything." He then raised up to his feet to continue with: "I created another dimensional plane, so that Marco could only see the same repetitive slideshow over and over. For him we are now still watching the same things we've seen twenty minutes ago.
"What about that last attack? Did that hurt you?" She asked worried and relieved that her secret was safe.
"Do not worry about it, it is now travelling through another dimension…" He paused for a second, only to start again, making big pauses between points as if he was talking sense into a baby.
"Star, your love fuels your spells while envy drains them…I've come here to help you get rid of that unlawful feeling. I am sorry if I was a bit harsh, but that's the way I had to make sure…"
She sit there for a minute still crouched and hugging her knees while rocking back and forth. She sat up and, looking down she mumbled:
"How do you know all this?"
"That's a story…for another time, Star. Now let's get back to our dimension, ok?"
And through the portal Star cut open with her dimensional scissors, they returned to the room where they left Marco staring at a bland slideshow.