Chapter 7: Goldriver
Star swung from the rafters in the monster temple, hanging up lights as she did so to finish off the decorations for the friendship party. She touched down upon the ground, tending to a party favor here and there before jumping straight into her boots, zipping them up while giving a satisfied smirk.
She looked around uncomfortably while in a moment of self-critique, hoping for someone to reassure her that it was perfect, like a squire.
There was no one there to do so however, but any loneliness was gone when Pony Head arrived on the scene and cheered up Star instantly. Tension washed away from her as she resumed thinking about the wild success her mewman-monster friendship party would be.
"Ooh, but girl this looks more like a standoff than a party. There's tension!" the floated head added. She really wasn't helping.
Star gulped. The mewman royalty and nobility and the alternative monsters she had invited were on separate sides, unwilling to mingle with the other until her cousin Rock broke the ice.
After which the two groups began to intermingle.
"Phew. Crisis averted," Star breathed a sigh of relief. But of course, Pony Head giveth and Pony head taketh away.
"Ooh, but while that drama was averted, check out our little Earth weirdo in the corner!"
Marco was indeed standing off to the side by one of the pillars, blindfold and earmuffs in place. People had definitely noticed as well, stealing glances of his odd behavior but too awkward to approach him.
Star only brushed if off.
"Pfft. Marco can do what he wants. I'm too busy to worry about that; I've got to keep this party afloat!" she said, giving a nervous laugh. It had been a bit hectic without her squire there to help with the party, but it was nothing she couldn't handle! She went about her business, tending to the party and making sure everything was running smoothly. She put Marco out of her mind.
Everything was going great until Princess Spiderbite came out from deeper within the temple, screaming about a monster. That was when everything went downhill. The mewmans started pointing fingers, and the monsters started pointing fingers back when a few of them went missing.
"Marco's gone, too!" Tom pointed out. So he was.
"Hold on. Just let me take care of this!" Star said, getting Pony Head to entertain/distract while she went and looked for the missing monsters. Come to think of it, she really could use Marco right now.
Marco stood off in the corner, trying to block out everything. Fat chance he had of that; parties were naturally filled with tons of people, sights and sounds. He was in more pain and stress than ever. He had willed himself to even go to this thing in the first place. The fact that it was important to star is what forced him to get out of bed, even if she wasn't talking to him at the moment.
Deep in his mind, he wondered if he truly was going crazy. Seeing ghosts, feeling emotions, experiencing visions? If he was truly imagining things, he had one hell of an apology to give Star.
Marco peeled his blindfold off his eyes, despite knowing that seeing or hearing stimuli was painful. Using his senses tended to overload his apparently sensitive clairvoyance. But he felt a strong emotion stick out more than the rest present. There were two waves of terror that overcame him, and his heart started thumping as if he were experiencing it himself. Pretty soon there was another, and another, and they were all coming from the same place.
"There's something else here..." Marco thought, noting the hole in the wall that hadn't been there before.
He slipped won there in all the confusion, into the darkness of the cavern, down some old stone stairs. His eyes vaguely noted the art on the walls depicted monsters in various events, but he was getting closer to the source of the terror. He shone his torch onto a decorated door where he could feel the emotions from within.
Marco cried out when he opened the door and saw several monsters tied up and thrown into the small room.
"Help! Get us outta here!"
It was at that point that Marco noticed another presence in the thick of it all. He couldn't recognize it before because the terror from the monsters was so overpowering, but it was always there. Right behind him.
Insanity. It was pure insanity. Deranged thoughts from a person that was clearly mentally unwell.
He turned around to find himself face-to-face with a purple-haired figure in tattered clothes.
"Wha? You're the nutty lady we found on Earth!" he said. Mina Loveberry; that was her name.
Mina stared at him for a moment, brow furrowed as if she were deep in thought.
"Ah! You're the kid who was with Princess Butterfly on that stinky dirt rock. What the heck are you doing here?"
"That's not important! What's important is that these monsters are important guests for the royal family at a special mewman-monster friendship party."
"Monsters? I've been throwing monsters in that closet all night..."
There was something else behind the insanity. In her most lucid moments, there was hatred. Powerful hatred and resentment for anything different than her, those who she saw as less than dirt. And all the depraved thoughts that went with them.
Marco decided; he hated this woman.
Mina was deep in thought as she looked at him, seemingly unaware of his disgust for her.
"You weren't trying to free those monsters, were you?" she asked suspiciously. Upon saying that, he remembered what Mina was able to do when Star encountered her on earth. She had transformed into a hulking creature. But with the terror the captured monsters were feeling, he had to do something.
He darted over to the closet where the monsters were, sliding onto his knees. He untied one monsters in short order, who took off running. He sensed Mina's hostility as soon as she figured out what he was doing.
She was going straight for his neck. He grabbed the other monsters and rolled over sloppily as Mina went whizzing by, crashing into the wall with a cratering thud before getting stuck in the stone behind them.
Mina uttered some muffled curses as she tried to pull her head out of the wall. Marco used the time to untie the rest of the monsters and usher them out to safety.
There was a sound of rocks falling as Mina pulled herself out of the wall by transforming into her buffer, more monstrous form. When she saw the monsters turning tail and disappearing up the stairs, she flew into a hot rage.
"Agh, you traitor!"
Marco ran out of the closet and into the open space of the foyer of the monster temple. Mina followed shortly after, glowing with magical power, her cape flapping behind her as she took to the air.
"I need to keep this place safe from evil monsters! I'm not about to let some punk from the mud dimension get in the way of that!"
Marco got into his karate stance, trying to remain focused amid all the bloodthirsty emotions throttling him. A tent that was apparently Mina's shelter down here and a pile of books were nearby.
Mina glared at him, but his ESP picked up on the crazed rage of adrenaline she was in and made it all the more palpable. She fired a blast of blue at him, but Marco knew it was coming and somersaulted forward. Mina divebombed him intending to truck him, but Marco side-stepped that as well before running toward the little campsite. He scooped up a handful of Mina's trashy romantic novels and chucked the first at her while she was recovering from her divebomb.
It connected with a thud and she grunted, annoyed at the petty assault. She waved her hand a wave of blue fire materialized all around them and limited Marco's movements. She then flew through the wall of flames as if it were nothing as Marco felt himself pinned against the wall by the tent.
"She's going to tackle me..." Marco said as Mina charged. His hesitance cost him; his body couldn't keep up and Mina scooped him up off the wall and squeezed him in a mid-air full nelson.
As he and Mina fought, Marco sensed activity coming down the stairs. There was another emotion present as well, but they all tended to blur together in the cacophony of battle.
Star headed down the stairs as quickly as she could in her poofy princess dress. Some of the monsters had run upstairs saying something about a crazy lady that had tied them up, and Marco.
They had all turned up, but Marco was still unaccounted for. A wave of heat washed over her as she descended deeper into the cave and the illumination of blue light lit the way for her. She hit the bottom of the stairs before long and finally was able to register what was happening.
The floor was on fire, and Marco was tussling with a transformed Mina Loveberry, and clearly losing while he was at it.
"What is going on?" Star asked. The combatants noticed her shrill voice, and turned toward her.
"Star?" "Mud sister?"
Star pulled out her wand.
"Sparkle Crystal Winter Storm!" she called, as a freezing wind burst of her wand, dousing the blue flames and breaking apart Marco and Mina. Mina recovered first, stabilizing herself in mid-air and reverting back to her normal form. Star held her wand steadfastly, glaring at Mina and ready to defend Marco from her apparent onslaught.
"Mud sister! This dingus here..." she pointed at Marco, but she yelped as she was crushed by a pile of rubble as the ceiling collapsed from out of nowhere. A car crashed into the underground soon after as Marco crawled out of the way of danger, and who else would crawl out of the car than Miss Heinous and her servants.
She smiled nastily at Marco, though it looked more like a snarl.
"Princess Marco!"
"Heinous! Oh, no! I am done running from you!" he yelled. So... that was the other emotion he had sensed.
"Don't worry, Marco. I'll..." Star said, but she was cut off as she was jumped by Rasticore. Marco actually managed to avoid a similar ambush by Gemini, but he was breathing heavily and glared at the offending party. He kicked Gemini in the head and sent him flying backwards.
Star beat the back of her head against Rasticore but found she was unable to free herself from the lizard man.
Heinous was getting impatient by this point, especially with her manservant failing, but the odd things kept continuing after Marco kicked her servant. In her impatience, her cheeks began glowing with magical power, displaying the same type of emblem that would appear on members of the Butterfly family. And when her cheeks glowed, the wall in the very rear of the chamber began to resonant with them, opening up a secret room.
Everything seemed to slow to a standstill, the action ceasing and Heinous' potent rage receding. She began walking toward the opening, mesmerized by the entire affair and not even paying attention to Marco anymore.
She walked into the center of the room, that was filled with dusty old toys and objects from a child's room. She stopped near a little toy castle, and picked up two dolls from the set, one of a red monster, and the other of a green-haired woman.
"What have you got there, milady?" Gemini asked awkwardly.
"Dolls," Heinous said simply.
"That's very... nice," he said nervously. Star was running on autopilot by now, watching as the normally uptight Miss Heinous of St. Olga's rambled with such broken emotion about this place, and what it meant to her.
"It's all coming back to me."
"Well, well. Look who it is! Eclipsa wakes up, and guess who comes a cryin'. Typical."
Mina had apparently pulled herself out of the rubble by now, and of course had to add her two cents to the situation.
"Eclipsa? What does Eclipsa have to do with this?"
"Don't you ding-dongs know anything? She's her momma!" Mina said, drawing their attention to the mural hanging above of Eclipsa holding what looked like a baby.
"Eclipsa is Heinous' mother! That means she's a princess."
"It means she's a butterfly..." Star said in awe.
"It means she's a monster!" Mina roared, transforming once again, taking a menacing step toward the newly dubbed Meteora.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Marco said, getting between Mina and Meteora.
"Doctor's Orders!" Mina yelled, preparing to blast him out of the way again. Star finally felt herself be freed when Rasticore abandoned his duty to book it. Gemini was helping Meteora to her feet while Mina was apparently satisfied with going all out with her destructive powers.
"Milady, let's go!" Star heard Gemini say, but she was too busy trying to back up Marco. Eclipsa's daughter was rushed out of the room to who knew where, but her escape only served to make Mina angrier.
"You're ruining everything I worked for!" Star cried.
"Well, you just helped the most dangerous monster in the history of Mewni escape!" Mina shot back, glaring at what in her mind was a traitorous princess. She took a menacing step forward, but the sounds of footsteps interrupted them, as well as the dozen or so blasts of turquoise magic that were being fired randomly about.
Marco yelped and ducked underneath a blast, which hit the wall behind him and crystallized part of it. When the dust cleared, the Knights of Mewni came charging in, in rows of two.
"Nobody move!" Rhombulus shouted, taking up the rear with his snake hands armed and ready. Mina gave a low groaning noise before reverting back to her normal, Mewman form.
"Hey! Donut Patrol!" Mina called rudely, "This... foreigner here is getting in the way of my sacred duty of protecting this temple and has aided and abetted evil monsters."
Marco stared, mouth agape as he felt accusing eyes all on him from the knights. He already had a poor reputation amongst them. But, Mina Loveberty was a hero of Mewni. She had seemed ready to attack the Butterfly princess to get what she wanted, but in the end she hadn't before the authorities showed up.
It was his word against a hero of Mewni's in a prejudiced society...
"Well, what do we do? Should we cuff him and put him with the other hooligans we found loitering in this place?" Lady Whosits asked, holding up a pair of oversized metal shackles.
This couldn't be happening, Star thought to herself. Everything she had planned for months was crashing down, and Marco was about to be arrested! Mina walked by the knights without another word and they didn't seem to have the thought of arresting or even questioning her.
"What are you doing? You can't arrest my squire!" Star cried.
"But-"
"No, you let Marco go right now and the rest of the monsters while you're at it."
"But-"
"Now!" Star ordered in an authoritative that brooked no argument. Lady Whosits finally caved under the pressure and saluted her superior.
"Yes, Your Highness!" she exclaimed, putting the shackles away and calling her troops off Marco. If only it mattered more. The damage had already been done.
Things went back to normal after the incident at the monster temple, but normal in this case was not a good thing as far as Star was concerned.
The whispers around the castle and the surrounding towns were growing increasingly louder. The same gossip from before, unflattering words about Marco's heritage and qualifications, no doubt caused by the other squires. There was also the fact that he was apparently losing his mind, there was a new one: "Monster Lover". Rumors were flying around about stunts he had pulled during the party, in order to aid fiendish monsters.
And that he was only not arrested because of his favor with the royal family.
There were rumors going around about her too, but in more hesitancy, since it was almost sacrilegious to malign the royal family. But since the part, her intentions were clear as day on what she had in store when she became queen. All of a sudden, she was Queen Eclipsa Part Deux and Marco was her renegade servant/boyfriend.
All of this was rather normal for a fickle, stubborn populace. What was not so normal was the revelation that Heinous was Eclipsa's daughter, and what that meant for her family history. She hadn't talked to the Queen of Darkness herself about it.
All in all with what had been happening, she could barely take it anymore, and she kicked down the door to her mother's office in a frenzy.
"Momma! I need to talk to you. I can't believe it! It's blowing my beautiful mind!" In hindsight, she had hoped that the conversation would've started better. She thought herself and Moon would've been on the same page, but when she popped the topic, her mother didn't even seem to know what she was talking about.
They then got into an argument about trust, monster relations, and she thought Meteora was a made up story to distract from the "real" issues.
"I'm telling you, Mina told me everything!"
Queen Moon was picking up scattered papers on the ground and scoffed.
"Mina? That reminds me, Mina came back with our knights after that little party you threw, and she had some interesting things to say."
"What? Don't tell me you believe anything that comes out of that nutcase's mouth?" Star asked incredulously.
Moon stood up straight and walked over to her desk, staring down her daughter. Her gaze was slightly softer, but still rather severe.
"I know Mina may seem like a bit of an oddball, but she ultimately has our kingdom's best interest at heart. I do believe she's exaggerating, but according to her you and Marco apparently pulled some reckless stunt that had far-reaching consequences."
Star made an affronted look.
"Look, I can tell that you're under stress. It's a product of being royalty, and you're trying to bridge a gap that all queens before you have not. And Marco, that boy is wearing a blindfold around the castle at all times. It's not hard to believe that you two may have done something rash."
Star gave an irritated grumble, but given her lack of headway decided to not press the argument any further. Neither she nor Marco had done anything wrong the night of the party.
"Let this be a lesson to all of us. I feel it might be time for me to help you with the more... delicate aspects of being Queen of Mewni. In a week's time, I recommend you sit in at the your first council meeting."
Star resisted the urge to groan, but realize d it wouldn't be very princess-y to ignore these duties.
"And I will deal with Marco, so don't you worry about that. It will be better for everyone if you just focus on the upcoming trial."
Star gave a sigh of relief; after a terrible start things had turned around significantly and Moon had actually seemed to reach an understanding with her on her own volition... even if it wasn't quite the result she had wanted. Heinous and Eclipsa were still something she had to convince her mother of.
But, having her deal with the Marco situation was a relief. She had heard Tom complain about his attempt to get through to him, obviously to no avail.
Still, something prodded at the back of Moon's mind as Star left the office. It was about what she said when she first entered the office. She hadn't expected to reach a compromise with her daughter so easily, but as she looked at the leatherbound book detailing the history of the Butterfly Family, the thought wouldn't escape the Queen of Mewni.
Things had gone from bad to worse in the span of just a week. She didn't even know who she could trust or even who her own family was after the revelations at Eclipsa's trial. Star was many things by this point, angry, scared, resentful, frustrated, and forlorn.
The trial had taken her hopes about Eclipsa and proven them true, but everything had come crashing down in the process. She wasn't royal, Eclipsa wasn't her great-something grandmother, and for generations they had been manipulated by the Magical High Commission. To top it all off, Buff Frog and the monsters she trusted had given up on her, and Marco's public appearances had decreased to practically nothing.
Today was the day she was going to sit in with her mother at her first council meeting. She passed by Marco's room on the way there, the door closed as it were, though he was no doubt lurking somewhere in there.
Star glared at the door as if she were under some impression that would do anything. The least he could do was support her in all that she had been going through.
She scoffed and passed it without bothering to check on him, heading into the castle proper.
The council room was next to the "situation" room that was actually the war room. She had always called it the "boring" room for it was for affairs unrelated to military use.
She took a deep breath and opened the door, and felt eyes on her instantly. She shut the door quietly behind her as her mom beckoned her over. The circular table in the center of the room had a seat open for her next to Moon, who was at the head of the table naturally.
Everyone was already there. The head of the Department of Agriculture, Mewni's chief maritime explorer, Lady Whosits the top knight, among other big cheese names. There were two empty seats, however. One for the Royal Monster Expert, of which they didn't have one with Buff Frog being gone and Dr. Goodwell still rolling around in the mud outside the monster village.
The other... well to be honest she didn't even have a clue as to who was supposed to be occupying that.
"Thank you for coming, Star. I'll try to ease you into these meetings, so today all you must do is listen," Moon said, "Now..." she turned to the council, "Let's begin with today's agenda."
She picked up a piece of parchment and looked at it, before giving the floor to the Chief Economist.
"The Waterfolk Kingdom has forbidden any mewman vessels from fishing within a fifty nautical cornling radius of their whirlpools. This will surely impact the fishing industry within the kingdom."
The chief explorer nodded glumly, looking put out, no doubt after his latest voyage.
"I suggest we place a tariff on our iron exports to the Waterfolk Kingdom..."
"Our alliances with other kingdoms are tenuous at best, even now. I do not wish to drive a wedge between them further," Moon answered
"With all due respect, your Majesty." the economist stood up, "The other kingdoms of Mewni are merely satellite states for the Butterfly Kingdom. You let them run their own internal affairs, but in the end they are beholden to you."
Star tuned out much of the meeting, only keeping one ear on it in case she got caught with her hand in the cookie jar.
"I suppose we now move on to the next topic on the agenda." Moon paused, "Regarding the vacant seat for Mewni's Department of Religion and Mewmanities. This sect has been growing rapidly in Mewni's countryside, and I have received an application requesting their entry onto the council of Mewni."
The other council members looked at each other.
"Your Majesty, are you referring to the Lepidopteran Order that has been growing in popularity throughout the countryside."
When she heard the word, Star perked up immediately. She couldn't believe that such a creepy ideology was so popular, but her mom was already in the process of introducing their representative to the council.
The person who walked into the room was the same woman she had met in the monster caves, even if she now had her hood off. She could tell... by the way she carried herself.
She was about thirty years old, give or take. There wasn't anything particularly notable other than her golden blonde hair that almost matched Star's own, and her eyes that were sharp like a bird's and tended to stare into one's soul.
"I would like to formally welcome Grand Moth Vanessa Goldriver."
"Okay... weird titles they give their members..." Star thought. Goldriver gave a kind smile, one that was as bright as her namesake.
"Thank you, your majesty. It is an honor to be here."
Star tuned out much of the sappy introduction, rolling her eyes, but she couldn't believe that the creepy cult who raided the monsters' cave now had representation in their government.
"Up next on the agenda, another village has been set ablaze by marauding monsters."
All of a sudden, the meeting shifted to an uncomfortable topic. Murmurs arose in the room, dialogue that was less than flattering to the monster race from most of the council members.
That's the third village this month. It has to be that new gang that came from the Forest of Certain Death..."
"Who cares who it is? This can't be allowed to go. We must round up the monsters responsible and execute them."
"That monsters responsible? Why not extend that to all monsters? We've tried to tolerate them for generations; I think the time is long past due."
"Settle down, settle down, everyone!" Moon's voice rang out over the room. She sounded disappointed, but given the monster issues Star knew she had she didn't actually reprimand the offending parties.
"Your Majesty, you cannot deny that this is becoming more and more of a problem. The events that happen at the monster temple is circulating around the kingdom. No one knows what that was all about, but one of Mewni's greatest protectors was attacked and the monsters are planning something. This is a conspiracy, Your Highness!"
Star wanted to tear her hair out in frustration. The results of that party had achieved the exact opposite of what she set out to do; now she understood why Buff Frog had left his post.
Star couldn't wait for the meeting to end, and when it did Star practically stormed out of the room without another word to anyone. Her mother chased after her, as well as anyone could in that poofy dress.
"Star! Wait a minute!" Moon called out to her, and Star halted, turned around, and gave a groan of frustration.
"How can you tolerate those cornheads week after week! I know you don't like monsters, but that was horrible!"
Moon stopped in front of her daughter and bent over to Star's height.
"The Council of Mewni is there to let the people know that they have a voice. You may not always agree with them, but it will be your duty as queen to listen to them."
Star slouched and pouted, but her mom didn't seem to follow her just to talk about that.
"Enough about that for now. We have matters to discuss, regarding the results of the trial. I don't think you're going to like what myself and Eclipsa have found out about Meteora."
