I am so sorry for not updating in forever, I had to go stay with my great-grandmother for two weeks and didn't get anytime to write when I thought I would. But on the bright side, I finally know where I want the story to go, so that's good. Also, I have no clue how to write the Magic High Comission, so your going to have to deal with my crappy characterization.
Completely unrelated, but I forgot to mention it in the last chapter. In the Battle for Mewni special, I nearly died of laughter when they called him "The Lizard," because I still can't believe I sorta accidentally called that.
Moon took a steadying breath as she shoved the meeting room door open. She made sure the door didn't slam against the wall though, she still had an appearance to keep up.
The expectant faces of the Magic High Commission met her, or at least Lekmet's did. Rhombulus was too busy yelling at Heckapoo, who was brandishing a pair of scissors at him in return. Omnitraxus Prime's ball had somehow been turned to where it was facing the wall. Moon could hear him calling out in vain for someone to turn him back around.
Moon cleared her throat politely, but the small sound was lost under the ruckus. As she walked into the room, she gave Lekmet an imploring look. He let out a loud baa in response, making Rhombulus pause.
"What? Queen Moon?" Rhombulus turned around to see Moon standing in the doorway, and nearly jumped into his seat. "Oh! Queen Moon! I, ah, didn't see you there."
"Hey." Heckapoo gave a small wave, going to lean against the side of her allocated seat.
"No matter. Let's begin the meeting." Moon turned Omnitraxus back around so he could see the table.
"Thanks." Omnitraxus muttered, giving a glare towards the other members of the Commission.
"What about Glossaryck?" Heckapoo asked.
"Glossaryck won't be attending." Moon announced, ignoring Heckapoo's suspicious eyebrow raise.
Lekmet gave a concerned rumble, Rhombulus leaning over to better hear.
"He wants to know the news, about the kids." Rhombulus' hands chimed in, echoing his words.
"There is no real news." Moon sighed. "The only thing Glossaryck was able to confirm is that they are alive, and they can use magic without spells."
"How is that possible?" Heckapoo jutted in, twirling a pair of scissors around her fingers.
"We don't know." Moon answered. "It's probably because the wand is… merged with their bodies."
"That's not any better though. Who knows what having a wand fused to you will do?" Omnitraxus spoke up. "It could make them go mad."
"I know." Moon tensed, her hand clenching into a fist underneath the table. "That's why I say we need to bring them here before Toffee gets his hands on them."
The Commission broke into chaos once more, everyone choosing to say their opinions simultaneously. Moon rubbed her temples as she tried to discern anything from the cacophony of voices.
"We can't just bring them back here, we don't know how stable they are, or what they're capable of." Heckapoo's voice was the first to rise above the others.
"Exactly!" Omnitraxus was next. "It's too risky. I say Rhombulus should freeze them. It would hurt to lose the wand, but it's one of the better possibilities."
"Wait!" Moon snapped, sighing in relief as the noise subsided. "This isn't just about the wand, this is about Star and Marco too. They're still alive, completely sentient. We need to give them a chance. I've already informed Marco's family of the situation, and I promised them I would try and bring their son back home."
"Really?" Heckapoo is the first to question her, as usual. "Look, Queen Moon, I get it, Star is out there and in a bad place. But you can't just throw away good judgement in some desperate scramble to get her back. Have you ever thought of the possibility that she isn't ever going to just become the same princess that disappeared?"
Lekmet rumbled softly, but Rhombulus hesitated as he moved to translate.
"He's with Heckapoo." Rhombulus refused to look at Moon, his voice only a small mumble in comparison to his usual shout.
"I also have to agree with her." Omnitraxus sighed. "Star's a good kid, and so is her friend, but we have to look at the bigger picture. Toffee did that to them for a reason, and he probably knows that you're after them. Bringing them back here unfrozen just isn't safe, he could be exactly what he wants; and even then, we don't even know how they would react to it. Either way, we need to take the logical path."
"The logical path? Since when has the logical path ever turned out well when Toffee is involved?" Moon pushed herself onto her feet, leaning over the table as she continued. "My… my mother tried the logical path with him, and look where we are now."
"That doesn't apply now though, that was years ago." Heckapoo refuted. "
"But we need to talk to them, only they have even the slightest inkling of what Toffee has planned." Moon argues back, ignoring the obvious reason- that she just wanted her daughter back dammit- in favor of going with the point that would most likely win them over.
"But they're also a key part of that plan, a fact that you seem to be forgetting." Heckapoo spat back.
"Look, guys," Rhombulus interrupted. "not to go against the crowd or anything, but we should give them a chance. We all know Star, right? She's never given my gut any bad feelings, why don't we trust her?"
"You can't just rely on your gut." One of Rhombulus' hands hissed before anyone else could comment, the other hand quickly joining in.
"Yeah, we've talked about this, remember?"
"Thank you Rhombulus, for seeing the situation as I see it." Moon said, Rhombulus giving her a tiny nod after shooting Lekmet a guilty glance. "Neither Star nor Marco have done anything wrong, why should we treat them like criminals?"
"They've stolen from just about every town on the border." Heckapoo said, leaning back in her chair.
"They need supplies to survive. They haven't killed a single mewman, even when attacked directly." Moon shot back.
"That is true." Omnitraxus begrudgingly admitted.
"That still doesn't justify not freezing them. If we froze them, it'll be safer for everyone." Heckapoo argued, still determined to stand her ground.
"I realize that." Moon sighed. "But they are our only lead on Toffee in over 30 years, we must try and see what they know about him. Regardless, they are as much a victim to Toffee's malice as any of us are, or even more so. They deserve a shot at returning to their lives."
Heckapoo was the one to sigh this time, Lekmet bleated in her direction, Rhombulus whispering whatever the goat had said into Heckapoo's ear.
"Fine." Heckapoo snapped. "I'll agree to it."
Before Moon could even begin to give her thanks to the fiery woman, Heckapoo was already continuing.
"But, only if you explain exactly what went down between you and Toffee the first time."
"What?" Moon was at a loss, her mind trying in vain to figure out why Heckapoo wanted to learn about that of all things.
"All we know is what your Mom told us before she was killed, and what you told us after you had broken the bond. But both of you share a key feature, an unwillingness to tell the commission anything in detail before it's a problem." Heckapoo was leaning closer to Moon now, her eyes narrowed.
"What does it matter anymore?" Moon asked, years of practiced poise stopping her from curling inwards defensively. Instead, she straightened, as Queen, she wasn't allowed to show weakness.
"Because that's where this whole mess began. And if my hunch is right, he's planning to use what he learned about being an escort to manipulate Star. We need to know everything so we can deal with things if and when they go wrong."
"Fine." Moon growled back. "Does anyone have any objections to the conditions Heckapoo has laid down?"
The rest of the high commission shook their heads, giving Moon permission to continue with the story, unfortunately for her.
She was 12 when she met him. She knew nothing of treaties or wars, of spies and liars. She was just a child, a child who was inevitably drawn to the assistant general of the new monster regiment in Mewni's royal guard.
He was nothing but courteous, playing along with her schemes and stories. He would answer all her questions, and she would answer his in return. Soon enough, she was making excuses to see him, cutting royal lessons when she knew he was on break, sneaking away to watch his practices.
She had an infatuation of sorts with the strange lizard, the one who could win fights without even lifting his weapon, a curious mace that stayed constantly glued to his side. The one with the smooth voice and a strange obsession with remaining impeccably clean.
It started out slowly, tentatively, given the precarious relations between mewmans and monsters. Her mother forbade her from seeing him for a short while, before deciding that the interaction would only solidify the treaty.
They grew closer, moving on from names like "General" and "Princess to simply Moon and Toffee. They spent countless afternoons in the palace gardens, just talking and enjoying the other's company.
When Moon received her wand, Toffee was in the audience watching, a small smile on his face. The two still spent their afternoons in the garden whenever they could, but now Moon would use the time to show off her new spells while Toffee asked questions. They had a routine, a consistency and reliability that Moon loved.
Then her mother had approached her with the question. Would she like to have Toffee as her escort?
An escort. Her escort. The one being she would be forever bound to. The being that would know her best. The being that would be allowed partial control over herself.
Moon was only 15, she couldn't fathom having an escort. An escort was something that had been a distant concept, for later.
Escorts were a long-standing tradition of the queens of Mewni, ever since the wand was formed. They were a failsafe of sorts, although they were so much more. An escort, bonded to the bearer of the wand only when the bearer recognized them as such. The ceremony for it was quite simple actually, compared to the massive change it wrought.
Moon and Toffee met in a private room, the Queen supervising them. Moon offered the position to Toffee, who accepted. Moon offered her hand out, and Toffee took it. Moon's vision swam, suddenly bombarded by a kaleidoscope of images. Every moment she and Toffee had shared together flashed before her eyes, blurring and meshing together. Just when it seemed like it was going to overwhelm her, the images stopped, and she opened her eyes.
For a moment, it was just her and Toffee; the rest of the world faded away. She was pulled out of her stupor by her mother's voice, squealing in excitement over the successful bonding. It was huge, to have an escort, because in the end, no matter how much you thought you wanted to have an escort, it was up to your subconscious mind and your own magic in the end. Failed attempts were commonplace, and there were no second chances when it came to escorts. An escort was chosen for life, and there was no breaking the bond once it was formed, as far as Moon had known.
The two had only grown closer after that, although their status as princess and escort was kept a relative secret. Over the next two years, their bond only grew in strength, reaching a point where emotions, and even pain could be shared. For a while, Moon's version of the future always included Toffee.
She was 16 when it all came falling down.
Toffee killed her mother in cold blood, assassinated her in the middle of the night, before she could even defend herself. He had almost gotten to Moon, had the palace guard not found her mother in time.
Moon was distraught, she tried to attack Toffee in a blind rage, but even through the fury and the grief, she couldn't hurt him. Their bond wouldn't let her, no matter how much she wanted to. Still, she managed to force him outside the castle.
In the course of one night, everything Moon had known was turned on its head and set ablaze. Her mother was gone, there was an army of monsters camped outside the gates, the job of Queen was suddenly put into her hands, and Toffee, her escort, the one being she thought she could trust most had betrayed her. Was he ever on her side to begin with?
She didn't have time to grieve though, not with her country on the brink of war. But she couldn't defeat Toffee on her own, not when she couldn't hurt him. But what could she do? There had to be a spell that could break the bond. If she could just break it, she could probably kill Toffee.
Kill. The word had seemed so distant mere hours ago, now it was her only option. She knew Toffee, she knew his tactical genius, his ability to bend both mewmans and monsters to his will. She knew of his ambition, of his stubbornness. She knew he wouldn't give up until he was gone.
She thanked whatever gods still existed that Toffee wasn't completely immortal. He could regrow limbs, yes, but he couldn't regrow his brain or his heart. That was where she was going to have to strike, after the bond was broken, if the bond was broken.
She was desperate to find an answer, and when Glossaryck couldn't give her one, she stumbled across the next best thing.
Eclipsa's chapter, the forbidden chapter. If she was going to find a spell that could break the bond, this was where she would find it.
She had been banned from reading it for fear of how its powers would affect her, but she didn't have time to worry about that now. The seal to it bended under her will, turning to the first page.
Moon skimmed the chapter as best she could, praying that the she would find what she was looking for, and that the uncomfortable lump in her chest didn't mean anything.
She nearly fainted from sheer relief when she saw it, a tiny scribble labeled, "how to break an escort bond."
Moon read over the spell, committing it to memory. The lump in her chest had grown considerably, but she didn't have time to think about that.
She argued with the High Commission for hours that night over what to do about Toffee. She didn't bother to tell them what she had found, knowing they would put her under lockdown for "exposure to dark powers." Something warm popped up in her chest beside the lump when River, the young noble, stood up for her against the entire council and the other nobles. She didn't think he understood just how much it meant to have someone on her side after everything that had happened.
Still she had a fight to prepare for. She didn't sleep a wink that night, and when dawn broke over the horizon, she saddled Chauncey and rode straight into Toffee's camp.
"I wish to speak to Toffee." She ignored the monsters' harsh laughter. "I'm sure he already knows I'm here."
"Silence." Toffee's quiet mutter was enough to silence the entire army; not that Moon had expected anything less from him. As soon as she could see him she took out her wand and began to mutter the words needed.
"From gods above and demons below."
"Hello, my princess. You realize coming here on your own is quite pointless, no?"
"From ancient guides no longer here, grant my wish. Break the chains which bind me. Shatter what was not meant to be."
"I will listen to your requests though, if you have any."
"I offer my heart, I offer my soul. Take what was ours and make it null. Into the void from no return, from which not to hear nor not to yearn."
Light spread out from her wand, a dark purple. It was only then that Moon noticed the dark clouds that had covered the sky. The light from her wand formed a barrier around her, thin and transparent. But she could feel it tugging at her, pulling something out from inside her, and from the look on Toffee's face, it was safe to assume he felt it as well.
"Enough." Toffee growled, reaching for the barrier. When his finger touched it though, he snarled in pain. The light had wrapped itself around his center finger, disintegrating it into nothing but purple light.
At first Moon didn't focus to much on it, more concerned with how the bond's presence was starting to fade from her body. But her eyes widened when she saw that it wouldn't grow back. For a second, fear clawed its way up her throat; just what had she gotten herself into?
Then the light expanded outwards slightly before shrinking back into the wand, leaving Moon feeling empty, but satisfied all at once. She was free, their bond was broken, she could win.
Jumping to her feet, she brandished her wand at Toffee, but he was already stalking away. Looking around, she was shocked to find that his army had scattered as well. She debated chasing after Toffee, but she could already feel exhaustion tugging at her limbs, and even the act of standing was starting to tire her. She, regrettably, wouldn't be able to go after Toffee in this state.
Still, she felt lighter than ever as she rode back towards the castle. She was free from her bond, and even if she had just destroyed the only bond she would ever have, she was happy, pure and simple.
As she hugged River, she wondered; had it ever been real? Had Toffee meant any of the things he had said to her? And just why had her magic accepted him in the first place? Someone so cold, so horrible at their core shouldn't have-
But he hadn't been that way with her, for years he had never been any of those things, not with her.
As she pulled away and faced the High Commission, a small part of her knew that she would be dealing with this mistake for the rest of her life. That, and that for any child she had, she would be keeping them far, far away from even the idea of escorts.
When three or four stray lines in the last couple chapters suddenly become major plot points XD
I actually have had the idea of an escort in my mind since the beginning, and finally got to bring it to life here. To anyone who is confused, an escort was created as a failsafe against the wielders of the wand, just in case they began to abuse their power or something like that. It is ultimately up to the Queen/Princess' own magic to decide if someone is fit to become the escort or not, although it requires a large amount of trust on both ends. The bond strengthens over time, becoming harder and harder to push aside. Not all escorts become romantically involved with their Queen, although it isn't uncommon for it to end up that way.
I had to leave Eclipsa mostly out of the backstory for Moon, because even though her presence in the canon story is awesome, I can't find a way to work her into mine. Because adding her into the mix makes things much, much more complicated than I can handle.