Episode:
5: Demon Days
Adam wants to know the extent at which he is connected to Star's wand - with destructive consequences.
After reading the tale of the Last Hero, Star had left to hang out with Tom. Marco hadn't at all been surprised by that. The two had barely spoken in the last week and he could tell that it wouldn't be long before the prince would think she'd forgotten about him.
In fact, Tom had made a pained joke about that when they met up in the Underworld.
'I heard about the assassination attempt,' Tom mentioned, as they sat down on his couch together. 'Are you okay, Starship?'
'Yeah, I'm fine,' she replied with little confidence, brushing her bangs out of the way of her eyes. 'I've had a crazy week.'
'Crazy? How?' He asked, sitting up.
'It's…complicated. It's kind of a long story,' Star said, resting her head back against the couch.
'I'm not going anywhere.'
'My attacker – Adam – is from another multiverse,' the princess stated bluntly.
'I'm sorry, what?!' Tom gawped, almost making his girlfriend jump. 'What do you mean another multiverse?'
'I mean he's from a world different to this one,' she reworded, looking up at him. 'In his multiverse, the Butterfly Family is the most feared and most powerful empire in all the multiverse. He wanted to kill me because the other me is evil.'
'You? Evil?' He scoffed. 'Not possible.'
'It is possible, Tom. I saw it.'
'What do you mean you "saw" it?'
'I really don't want to talk about it.'
'C'mon Starship,' the teen pressed caringly. 'You know you can talk to me about anything, right?'
Star sighed and sat up.
'I know that, Tom,' she reassured him. 'But I didn't come here to talk about it. I came here because I wanted to get away from all that. To see you.'
'I can certainly help with that,' he whispered in her ear. Star giggled with amorousness.
'Why don't you hold me a lil closer then?'
They remained close for several moments. Star began to think over the past week. Honestly, this had been the first time she had been able to just take a breath. Adam had literally dropped out of nowhere, bringing a whole multiverse of problems in tow. She was sure he wasn't trying to burden her with his problems, but then again, it was easy to make her the punching bag of the situation. She looked exactly like the other Star, just completely different in personality.
She wondered if Adam was trying to make her feel bad about all the things her evil counterpart had done. Maybe he was, given how cold he had been towards the Butterfly all week. It annoyed her how unfriendly he'd been, not that there was anything she could really do about it.
Star wanted to try and make friends with him – that was just the kind of person she was. Adam seemed to have different ideas about that. The Mewman had taken her hand and agreed to her proposal of friendship, but apparently that meant something different to him. Most of the time it seemed like it was a chore for him to even acknowledge her existence. In fairness, though, he seemed to be making an effort to pretend to be cooperative.
One of the most prominent things about Adam to Star was that he had magic too. It was nice to train with someone at or around her skill level and age, rather than someone incredibly advanced like Moon or Glossaryck. It meant they could practise together rather than one teaching the other. Star had never had that opportunity to practise magic with someone her age.
Moon seemed to agree it was a good idea, too. She allowed the two to train regularly, and Star was seeing a minor improvement. Then again, maybe the Queen just wanted a reason not to have to train the impatient girl herself.
Training with Adam was unique. She'd never seen someone take advantage of portalling like he did. Star had no idea how Adam even managed to open portals without a Full Butterfly form, and his explanation was vague. It was rather obvious that Glossaryck – Red Glossaryck – had taught him how to do it. Star couldn't figure it out herself. She just wasn't able to open portals fast enough to employ his tactic. It must have been something unique to his multiverse.
Speaking of things unique, Star had given Adam's Magic Instruction Book a light read. Adam was not sure about allowing her to see it, but ultimately, he figured that it couldn't cause much harm. When the Butterfly Princess looked through the Book, she couldn't help but be surprised.
The Book of Spells from his reality was much, much darker than the one she knew. There were numerous Light spells, of course, but the book was easily ninety percent Dark magic. Eclipsa's Chapter in this book made the one in hers look like a fairy-tale in comparison. Necromancy, spells of pestilence, torture curses and all manner of exceptionally twisted spells. A lot of the spells were identical in all the chapters, like the Light Sword and Neon Whip spells, but many of them were disturbing, to say the least.
Adam had more than likely learnt and practised some of these. His affinity for the Dark Arts was intimidating, quite honestly. Although, Star was trying not to judge him solely on that. Eclipsa was also a proficient Dark magic user, and she was nowhere near as evil as the history books made her out to be.
Still, though, Star was concerned that Adam would employ use of those twisted spells she had seen inside that book. It wasn't like he was concerned about being morally correct. All he cared about, apparently, was revenge.
From Adam's perspective, the ends justified the means. Star wasn't that kind of person.
Making him show any ounce of humour was proving to be an insurmountable task. Adam was a serious guy, evidently, and Star simply wanted him to lighten up a little. Then again, as Marco had pointed out, maybe she wasn't the person to do that. After all, Adam was finding it hard not to despise the very sight of her.
It was really starting to annoy her, too. As Adam had said himself, Star was completely innocent in all of this – merely a victim of circumstance. So he could at least try to treat her fairly, right? Any time Star saw him, it looked like he was trying to swallow a swarm of bees in his throat.
These things were hard to contemplate. It was uneven ground to tread. On the one hand, Adam's behaviour was unfair and sometimes cruel – by his own admission, she was undeserving of it. However, could she really blame him for acting out at times?
As the week had gone by, it had become abundantly clear to Star that the world Adam came from was not kind in any way. It was a cruel, oppressive reality, where nobody could be considered wholly good or wholly evil. From what she could tell, Adam was the closest thing to "good" you could get. Even then, he still had his own ulterior motives and goals, many of which she might consider shady.
Parallel multiverses were so different from alternate timelines. Maybe she needed to talk to Omnitraxus again. He understood the whole "infinite versions of Star'' thing pretty well. Then again, she doubted he ever encountered someone travelling from a parallel multiverse to this one.
She'd have to ask Adam when he got back from the meeting with the Magic High Commission. Or she could take a trip to the Temporal Dimension and see if Omni was around.
'Hey, Starship?'
'Yeah?'
'Wanna play some ping pong?' Tom suggested, gesturing over to the table in the corner of the room. Immediately, Star's expression brightened to brighter than an actual star.
'Yessss!' She practically screamed, leaping off the red couch. Skidding over to the table, she bent down to it and sniffed the table. 'It's newwww.'
'Yep,' Tom declared proudly, snapping his fingers. One of his demonic minions appeared with two paddles and a container full of ping pong balls.
'Prepare to be destroyed, Tom!' Star threatened comically, as she took a paddle and ball. She smacked the ball with as much strength as she could muster, propelling it at her opponent with breakneck speed.
Tom hit the ball back rather easily.
'Oh, it's on,' he warned.
The game that ensued was a long rally between them, neither player managing to outwit the other. Star smashed the ball down at every opportunity – something Tom expected of her. His girlfriend was a particularly aggressive player, while he was much more passive. It was rather ironic, too.
They were in the middle of their rally when Star heard the sound of a portal opening to her right. She turned to see who it was, briefly distracted.
A slightly tall, dark figure stepped into the room. Star frowned as the torches began to illuminate the intruder's countenance.
'Adam?' Star recognised, standing up straight.
'Aha!' Tom cried, throwing his paddle down. The ping pong ball lit on fire as it smashed against Star's side of the table. 'Gotcha! That's one point to me!' After he was done celebrating, he looked up to find Star was not standing opposite him. 'Star?'
Star had already walked away, stepping towards Adam across the room.
Adam more than likely had never seen or been to the Lucitor Castle, much less to Tom's room. She assumed that meant he couldn't portal his way here, but then again, she guessed that dimensional scissors would still do the job.
'What are you doing here?' She asked, folding her arms. The Mewman opened his mouth to respond, but he was interrupted by a loud thud behind him.
Her squire and best friend collided with the stone floor next to Adam.
'Star! Star!' He chanted breathlessly, sluggishly lifting himself off the ground. 'Adam…took my scissors…and he's…coming here…'
'I can see that, Marco,' the princess deadpanned, bending down to help him up. 'I wanna know why –'
'Hey, what's going on?' Tom interrupted, a concerned glower forming across his face. He immediately spotted Marco. 'Marco? What are you doing here?' He looked around Star and spotted the fourth person in the room. 'Um, Star? Who is this?'
'This is Adam,' the princess answered grouchily.
'Adam?' The demon repeated, recognising the name. 'Wait, you mean the guy from another multiverse?'
'That's the one.'
He walked past Star and stuck out a hand towards the Mewman.
'Hi, I'm –'
'Tom Lucitor; Prince of the Underworld; heir to the throne,' Adam responded impassively, folding his arms scornfully. 'I know who you are.'
'Sorry, Tom, he's…not exactly a fan of the other you,' Star explained, hanging her head in embarrassment.
'I'm my own person, thank you very much!' The Demon Prince cried insecurely, gesturing manically.
'Yeah, whatever; I'm not here for you,' Adam dismissed, turning to Star. 'Star: I'm gonna need your wand.'
'What?!' The Butterfly Princess shrieked, her head bucking in surprise. 'Uh, no!'
Adam folded his arms.
'Hekapoo told me that your wand and my magic have a connection,' he revealed irascibly. 'I need your wand so I can see how far this connection goes.'
'A connection? How do you mean?' Star asked, puzzled.
'That's what I'm trying to find out,' Adam stated pointedly. 'Look, I'm not gonna use it.'
The Butterfly examined his expression up and down. He looked particularly determined in his endeavour, to the point of possibly fighting her for it. However, his eyes were sincere, almost soft. He wasn't here to fight, or to harm anyone – only if absolutely necessary.
Reluctantly, Star reached into her purse and produced her pristine magic wand.
'You better give it back,' she warned frighteningly, staring straight into Adam's slate eyes.
'Star, you can't seriously be considering this?!' Marco questioned in true disbelief.
'I'm with Marco on this one,' Tom added. 'This seems like an awful idea.'
'If he doesn't give it back, he's gotta deal with not only me, but a karate master and an immortal demon,' Star pointed out, folding her arms matter-of-factly. Adam merely rolled his eyes.
'I'll give it back, I promise.'
Ultimately, the magical princess held out the wand for him to take. He carefully plucked the powerful item from her hand and studied it closely. It looked very different to Dark Star's wand, which was skeletal, bony and far less angelic. He remembered that the star crystal had been fragmented down the middle for a time – owing to the Whispering Spell – but later it had mysteriously been rejuvenated. It seemed the case was the same with this wand.
'Thank you,' he acknowledged, moving over to the nearby carpet. Seating himself on it, Adam placed the wand in front of him, crystal side facing up. The Mewman exhaled deeply, shutting his eyes and clearing his mind.
'Whaaat are you doing?' Marco asked him. Adam could hear footsteps coming towards him.
'Trying to focus on the wand's magic,' he answered. 'Now, hush, thank you.'
Okay, remember Glossaryck's training, the warlock told himself.
Adam focused on the innate magical aura of the wand. The power was truly immense, now that he could see it in his mind. It easily dwarfed his own, beyond anything he could achieve right now. Frankly, it was a shame Star had yet to utilise it to its fullest extent. He'd heard from Marco a small snippet of the things she had accomplished. Stopping time, mastering Dark spells with ease, annihilating the evil Toffee – the list went on.
A small part of him considered what he could achieve had he gained ownership of it, but Adam dismissed the thought immediately. The wand was not his to take, plus he had promised to return it. Besides, he technically had his own wand, which, while not as base powerful, it could reach the same potency if honed efficiently enough.
Dark magic was strong. Unbelievably so. Unlike most Light magic, the Dark Arts lacked inhibition. One could achieve almost anything with it, provided the caster was skilled enough. That was why most Dark spells took more skill to master, and generally were more powerful.
Eclipsa was the closest to the full potential of magic. Nobody, however, had actually reached the peak.
Adam was going to do that, someday.
He felt the link between his magic and the wand's magic. It was like a rope, tethering them together. All that he had to do was pull on it. He felt the magic begin to pour into him, allowing him to peer into the very essence of the wand.
'Er, should it be glowing?' Star enquired worriedly.
'Yes,' he replied.
Internally, the Mewman was smiling. The wand was activating, responding to his twin magic. He continued to pull on the rope in his mind. Images of various spells began to flash through his mind.
All-Seeing Eye. Narwhal Blast. Spider with a Top Hat Blast. Cupcake Blast. Dagger Heart Blast. Radiant Shadow Transform. Warnicorn Stampede. Rainbow Fist Punch. Strawberry Annihilation.
Then one of them piqued his interest.
Sparkle Glitter Bomb Expand. He really needed to learn that one. He watched every single instance that Star had cast that spell and kept its imprint in his mind. With any luck, this might help him understand exactly how the Creation spell functioned.
'Woah!' He heard Marco say.
Deciding he had a full grasp on the wand, Adam opened his eyes.
The wand projected a bright blue-white light, like a flashlight or projector. As the light rose up into the room, it became a blue, ethereal mist floating in the air. The mist spun and wisped to form inchoate shapes. Once these shapes reached full form, Adam could determine what they were.
Star's spells. Ghostly apparitions of them.
Many of them had been the ones Adam himself had thought of. He watched with wonder as they danced around the room with unmatched grace, like magical angels.
Looking down, he noticed something else. A silky blue translucent line ran from the centre of his chest to the star crystal on the royal magic wand. Every few seconds, a faint pulse of white energy was exchanged between them across the incorporeal line.
'What did you do?' Star asked wondrously, smiling as a small Warnicorn flew past her.
'I'm not sure,' Adam admitted, reaching up to touch one of the magical constructs. His hand went straight through it. 'I peered into your wand and saw your spells…but I wasn't expecting this.'
'Is this what you meant by "connection"?' Marco questioned, frowning as a construct phased through him.
'Quite possibly,' Adam replied, not really paying attention. He stared down at his star mark.
It was glowing, but not the usual colour. It burned a white-hot colour, rather than the usual orange. Looking up, he spotted that Star's wand was the same colour. In fact, they were both pulsing in synchrony, irrespective of the connective silk line between him and the wand.
'Well, if you don't mind, I'm just gonna…' Star said quietly, bending down to pick up her wand. Confused, Adam looked up to see her reaching for it.
'No, don't!' He cried, but it was too late to stop her.
As soon as Star's hand made contact with the wand, a huge, blinding sphere of energy exploded from the crystal. All four of the people in the room were first blinded, and then thrown back by the full force of the explosion.
All the lights went out in seconds.
Adam groaned as he felt his mind being pulled back into his body. He felt the humid air on his face and the permanent odour of ashy dust in his nostrils. A groan of pain escaped his lips, and the world came screaming back to him.
Summoning all his strength, Adam threw himself onto his back. He was greeted with a dark maroon ceiling with orange lights.
'Argh…is everyone alright?' He asked, as he began to sit up and look around.
Star's head was currently in the (luckily) extinguished fireplace. As she tried to get up, she hit her head on the metal and cried out in pain. Marco was against a stone brick wall, though fortunately he hadn't hit his head against it. Slowly, he turned and rested his back against the bricks. Meanwhile, Tom was hanging on a torch by his shirt, a sharp sconce piercing the back of it.
'Ow…' Star seethed. 'I'm okay.'
'Fine over here,' Marco added, rubbing his back painfully.
'This is so not fun!' Tom complained, swiping the air in vain. Star looked up and saw that the sconce of a wall-mounted torch had caught the back of his shirt. The Demon was left hanging suspended against the wall, wiggling in a vain attempt to free himself.
Immediately, and without inhibition, Star burst into laughter at his helpless state.
'Star!' Tom whined. 'This isn't funny!'
'C'mon, it's a little funny,' Marco admitted, joining in on the laughter. Meanwhile, Adam folded his arms in disinterest, scowling at the Demon Prince.
Tom groaned as he spent the next minute trying to wiggle himself out of his predicament. Adam stopped paying attention to him, and instead spotted the magic wand on the ground. It hadn't moved from its spot before the explosion. In fact, from this angle, it was impossible to tell any of its mechanisms had been damaged by the blast.
'Oof!' Tom groaned in his earshot. 'Thanks for the help.' The sarcasm was dripping from his voice.
Adam kneeled down to look at the wand. There was something definitely wrong with it. The central star had gone completely black, and the larger star around it had turned a slate shade of grey. The five tiny hearts surrounding the central crystal were supposed to be a hot shade of pink, but they had now turned a pale blue colour.
Slowly picking it up, he inspected it closely. Narrowing his eyes, he spotted that, aside from the colour change, the wand was entirely untarnished.
'Hey!' Star suddenly yelled in his ear, immediately snatching the wand out of his fingers. 'What the heck did you do to my wand?!'
'What did I do?' He scoffed, standing back up. 'What did you do?! You're the one who got in the way!'
'You're the one who did that weird spell!' Star insisted heatedly.
'I didn't know that was going to happen!'
'I didn't know what would happen if I touched it!'
'Can you two please stop bickering?' Marco requested exasperatedly, rubbing his temple mind-numbingly.
'Yeah, you're not exactly helping,' Tom reasoned, gently separating the two arguing individuals.
Adam maintained a scowl but said nothing. Star sighed and stared back down at her wand.
'Cupcake Blast,' she said placidly, pointing her wand at the nearby wall.
A powering-up sound rang from it, though it crackled and sputtered. Her wand lit up for a few seconds, before giving out and powering back down. No cupcakes were projected from the wand, or any magic, for that matter.
'That doesn't look good,' Marco seethed.
'Um…Summoning Cloudy Charm?' She tried, pointing her wand back at the wall. Again, the wand glowed, but gave up shortly afterwards. 'Rainbow Whale Wall Slam! Uh…Tidying-Up Tidal Wave? Strawberry Annihilation?!'
No matter how many spells she chanted, the wand refused to produce anything more than a fleeting glow. Inevitably, Star had to give up trying to cast any magic.
'Okay, so my wand is broken,' she stated rather obviously. 'What do we do?'
'…I don't know,' Adam confessed, staring at the ground guiltily.
'You don't know?!' Tom screeched. 'You barge in here, demanding Star's wand, break it, and you don't even know what to do?!'
'Tom!' Star silenced. 'We can yell about that later. Right now, we need to figure out what to do.'
The demon wanted to complain about her supposed hypocrisy but opted not to.
'We could try asking Moon,' Marco suggested.
'Are you kidding?' The magical princess gawked. 'If Mom found out I broke the wand, she'd kill me!'
'Well it wouldn't be the first time,' the squire pointed out.
'We're only going to her as a last resort,' Star concluded, glancing back down at her wand. 'I suppose…I could try going into the wand again.'
'Into the wand?' Adam parroted, nonplussed. '"Again"?! How would you–woah!'
Unfortunately, the Mewman wasn't able to finish his sentence before he was knocked off his feet. Landing to the ground with a loud thud, he groaned and rubbed his sore back. He looked up and saw what had knocked him over.
It was a floating narwhal, pointing its sharp horn directly at him. It had light cyan skin, though his back had patches of a darker shade. It had big, cartoonish black eyes, one of them covered up securely by an eye patch. Though it had a small mouth and eyebrows, Adam could tell the narwhal was glaring at him menacingly.
'Star, is that one of your narwhals?' Marco identified, staring at the floating magical creature.
'Ow!' Adam cried, as the narwhal stabbed him with its sharp horn. 'Stop!'
'Um, hey, narwhal guy…' Star addressed awkwardly, manoeuvring around Adam to catch the creature's eye. 'Do you think…you can stop doing that to my friend?'
'Friend?' The narwhal scoffed. 'He's the guy who booted us out, Star!'
'You know my name?' The princess realised, shrinking back in surprise.
'Of course I do,' it replied. 'I'm Narwhal, one of your spells.'
'Oh,' she understood. 'Wait, if you're one of my spells, shouldn't you be, y'know, in my wand?'
'I would be, if it weren't for him!' Narwhal scorned, lunging back at Adam. However, Star managed to grab its tail and stop him in his tracks.
'What did I do?' The Mewman questioned.
'You integrated into the wand and instructed it to eject all the spells inside!' It told him, fruitlessly trying to attack him again with its horn.
'I didn't mean to do that! Star interrupted the process! If you want to blame anyone, blame her!'
Star merely rolled her eyes at his reproachful comment.
'What do you mean the spells were "ejected"?' She pressed, pulling Narwhal away from Adam.
'We were all inside the wand, and then the crystal started glowing,' Narwhal explained. 'Then it started to suck us all in. The next thing I knew, I was here.'
'The spell…' the Mewman realised. 'When you interrupted it, Star, your wand must have…malfunctioned. It sent all your spells out of the wand.'
'What does that mean?' The princess questioned, propping herself up by her back.
'It means that all your spells have escaped,' Adam clarified, biting his lip. 'They could have gone almost anywhere from here.'
'Almost?' Marco picked up.
'Well, they can't have gone far, could they?' The warlock presumed. 'They'd have to have some kind of instinct to stay close to the wand.' He glanced at Star for confirmation.
'Um, yeah, I think so,' she agreed unconvincingly. The girl bent down to address the floating spell in front of her. 'So…Narwhal, do you think you maybe wanna get back inside the wand?'
'Not until everyone is found!' It decided, glaring at Adam. The Mewman sighed and glanced between Star, Marco and (reluctantly) Tom.
'Alright, you two stay here and look after Narwhal,' he instructed Tom and Marco. 'Star and I will go look for the spells.'
'Hold on, why do you get to go exploring?' Marco complained, batting an unconcerned eye at Narwhal.
'Because Narwhal doesn't want me around, and Star is the only one who can return the spells to the wand,' the warlock explained, tapping his foot impatiently.
'Sorry Marco, guess you can't check out the Underworld,' Star apologised contritely, shrugging her shoulders guiltily. She turned back to Adam. 'You think the spells would have gone too far?'
'Where would you go if you were lost?'
Star thought about that for a moment. A knowing glance from Adam gave him the answer the girl needed.
'Right. Nowhere,' she realised, nodding to herself matter-of-factly.
'Exactly.'
As he was about to slide open the doors, Adam turned back towards Tom and Marco.
'We'll be back soon,' he stated categorically, raising a finger to point between them. 'Look after Narwhal. DON'T lose it.'
Tom snorted.
'Lose it? Nah, we'll be fine.'
Adam's eyes narrowed at the Demon Prince's bravado. Tom practically shrank under his intimidating gaze. Marco, meanwhile, averted his eyes from the demonising look.
After a few seconds, the Mewman decided to move along. He slid open the double doors behind him and jumped out. Once Star had landed beside him, he shut them and stepped back. It was then when he understood where he had been. The room he had exited had actually been a carriage that was larger inside than outside.
'Alteration magic,' he recognised, leaning forward to inspect its structure. Adam turned and found himself in a place unfamiliar. 'Where are we?'
'Uh, the Underworld?' Star replied humorously.
'I know that, smartass,' he retorted unsmilingly. Star's face fell. 'Where in the Underworld?'
'Lucitor Castle,' she responded dejectedly. 'Tom's room.'
Indeed, they were inside a castle. They were in a bedroom, by the looks of it. The walls were comprised of stained maroon bricks, as though they had been scorched by eternal flames. A large four-poster bed sat against the centre back of the wall, adorned with orange curtains. A large brown trunk chest lay hung open in the corner of the room, with numerous clothes splayed in and out of it.
On the ceiling, a gold-sheened chandelier hung from it, half the candles lit. Curiously, it was lightly swinging to and fro. A window sat on the wall to the left, the two panes flung open to reveal the fresh, ashy air. A parabolic-shaped door stood to his right, largely untouched.
'Why can't we just use the All-Seeing Eye?' Star complained, eliciting an annoyed sigh from Adam.
'Well obviously you can't use it,' he said. 'That spell escaped with the others. And I can't use it because the Eye can't see through dense magical fields. With all those spells active in one area, there's not a chance the Eye would be able to find them.'
'So how are we gonna figure out where they went?' Star enquired helplessly, dropping her hands at her sides.
'We can make a start,' Adam determined, his eyes surveying the room again. 'The chandelier is shaking left to right, and the door's shut – but the window's open.' He pointed to the three objects of his attention.
'So? What does that mean?'
Adam groaned at her lack of vision. A part of him was happy to divulge exactly how he was smarter than her, but he'd hoped she'd be able to figure some of this out by herself.
'Clearly, the spells escaped and hit the chandelier,' the Mewman explained. 'They definitely went either left or right, because it's shaking left to right. The door is shut – and clearly it hasn't been opened. I doubt they even know how to open a door. However, the window is open – could have been like that beforehand, but what's more likely is that they escaped through there.'
'All of them?' Star prompted sceptically. 'You don't think a single one of them thought maybe to, I dunno, hide under the bed?'
'The bed hasn't been touched!' Adam pointed out, looking at her bemusedly. 'These are spells; they'd probably damage the bedframe trying to hide under it.'
'Okay…and why do you think they would stick together?' The Butterfly queried with a confident look on her face. Rolling his eyes, the warlock glared at her impatiently.
'When we were in there, Narwhal said he wouldn't get back in your wand until all the other spells were safe. That tells us that the spells have, at the very least, some kind of camaraderie. They're not gonna want to split up because they're the only sense of familiarity they have.'
'Okay, so let's follow the trail,' Star decided. Adam nodded and made his way over to the window. Sticking his head out, he surveyed his surroundings.
This region of the Underworld was hilly, steeped in crimson forests stretching out for miles. A short red rock mountain stood in the distance. The window peered out several feet above the ground. Looking around, he could see that the castle walls were mostly flat, with very thin ledges stretching across for each floor. There didn't seem to be any accessible alcoves from this position. The only thing he could spot were the windows directly across from him, though all of them were closed.
Far below, he spotted a bed of flowers and tall blood red grass at the base of the castle. Curiously, Adam noticed that a few patches of the shrubbery had been flattened or bent.
'Down there,' he directed to Star, moving aside so she could see where he was pointing. 'They jumped and landed on those flowers.'
'Because they're flattened, right?' The princess deduced, receiving a nod from the teen. 'Heck yeah! I'm really getting the hang of this whole "detective" thing!'
'Yeah whatever; we need to get down there,' he brushed off. 'And quickly.'
'Well, we're not spells – that fall would break our legs! So how do we get down there?'
Adam stared at her as though she had said the stupidest thing in the world. To be fair, though, what Star had just asked was in fact very stupid and exceptionally short-sighted. It couldn't really be argued.
'You're asking a guy who can open portals at will if it's possible to get from one place to another?' The warlock spelled it out for her, folding his arms insipidly. Star pouted slightly at the deprecating remark.
'Can you just…open the portal?'
Adam rolled his eyes and stuck a hand out at the stone wall beside him. A bright shimmering portal swirled open where he had pointed. He gestured towards Star.
'Ladies first.'
Eyeing Adam sceptically, she walked through the portal. However, her foot didn't meet solid ground at first – instead, it was gaseous air.
'Woah!' Star yelled, as she fell a metre before hitting the tall grass.
Getting up and patting herself down, she looked around to see that the portal had been elevated up the wall. Soon, Adam exited the portal and landed smoothly on the ground. She straightened her back.
'You couldn't have opened the exit portal a little lower?' Star complained, stepping over the grass.
'Could've. Didn't,' he replied monotonously, patting down his clothes. Reaching the shorter grass, he scanned his surroundings. 'So, detective, where did they go?'
'Uh…' Star said out loud, looking around for any possible clues. Adam gave her a sceptical look. 'Are there footprints?'
'You tell me. Are there?'
The magical princess sighed.
'Look, Adam: I get that you're mad at me, but this is just really unhelpful!' She complained, clasping her hands together in frustration. 'I'm sorry for interrupting the spell – that was stupid of me.' Adam's expression did not change. 'One thing I'm not sorry for, though, is for having this face!'
That did cause a reaction, however.
'What?!' The warlock gawped, his face twisting into anger. 'What do you mean by that?!'
'Every time I've tried to be friendly with you, you've blown me off! I thought you agreed to be friends!'
'I don't have "friends",' Adam scorned heatedly.
'Janna would disagree,' she argued, folding her arms. 'I know, okay, evil me is, well, evil. But I'm not her!'
He sighed.
'I know that, Star.'
'Then why do you keep treating me so harshly?!'
Adam didn't answer the question. He didn't even look her in the eye. Star waited patiently for him to respond, or at least give some kind of indication of his thoughts. She watched as his expression cycled through different emotions, rarely dwelling on each one for very long. Though his black eyes looked cold and focussed, she could tell they were clouded.
'Lint,' he said inexplicably. Star drew back in confusion.
'What?'
'There's a trail of lint across the forest floor,' he identified, pointing along it with his finger. 'Or at least it looks like lint, or cotton. It's…relatively faint, but there. No flowers nearby that could cause it. Strange, huh?'
Star sighed. For now, she had to accept that Adam wasn't going to answer her question. He wasn't going to settle or accept defeat in their argument. There was perhaps no way he was ever going to admit he was wrong. Or change.
'Beanbag Monster,' she said dismally after a while. 'One of my spells.'
'That's perfect,' Adam remarked with a small smile. 'We can follow the trail and find the spells. Come on.'
Marco stifled a sigh as a spoon full of cat food was slapped out his hand by a small horn.
'Come on, you have to like something!' He complained.
'No!' Narwhal whined. Marco sighed and glanced over at the spoon on the floor a few feet away. He saw a hand bend down and pick it up. Marco looked up to see Tom inspecting the dripping cat food with disgust.
'Ew, this stuff looks like baby sick,' he described with a distinctly repulsed tone.
'Dude! There's no way Narwhal's gonna eat it now!' the Latino complained, pointing his arms at the magical creature.
'Sorry!' Tom said abashedly, scratching the back of his neck. Marco sighed and sunk back onto the couch behind him.
'Look, Narwhal: Star told us to look after you,' he reminded it. 'You wouldn't want to upset Star, would you?'
'Absolutely not!' Narwhal insisted, folding his arms indignantly.
'Then could you please be cooperative? Please?'
'Give me proper food and I will!' The spell scorned. 'I'm a living being, not a pet!'
Marco's face fell dejectedly and looked up at his demon prince friend.
'Could you get him some food?' He asked. 'Haven't you got some…Underworld cuisine?'
'I'll check the refrigerator,' Tom decided, moving away to find it. Marco looked back to Narwhal and stayed silent for a few moments, before he came up with something to say.
'So…what's it like inside Star's wand?' Marco inquired, looking at the magical narwhal inquisitively.
'It's…cosy,' he described, tapping his chin with his fin. 'It's like a little family.'
'What's it like day-to-day?'
'Well, every morning, Spider, my best friend, wakes us all up with a song. Spider's kinda like the leader of all of us. The heart of the spells, I guess. He has so much spirit; he's such an inspiration.'
'That's really nice,' Marco acknowledged, though admittedly he wasn't convinced. 'Wait, Spider as in Spider with a Top Hat?'
'That's the one.'
'It makes sense. Spider with a Top Hat is an entertainment spell, so singing songs would be his forte.'
'He's more than just entertainment!' Narwhal argued angrily, his cartoony face contorting with fury. 'He's more than just a spell! Didn't you hear the part about him being an "inspiration"?!'
'Sorry; sorry,' the Squire quickly apologised, throwing up his arms in surrender. 'Didn't mean to cause any offence.'
Narwhal looked away in dissatisfaction.
'Alright, I found some Hellfire fruit,' Tom announced, walking over to the two. In his hand, he carried a quartzite plate with a strange, spiky red fruit chopped into cubes on it. Slightly sceptical, Narwhal floated up and inspected the pieces in detail before ultimately deciding to eat some.
'Mmm!' The creature marvelled, between chomps of fruit. 'This is really good!'
'Eat up, buddy,' Marco said with a relieved smile, resting back against the couch.
'I didn't think spells would need to eat,' Tom commented absentmindedly, watching the narwhal scarf down the food with a frown.
'Why not?' Narwhal questioned, as he sucked up the sweet juice of the Hellfire fruit. 'We may be magic but…we still gotta eat to stay strong, y'know?'
'It's just a little weird,' he justified, shrugging his shoulders. 'You're just magic. You're not…'
When Tom failed to finish his sentence, Narwhal stuck his neck out in confoundedness.
'Not what?'
'Well, you're not…real, are you?' Tom pointed out, almost chuckling in disbelief at the notion.
'I am very real!' Narwhal shouted at him furiously. 'I'm every bit as real as you!'
'Tom –' Marco began.
'I mean, c'mon!' The prince laughed. 'You're just a spell! You're not a person!'
'Says who?!'
'Says me, an actual person,' he replied, apparently unaware of the hole he was digging.
'Shut up!' Narwhal screeched, before zipping forward and head-butting the demon in the stomach. Tom keeled over in pain, clutching his stomach.
'Narwhal!' Marco called, as the magical creature sped out of the carriage and out of sight.
Shooting a glare at Tom, who was still leaning over from being winded, he ran out of the carriage after it. Unfortunately, Narwhal was far faster than the young squire had expected, because it was nowhere in sight in Tom's bedroom when he exited the carriage. Letting out an exasperated groan, Marco stomped towards Tom.
'Tom! Are you serious right now?!' He practically shrieked.
'What?' He responded defiantly, still groaning in pain. 'I mean…I'm not wrong!'
'How would you feel if someone told you that you aren't "real"?'
'Well, I wouldn't like it, but –'
'We just lost Narwhal!' Marco cut off, grabbing him by the collar. Letting go, he put a stressful hand to his forehead. 'Oh, Star is gonna kill me! Or maybe Adam will first! Ugh, Tom we gotta go look for him.'
Tom opened his mouth to protest, but then realised what Marco had said. An angry Star would not be a friendly Star, and he would know better than to get on her bad side. After all, the princess could be wrathful when she wanted to be.
'Oh, fine.'
Marco gave him another scowl, waiting for him to recover from the head-butt. The two finally stepped out of the carriage, looking around the room for some clue of where Narwhal had gone.
Initially, Marco would have thought he had gone out the window. However, the door to their right had very clearly been bust open with a round hole through the middle. Definitely indicative of a narwhal's horn.
'Come on,' he ordered Tom with a disgruntled look.
Adam and Star had been following the beanbag trail for the better part of an hour now. Adam had been mostly silent, only humming for communication or uttering monosyllabic phrases wherever necessary. Star couldn't say she was surprised, though she would've hoped Adam would be more mature. He was giving her the silent treatment, though, and for once, Star was surprised that she could call someone else out on their immaturity.
Adam had a laser-like focus on the task at hand. Compartmentalising all other thoughts and emotions seemed to be something he was good at. To an extent, that is, given his emotional outbursts in the past. Star didn't know how he remained so focussed like that. Obviously, humour wasn't his favourite option in any given situation, but he had to have laughed at least once, right?
Janna was the one of the few he was actually friendly with, which Star wasn't surprised by. They had been friends in his world, and they got along very well in this multiverse. He was also fairly friendly to Marco, too, now that the squire had gotten over his initial distrust of the Mewman. It made sense in that area: Adam didn't know the Marco from his universe. Adam's predisposition towards others was clearly the main issue between them.
Star was brought out of her thoughts as her "friend" stopped in his tracks. She almost bumped into him because of his apparent abruptness.
'Adam–!'
'The trail,' he interrupted flatly. 'It stops dead here.'
Star immediately noticed it. The cotton faded away along the red grass, until there was no longer anything to follow. Frantically, the Butterfly looked around in hopes of finding any suggestion of where the spells had gone from here.
'Where did they go?' She asked helplessly.
'I don't know,' Adam admitted, kneeling down to inspect the remains of the cotton on the ground.
'What do you mean you "don't know"?' Star practically screeched in his face.
'I mean I don't know,' he repeated sanctimoniously, scanning all parts of his surroundings.
'Well, is there any way to tell where they went?' The magical princess prompted, waving her arms around her. Adam stood up and stared at her as she gestured manically. 'I mean they can't have just…disappeared! Did Beanbag close his mouth? Why? What's going on? What did we do?'
'Are you gonna keep flailing your arms around like a madwoman or are you gonna let me figure this out?' He derided, his brow hardening into an annoyed glower.
'Wow, rude,' she remarked, folding her arms at him. Adam merely ignored her comment and began investigating his surroundings.
'It's hard to see any impressions on the ground, so they must have been moving quickly,' he determined, tearing out some grass and letting it slip through his fingers. Adam moved over to a nearby collection of tall grass and flowers. 'These flowers are bent though; that's weird.'
'The tree looks damaged,' Star pointed out, walking over to him to inspect it.
'Mm?' The teenager enquired, looking up. The tree had cracks across a small portion of it, and the bark looked caved in slightly. 'Yeah, it does.'
The Mewman looked down at the flowers again, leaning inwards, he spotted something. Moving some of the ferns out of the way, Adam spotted something. It was hard to spot under the dark red mud, but there was a fine moss of cotton. He turned back to look at the way they came, and the gears began to turn in his mind.
'Beanbag Monster came this way,' he observed, looking around at all the clues. 'For some reason, it hit the tree and fell on the shrub.'
'That's…strange,' Star described bewilderedly, looking around the forest for clues. 'So where did it go from here?'
'I don't suppose you have some kind of magical detection spell?' The teenager asked, kicking himself for not having asked sooner.
'Um, no, I don't,' the princess admitted abashedly. 'Illusion magic ain't really ma thang.'
He hummed in discontent. Note to self: must make a magical detection spell down the line.
'Hmm…' Adam thought aloud. 'Beanbag Monster must've gotten lost. Separated from the group.' He looked at his compatriot. 'If you got lost, what would you do?'
'Uh, retrace my steps?'
'Fair enough, but say you were too scared to do that – and you've just been dazed by a blow to the head. What would you do then?'
Star considered the suggestion for a moment. She could tell that Adam was trying to get at something here. All she'd have to do is figure out exactly what he was trying to indicate to her. Inevitably, perhaps slower the warlock would have preferred, she finally had an idea.
'I'd look out for any landmarks,' the girl decided. 'Y'know, something to figure out where I am.'
Adam pointed at her triumphantly. Star breathed a content sigh of victory.
'Exactly,' he concurred, before pointing away to something in the distance to his left. 'There's a river over there. That seems as good a landmark as any.'
'Shouldn't we hurry?' Star questioned. 'You know, before Beanbag Monster leaves the lake?'
Instead of responding verbally, the teenager simply jerked his head at the suggestion and broke into a run towards the lake in the distance.
'Hey, wait up!' She complained, sprinting after him. It took a while before she caught up to him, but Adam himself didn't seem to care all too much.
'You said to hurry!' He pointed out, before quickly turning to make a beeline towards the lake.
Adam could just about make out the impressions of footsteps on the taller grass closer to the lake. It was hard to tell where the Beanbag Monster had gone exactly, given it wasn't leaving a cotton trail. Hitting the tree probably didn't encourage the spell to go very far, though.
'Over there!' Star yelled, pointing off to his right. Turning the corner of a tree, he stopped shy of something on the ground.
A large, vaguely humanoid creature lay slumped against the side of the tree. It had soft pink skin made out of a cotton material, complete with seam lines running across it. Instead of true eyes, it had two big black buttons, smooth and round. Rather than a mouth, the creature had a zipper running across its length, which was currently closed.
'Beanbag!' Star cried in concern, kneeling down beside the spell. She shook it, trying to wake the creature. It shifted for a few moments, before its two button eyes gained a white glint in their centre. Adam interpreted that as its eyes opening.
'Oh…my head,' Beanbag Monster complained, reaching a hand up to rub the side of his head. Its voice was goofy and mercurial, similar to that of a clown's. Its face immediately lit up when it saw the princess. 'Star! You're here!'
'Of course I am!' She assured him. 'I need you guys!'
'When we were thrown out of the wand we were so scared!' Beanbag added, shuffling up against the tree trunk. 'We ran and ran so fast – I wasn't even looking where I was going!'
'At which point you hit a tree head-first,' Adam surmised, finishing the story for him. Beanbag Monster stared up at him, apparently failing to have noticed him beforehand.
Beanbag's eyes widened, and suddenly it leapt to his feet. The magical creature zipped behind Star, tentatively peeking around her back to look at the warlock.
'No, please don't hurt me!' Beanbag Monster pleaded. Adam simply narrowed his eyes into a beleaguered scowl.
'I'm not gonna hurt you,' he stated almost blearily.
'Why would he hurt you?' Star questioned, raising an eyebrow.
'H-He…he threw us out of the wand!' It whimpered.
'Oh, right,' the princess recalled. 'It's okay, he won't hurt you. It was just an accident.'
'It's not just that!' Beanbag Monster cried. 'That magic was terrifying! It was like…all our worst nightmares come to life.'
'How do you mean?' The girl prompted again, folding her arms.
'All the spells that you made were sucked out the wand by his magic,' it continued, though the two of them already knew this. 'We ended up in this creepy black abyss…it was awful! Everything went dark…and it felt like I was all alone, yet something was watching me.'
Star looked at Adam helplessly.
'Huh…' the Mewman thought aloud. 'It's possible…that may have been because of my anti-magic.'
'Wait what?' She shrieked. 'I'm sorry, did you just say "anti-magic"?'
'Yes,' Adam replied irreverently. 'I hadn't had a chance to explain that part to you yet. The magic from this multiverse – the Positive Multiverse, I suppose – is bright, vibrant and upbeat. The magic from mine is…far different – it's twisted and dark. A lot of it operates on the opposite wavelength to yours. Omnitraxus named it "anti-magic".'
'That's…wow,' the princess stammered, unable to put it into words. 'And your anti-magic messed things up?'
'I think so,' Adam considered, rubbing his chin in contemplation. 'You interrupted the process, and my anti-magic must have gotten unstable, or something.'
'"Or something"?'
'I'm just making this up as I go along,' the warlock confessed, shrugging his shoulders.
He looked back at Beanbag, who was still cowering from him.
'I guess anti-magic's not meant to tamper with magical objects from this world. The same thing happened with the Magic Detection Machine.' Adam put a firm hand on Beanbag Monster's shoulder. 'I'm sorry for throwing you out from the wand. Don't worry – we'll help you find the other spells. In fact, we already found Narwhal.'
'You found Narwhal?!' It echoed. 'We all thought we'd lost him!'
'Nah, he's alright!' Star confirmed confidently. 'He's back at the castle! Marco and Tom are looking after him!'
Adam thought about correcting her use of "he" and "him" to "it", but he figured now wasn't the time. He watched as Beanbag Monster began to relax, coming out from behind Star. Nevertheless, the spell still wasn't too keen about looking him in the eye.
'Beanbag, do you have any idea where the other spells were going?' Adam asked it, his brow creasing in pensiveness.
'Uh, well…' the spell stuttered, trying to remember anything useful. 'Spider! Yeah, Spider said we needed to find shelter somewhere. "Somewhere secluded and quiet", he said.'
'Star?' The Mewman prompted, turning to her. 'You know the Underworld pretty well, right?' She nodded mutely. 'Is there anywhere nearby that might fill those criteria?'
'Uh…' Star thought aloud, scratching her cheeks while trying to come up with something. After a second, her countenance lit up in recollection. 'There's a cave nearby, on the side of the mountain.' She pointed upwards towards the small ash-capped mountain in the immediate distance.
'Right, good,' he concurred. 'Let's go.'
'Hey, Beanbag,' the princess addressed, beaming at it with an obviously fake smile. 'You maybe think you'd want to get back in the wand?'
'No!' The spell disagreed immediately. 'Not until I'm with the others!'
'You know, you should have seen that coming,' Adam criticised, folding his arms critically. Star rolled her eyes at him and walked onwards.
'The cave is at the other end of the forest,' she hollered at them as she walked away. Beanbag Monster hurried after her, as Adam scowled and began to pick up his pace.
Thanks for reading Chapter 10, the first chapter of Episode Five! Thank you for the reviews, follows and favs. It means a lot!
I think it's quite logical that Adam would immediately want to investigate this "connection" he has to Star's wand. He wants to know, mainly, if it's something that he can use against Dark Star - because it's something that he has that Dark Star doesn't. Not to mention he wants to know if he can learn some of the spells inside the wand, thereby enhancing his magical skill very quickly. He knows he still wouldn't stand a chance against her, so he has to be smart and use what he DOES have.
Of course, what Adam did not expect is that the ritual spell he cast on the wand could be interfered with, releasing the spells in the process.
Adam doesn't see the spells as people, so he didn't consider they could be physical entities inside the wand. I know the episodes featuring the characters inside the wand aren't actually canon, but I don't care, it is in this fic now lol.
The friction between Adam and Star is realistic, in my opinion. Adam is a hypocrite in the sense that he claimed to detest treating Star differently for external factors she could not control, yet he still behaves rudely and disrespectfully to her because he associates her face with severe trauma.
He's written like this on purpose, and my way of proving that is by having Star point it out and acknowledge his behaviour. His flaws are on display to make him a more realistic character. His experience and trauma have shaped his world view, and as such he allows it to define him. His methods also cause friction with Star, as Adam believes that victory should be achievable by any means necessary, whereas Star has more rigid moral principles that prevent her from stooping to certain lows. That's why Adam has virtually no problem with seeing and reading the Dark spells in his Book of Spells, but Star does. Adam would be willing to cast torture curses if he truly believed it was necessary.
We also have some more Tom conflict, because I'm building up to a climax between Star and Tom in the mid-season finale. If I'm gonna do it, it has to be realistic. I don't just want to instantly break them up without any prior build-up. Although the flaws their relationship has already been fleshed out at this point.
Anyways, next chapter is going to further this episode and complete it. It will - rather cleverly - be called "Absolutely Spell-tacular". A million points for that pun, thank you. See y'all then!