Episode:
5: Demon Days

Whilst Marco struggles to keep Narwhal in check, Adam and Star continue their quest to find and convince the spells to return to her wand.

It had been a laboriously long amount of time since they had started, and they still had not succeeded. Marco wasn't sure how long they had been chasing Narwhal, but he had already lost his breath twice. Nevertheless, the teen hadn't lost his determination to catch the spell. Star wasn't going to be very pleased if she returned to discover that they – that Tom – had angered Narwhal. Initially, they'd lost track of him, but they managed to catch up – at which point the spell simply scarpered off.

This had led them to where they were now. Marco and Tom sprinted through the maroon hallways of the castle after Narwhal. The spell was very fast, slamming through doors like there was no tomorrow.

Narwhal dodged a blast of fire aimed at the ground. Marco glanced to his right to see that Tom had casually thrown the fireball at the spell.

'Tom!' He scolded, slapping the back of his head to prevent him casting another one. 'You're scaring him!'

'It.'

'Whatever, man, just stop throwing fireballs at Narwhal!'

'Ugh, fine!'

Marco didn't really know what Tom's problem was. Not only had he caused this whole mess, by insulting Narwhal, but he refused to acknowledge the spell as a person. Now, Tom was scaring poor Narwhal with his magic.

'Narwhal!' The squire yelled desperately at him. 'We're sorry! We didn't mean to insult you!'

'Then stop throwing fireballs at me!' He wailed.

'Tom just wants you to stop running!' Marco yelled back, though not even he believed his own argument.

Narwhal suddenly stopped and threw down a set of armour, blocking the hallway. His two chasers halted before the obstacle. Initially, Marco tried moving over, but he saw Narwhal jerk back, prepared to speed away at a moment's notice.

'Narwhal,' the teen addressed sympathetically. 'He'll stop trying to singe you, I promise.'

'And how do I know he actually will?!'

Glancing at Tom, the Latino found the Demon Prince remained silent. Annoyed at his friend's lack of tact, Marco elbowed him. Instead of catching on, Tom merely grimaced and elicited a curt moan of pain.

'Promise you won't do it again, Tom!'

'Ok, ok!' The prince acquiesced. 'I promise I'll stop trying to throw fireballs at you, Narwhal.'

Narwhal eyed him up and down sceptically. Not the slightest bit intimidated, Tom simply stared back at the magical creature. For Marco's benefit, he tried not to look as disinterested as he actually was. Whether or not Narwhal was convinced was another story, and it was hard to tell from his countenance.

'Hm, okay,' the spell agreed doubtfully. 'But I want you to apologise for what you said.'

Tom shrank back and frowned.

'What do you mean?'

'You said I wasn't a real person!' Narwhal yelled at him, floating over to prod Tom's hand on the metal armour.

'Ow!' He complained, instantly retracting his hand away from it. Marco elbowed him again.

'C'mon, Tom: you know you have to say sorry for that.'

'Ugh, okay, I'm sorry,' the demon apologised noncommittally, before lowering his voice to a mumble. 'I mean I'm not wrong, but y'know, whatever.'

'Say that again,' Narwhal demanded sternly. 'I didn't quite catch that.'

'Tom, don't –' Marco began.

'I said I wasn't wrong,' he answered confidently, staring Narwhal down. 'You're just a spell. Nothing more. You wouldn't even exist if Star hadn't made you. You're not real; you're just magic with a voice!'

There wasn't much Marco could do to defend Tom in that moment. Yelling angrily at him, Narwhal immediately head-butted the demon to the ground. Before the demon could even get up, the spell was over him, excessively stabbing him with his horn. The demon cried in pain with each rough stab, not that Narwhal was too concerned.

'Narwhal!' Marco yelled, leaping over to try to put some distance between the two.

Evidently, he had underestimated the magical creature's strength, because it took an exorbitant amount of effort prying them apart. Narwhal's full mass was pressed against him, forcing him to use both his hands to keep the sharp horn away from Tom.

'Narwhal…I'm sorry but…this isn't…helping!' He wheezed, as he managed to throw the spell away. When Narwhal came speeding back, Marco stood in front of Tom.

'Marco, get out of the way!' He shouted angrily.

'I'm sorry Narwhal but as much of an idiot Tom is, he's still my friend.'

'You're not defending him, are you?'

'Of course not!' Marco dismissed, a remorseful look welling up in his eyes. 'Would it make you feel better if I kept you and Tom separate?'

Narwhal thought about the proposition for a moment. Marco clearly wasn't as bad as Tom. He'd insulted Spider earlier, but he apologised for that. Meanwhile, Tom didn't even view him as an actual person. To him, he was something sub-human and lesser, and he didn't even understand what was wrong with that!

'Okay,' he ultimately agreed. 'I'll go with you.'

'Alright,' Marco said with a smile. 'Let's go back to Tom's carriage. Star will be expecting us there.'

'Then where should I go?' Tom enquired, frowning in disbelief.

'Somewhere where you can think about what you've done,' the squire suggested flatly. Narwhal took his hand and the two walked away from Tom, who stood there sadly.

'Marco, wait!' He pleaded, but the Latino merely ignored him. 'Wait, I'm sorry!'

The mountain could be described as short, in a sense. In a sense that, in comparison to other mountains Adam had seen, this one was considerably smaller. In fact, if one stretched their definition, it could pass as a particularly large hill. The rock was a dark red colour, craggy and uneven but keeping the blood red pigment. The top of the mountain was deeply capped in ash, which had descended from the slate grey clouds hovering above the summit.

'This is the place,' Star affirmed, gesturing in front of them. A large opening to a cave descended deep into the mountain, twisting and turning into complete blackness. The cave walls seemed to narrow, belying the large entrance.

Adam inspected every detail. There wasn't much physical indication that the spells had indeed gone through here, so he reached into his pocket and produced his trusty shiny golden compass. Walking up to the cave opening, he held out the compass in front of him and inspected it.

'Dense magic is coming from inside the cave,' he presumed, prompting Star to come over and look at it. The compass pointers were spinning, only stopping at increments before moving once again. It was nearly impossible to tell what compass direction they were facing.

'That's weird,' Star commented. 'How does that work?'

'Magic gives off radiation and magnetic waves,' he reminded her.

'Oh, right,' she realised. 'My mom mentioned that – it's why I don't sleep with my wand under my pillow.'

The teenager heard sniffing sounds to his right and turned to see what it was. Beanbag Monster was lifting a pointed bit in its materialistic face and making inhalation noises that he presumed was meant to be its nose, which was sniffing.

'They're in there,' it confirmed, walking in the cave. 'I can sense them.' Adam and Star followed after him.

'You can sense other spells?' The Mewman asked it, with a high-pitched impressed inflection. 'Do you have some sort of connection?'

'Only when we're close to each other,' Beanbag Monster answered. 'I can just…feel that they're in here.'

It remained to be seen if Beanbag Monster was correct, but the Mewman had no reason to believe it was wrong, either. This cave was the logical place for the spells to hide inside. It was quiet, abandoned and the nearest place for miles that could accommodate all of the spells at once. This Spider that Beanbag Monster had mentioned was obviously an intelligent spell, able to reign in the others and keep them together as a group.

They followed Beanbag's lead for around half an hour. Star had tried to use her wand to make a flashlight, having forgotten that she couldn't cast spells. Seeing how their surroundings were getting rapidly dark, Adam had opted to use his wand (his star-shaped burn mark) as a flashlight instead. He had succeeded, and they were able to see properly.

Adam was beginning to notice some clues. The ground had a milky liquid spread across it on the side, which Adam was faintly aware was ice cream. Star had confirmed to him she had an ice cream spell, but it was almost definite that this is what was leaving the trail. Unfortunately, it had been impossible to spot such a faint, liquid trail on the mud before, giving the forest floor and grass simply absorbed it. Now, though, it was visible and could vaguely be followed.

'So…' Star said, after a little while. 'About earlier…'

'Which part?' Adam inquired stoically.

'I don't mean to make you angry,' she said. 'I just…I notice you don't smile very much. I wanted to make you laugh.'

'That's trivial,' he dismissed. 'I've got bigger things to worry about than what I find funny.'

'Jeez, you're crankier than Crankulus.'

The Mewman stared at her. His eyes were a mix of shock and slight disdain, and Star immediately regretted making that joke. He pursed his lips.

'You've been reading my book, haven't you?' He asked, though he made it sound like a fact. Mainly because it was a fact. There was no point in Star denying it.

'Sorry, I couldn't help it,' she apologised sheepishly.

'It's okay,' the teenager dismissed reluctantly. 'It was in an unlocked drawer. That's fair game.'

'Oh don't worry, I left the locked drawers alone,' she reassured him with a smile. 'I wasn't about to go rifling through your things.'

'Thanks,' he acknowledged sincerely. 'I, uh, I do appreciate that.' He looked down for a moment. 'By the way that book…it belonged to my mom.'

'Really?' Star prompted, her ears perking up.

'Yep,' Adam confirmed. 'I don't know how she got it exactly – given she was a Monster and all – but she'd read me one of the tales every night before bed.'

'Aw, that's really nice.'

'I won't act like some of those stories aren't really…dark,' he confessed, straightening his shirt. 'Mom would usually pick the lighter ones and censor them where she saw fit. A clever woman, she was.'

'I wish I could have met her.'

'You would've liked her. She was kind and caring, sure, but she knew how to kick ass when needed. Sometimes I think even Dad was scared of her.' He sniggered slightly at that last comment. 'Yeah. That was Mom.'

Star thought about saying something in response to that, but she figured not to. Adam was evidently in a happy place in his mind, and she didn't want to interrupt it. Chances were, she'd say something stupid and end up annoying him even more.

Sometime later, after a long silence, they walked into a small chamber. Adam shone his flashlight at the end of the room, finding only craggy, stone walls.

'I think they're in here,' Beanbag Monster decided, looking about the dark room. Star frowned.

'Well, I don't really see them,' she commented, idly following Adam's flashlight as it looked about the room. 'Maybe they –'

She was interrupted by a loud yell as numerous silhouettes dropped down, blocking Adam's flashlight for a moment. Instinctively, Adam formed a purple rectangular barrier in front of them. He felt the forcefield get hit in multiple places, but he managed to hold them back.

Star looked closer to see what was going on.

'Wait, Adam! Drop the shield!' She told him, receiving a wary look from the teenager. Upon seeing her assuring look, he dropped the forcefield and cast a spell to send a glowing ball of light to fully illuminate the room.

All of Star's spells, as far as Adam could tell, were standing in various offensive poses about the room. Multiple Warnicorns and narwhals stood at the front, evidently serving as the main attack force. To the sides, there were various floating crystalline cupcakes, and behind them, Adam could see floating pigs and butterflies, along with a couple emerald snakes. At the far back, there were a few floating squids and more grounded purple rabbits. There were numerous more spells that Adam could see, including a Minotaur and a raccoon. They all filled the room in an obviously practiced attack formation. Star's array of spells was rather impressive.

'It's him!' One of the Flying Pigs identified aggressively. 'Attack!'

The spells were about to charge forward at Adam when Star stepped in front of him to catch their attention.

'Hey, guys! It's okay!' The princess assured them frantically, throwing her arms at her sides to shield Adam from them.

'Star?' A voice from above realised. The two of them looked up to see an oversized purple spider wearing a comical top hat descending from the ceiling on a silky web. Spider with a Top Hat, of course. 'Star! You came!'

'Of course I did!' She replied with a bright smile. 'You guys are my spells! I care about y'all!'

'But what about him?!' A Warnicorn complained derisively, pointing a hoof at Adam.

'Yeah!' Makeup Blast added. 'He threw us out of the wand!'

'I didn't mean to!' Adam insisted, throwing up his hands in surrender.

'Oh, sure, and we'll just believe you!' A Cupcake argued patronisingly.

'Guys, it was an accident! And it was partly my fault,' Star explained. 'If you guys don't believe me, why don't you ask Beanbag Monster?'

The Butterfly stepped aside to reveal Beanbag Monster, who was still standing in the same place, nonplussed. It waved at the spells with a bright smile.

'Hey guys,' the spell greeted.

'Beanbag!' All of them cried in unison, speeding forward to wrap him in a huge group hug. Beanbag almost suffocated, but survived when they let go of him.

'We thought we'd lost you!' One of the Cupcakes admitted worriedly.

'Yeah, one second you were with us and the next you were gone,' another Cupcake concurred, nodding with the previous Cupcake's comment.

'I'm okay,' the beanbag spell assured them with a smile. 'But Star's right – it really was an accident! Besides, Adam helped me find you guys!'

The spells all looked at the Mewman very sceptically, and a few of them looked at him in fear. Adam scratched his scalp abashedly, acutely aware that he was primarily responsible for this whole damned incident.

Honestly, it was a huge shame. One of the reasons he wanted to experiment with the wand was to see if he could learn or inspect the spells inside. It would really expand his knowledge of magic in general, and possibly allow him to create some more advanced spells. The only one he'd managed to get a proper look at was the Sparkle Glitter Bomb Expand spell, which he hadn't had a chance to test out with his newfound understanding of it.

As Red Glossaryck had always said, there was no fast-track to success with magic. He had to take his time, which Adam had felt the two years of training had done already. Admittedly, he'd underestimated the complexity of magic.

No shortcut. There was only one route, and it was definitely a long route.

'I'm really sorry about taking you guys from your home,' he apologised sincerely. 'I was trying to learn magic a bit faster – I realise that there's no shortcut. We'll get you back home and I promise I won't tamper with the wand ever again.'

The spells looked at each other warily for a few moments. After a few exchanges, they looked back at Adam and gave him an agreeing nod.

'So…you guys wanna get back in the wand now?' Star propositioned, holding out her currently broken wand at them.

'No way,' Spider turned down. 'Narwhal's still missing. We couldn't find him.'

'Oh, no, he's okay!' The magical princess assured. 'He's back at the castle! We actually found him first.'

'Really?' A snake replied in surprise. 'We never sssaw him with us.'

'He got thrown out last,' Adam deduced, shrugging his shoulders guiltily. 'We can take you back to the castle to see him, though. Would you like that?'

All of the spells, including Beanbag Monster, cheered at the idea.

The door to the carriage slid open quickly, causing the orange light from the castle to pour in.

'Marco! Tom! We're back!' Star hollered, as she stepped into the carriage.

'Hey, Star,' Marco replied to her right. She turned to see him sitting on the couch with Narwhal next to him, consuming some more Hellfire fruit. 'I take it you found the other spells?'

'Yep,' she confirmed, stepping aside to reveal the whole host of them. Narwhal's face immediately lit up upon sight of his friends.

'Guys!' It greeted ebulliently, zipping over to them.

'Narwhal!' Spider responded ecstatically, wrapping its eight arms around the magical spell. 'I was so worried!'

'Me too!' Narwhal said, before turning to Star. 'Thank you, Star.' It then spared a look to Adam and reluctantly grinned. 'And you, Adam. I really appreciate this.'

'I keep my promises,' the warlock told the spell confidently. 'You're very welcome, Narwhal.'

'Where's Tom?' Star asked Marco, frowning now that she'd noticed his absence.

'He insulted Narwhal,' the squire answered, gritting his teeth. 'He said some mean things –'

'He said I wasn't a real person!' The spell in question interrupted, folding its arms defiantly. 'It hurt my feelings!'

In all honesty, Adam did agree with Tom a little on that front. They were just spells, after all, so they couldn't be considered actual people. However, he had seen first-hand that these spells had emotions and feelings, and the capacity for intelligence. There wasn't actually much separating them from himself; the only detail was that they were entirely composed of magic. Glossaryck and the MHC were also entirely magic, and they were clearly real.

So what really made these spells any different from that?

Adam considered it. At the very least, he understood that voicing an opinion that someone isn't real would hurt that someone's feelings. It probably wouldn't be a good idea to insult the spells that he had only just earned the forgiveness of.

That being said, spells were still an "it" to him.

'Ugh,' Star scoffed disapprovingly. 'Figures Tom would do that. It's –'

They were interrupted when the door to the carriage opened again, and someone stepped inside. All of them turned to see who had interrupted their conversation.

Tom stepped into the room reluctantly, hanging his head guiltily.

'Speak of the devil,' Adam commented, eliciting a small snigger from Marco at the unintended pun.

'What do you want?' Narwhal derided, rolling his eyes at the demon's presence.

'I came to apologise!' Tom replied defensively, throwing up his hands in surrender.

'To Narwhal, right?' Star presumed, folding her arms in disapproval of his actions. 'What you said was really mean, Tom!'

'I know, I know,' he confessed. 'I spoke to my mom, and she put it into perspective for me.' Tom walked over to Narwhal and bent down in front of him. 'I'm sorry for all those things I said about you. I was wrong – you're every bit as real as I am. The only difference between us is that you're made from magic, but you can still have thoughts and ideas. I should never have discriminated against you like that. I'm sorry.'

Narwhal looked sceptical for several moments, not looking convinced after first. However, he saw that, at the very least, Tom was trying to make amends. It decided to give the prince the benefit of the doubt.

'Okay, I forgive you,' Narwhal accepted, raising a sceptical eyebrow. Tom breathed a sigh of relief.

'I can't believe you almost messed things up Tom,' Star judged, scowling slightly at him. 'That being said, I'm glad you learned your lesson.'

Tom nodded respectfully and walked over to sit by Marco on the couch. He smiled at the squire reproachfully, prompting Marco to reluctantly beat his eyebrows in acceptance.

'So now do you guys wanna get back into the wand?' Star asked them, a hopeful expression brewing on her face. The spells exchanged wary glances for a few moments, but ultimately they turned back to nod at her.

'I think we're ready now,' Spider decided, nodding agreeably. 'It's time to go home.'

'Alright!' Star cheered before looking down at her wand. 'Wait, how do I get them back in the wand?'

'I had an idea,' the warlock proposed. 'You know that spell I did that caused the spells to be projected out of the wand?'

'You mean the one that caused all of this?'

'Yes,' he answered remorsefully. 'If it can let them out, then logic dictates it can let them back in again.'

'So you're gonna try the spell again?' Star responded sceptically.

'No,' he said with a disingenuous, high inflection. 'You are.'

'What?'

'Well, you're clearly more closely connected to the wand, given it contains your spells,' he explained, waving a hand towards the pantheon of spells next to them. 'All you have to do is do it in reverse.'

'First off, I don't even know how to do it in non-reverse!' Star pointed out judgementally. 'And second, are you forgetting I can't cast any spells right now?!'

'First: I can teach you how to do it; it's not that hard,' he began answering, 'and second: have you forgotten that you don't need your wand to cast spells? You wouldn't use the target of the spell to cast the spell anyway – you'd need to use an exterior object.'

At first, Star held a finger up to object. As she thought about it, though, her defiant countenance dropped along with her finger. She nodded at him warily, before transforming into her Full Butterfly form.

'Alright,' she accepted. 'So how do I do this?'

'Put the wand on the ground and kneel down in front of it,' he instructed. Star did as he commanded, moving to a meditative stance before her royal wand. 'Good. Now, close your eyes.' She blinked her eyes shut. 'Breathe. In and out. In and out. I want you to focus on your magic first. Picture it like you're digging through the cauldron of magic. Dip your hand deep in and bring out some of the liquid in your hands.' He watched as Star began to glow a bright yellow, her bright blonde bun braids floating upwards to ignore gravity. 'Okay. Now imagine the wand is floating in front of you. Start reaching out to the wand, but it's only just out of your reach. Imagine there's a line coming out of your chest extending to the wand. Let it catch the centre of the wand.' Star's wand lit up brightly, prompting a victorious smile from Adam. 'Good. You've integrated yourself. All you have to do now is instruct the wand to capture with your thoughts.'

The wand began to project upwards the same bright blue light as before. A silk translucent line ran from the centre of Star's chest to the wand, pulses of light transmitting across it. No spells came out, of course, but the wand was now in capture mode.

'You can open your eyes now,' the Mewman told her. Star delicately opened her eyes and smiled brightly at the sight of her success.

'Heck yeah!' She celebrated. 'What do we do now?'

'We don't have to do anything,' Adam answered, folding his arms. 'All that we need now is for the spells to jump into the wand.'

Star and Adam turned to the plethora of spells, who were currently marvelling at the beautiful sight of the capture magic. Once they realised the two of them were staring, they adopted more pensive looks.

'I'll go first,' Spider proposed nervously.

'Are you sure, Spider?' Narwhal questioned, gritting its teeth anxiously.

'Yeah, I'm sure!' The spell replied, though the shakiness in his tone belied his response. 'Besides, there's no reason this won't work, is there?'

Narwhal opened its mouth to speak, but he was interrupted when the entire group of spells burst into hasty, worried conversation.

'Star might drop the connection by accident!'

'You could get lost in transit!'

'We don't know how long it will take!'

'Star's concentration could be really fragile!'

'What if you just die?'

Spider held up its eight arms pacifyingly to placate their numerous witters of doubt. It took a few seconds, but inevitably they fell silent.

'Guys, guys,' the top-hatted Spider appeased. 'Have a little faith in Star, y'know? She made all of us; this magic's no sweat for her!' Spider received a reluctant agreement from its fellow spells. It breathed out a preparatory breath, rubbing its eight hands together.

'Good luck,' Narwhal bid him. Spider swallowed down the air in his throat.

'On three. One…two…three!'

As per his count, Spider jumped into the ray of light. As soon as he was enveloped in its magic, the spell was sucked into the crystal, comically shrinking as he did so. Once it was out of sight, the wand crystal pulsed pink, giving off a beeping sound. Adam looked closer at the front design of the wand.

One of the pale blue hearts had reverted back to the original hot pink colour.

'I think it worked,' he determined, looking back at the other spells.

'Spider was right; there's nothing to worry about!' Narwhal declared to its fellow spells. 'Come on!' With that, the magical narwhal leapt into the wand, disappearing from sight.

Though stunted, the spells followed one by one into the wand. As they did so, the five hearts around the wand slowly began to turn pink, emitting a beep every time a spell entered the wand.

Once all the spells entered the wand, there was a bright nova of white light that blinded all four individuals left in the room.

It took a few moments for the light to die down, but when it did, Adam lowered his arm from his eyes. He searched the room for any damage, though fortunately the room was mostly untouched.

Now in her base form, Star skidded over to the wand, bending down hurriedly to scoop it up. The central star had restored itself, back to normal, along with the surrounding hearts. A smile immediately spread out across her face.

'Cupcake Blast!' The magical princess yelled, holding the wand firmly at the wall.

The wand lit up and shot out a bright pink flash of crystalline cupcakes. They smashed into the wall with impressive force, embedding themselves inside the bricks.

'Yes!' Star revelled ebulliently, comically jogging on the ground and pumping her fists in celebration. She beamed at Adam. 'We fixed it!'

'Yeah, I guess we did,' he replied, shrugging his shoulders. The Mewman spoke with an intonation that Star assumed was as close to happiness as he could muster.

'Well that was a rollercoaster,' Marco commented idly, getting up from the couch. 'Now can we check out the Underworld?'

'I know you've been waiting all day for that, Marco,' the girl said humorously. 'Why don't you go with Tom?'

Tom's ears perked up.

'Wait, what?' The demon questioned, leaping off the couch onto his feet instantly. 'Um, Star! We were supposed to be hanging out!'

'I know, I know, we'll do it later I promise!' She assured him, waving her hands in surrender. 'There's just something I gotta do first.' She subtly jerked her head towards Adam next to her. Tom looked slightly confused for a moment, but opted to trust her judgement instead.

'Alright, then,' he conceded, slightly nodding. The demon turned to his friend next to him. 'Come on Marco, I know all the good places to find.'

Tom moved over to the carriage, sliding open the door and stepping out. Marco followed after him, turning to nod at Star before he left. She nodded back, with a bright, friendly smile, watching him leave.

'So, what did you want to talk about?' The warlock beside her questioned, putting his hands on his hips.

'Huh?' The girl uttered, blinking at him gormlessly. Adam's eyes narrowed at her.

'I'm not stupid, Star. You obviously got Tom to go with Marco so you could isolate the pair of us. Just go ahead – I'm all ears.'

Despite his apparent open-mindedness, she still found herself suffocating under his piercing gaze.

'The argument we had before,' Star began reluctantly, averting his eyes. 'I got mad because I've felt like you've been treating me unfairly just because I look like…her.'

The teen remained silent, prompting her to continue.

'I realised, whether it's unfair or not doesn't matter right now,' she confessed. 'I didn't really respect what you've been through. In the world you live in, you've had to suffer because of someone who looks exactly like me. That's not the kind of thing you would forget.' She looked down. 'It must be hard to look at me every day.'

'It is,' he agreed in a slow, poignant voice. 'But I'm trying my best to move past it.'

'That's exactly what I mean,' the Butterfly concurred. 'You need time. To work things out and deal with that on your own. I never should have tried to rush that. I'm sorry.'

'Thank you, Star,' Adam appreciated. 'That means a lot.' A tiny smile tugged at the ends of his lips. 'For what it's worth, I'll try to be nicer in future.'

'Thanks,' the girl accepted brightly. 'So…wanna catch up with Tom and Marco?'

'Later,' he decided. 'There's something I wanna do first.'

Star nodded agreeably.

Adam rubbed his palms together and kept the image of the spell in his mind as clearly as possible. He ran through all the instances he had seen Star cast it, all the ways she had manipulated magic to achieve the intended result. It had actually been much simpler than he had thought at first. Typical of him to overcomplicate the process.

Holding out his hands, he spoke the incantation.

'Sparkle Glitter Bomb Expand!' The warlock cried.

His palms glowed pink and shot out a beam of energy. It hit the wall harmlessly. Unfortunately, after the spell had dissipated, he saw that it had no visible effect. Adam breathed out in defeat, but did not allow himself to give up.

It was easy to mess up this spell. Correction: it was easy for a relatively inexperienced spell-caster to mess up a Creation spell.

Not only was Adam the most ineffective at Creation magic, but it was simultaneously a particularly hard Creation spell to cast. It wasn't simply summoning a creature, or conjuring tiny objects – this was about creating an entire room, furnished with items to the caster's specifications. Each detail, of course, had to be envisioned by the caster. It was never as simple as "I want a guitar" – you needed a perfect image of it in your head. A single string out of place would create a non-functional instrument.

Keep a clear image in your mind, Adam, he told himself. An image of the exact room he needed formed in his mind.

Adam breathed out to relax his mind and convince it to focus.

Part of casting magic involved unifying the heart and the mind – or, in other terms, emotions and logic. Glossaryck described it as "letting the brain beat the heart, and the heart connect the mind". Adam could understand the vague gist of what he meant, and he opted not to question it. For him, the method of doing this was steady breathing, a ready stance, and clear understanding of what effect he wanted the spell to have.

Confidence was important, too.

He felt the magic welling up inside him once again. This spell was going to work for him, no question of it. It would. For he was a spell-caster, and this was his spell.

'Sparkle Glitter Bomb Expand!' The teenager shouted again, directing the full mass of the spell at the wall in front of him.

Instantly, a section of the wall dematerialised. A huge chunk of a wall stretched out from it, the extra space appearing from nowhere. It rose up and out, jutting out of the castle. The rest of the process remained out of his view, for a big wooden door built up before him and snapped shut.

Smiling at his handiwork, Adam stepped forward to open the door. It reached for the handle and twisted, excited to see what was within.

Inside were a few notable details. Some things echoed the bunker home that he had back in the Negative Multiverse. He had a similar bed, sat flush against the back wall. There was a small bedside cabinet next to it, which had a glowing salt lamp next to it, emitting a warm orange colour.

A writing desk rested against the wall to his right. It was wide and long, providing a lot of space for studying and writing. A wooden chair was coupled with it, complete with a small cushion planted on it. A number of drawers were included, currently containing nothing. On top of the actual desk was little else besides pencil holders (half full) and a small desk light.

A similar guitar to the one back home was sitting leaning on a wide dresser, though he could tell it was but a facsimile. He'd considered having the same Toffee posters from before, but given he had no interest in the resistance anymore, plus Toffee was a polarising figure in this universe, he chose not to.

Instead of the small window he had back home, the wall above the bed had a rectangular glass one built into it. It was complete with blinds to allow for privacy and a hatch to open it if necessary. Hopefully, there was a window-polishing spell.

The floor was a stone tile design, but a long, soft cream rug covered up most of it. It was nice for his feet to walk on.

The walls had the same stone bricks as the rest of the castle. It was a granite-esque, ancient sort of build, which Adam thought complimented the room quite well.

Looking up, he could see the ceiling possessed the same bricks, too, although they were sealed more tightly together. In the centre, a miniature chandelier hung with four candles in the centre magically lit with a bright yellow flame.

Pleased, Adam walked over to his dresser. While not the true version, the guitar was pretty accurate and, well, it worked. Bending down, the Mewman picked it up by the neck and adjusted the tuning on it. Once he was satisfied, he walked over and plopped himself on the bed.

Star and the others could wait a moment. This was important right now.

Smiling to himself, he rested the guitar on his thigh and began to strum some chords.

As always, I greatly appreciate the support you all have been giving this story so far!

The next chapter is the beginning of the next "episode", in which Adam will meet Eclipsa! Stay tuned for that!

I hope the ending, in which Star and Adam both apologise to one another, makes it clear that both of them were in the wrong. Adam was being an arrogant prick, letting his hatred of Dark Star get the better of him. He also didn't properly inform Star of the potential dangers with what he was going to do with the wand. Star recklessly interfered and caused the spells to be released, and she also expected Adam to instantly become friends with her when that's not the kind of person he is.

I hope I managed to keep all the characters...well, in character. I think it makes sense for Adam and Tom to view spells as nothing more than spells, whilst Star and Marco consider them human beings just like themselves. Of course, Adam was smart enough to keep that to himself to convince the spells to return to her wand. Tom was kinda an idiot, wasn't he?

But that was the point. Star and Tom have had relationship problems in the past, bred mainly from Tom's flaws (although Star has plenty of her own), but the issue I always found was that the show didn't really make these out to be flaws. The episode in which Tom - due to his jealousy over Marco - tries to fill his position and help out Star instead. Hijinks ensue, but it's very clear that Tom keeps comparing himself to Marco because he wants to be better. That kind of insecurity is NOT a good thing, but the show makes it seems like that's just a part of his character, and Star never seems to take issue with it. When it would make much more sense that she would take issue with Tom not being confident in himself. Tom also seems to have difficulty saying "no" to Star.

Of course, this episode ends with Adam finally managing to use the room creation spell, creating his room. It's reasonably suited to his hobbies and interests, I think. A large chunk of this arc was about Adam developing his magical skill, and how his desire, his desperation, to learn more at a faster rate leads to destructive outcomes. This was exactly what was holding him back and preventing him from doing the spell: impatience. Creation spells require imagination, and significant thought, but Adam wasn't willing to put the time in to actually accomplishing that. Until now, of course. It comes easily to a natural like Star (who even then requires years of training to reach peak potential), but for someone like Adam, whose lack of talent is integral to his character, it can take a verrrry long time to get to that same stage. Bear in mind Red Glossaryck didn't say he trained him to beat a Butterfly; he trained him to SURVIVE one. A Dark Butterfly to be more exact, which is what gives him the stalemate against Star.

It might have seemed like a very minor part of his character development, but I think it was quite important. Maybe I'm just tooting my horn here, but that was my intention with it. This story is likely not great, but it's a passion project more than anything else.

The anti-magic also came into play in the previous chapter, which I thought was super important. Bringing in the whole idea of it would be pointless if it doesn't do anything beyond that point. It's the same thing behind Marco and Star reading the tale of the Last Hero in the previous episode. It comes into play in this episode, because this was pretty much the first chance Adam could have gotten to find out they read his book. The book is extremely important to Adam, but even then he understands the frailty of sentimentality - so he doesn't mind too much that they read it. Though he certainly wouldn't want them touching it again.

Admittedly, this chapter is more or less tying up the loose ends from the first part. Personally, I think this is the weaker of the two, but it was necessary, and I think it does its job. If I were able to condense it any further, I'd prefer this episode to be a single chapter. However, it's hard to get these "episodes" into one single chapter; they usually end up like the Magic High Perdition chapter - reaching 10k words.

The next episodic arc - which I called "the Eclipsa one", though the actual name of the episode is "Undaunted Eclipse" – is going to be three chapters. It's an arc that returns to the main focus for Adam - trying to get back home. Given that he's going to meet Eclipsa, you can gather that he's going to be getting her help. I think the two of them would make good allies, considering Adam has much the same view of Eclipsa that magic is not inherently good or evil. That should be fun!

As always, thanks for reading!