The Calling p. 2

'Italicized' ← Thoughts

'Normal' ← Speaking inside a mind

"Normal" ← Speaking

Inside the Great Mewni Library, a worker stood up from his chair and stretched. His back bones cracked, relieved of the stress of sitting down. His name was Peter Gray; he was one of the librarians here. He had brown eyes and brown hair with a pale complexion. At the age of twenty-five, he was the youngest person to be working in the library. In fact, he was the youngest person who worked in any library across Mewni. Most people his age were entrepreneurs, trying their best to get rich. But Peter was happy with his job and so he stuck to it.

He grumbled to himself as he made his way to the exit. His coworkers turned their heads to watch him leave. It was one of the rarest sights to see Peter leave the library before closing time. The man was known as a dedicated worker that had little time for anything else. Therefore, anything that made Gray leave early must be important. Of course, those claims were wildly exaggerated - he walked from the library to the castle and back all the time. And his coworkers were right, what he was leaving for was important.

Then again, saying that the queen of Mewni was anything less than important might be seen as treason in some circles.

Marco, Star, Tom, River, and Moon sat around a circular table. The table and chairs were part of a set of furniture created with oak wood. All of them were inside a room reserved for making contracts. The walls were lined with magic to make sure nobody could listen in. Four guards stood at the door, two on the inside and two on the outside. The guards wore steel armor common to knights; their weapon of

On the table were several blank pieces of paper. These papers would be used to detail a contract between Marco, Star, and Tom. The gist of the deal was this: whoever, Tom or Marco, killed Toffee first would become Star's suitor. The official version would be a lot more detailed as to what the rules were, what the conditions of victory were, etc.

The idea was brought up to Queen Moon by Tom, who got the idea by the ghost cowboy living inside Marco's head.

Some time ago:

A few days after the incident where Marco's body was controlled by Toffee, Marco told Star about the deal he made with the ghost cowboy, Victor Steele. Star was, to say the least, upset. She was not upset at the fact the deal was made, but because she had been unable to save Marco before it.

Marco tried to comfort her, "Come on Star, it's not that bad."

"Not that bad?" the princess asked in a raised voice.

"Well, we're still alive, aren't we?"

"Marco, you… I…." Star was at a loss for words. The image of her best friend wielding a knife against her was deep in her mind.

Marco pulled her into a hug. "What matters is that we survived and we're okay."

While the two were in top shape physically after the incident, mental scars remained. Star became afraid of two things: not being to save Marco and having her best friend being mind-controlled again. Marco became afraid of losing control of his own body, being able to only watch as his body did things against his will - to his friends and family or any innocent person. The two wanted to tell someone about their fears, but could never find the voice to. They couldn't even tell each other.

Star returned Marco's hug and sniffed as tears threatened to break out.

"What about Toffee?" she asked.

"Uh…." Marco trailed off as the cowboy relayed some information to him. "Victor really only wants me to be close to Toffee when he dies. It's not like I have to go alone or anything."

The princess frowned. "I thought he wants revenge. You have to kill Toffee, right? Why else would he give you an ability?"

Marco shrugged. "He says he doesn't care. It doesn't matter if I kill Toffee or not, just that I be there when he dies."

"How do you know that?"

"Funny thing, Victor now lives in my head."

"What?"

Another few days later, Victor brought up the topic of training to Marco. Marco's new ability, Hellfire Bullets, was powerful, but it was useless if he couldn't hit anything. The first stage was hitting stationary targets.

Marco and Star stood at the backyard of the Diaz's home. There were some new additions to the garden created for Marco's training. A smaller fence stood in the middle; on it were bottles lined up. Behind the fence was a shield spell to prevent any mishaps when Marco fired. The fence and bottles were created using Star's magic. Victor thought up of having Star create the objects as the training was going to take a while and time should not be wasted on finding empty bottles or cans. In addition to helping Marco train, Star went into overdrive practicing her magic.

Marco stood in front of the fence. Star was beside him looking through her giant book of spells.

'Okay, now shoot,' Victor ordered Marco. It was always a weird experience for Marco whenever Victor "spoke." His ears did not hear anything and the voice travelled directly into his brain. It felt more like a thought rather than someone speaking to him. The only reason Marco knew it was Victor speaking to him was the voice. And whenever Marco tried to imagine Victor saying something ridiculous, the former cowboy would complain.

'Shoot?' Marco asked in a thought. The teenage boy found out that he could communicate to the ghost using his own thoughts a few days later. Victor didn't know that was possible either. The two of them had talked to each other via dreams before. When Marco fell asleep, Victor would show up. This was taxing to Marco as his brain could not fully rest, resulting in him falling asleep in some classes.

'Yes, shoot,' Victor sighed. 'What are you waiting for?'

'How do you shoot?'

'What?' the cowboy asked in a voice of disbelief.

'I don't know how to shoot.'

Victor could only stay silent. How could Marco not know how to shoot? He… oh. Victor slapped himself on the forehead.

'Right, you need to know how to shoot a gun before aiming one,' he thought to himself.

'Well, I don't know how either,' he told Marco. 'How did you use it the first time?'

'I… it just came naturally,' Marco thought. 'My body moved on its own.'

'Well, that doesn't help at all. What else did you feel?' Silently, Victor sighed. Helping Marco was going to take longer than anticipated.

About a week later, Victor and Marco figured out the trigger for the ability. All that the teenage boy needed to do was imagine fire swirling at his fingertips. The cowboy would never show it, but he was disappointed at the lost time. From time to time, he would compare Marco to his protégé. How long they took to complete a certain part of their training, how hard they worked, etc. He shook those thoughts away. After all, Diaz just went through a traumatic experience. The young man didn't need an old man yelling at him to train harder.

Once Marco mastered aiming at stationary targets with different distances and sizes, the training went on to hitting moving targets.

A series of wooden objects moved back and forth, with Star's magic again. The shield at the back was greatly expanded to account for shots flying from various angles. Marco had to stay stationary for this, but he could crouch, jump, lean, and-slash-or move his arms around.

As the training went on, Victor noticed something - Marco wasn't training hard enough. At least, he wasn't training as hard as Victor would've liked.

'You'd think having to face off against Toffee would be a good enough motivator,' the cowboy mumbled to himself. Marco not having enough training could prove fatal when he met Toffee again. While the teenager was moving through the practices at a good speed, there was a certain lack of motivation that could be seen on his face, as if he was tired of the whole thing.

Victor looked at the two friends. He could already tell that they were more than "just friends" by looking at their actions. Best friends did not cuddle up with each other under a blanket. If they were only friends, then he was a lawyer from England.

'This is special kind of denial at work.' A thought entered his mind. The princess could be a good motivator. But how?

'Hmm,' he grumbled to himself. 'Toffee is an important target that needs to be eliminated…. Maybe, if Marco is the one to kill him, then the queen would allow a special favor? Like… like being the suitor to the princess?'

The cowboy nodded to himself. It was the perfect plan to motivate Marco as well as getting him together with the Butterfly. The fact that they weren't already together was driving him a bit crazy. He didn't like to meddle in others' lives, but this was something special. Besides, there was a piece of red line that connected them to each other.

'Reminds me of something from the oriental. The red string of something?'

His thoughts went to thinking about how to make his new plan work. The queen would need a lot of convincing for something like being the princess's suitor for killing someone. Eliminating high value targets usually wouldn't do it, but Toffee was a special case. In addition, convincing Marco would take a long time as well. The boy would run the plan with the princess and that would cause a big mess he did not want to be a part of.

'What if someone else did this for me?' He recalled a demon by the name of Tom Lucitor. To give Marco his new demon power, Victor had to make a deal with Tom. Essentially, Tom spied on Marco and Star via Victor. That was why Victor never left the imagined bar create by Marco's mind. It might've been boring and lonely, but he was not going to give in to some demon's demands, no sirree. But this was where the deal with Tom would come in handy.

'And demon boy's got a thing for the Butterfly.' There might be some competition, but that was fine. Victor stood up from the stool he was on and walked "outside" to where he could clearly see the real world on some panels which represented Marco's vision being processed by the brain. The cowboy didn't know if the demon had heard him when he was muttering out his plan, but the Underworld prince was going to hear him loud and clear this time.

Victor cleared his throat in preparation for his speech. He slapped himself on the knee and exclaimed, 'You've done it again, Victor, a genius plan to get Marco and Star together! Marco can get the queen to create a contract wherein if Marco manages to kill Toffee, then he can be Star's suitor. The queen must agree; the lizard has been a menace that has haunted Mewni for decades. In fact, the queen would be overly ecstatic in giving out any award to anyone who can kill Toffee. Now, all I have to do is to get Marco to go to Mewni tomorrow. A contract to make sure that Marco's the only one who does this would be nice.'

'Victor?' Marco asked. 'What are you doing?' The teenager had been focused on shooting the moving targets, but noticed the cowboy's talking. When Victor was talking to him, the voice was louder than this time.

'Oh, nothing,' Victor answered. 'I was just reciting an old poem. And I felt like going outside of the pub for a while, it does get boring in there. Sorry if I disturbed you.'

'It's fine,' Marco thought. 'What was poem about?'

'I can't seem to remember. Anyways, I'll go back and let you do your thing. I have something to tell you later when you have time.'

'All right.'

During the evening, before went back to sleep, Marco laid on his bed. His eyes were opened and his breath was slow. Anyone that looked at him would've thought he had fallen asleep with his eyes open.

Inside his mind, there was a pub. The counter, the shelves, the stools, the tables, the chairs were all there. The entire place was barren save for a single person, Victor. The ghost cowboy sat on a chair that faced the entrance. When Marco went in, Victor motioned for him to sit on the seat across.

'So, what did you want to talk about?' Marco questioned.

'I want a bit of a favor,' Victor replied. 'I was wondering if we could go to Mewni tomorrow to see my comrades' graves.'

'Sure, I guess. But I don't know if Star can get permission to go back that fast.'

Victor blinked. 'What?'

'Star's here because she has to train for her magic,' Marco explained. 'She has to have permission from her mother to go back. We can't just sneak into a cemetery without being seen. Do you know where your friends are buried.' Victor shook his head. 'I don't know how soon we can get the permission plus we might have to explain this whole thing to the queen and I don't think Star wants to do that.'

As Marco explained everything, a single thought ran through the cowboy's head, 'Fuck.'

However, there was still a chance that the Butterfly princess would be informed of a contract by the demon. Victor Steele, ghost cowboy sheriff, never thought he would ever pray for a demon to succeed at anything. But desperate times called for desperate measures.

'This is the last time I'll ever interfere with anyone's lives ever again,' he vowed.

The next day, Star received a message from her mother.

"Call incoming from Mom," the mirror announced. Star and Marco were inside of the princess's room now. Marco's parents were mostly home today, which meant that the two would have to train inside. The Diaz's did not need to know about what happened to their son.

The mirror rang as Star went up to it and pressed a button. The screen changed to an image of Queen Moon Butterfly.

"Hi, mom," Star greeted.

"Hello, Star," Moon greeted back. "I know this may be sudden, but I need you to come back to Mewni as soon as possible."

"What?" the princess asked with a confused face.

"It won't take a long time. You'll go back to Earth when this matter is resolved."

"What matter?"

"I'll explain it to you when you get here. Until then." The mirror's screen turned to its natural reflective surface.

"Huh," Marco mumbled.

"Well, I've got to go now," Star said. "The training area has everything, right?" The training station that Marco used was now inside the room, a smaller version of course. Besides the change in size, everything remained the same: moving wooden structures at various speeds and a giant shield behind it all.

"Wait!" Marco grabbed her hand. "Can I come with you?" Star looked at him strangely. "Victor was talking about how he wanted to see his comrade's grave. I just need to go to Mewni and ask some people where his friends got buried. I won't be a bother to whatever you're going to be busy with."

"All right, I guess." Star opened a portal directly to the Mewnian castle and the two went in.

The exit of the portal was where Moon and Tom were, inside of a small meeting room. Moon's right eyebrow rose when she saw Marco.

Star immediately saw her mother's expression and tried to come up with an explanation, "He's here for uh…."

"I'm here for a research report that I'm doing for a school project," Marco explained. "Sorry if I'm interrupting anything." He looked at Tom suspiciously. He didn't know that much about the demon, but he was sure that the Underworld prince could not be trusted, especially because of the stories Star told.

"What kind of research project would require coming to Mewni?" Moon asked.

"There was a book about where a group of humans from Earth made contact with Mewnians decades ago. It also reported that the people volunteered to fight against Toffee. Apparently, they all died in the war. I was hoping to find their graves to confirm the story."

"Really, Diaz, you're going to make that excuse?" Tom asked. "The both of us know what you're really here for. I'm sorry to say that I got to it first."

"What are you talking about?" Marco asked with a guarded look. He didn't know what Tom was up to, but he was not going to fall for it.

"There's no use in hiding it, you're here to make that deal, aren't you?" Tom turned to the queen. "Your highness, would you please tell why Star had to come here? I already know that Marco knows."

Star looked at Marco, who shrugged.

"Tom has come here with an offer: he will kill Toffee and in exchange, he becomes Star's suitor," Moon explained.

Lucitor interjected, "I was thinking about it being a closed thing so that nobody else could interfere, but then I thought about how unfair it would be to not let Marco have a chance. So, how about it, Diaz, want to make this a competition between the two of us?"

'Do it,' Victor said. 'He's not bluffing. And this is the perfect excuse to kill the damned lizard.'

'I don't know about this,' Marco thought. His training had only been for a few weeks. Was he ready to go out there and kill Toffee?

'What do you think will happen if demon boy here kills Toffee?' Victor rebutted. 'The contract between the two of us will fail and Star will have to marry him. If the contract fails, the both of us will be stuck in hell and we'll be forever taunted by that fucking demon in front of us.'

'I thought I didn't have to kill Toffee directly.'

'Still, do you want him to be your friend's husband?'

A few seconds later, Marco responded, "I'll do it. But I won't need the 'becoming Star's suitor' part. Killing Toffee and stopping Tom is good enough for me." The demon scowled at him.

Victor sighed. His plan fell apart a bit, but at least the boy would have proper motivation. 'Time to up the training.'

And so, River joined them in the meeting room as they all waited for the contract overseer to arrive. A contract overseer is a neutral member who writes up a contract between two or more parties with binding agreements. The more important contracts use Blood magic to ensure nobody breaks the rules. The parties sign the contract using their own blood and the overseer performs a spell. The spell causes anyone who signed the contract to be unable to betray the agreements.

Peter Gray was a Blood Magic Contract Overseer. The part-time librarian was a government officiated overseer. What that meant was he had signed a blood contract which stated he would always remain neutral and fair to all parties, no matter who it may be. He wasn't just a contract overseer, he and his family took care of the most important contracts in Mewni. It was a job of high honor.

Gray walked down the hall towards the meeting room with a slight frown. Away were his clothes he wore at the library, replaced with a blue formal outfit. He never liked the outfit he was forced to wear, so stuffy and itchy. He proposed that he could wear the suit and tie, a formal outfit he had seen on the Earth dimension. It was rejected since the Mewnians thought it looked ridiculous.

The overseer stepped in front of the meeting room door. The guards on the sides opened the entrance and Peter walked in. When he was inside, the guards on the inside closed the door.

Gray bowed and said, "Your majesty, how may I be of service today?" The greeting was meaningless, everyone knew why he was here.

"Mister Gray, you are here to be the overseer of a proposed blood contract," Moon said. River's and Tom's eyes widened. "Prince Tom here wishes to kill a Septarian by the name of Toffee. In exchange for this deed, he would become the suitor of my daughter, Star Butterfly. He has invited a person from the Earth dimension, Marco Diaz, to take part in this, creating a competition. Mister Diaz agreed to take part, however, he rejected the award of becoming the suitor of my formerly mentioned daughter."

Moon and Peter had to do this exchange every single time for any contract. Every single line had to be spelled out with extreme precision to make sure all parties knew what the actual agreement entailed. It was boring, horribly formal, and mentally exhausting.

"As you wish," Peter replied. He took his seat in between Marco and Tom.

"Now then, gentlemen," he addressed the young men to his sides. "Do any of you have any pressing matters in between four to six hours from now? Because we may be here for a while."

"It takes that long?" Marco asked.

"It may be shorter or it may take longer depending on how many agreements and disagreements that may occur. We've found that contracts usually take about that long to be written up and signed. Any more questions?"

Marco shook his head.

"Good," Peter said. "Now then, let's go over the specifics of the contract. Prince Tom of the Underworld hereby agrees…"

Useless Trivia:

Peter Gray comes from a family of government officiated Blood Contract Overseers. He works part-time in the library because he's bored most of the time. In addition, the library is his peaceful haven, where people are required to be quiet.

Blood magic is derived from spells used by the Underworld, with all the nasty parts removed, of course.