A Dance with Destiny
Chapter Five: Questions
Griff ate his breakfast in silence. The Great Hall was mostly empty, save a few knights who had worked the night shift and several maids who were sweeping and dusting the tables and chairs. The king and queen had yet to make an appearance, but Griff told himself that he would ask them about the old ones when they arrived.
An arm wrapping around his neck brought him out of his thoughts. "Hey, buddy."
Oh. It was just Higgs and the others. "Hey guys."
Higgs retracted her arm and smiled. "What'cha thinkin' about?"
Griff took a deep breath out of his mouth. "I was reading a book yesterday—"
"I didn't know you could read."
"—and it mentioned something called the old ones."
Baby Man looked Griff's breakfast over cautiously. "Are you gonna eat that?" he asked, pointing.
Griff slid the plate over to him wordlessly.
"The old ones?" Higgs frowned. "Never heard of 'em." She looked at her companions. "Have you guys?"
Baby Man was too busy wolfing down sausages to answer, but Old Guy just said, "I'm old!"
Griff sighed. "Thanks, guys," he said, bracing his head with his hand. "Oh!"
The king and queen had arrived. A member of the kitchen staff hurried over with two platters of food, which the king dug into and the queen nibbled on. "I'll see you guys later, "Griff said, sliding out of the bench. He snatched a pitcher of juice out of a servant's hands and climbed the dais to the head table.
"Griff!" the king said when he saw him advancing. "Good to see you this morning."
"Good morning, Your Majesty," Griff said, pouring the juice into the king's goblet.
The queen held out her own chalice. "And some for me as well, please."
Griff nodded sharply. "Of course, Your Grace."
When the goblets were full and the royals dug into their food again, Griff took his place next to the king's chair.
"So…Griff…" the king said between bites, "…how's that book of yours? Good, I trust?"
"Book?" the queen asked, wiping her mouth with a napkin. "What book?"
"'History and Lore of Mewni,'" Griff said.
The queen inclined her head. "Ah, a fascinating read. Tell me, how far have you gotten?"
"Only the first few pages," he said. Griff shuffled from one foot to the other. "Actually, I was wondering if you could clear something up for me."
The queen looked up from her food. "Yes?"
Griff licked his lips. "What were the old ones?"
The queen didn't say anything for a moment, but then she smiled and said, "The old ones were an old race of monsters that died off years ago, Griff. There's no reason to worry about them."
They're not gone, he wanted to say. They're returning; they're killing monsters and Skahl wherever they can find them. The only thing that stopped him was the knowledge that they would laugh and mock him if he said it; they were royalty; they were used to their word being law, and anyone who questioned them was ignored or imprisoned. Dooria had told him all about that.
Griff swallowed nervously. "But say they were to return—hypothetically of course—would there be a way to stop them?"
"I don't see why this matters, Griff," the queen said.
"Because I want to know!" he said, a little too loudly. The squires stopped talking and looked at him in shock and surprise. The maids had frozen where they stood, looking at him with wide eyes. Queen Moon looked at him, affronted; and King River glanced between the two nervously, like he was about to witness a rather unfortunate sight.
Griff immediately dropped to one knee, dropping the flagon on the ground. "Apologies, Your Grace. I spoke out of turn."
"Hmm," was all Moon said. "Clean that mess up and get out of my sight."
Griff did so quickly, using a napkin that King River had slipped him. "Meet me outside the royal library," the king whispered as the napkin changed hands. When the mess was cleaned up and the napkin returned to the hamper from whence it came, Griff silently walked out of the Great Hall, though he could feel all eyes on him as he left.
-o-
The royal library was a thing to behold; nearly ten stories high, with endless lines and hallways full of books, scrolls, magazines and documents for all the castle to see. The librarian was a kind and quiet old woman names Mrs. Nineemuggins, who wore her white hair in a bun. She shuffled around the room, stocking old books and shushing anyone who dared to make too much (any) noise.
Griff waited there for an hour before the king arrived, blue cloak dragging on the ground after him.
"Thank you for waiting," he said when he joined Griff.
"You're welcome," the boy said, pushing himself off the pillar he had been leaning against with his foot. "Why are we here, if you don't mind me asking?"
The king waved his hand and gave a jolly laugh. "Well, I figured that after how worked up you got, you'd like to find out the answer to your questions."
Griff winced. "Again, I'm terribly sorry about what I said. Please tell Queen Moon—"
"—that you meant no disrespect, I know," the king said, putting his arm around Griff's back and leading him toward the back of the library. "But still, I would advise not speaking with the queen for some time now; she hasn't been in the best of moods lately."
"Any particular reason why?" the hidden prince asked.
King River gave a helpless shrugged. "She and the Magic High Commission have been investigating a 'fritz' that's affecting all magic in the kingdom."*
Griff swallowed. Could the old ones be affecting magic as well? He shuddered at the thought. Magic was perhaps the best chance they had; if someone their enemy managed to cut off access to it…
He didn't want to even consider that possibility.
The king led him to a corner in a dusty section of the library, where cobwebs grew on the books and dust was everywhere.
The king looked around suspiciously. "Griff," he whispered softly, "can I trust you?"
"Of course you—"
"Sssssshhhhhhhhhhhhhh!" the king hissed.
Griff swallowed. "Of course you can," he whispered, so soft that the king had to lean in to hear him.
"Wonderful!" the king bellowed. Before Griff could remind him to be quiet, the king reached over and pulled a book half way out of its spot on the shelf. There was a loud creaking sound, and one of the bookshelves slid back, revealing a stone staircase that led down, lit only by the light of torches on the walls.
Griff gasped. "Secret tunnel…" he whispered in awe.
The king took hold of one of the torches and beckoned for Griff to follow him. Griff couldn't help but smile wickedly. "What is this? Secret doomsday bunker? Hidden armory?" He gasped. "A high-tech dungeon where all the kingdom's worst criminals are kept?"
The king looked confused. "What? No! I'm taking you to the Butterfly royal family archives."
"Oh." Griff hoped he didn't voice his disappointment.
The king led him down a long windy maze of corridors. "This is in the restricted section," he explained. "Can't allow just anyone to come down here."
Griff nodded and followed along. Eventually they came to a wide circular room with a domed roof.
"Woah," Griff said.
The king laughed. "I know what you mean. I said the same thing when I first saw this place. Now, come with me."
He led Griff to a large mural tapestry with a large man with honey-blonde hair and sparkling blue eyes, wearing dark armor and a blue cloak around his shoulders. On his head was a golden crown with shimmering sapphires encrusted into it. He was holding a massive greatsword with both hands; the blade was dark as smoke, with glyphs running up and down its metal. The pommel was emblazoned with the symbol of a soaring butterfly, and the hilt was wrapped with dark leather.
Next to him was a beautiful woman with golden armor over white robes. She wore a circlet of silver with rubies inside it. In her hand was a wand whose end was a moon and star above a pear of butterfly wings. On her hip was a sword with a single large ruby in the center of its crossguard.
They were both attractive, with blonde hair and blue eyes, and both had shining stars on their cheeks.
"King Cosmos and Queen Star," King River explained, "the first monarchs of Mewni."
Griff swallowed. My ancestors.
"Before them, Mewmans lived in fear of the monsters that ravaged Mewni. Then they came along to unite all people under one ruler. They were twins, you see, but they were also married."
Griff felt himself throw up in his mouth. Perhaps sensing this, King River gave him a sympathetic look. "Yes, I know, but it was a different time, and marriage between siblings wasn't uncommon. In fact, monsters still do it to this day."
No, they don't, Griff wanted to say. We don't tolerate abominations like inbreeders.
"But what do the old ones have to do with any of this?"
"Well, it was said that the king and queen used their swords, Vengeance and Justice, to drive back the hordes of monsters that threatened them."
"That's it? Swords are all they used?"
"Well, the blades were made of Eberian steel, and the queen used her magic wand to repel any monsters that the old ones tried to use."**
"What's Eberian steel?" Griff asked.
"Magic metal that the Eberians used when making things like swords and knives. It's said that they engraved each blade with hidden magics to make them stronger, lighter and faster."
If I could get my hands on some Eberian steel blades… "Where can we get more?"
The king gave a loud bark of a laugh. "Get more? Ha! The Eberians died out centuries ago, and the art of making Eberian steel died with them. Most of the blades have been lost in wars, raids or been sold to pay off debts. The Butterflys lost both their swords nearly two centuries ago, during the Wars of the Usurpers."
"What's the Wars of the Usurpers?"
"A series of petty wars started by a cadet branch of the Butterflys."
"Why would they start a war?"
The king scoffed. "Greed. It all started when one of the Butterfly kings—rare as they come—legitimized all his natural born children on his deathbed. The bloody fool. He had to know what would happen. One of them, Quasar, took the sword Vengeance and started the first War of the Usurper in a bid to seize the throne of Mewni. He failed, of course, but the sword was taken by his supporters, who disappeared like the rats they are! A decade later, a Butterfly prince used Justice against the Usurpers, but the blade was lost when he disappeared. Since then, only the wand has remained in the Butterfly's control, and we'll be damned if we lose that too!"
Griff gulped. "And the other Butterfly kings? You mentioned they were rare, but what about the ones that made it?"
The king scoffed. "Curses and blunders we'd sooner forget. Come on, I'll show you."
And so the king led Griff down the line. For every ten queens, there was only ever one king, and each was worse than the last. There was King Comet, who tried to invade the Underworld, only for his men to all die on route. Or King Cosmos II, called "the Mad" because he insisted that everyone around his was trying to kill or usurp him; he was eventually displaced by his sister and hung himself from the tower of Castle Butterfly. King Galaxa was Griff's least favorite; he was a fat fool who nearly drove the realm into debt, cheated on his wife, fathered dozens of illegitimate children, and then legitimized those children when he died, starting the War of the Usurper. On and on it went, until the last king, King Sol, was killed by a member of his own Kingsguard after he tried to destroy half his kingdom with the wand of his family.
Madness, Griff thought when the royal tour was done. That was their folly. A flicker of doubt touched him. But if they could be driven mad, what's to say I can't? What if I end up like them? What if I fail? He shook his head. No. I'll not allow that to happen. I'll take my own life first. Then something else clicked within him. But if the old ones return, I won't have to take my life; they'll take it for me.
The bookshelf slid back into place, and the king and prince left the library. "Thank you, Your Grace, this was most helpful."
The king gave a boisterous laugh. "Don't mention it, son."
As the king walked away, Griff thought, All I have to do is find some Eberian steel blades, reclaim the wand, and bring the fight to the old ones. But where to find some Eberian steel…
-o-
"Have you heard?" Higgs asked frantically when she caught up with him. Baby Man and Old Guy were there, too, gasping for air.
"What?" Griff asked, lost.
"There's gonna be a tourney! A squire's tourney! Only squire's can compete, and we're gonna enter. How about you?"
Griff arched an eyebrow. "Why would I care about a squire's tourney?"
"Because, dummy, the champion receives a hundred pounds of gold, a year's supply of free corn, and a knighthood!"
That caught Griff's attention. "Like, instant knighthood?"
"Knighted on the spot," Higgs explained.
Griff smiled widely. "I'm in."
* This chapter takes place before The Battle for Mewni, so Toffee is still around, messing with all the magic and junk. That wont really play into this story, but if anyone is interested I can do TBfM from Griff's POV.
** The Eberians were a sort of elven race that lived in a sperate kingdom from Mewni and were excellent at crafting tools and weapons. They all died out due to a plague that's basically Mewni's version of the Black Death that crippled Europe in the twelfth century. They're also something that I made up for this story, so don't be surprised if you don't remember them being mentioned on the show.
A/N: Okay, everyone, if you enjoyed then please leave a review telling me what you thought; also follow and favorite if you want to be alerted to when I update, and leave any questions in a review or shoot me a PM and I'll do my best to explain everything I can.