Episode:
15: Elementary

Star breaks the cardinal rule and dares to venture on her own around Polaria, with disastrous results.

Two hours later, Star was raised from her slumber. Soft, orange light from the lamps on the walls seeped through her eyelids and stained her vision reddish orange. Slowly, but surely, she opened her eyes. The soft rustling of the trees outside could be heard from the window to the right, just behind the table in the corner. Adam was sitting in that chair, not having moved an inch since she had last seen him. He was writing in his personal spellbook with a magic quill that never required ink.

Star groaned as she sat up. Adam's eyes flickered over at her, before returning to his writing.

'How's the arm?' he asked, turning over a page. Star blinked.

'Better.' She rubbed her arm softly. 'Much better. Thank you.'

'While you've been napping, I've been trying to figure out a way back home,' said Adam, flicking through the pages he'd written. 'Knowing what I know now about intermultiversal magic, it's very hard to generate and maintain a stable dimensional bridge that's long enough to cross the void between our two multiverses. Maybe when I'm older, but right now we'll need to find another way.'

'Like what?' Star asked groggily.

'Well, fortunately, dimensional bridges already exist between the Negative and Positive Multiverses,' the Mewman elaborated. 'My working theory is that our two multiverses were once merged, and they randomly split apart not long after the parent multiverse was created. The multiversal bridges are our two realities…sort of… "clinging" to each other. That's why our histories are so similar; it's why our multiversal structure is the same. Our two worlds were originally one.'

Star squeezed her eyes shut and willed her headache to disappear.

'So, what's the plan? Find one of these bridges and use it like an express lane back home?'

'Something like that, yeah,' he said. 'I've been working on this…ritual, to open the gateway. It works by using our portal magic to reach through a fracture in space-time and connect with the dimensional bridge, creating the portal. It's like picking the lock of a door.'

'You think you can do that?'

'I hope so. It's some really advanced magic. Glossaryck couldn't even do it. Making the spell alone requires a helluva lot of arithmancy, not to mention manipulating portals like that needs some pretty sophisticated control over the individual mystions. And I don't have time to practice. So I'm gonna need your help.'

'Adam, you know you don't even have to ask,' said the princess, smiling tiredly.

'Thanks,' Adam replied. 'Still one huge problem, though: I don't know of any space-time fractures we can use. Around here, they're hard to come by. I mean sure, space-time gets a little wacky in some places, but not broken. It's not like –'

He was interrupted by the sound of something loud outside. Star frowned and looked over at the door, where they could hear it coming from. She strained to listen for a moment, but it was just the muffled yells of random strangers outside. The princess glanced over at Adam, who merely shrugged. The noises went down for a moment, long enough for Adam to go back to writing in his spellbook.

Then it happened again. Noises of yelling got louder and louder. Star could see Adam was trying to ignore it, but the more he did, the louder he got.

'What the heck is going on out there?' she groaned, throwing off her sheets and standing up.

'No, wait, Star–!' Adam called, but she was already out the door. Rolling his eyes, the Mewman rose from his chair and chased after her.

The pair of them stepped out of their room, only to be met with a loud cacophony of angry voices downstairs. Star leaned over the balcony and peered downstairs. Adam reluctantly propped himself over the balcony as well and looked on with the mildest of interest.

A dozen people populated the bottom floor of the inn, all circling around a group of three evidently disgruntled guests standing over at the reception desk. Kelly was scratching her head abashedly as she heard them air their complaints, largely coming from a man in expensive hiker clothing looking like he had all the grace of a reversing dump truck without any tires on. [38]

'That was an expensive cashmere sweater!' complained the tall, muscular man, who was in a clean plaided shirt, fishing hat, cargo pants and expensive metal boots. If it weren't for the entitled cadence with which he spoke, Star might have admired his good looks. 'You better tell me where you hid it!'

'Sir, I don't know what you're –'

'Don't lie to me!' he yelled. 'That sweater was worth more than you are! Tell me where it is!'

'Yeah, uh, he's not the only one who's lost something,' a more reserved and nervous man said behind him. 'My wallet's missing. It was a really nice wallet too.'

A woman in a maid outfit nodded beside him.

'And my necklace was stolen,' she added. 'That necklace was really special to me so please tell me you know where it is!'

'I don't know anything, I'm sorry,' uttered Kelly, shrugging innocently.

'So three different people were stolen from not long after checking into their room?' hollered somebody from the crowd.

'Sounds like a conspiracy to me!' cried another person.

'Yeah, I bet this isn't even a real inn!' somebody else added. 'It's probably just some money-making scheme to steal everyone's valuables and sell 'em off to the Underworld Black Market!'

Loud outrages of protest erupted through the crowd. Many of them booed Kelly, or otherwise yelled obscenities at her. Star couldn't make out all of them, but she could make out "good-for-nothing furball" and "working-class peasant" among them. She was pretty sure that last one came from the rich dude in the expensive travelling outfit.

'QUIET!'

The crowd silenced themselves instantly. They looked up at the black-haired, grey-eyed Mewman on the balcony who had roared the word. Adam surveyed the crowd with a threatening glare, almost daring anyone to speak up against him.

'Thank you,' Kelly said. He nodded reluctantly. She turned back to address the crowd. 'I am many things but I'm not a thief! I hate thieves. And working with the Black Market? Really? I would never sully myself by working with those filthy rats!'

'Oh, really?' challenged the tall man. 'And how do we know you're telling the truth, huh?'

'I know when I'm telling the truth, dude,' protested Kelly coolly. 'I'm sorry to hear about your stuff being stolen. I will look into it.'

'Is that right?' he persisted. 'And what if I bring this to the Meriff's attention instead, hm? What if I decide that he should look into it? I'm sure he'd be very interested to know how the innkeeper managed to let three of her customers be stolen from.'

'No, no, no that won't be necessary!' she uttered hastily, holding her hands out in surrender. 'I will find out what happened to all your expensive items, and hopefully return them, by the end of tomorrow. That's a promise!'

'You better,' he warned, before walking off, no doubt to duck into his room to angrily muse about his frustrations to himself. Star heard him mutter, "fuckin' dimension hoppers", on his way out.

With the ringleader gone, the crowd of people scattered. Droves of people returned aimlessly to their rooms, mumbling accusatory remarks about Kelly under their breath. The two other victims of the theft remained frozen for a moment, seeming far more reserved than the other guy, before they ultimately went back to their rooms as well.

Once they were gone, Kelly fell back onto her chair, throwing her long forest green hair over herself. Star heard stressful groans and expression of exasperation rumbling through the strands of the Woollett's thick hair.

Star didn't even hesitate before she began to make her way towards the stairs. However, just as she turned, she felt a hand on her arm pulling her back. She turned back and realised that Adam was trying to stop her.

'Adam?! W-What are you doing? We-We've got to help her!'

'And I told you to keep a low profile,' he said flatly. 'This isn't our problem, Star. We shouldn't get involved.'

'We can't just let her lose her job!' she cried. 'This is her livelihood we're talking about. We have to at least try to help her. She's…Kelly!'

'She's a Kelly,' Adam pointed out. 'Not your Kelly. For all we know, she really did steal those things.'

'Then let me find that out for myself,' she argued. 'Besides…why would she steal from her own customers? She'd have to know she'd be blamed first!'

'Maybe if she's done this a lot of times before, then she's gotten lax about it. Serial thieves often do.'

'She's not a thief!'

'You don't know that!' he spat. 'We can't waste our time with this. We need to get back home as soon as possible. Right now, that's all that matters.'

'What the hell is wrong with you?!' yelled Star, irreverently ripping her arm out of his grip. 'Ever since we first got here, you've been acting like…like…like…'

'Like what?'

She sighed. 'Like we never met.'

'Star, I'm trying to help you keep out of trouble –'

'Well, you're doing a great job of that!' she derided. 'All I see is you looking out for yourself. You didn't tell me about the murdercrows, or the lapisnakes, or the magic acid rain, or the giant angry Venus flytraps! You haven't been exactly helpful!'

'I'm trying to keep you alive!' he snapped. 'Around here, if you're not securing your safety at all times, you die. It's always the first mistake you make in the Negative Multiverse: thinking you're safe. You're never safe. I know you want to help her. I understand wanting to get involved. But you will only get people killed. You don't want that on your conscience. Trust me, I know.'

Star's eyes dilated in surprise.

'What do you mean?'

Adam looked down reproachfully.

'I used to be like you, you know,' he confessed with a sigh. 'When I was travelling with Beru, I wasn't just running. I tried to help people where I could. Every time I did, all I would do was get people killed. Corpse after corpse after corpse…until eventually, Beru joined the pile. And it was all my fault. I learned a valuable lesson that day. In this world, you have to put your own needs first. No point wasting time trying to keep everyone else safe when you aren't even safe yourself. You know what happens when you don't do that? You'll find that you leave a trail of bodies every damn place that you go. I don't want you to go through what I did; to see the things that I saw.'

'Adam…I'm sorry for what you went through, I really am, but…' She looked down and gritted her teeth. 'I'm fifteen, you have to let me make my own decisions.'

'You're fifteen, and way out of your depth. Face it: I know how to survive here, and you don't.'

'Maybe, but you also know me,' Star pointed out, 'you know that I can't just let these kinds of injustices go unaddressed. I don't care what you think. I'm going to help Kelly whether you like it or not!'

'Fine!' he bellowed. 'But while you waste time getting people killed, I'm going to figure out a way back home. With or without you.'

With that, he stormed off back into their shared room. Star glared on in his wake for a few moments, before groaning and rolling her eyes. Why did he have to be like this? He went out of his way to help people before, but suddenly he comes back home, and he doesn't care about that anymore? What?

Words could not describe the boiling she felt in her blood towards him right now. He could at least try to indicate he cared about Kelly's plight, rather than dead set on the belief that helping people would be pointless.

Star shook her head. Adam's frustrating behaviour could wait. Kelly needed someone to help her right now, and Star was more than willing to be there for her. It may not be the Kelly that she knows, but in her mind, it was still Kelly. Adam might have been able to easily differentiate the two, but she couldn't.

She made her way down the stairs to the inn's reception. Kelly was still sitting dejectedly at her desk behind a mountain of hair. The princess walked over to her desk and tentatively rang the bell. The eyes behind Kelly's hair immediately flitted up at her.

'Uh, hi,' she greeted nervously. 'Listen, I –'

'If you're here to report another theft, you might as well tell that rich guy about it.'

'Oh! Uh, no, I'm not here to report a theft,' said Star hastily. 'Actually, I'm here to help. I can help you find out what happened!'

Kelly frowned from behind her moss of hair.

'What's your price?'

Star blinked.

'Price?'

'Yeah. How much are you askin' for?'

'Oh, I don't want money,' claimed Star, waving her hands in disagreement. 'I just want to help. And you looked like you needed it.'

Kelly said nothing. For several, uninterrupted and very awkward seconds, she simply stared at her. Star tried to avert her gaze as she rose out of her chair and walked towards her. She swung her mass of hair around her and tied it into a ponytail behind her back. Kelly's hardened face invaded hers, her beady, owlish eyes burning into the back of her retina.

'You're not a…Butterfly spy, are you?'

'No! I would never –'

'So you're telling me, you just waltz over here and offer your help, for free, and I'm not supposed to be suspicious?'

'I'm not a spy. I just want to help! Honest!'

'Why should I believe you?'

'What does the Empire have to gain from helping you?' she pointed out, folding her arms. 'Why would they even care?'

'Oh, I dunno, maybe to gain my trust?'

Star groaned internally. Corn, I hate this place.

'What for? What's the point?' she insisted. 'Look, you don't have to accept my help. But whaddaya have to lose if you do?'

Kelly sighed.

'Well, I guess…if you do help me, I have a shot of keeping my job,' she admitted, looking down. 'I guess I'm less damned if I do than damned if I don't. Alright, you've convinced me.'

'Awesome!' cried Star excitedly. 'I'm St–I mean, Estrella. My brother's Adam: he's the guy who yelled "QUIET!"' – she comically deepened her voice – 'earlier. He's, uh, not helping.'

'Yeah, no wonder,' Kelly muttered under her breath. 'Look, I don't need your whole life story. If you wanna help, then help.'

'Well, uh…' Admittedly, in her desperation to help, she hadn't decided exactly how she was going to help. Kelly rolled her eyes.

'You want a list of the three people stolen from?' she offered, opening up her logbook and scribbling into it.

'Uh, yeah! That'd be –'

'Here,' Kelly cut off, ripping out a page from the book and handing it over to her. 'Go ahead and interview them, or something.'

Star nodded appreciatively and took the piece of paper from her. She looked down and read what she had written. True to what Negative Kelly had said, there were three names on the list, with their room numbers written next to them. Kelly was many things but a calligrapher she was not. Star squinted to read the first name.

Timothy? No, Jimothy Cuthbert. Room 42.

She scanned the rooms on the bottom floor and read the numbers on the plaques on the doors. Room 22 was the largest one she saw, so she wandered around the corner and discovered another hallway at the back. The doors on the right side numbered past fifty, with the largest number being fifty-two.

'C'mon, 42…42…42…' she muttered, as she chased down the doors down the hallway. She stopped a few moments later. 'Ah, 42! Nice number.'

Star reached out and knocked on the door, putting away the piece of paper. She heard some loud fumbling from inside, before the door ultimately opened.

Much to her dissatisfaction, Star happened to be met with the uptight pompous rich traveller dude that railed on Kelly earlier for being a different class and species to him. He stood in the doorway, towering over her with his six-foot-four height, large muscles and domineering figure. His outfit, reminiscent of a hiker, was reinforced with expensive fabric and rope. His steel lined boots were large and black, pristinely polished but showing clear signs of being worn, like the man had tried desperately the erase the wear and tear of time.

'Can I help you?' he said gruffly, glaring beadily down at her.

'Uh…are you "Jimothy Cuthbert"?' asked Star, abashed.

'Depends,' replied Jimothy. 'Are you one of them?'

'"Them?"'

'Dimension hoppers,' Cuthbert said. 'Where are you really from, kid? You from around here, or are you some immigrant from another dimension?'

'Uh, no, I'm a Mewman, born and raised,' Star answered nervously. 'Why does it matter?'

'Can't trust 'em. Believe me, I've been all sorts and most dimensions are ineffably unruly.'

And Negative Mewni isn't?! Star thought.

'Um, okay, well, I'm here to talk to you about the recent theft,' the princess told him, hoping to steer the conversation away from Jimothy's repulsive views. 'I'm hoping to locate your stolen items.'

'So that Woollett furball got someone else to do her dirty work, huh?' he derided. 'You better come in, then.' He stepped aside to allow her into his room. Wary, Star gingerly stepped into his room. Her jaw immediately dropped.

She was expecting something more run-down. Instead, she found something utterly luxurious. The walls were painted white, pristine and perfectly applied without so much as a crack, or cobweb. The windows were squeaky-clean, reflecting the sunlight perfectly from the afternoon glow outside. An ornate golden fireplace sat at the back of the room, ablaze with fire on burning coals. A miniature chandelier hung from the ceiling, lined with golden beads, which Star did not think could get any more self-indulgent. And this was only the living room! There were doors on the right and left leading to what Star could only assume were the bathroom and bedroom. No doubt the bedroom had a king-sized bed twice the size of theirs and the bathroom was without a strand of hair left behind.

'Woah…' she mused, inspecting one of the perfectly pristine drawers. 'I didn't know this inn had such nice rooms!'

'It's the best money can buy,' boasted Jimothy. 'Perks of being the greatest explorer in the multiverse! Have you read my books?'

'Um…no.'

'You really should!' he exclaimed, walking over to his bookshelf and plucking out books one by one. 'Trials and Tribulations in Pixtopia…Earth: Peace or Prison…My Experience in the Torture Lounge…24 Hours/Decades in the Neverzone…Don't Get Lost in Quest Buy…Cats with Human Faces…ooh! You might like this one: Prisoners of Galafamor. You seem like the kind of girl to enjoy a good old-fashioned prison break.'

Star blinked. She had no idea what that comment was supposed to mean, or if it had to do with her current, disguised appearance. However, Star was unable to provide a response before Jimothy dumped all the books he mentioned directly onto her unsuspecting hands. Unexpectedly, she found herself carrying five different books of varying lengths.

'Wait, wait, wait,' Star halted, dropping all of the books onto the floor. 'You don't like dimension hoppers…but you're a dimension hopper yourself? Aren't you being a massive hypocrite?'

'Pfft, no,' he scoffed. 'I have a licence. I'm endorsed by the Magic High Commission. You know what I do when I travel? I go through checks and balances; I carry passports and identification; I keep currency on my person at all times. I go through the proper mediums. You know what hoppers do? They barge through borders, hop through portals, and make themselves at home where they are not welcomed! They are nothing but freeloaders and slumming delinquents.'

'Okay, okay, I get it,' she insisted, holding out her hands. 'Wait, if you're endorsed by the Magic High Commission, does that mean you have dimensional scissors?'

'Ordinarily, yes,' he groaned, resting onto his chair. 'But the Empire's lackeys confiscated them the moment I got here.' Star glanced downwards in defeat. 'I'm only staying here to write a short novella – my fans wanted me to "go back to my roots" or something. I'd much like to get off this damn rock as soon as possible, and back to my lovely home in Pixtopia, so you can imagine being stolen from really puts a spanner in the works.'

'Oh, right!' exclaimed Star, suddenly remembering why she was even there in the first place. 'So, you lost a sweater, right?'

'A cashmere sweater, yes. Extremely expensive. It was tailor-made for me by couturiers from Sifo-Vestes. No denomination of currency can describe its value.'

'Ok, so how did you lose it?'

'Well, I had just eaten in my room, when I decided to start my exercise routine,' he explained, 'I began my warm-up by doing pull-ups in the shower.'

Star folded her arms in disbelief.

'You did pull-ups…in the shower?'

'Don't you?' He smirked in a way that made her skin crawl. 'It was only after I completed my warm-up that I returned to my living room, only to find that my favourite sweater was missing! It's outrageous, I tell you. The money-hungry peasants around here will do anything for a quick dime.'

Star rolled her eyes. There was only so much of this guy she could take before she actually blew a gasket on him.

'When did you start your pull-ups?'

'1:45pm, exactly. Not a minute sooner, or later. I keep a tight schedule, and I intend to keep it that way.'

'1:45…okay, and when did you finish?'

'Five minutes later. Timed it myself.'

'So, it could've been stolen between 1:45 and 1:50pm,' she deduced, smiling to herself.

That's good, thought Star. That means the culprit must've had a VERY short timeframe to steal it. They'd had to have broken in immediately, so that leaves a pretty reliable time of theft.

'Alright, well, uh, Jimothy, thank you for your time,' she said, with the most wooden voice imaginable.

'Anything for a fan!' he said happily, opening the door for her. Star frowned as she stood in the doorway.

'I'm not a…oh, whatever.'

With that, Star walked away, sincerely hoping that Jimothy wasn't going to try anything with her. She didn't think he was the type, but his head was so ridiculously jammed up his own butt that he was unlikely to be predictable. Plus, as much as she hated to admit, Adam was right to tell her not to trust anyone. Such a dangerous thing to do, and Star was well-known for being overwhelmingly trusting in people. Adam was the polar opposite.

Still, that didn't mean he was right about not helping Kelly. There wasn't a chance in hell Star was going to just let Kelly lose her job over something that wasn't her fault.

As she walked away, she took out the piece of paper from her back pocket and read the next name on the list.

'Flora Decora…' she read curiously. 'Huh. Pretty name. Uh…Room 12.'

Star chased down the hallways in search of the correct room. Room 12 had to be on the bottom floor, on the other side of the inn. Star guessed that Flora Decora was the woman with the missing necklace from earlier, but she couldn't be too sure. Maybe it was the guy who lost his wallet, she didn't judge.

Passing Kelly on her way around, Star made her way down another hallway to the twelfth room. She found it relatively quickly, knocking on the door and waiting patiently to be answered.

The door opened to reveal a short woman in a traditional maid's dress. Her dress was well-maintained, clean and vigorously washed. Star got the bleak impression that her uniform was the only clothes she had. She wore little makeup, but she didn't need any, Star identified her instantly as beautiful. In fact, she was slightly jealous at her smooth, unblemished features and slim, well-endowed form. Her pastel-pink hair was long and silky, shimmering in the orange glow of the nearby candles.

'Uh, h-hello? Can I help you?' she asked shyly. Her voice was so high-pitched and innocent that Star almost couldn't believe it.

She's so cute!

'Um, I'm St–Estrella,' she introduced herself. 'Are you…Flora Decora?'

'That's me,' squeaked Flora. 'Are you with the plumbers?'

'Plumbers?' questioned Star, frowning. 'Sorry, no. Why? Is something wrong with your room?'

'My apartment, actually,' she corrected politely. 'Something went wrong with the pipes, and I had a gas leak. It's too dangerous to live there for now, so…heh, here I am.'

'Did you ask your boss if they'd be willing to offer you a place to stay?' asked Star, gesturing at her maid uniform.

'No…' Flora confessed, glancing down sadly. 'Mr Draper has…not been very forthcoming with support. He didn't want to provide his maid with a place to stay.'

'Hold up, the Meriff is your boss?!' gawked Star. The maid nodded. 'He's like the richest guy in all of Polaria! You'd think with all the expensive stuff he owns; he could spare some money to pay for your accommodation.'

'Oh well,' she remarked, dismayed. 'At times like this, I remember what my grandma used to tell me: take it on the chin and keep smiling, because you deserve nothing but happiness.'

Star's eyes widened in surprise. This woman was simply far too innocent for her own good. Even Star, someone who considered herself fairly innocent, thought she was incredibly innocent. She was being trodden on so easily that it genuinely made her angry.

Nevertheless, Star was here for a reason. She couldn't help everyone all at once; after all, she had made a commitment to Kelly for the time being.

'So, um, I'm actually here about the theft you made a complaint about,' Star informed her. 'You…lost a necklace, right?'

Flora nodded her head.

'Mm-hmm,' she hummed, beckoning her to follow her into her room. Star nodded and stepped into Flora's room.

Flora's room was much smaller than Jimothy's. It was about the size of Star and Adam's room, perhaps marginally bigger. The wooden walls were rotting, damp with saltwater, and caked in dust and cobwebs. The lamp hanging from the ceiling was loose and poorly constructed, complete with cracked and murky glass. Her bed was easily the cleanest thing in the whole room, which made sense for a maid. The floors had been scrubbed relatively well, but you could not hide the splinters and rot in the floorboards.

Flora walked over to her cupboard and picked up a framed photo placed on top of it.

'It was a beautiful emerald necklace; it used to shimmer in the evening sun,' mused the maid. 'It was gifted to me by my husband as a wedding present.'

She showed Star a framed picture of her and her husband. She was wearing a brilliant pearl white wedding dress, and her pink hair was done up in fabulous curls. The beautiful bride was standing next a tall, broad man with thick brown hair and a glorious beard. In the picture, a dazzling emerald crusted necklace hung around her neck.

'Wow!' Star remarked in awe. 'You look so beautiful! That necklace is just so pretty. You must've felt like the luckiest girl in the world!'

The maid giggled. 'Thank you.'

'So where's your husband at?' she asked innocently. 'Is he giving the plumbers hell for not fixing your apartment yet?'

Flora's face fell instantly.

'My husband…died seven years ago.'

'Oh,' the princess gaped dumbly. 'I'm…I'm so sorry! I-I didn't know!'

'It's okay,' Decora assured her. 'He was the light of my life, but I lost him a long time ago. I've…learnt to live with the pain.'

Star almost wanted to cry at this poor woman's plight. Why did such a kind and innocent woman like her have to suffer so much? While twerps like Jimothy got all the world's riches and more, people with a heart of gold like this maid were continually beaten down by the cruel hand of fate.

She used to think that, given how Adam had described the Negative Multiverse, there was no such thing as "good". She thought that Adam was probably the closest thing associated with "good", but Flora had very easily proven her wrong. How many others had she been wrong about with Adam?

'I'm really sorry to hear that, Ms Decora,' she apologised sincerely. 'I promise I will find this necklace for you.'

'Thank you,' she thanked graciously. 'Thank you so much.'

Star nodded, smiling.

'How exactly did you lose it?' asked the princess.

'Well, I left to get my afternoon tea at around half-past-one,' she related. 'I didn't want to stay long; tea around here can be quite expensive. There was a delay with my bacon sandwich, though…so by the time I got back, it was around two o'clock. I wanted to put my necklace on, just to feel…pretty, y'know? Then I found it was missing!'

Star tried to hide her slight disappointment behind a remorseful look. That's a half-hour window. Not very helpful…there's no way of telling if the thief went for the necklace or the sweater first.

'Did you see anything else…I dunno, suspicious, when you got back?' Star asked her, inspecting the apartment curiously.

She looked around the room to find anything of substance, but there seemed to be very little of anything to suggest there had been a break-in. Whoever had stolen from Flora, they must have been very thorough with their work. That ruled out Kelly according to Adam's theory about her being careless in her theft. After all, if Kelly had supposedly done this so many times and become lax about it, she definitely wouldn't have been so careful in erasing all evidence of her presence.

'Well…no, not really.'

'Hm…'

Star stopped when she spotted the clock on the mantlepiece. The glass face was cracked, and the arms of the clock refused to move.

'Was this clock always broken?' enquired Star, pointing curiously at it. Flora frowned and leaned over to inspect it.

'How strange…it wasn't broken before I left!'

'Thief must've been clumsy,' she remarked. 'Wait a minute, the thief was clumsy!' She read the time on the clock. '1:39pm. That's the exact time of theft. So, I guess the thief went straight from Jimothy's room to yours.'

But how did they manage to cross the ENTIRE length of the inn, without being noticed?

There was no way of knowing yet. Nothing that Star could figure out for the time being. It simply could not be possible. Neither Kelly nor Flora had noticed anything during that short ten-minute time period. Maybe the only way to get answers was to speak to the last person. At least then, she could get an idea of the full picture.

'Well, thank you, Flora, you've been very helpful,' she said, as she turned to leave.

'Do you really think you could get my necklace back?' Decora asked hopefully, as Star stopped in the open doorway. 'It's the last thing I have from my husband to remember him by.'

'I promise you, Flora, I will do everything in my power to return that necklace to you,' said Star, with the warmest, sincerest smile she could muster.

'Thank you so much. It's rare to find such kindness among strangers.'

'It's the least I can do,' she replied, as she stepped out of the apartment and walked away.

As the princess walked away from Flora, she took out the piece of paper again and read the final name on the list.

Phillip…no, Trillip Harvest? Why does everyone around here have such weird names? I mean, I'm not one to judge but…who calls their child Jimothy, or Trillip? Weird.

The room number was ninety-three. Room 93 had to be the on the second floor, considering her room, 101, was halfway along the corridor upstairs. Hastily, Star made her way through halls towards the stairs in the main foyer. She scurried up the stairs, hoping to avoid the potential attention of the culprit. Passing her room, she arrived at Room 93 moments later.

She balled her into a fist and knocked on the door. She actually only managed to knock twice, because the door was opened in haste before she could complete her third. A young adult in his early twenties, wearing a simple blue tunic. His blond hair and pale complexion looked fairly unremarkable, and he struck Star as an older, blonder version of Adam.

'Y-Yes?' asked the young man. 'Is…this about my wallet?'

'Yep,' Star replied, popping the "p" at the end. 'You're Trillip, right? Trillip Harvest?'

'That's me,' Trillip confirmed. 'Please, come in.'

He stepped aside and allowed Star entry into his room. It wasn't classy like Jimothy's room, and it wasn't steeped in poverty like Flora's room. Instead, it was rather in the middle. The walls were nice and clean, but the wood still contained traces of rot, and were lacking in any paint or wallpaper. The floor had a small carpet stretched thin over it, a bland sort of beige colour. His bed was in the same room, and it was probably about the same size as the bed she and Adam had to share. The lack of windows said a lot about the quality of this room. Curiously, though, there were dozens of clocks and watches mounted on the walls that were all perfectly synchronised without so much as a scratch on their glass panels. This guy must have a weird obsession with keeping time, Star thought.

Logically, the thief had to have gone here last. The culprit could then have escaped out the window. Otherwise, they couldn't have escaped without immediately being noticed. Not to mention, the windows had all been shut in the previous rooms Star had seen. Unless there were another set of stairs, though, the thief had to have gone up the central stairs at some point. Kelly had to have noticed that. There was no way she didn't.

So how exactly did the thief manage to ascend a floor without being noticed?

'So, what did this wallet look like?' asked Star in curiosity.

'It was a high-security Prussian blue wallet from Quest Buy,' Trillip explained fondly. 'Best wallet I ever owned. I dunno why they even bothered stealing it when they won't even be able to open it!'

'Maybe they had a way of cracking it,' she speculated. 'How did you manage to lose it?'

'That part baffles me, honestly,' he admitted. 'I just got back from grabbing a bite to eat and I rested my coat around my chair. I got up to put my shoes away, and then when I got back…my wallet was missing. Right from under my nose.'

She frowned.

There's no way the same thief could expertly swipe that wallet in half a second, but also be so clumsy as to knock over Flora's clock. How can these two thefts be done by the same person?! Unless there were TWO thieves? Ugh, I dunno.

'Do you know what the time was?' asked the princess, glancing at the overwhelming number of clocks in the room.

'1:31pm, exactly.'

Star blinked.

'1:31?' she repeated. 'You-You're absolutely sure?'

'Look around you, I have many reliable sources,' reasoned Trillip, gesturing at his watches. 'I'm a watchmaker. All my clocks and watches read 1:31pm, beyond a shadow of a doubt.'

'Um, well, thanks for your time,' Star said awkwardly, as she stumbled out the door. 'I promise I'll do my best to return your wallet to you.'

'Thanks,' Trillip replied, slightly confused by her behaviour. Star gave a cursory nod and walked away.

It doesn't make sense, she thought. Why would the thief choose to rob the top floor first? Unless they were staying in the inn on the top floor. No…Kelly would have seen them wandering about to all these different rooms. And for that matter, why did they ONLY rob these three people? No matter what floor they were on, wouldn't it be easier just to rob the people nearby? Why risk stealing from people on other floors? Argh…none of this makes sense!

Robberies just could not be simple in the Negative Multiverse. Is this the kind of thing denizens of Negative Mewni had to endure on a daily basis? Corn, Adam was right when he said that she had barely seen anything of this world yet. Maybe she was out of her depth here.

Star shook her head. No. Just because she was slightly taken aback by this strange act of robbery, doesn't mean she would just altogether give up. Right now, Kelly needed someone, and Star needed to be there for her.

That's when it hit her.

Kelly. Now that Star knew about the circumstances behind these thefts, it only made sense to talk to Kelly again. Even if she was certain of not seeing much of anything, there might still be some things Kelly hadn't mentioned. Since Star knew when the theft occurred, Kelly might then be able to provide information she hadn't previously mentioned or thought to mention.

'Hey, Kelly?' Star asked, walking up to the reception desk. She was still sitting in the chair, working through her paperwork.

'Yes? Interviewed those people, yet?'

'Uh, yeah, I did,' she replied. 'Did you see anything between 1:30 and 1:50pm? I dunno, anything shifty or suspicious? People loitering, people going into rooms they don't belong, stuff like that.'

'No, nothing,' said the innkeeper, after a few seconds of contemplation. 'I didn't see anybody who wasn't where they were supposed to be.'

'You're sure?' Star doubted, rubbing her chin in thought. 'Because I'm pretty sure that the theft went to Trillip's room first to nab his wallet, then to Flora's to steal her necklace, then to, ugh, Jimothy's room, to take that stupid sweater. They must have been very quick and very swift. You didn't see someone going down the stairs?'

'I didn't see anything, I'm telling you,' Kelly told her categorically. 'Nobody was skulking around; nobody went down the stairs. They couldn't have done it without my noticing.'

'Then you must have missed it.'

'I absolutely did not!' She pointed at her eyes with her index and middle fingers. 'Nothing gets past these eyes. If somebody went into those rooms, I would've known about it. I know everything that happens within these walls.'

'Yeah,' Star acquiesced in defeat. 'I guess you're–wait, if something happened within these walls?'

'Y-Yes?' Kelly stuttered, glancing away in confusion.

'So…what if it happened outside these walls?' she proposed, smirking victoriously. Kelly hummed aloud in thought.

'So…you think the thief could have broken in from the outside?' she clarified, receiving a nod from the princess. 'Well…maybe, not sure how they got around so fast, though. I dunno, you can check the exterior of the building, maybe you might find something there.'

As she was saying this, Star was already out the door of the inn.

'It's a worth a shot!' she exclaimed, as she practically leapt out the building in excitement.

Star hummed to herself in thought. The aroma of saltwater in the marshy soil rose into her nostrils. Her boots squelched in the wet marshland of the grounds outside Kelly's inn. She leaned around the building and inspected the sides of the building for anything of note.

Star had yet to find much, but she had only just started. As the princess wandered around the sides of the building, she failed to locate anything other than blank brownish-red bricks and steel pipes. Maybe this was, in fact, a dumb idea. How would anybody manage to break in from the outside?

Whatever… she thought, sighing in defeat. Maybe this is some stupid…

She paused as she reached the back wall of the building. Up near the top of the building, just below the rafters, there was a set of railings built into the side of the inn. Judging by the rust and weathering on the railings, they hadn't been used for a while. Perhaps Kelly had forgotten about them. She had never mentioned how she came about to owning this inn, so perhaps it was a detail that the previous owner neglected to mention.

More to the point, though, the railings led to a sizeable maintenance panel cut out of the brick. At first, Star thought it was just an access panel for the power controls, but then she realised it wasn't. The panel had been removed to reveal that it led into the vents of the inn.

That's it! That's how they did it! They got in through the vents at the back!

At the very least, it identified the common denominator of the three rooms that had been stolen from. Simple. They all had vents in them, even Flora's cheap and dusty room had a vent access.

But why those three rooms? Why them specifically? Did they have the best stuff to steal? If so, how did they know their possessions enough to want to steal them? And who the hell would know enough about the layout of the building to navigate through the vents to find those three rooms?

Unfortunately, the obviousness of Star's first question dawned upon her instantly. Only one person she knew was likely to have the know-how and the expertise to effortlessly make her way through those vents without being noticed. Only one individual could possibly pull this off without anybody realising. Only one person could claim an alibi without trying and proclaim nobody else could have contradicted it.

Kelly.

[38] If you understood this reference, I just wanna say thank you.

Hello, hello, my faithful readers and potential newcomers!

It's been a little while since the last update. I keep forgetting to update the story on this site, if I'm being totally honest.

I thought it would be a fun to do a little detective mystery episode. I've always wanted to do this kind of episode. So I took this opportunity to try it out. If it turns out it's not very well-written, then I probably won't approach it again. I'm just trying new things. Besides, I needed a way to build to my end goals with Adam and Star in the town of Polaria, and this is the way to get there. It will make sense when this chapter concludes.

As you can see, Negative Kelly is a little more fatalistic than her Positive counterpart, and possibly responsible for the serial thefts that occurred during the chapter. Adam and Star have sorta switched roles here, since previously Adam was the one who couldn't differentiate alternate counterparts (specifically Star and Dark Star, for traumatic reasons), and Star was the fairer one. However, Adam remains his standoffish self, refusing to help Kelly because he believes drawing attention to themselves would only result in disaster. Star, being her compassionate self, just wants to help someone in trouble. Even Negative Kelly finds it hard to believe.

The three victims, Jimothy, Flora and Trillip are all meant to be stereotypes of different types of people, although exaggerated. If that wasn't obvious enough. I also wanted to give an idea of what the people in the Negative Multiverse are generally like. You've got the rich, selfish assholes like Jimothy, the kind and reserved people like Flora, and the nervous and closed-off people like Trillip. Star's original perception of Negative Mewni was that everyone in it was some shade of evil, with some exceptions like Adam. That's what I've always led you to believe, because of how evil the Dark Butterflies and the Empire are. It's not the case. There's more nuance. Unfortunately, good wins less than evil in this universe, so people like Flora end up suffering more. Because they're too nice. Evil isn't necessarily rewarded, though. What IS rewarded is cunning and survivability, as well as quick-thinking and reflexes. It's natural selection played to the extreme, I suppose.

That's why Adam's so ingrained with his own beliefs. This is how he survived. It's like telling a dog not to bark. Or a bee not to sting. He's gone his whole life learning these things until it was seared into his brain, so of course he's going to be stubborn about it.

I also gave a brief impression of other dimensions in the Negative Multiverse. What they're like. More details will be mentioned in the finale arc down the line.

Oh, and, I don't know if you missed it, but it was finally explained why Adam ended up in specifically the Positive Multiverse all the way back in Chapter 3! Well, at least, Adam gives his theory: the Negative and Positive Multiverse were originally one, but they spontaneously separated, like embryos when identical twins are made. It was just random, but the split wasn't perfect. The multiversal bridges he found exist because they didn't split completely, and it's also why their histories and structure are so similar. Fate was affected by the fact that they are connected. SO satisfying to finally give this explanation!

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Star is more the main character of this episode, much like in Of Mice and Mewmen. Adam still has a role to play, of course, just mainly at the end.

I'll see you all in the next chapter, titled, "Star of All Trades"! Thanks for all the support!