Chapter Text
Night was beginning to descend upon the kingdom of Mewni as a young guard made his way down the nearly silent first floor corridor. Whistling a merry little tune to himself, he watched the servants draw the drapes closed as the blood red sunset peeked through the fabric. The castle was settling itself down for the evening after another day filled with activity, Mewman and monster nobles having departed a few hours ago after a long mediation.
Though the first Heart Regime of the twenty-first century had been rocky from the start, most of the conferences ended with everyone placated to some degree. But tonight the guard was stopped by one of his comrades as he rounded the corner to the grand staircase.
“Oh, you don’t wanna go this way,” he said in an undertone, stealing a quick glance over his shoulder. “It’s a battlefield in there.” He jabbed his thumb to the front hall where they could hear shouting voices echoing under the domed ceiling.
“But I need to finish my rounds.”
“You’re new, ain’t ya?” the older guard assumed. “Listen, when they’re yellin’ like that, you best steer clear. Who knows what’s gonna happen. Sometimes stuff gets thrown, and if she’s got her Wand--”
“Castor!” came the impatient cry of Geoffrey, the head chamberlain, carrying an official-looking envelope in his hand. “And -- Nash, is it?” He eyed the rookie up and down before shaking his head. “There’ll be no dilly-dallying until the main floor has been fully inspected!” There was a flash of bright green light and they heard a crash that sounded like breaking glass. Geoffrey jumped around dramatically, clutching his heart. “Good heavens!”
“They’re at it again,” Castor said gruffly. “We ain’t goin’ anywhere near there.”
“Say no more, gentlemen, say no more!” Geoffrey exclaimed flusteredly, steering them away from the archway to the main hall. “We’ll go around the back way, it's safer.”
“Safer? But I don’t understand, w-what’s happening?” Nash stammered as he was pushed down the corridor by two pairs of hands.
“The Queen is in a towering rage,” Geoffrey hissed tremblingly as if he were physically quaking in the knees, fanning himself with the inscribed parchment.
“With who? Her royal advisors?”
“Worse.” Castor shook his head. “Her husband.”
“I can’t believe you voted against me!”
“What, because your decision to deprive more housing was a bad one?!”
“Nooo, it’s not depriving housing, it’s refusing to build on the Marshlands! I said that like ten times!”
“Then where are we gonna build them?! There’s no other solid vacant land! Mewni’s a dump!”
“Watch your mouth, Diaz, you’re King of this ‘dump’ now!”
“That’s right, I’m King! And last time I checked, the King’s in charge of the architectural department!”
“Oh so you read all the diplomacy books, good for you! Whaddya want, a cookie?!”
“Whoa!” Marco ducked as the wand wrapped tightly in his wife’s gloved hand shot a blast of green light across the room, smashing what looked like an antique vase onto the floor. “Would you put the Wand down?!”
“Great-Great Grandma Celena’s vase,” Star gasped, pressing her free hand to her mouth before rounding on Marco again. “See what you made me do?!”
“Me?! You’re the one who started screaming about it, as usual!” She glowered at him from the top of the staircase as he marched halfway up, folding his arms over his chest and taking a deep breath. “Look Star, you know I’ve always got your back--”
“Ha!” Star almost shrieked.
“I love you and I support you. But if you make a bad call, I’m gonna say so.”
“Queen Eclipsa used to escape to the Marshlands to practice her spells,” Star explained as calmly as she could, her shoulders heaving up and down. “The natural environment absorbed all of that wild experimental magic, and if we start digging up the ground and chopping down trees, who knows what dormant powers could escape.”
“My parents’ house absorbed all your wild experimental magic and it’s still standing,” Marco remarked. “You're just as powerful as Eclipsa was. If anything goes wrong, you can fix it.”
“Oh that’s what I am?! Queen Quick-Fix?!” she cried shrilly. “Sure Marco, in-between stacks of paperwork, appearances, signings, balls, ribbon-cuttings and raising our baby girl, I’ll go try and keep some ancient forbidden magic from destroying the entire dimension!”
“My Queen?”
“What is it, Geoffrey?!” Star whirled to her chamberlain who had sneaked through the entrance underneath the staircase.
“Eep!” he squeaked, cowering at the identical glares from both monarchs. “Erm well, a letter’s just arrived for you. From your father, the former King River.”
“Wait, an actual letter?” She pulled up her skirt to descend the stairs partway, leaning over the banister to take it from his trembling hand. “Like, handwritten and everything? What year is it?”
“Two thousand and twenty-nine, Madam.”
“I didn’t mean -- urgh, thank you Geoffrey,” she huffed. “I’m going to my room.”
“Good idea,” Marco snapped. “First one you’ve had today.”
“I’ll need some people to clean up this mess. And the King to clean up his act.”
After the chamberlain rushed off gratefully, Marco stomped up the stairs to where the landing split off into two side staircases. “Let’s sleep on this and discuss it in the morning.”
“I’m not changing my mind,” Star shot at him stubbornly.
“Neither am I.”
“Well I’m the Queen so I get the final word,” she emphasized, pointing her wand at her own chest.
“And after you sleep on it, you’ll see that I’m right,” Marco added.
“And after you sleep on it, maybe you’ll learn your place!”
The silence was so deafening they could practically hear every guard and servant pressing their ears to the walls. Star stood there gaping as if she couldn’t believe the words that had come out of her own mouth, yet her anger did not abate.
“My place?” Marco repeated, his chocolate brown eyes blazing with ire as they locked onto hers. “Fine. Maybe my ‘place’ is sleeping in the study tonight.”
“You do that,” she spat back as they each stormed up opposite staircases.
“And maybe after I’ve slept on it, I’ll decide my ‘place’ is back on Earth!”
“See if I care, Safe Kid!”
“Pleasant dreams, Your Majesty!”
“I can’t stand him!” Everyone from the guards in the hallway to the handmaidens beside her winced as their eardrums nearly ruptured at the queen’s roar. “He’s just lucky he built up all that muscle. If he was fourteen again and noodly, ohh-hoho, I’d twist him into a pretzel!”
“Don’t you think you might be overreacting, M’Lady?” Astra suggested as she began to unpin the heart-jeweled tiara from Star’s thick golden locks.
“Like you usually do when you have a disagreement with His Majesty?” Aurora said matter-of-factly, earning a warning glance from her younger twin. Had she spoken to any past Queen of Mewni so forwardly, she would have been reprimanded, sacked, or in some cases even beheaded. Star the Benevolent, however, usually just needed someone to vent to and wasn’t really listening to begin with.
“Probably,” Star spluttered through her lips, blowing a frizzed strand of hair out of her face as Astra yanked the pins from her scalp. “Just lemme have this.”
“As you wish,” Aurora sighed with an eyeroll Star luckily didn’t see as she slumped over her vanity, resting her chin on her folded arms.
“He doesn’t understand how easy he’s got it. He’s just a consort. He doesn’t have to break ties in the council or give final verdicts in court or…prioritize a less fair grievance over a fairer but more dangerous one.” She exhaled in relief as Aurora undid her corset -- she’d scarfed down that roast beef and mashed potatoes at dinner and had been feeling it for an hour or so around her middle. “I’m the one who has to do all that. The only reason he has any royal standing at all is ‘cause he married me.”
“I thought status didn’t matter to either of you,” Astra pointed out as she unhooked the queen’s dressing gown from the wardrobe while Aurora combed out Star’s luscious waist-length tresses.
“It doesn’t, it…it’s not just that.” She stood begrudgingly as she flung her arms into the sleeves of her robe-like gown. “Sometimes I feel like he doesn’t trust me to make decisions on my own. And that’s been going on way before I was Queen.” Grabbing both ends of the sash, she knotted it around her waist with unnecessary force. “I mean with smaller stuff, sure. But for the really important ones, it’s like he’s afraid to give me complete control or I’ll do something crazy!”
The twins exchanged a rather alarmed look, a sentiment many subjects of Mewni would share. Despite, on average, a prosperous reign, Queen Star had in fact been known to make some irrational choices that led to a few minor disasters, whose only lasting effects seemed to have been on the royal treasury. It appeared in those times the only thing that could reel her back in was the contrasting temperament of the king that created the balance in her wild reckless nature. Which was why everyone, no matter what their opinions on the sovereigns as diplomats were, could see they were a perfect fit for each other.
“I’m sure the two of you will be able to talk things over in the morning,” Astra said, letting a hand linger on Star’s shoulder comfortingly before pulling away. “He’s only ever had your best interests at heart, and you his. You’re a team after all.”
“I know,” the exhausted monarch sighed, looking over at the two girls straightening out her clothes to be put away. “You guys can go if you want, I’m just gonna check on Pandora before I turn in.”
“And don’t forget the letter from your father,” Aurora reminded her, pointing to the wax sealed parchment sitting beside Star’s hairbrush, bristles tangled with blonde strands.
“Oh, and Astra? Your hair looks really cute.”
“Thank you, my Queen.” Astra fingered the ends of her jet black chin-length hair as she briefly curtsied. After nearly a year in her service, Star had gotten so fed up with trying to tell her identical ladies-in-waiting apart that she said one of them needed to get a haircut. Which backfired when the girls entered her bedroom a few days later -- one with shorter locks -- and made her guess which one of them had done the deed. How lucky Mewni was to have a queen with a good sense of humor, albeit a short temper in equal measure, bringing the twins’ fun to a swift end after their last hurrah.
In truth, Star loved them like they were her own sisters. When it came to confiding in them, she got the best of both worlds: Aurora’s dry practical approach with Astra’s sweet patient disposition. And as they left the room, shutting the door behind them and leaving Star with her thoughts, she realized it was going to be a lonely night. Maybe this was how Marco felt those times when she had too many commitments keeping her from accompanying him to visit his parents back on Earth, spending weeks apart from each other.
Ugh stop, you’re supposed to be mad at him, remember? After debating back and forth for a few minutes, she decided to read her father’s letter first. Turning up the baby monitor next to the mirror in case her daughter began fussing, Star slid the envelope off the table and flopped back in her cushioned seat lazily, staring at the diamond emblem imprinted on the fuchsia wax.
“Alright Dad, what’s so important that you needed to send it by snail mail?” she groaned, breaking the seal and unfolding the parchment inside. She thought maybe it was one of his little encouraging notes he sent when he could tell the pressures of ruling the kingdom were getting to her, or an engraved invitation to a garden party at her parents’ retirement castle. Or even just a friendly reminder to not sleep with the wand under her pillow.
Nothing could have prepared her for what the letter actually contained.
“You rang?” Aurora called as she sailed through the doorway of the bed chambers she had just departed minutes earlier. Her heart stopped, then sank like a stone to her stomach once she saw the queen: Staring at the letter in her hands, her weakened knees giving way as the mattress broke her fall, fingers clutching at her mouth as she shook her head defiantly at what she was seeing.
The elder twin was at her side in a second. “Your Majesty, what is it?” Now she could see her face more closely, eyes red and brimming with countless unshed tears. “Tell me what you need.”
“Get Marco.” Not ‘The King’, not ‘His Majesty’ as she referred to him professionally. It was like someone had throw a wrench into the inner gears of her system, making it impossible for her to filter her requests before they came spilling out. If her eyes weren’t deceiving her, if the shaky cursive her father had written was true, there was only one person she wanted here.
“But you told him to sleep in his study--”
“I know what I said!” Star burst out, pounding a fist on the comforter. “Just go find him now! That’s an order!”
Aurora bolted for the door, and once alone Star felt as if the walls were closing in around her, the floor swallowing her whole. Of course she could have just texted him in the room two floors down, but her hands were shaking so badly she could barely hold the paper, let alone her compact phone.
It’s not true…this isn’t happening…this cannot be happening. The short gasps she heaved in and out sounded less like breathing and more like sobbing as she grabbed at her chest, closing her eyes, trying to steady her racing heart. She read the letter, over and over again until she practically had it memorized, yet the meaning behind the words wouldn’t register -- scanning them until they blurred into running ink, the tears finally overflowing down her recently cleaned face.
“My Liege!” She recognized her handmaiden’s shout from the other end of the corridor. That was quick, the vague remark passed through her muddled thoughts, as she heard a pair of running footsteps getting louder.
“Star?!” And there was the scream she’d know anywhere, the cry of her name that ranged in urgency from burning nachos in the oven to a brush with death at the hands of an enemy. She nearly leapt out of her skin as he burst into the chambers, flinging the doors open with both arms.
“You’re here,” was all Star could say, watching Marco pant as he stood shocked still in the doorway wearing his grey sleepshirt and pajama pants.
“I-I was on my way to Pandora’s room and then Aurora told me you--” He stopped, noticing the shining rivulets coursing over the hearts on her cheeks. “What happened?”
“It’s…” The letter fell from her limp hands, fluttering onto the bedspread as she pushed herself up into a standing position. Once steadied on her feet, she raised her gaze to meet his.
“It’s my mom.”
Marco strode across the room to her as fast as he could, but Star collapsed to her knees on the floor, burying her face in her hands. He didn’t ask any further questions, he didn’t say a single word, he just gathered her crumpled form into his arms and stayed silent. And once she felt him surround her, shelter and protect her, once she was able to latch her nails onto his chest did she finally let go. A shuddering breath drew from her, followed by a long punctured wail that seemed to shake the very foundations of the castle. And the very cores of their souls.
“‘Crystal Anemia',” Marco read from the letter in the dim light as the moon rose higher into the sky from the open balcony window. “But there’s a cure for that, right? Some kinda potion made of crocodile tails and a severed warnicorn horn?”
Star shook her head weakly, “You’re thinking of Crystal Decay. And they have shots for that now, thank Mewni. It’s really contagious and fast acting.”
“Right, sorry, I-I mixed ‘em up.” He didn’t know what to say, all he could do was keep staring down at River Butterfly’s letter much in the same way Star had.
“Crystal Anemia’s been around for centuries. It used to be like a plague, people dropped dead from it left and right with little to no warning.” She swiped her wrist under her nose, sniffing up snot noisily. “Now they have treatments to delay it for as long as six months, sometimes a year. But there’s no cure.”
“And how long does your mom have?” Marco asked, his eyes scanning the message for the answer.
“A…few weeks.” Her reply was so small it was as if the wind had blown it into the room. Marco’s eyes widened in shock, fear and anguish gripping his heart as Star lowered her head. “Maybe a month. I guess…they caught it too late.” Fresh tears spilled out, dripping copiously into her lap as Marco flung the letter aside to slide closer to her on the bed.
“I’m sorry, Star.” He pushed her hair aside as he held her face, “I am so so sorry.”
Star took one of his hands and gave him a light kiss in his palm. “I’m sorry, too. About earlier.”
“No Star, none of that matters anymore,” Marco said firmly, drawing her close against his chest. Sometimes it took drastic measures to snap them back into shape, and all the spats, no matter how dire or trivial, would never outweigh their devotion to each other. Especially not when it was needed most.
“Remember after Pandora was born, Mom said she was gonna teach her how to tame a warnicorn before she was four?” Star gulped into his shoulder as he stroked her hair. “And when she said she’d help me plan next year’s state dinner after my Wand malfunctioned this year? But she didn’t get mad, she--”
“She was just glad you were okay,” Marco finished in a constricted voice, rocking her gently.
“We were finally close! We understood each other, after all that time thinking I would never be the daughter she wanted! Now it’ll be over, just like that!” They both heard the cry of an infant as the baby monitor lit up in warning on Star’s table. “Oh no, Pandi! I forgot to check on her!”
“The twins are taking care of her, she’s okay,” Marco assured her as she made to break from the embrace.
“Oh Marco, Pandi,” Star sobbed. “She’ll never know Mom…Mom’ll never know her. And Dad, poor Dad! I can't even imagine what he's going through!”
“Shh, I’ve got you,” Marco choked out as his wife gripped him tighter. “I know, Star…I know…” He held her on the bed for what felt like eons, every one of her sobs ripping through his heartstrings. Star’s mother had never been particularly close with him, but they did have a fondness for each other in their shared level-headedness when dealing with their spouses’ impulsive behavior. He admired her greatly, and had watched firsthand as Star’s relationship with her repaired itself over the years.
“She’s going to be a fine Queen,” Moon had said to him in one of the rare moments they had alone together. “I never would have guessed it before she went to Earth. And I can’t help thinking you may have had something to do with it.”
“I don’t know what to do, Marco,” Star mumbled into his shirt, her breath hitching. “I need to go to her, but at the same time there’s so much to do here.”
“Star, it's less than a month.” He pulled back so his wet eyes met hers. “Of course you have to go, she’s your mother. I’ll stay here and--”
“No.” Star shook her head quickly, her fingers digging further into the fabric on his back. “You have to come with me. I-I can’t deal with this by myself, I need you!”
“Okay, okay,” Marco hushed, smoothing her hair down comfortingly as she trembled under his touch. “We’ll call Tom in the morning and tell him what happened. He’ll help the council take the necessary actions for a month’s leave of absence.” Having a friend on Star’s team of advisors, particularly one who was Underworld royalty himself, had always been a tremendous advantage to them. And they were going to need all the support from friends they could get.
“Good, totally totally…you’re right,” Star continued to mutter, swiping at her leaking eyes absentmindedly. “Sorry, I’m just not thinking clearly.”
“You need to focus on one thing right now, Star.” He brought his lips to her forehead and let them linger for several moments. “Saying goodbye.”
A pair of their stockiest, strongest guards heaved Star’s final trunk into the back of the carriage, shoving it securely in place so their luggage looked like a tower of blocks. Star watched them wipe the sweat from their brows and give each other a high-five before heading back inside the castle.
“It’s all ready to go, Your Majesty!” the gruffer one called over his shoulder.
“Thanks guys, you’re the best!” she waved at them while balancing Pandora against her hip. At a year and a half, the baby princess was growing more aware of her surroundings, and knew a road trip was upon them as she clapped her pudgy hands together.
“Car!”
“That’s right honey, ‘car’!” Star repeated, bouncing her excitedly. Naturally she was getting it confused with Marco’s Chevy back on Earth, but at her age she called anything with four wheels ‘car’. “Grandma and Grandpa are gonna be so happy to see you.”
“Is keeping the plants watered really a top priority?!” came the irritated yell of a certain demon king as he rounded the corner with Marco at his heels.
“Pandora loves those marigolds, and they are going to be thriving and not sun-dried when we get back,” Marco said firmly, poking Tom in the back to emphasize his point.
“Pandora loves them, or you do?”
“Does it matter? Just make sure they’re watered!”
“Oh yeah sure, I can see it now: ‘Hey guys, turns out you’re going to war with the Goblins, but at least the garden looks beautiful!’”
“Aw Pandi, look at my two favorite boys fightin’ like an old married couple,” Star teased as they approached her.
“I am so sorry,” Tom said to her in an undertone, after a deep breath to calm his simmering temper. “Both about your mom and you having to put up with that.” He jabbed his thumb at Marco, who made a lewd hand gesture most unbecoming of a king of Mewni. “Your Papa is so rude, little missy!” He took Pandora from Star’s arms and lifted her above his head, making her squeal in delight at the illusion of flight. “How’d you like to come home with your Uncle Tom instead?”
“Great, he’s gonna kill my flowers and abduct my daughter,” Marco muttered, throwing his hands up in exasperation. “And yet for some reason, we don’t trust anyone else to oversee the council in our absence.”
“Relax, Tom has his own kid to deal with,” Star pointed out. “Speaking of which, is Janna okay with you just ditching her and Lily for a month?”
“Oh they’ll pop in every few days or so,” Tom shrugged, swinging the princess in the air as she laughed up a storm. “Besides this was the perfect time to call me in, we’re kinda in the middle of a fight right now.”
“So were we, until…” She trailed off, but Tom understood and gave her a nod.
“Yeah but you and Marco get over it in, like, a few hours. One time, Janna and I went up to two weeks without talking to each other.”
“Two weeks of silence? Sounds like heaven.”
“Ugh, do not say that word in front of me!” Tom exclaimed as Marco took his daughter from him. “Alright, besides your stupid plants, is there any other last minute stuff I need to know?”
“Well, there is the whole Marshlands debate,” Star sighed, rubbing her temples exhaustedly. “But I can’t make an informed decision right now with Mom…you know. We’ll have to put a hold--”
“Tell them we’ve decided to close it off,” Marco interrupted. “For now, at least. We’ll reopen the case again in a few years.” He pulled a sealed envelope from the inside pocket of his embroidered jacket and handed it to Tom. “Here’s the official statement from us, so they don’t think you interfered with the decision at all.”
“Okay, will do,” the demon nodded, looking between the king and queen to make sure they were both in agreement before sliding the envelope into his own inside pocket.
“You’re not just giving in to my choice out of pity, are you?” Star arched her eyebrow at Marco.
“No, I’m giving in because I’ve been thinking it over and you’re right. It’s too risky right now to allow the region to open again.” He cracked a smile, pulling Pandora’s wandering fingers out of his mouth. “I think the one who’s lived here her whole life just might know what she’s talking about more than me in this case.”
“Car!” the princess shouted even louder, pointing over her father’s shoulder to where Aurora and Astra were loading their things into the servants’ carriage behind theirs.
“Someone’s ready to get on the road,” Star let out a dry chuckle, the closest thing to humor she could muster right now.
“Thanks again, man,” Marco stuck out his hand and Tom shook it before pulling him into a one-armed hug.
“Anything else you need, ya know where to find me,” he said, booping Pandora on the nose with his long-nailed finger before turning to Star. “Well, say hi to your folks for me. And tell your mom…she’ll be missed.”
“I will…” Her lip quivered as Tom slid a hand around her back, prompting her to leap up and latch her arms around his neck. “Thank you for doing all this for us. Especially me.”
“Hey, hey…it’s gonna be okay,” Tom said soothingly, returning her embrace. “Not right now obviously, but it will be. Someday.”
“Take care of her, Tom,” Star sniffled as she pulled back. “After she passes.”
He shook his head. “She’s not goin’ down there, I guarantee it. Her soul’s outta my hands.”
With Butterfly Castle being so far inland, the journey to the retirement abode on the lake was just over three hours long. Even with the carriage speeding along at a brisk fifty miles per hour, the trip seemed to take forever -- mostly from Star’s perspective. Half the time she was distracted by playing car games with Pandora and Marco, but when her daughter drifted off to sleep in her baby seat, she was left alone with nothing but her grief.
The longer they rode, the closer they came to facing the inescapable situation. Sometimes Star tried to fool herself into thinking the whole thing was just a bad dream, until she opened her purse and found the letter folded inside, wrinkled and splattered with her own tears. When the driver finally announced that they were fifteen minutes away, Marco gently pulled her fingers from the letter and latched his hand around hers. Star returned his hold and they sat in silence, no words needed, and not letting go until the carriage finally rolled to a stop.
Despite the dry summer months, her parents’ abode gave the illusion that it was always springtime. Fresh green grass covered the lawns, pastel flowers lined the lower walls of the castle exterior, and trees filled with cherry blossoms blew petals here and there in the wind wafting in from the lake. The baby princess squealed and pointed when she saw the vast blue body of water, and her parents knew she was ready to get her swimsuit on.
“Yeah yeah, I know,” Marco said to the impatient toddler hanging onto his neck as he dragged his suitcase with his other hand. “Grandma first, then lake. Okay?” Pandora scrunched up her face in disappointment, bopping her father on the nose with her hand. “I’ll take that as a ‘Whatever you say, Dad’.”
“Dad?!” Star called as they entered the front hall, just as cheerfully decorated on the inside as it was outside, the Diamond Regime coat of arms adorning the peak of the archway.
“Sir, the King and Queen of Mewni have arrived!”
“Just say ‘Star and Marco’, geez,” Marco sighed out to Manfred, the snobbish little chamberlain who gave him a critical look in turn. Good thing he hadn’t stuck around the castle after River and Moon stepped down, because neither he nor Star could stand him.
“Star?” A pair of eager footsteps pounded closer and closer, until the short stout form of River Butterfly came into view under the archway. “My goodness, we weren’t expecting you until nightfall!”
“I wanted to get here as soon as we could,” Star said as she ran to him, bending down to kiss his cheek. “How is she?”
“Actually, quite well today. Seemed to perk right up when she heard the three of you were coming.” His half-hearted pleasantness gave way to a full bombastic greeting when he saw his granddaughter in Marco’s arms. “Ah, here she is!”
“Gampa!” Pandora called as he scooped her up and kissed her all over, laughing as his beard tickled her face.
“I confess, her crib won’t arrive for the nursery until tonight,” River said in a muffled voice as the princess tugged on his thick mustache.
“Don’t worry, she slept in the carriage,” Marco waved off, handing his bags to the servants who were parading into the hall with their luggage.
“Hullo girls!” River called to Aurora and Astra, who curtsied to the former king. “Guest room’s on the third floor, left-hand tower!” He glanced curiously around at the servants carrying trunks, “Heavens, you brought the whole castle with you.”
“Well if we’re staying for a month, plus a bunch of it is Pandi’s baby things alone--”
“A month?” He glanced over at his daughter, who had remained uncharacteristically quiet. “Darling, you’re -- you’re staying here the whole time?”
“Until…” And suddenly she didn’t care that they were surrounded by staff or that Manfred was practically breathing down their necks. Star flung her arms around her father, unleashing the despair she’d bottled up during the entire trip onto his shoulder. “Daddy…”
“Oh my dearest Star,” River whispered as he wrapped her close, feeling tears well up as she cried silently against him.
“I’m, uh, gonna help the twins unpack,” Marco said to no one in particular, carrying Pandora as he followed Manfred up the grand staircase. Right now, Star needed to be with the only other person who could understand exactly what she was going through, and it wasn’t him.
“She’s been very tired for awhile now,” River explained, patting Star’s hand as he walked her down the main floor corridor. “Which we felt was odd, her being only fifty-two. But we didn’t think much of it and thought it would pass. Then she began hemorrhaging from a violent coughing fit and we knew something had to be wrong. As soon as she was diagnosed with the Anemia, I wrote to you straight away.”
“Why didn’t you call?” Star asked raspily, wiping her eyes with the handkerchief he had given her.
“I didn’t know how to say the words I needed to out loud…and still hold my composure.” He chuckled ruefully, “Don’t want to see your old man fall apart at the seams now, do you?”
Star wasn’t sure how to respond. Sure that would have scared her, but she would have understood completely. Moon Butterfly, the love of his life, was dying. He had loved her since they were young teenagers, just as Star had loved Marco since that age. To suddenly have to face a world without her in it had to be tearing him apart inside. And here she was sniveling like a two-year-old instead of being his rock like a real adult child was supposed to for their parent.
“Star, is that you?” Any resolve she had left crumbled away as she heard her mother’s voice coming from the parlor around the corner.
“You’re supposed to be resting,” River reprimanded her as Moon glided into view, holding onto the wall for support. Her face was whiter than usual, making the fuchsia diamonds on her cheeks stand out, and sunken in a bit as if she hadn’t been eating. She looked weak. She had never appeared weak before. And that was the most frightening thing Star had seen so far.
“River please, I can still move,” Moon said with an exasperated roll of her eyes before turning her attention to her only child. “How are you, dear? How was the trip?”
“How -- how am I?” Star gaped at her incredulously. “Y-you’re the one who’s -- who’s--” She didn’t finish, she couldn’t finish as Moon opened her arms and the young queen fell into them.
“They’re staying for the duration, Moon,” River said quietly, staring down at his twiddling thumbs.
“Star,” Moon lowered her tone disapprovingly. “You cannot leave the castle for that long on such short notice. What about--?”
“I don’t care, Mom!” Star burst out. “Whatever you’re gonna say, it doesn’t matter. This is way more important. You’re more important.” Her mother leaned against her as they walked back into the parlor, and only after they were seated on the sofa did Star drape her arms around her waist.
“It’s all true, isn’t it?”
Moon smoothed down the top of her head, letting her daughter lay in her lap like she was a little child again. “It is,” she said in the most grave tone she had ever uttered. “I’m losing my appetite. My wings are already fraying. Soon my entire body will just…shut down.” She leaned down to kiss her hair as Star shuddered.
“It’s so awful. Why you of all people?”
“Because my time has come, I suppose,” her mother rationalized as best she could. “I never dreamed this would happen, but sometimes there are forces not even a powerful Queen can conquer.”
“Does it hurt?” Star asked innocently, her large pools of baby blue gazing up into Moon’s sapphires.
“Some days are worse than others. I expect it to become more painful as it goes along.” She smiled down at her, “But I have the best caregivers in Mewni, from the nurses to your father himself."
River reached over and took her hand, rubbing his eyes dry on his sleeve. “And of course, you have our little girl.”
“He’s right,” Star stated with a surge of strength. “I’m here now, Mom. And I’m not going anywhere.”
The door to the parlor opened again and a pair of little feet padded towards them, Marco following behind Pandora who was dressed in her blue ruffled swimsuit.
“There’s my granddaughter,” Moon said warmly, Star sitting up so the baby could crawl into her lap.
“Give Grandma a kiss,” Star prompted, and her daughter obeyed as she turned to Marco. “How’d you get her to be so quiet?”
“I bribed her with C-A-K-E for dessert,” Marco admitted under his breath. He gently took his mother-in-law’s hand, kissing both of her cheeks. “How are you?”
“I’ve been better,” Moon replied honestly, giving his face an affectionate pat before pulling Pandora's grabby fingers off her earrings. “But I’ll admit, as much as I don’t like you both being absent from the castle, I…am glad you're here.”
She shut her eyes, feeling another seizure tighten in her chest, then slowly fade. This was going to be hard for all of them to endure, but she needed to make the most of her precious little time left. Not only for her own sake, but her loved ones’ as well.