In Defense Against Despair

Trailing the Demon's Prophecy

   Kelly felt Marco pulling her in closer. He didn't know but she was far from unconscious. He had slept unsettlingly and she could tell. He fidgeted uncomfortably under the large comforter and mumbled what seemed to be a frightened cry for help. She had finally decided that she was done resting. That and she was afraid of actually falling asleep.

   Feigning a stretch, she yawned and Marco did the same. "Marcoooo! You're actually still here? I thought you'd abandon ship." She said faking surprise.

   "Why would I do that? *yaaaawwwwn* I was tired." Marco said rubbing his eyes.

   Kelly smiled slightly. "You sound like you've been to hell and back."

   "Kelly," Marco said sarcastically, "where are we?"

   Kelly had to think for a minute but then proceded to slap her face with the palm of her hand. "Right. Anyway, what were you dreaming about in your brainscape?"

   Marco paused for a minute, trying to formulate his thoughts. "It was weird. There was you, but you were dead."

   Kelly frowned in disappointment. "Wow. Talk about blunt."

   Marco frowned sadly. "You were mangled and torn up and there was a guy in a dark shadow. He said something. I don't know what. It sounded foreign." Marco cringed and shuddered at the thoughts of his horrid nightmare. They upset him and scared him.

   Kelly stroked his hair in a comforting fashion. "Ah. Don't worry about it. Get up, jellyhead. We should find Star before she finds us. Especially here." Kelly walked outside to wait for Marco to put himself together.

   Marco sat uncomfortably. He didn't know how, but something about what He said unnerved him. He sat for a while longer in contemplative thought. "Should I tell her the rest of the story?" Marco thought. "No. It would sound insane." He stopped. A chill ran across his back. He heard a voice.

   "Si voles experiri. Erit mors fortitudine tua." It was that same voice. The one that haunted his subconscious. Marco tried to put it aside and forget about all of it.

   Marco exiled the voice. He walked out of the room to join Kelly and find Star. The two walked in silence the majority of the way. Not awkwardly, but knowingly. Kelly knew Marco needed to sort his thoughts and understand his dream. She let him keep his thoughts running instead of interrupting them. They stepped onto the threshold of Wrathmelior and Dave's throne room.

   Immediately after entering, the Lucitors, Tom, Star and Jorby all turned eyes on them. Marco felt incomprehensively awkward now. Kelly was beginning to wonder if Star's dramatic exaggeration of Wrathmelior's strictness was all that overblown.

   "Where have you been?" Star shouted angrily.

   This was making Marco even more embarrassed. Of course Star would  yell at him. The only one who he's with all the time. The only one who could annoy him about it forever. "We got sidetracked." He blurted out the half-baked excuse.

   Kelly elbowed him and spoke up instead. "What my friend is trying to say is we wanted to see what we could discover in the library. Ya know, seeking that knowledge and stuff."

   If there was anything that wasn't, it was convincing. Star raised an eyebrow, Tom hit himself in the face and Wrathmelior folded her gargantuan arms. Since nobody else did, Jorby spoke next. "That cannot be true."

   "Why?" Kelly asked as confidently as she could.

   "The library is halfway around the castle. How could that have been a simple sidetrack?" Tom challenged.

   "Silence!" Wrathmelior shouted. "Leave them be with the questions. You need only answer mine."

   Marco and Kelly braced themselves, preparing to recoil before her. "Where did you go during the Soulrise?"

   Marco opened an eye suddenly less terrified. He prepared to speak again but Kelly opened her mouth first. "Helheim Heights. We went to Helheim Heights."

   "That can't be. We searched every square inch of Helheim Heights. They were not...." Star was cut short by Wrathmelior.

   "Hush. If you were in Helheim Heights, why would you go so far north?" The demon asked.

   Marco was impatient to finish this so without thinking he blurted out, "We had our reasons."

   Although he had said it in a clearly displeasing tone Wrathmelior simply nodded in admiration of his resolve. "Very well. Just remember next time. Soulrise must be kept near the Lava Lake. Dismissed, all of you."

   Star was shocked. All she could think was thanks to Mewni for allowing her friends to be let go. Still, though, where were those two going now that this was all over?

   Kelly and Marco walked along the corridor attempting to find the library. "That insignia in the dust. I swear I've seen it before." Kelly said raking her mind for an answer.

   Marco offered up some assistance. "Did you get even a vague idea of where you saw it?"

   "No. And that's what I hate about it. It's driving me up the wall."

   Marco thought again. "You said you remembered it being associated with an evil presence. Demon?"

   "No."

   "A Mewman, maybe?"

   Kelly thought again. "No," she finally spoke.

   "Could it be a monster?"

   "No. Wait, yes! That's it! That's where I saw it. One of the old monster noble families from Agraors?" Kelly looked to her left. The library was there. Rushing inside she told Marco her plan. "Find every book on monster nobility you can. We're gonna figure this out."

   Marco nodded and set to work looking for monster nobility. He had some luck in the monster section on the first floor and some in the second floors culture section but his real luck was in the third floors ancestry area.

   "Wow. Talk about research. None of these symbols look remotely simi..." One of the books caught her eye. A basic shield with an odd rune and a sword running from top to bottom.

   "Kelly? What do you see?"

   Grabbing the book, Kelly flipped through the first few pages. After studying them, she suddenly shouted at Marco. "This is it!"

   Marco waited for her to continue and when she didn't he finally shrugged. "What, exactly?"

   "That symbol was of a monster noble house but they weren't from Agraors. That symbol belonged to a noble house from the swamplands of Septarsis. This is the insignia of Septarsis's most powerful family. The Banesears."

   "Where could we have recognized a member of such a powerful monster family?"

   "There are three members who are currently known to be alive. Butterscotch and Lozenge and their little sister Bonbon. Supposedly the most recently deceased member of their house is their older brother....."

   "Who, Kelly?" Marco asked. Despite his curiosity, he noticed the look of terror on Kelly's face and calmed down. "Who is it?"

   "... Toffee."

There you have it! Yay! Just to clear it up, Agraors is not a real thing. Septarsis is a real thing. It is the actual place Toffee hails from in the canon series.