Chapter 8

"Is the circle ready?"

Sophia examined her handiwork- a pentacle drawn with salt, encircled by runes and lit candles. She once again compared the circle to the diagram in the book. "I think so." She confirmed "I think it looks alright."

Violet gave the pentacle a once over, and Sophia couldn't help but shuffle her feat nervously. This was the first time Violet had let her participate in the summoning. Every time before, she'd only been allowed to watch while the more experienced witches worked.

"It'll do." Violet said dismissively, which provoked a few murmurs from the other girls. Sophia did her best not to show her satisfaction- if there had been anything wrong with her work, Violet would have picked it apart ruthlessly. The fact that the worst thing she could say about it was 'it'll do' meant she'd done it flawlessly.

"So, are we ready to start the summoning?" Sophia asked, anticipation building. The fact that she would be getting to do magic, actual real magic, was unbelievable. Even watching the others do it was freaking insane. It was worth all of the pointless initiation rituals, worth doing all of the dull work no one else wanted to do- like transcribing the translation of the book, it was worth going out into the woods in the middle of the night and putting up with Violet Aldritt's bitchiness.

"When you are." Violet responded "If you know the words."

Sophia swallowed, not expecting to be put on the spot like this. She had asked her to prepare everything, not to lead the chant! Taking a breath, she calmed herself. While she'd never lead the chant before, she had repeated along with everyone else. She could do this.

"Hoods up?" That was something else that Sophia suspected was more for show than actually necessary, but she had to admit they looked cool, she felt a bit more legitimate with the cowl down, like a real sorceress.

She stood in front of the circle, and began to chant. The words came awkwardly off her tongue- not English, or any other language they could recognize- a language of magic perhaps? Around her, the others echoed her words, their voices joining in an almost eerie chorus.

As their voices died down- the wind picked up, swirling around the circle, causing the candles to flicker. Sparks seemed to fly out of the outline of Sophia's circle, circling around in the air before coalescing into a ring of light. The wind gusted, whipping at Sophia's cloak and briefly extinguishing their candles, before they relit themselves. The ring rose into the air, and when Sophia craned her neck, she could see the swirling blue portal that formed within it.

It was at that point that something fell through the portal, landing heavily on the ground. No, not something, someone. And that someone hadn't just fallen to the ground, they'd landed with feline grace, rolling into a crouch and drawing what appeared to be knives etched with glowing orange runes. Silhouetted by the light of the portal, it was hard to pick up any details on the man they'd summoned.

"Alright!" He said authoritatively "Who are you, and what are you doing abducting people?"

Sophia squeaked in terror, frozen in place. Oh god oh god oh god, they'd really fucked up now, hadn't they? "Abort! Abort!" Violet screeched, and it took a moment for Sophia's fear paralyzed mind to understand what she was saying. They'd accidentally summoned a person one time before- some sort of centaur creature that had drawn its sword at them.

Summoning all of her courage, she quickly kicked her foot out, scuffing the side of the circle. The disruption in the circle caused the spell to fail, and as a result the man was sucked right back into the portal as it collapsed.

Her heart was still racing even as the tension faded and a sense of giddy elation fell over her. Had she actually done it? Almost as one, everyone in the coven sighed in relief.

Until, with a start, she noticed the most bizarre sight she had ever scene. It looked like someone was very deliberately trying to cut through reality itself, and the incision seemed to be forming… another portal!

Dread constricted at Sophia's heart. Someone whimpered. God, she hoped it wasn't her. The moments ticked by, nothing happened. They looked at each other, wondering if they had a chance if they just booked it right now. That thought process was instantly cut off as something flew through the portal with a roar.

It was a dragon. A fucking dragon- and on top of it was the same man. Actually, getting a better look at it, it looked like a bizarre cross between a dragon and a motorcycle. Sophia didn't know what to think. She was terrified beyond belief as the man unseated himself from his dragon and began to walk towards her. Specifically her.

"That was very rude." He told her.

Sophia did the only thing she could think of- apologize. "I'm sorry!"

The man was standing right in front of her. He reached a hand out, and she flinched away in fear. What was he going to do to her? Abduct her and take her off to his dimension? Arrest her? Or maybe he would just stab her with his magical knives?

Instead, he simply flipped the hood of her cloak down. His expression soften as he took her features in. Now that she got a good look at him… she wasn't exactly what she'd have expected. He was dressed in what looked like leather armor… but he looked young, not much older than she was. In fact, he was actually really cute.

"Oh. You can't be older than… fifteen?"

"Sixteen." She corrected automatically, before snapping her mouth back shut.

The man ran a hand through his hair "How'd a bunch of high schoolers get their hands on interdimensional magic?"

"W-we're really, really sorry for disturbing you. We didn't mean any harm." Sophia wasn't quite sure where she was going with this, but his guy seemed like a reasonable person. He at least wasn't attacking them, or anything.

"Look, you're not in trouble." He assured them.

"We're not?"

"Well, no. You girls really shouldn't be messing with magic like this, and you could get in trouble if you end up mixed up with the wrong people, but as of right now, you're not in trouble." His tone carried a tone of warning to it, but was surprisingly gentle. "So! How the heck are you guys doing magic. Not something most humans get involved with."

"Err, there's this book." At her words, someone rushed forward with said book. The man took it and flipped through the pages casually. It was at that point that someone else stepped through the portal the man had created. It took her brain a moment to process who this new person was, but when she realized it, her jaw dropped in shock.

"Janna Ordonia!" Violet gasped, at last stepping forward from the crowd.

"Do you know these people?" The man asked… Janna.

Janna smiled mischievously "I may be a bit of a celebrity in certain circles."

Marco turned to Sophia, prompting her for an explanation "Well, everyone in the occult knows about Janna Ordonia. One of the few people to ever travel between realms- and even bringing back magical artifacts!"

"Have you been stealing stuff from Mewni?" The man asked Janna, his voice a mixture of accusation and playfulness.

"Ask me no questions and I'll tell you no lies."

"What's Mewni?" Sophia felt compelled to ask.

"Oh, just the dimension his ex is the Queen of." Okay, that raised a lot more questions than it answered. Who was this person?

"First of all, she isn't my ex. Second of all, she isn't Queen of the entire dimension… just part of it."

"Potato potahto." Janna rolled her eyes "So what do we have here? An itty bitty coven? What's this?"

"The book they've been casting spells from, apparently."

"Hmph, I'm don't know that language."

"You wouldn't. It's Arrylic." Janna merely raised an eyebrow in response "A language in Heckapoo's dimension. Learned it from the dimensional scholars there when I was earning these babies." He held up a pair of scissors.

It was then that a third person walked through the portal. This one was perhaps the most normal looking out of all of them- she was a blond, except for the blue streak through her hair, and was dressed in jeans and a t-shirt. "So I take it that Janna's plan worked?"

"Did you ever doubt me, Jackie?"

"Not for a moment." Jackie assured.

"I'm sorry, but I'm confused." Sophia interjected. She probably didn't have a right to know anything at this point- she had the sense that these people could get them into a load of trouble if they wanted to and were going easy on them. But still, there seemed to be so much she was missing- she was barely following along.

"Alright, let me break it down for you." Janna explained "Basically, the portals you guys have been making upset a primordial, nigh-immortal, magical entity that governs inter-dimensional travel. Marco here was chosen to investigate because he's friends with said demigod, and is from Earth, and is idolized by most of the universe's princesses- one of which you accidentally abducted. You follow so far?"

Sophia nodded silently.

"Right, so Marco comes running to me for help, and me, being the talented witch that I am, figure out what sort of spell you guys must be using, and use that to figure out where the portal is most likely to open next. And that's basically it."

"Who are you?" Sophia asked the man… Marco.

"Oh sorry, I guess I kind of forgot about introductions. My name's Marco, Marco Diaz." He held out his hand to shake, and Sophia took it without hesitation. "Sophia Grey." She replied, unable to help the heat rising in her cheeks.

"But I mean, you're from Earth? How did you end up…like this badass interdimensional warrior?"

"Well, when I was fourteen and magical princess from another dimension became my roommate and best friend… and well, my life has never been the same since." His voice held quite a bit of fondness when he mentioned his friend, and Sophia couldn't help but wonder…

"Is she also the Queen that's your ex?"

Marco's expression fell instantly "Yeah." Uhg, that was so stupid of her, she wanted to kick herself. Did she really just ask the ridiculously hot guy she just met about his ex-girlfriend?

"Sorry. I shouldn't have asked." She apologized, but the damage seemed to be done.

"It's alright." He told her, subdued "So this book. I'm going to have to take it off your hands."

"What?" Violet gasped. "But-but you have no idea what I had to go through to get it! That's a priceless antique!"

"Trust me; there are far more difficult ways to get your hands on inter-dimensional travel." Marco responded "Do you have any idea how dangerous this is?" He asked them all. "You have no control over where this portal ends up. It was only a matter of time before you got some monster, or opened the portal to space, or the center of a planet!"

Sophia looked down guiltily "I'm sorry." She seemed to be saying that a lot.

"It's okay. I've done my fair share of stupid things too. That being said, you guys are extremely lucky that losing this book is the worst thing that will happen to you."

Steven was beginning to think taking this job was a mistake. There was just too much- too much to learn, too much to do, too much pressure. He'd have been completely hopeless if it weren't for Marco Diaz.

He had no idea who his predecessor was, or why he left, but Steven knew that without his meticulous notes and organization, he wouldn't have been able to make it a day. Whoever he was, Marco Diaz was a genius. He honestly wanted to shake the guy's hand.

Even so, Steven knew he wasn't nearly prepared to handle the responsibility that had been placed on him. Every time he asked Queen Star about something, he couldn't help but feel guilty. She seemed so overworked and he knew that he was just adding to her own problems, but he didn't know what else to do.

At the very least, there was one aspect of the job he was mostly comfortable with. His time working as a clerk had given him a lot of experience dealing with angry customers. Except instead of commoners, he was instead stonewalling nobility and local leadership. Honestly, he took a bit of perverse joy in it, and he couldn't help but chuckle internally whenever one of them did the equivalent of 'let me talk to your superior'.

Or at least, he was comfortable when the concerns they brought to him were pretty much trivial. The meeting he'd just left had been something altogether more serious. "Queen Star?" He asked tentatively as he knocked at her door "Something's happened."

She must have sensed something in his tone, because she was at the door in an instant. "What is it?" Her tone was serious, but at the same time weary and beaten down, as if waiting for the next blow to come. Steven felt bad, but really, he was only the bearer of bad news.

"I just spoke with some of the mayors of the surrounding villages. They're not getting their corn shipments." He didn't need to tell her how serious that was. If multiple villages weren't getting corn… they were only a few steps away from famine.

"Do we know how this happened?"

"Uhh, no."

The Queen responded by promptly turning her heel, walking over to and falling onto her bed, and screaming into her pillow. Then she sprung out of bed and turned back towards him, acting as if nothing had happened. "Alright, what do we know?"

Deciding to just roll with the punches, Steven explained "Well, the towns aren't receiving shipments of corn. The merchants that ship the corn are saying that they aren't getting corn from the farmer's markets. And the farmers' markets-"

"Are supposed to get corn directly from the farms." Star finished. "So if they aren't getting corn from the farms… that's because… because…" She suddenly slapped her forehead "The raiders!"

"Who?"

"They're burning the corn fields!" She exclaimed "Uhg! How did I not see this before?"

The picture began to come together in his head. The monster raids he'd been hearing about, they'd been targeting corn fields. And without the corn fields…

"It's not your fault. I don't think anyone could have seen this coming." Well, he certainly hadn't. Someone probablyshould have, but he didn't fault Queen Star for not figuring it out sooner- since she did have a lot on her plate at all times.

The Queen's response was nearly a whisper, and Steven wasn't sure it was even meant for him. "Marco would have."

A/N: Well, this was an interesting chapter for me. Told entirely from the POV of OCs. I like exploring how 'regular' people see Marco- as some sort of badass inter-dimensional adventurer. Thank you to everyone who's left feedback. I hope you enjoy this update!