Chapter Text
The Spiderbite Forest was known across Mewni as a vast cover of thick woods that went on for kilometres up in the north. Perhaps not as looming and sinister as its cousin named after death, the forest was nevertheless considered an undesirable place to live in, enough that mewman settlements such as the Spiderbite capital were rare and sparse. After all, the spider bites that gave the name to the Forest and the noble family that held the kingdom didn't come from nowhere. Moreover, if the spiders weren't a problem, then a lone traveller would likely find out that far bigger dangers lurked between the thick branches and spiderwebs of the woods, even on the most frequented of roads.
At least, that was Crescenta's conclusion concerning the Spiderbite domain. But even she knew that exceptions always existed, and the fief she was currently visiting was one of those exceptions.
She was walking down a paved path, her eyes scanning over the surroundings. On both sides, large fields of common corn and Spiderbite-grade wheat covered large swaths of land, as in actual land. The Spiderbite Forest was missing for a large area as a result—the forest was only found far in the distance, circling the fief and the cultivated estate—a tall wall separating the two entities. The result was basically an oasis found right in the depths of the forest, a safe place for travellers to rest away from stalking marauders and hungry creatures alike.
Including skin-nibbling spiders.
The fief was an example of how settlements in the forest usually looked like. They were either small villages or fiefs like this one, with the Spiderbite capital essentially being the only exception as the one place that could be called a city. The fiefs in particular had become very important during the monster wars, as their enclosed nature provided safety from the enemies ravaging the forest outside. Of course, that was a thing of the past—Crescenta had made sure of it, now that the new kappa monster queen ruled over her subjects... following the will of the queen of Mewni, of course.
Yet, the war's influence had remained, and the fortifications that were built during the reign of her predecessors still remained, as if a memento to the blood spilled in past decades.
Crescenta frowned, deciding that there was no reason to dwell on such thoughts, and fixed her eyes on the path ahead to put her mind elsewhere.
There, she saw the small village that made up the centre of the fief. A collection of huts and small houses hosting the workers and the guards, plus a large villa at the top of a moote. The villa itself was the place where she was staying as a guest; it was also the home of the current holder of this fief—a Spiderbite family member that had made sure to make Crescenta feel as much as home as he could.
While he was definitely a polite and respectful nobleman, Crescenta only cared about him as far as manners went. She could hardly remember the name of the fellow, and she could tell the guy was really only following standard courtesy guidelines expected when the Queen of Mewni came to visit you. Her arrival had been quite unexpected, after all.
Maybe she was being unfair with him, but she couldn't help it. She had to be honest with herself... his presence here didn't matter as much as the real reason why she came here did. Those who did matter, were the people who used to live here before him, years ago.
Crescenta's thoughts were interrupted when she felt something tugging on her hand, distracting her from her mental considerations.
"Mom?"
"Yes, Rhina?"
"W-Where are we going today?" Rhina hesitatingly asked, looking away as soon as her eyes met Crescenta's. The little girl wore her fiery, long red hair messy and let loose, as she usually asked to do when she did not participate in regal duties along her mother.
The tone she'd used to reply was no news to Crescenta; it was a habit that she'd already noticed lately in her. Rhina overall acted agitated as long as Crescenta was around her, as if fearful of incurring her ire for the simplest of reasons. Refusing to face her mother when looked at was just one of many details, and over time Crescenta had found that such behaviour had started to bother her.
Yet, she had never found the will in her to actually sit down and talk to Rhina about her fears. Deep down, she couldn't help appreciating this as a way for her to show how much she respected her mother.
After all... not all people were as good-mannered as her, unfortunately...
...again with thoughts she'd rather not have. She really needed to keep her mind in check.
Crescenta took in a breath as she decided how to answer Rhina's query. "We're going to pay a visit to a couple of people you never got to know who used to live in this precise fief years ago," she explained. "It's been a while since I last came to see them, and I think that it's time for you to 'meet' them."
"Oh!" Rhina tweeted, her interest in the matter somewhat easing her own apprehension for her mother's reaction. "Are you talking about Great-Great-Great-Uncle Jushtin?"
Crescenta smiled in appreciation of Rhina's knowledge of mewman history and her family lineage. She had done her homework, after all.
"That's right. Though, you probably never learned about his wife, your aunt... didn't you?"
"Uhh..." Rhina flushed under the inspecting gaze of Crescenta, but she didn't plan to reprimand her for missing information that she already expected her to be unaware of. Crescenta squeezed her hand just to make sure she understood it was okay, but Rhina's blush remained.
"I guessed you wouldn't know," she explained. "Your studies only focused on our close family, the Butterfly lineage, and I never talked about her that much myself."
Crescenta looked away from her daughter, giving her some respite from her severe gaze, as she reminisced about the past. "I never did so, because it's something I actually hold close to me, Rhina. It's something... important, and personal."
Then, she gave another look at Rhina. "However, I think that I shouldn't keep hiding them from you anymore. So that's why we're going to see both your uncle and your aunt right now."
"O-Okay..." with her lacking knowledge about the matter, Rhina's hesitation and nervousness had returned in full force. Crescenta didn't miss that, so she decided not to press her further, letting her think about it on her own while they walked towards the village. Their destination was located on the edge of said village, but they weren't that far from there.
Despite whatever was going on with Rhina that put her on the edge whenever she was in Crescenta's presence, the girl never let go of her mother's hand. In fact, she clinged closer every time they encountered some passers-by, people who were complete strangers to her.
The Spiderbite mewmen had no ill will towards the two, though. Most paid homage to them both as soon as they recognized the Queen and the Young princess, bowing with respect and sending their regards. One older man even saluted in a military fashion and called her Commandant rather than Queen. Likely a retired warrior recalling the rule of Solaria, Crescenta guessed.
While Crescenta greeted back everyone who stopped to do the same for her, neither she nor them attempted to start any conversations or go beyond the usual formula for greetings.
Everyone knew that, technically, this was a not an official regal visit, but a private one that stemmed from personal reasons, and Crescenta had already made sure to let the Spiderbite here know that she didn't want them to bother her, Rhina, or even Emily, unless asked to. From the local nobleman in the small villa up to the peasants working on the cultivated fields closest to the fief edge, they all knew better than to test Crescenta's temper, and so she was left alone as she desired.
She was the Queen, after all.
Soon they were back in the village. Crescenta and Rhina needed to walk for a couple of additional minutes before they reached the destination the latter sought.
It was a small area right at the village's western edge, enclosed by a low stone wall that included a large, arc-shaped portal.
The local cemetery.
As the princess of Mewni, Crescenta had made sure to introduce Rhina about the concept of death very soon in her life. Yet, the girl was still young, so she wasn't surprised to feel her little fingers tighten their grip on her hand as they passed the portal and entered the place.
As it often was the case for Spiderbite fiefs, tradition required that cemeteries hosted the common folk separately from the nobility. Thus, Crescenta passed various tombstones and went straight for a small bump in the terrain, right at the centre of the place.
A series of about ten tombstones was placed at the top of the mound. Almost all of them belonged to Spiderbite family members Crescenta had only vague memories of, and only because she had been told about them. Then, right at the end of the line, lied the pair of graves that she wanted to see in the first place, right where she remembered them to be.
"Here," she said, gesturing towards the tomb. She let her daughter's hand go. "Rhina, come closer and read the inscriptions, will you?"
"But—" Rhina started protesting.
"It's just a writing, Rhina," Crescenta cut her off, reading her mind as soon as she started talking. "It's in the common language and not in low mewman as well, so it should't be that difficult. You like those riddles of yours, right? Take it as a simpler version of them."
That seemed to work, as Rhina nodded and, albeit reluctantly, moved closer to the graves.
There was only a single, broad tombstone here, covering the ground corresponding to both tombs. With some difficulty, Rhina slowly read the letters written on the surface.
' Here lie Jushtin Butterfly the Uncalculated , brother of Solaria the Monster Carver, Prince of Mewni, and martyr of the monster wars-'
'-and Recluza Spiderbite, the last of her lineage and Duchess of the Southern Edge.'
'May they rest in peace for the centuries ahead, together again.'
"...Recluza?" Rhina repeated. "That was the name of Uncle Jushtin's wife? My aunt?"
"Yes. Recluza was your old aunt," Crescenta confirmed. "She passed away a long time before you were born, unfortunately. I was a bit older than you are now, when it happened."
"Uh... okay. I... I don't understand why I never heard about her," Rhina looked back at the tomb with doubt and puzzlement. "You said you didn't want to talk about her, and that it was never part of my lectures. But you also let me read the Book of Spells, and the grandmas never said anything about her either. Not even the schooling manual on the history of Mewni had anything about her..."
"That's mostly because the manual is still being edited," Crescenta countered. That observation from Rhina was somewhat offending. After all, she was the one writing the new edition of the manual that she'd given to her daughter.
She would like to see someone write a history account of Mewni with sources as untrustworthy as the Magic High Commission (let alone Glossaryck himself). Not to mention the fact they lost almost all book resources in the fire at the start of Skywynne's reign!
Besides, the part about Jushtin was unfortunately unfinished, just shy of being a rough sketch basically. She really wanted to get sources less biased than the Commissioners, or the Spiderbites, about her late uncle's life as well as his wife.
Still, she wanted to do it right for the two of them... she just needed put her mind on it and get the new edition done.
As for the other detail Rhina had mentioned...
"About the book of spells, well, that's true, but Jushtin stopped writing his chapter when he was still very young, and Solaria shared little about her brother in her own writings. He never got to meet your grandma as well, unfortunately."
Rhina mumbled something to herself. "Uh, okay... what about, uh... Eclipsa? Maybe she knew something about him as well?"
"That's a forbidden chapter, Rhina," Crescenta said a bit more forcefully than intended. "And you better pay heed to that."
She didn't want to outright forbid her daughter from reading that part forever. She just... believed it was better to keep a six-year-old child away from certain spells and stories, for now. Better wait until she actually owned the book at fourteen-years-old for that. At least.
"O-Okay..." Rhina acceded, barely holding in a whimper at Crescenta's reprimand. That managed to have an effect on the queen, and for a moment she thought she would have to calm the child down, but she immediately chastised herself for such thoughts.
Rules were rules.
Thus, they remained in awkward silence for a few seconds. With nothing else to do, both of them slowly looked back towards the tombstone of their past relatives.
In the end, it was Rhina who spoke up again.
"...M-Mom?"
"Yes, Rhina?" Crescenta shifted her gaze to the girl while trying to force her brows to soften a little. She supposed it didn't work, as Rhina fixed her eyes on the ground as soon as their gazes met.
"I-I just... I was wondering... why is Aunt Recluza important? I d-don't mean to offend her, or you, or... anything! It's just that..."
She fidgeted. "I-I don't know why."
Crescenta understood her daughter's doubts. It was a fair question, considering she basically told her Recluza was the reason they came here in the first place.
"Jushtin died very early on during the war with the monsters, Rhina. However, Recluza lived for much longer. She survived the wars even well into your grandma's reign... long enough, that even I got to meet to her, as I told you. And for a year, it was..."
She smiled at the memory. "It was a good time. We visited her almost weekly, and with the monster wars ended, we could simply go in and out via dimensional scissors to visit this fief—her home—as we pleased. We got to talk to her, listen to her stories about Jushtin, Solaria and Eclipsa, and she was the sweetest old woman I ever got to meet. I might have been very young by then, but I still remember her fondly."
Rhina had resumed looking at Crescenta as the queen retold the story of their aunt. "What happened to Aunt Recluza after that?"
Crescenta raised a slightly confused eyebrow at Rhina, who shrank a little under her gaze.
"I-I mean... uh..."
Eventually, she simply gestured towards the tomb.
Crescenta frowned, though it wasn't because of her daughter asking such a question. She deserved to know the truth.
Simply put, it wasn't exactly a good memory to recall.
"She got sick only a year after me and your grandma met her for the first time. Grandma did what she could to help her, but Recluza was very old, and in the end she left us shortly after she first fell ill."
Rhina nodded and didn't question Crescenta further. Without her input, she simply regarded the tomb again.
"That's why Recluza stayed with us for only a short while, Rhina. But I still remember her..."
Taking the initiative, Crescenta approached the tombstone, putting herself beside Rhina. Reaching out, she raised a finger until she was brushing on the cold surface of the stone, right over the incision that corresponded to Recluza's name.
As Rhina glanced at her mother, she was surprised to see her lips quivering. It was almost looked like she was close to suddely release the flood gates and cry.
And this was Crescenta Butterfly, the Eager!
It was almost shocking to a degree.
"...and after all these years, I still miss her dearly," Crescenta muttered, more to herself than to Rhina. "I wish she could've stayed longer. I wish I could meet Jushtin as well... He sounded like someone worth knowing, given what she said about him."
Granted, he apparently wasn't as big of a fan as her in regal institutions, and his interests in 'looking good' and math couldn't be any more different than Crescenta's. But hey, everyone had their quirks, and Jushtin still was one of the main contributors to the Hekapoo Assignment, a large diplomatic mission that turned the tides of the monster war under Solaria in favour of the Butterfly Kingdom. She could respect when someone knew when to get serious and leave their opinions aside to work hard for a common goal.
It didn't even occur to her that she had betrayed herself by showing some emotion in her words until she felt Rhina's arms wrapping around her waist. Crescenta need a couple of seconds to realize what had happened, but in the end she decided that she could let herself have a moment with her little daugther, royal manners be damned. She returned her embrace by placing an arm on Rhina's back.
"I wish I could meet her too..." Rhina said. "She must have been a great aunt."
"She was, Rhina. She was, indeed..."
After that, they remained in respectful silence for a few moments again, staring at the grave.
The relationship with family memebers was something that Crescenta always thought was important—barring obvious exceptions— but this went even beyond that . Missing something as simple Recluza's hand gently pinching on her cheeks hurt when she was young , as if she didn't have enough time to come to terms with her important role, to say how she was grateful for what she did. And even to this day, she couldn't help feeling downcast for Recluza's short presence in her life.
It was also a harsh reminder of another person she missed. She was melancholy about Recluza, yes, but her sadness about the old Spiderbite Duchess paled in comparison to what she felt about—
...
Crescenta shook her head, trying not to let emotions take control of her.
She didn't need to remember that. Not now, not with Rhina beside her.
Ease. Ease, Crescenta. This is ordinary business for her. Everything was fine, and there is no looming issue hiding behind the corner—
"I miss her too."
Crescenta and Rhina both turned around with a jerk in surprise, though their surprise came in very different forms.
"You!?" Crescenta shouted unceremoniously.
"Aunt Dir!" Rhina exclaimed with happiness, immediately abandoning her mother's side and seemingly forgetting about the little moment they were sharing literal seconds earlier.
"Hey there, pumpkin." Dirhhennia's voice sounded very much out-of-character. In fact, the almost but not really negligible smile that was on her lips as Rhina went to embrace her, was probably even more unbelievable than her warm tone.
She was not being jovial or extremely cheerful by any means, but still! To Crescenta, it was staggering enough to see her older sister with a facial expression different than her usual stoic frown, let alone how happy she looked as she patted Rhina's head.
"I didn't know you were coming, too!" Rhina cried, raising her face to look up to her aunt.
"That's because... I kind of let myself in," Dirhhennia shrugged as if that wasn't a problem. "Being a Butterfly can have its advantages, you know."
Then, she moved her gaze away from her, to look at the other family member that was standing nearby, one that she had ignored up until then.
"Besides... I haven't been here in a long time as well," she said as she stared at Crescenta. "Thought I'd join you two while you were at it."
Join them...
Join them!?
Crescenta's confusion and shock were crushed under the sheer strength of her fury. She walked up to Dirhhennia, her steps loud enough that Rhina immediately noticed the change in body language and tightened her grasp on Dirhhennia as if her aunt could protect her from Crescenta's rage. But Crescenta had eyes for no one but Dirhhennia herself.
Despite the hostility coming from her, the older Butterfly sister didn't look fazed at all. Her smile disappeared, but her face remained calm and collected as Crescenta came to a stop close enough that the two could stare right into each other's eyes.
"You know you are not welcome to join us, Dir," she started, voice barely holding in her anger. "You know that. And yet, you still came."
"Yes, I am not welcome... what a surprise. Tell me something that is new to me," Dirhhennia deadpanned.
"Besides, I don't think that means I literally can't still do it regardless of your feelings about it, Cressie." She put just a small hint of cheekiness in the final nickname.
Crescenta thought it wise not to brandish her wand to blast her sister into oblivion.
Not yet.
Not until her daughter was still beside her, at least.
In fact... she had to fix that.
"Rhina. Leave us. Wait outside the cemetery."
"B-But Mom—!" Rhina protested.
"I need to have a talk with your aunt," Crescenta cut her off, sternly glaring at her. "That's final, Rhina. Leave us alone."
Rhina opened her mouth but didn't speak, showing a surprising amount of defiance but failing to act on it. She looked almost frozen, at a crossroads where she didn't know which direction to go, and for a few seconds she didn't say anything, or move.
It was Dirhhennia that freed her from her momentary trance, patting her head again.
"Go on, little one," Dirhhennia said. "It's okay. We just need to discuss a few boring matters, and you definitely don't need to hear them."
Rhina didn't seem convinced at all by that reassurance at first. Maybe she wanted to share her doubts, but even at her young age she understood that she had no way to influence the events ahead without doing something reckless in front of the both of them. This wasn't the first time the two sisters had clashed, even if Rhina had a bad feeling about this particular encounter.
"O-Okay, aunt Dir..." she meekly said before leaving Dirhhennia's side, walking away from both women and towards the portal out of the cemetery.
As soon as Crescenta thought Rhina was far enough from them—perhaps a bit too soon, but she was too worked up to notice—she directed her full attention back to Dirhhennia.
Which also mean that she didn't need to hold in her anger any longer.
"Again... you are not welcome here, Dir . I thought I was clear, last time we met, that I was done tolerating your unannounced appearances. You are not to approach me or follow me around under no circumstances without permission, and the same applies to Rhina as well. Emily too. But you... you still are you, after all. Of course you'd just ignore my instrunctions... gah!"
It took all of her self-control not to start shouting on the spot. "You... you just don't listen, do you?!"
"I listen, sister," Dirhhennia replied calmly. "It just so happens that I decide to ignore your remarks every now and then... specifically, when I sumrise that they are all a bunch of nonsense."
"Nonsense?! We had an agreement, Dir! And you accepted it!"
"I decided to pay heed to your words for a while. That's fairly different from a written and binding agreement, Cressie. And I decided to end that when I heard about what you, Emily and Rhina planned to go to the Spiderbites. I took a guess for the rest—a good guess, considering that I found you exactly where I imagined."
Crescenta opened her palms and closed them, repeating the cycle every few seconds. Every time she closed her fingers into a fist, she dug her nails into her own skin, hoping that the feeling would prove helpful in keeping her nerves in check.
It only helped a little.
"You still should've at least warned me about it in advance, Dirhhennia!" she reprimanded. "You and your... more and more frequent interventions are becoming harder and harder to tolerate, and your behaviour isn't helping. Your mere presence alone is something that's becoming hard to put up with, but then you ignore my requests, refuse to give me warnings when you show up and do as you please without paying heed to royal custom!"
Crescenta clenched her jaw. "You just keep at it, proving further and further how much a thorn in my side you are! And t-then this isn't even enough, oh no. You even try to go to my daughter and feed her your stupidity?! That's crossing the line!"
Dirhhennia tilted her head. Her facial features, loose and calm, hardened all of a sudden as soon as Crescenta said the last words of her rant.
"Are you saying I am a bad influence to Rhina, dear sister?"
There might have been some semblance of hurt mixed with a principle of irritation in Dirhhennia's words, but Crescenta didn't care. In fact, it only made her angrier.
"You dare questioning me as if I'm not stating the obvious? As if I'm offending you!?" she bellowed, unable to contain herself any longer. "Oh, no, you are not a bad influence. No, you are far worse than that!"
Crescenta stepped forward, planting a finger on Dirhhennia's chest. The latter for once looked surprised, almost flustered by the queen's behaviour.
"You are the cause of almost all of my problems right now, Dir. You and your continuous failure at recognizing and following castle rules and royal etiquette. Your refusal to interact in a constructive way with basically any living being in the entirety of Mewni and seeking this so-called 'independence' with such an obsession that you even let that freaking idiot of a boy go, when even he was smart enough to understand when it was time to stop being an idiot! Y ou who when you do show up, you always take the chance to stick around Rhina and try to give her that poison you call a lifestyle ! I just know you're doing that!"
Crescenta was talking so fast that she was literally spewing saliva, but she didn't care how unmannered she was being right now. "You never were welcome! I merely tolerated you around the castle because of the last name you bear, of the fact I'm cursed with you being my sister. But if you keep acting like you have any sort of power around here, while I am still the Queen of Mewni, when I am the one dictating the rules here, while I'm the one holding the wand and you are not... no, you are severely mistaken, Dir. There are consequences for that kind of behaviour under my rule, and it's time you understand that."
Then, she stepped away from Dirhhennia, raising her finger and pointing at her back—away from the fief's centre, towards the forest. "In fact, here's my first order of business, dear sister. Get the hell out of here. Get as far away from me and Rhina as mewmanly possible, and consider yourself banned from putting foot again on the Groundlands of Butterfly Castle for a month. If I ever see you near my daughter or Emily within that time frame, I'll have Rhombulus lock you up in crystal."
She kept glaring coldly at Dirhhennia. "Is that clear enough for you?"
Dirhhennia had managed to recompose herself from her initial surprise relatively fast. She'd still remained silent for most of her sister's rant, bearing the bombardment of words and accusation with her much more familiar stoic expression. She didn't waver, not even when Crescenta proclaimed her will to what basically could be called a full banishment.
Only when Crescenta was finished, left hanging with hoarse breath and a hard frown, Dirhhennia finally reacted.
But her reaction amounted to a mere sigh.
"All of that. All of this anger, because Rhina went to me on her own accord just now?" she commented. "Because I wanted to pay a visit to Jushtin and Recluza as well?"
Crescenta opened her mouth to speak, but suddenly found herself lacking arguments.
Yet another point of contention between the two sisters was how a childhood spent as a rebellious teenager with gloomy thoughts and a temper had apparently taught Dirhhennia everything about arguments—and how to win them— by sheer experience.
Not that Crescenta thought she wasn't any better—far from it. She had worked hard to get where she was, and having people listen to her and respect her will came with that.
Dir, however, did things far differently than her. She stopped, let you speak your mind, shout at you. She was the one who listened first.
Only to then demolish you in one sentence. Cold and logical... but extremely effective.
Corn, she hated that so much.
Dirhhennia shook her head after waiting for a reply that never came. She began walking, moving around Crescenta to get closer to the gravestone of the Uncalculated 'queen' and his spouse. Crescenta expected Dirhhennia to throw another snide remark at her, but Dirhhennia made no attempt to try and bother her further, keeping her gaze firmly focused on the inscription on the stone surface.
"When we were kids, Recluza never liked it when we fell into an argument," Dirhhennia reminisced. "Almost all of her energy, when we were around, was spent solving our quarrels and trying her best to make us get along with each other."
Trying to find a good come-back had to be left aside as Crescenta digested her sister's words. She watched as Dirhhennia raised a chubby hand towards the stone. With a trembling finger, she almost mirrored Crescenta's previous act, brushing the skin over the engraved writings.
"And there was a time, back then... just one time, when things felt good. A time when I didn't realize what was going on. I was laughing, and you were laughing. We were laughing together, somehow, and she was smiling at us. I don't even remember why we were laughing, why we were happy... and I don't care. Because in some godforsaken way, we were actually having fun together. It almost felt like, that maybe, just maybe... there was a chance you and I could stop hating each other."
The hand went back down to Dirhhennia's side. Crescenta noticed how it was closed into a tight fist.
"Then, she left us."
Dirhhennia turned around, and this time, she made no attempt to hide her contempt towards her sister, her own glare almost mirroring Crescenta's.
"And you didn't even try."
It took a whole four seconds to Crescenta to realize that her sister had dared to accuse her.
"I... I didn't try?!" Crescenta found her vigour renewed. Her voice almost cracked as astonishment mixed with her anger. "Every waking moment since I took the wand was me trying to tolerate you! You were, you are the problem, not me! What the hell are you talking about?!"
"I mean try to actually talk to me! You know, like a sane, normal person. Not like a ruler trying to tell me what to do and not to do, but like a sister. Trying to understand me!" Dirhhennia explained.
Then, she scoffed. "But no. Of course you wouldn't."
The two Butterfly women glared at each other, almost like two opposing armies ready to jump at each other's throats as soon as the opportunity came. It almost felt like the silence in the cemetery only helped in rising the tension between the two.
Before Crescenta could retort, Dirhhenia spoke up again.
"We might have been different and often argued because of that, Cressie, but you went far, far beyond that. You began actively antagonizing me from the very moment the wand was given to you. I thought you'd grow out of it with time, but not only you didn't, you got worse. You actively spent time trying to make my life a misery, while also expecting me to just follow every nonsensical order and direction you forced onto me, all of that without batting an eye!"
"You were—are a danger to my rule, Dirhhennia!" Crescenta replied. "I could, I can tolerate your person, maybe, but I can't tolerate your refusal to obey me. I'm still the Queen, and it is my duty to make sure my rule is uncontested!"
Dirhhennia might have looked only somewhat upset, but after hearing Crescenta's last words, she widened her eyes and her frown hardened.
"I didn't care about the wand enough to even say anything about it when Mom took it away from my hands. I couldn't care less about being Queen. And you come here to tell me you thought I was trying to put your role into discussion?" Dirhhenia was as angry as she was apparently astounded. "Just what is wrong with—!?"
"No, you imbecile!" Crescenta interrupted her before she could continue. "You ignored everything I said and told you to do! I had just gotten the wand and was soon to be queen, and you were there showing everyone that I was weak and unable to even rein her rebellious sister around! That was the problem!"
She gritted her teeth. "That is the problem, to this day!"
"Rein me in?" Dirhhennia quoted. She scoffed again. "So, rather than talking with me, you thought that treating me like some wild beast of sorts to be tamed was the best choice, I presume?"
"There was never another choice, Dir. You left me with no other way!"
That seemed to the be the last straw, because Dirhhennia suddenly let out a chortle. It was loud, but short and mirthless.
When she was done, Dirhhennia looked away from her sister, refusing to face her any longer. "Oh, you always had a choice when it came to me, Cressie. You merely chose to ignore it."
At first, Crescenta was ready to keep the banter up, but then, she shook her head. "You know what? I don't care. I don't care what you think, or what you plan to do. I don't care about you."
She was done, here and now. She couldn't stand her sister's presence any longer.
"You know what? You are free to do everything you want, and go whenever you want in the next month. I don't care anymore... all you have to do, is to stay away from me and my daughter."
She turned around, starting to walk away. "I'm giving you an hour to pack your things, if you even brought something with you like normal civilized people that is. If you are still around by then, I'm personally going to make you leave, Dir. Don't make me do that."
She raised a hand to her mouth. "Rhina!" she called out. "I'm done. We're leaving!"
"So, even after everything that happened, even after she left us, you still are acting all the same?"
'After she left us...'
It was as if she'd just been struck by an arrow in the stomach.
Dirhhennia might have used cryptic words, but Crescenta froze in immediate understanding as soon as she heard her sister's reply.
She knew what she was talking about.
Who she was talking about. And it wasn't Recluza, or Jushtin. Not anymore.
"Dir!" Crescenta shouted. "Don't you dare bring her up—!"
"Do you know that she called for you, Crescenta?"
...no.
No, she didn't want any of this.
She didn't want any of that. Not now, not ever, not—
"I'm w-warning you, Dir! Don't you dare speak another word—!"
Dirhhenia ignored her theats, and kept talking.
"She understood why you weren't there, yes, at first. The Queen was always so much busy, she didn't expect you to be always there for her. And you absolutely needed to make sure the tramorfidian mines were in check, and you needed to do it now because postponing it even further would've been interpreted as a 'sign of weakness', as you put it. Yes, she understood that. She agreed with it. She was proud of you... as she always was."
Dirhhennia looked disappointed as she narrowed her eyes at Crescenta. "I also remember when I told you not to go oversee the mines. I warned you you'd be isolated in there, hours away from the nearest place were dimensional scissors worked. And what did you do, Crescenta?"
"Dir—!" Crescenta hissed. She should've silenced her sister right there and now. She had no obligation to keep listening to her bullshit.
Her heart was beating fast, though. Something painful made her hesitate, made it difficult to stop her sister from speaking. In the end, she found herself at loss for words.
Dirhhennia had never talked with her about what happened to... to her.
And now that she was doing it, that she was relaying about things that had constantly bothered her, no matter how much she tried to ignore them, a part of her she couldn't ignore wanted to hear what she had to say. Deep inside she wanted to know, she needed to know.
Because there was a void in her heart that demanded closure. No matter how much that closure was going to hurt her.
"You said you weren't a weakling, and still left without scissors. That's what you did," Dirhhennia continued, unmoved by Crescenta's change in behaviour.
However, her features softened a little after that. "Mom didn't care about that. She understood everything, she was always that kind of person. She didn't remember when I told her, after she called your name the first time, but then she recalled, and she understood. She felt no ill will towards you."
There was silence after that.
For the first time in a long while, Crescenta wasn't sure what she was supposed to do, or say. She was still mad at Dirhhennia, oh, she was furious. She was even madder at her for bringing this up now, of all times.
However, there was no trace of delight on Dirhhenia's face. She rather looked as much distraught as Crescenta was by the same memories she'd just shared.
Angry Dirhhennia might have been rare, but it was still something that Crescenta had learned to know over time. Gloomy Dirhhennia was just how her sister's usual self acted, so that should've been more... understandable, yes?
But no... this was... different. Dirhhennia wasn't just sad. She was miserable.
It was something that went beyond her will to be independent, lack of social skills and conflict with her sister; it went way deeper than that. Something that left Dirhhennia in silence, unable to continue her speech for a time, and even... wait, was she crying?
Dirhhennia sniffed, passing an arm over her face to clean herself a little. Then, she turned towards Crescenta again.
"I... I still, rarely, wonder if we can ever reconcile, Crescenta. I just can't help it. But then..."
She frowned. "Then I remember why I think it's no more worth it to hope. I know this is what they wanted. It's what Recluza wanted. It's what Mom wanted. But now, now t-they're both gone for good... and you still haven't changed."
It took Crescenta a moment to realize the implications of Dirhhenia's words.
All of her hesitation at shouting at her from earlier disappeared in the fraction of a second.
"Are you blaming me!?" she exploded.
"You are the one who keeps being hostile towards me, Cressie, no matter what! You are the one who keeps trying to keep Rhina away from me, my niece, one of the few things that make me smile in Mewni."
"You kept forcing my hand, Dirhhenia! Every single time!"
"Did I force your hand when you left Festivia to die!? "
...
Crescenta felt sick. She wanted, she needed to retort, but she couldn't come up with a reply.
In the end, it was Dirhhenia who kept talking.
"You fucking left her to die without you, that's what you did! Because you thought your royal duties, your queendom, were more important, more worthy of your attention, than your mother passing away."
"I-It's n-not—!" Crescenta stammered her words out, but Dirhhennia wasn't done yet, cutting her off.
"She didn't just call your name, she screamed for you. She was delirious due to the disease eating away at her guts, she was in so much pain that she was praying for me to make it stop, that she couldn't take it anymore. And despite all of that, the one thing she wanted more than anything else, she still wanted you. I was there, but you were not, and she wanted both of us, she wanted both her daughters to stick with her to the end."
She was shouting by now. "But where were you, then? Where you there when she needed you, Crescenta?! Tell me!"
...
She couldn't reply.
...there was something wet coming down her eyes. She hated it.
She hated it so much, because good Queens didn't cry. Good queens didn't cry like babies, like weaklings. She wasn't supposed to be weak. She was supposed to be perfect, the queen with everything under control, with every nit and cranny of Mewni under her thumb, a queen who both mewmen and monsters respected or feared.
She hated it because good Queens didn't leave their mothers to die.
She hated herself for what she'd done.
And she hated Dirhhennia for making her feel like this.
...it was her fault. All of it, it was her! Her!
She didn't want to see her face any longer.
"L-Leave me," Crescenta managed to babble out, talking through the tears.
"W-What?" Dirhhennia stammered, taken aback by her curt request. "You didn't answer my—"
" Fuck off !" Crescenta burst out. "Fuck off, or I'm g-gonna kill you here and now. Get the hell out of my sight!"
Dirhhenia at first looked sincerely shocked by her outburst. It lasted only a moment though, as her expression shifted into a scowl.
She made no further attempt to speak and began walking with heavy steps, passing by Crescenta without deigning her a glance.
Crescenta didn't look at her, either, keeping her eyes fixed elsewhere. Her breathing was fast and coarse, and she was actively fighting against herself in an attempt to not let out any other sob or sniff in her sister's presence.
A task that proved very difficult.
Soon, Dirhhennia's steps became farther and farther, but Crescenta didn't move even after she couldn't hear them anymore. She bit her lip as she tried to reorder her thoughts, but Dirhhenia's words came back to her, again and again, reminding her of what had happened, of what she did.
Her internal conflict had to last for a while, as while Crescenta had stopped caring about the lapsing of time, an interruption came in the form of another voice. The voice of a fearful child.
"M-Mom?"
Crescenta jerked her head back up and looked at the intruder.
There stood Rhina, and the little girl looked just as flustered as Crescenta herself. For a moment, Crescenta thought that her sister had done something, but she soon removed that thought out of her mind. She didn't want to think about her sister, because she didn't want to think, period.
A simpler reason for Rhina's mood was that she had stuck by, maybe hiding behind the portal's columns, and had unfortunately witnessed to everything.
Crescenta sniffed, then did her best to dry off the tears from her face with her hand, before speaking. "C-Come on, Rhina," she racously said. "Let's go back to our rooms in the villa. I-I need a break."
She extended a hand towards Rhina, and Crescenta saw how her daughter hesitated to do even just that, unlike earlier.
Her anger pushed her into making wild theories. It was Dirhhennia made her do this, that was pushing Rhina against her own mom. It was her fault! Only her fault!
...
But Crescenta knew better than that, now. She knew the truth about Festivia, and she couldn't delude herself any longer about it.
Eventually, Rhina did grab her hand. A feeling that gave a chance to Crescenta to escape her own thoughts, if only for a moment. "L-Let's just go."
As they walked away, Crescenta couldn't help glancing towards the gravestones of her late uncle and aunt.
She wondered how things had ended up this way.