Chapter Text
True to Chiron’s words Luz was moved to Cabin Seven that very night. She had been a little reluctant leaving Gus, they had come to camp together and it felt like she was abandoning him even though she would not be that far away. Edric and Emira promised to look after him and that they would still have plenty of activities together.
Her new cabin, Cabin 7 looked at first glance like a normal, wooden cabin with a lyre symbol carved into the doorway - though the very next morning she was almost blinded when she walked out into the morning light. Apparently, when the sunlight hits the cabin for the first time of each day it lights up like it was made out of shiny gold. Around were patches of bright, yellow flowers that Luz had never seen before and seemed to only grow around the cabin. Inside looked normal, bunk beds against white plaster walls. In fact she had her own bed now, which was a big improvement over the floor she had been sleeping on.
Really the only thing that she felt was the freakiest change or just one she was having a hard time to come to terms with was that she suddenly had twenty or so half-brothers and half-sisters. She had grown up as an only child - the fantasy of having a brother or sister had crossed her mind before but it had not been something she had really wished for. The truth of her origin as a demigod of Apollo had given her very little buffer time to adjust to the reality. Most of her new, or really old siblings since it's not like they were not siblings before, ranged from being a few years younger or older than her.
There was Lee Fletcher who looked to be about eighteen years old, he was the Head Counselor for Cabin 7. Just a year younger than him was also Michael Yew who was the Vice-Counselor for the cabin. Unsurprisingly given their last names both of their mothers had been olympic (as in sports, not the place) medal archers. There was Will Solace, a bright haired boy who looked to be about Gus’ age who seemed to always have his head in a medical book. Even younger than him was a dark haired boy with cornrows shaped like double helixes that always seemed to be playing some sort of musical instrument, his name was Austin Lake. Victoria Wording was a girl a year or so older than Luz who for some reason always seemed to be writing down haikus. Also, the camper from Apollo-their cabin who had been there for her first magic lesson at the Owl House was named Skarra Bard - she seemed very chipper and upbeat even if she was a little ditzy.
They all had wanted to know how she had shot her light arrow (or maybe she should call it arrow of light?) at the hellhound. They all seemed universally amazed by the feat.
“I don’t know.” Luz had shrugged from her new bed, she scratched the back of her neck nervously. She was the center of attention now. “I just really wanted to save my friend...I mean, I tried archery with Cabin 11 earlier and I couldn’t hit the target at all.”
“Hmm.” Michael rubbed his chin, “I think I might know the answer to that question. How about we give it a try?”
Michael turned and picked a bow from a rack on the wall.
“What? I-in here? Isn’t that dangerous?” Luz said with alarm, though it seemed to make everyone else laugh.
“Don’t worrrry,” Skarra waved her hand like it was no big deal, “It will be fine!”
“Uhh…” Luz was pulled up from her bed by Lee who faced her around to the far wall where an archery bullseye had appeared from nowhere. Michael placed the bow in her hand and gave her a single arrow.
“Now, I want you to focus on the target and give it a try! It’ll be fine.”
“Well, okay, I guess if you say!” Luz replied, still unsure but she followed his direction. To her surprise though her hands seemed to move on their own again, as if muscle memory she never knew she had, had awakened on its own. Quick as a flash of light she had nocked the arrow, brought her bow to aim, sighted, and had loosed her bolt - which struck perfectly in the center of the target. “How-?”
“Apollo is the God of Archery.” Michael explained, “All of his children are preternaturally gifted with skills with the bow. I’m guessing earlier you might have had a lot on your mind?”
Finding out she was a demigod. The chance to do magic just like the Good Witch Azura. She had barely noticed how time had flown by during her archery lesson with Chiron.
“Yea?”
“So, your mind was on anything BUT the target. That’s why you could not hit it before.” Michael nodded his head knowingly.
Now that she thought about it, her arrows had, and it did make an eerie amount of sense.
“What about the thing I did with the arrow though?”
“Photokineses.” Will said from her side, “Father is the god of a lot of things. Archery, music, prophecy, healing, the sun, inspiration, and the list goes on.”
“We all have varying degrees of power in Dad’s domains. Universally in archery, we tend to be better sportsmen, healers, artists…” Victoria added.
“Oh! I can draw really well.” Luz chimed in, she had always been good at drawing even from a young age.
“Dad is the leader of the Muses, the inspirational goddesses of all of the arts! Kind of like the lead singer in a band or a composer of an orchestra!” Skarra beamed.
“As I said before, Photokinses is a rare gift among demigods. I think the last demigod to have it lived in the 18th and 19th century, she used her light to guide George Washington’s army across the frozen Delaware river at night. We can all glow to an extent but from what I saw you did was you bent the light into-”
“A laser weapon! It was so scifi! It was awesome!” Austin interrupted before he made finger guns with his hands and made ‘pewpew’ sounds.
“Heh, thanks” Luz rubbed her neck again, “I feel kind of drained though after all that.”
“Oh! Of course,” Michael nodded and turned to the rest of their collective half-siblings, “Alright, it’s been a busy night. Lights out everyone.”
Some of the other campers looked disappointed like they wanted to ask Luz more questions or show them how she had bent light but they complied and in a few minutes the lights were out and everyone was in bed. Luz tucked herself under her covers and before she knew it she was asleep.
-
When she opened her eyes again she was in a room all by herself, a small table on a fluffy carpet was infront of her. There were many, many pictures drawn from crayons on the table - some were of character she had seen on tv, one in particular was of her and her mami riding on a flying metal tube with wings which was supposed to be an airplane. The window was open and the bright sunlight illuminated everything for her, a soft breeze brought in the sound of music and voices from the street below - all of it was in Spanish.
Luz stretched, her hands brushed against the six braids she had tied her hair into that stuck out in all directions, each one festooned with all of the pretty hair clips and ties she could find. Slowly she got up on her short, adolescent legs, she straightened out the wrinkles in the pretty, yellow sundress Mami had bought for her at the market. Abuelita had left earlier to meet with a few of her friends, but promised she would bring her back a sweet treat. She liked them, they never had any of the kind of sweets here back home.
“-ou here.” Luz heard her mami’s voice from the otherside of the only door to the room. It sounded like she was talking to someone. Had Abuelita come back early? Instantly curious she waddled over to the doorway and opened it up just a little - enough that Luz could peek through and hear better.
“Oh, Camilla. My shining ball of passion! Still as beautiful as ever.” a man said from the dining table. His skin was tanned bronze, and he was tall and muscular with eyes that almost seemed to shine. He was wearing some kind of strange bathrobe or maybe it was a dress? Something about his smile seemed familiar to Luz which she puzzled for a moment before she realized it looked a lot like her own.
Mami sat across from him, and the mysterious man was right, her mami was the most prettiest mami in the whole wide world! Though, the look she was giving the stranger was the same kind she gave Luz when she had used her crayons to make the walls at home look like a fun picture book.
“Ap-, no, Alberto. What is it that you want?” Mami asked, both of her arms crossed over her chest.
“I wanted to see you of course,” the man, Alberto, said though the confidence in his voice had cracked slightly, “Luz too of course. It is her birthday pretty soon, right?”
Alberto waved his hand and the light from the window seemed to pool together until it popped and suddenly there was a bow in his hands. It looked like it was made of a tree that had been made of gold. A sun symbol was carved into it and the string looked to be as fine as silk. It was also twice her height and there was no way she could pull the string back to use it.
“Her birthday was two weeks ago.” Mami narrowed her eyes at Alberto who fidgeted in his chair.
“What? I could have sworn it was fifty cycles before the Summer Solstice.”
“Maybe you were thinking of one of your other children? Hm? One of the ones you had with the dozen or so other women you were dating while we, while I was in college?” Mami sounded angrier the more she spoke.
“You were fine with that when we-”
“When we last spoke? That was over five years ago, Alberto! You were here one day and then you were gone!”
“That’s not-”
“Then I get a-a house visit from a goat-man! Saying Luz will need to go to a camp when she is older or she might get killed?” Mami cracked her knuckles, the anger rolling off of her was like the white, hot wrath of the sun.
“That’s why I think this will be perfect for Luz!” Alberto said, holding the bow up in front of him like a shield, “Believe me! I just -know- it. She has the potential to be one of the great heroes!”
“I don’t want her to be a great hero.”
“Come again?”
“I don’t want her to be in danger. She doesn’t deserve the burden of being attacked by monsters! To have her whole life upended.” Mami slowly calmed down after she had spoken, “Do you really want her to be killed like all of those great heroes?”
Alberto seemed like he was about to say something immediately then shut his mouth, the light around him dimmed, “...no. I never do.”
Alberto looked for just a moment haunted by something, something terrible.
“Then I want you to swear you will not interfere with Luz’s life.” Mami said before she leaned forward closer to Alberto - there was a tear in her eye.
“I-I...I promise. I will not interfere in her life. I’ll ask Hecate to mask her with the Mist more - but Camilla, sweet ray of light, Luz is-”
“I’ll take your promise,” Mami interrupted him, “Now please. Go.”
“...alright, but please at least give her this.” Alberto held up the bow and in a flash of light it had changed - now it was a book with a character that looked like a witch on the front, “She WILL enjoy this. Trust me on that.”
“Hmm, ‘the Good Witch Azura’?” Mami took the book from Alberto’s hand, her fingers lingered for just a moment as they touched, before she drew her arm back, “A little weird...but I’ll give it to her.”
“Thank you, Camilla. You...you are doing great. Raising Luz by yourself.” Alberto smiled wistfully and as he did his form began to light up brighter and brighter - like he was going to explode into a supernova, “That inner light of yours...ah, I never stood a chance after I first saw it!”
Then he burst into a wave of light that blinded Luz to everything.
-
“Alright everyone. Time to get up. Move it now before your shower time is up!” Michael’s voice drew Luz out of her sleep.
She opened her eyes and looked around, it was Cabin 7 and everyone was in the process of getting up for the day. She wiped the sleep from her eyes and tried to think back, had she been dreaming? She could not remember, her memories were just a white fog all the way back to when she had last closed her eyes. Oh, well. She tended to have strange dreams.
“Hey Luz!” Skarra said from a bed away, “It’s Saturday so all of the cabins have free activity in the afternoon. Did you want to go back to the Owl House and learn some more magic?”
“Oh boy! Do I ever!” Luz squealed and leaped out of her bed. Another trip to the Owl House? She could not wait!