Chapter Text
Prologue
One Door Closes
Luz looked up at the towering figure that stood in front her, Eda’s staff on the ground. She heard the screams coming from up above.
“No!” Luz cried out, a tear rolling down her cheek. She couldn’t bear the thought of Eda being hurt because she had been trying to save her. “Fine!” she said, reaching under her collar and pulling out the key. She pressed the eye and quickly stowed it away. As she did, the portal rose out of the ground. As she grabbed it, Belos turned towards her.
“Los Siento, mama,” she said, knowing that what she planned to do might mean she would never see her mother again. She hugged the portal to her chest, grabbed Eda’s staff and stood up. She held the portal out to Belos with her eyes closed. “Here!” she said. “It’s yours.” Belos reached out for the portal, only saying “The Titan will be pleased,” before taking the portal from her.
As he took the portal, Luz walked towards the raised platform behind her, pulling her hood up as she stepped on to it. “Go on then,” Belos said as a burst of red energy emitted from his staff, followed by the platform raising up. “Go, be a hero ,” he said, his tone becoming slightly cynical on the last word. Turning towards Belos, Luz spoke. “I may have lost, but so have you.” She brought Eda’s staff down onto the platform, with orange energy emitting from Owlbert.
Belos looked down at the portal, seeing the glyphs Luz had stuck to it, only having a second to process what had happened before they detonated. As the glyphs destroyed the case, a flash of light erupted from it, engulfing the room in seconds. Luz barely registered the light before it hit her, and shortly after, everything went dark.
She could feel the stone forming across her body as the sickening energy spread through her. She looked up at King and Lilith. “Well,” Eda thought. “At least I was able to save them.”
The pain began to overtake everything, but as it spread up her chest, she heard a rumbling from beneath her, followed by a blast of amber light that shot up through a hole in the center of the stage. As the blast of energy erupted outwards, she felt herself thrown back, hitting the stonework outside of the cage, which had been destroyed by the blast of energy. She felt the feeling return to her legs and feet as the petrification faded away.
She turned her head, seeing Lilith and King, who were blown a little further back, but besides a few small cuts and some potential bruising, they seemed unharmed. She looked up at the beam of energy that flowed out from beneath her. “What in the name of the Titan is-” She stopped. As the beam faded, she could see a figure up in the sky. A small, thin figure with a staff in their hand. “Luz!” Eda screamed. Without thinking, she got a running start and took off, flying to catch the now falling human.
As Luz grew closer and closer to the ground, Eda began to panic. She began to fly harder, needing to move faster. “No no no no! I won’t lose her!” This thought ran through her head continuously. In her panic, she barely realized she had caught Luz. With the human safely with her, she quickly flew back towards Lilith and King.
As she approached the stage, she yelled out “Jump!” Hearing this, Lilith and King jumped, with Lilith grabbing onto Eda’s talon and King grabbing Eda’s leg. With Luz unconscious in her front talons, she began to fly towards the Owl House. As she passed over the Bonesborough, her vision began to fade over. “No, I have to get to the Owl House, I can’t stop here!” She continued to push forward, until her vision began to go black, with only the faintest bits of light poking through, just enough for her to see the Owl House in the distance. “Almost there, just a little bit longer!” Eda thought, with each word being a challenge even to think. “Yes Edalyn, we are almost there. It’s almost time for me to introduce myself,” a cold, distance voice said in the back of Eda’s head. Hearing this voice, Eda almost dropped Luz out of fear. “Who… who is there? Who’s speaking to me?” Eda demanded. “All in good time dear. For now, just worry about landing,” the voice responded. Eda looked out, and through the darkness she saw that the Owl House was fast approaching. As she approached, she called out “Hooty! Make a bed!”
As Eda flew, presumably towards the Owl House, she began to descend slowly. Lilith could tell she was growing tired, but hoped that she was strong enough to make it to their destination. As they flew, she saw her suspicions confirmed: she saw the Owl House in the distance. As they grew closer, Eda yelled for the wretched house demon to make a bed, and she dropped her, the human girl, and the adorable demon onto it.
Down below, Hooty, having heard this, began stretching out, forming into a large square in front of the Owl House. Just as he finished, Eda dropped Luz, Lilith and King onto him. “Ow!” Hooty exclaimed. “What the hoot is going? That hurt!” As he said this, Eda began to shift out of her Owl Beast form, passing over Hooty, almost rolling off the cliff edge.
Hooty turned towards Lilith and King, his feathers rustled out of fear. “Lilith!” He yelled, his high pitched voice grating in her ears. “What happened? What’s wrong with Eda and Luz!” Lilith stood up and yelled to Hooty “Get Luz inside! I’ll get Edalyn!” As she said this, she ran over to her sister.
As Hooty took the girl inside, Lilith ran to her sister who laid on her stomach at the edge of the cliff. She quickly scooped up Eda and carried her inside. “King!” she cried out. “Go get me some bandages! We’re going to need them!” Grunting in agreement, King hurried off to get bandages. As she set Eda down next to Luz, she began to assess their injuries. Eda was breathing shallowly, as if out of breath, but she had little more than a few cuts and bruises, something she could probably thank her Owl Beast form for. The girl however, was barely breathing, and she had a massive cut on her left arm. From what, Lilith couldn’t say. Surprisingly, she had managed to keep her grip on Eda’s staff the entire time. As she freed the staff from Luz’s hand, Owlbert came to life and hopped onto the couch, looking at Luz concerned. “Don’t worry,” Lilith said. “I’m going to make her better.”
She quickly set to work performing healing magic to close the wound. As she did, King came back with a small box of animal band-aids, and quickly began putting them on Luz’s face, with tears gathered at the corners of his eyes. Eventually, she was able to close the wound completely, although it would leave a scar. Quickly, she shifted towards Eda.
She was surprised to see that Eda, all things considered, was better than she had initially thought. Her gem was pure amber, with not a speck of black in it, and while there were some small cuts, the band-aids that King had would serve those just fine. “What in the world was that beam of light?” Lilith thought. “It must have been magic, but who would be capable of such a feat? Not the girl, she doesn’t possess magic that powerful, and the Emperor’s magic…” Her thoughts trailed off as she realized what had just happened. “The Emperor! Oh no, surely he’ll be coming after all of us after that! And I don’t know what we’ll be able to do against the entire coven!” As the panic began to set in, she stood up and walked out of the room, leaving King alone with Eda and Luz.
Luz looked around, seeing nothing but darkness around her. “What happened? Where am I?” Then she remembered what had happened below the execution stage. “The portal, the portal exploded! Then there was the beam of light, then, this. Whatever ‘this’ is.”
As she looked around the darkness, she saw a dot of light in the distance. As quickly as she could, she took off towards it. As it got closer, it grew larger, and she could make out its shape. It looked like a person, but they were made of a glowing amber light. As she approached, it turned towards her, and Luz saw herself. As she approached, the figure smiled and waved. “Hi there Luz! It’s nice to meet you,” the figure said, its voice echoing around Luz. “Who... who are you?” Luz asked. “And why do you look like me?” The figure stood there and the smile grew larger. “Well Luz, that’s because I am you, or at least, I’m a part of you. And a new part at that,” the figure said. Confused, Luz asked “A new part of me? What’s that mean?” The figure’s expression grew a little puzzled at the question. “Well, that is a good question. Unfortunately, I don’t really know. It’s something we’re going to have to figure out together.” As the figure said this, it reached out its hand for Luz to take. Seeing no other alternative, Luz took it, and the figure began to fade while Luz began to glow. “Well,” the figure said, its voice growing quieter. “Looks like we’re going to be figuring this out together. Let’s talk again soon!”
