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Luz Noceda was no stranger to fear. In the few short weeks she'd been on the Boiling Isles she had faced the bloodthirsty cursed form of Bonesborough's notorious Owl Lady, taken on the scorned Bat Queen's dreaded trials and survived, stood toe to toe in arena style combat with the physical manifestations of her deepest fears, and even landed a blow against the supposedly untouchable Emperor Belos himself only moments before juking his all-knowing pompous ass out of a portal to the human realm. Yet none of these things made her quite so nervous as standing on the front porch of her best friend's manor.
Luz raised her hand to knock. It felt like an eternity that she stood there with her fist frozen inches from the enchanted double doors. She lost her nerve after her arm began to go numb, and she let the limb drop to her side in temporary defeat. She took a deep breath in through her nose, expanding her lungs to capacity, and then slowly she exhaled from her mouth, an effort which neither calmed her nerves nor her rapidly beating heart. Luz bargained with herself. She had yet to actually knock, yet to irrevocably announce her presence to the inhabitants of Blight Manor. She could just turn around and walk right back home, no one would ever know, and so no one could ever judge her.
No one but Amity, who wouldn't receive the make up worksheets and notes currently tucked away in the weathered school bag Luz had slung over her shoulder.
The studious, diligent Amity Blight, who had never before missed a day of school in her life, who was only stuck at home because she had risked her own hide to spare Luz from the fate of a broken limb. If Amity could sacrifice her well-being to save Luz from Boscha's bone-shattering albeit admittedly textbook grudgby tackle, then the least Luz could do was face Amity's parents, if only just long enough to get the make up work to her.
Luz steeled her resolve, put on the bravest face she had, and once more raised her unsteady hand up to the door. She knocked three times rather meekly but hard enough that she heard the sound echo through the otherwise silent manor, almost loud enough to drown out the rushing of blood in her ears. The door opened. Luz felt her words bunch up in her throat, or maybe it was barf. It was difficult to tell.
A tall man, a man that could only be Amity's father, towered imperiously in the doorway. His expression, if one could call it that, was entirely unreadable. Scrutinizing, golden eyes scanned her from top to bottom. They reminded Luz an awful lot of a wolf's eyes; clear, focused, without a hint of emotion. After sizing her up, he must have determined that she was no threat. Luz let go of a breath that had been going stale in her lungs as Mr. Blight finally chose to land his piercing gaze on the doorbell rather than her. The doorbell that Luz hadn't even noticed. Oops. Slowly, purposefully, Mr. Blight looked back to her. "May I help you, young lady?"
Luz had one shot at a first impression. She couldn't mess this up. "H-hello, Luz, my name is Mr. Blight--" Oh, Jesus. Oh, God. "L-LUZ! ME, LUZ!"
Mr. Blight raised a single, thick eyebrow at her. "Take a breath and try that again, child," he patiently said.
Luz did as instructed. Mr. Blight's even, relaxed tone was strangely reassuring. Once more Luz attempted to shake off her nerves, and with newfound confidence, started from the top. "Good afternoon, Mr. Blight. My name is Luz Noceda." Luz stuck her hand out.
Mr. Blight gave her a firm, but not tight handshake. His hand was warm and surprisingly soft, no doubt from his cushy Coven job. "Your name is familiar to me, Ms. Noceda," he said.
Luz retracted her own hand and realized, to her mortification, how sweaty her palm had been. She trudged through her embarrassment. "I'm a friend of your daughter's-- well, both of your daughters, really. Edric, too. I attend Hexside with them. That's sort of why I'm here actually, I have something to give to Amity."
"Ah, I must have heard your name from one of them. I'm afraid that Amity isn't here at the present, but she should be home soon." He stood aside, and gestured past himself and into an immaculate foyer. "Would you like to wait inside?"
"Oh, sure! Thank you, sir." Luz nervously shuffled past him.
He shut the door with a click, and then turned to lead Luz through the foyer. He walked with a frightening amount of poise and grace, hands folded behind his straight back, his perfectly tailored suit sitting on squared shoulders. His auburn brown hair was slicked back, and his beard was manicured with meticulous precision. Mr. Blight was the picture of regality. Luz became hyperaware that she was just the opposite, walking alongside him with slouched shoulders, donned in her wrinkled cat hoodie, stained jean shorts and worn leggings. Her still sweaty hands white-knuckled the straps of her backpack as she walked her dirty shoes all over an intricately patterned rug, a rug that was probably worth more than her mortal soul.
Shortly they arrived in the parlour-esque living room. Everything was perfectly prim and proper, like something right out of an interior design magazine for geographically ambiguous 18th century European mansions. There was a huge fireplace stocked with fresh logs, and framed portraits of the Blight family adorning the walls. At the center of the room was a gold-trimmed coffee table, atop which a colorful, fragrant bouquet was put out on display. Even the Blight family flowers were perfect and vibrant, no doubt the ideal specimens of the Boiling Isles native species. Beside the table was a couch that Luz wagered had never once had a butt seated on its spotless, cream colored cushions. The matching pillows were the kind that were made for looking at but never touching, like the fancy embroidered ones that Luz's mom brought out during the holidays at home. Altogether it was somehow simultaneously cozy and devoid of the warmth that made a house a home. It was a living room that had never really been lived in.
"Please, have a seat. Make yourself comfortable," Mr. Blight said, startling her out of her gawking. Luz quickly sat down on the end of the couch, and as she did so was nearly swallowed up by the plush cushions. She squeezed her legs together, and her hands nervously twitched in her lap as she subconsciously made herself smaller in this strange, new environment. "Can I get you anything to eat or drink?"
"U-um, a glass of water would be nice, please. Thank you."
Mr. Blight only gave a curt nod before he disappeared out of the room. He returned a few minutes later with a two glasses: a glass of ice water in one hand and a lowball in the other, the latter of which appeared to contain whiskey or bourbon or some other alcohol that Luz was too young to be able to identify. The ice in his glass was partially melted, and what remained of the drink was hardly even a sip. Likely he had been drinking it before she had arrived. "As I said, Amity isn't home. It's just you and I for the moment, Ms. Noceda." Mr. Blight sat down on the opposite end of the couch and offered her the glass of water. She accepted it with both hands and took a sip. The ice cold water was refreshing after having carried her heavy school bag all the way here from the owl house. "The twins are at the library studying-- at least I hope they're studying-- and Mrs. Blight took Amity to her healer's appointment earlier this afternoon."
"Do you know when they'll be back?" Luz asked, "from the appointment, I mean."
"They ought to be back any minute now. The appointment was only to replace Amity's healing patches, and they've already been gone for some time."
Luz set her glass down on the table so she could shrug her backpack off and shift it into her lap. After she did so Mr. Blight leaned over towards the table, took a coaster from the holder and set it beneath her drink as to not leave a ring on the table's flawless finish. Luz produced an awkward laugh and a quiet apology, then rooted around in her backpack for a specific folder she had put together. "I brought Amity her make up work from class." When she found the folder, the one with Amity's name written on the front in Luz's neat, loopy handwriting, she set it on the coffee table. Mr. Blight noticed the little drawing Luz had made on the front of her and Amity holding hands. Luz had included Amity's brown roots in the drawing, a detail that was certainly not lost on him. "I wanted to give them to her personally, to see how she's doing, but I guess I could just leave them for her."
Mr. Blight could sense Luz's reluctance. He emptied the last bit of alcohol from his glass, yet he didn't set it down. "You may leave it should you so please, but you are more than welcome to wait here if you'd like, Ms. Noceda. The Blight Manor is open to any friends of--" he suddenly stopped. It was unusual to Luz that a man like him would be so suddenly at a loss for words. She couldn't understand why, not until she followed his gaze straight to her own ears. Previously they'd been covered up with her overgrown pixie cut but at some point she must have pushed the hair back and revealed them. "You," he began, "you're human."
Uh oh.
Luz had been on the Isles long enough to know that there were typically two different reactions that the denizens of the demon realm had to her humanity; either disbelief or the inexplicable urge to eat her. Mr. Blight did not seem the type to express disbelief for long, and so Luz braced for the worst.
And she braced.
And braced.
But the worst never came, and instead of ripping open her chest cavity and gnawing at her vital organs Mr. Blight's shock faded away. His impassive visage slipped right back into place, as if nothing had happened at all. "So that's why I recognize your name. You're that human girl that was accepted into Hexside."
"Y-yup," Luz tamped down the intrusive thoughts of her own gory demise, "that's me!"
"I had heard the rumors, though I doubted there was any real substance to them. It was my understanding that humans lacked the proper anatomy required to perform magic."
"Humans don't have a magic bile sac," she raised her hand over her heart for emphasis, "so I can't do magic naturally. Not in the same way that witches can at least. Still, I dreamed of one day being able to do magic, and so I sort of found my own way of doing it."
Luz reached into her back pocket and took out the stack of various glyphs she had brought with her. She laid the glyphs out on the cushion between them so that Mr. Blight could get a proper look at them. Then she shuffled through them until she came to a light glyph, which she held up in her palm. He watched intently, transfixed by the design of the hand-drawn rune. It was when Luz tapped the center of said rune that not even the unshakable Mr. Blight could hide his own amazement. The paper folded itself up into a ball of light, rose up into the air and hovered between them. The orb pulsed with a warm, golden glow, like a tiny star. A simple enough spell, but to have been cast by a human? "Remarkable," he said with restrained but genuine astonishment. "A human performing magic, how novel. I can see why my children have taken a shine to you."
Luz shifted in place, and momentarily glanced away from him as her nerves tugged at her. Willow's childhood memories came to the forefront of her mind. "You aren't upset that I'm friends with them? I'm not a powerful witch. I'm not really even a witch at all."
"Perhaps not, at least not by blood. Yet despite this, against all odds, you have discovered your own way to perform magic. That in itself is an impressive feat worthy of my respect." Mr. Blight was the kind of man that made the word "respect" feel like it possessed substance, like it was more than just some flowery word to be thrown around. Earning that respect was something to be proud of, and that feeling made Luz puff her chest out, though she didn't even notice that she did it. Mr. Blight saw how proud his words made her, and that unwavering, stony expression cracked the slightest smile. "You know, Ms. Noceda, you remind me much of my own daughter. Amity has always been able to put her imagination to use, to see things that others cannot. She is intelligent and determined. I recognize many of those qualities in you. I am pleased to know she has made a friend such as yourself."
"W-wow. Thank you, Mr. Blight, it means a lot to hear you say that. Honestly, I thought after the whole thing with Willow--" Luz clapped a hand over her mouth, but she'd already dropped that bomb and there was no taking it back.
Mr. Blight looked down at his empty glass. His adam's apple bobbed as he swallowed, and he cleared his throat with a single cough. "Amity told you about that incident?"
"Um, kind of?" Her voice went up an octave. She sincerely didn't want Amity to get in trouble for her slip of the tongue.
"Ms. Noceda," he slowly began, picking and choosing his words," I don't expect you to fully understand, considering that you are a child yourself. Nonetheless, I'd ask that you try. Mrs. Blight and I, we were inexperienced when it came to having school age children. Edric and Emira's first real school friends were poor influences. Bad eggs as it were, always in and out of detention, teaching them to skip class and behave abhorrently. During that time the twins' magical abilities were delayed, and we were worried they might never develop properly. Thank the Titan that we were wrong, but because of that experience we were cautious with Amity. Too cautious, I admit. To avoid starting her down the same path, we came down rather hard on her. We monitored her friendships, ensured that she would only associate herself with the most promising young witchlings, in particular those that were already learning to hone their magical abilities. Ms. Park did not fall into this category." Luz could see the regret in his eyes as he rested his elbow on one knee. She had a feeling he wouldn't be saying any of this if it weren't for the alcohol. He still had his empty glass in his hand. Some of the ice had melted, and there was now a visible amount of water at the bottom. He swirled it around seemingly only with the intent of busying himself, and then with his empty hand he rubbed his chin, mussing his goatee. "Odalia and I were wrong about Willow. She grew into a fine young lady, a powerful witch in her own right. A bit mischievous, but nothing so malicious as to cause concern. We made a mistake, forcing Amity to break off her friendship with Willow, especially as time went on and Amity began to close herself off. Now I see it is no coincidence that Amity has become much livelier since you've started attending Hexside. You make her happy, Ms. Noceda, and I'd not soon stand in the way of that."
Luz was at a loss for words, and though her mind scrambled for a response, her heart was set. She confessed the truth unfiltered. "She makes me happy, too, Mr. Blight."
His elusive smile made its return, though that didn't say much. It was still almost imperceptible, the slight upturn of his lips, the wrinkles forming at the corners of his eyes. "Good. See to it that it stays that way won't you? Now then, I've been meaning to ask you," he leaned over slightly to get a closer look at the glyphs that Luz had spread across the couch cushion, then he reached out to point curiously at Luz's fire glyph. "What does this one do?"