Chapter Text
Luz was waiting excitedly at the bottom of the stairs, holding a sheet of paper, as Eda rounded the corner, still in her pajamas.
“Hey, Eda! Hey, check this out!”
“Huh?” She rubbed an eye sleepily as she trudged down the stairs.
“Watch this!”
Luz brought her hand down on the piece of paper with a clap, and it glowed blue as it rose off her hand and transformed into a ball of snow. Then, she smacked the bottom of it, and the snow was engulfed by flame, leaving only a small puff of steam and a puddle on the floor.
“Did you see that!? I put two glyphs on the same page. Pretty clever, huh?”
Eda yawned and tousled Luz’s hair. “Hm, yeah, it was great, kid. Make sure to mop that water up.”
Luz followed Eda into the kitchen wearing a pout. “I thought you’d be more impressed…”
“I am impressed, it was a pretty neat trick. I’m just tired is all.”
“Is it the curse?” Luz pulled a stool up to the table and sat with her head leaned on her hand, watching with concern as Eda retrieved her mug and a pitcher of apple blood from the fridge.
“No, it’s not the curse. This time.” She poured herself a glass and took a sip, closing the fridge with her hip after putting the pitcher back. “I was up late working.”
“Working? I thought the closest thing you had to a job was being a criminal.”
“Hey, I run a small business.”
“Illegally.”
“Got me there. But no, I’m working on a… personal project. Though, it could make me rich, somehow.”
“Ooh, sounds mysterious.” Luz wiggled her fingers for emphasis.
“Eh, it’s nothing you’re not familiar with.”
“Wait, I know about it? Is it, uh… are you raising manticorns in the tower? Or making illusions that make it look like someone’s in their underwear? Or, or- ooh! I bet you’re growing venomous plants.”
Eda waited to respond until she had finished taking a long drink from her mug. “Um, no, ew, and lame. Trust me, it’s not something those Hexside straight-shots have taught you.”
“So, garbage slugs?”
“Also no. Really, Luz- hey, wait, why am I even humoring this guessing game? I was trying to be cryptic.”
“Does that mean you’re not going to tell me?”
“Ah, what the heck. Sure. If-”
Luz jumped out of her seat. “Really!?”
“ If you promise not to cause any trouble.”
“I will try my best!” she answered with an exaggerated salute.
“Close enough. Follow me.” Eda put her nearly-finished apple blood on the counter and started to walk back towards the stairs.
“Where are we going?”
“To the basement.”
“You have a basement ?”
“I’m a weird woman hiding from the cops in a magical house in the woods. Of course I have a basement.”
At the foot of the stairs, Eda stopped and lifted her open hand into the air. After a few mostly-unconcerning crashes, her magic staff whipped into her hand. Grasping it with both hands, she brought it down in front of her, the bottom of it thumping loudly against the first step.
Luz watched in awe as the planks of the stairs began to disassemble themselves, revealing a steep drop into an open corridor, with a set of stone stairs at the far end curving further underground.
She stuck her head over the ledge, peering down into the brick-lined cavern. “How do we-?”
Before she could finish her sentence, she was being pulled back by her hood, only to see one of the floating planks barely miss her nose as it plunged downward.
“Geez, kid, be careful! And more patient.”
By the time Luz realized what had just happened, the boards were settling into place to join with the stairway at the bottom of the corridor.
“Whoa. Magic stairs.”
“Yep, it’s pretty slick. And no one’s getting in without this guy.” Eda patted the stationary Owlbert on the end of her staff. “Well, come on now.”
They were nearly at the bottom of the wooden stairs when they heard from the top of what used to be a staircase, but was now just a two-story drop into the basement, King shouting.
“Oh, come on! Eda, can you put the stairs back?”
“In a minute, King! I’m showing Luz my project.”
“Fine. I’m going back to bed, then.”
Turning at the landing into the basement, Luz was greeted by what appeared to be a magical workshop. The walls were made of stone, and along one was a long wooden counter with a variety of sharp drilling, nailing, and sawing implements mounted to a board on the wall above it. The far wall was obscured by a floor-to-ceiling shelf that was filled with - well, asides from all the junk - a variety of outlandishly colored woods. Some glowed faintly as they radiated with magical energy. The remaining walls were taken up by small workbenches, miscellaneous stools, and piles of scrap material.
None of that, however, was what drew an amazed “whoa” from Luz. Rather, at the center of the room was an intricately designed door held up by a simple frame. The wood wasn’t the same familiar mahogany hue Luz knew, instead being made of an otherworldly blue-grey wood. It was, however, still unmistakable. The glaring yellow eye and ostentatious golden keyhole made sure of that.
“A portal?”
“Sure is. Ain’t it beautiful?”
Luz walked up to trace her hand along the curves of the meticulously carved wood. “It is.”
“Took me absolutely ages. Of course, it’s still not completely done.”
“Does it work yet?”
“Oh, it works alright. It’s just stuck in that frame. Summoning it with the key has been giving me some trouble.”
Eda picked up a golden key that hung by a ribbon near the bottom of the stairs and pushed the eye button on its grip. Luz stumbled back in surprise as the door shook in place for a moment.
“See? Doesn’t go anywhere. But I’ll get it before long.”
“Wow.” Luz was once again feeling the patterns of the door. Flourishes in the wood spun off into smaller carvings of flowers and creatures she had never seen before. Even after all her time on the Boiling Isles, the images looked alien.
Once Luz had suitably admired Eda’s handiwork, she looked back at her mentor, who was smugly smiling, key dangling from the ribbon looped around her wrist.
“So, um…” Luz began to ask. “Why do you need another portal? Is it just a backup?”
“Oh, kid, this one doesn’t go to the human realm.”
“Wait, what? Where does it go?”
Eda walked up to the door, resting her palm against it. She took a deep breath before she continued speaking.
“It’s incredible, actually.” It could take a lot to impress Eda, but the awe was already plain to hear on her voice. “It’s not the demon realm or the human realm, but a whole new dimension I found. It was a freak coincidence - the kind of thing a master oracle could spend their whole life searching for and never find.” She was now holding the back of her hand to the door, feeling the grain of the wood as she slowly trailed her hand down it. Luz had never seen Eda this entranced by anything . “I was looking at just the right moment - the exact second when our realms crossed paths.”
Luz was almost completely lost for words. “Wow. What’s it like?”
“Beautiful. There’s magic there. The way it flows in their world is strange, but it’s abundant. I can feel it.”
“Magic? Like, our magic?”
“I’m not sure. I don’t know anything about how it works. Yet.”
“Whoa.” A moment passed in silence, Luz stunned and Eda lost in thought, until Luz continued, “So, um, where is it?”
“Uh, through the portal, obviously.”
“No, like, what’s it called?”
“Oh, right. Well, I don’t know what the realm is, but they call their planet Etheria .”