Chapter Text
The legend of the Rune’s Walk was one of the lesser-known Boiling Isles fables, and told of a hidden path that was illuminated by moonlight for three days every seven years. The glowing trail would lead to a secret meadow in Bonesborough Forest where lay the Runestone, an enchanted object which could reach into your mind to reveal inner truths and was said to be a fossilised brain cell of the Titan itself. Seven years ago Amity and her siblings had gone looking for the path to see if the story in their father’s old book of legends was true. She remembered the grass and flowers lighting up in a snaking white line, and glowing particles of magic drifting through the air to form the shape of letters as the three children walked. The Runestone itself had sat in a bowl atop a short plinth in the centre of the hidden meadow, and had been angrily thrown back into its container after it had spelled out the name of Edric’s secret crush on its pockmarked surface. In the years since that night Amity had calculated the dates she’d be able to return to the meadow, and the second of the three nights was now circled on her calendar – that was when the legend said the path would be at its most vivid. Until fairly recently she had been planning to take her old gang of popular friends there to impress them, but now she could think of a far better use for the beautiful setting. It was the most romantic way she could think of to tell Luz how she felt.
Amity had to hide her smile from the human walking to class beside her as she considered her plan for the next evening. But Luz was currently too wrapped up in her complaint about her housemates to notice how distracted her friend was.
"…Then King ate all the human food Eda had left over after I told him I wanted to space it out so I’d feel less homesick, and he got all snappy at me this morning just because I was about to leave for school!" Luz shook her head. "He’s been behaving like a major jerk lately."
"That’s a shame," Amity grinned to herself, before quickly switching to a sympathetic expression when the other girl glanced over.
"Yeah," Luz sighed as they reached their classroom. "Maybe a day of wondrous magical learning will cheer me up."
But the pair stopped when they entered the room – there was a student already sat at their regular desk. Although he was seated Amity could tell that he was tall, and he had a streak of straggly blond hair sitting above a high undercut. He had a small tear in the skin of his left ear and was wearing the red sleeves and leggings of the Bard Track, which made Amity frown. She glanced around the Abomination classroom before raising an eyebrow at Luz; there were no other free spaces.
"Uh… sorry," Luz said as they approached the new boy. "Do you mind squidging a bit? It’s just that we usually sit here."
"Huh?" The boy looked up at them sleepily. There were deep, tired shadows under his eyes, which had red irises, and he apparently had to take a few seconds to process what Luz had said. "Oh. Okay."
He slid himself along the bench towards the wall, and Luz sat next to him with Amity taking a seat on the bench’s other end. The green-haired witchling watched the blond one’s head start to droop; he almost fell asleep before catching himself with a nod.
"Are you alright?" Amity asked.
He turned to her, blinking slowly. "Uh… Orin," he said.
"No, that’s not what I…" Amity paused, noticing just how unfocused his eyes were. "Are you sure you’re in the right class?"
"Yeah, Abominations, right?" Orin glanced questioningly to Luz, who nodded. "I heard we can mix tracks now, so I wanted to try this out. They put me in your year’s classes cos I’m new to it."
"Oh, an upperclassman!" Luz held out her hand. "Grrrreetings, I’m Luz 'The Human' Noceda, and this fine young specimen is Amity Blight."
Orin looked down blankly at Luz’s proffered hand.
"You shake it, apparently," Amity prompted quietly, and the blond boy slowly reached out and gripped Luz’s fingers uncertainly.
"Alright class!" Professor Viscous entered, as usual being carried by an Abomination of his own. "We’ve got a lot to cover today, so I don’t have time for any shenaneganry. Open your textbooks to chapter four."
Amity followed along in her book as the tiny Professor droned on about proper storage conditions for incubation. She was just about to turn the page when she heard an odd sound coming from the side, and looked over.
Orin’s head had drooped again over his folded arms. This time his eyes were fully closed and he was quietly snoring. Luz glanced from the sleeping boy over to Amity, stifling a giggle.
"Should we wake him?" Amity hissed, a little apprehensive as to whether a sudden splutter from their deskmate would earn them all a scolding from the Professor.
"No, let him rest," Luz whispered back. "He looks all… vulnerable…."
Amity frowned at the thoughtful look Luz was giving Orin, but turned her eyes back to her book before she fell behind in the lesson.
The green-haired girl hummed to herself as she laid out various outfits on her bed to choose from. Wearing her Grom dress to the meadow would be a nice way to relive her previous most romantic encounter with Luz, although it was probably too formal and would give the game away far too soon. But the human had seen her go-to simple black dress and fuschia leggings combination so many times now – tomorrow night’s outfit had to be special.
"Hmm?" Amity toned her happy humming into a question when she heard the knock on her door. It opened in response and her sister walked in.
"Oh, of course, it’s tomorrow isn’t it?" Emira smirked, eyeing the neatly arranged sets of clothes. "You should have said something…every minute…of every day…for the last week."
Amity shot the older witchling a beaming grin, demonstrating just how powerless the older girl was to ruin her mood. She went back to her sorting her clothes, but saw Emira lean back on the doorframe from the corner of her eye.
"You could just text her, you know," Emira suggested. "Get this all sorted here and now."
Amity wrinkled her nose. "Not very meaningful."
"Guess not."
The younger girl continued comparing tops with skirts, waiting for whatever it was her sibling had come to say.
"Look," Emira said eventually, "I know you always want things to be perfect and you’ve built this all up in your head. I just want to make sure you’re gonna be OK if it doesn’t go how you planned."
"I’ll be fine," Amity smiled.
"Even if Luz says she doesn’t like you back?"
Amity sighed, lowering the garment she was holding; she knew it was a possibility. But it felt much nicer to dwell on the potential outcomes where Luz would swoon, or tearfully profess her own feelings, or admit to being a human spy who had been sent undercover to the Boiling Isles only to be swayed from her mission by a strange new attraction.
"Well, it’s only one more day until we know for sure," Amity replied, holding a jacket up to see how it looked from all angles.
"Sure," Emira said, lingering a little longer. "But… be careful with your heart, Mittens. Cos I care about you and stuff."
Amity looked back over at the girl now averting her eyes, apparently uncomfortable at having to express affection in a way that wasn’t deliberately annoying. Their family had always taught a principle of strong independence; any connection with others was strictly a way of building a powerful network of contacts and associations. There was no place for truly opening yourself up to someone else, something seen as an unnecessary risk in the Blight view. But Luz had demonstrated a completely different way of being to Amity – total openness, genuine tactile affection, and love shining out in every expression and gesture. It was intoxicating to be around.
Taking the human’s example, Amity ran up to her sister and wrapped her arms around her, planting a big kiss on the taller girl’s cheek as a reward for the expression of concern. Emira grimaced vocally, but put an arm around Amity with supposed reluctance.
The next day Amity could feel an ongoing flutter in her chest as she walked the school corridor. She wasn’t sure how much control she’d have over the words that would form on the Runestone when she picked it up tonight, but she knew the short phrase she wanted to communicate, and had decided to think it clearly in her mental voice when the time came. The moment being so tangibly close sent pulses of excitement through her, and she wondered if her heart might actually burst from her chest that evening. Not that such a thing wouldn’t be romantic.
Amity smiled dopily to herself and increased her pace. The first part of the plan was to find Luz and let her know to meet tonight, and that at least was easy enough. She knew the route to the human’s locker so intimately that she allowed herself to conjure up another couple of dreamy images on the journey, allowing her feet to lead her forward. As she rounded the final corner and spotted Luz her smile widened to almost burst off her face, but she forced her mouth straight and made sure to adopt a casual, slightly aloof air before continuing forward.
Luz was leaning against her locker talking to someone; the blond boy from their Abomination class the previous day. The human was gesturing excitedly as she spoke, her hand gripping something, and Amity stopped dead when she recognised it.
Luz was holding the Runestone.
"Hey, Amity!" Luz waved as the green-haired witchling ran up to her.
"Where did you get that?" Amity asked urgently, skidding to a stop in front of the other girl.
"Oh, this is the Runestone!" Luz held out the shining piece of rock proudly. "King ran away last night and we found him digging through the trash at Orin’s house – you remember Orin."
Amity looked to the taller boy stood with them, who met her eyes with a stoical gaze. The shadows under his eyes were just as dark as they’d been the day before.
"Anyway," Luz continued, "it turns out every seven years King gets all weird and transformy, and he got drawn to this glowing path called the Rune’s Walk. It only comes out when the moon-"
"Yeah, I know!" Amity interrupted, but her indignant tone didn’t seem to deter Luz from her story.
"So we chased him down it into this meadow and he got all powered up by the moon stuff, but then Orin did some Bard magic and got him to calm down. And there was this cool rock that reads your mind!" Luz held out the Runestone, and the little patterned spots on its surface rearranged themselves until they formed the shape of a winking emoji.
Amity stared at the small, dark object, stunned. "…What?" was all she could respond with.
"I know!" Luz beamed. "We found secret magic, faced danger and learned a few life lessons. Another amazing night on the Boiling Isles! Although we’d all be King’s belly-scratching slaves right now if Orange Juice over here hadn’t joined the Bard Track."
"The uniform matches my eyes," Orin said seriously, and Luz snorted with laughter.
Amity looked between the snickering girl and the still deadpan-looking older boy, who now apparently had a nickname.
"What?" she repeated redundantly.
The bell sounded and Luz pocketed the Runestone. "The east wing is where all the Bard stuff is, isn’t it?" she asked Orin.
"Yeah, that’s where we live," he replied.
"Great!" Luz grinned. "Then it’s my turn to walk you home." She shot a smile to Amity. "I’ll see you at lunch!"
"B-But-" Amity couldn’t get out her protest before Luz and Orin had already walked off. She watched them continue on, just like they’d apparently done on the Rune’s Walk. Together.
Without her.
Together.
At first, Amity didn’t know what to do with herself next. These were meant to be the days when she and Luz would be in the first moments of their relationship, shyly holding hands and excitedly planning a first real date. But everything was anticlimactically normal, and Amity was getting whiplash.
However, she soon forced herself to recover from the hijacking of her original plan and began making a new one. There was another school dance coming up – the Grudgby Season Formaul – which Amity had been imagining she would be taking her new girlfriend to. It would have to serve as a second (or third) chance to let Luz know how she felt about her instead. It was another week before the preparations for the dance began, so Amity decided to wait until then to ask Luz to be her date so that the excitement wouldn’t get the chance to die down. Emira kept urging her to just tell Luz how she felt now, saying there was no reason to wait. But Amity knew their relationship would be something unique; a witch and a human whose friendship began as enmity. They deserved a truly special beginning.
The wait was tough, but Amity forced herself to be patient. She would only occasionally flick through the nicer dresses in her closet, maybe twirling around her room in one to music she thought they might play at the dance. A few days before the window she had allotted herself to ask Luz to be her date, Amity was sat with her school friends at the cafeteria table when the subject of the dance came up.
"Oh that's right!" Luz cried. "I wanted to ask you guys about that. How about we all go together?"
Amity’s spoon fell from her hand and clattered to the table. "All of us?" she queried unsteadily.
"Yeah!" Luz grinned obliviously. "Bunch of good friends, tearing up the dance floor, absolutely demolishing that boo-ffet. It’ll be just like Grom!"
"Are you gonna get kicked out again for sneaking your otter costume in?" Gus asked.
"I will restrain myself," Luz promised. "So what do you say?"
"Hmm…" Willow put a thoughtful finger to her chin before turning to Amity. "I don’t know, what do you think Amity? Would going as a group get in the way of any other plans you might have?"
Amity faltered under the other witchling’s pointed look, and her cheeks pinked.
"Oh yeah, sorry Amity," Luz lowered her voice so it wouldn’t carry to the students at the other tables nearby. "Wasn’t there someone you were gonna ask to Grom?"
Amity’s mouth opened and closed a couple of times before she could come up with a response. "There’s no-one else I’d want to go with," she said eventually.
"Great!" Luz beamed. "We’ll be the Fabulous, Fashionable, Fantastic Five!"
"Five?" Gus frowned, counting around the table on his fingers. "Is Eda chaperoning again?"
"Oh, she might actually, yeah," Luz said. "She had fun last time, after the fight. But I was gonna ask Orin to come with us. We’ve been hanging out."
Amity narrowed her eyes. "Have you," she said. It wasn’t a question.
"Yeah!" Luz answered nevertheless, smiling broadly. "I know he stopped doing the Abomination classes, but I think you’d like him. He’s got that Blighty brood thing going on."
"I see," Amity responded, not changing her severe tone. She remained silent as Luz started making plans for the upcoming event, ignoring Willow’s warning look.
The following days were taken up with studying for a difficult exam, but although she now had no other plans to dwell on Amity still found herself distracted from her schoolwork. All the momentum she’d been building for weeks suddenly had nowhere to go, and she couldn’t find the time to think up what her next attempt to confess would be. Her frustration was only made worse by the occasional run in with Luz and Orin at school, the sight of the pair chatting together making Amity feel strangely tense. But she reminded herself how friendly Luz was with everyone, and of all the gushing bouts of praise the human would give her unprompted. No-one was going to get in the way of their connection.
The day of the dance was also the day of the Abomination exam, and when Amity left the classroom afterwards her mind was a little frazzled. The last couple of questions had stumped her at first; she’d only managed to remember the correct answers as the final squirming maggots had tumbled to the bottom of the giant hourglass at the front of the room. She put the stressful moment behind her as she headed home and turned her thoughts to the Formaul. Even if she wasn’t going with Luz as her date, she’d still be able to spend a fun evening with her. Although after changing and making her way to the Owl House where they’d all arranged to meet, Amity felt her infatuation spike again when the front door opened for her.
She’d expected another fusion-outfit like the one from Grom, a clumsy, delightfully weird combination of looks that perfectly encapsulated Luz’s personality. But tonight the human was wearing a stylish, sequin-covered gold dress that swept gracefully down to her shins. The ornate straps running over her tan shoulders were shaped like strings of golden ivy, and a matching golden ribbon was tastefully tied through her short brown hair.
"Amity Blight!" Luz beamed through a touch of makeup. "A.B.! …C… D… E F G. You ready to get this party starty?"
Amity was still staring at Luz, taken aback by the elegant ensemble. "You look incredible," she breathed.
Luz smiled shyly and swished her dress a little. "I didn’t want there to be any chance of getting kicked out this time, so Eda dug this out for me. But if there’s a monster attack, I’ll be ready as ever!"
She turned slightly to the side and did a high kick in demonstration, accompanied by a spirited "Hi-yah!" Her golden pump shot off her foot and flew away into the dim evening light.
"Oh, whoops." Luz hopped out of the door after her shoe, and Amity watched the other girl sparkle out against the dark, still frozen to the spot.
"If you ask me, she’ll get grabbed by a Growlfiend before you even get there."
The high, piercing voice brought Amity out of her trance, and she turned to the bird face imbedded into the door that had spoken.
"The things that live in these woods LOVE to gobble up lost, shiny children," Hooty continued. "I know I do!"
Amity’s eyes narrowed. "Try to gobble me up, and I’ll cut my way out of you from the inside."
Hooty laughed. "We should have another playdate some time! Eda says you’re good for me, that you keep me humble."
Amity recoiled slightly at the house demon’s pitch, grinning stare, and was grateful when the door swung back again to remove him from her view.
"Hooty, remember not to bother King tonight, he’s still recovering," Eda instructed as she stepped out of the door, wearing the same brown suit she wore when chaperoning Grom. She looked over Amity’s seafoam dress and gave the girl a smile. "Don’t you look cute?" she winked, before calling back into the house. "Alright, that’s everyone! Let’s roll out!"
Gus and Willow followed the grey-haired woman out of the house. Willow was wearing what looked like a giant, upside-down tulip that faded from red at her shoulders to orange on the large petals that splayed past her knees. Gus had gone for a monochromatic look – a white jacket with black lapels over a white shirt with a black bow tie, paired with black slacks and shoes.
"You two look great!" Amity praised.
"Thanks, you too!" Willow returned. "Where’s Luz?"
"Uh…" Amity gestured out toward the bushes where the human was just turning back, holding her shoe up triumphantly.
"Found it!" Luz called, choosing to hop back to them unnecessarily.
"Come on, meter’s running!" Eda prompted, already seated on her staff.
"Oh." Amity frowned at the limited amount of space available behind the witch. "Are we all gonna fit?"
"I’m taking half of us", a voice sounded behind her, and Amity turned and tilted her head up slightly to look at Orin. The boy’s blond streak of hair was just as unkempt as ever, clashing rakishly with the neatness of his dark suit. Amity turned her gaze from his ever-tired eyes to the object he was holding.
"…Y-You have a staff?" she asked, surprised.
"My Dad lets me borrow his sometimes," he replied with a casual shrug.
"Isn’t he useful?" Luz said, grabbing Orin’s shoulder for balance as she returned her recovered pump to her foot. "Saves us getting muddy on the way."
Amity was balking at the familiarity with which Luz had put her hand on him, this boy who’d been a stranger to them not two weeks ago. Then she registered that Orin’s tie was just as gold and sparkling as Luz’s dress.
"Responsible Chaperone still waiting over here!" Eda called out, interrupting Amity’s scurrying thoughts.
"Oh yeah, come on Gus!" Luz grabbed Gus’s wrist, and they clambered onto Orin’s staff behind him. Amity was left to follow Willow over to Eda.
"They’re matching," Amity said into Willow’s ear, who was now sat in front of her behind Eda. "Why are they matching?"
"I don’t know, he just turned up like that." Willow was looking back at her with similar uncertainty. "I guess they must have talked about it."
Amity looked over at the others as both sets of staffs rose into the air. Gus was gripping the staff for support, but Amity’s stomach churned as her eyes moved over to the pair sat in front of the young boy, and saw that Luz's hands were holding onto Orin’s waist.
The school hall was decked out with blue-and-yellow banners, ribbons and other decorations emblazoned with the colours of Hexside’s Grudgby team, the Banshees. The team had played their way to victory against all the other schools on the Isles this season, and Boscha had surrounded herself with a crowd of admiring supporters near the centre of the room. However it was noticeable that the pink-haired Team Captain hadn’t been successful in threatening anyone into being her date.
Amity, Willow and Eda had arrived after the others, who were already seated at a table near the door. Eda headed straight over to the Punch Bowl, cracking her knuckles in preparation, and Amity and Willow went over to their friends. Luz was sat between Orin and Gus, and Amity went straight for the chair next to the older blond boy, eyeing him firmly.
"Oh, Orin do you mind if we swap?" Luz asked as Amity took her seat. "I wanna catch up with my hard-studying, exam-conquering girl over there."
The girl in question felt a flush of relief at the request, which was the confirmation she’d been waiting for that she was Luz’s top priority tonight. She let out a tense breath as Luz and Orin both stood from their chairs.
But then she spotted the boy putting his hands on Luz’s waist to manoeuvre past her.
Amity barely stopped herself from launching across the table, grabbing Orin by the throat and snarling at him not to touch her, not to ever, ever touch her. But Luz seemed not to notice, or worse not mind the touch, flashing the older witchling a smile when she took her seat again.
"I feel like I’ve not seen you in ages!" Luz put a hand on Amity’s shoulder with her usual tactile affection. "How’d the exam go?"
"O-Okay," Amity responded, forcibly suppressing her angry quivering.
"I bet you knocked it out of whatever the Boiling Isles equivalent of a park is!" Luz beamed proudly. "You’ve gotta make yourself free now though, I need me some quality Amity tea-time!"
"Yeah, sure." Amity’s thoughts were colliding into each other manically. The warmth Luz was directing towards her was making her heart soften into mush, the effect heightened by the other girl’s currently stunning appearance. But then her chest would tighten again as images of the intimate touches between the human and the new member of their group resurfaced in her mind. The confusing contrast of emotions were bubbling up, about to make her-
"OW!"
The group at the table all turned to the source of the noise and saw Eda walking away from the Punch Bowl across the hall, rubbing a black eye grouchily.
"Looks like the boo-ffet has some real spirit tonight," Gus said with a grin. Willow grimaced at the pun, but Luz crowed with laughter.
"Outstanding work, Mr Porter!" She leant across the table to give him a high five.
"We might go hungry tonight," Willow sighed.
"I can try and get us something," Orin suggested. "I’ve dealt with all that a few times now, I think I know the trick."
"How gallant!" Luz said, raising an eyebrow, and a little smile crept over Orin’s ordinarily sleepy face as he stood again.
"So Luz," Willow began after the blond witchling had walked across the hall. "It sounds like you and Orin are spending a lot of time together."
"Yeah, he lives just round the way," Luz replied cheerily, apparently oblivious to Willow’s pointed tone. "He and his Dad are forest dwellers too, except Orin knows how to tame the night critters instead of just letting them run all over you like Eda does."
"Is that why he’s always…" Gus tugged down at his cheeks to mimic the older boy’s tired eyes.
"Yeah, he stays up with them most nights," Luz nodded. "He knows all these songs that different ones like, and he likes to-"
There was a rough scraping sound as Amity stood from her seat. "Excuse me," she said tightly, and walked out of the hall before all the gushing talk of Orin made her say something about him that she couldn’t take back.
The cool night air was soothing Amity’s irritation, and she took a long, deep breath. She’d hoped to fully enjoy this dance seeing as neither she nor any of her friends had been nominated to fight a monster. But her anxieties leading up to Grom were being paralleled tonight by an undercurrent of ire that was threatened to boil over into an angry outburst. She shook her head, clearing away the heat from her brain. In a few more minutes she’d be able to return with enough renewed calm to survive being around him. Then, if she took a couple more breaks like this throughout the evening, maybe she’d last until-
Amity started at the sound of the door behind her crashing open. She turned to see Willow, who looked like she’d just been running.
"If you’re going to tell Luz how you feel about her, it has to be right now," she said urgently.
"W-What?" Amity blushed and darted her eyes away. Despite all the knowing smirks her childhood friend had been giving her lately, they’d never openly acknowledged this in words before. "I don’t know what you’re-"
"Amity, there’s no time." Willow was giving her a serious look. "Orin just asked Luz to dance and Gus is stalling them, but I don’t know how long he can keep it up for."
"Oh. Okay. Um. Okay." Amity got to her feet and hurried up the steps, her thoughts buzzing. She hadn’t come up with a script for this scenario, and none of her other lanned speeches would make much sense without the original context. As she and Willow walked briskly back down the school corridor, Amity decided she would have to wing her confession. It might be clumsy and embarrassing, but it would be better than the alternative.
But as they approached the door to the hall they saw Eda coming out, dragging a struggling Gus with her.
"Come on pipsqueak, I think you know how much of a third wheel you’re being," she was saying with a sly grin. "I’m sure we can find you someone your own age."
"No, Eda, I’m not doing it for me!" Gus cried desperately, straining against her firm grip. "I’m not doing it for me!"
Amity’s heart leapt into her mouth and she broke out into a run. She saw Eda frown over her still-black eye as she sped past, but didn’t stop to see whether the chaperone managed to connect the dots. She and Willow raced into the school hall – their table was now empty. Amity scanned the room frantically, hoping against hope that the pair she was looking for wouldn’t be-
There they were, on the dance floor. Luz had her arms draped up over Orin’s shoulders as they slowly swayed, saying something to him with a cheeky smile. Her fingers were gently playing against the undercut below his straggly blond hair, and the tall boy had his hands on her waist again.
Amity strode forward. There was still time. She would take Luz aside right now and tell her everything. She didn’t care how rude the interruption would be, or how many protesting students she had to shove aside to get to them; if she let this moment pass, there might never be another.
But her feet froze as she saw the human lean up and softly plant a kiss on Orin’s lips.
The room span. The chattering and music in the hall seemed to increase to an overwhelming volume, and Amity felt the noise reverberating in her skull. She felt sick, unable to even focus her eyes on anything around her. But then she realised her vision was blurred from the tears welling in her eyes, and she finally let her breath go in a single sob.
She turned and sprinted from the room, wiping her eyes as she ran. She fled down the corridors past students taking a break from the bustle of the dance, darting around corners and managing to keep a lid on any more sobs until she was in a deserted part of the school. She slumped down against a row of lockers and finally let her tears out.
Amity tried to stop her voice from sounding out, but whimpers kept escaping. She heard Willow calling her name distantly, and the music from the hall was pounding through the building; the sense of being so far away from people obliviously enjoying themselves made another wave of sad loneliness crash over the crying girl. She was barely able to draw shuddering breaths against the torrent of spasms rocking her body, that tense fear that had been building below the surface ever since she’d first seen Luz and Orin together now dissolving into aching sorrow, a raw, stinging wound in the tender part of herself that she’d allowed to be opened up. The image of the kiss kept rising to the surface of her mind, refusing to let her escape it, and the part that broke Amity’s heart over and over again was the besotted look that had been in Luz’s eyes – a look that Amity knew in the depths of her soul should belong to her.
But it didn’t belong to her. Now it belonged to someone else. She was too late.