Chapter Text
"Ugh. It's every year with this creep. When's he gonna learn that I'm not interested?" Eda twirled a small white card between her fingertips as she leaned over her kitchen's island. She propped her chin in the palm of her other hand, and with a huff, smacked the card down on the table.
She stood up and leaned against the counter behind her, running her long golden claws through the massive fluffy mane atop her head. "I mean, I know being the most powerful witch on the Boiling Isles makes me a head turner, and this body attunes to that too," she snorted, smacking her tight red dress atop her hip, "but no means no. I don't know how I could make that any clearer!" She threw her hands up in the air.
"Well, for starters, you could always hunt him down and threaten him within an inch of his life." Her sister Lilith calmly stated. She sat on the opposite side of the island facing her sister, her hands wrapped cozily around a mug of hot coffee blood.
Although she had only recently left, well, technically gotten kicked out of, the Emperor's Coven, Lilith had started to both mentally and physically return to her younger self. Her hair had more illustrious volume instead of its usual slick sheen, she had her large circular glasses perched ever so astutely on the bridge of her nose, and even her orange roots began to show through atop her head. Not to mention she was fully decked out in Bad Girl Coven garb, complete with oversized sweatshirt, sweatpants, and a surprisingly arch supportive set of slippers, easily her new favorite pair of footwear.
"I've already beaten him to the brink of unconsciousness before, but he just keeps coming back for more! If I didn't know any better, I'd say he's a masochist." She paused for a moment. "Actually, I don't know any better…"
"If anything, Wraith is more of a sadist. You should see how he gets information out of the prisoners in the Conformatorium. I wasn't able to sleep for weeks after seeing that." Lilith shivered at the throughs she so adamantly attempted pushing from her conscious, and took a big sip of her hot beverage.
"Well he actually cut my head off when King, Luz and I went to get King's crown back. So yeah, I can see that. Oh! And can you believe he actually asked me out after that? What, did he think I would go oh, warden Wraith, with your strong physique and ability to turn your hands into axes, I can't bear to be without you! Please have me! Especially since you've proven yourself worthy of my love by chopping my head off from behind me!" She held her hands together beside her cheek and looked up, fluttering her eyes dreamily, before pointing into her mouth and audibly gagging.
Lilith smiled and happily hummed a laugh at her sister's overzealous representation of a damsel in distress. "Oh!" She pointed to Eda. "You could always chop his head off instead!"
Eda cracked a slick smile. "Which one?"
The two sisters stared at each other before bursting out laughing. Lilith with a much hardier laugh than before, and Eda cackling and snorting up a storm while giving the countertop one nice smack.
A gallop of footsteps from the stairs caught Eda's attention, and she glanced over to check it out, even though she already knew exactly who would make that distinct pattern.
Down popped Luz, jumping over the last stair and landing on the ground with a graceful thud. "Morning, Eda! Morning, Lilith." Even though Lilith had been staying with them for a few weeks at this point, Luz still wasn't exactly ready to trust her. Stealing her away, using her as a human shield to fight her sister, almost killing her on jagged stalagmites, and capturing Eda for the Emperor to petrify in front of the entire island. Yeah, cozy feelings don't just happen overnight.
"Morning, kid." Eda said with a smile, as Lilith simply nodded in response. "Why are you all dressed and ready to go somewhere? Usually you look like death until about ten on an off day."
"Well I could ask you the same question!" She perkily smiled. "But if you must know, Amity asked me if I wanted to go on some kind of treasure hunt today. Something about valves, I don't know. But I love treasure hunting. Not that I actually did it before, I just like the concept of it. But I'm sure I'll actually like doing it! Not to mention I get to hang out with my best friend! I'm so excited!"
Luz hopped merrily around the kitchen as she blabbered on about treasure, adventure and Amity. She grabbed a few breakfast items and took a hovering stance next to her mentor as she began to chow down.
"Hang on. You mean to tell me that nobody told you about Valvintime's Day yet?" Eda asked with one eyebrow raised.
Luz shook her head in response, bits of meat hanging out of her mouth.
"Well, let me be the first to tell you then." Eda gave Luz a pat on the back, eliciting a short coughing fit from the teen. "It was a long time ago, on a not so distant body part…" Eda drew a spell circle to give a visual aid as she spoke.
"Which body part?" Luz raspilly choked out.
"Nobody actually knows. But, that's not important. What's important is that there were two young witches living on this body part. They were madly in love too. Like, gross for everyone who saw them in public, in love. One day they decided to go out on a small adventure; grab some fruits, water, maybe some animals for meat. You know, the normal olden day stuff. But while they were out, they stumbled onto something they could never have imagined."
"What was it?" Luz mumbled with her cheeks stuffed and puffed out.
"The Titan's heart." Eda softly spoke, with a mystical shimmer coming from her hands as she made a small, outward rainbow motion.
"Oooo!" Luz's eyes glimmered.
Lilith smiled as she took another sip of coffee blood, also oddly engrossed in her sister's tale.
Eda continued. "So naturally they had no idea what it was at first and decided it would be a great idea to get a closer look. They walked up to this massive, red, horribly putrid organ and basked in its gory glory. And when I say basked, I mean this thing was so freakin' massive you could fit Odalia's ego in it!"
Lilith snorted at the jab which caught her completely off guard, causing a small mist of coffee to expel from her mug. However, Luz just looked at her in confusion. "We can explain it later." The older sibling simply stated, having quickly regained her composure. She motioned back to Eda who resumed the story.
"Those two kids saw a partial opening in one of the heart valves and decided to explore a little more. Inside they found a couple huge cords connecting from the valve to an outstretched portion hanging from the wall. And up on top of that outstretched portion was a pink glowing light. Since they got this far, they figured why not check out what's going on up there too? I know I would." Eda proudly smiled, sticking a thumb out to herself before continuing.
"So they made their way up top and found a small glowing pink gem. One witch carefully grabbed it and pulled the gem out. As soon as it left contact with the heart, it made a bright, white hot flash of light, blinding the both of them. And right after that, the entire place started to rumble, slowly collapsing on them. Turns out, the gem controlled time, and was the only thing keeping that organ stable. So, like any good thieves, they took off running, treasure in hand. But they never made it out. The damn heart collapsed on top of them both, killing them instantly."
"Woah…" Was all Luz could mutter out.
"Yep! So now legend has it that if you're able to find the heart and return the gem to its rightful location, you'll be rewarded with whatever you most desire. Then corporations like Hellmark bundled it up as some cute fairytale of lovers wanting to be together forever, and used it as an excuse to sell stupid cards like this one I got from Warden Wraith." She pointed to the countertop where the card laid face down on the table.
Luz quickly picked up the letter and read it over. "Really? Head over heels in love? He sees the irony in that, right?"
"Kid, I have no idea what's going through his mind except for that it's me. And I don't want to know anything else." Eda let out a small shiver.
"Awe, well, who knows, maybe he's trying in his own way to become a better person. He did apologize for the head thing after all. Maybe you should give little Wraith a chance to blow you away!"
Lilith, who was in the middle of one of her sips, ended up doing a full spit take across the counter and all over her sister's red dress.
"Oh great." Eda muttered while grabbing a towel, trying to soak up some of the newfound moisture. "Now I have to change before I meet Tibbles. Thanks, Lily."
"Ew! You're meeting up with Tibbles on what seems to be a remarkably similar romantic holiday to what we have on Earth?" Luz was astonished after everything that little porker put them through.
"Oh I'll definitely be meeting up with him. Only thing is, he won't know I'm even there. I'm gonna rob that little cheat blind! Nobody messes with me and gets away with it that easily! I'll follow him around and torchure the living hell out of him until I feel like he's suffered enough."
"Well… Okay then! So long as it's nothing romantic!" Luz beamed.
"Gross. Not ever with that slimy little bastard. Well, I'm gonna go change. You have fun on your little date today. And don't do anything I wouldn't do!" Eda called out while making her way up the stairs.
"Well that basically means no restrictions." Luz smiled, already halfway to the door after placing her plate in the sink.
"Oh, and Luz-" Lilith spun around to face the young human. "Do be careful. I know we've had our shortcomings in the past, but I do want you to know I'm fully on your side now. And if you need anything that Edalyn can't help you with, I'd be happy to."
Luz stared at her for a moment, and for a second she thought she was being genuine. She was Eda's sister after all. Maybe she was trying to be better, and maybe it was time for Luz to budge. Only the tiniest amount, though. She weakly smiled back and nodded her head before turning back to the door and popping it open.
"Morning, Luz!" Hooty cried out. "I see you're all rearing to go on this fine crisp morning! Yes ma'am, it sure is a beautiful day to be here and talking to you! Nothing would make me happier!"
"Hey, Hooty?" Luz asked.
"Yessss?" He replied, drawing out the word while rotating his head.
"Lilith was just saying how she wanted to talk to you too." She smiled with a devious twinkle in her eye.
"What?" Lilith grimly remarked, her eyes drawn to the bird tube.
"Oh boy! I can't believe that two people wanted to talk today! Oh this really is turning out to be an even greater day! So what did you want to talk about? I'm all ears! Well I'm mostly a neck, but-"
Hooty's voice slowly disappeared as he went inside to Lilith, and Luz made her way through the forest. She may have wanted to give Lilith a small break, but that didn't mean she wanted her to get the wrong idea either. She smiled proudly, heading off to meet the lovely green haired witch at the library where she was likely already planning a method to search for the gem.
Okay, Amity. This is fine. All you're doing is going Valvintime's Day hunting with Luz. Just out in the forest, the two of you, nobody around… Her face heated up to the point where she thought she was going to pass out. She wiped her hands over her face, pulling her whole head down with a loud groan. How do other witches handle this kind of stress?
She took a deep breath in, attempting a futile effort to lower her heart rate and blood pressure. Blowing it out, she began scratching her arm. Yeah, she wasn't nervous in the slightest.
Nope. Not at all.
She had to do something to occupy her mind, otherwise she would flatline in all of a minute. She turned to her desk where the third Azura book was closed and marked with her favorite teal and brown mixed bookmark. It seemed like a good enough option as any. She was currently rereading the series, and picking it up for a bit before Luz got here would definitely keep her mind off, well… Luz. She sighed and sat down, cracking the book open to the chapter she had stopped at.
The young witch cleared her throat as she began to read aloud to herself.
"The path to Abdore was a long and treacherous one, filled with thieves, marauders, and evil creatures alike. It stretched hundreds of miles and covered countless biomes, each more daunting and less forgiving than the last. And at the end of it all was where Acura's arch foe, Hecate, would be held up, waiting for her arrival."
Amity cleared her throat and changed her voice to a powerful, yet elegant, commanding tone. "Hecate! Azura cried into the air, her scepter raised, pointing towards Abdore. I am coming for you! And when I find you, we will settle the score! Once. And. For. All!"
Having so easily slipped into character, Amity hadn't noticed the secret door to her hideout opened, allowing Luz to discreetly make her way inside. Luz had heard Amity having fun reading aloud and didn't want to disturb her by any means.
Oh my gosh, this is so adorable! And she's doing such a good Azura impression! Luz thought to herself with an ear to ear grin plastered over her face.
"Azura swung her staff in front of her, leaving behind a trail of sparkling blue dust. As the particles floated to the ground, a majestic white unicorn materialized. It's shining coat glistened in the sunlight like a newly waxed bald head, it's slightly darker white mane danced fluidly in the breeze, and the magnificent horn attached to the forefront of its head sparkled like a god had contained a whole galaxy within it."
"Aweee!" Luz pined from her spot in the back of Amity's hideout.
Amity whipped her head around fast enough to break her neck, and give herself windburn at the same time. Yeah- that's windburn. The look of horror was written all over her face, but that didn't stop Luz from talking.
"Amity the way you read that was so amazing! Like, I could actually see you voicing Azura! And the way you narrated," sle kissed her pinched together fingertips, and opened them outward, "perfecta."
"I- uh, I just- well…" The young Blight's mind had short circuited, and for the life of her, she could not come up with anything to say.
Luz giggled in response. "Sorry. I didn't mean to end up spying on you. Honest. But you started doing the Azura voice and I just couldn't help myself! I hope you're not too embarrassed because I really think you did an awesome job! You know, after we do some treasure hunting we should definitely read these together. I think I could do a pretty good Azura myself. And I want to hear your Hecate too!"
"Oh, right. The hunt today." Amity muttered to herself. "Yeah," she spoke a little louder, "that sounds like a great idea." A warm smile crept onto her face. She could definitely see herself being the Amate to her Luzura. Especially since she knows what happens in book five...
Her face flushed crimson red at the thought.
"Amity, are you okay? Your face is getting all red. Did you want to go outside where it's a little cooler?"
"Huh? Oh! Uh, yeah, sure! Let's go outside where it's hotter! I- I mean cooler!" Amity bit her lip hoping not to be too obvious.
Luz raised an eyebrow but didn't push any farther. She just rolled with her friend's strange behaviors. "Great! I want to find some of this treasure that the other witches couldn't find for ages! We're gonna get it!" She pumped her fists into the air in a joyous display of eagerness.
"Well, it probably won't be that easy. Legend has it that only truly worthy witches are granted the ability to find it. And that even if they do, they're spell bound to secrecy by the gem itself. But again that's only legend, since nobody has ever claimed to have found the stone in the first place." Amity had shut her Azura book and grabbed the bag she had packed in preparation for the day. In one swift motion she had flung it over her shoulder and was standing next to Luz.
"Well if we find it together, at least we could talk to each other about it, right?"
Amity shrugged her shoulders. "I don't see why not."
"Great! Cause if I could only share it with one person, I'd want it to be you." She smiled and grabbed Amity by the hand, who, with tight puckered lips, fixated her eyes on the contact. "Now let's go find us some treasure!" Luz shouted, dragging Amity out the doorway and clear across the library to begin their adventure.
"I can't believe that wretched Owl Lady caught me off guard once again! That's the last time I entrust such a delicate task to a buffoon who gets the colors red and green mixed up!" Tibbles, the intelligent yet underwhelming salesman, grumbled angrily to himself.
The small swine was setting up another stand in the market, getting ready to sell some of the goods he produces. Well, produces, steals, it's all the same to the ill informed consumer. Not that most of them would really mind one way or the other anyway.
He ran to his caravan from the medium sized red tent which was set up off the side of the pathway. He jumped up and reached into the back of the cart, pivoting on his belly as his small hooves waived in the air. "Aha!" He exclaimed, pulling out a small and hollow blue cylinder. "I knew I packed you up." He trotted back into his stand and began hammering away from within.
As the noises began, a slender dark shadow appeared from aside the cart Tibbles was just pulling his item from. A wide grin appeared, pristine white teeth gleaming in the morning sun, save one golden canine. "Oh Tibbles, you say not to entrust the delicates to buffoons, yet here you are, entrusting them to yourself." Eda snorted and bounded towards the first of the three carts in the caravan.
She rummaged through the back of the cart, throwing out various potions, food, and other items. "Where could they be?" She muttered to herself. "It's not like him to keep it very far out of reach, and I didn't see him take anything in since he got here. Maybe he shrunk them?" She tapped her finger to her chin. "Nah. Then they could get lost easier. So where…"
And as though a switch had been flipped within her mind, Eda wore that deviously evil smile once more. She jumped up to the front driver's seat where she presumed Tibbles would sit while moving. She knocked on the seat top and heard loud reverberations from within. She ran her fingers underneath the lip in front of the seat until she came into contact with a latch. With one flip of the latch she was able to pop open the seat.
Lo and behold, underneath that small seat was a compartment filled with sacs of snails. She picked out a piece from one of the bags and bit into it. Nothing. "Hello, beautiful." She happily spoke, stroking the coin with her thumb.
Hold on. There was no more noise.
She quickly ducked down as Tibbles appeared from the tent. "Almost forgot my lucky screwdriver. Come on Tibbles, you must think!" He berated himself. He was clearly too concerned with his own incompetence to notice that half of his items were thrown out of the cart.
"And he wonders why I always beat him like it's some sort of unfair fight." Eda whispered to herself. "Well, me against him… I guess it is an unfair fight."
She stood up and started stuffing the small bags into a larger sac she had brought with her. After the loot was all loaded up she heaved the fully loaded, and incredibly heavy, bag onto her shoulder. In just a few short moments she was out of sight and had dropped her loot for a moment. She pulled out a wire, two wooden steaks, and a razzdazzleberry pie out of her hair.
She stuck the steaks into the ground on opposite sides of the tent entrance using the ball of her boot. She wrapped the wire tightly around them and placed the pie about Tibbles' height away from the string, laying nice and open on the ground. She quickly made her way back to the loot and peered around the corner.
Sure enough, Tibbles walked out from his tent and had not noticed the wire or pie in his path. He tripped over the wire and fell face first into the pie which exploded like a glitter bomb, on top of staining his small suit. A low growl began bubbling up from him, getting louder and louder with each passing second before he burst.
"Edalyn!" He screamed out to the heavens as though his life depended upon it.
Meanwhile, Eda had forced herself behind the wall, beginning to weaken from the side stitches she was developing in response to all her muffled laughter. She grabbed the bag and flung it over her shoulder once more, this time with considerably more difficulty than the last from all the laughing. Between spurts of laughter she started her way home to inspect the entirety of her loot.
Luz and Amity stood side by side facing the horizon atop one of the many cliffs in Bonesborough. The view was gorgeous; the sky mixed with shades of orange and dark blue which meshed seamlessly with the matte yellow of the clouds all surrounding their view of the long fallen Titan which they called home.
"Okay," Amity said, pulling out a map of the Titan from her backpack, "I was doing some research and I came up with the area that most likely has some kind of connection to the gem." She pointed to a spot near the pelvis. "Here's where we're located. Now, when I was looking this stuff up I kept finding testaments of witches and demons claiming to have found the treasure at all different locations. Like seriously, they were all over the place. Some said they found it near the neck, others the legs, arms; you get the picture. But there was one place that never had a single claim laid to finding something. Right here." She pointed to a spot just off center of the Titan's chest.
"You mean where the heart is supposed to be?" Luz asked.
"Exactly! Don't you think it's weird not to have anyone say anything about one place? Especially when every other body part was noted."
Luz moved in a little closer towards Amity, brushing up against her shoulder as she leaned in to get a better view of the map. Amity's eyes quickly darted over to the girl's shoulder which was now resting comfortably on her upper arm. She couldn't bring herself to move a muscle.
"Yeah, you have a point. It's like it's being intentionally covered up for some reason. But that wouldn't make sense either because if someone was trying to cover this up, wouldn't they want to make it seem like someone already checked there and came up with nothing?" Luz's question hung in the air for a few moments before she realized she was not getting a reply from her treasure hunting partner. She stood back up and looked to the young witch. "Amity?"
She blinked at Luz's shoulder in response before quickly making eye contact with her. "Huh? Oh! Yes! Yeah, that wouldn't make much sense for them to do that then. Cover it up like that. Cause it's so weirdly obvious…" Amity's eyes darted from Luz to the map, back to Luz and finally to some point down in the forest.
"Am, are you alright?"
Did she just call me Am? Like a pet name?! I love it! She's so cute and amazing... Amity's face began to glow bright red at the new nickname.
"Oh my gosh you're burning up! Here, I packed a bunch of water for us to drink today, but I guess you could really use some now!" Luz reached into her backpack and pulled out a bottle of cool water. She opened the screw top and handed it to Amity who grabbed it with gusto.
She chugged the bottle of water all while trying to suppress the bubbling burning sensation which was radiating throughout her whole chest. This girl was going to be the literal death of her. And by some miraculous intervention, she managed to evade two heart attacks in the same day. At the end of the bottle she was out of breath, hunched over, and desperately trying to balance the deficit of oxygen in her system.
Luz placed her hand gently on Amity's back, rubbing in small circles in an attempt to calm her distressed friend. "I think I do, but I sure hope I packed enough water for us today. If I would've known you'd need some this early I definitely would have brought extra! I only thought we would need some while we were hiking and getting all sweaty."
Titan have mercy.
After Amity's mental recovery, the two set out on their journey into the deep forest, forging ahead to the place in the chest where Amity believed they would find what so many residents of the Isles were out looking for.
Amity was dressed well for their adventure. She had black hiking boots, violet leggings, and a form fitting top made out of a material similar to a human wicking shirt. Her look was completed by a small but stylish pair of abomination colored sunglasses, with a mixed black and purple frame and a yellow dot on each top corner next to the lenses.
Luz on the other hand still decided on wearing her favorite hoodie, but no longer had her leggings and replaced her jean shorts with a more breathable pair of dark blue pocketless hiking shorts. Why girl's shorts never had pockets, she'd never understand. She also dawned a pair of brown hiking boots and had just pulled out a rainbow colored bandana which she tied around her forehead.
"And this- neugh, is what humans- neugh, call a- neugh, machete. It's basically like a big kitchen knife for cutting vines and plants and sometimes even other people, depending on your moral values." Luz was giving Amity a run down on some of the Earth items she had with her before her way home was obliterated. And while she found it fun to teach witches about human items, especially the witches she was closest to, it now left bittersweet remnants. And currently there was no way for her to return home; although Eda was hard at work trying to track down another portal, she had to be mentally grounded and assume the worst: she may never return home.
Those thoughts may as well have been a light up sign saying SAD above her due to her rapid change in body language. From her swings becoming lackluster and weak to her shoes dragging on the ground and kicking up dirt along their path.
Amity looked at her from behind with a frown. It wasn't something which she usually saw, or really ever for that matter; Luz looking down in the dumps. She usually overflowed with positivity and optimism, so much so that sometimes it felt like an ocean the young witch was drowning in. However, in the span of just a few short moments that took a stifling 180 degree turn.
"Hey, Luz," Amity began, reaching a hand out and grabbing hold of her shoulder, "is everything okay? You seem a little more… down, than usual."
Luz slowed to a stop but didn't turn around to face her concerned friend. "It's… It's just- I don't really know how to explain it, Am…"
Amity was smart; she wasn't number one in the class for nothing. Which is why she did not want to pry too much into Luz's life in case she wasn't feeling ready to talk about it, since she was clearly very upset. However, in the end she settled on a more mild approach, considering she was already told of what happened before and after Eda's attempted petrification. "You know, I could never imagine what you must be feeling right now. But- if you ever need someone to talk to about, well, anything, I'll always be here to lend you an ear."
Luz's head pivoted just enough for Amity to see the ends of her lips tug upwards the slightest bit. It was something.
"Thank you. It means- more than you know."
Amity smiled and let her hand fall from its perch on the young Latina's shoulder. But before it could swing all the way down, Luz grabbed it with her own hand and gave it a short, strong squeeze. After that she seemed to have rekindled her fire within. Not as bright, but at least now she was swinging that large knife well enough to cut down the vegetation in their way.
"Now let's go get this treasure." Luz smiled stonger as another vine was sliced effortlessly in half.
Their journey through the jungle was long and arduous. Large cobra like creatures attempted to constrict and crush them, mud pits and quick sand almost had swallowed them whole, and a group of fairies had to be fended off before they could consume their flesh. But a tag team between Hexside's top student and most determined pupil proved to be worthy in fighting off each threat which had dared stand in their way.
After what felt like days, but in reality was about nine hours, they reached the final summit, beginning the last leg of the trek to where Amity had deduced the most likely location of the treasure they sought.
"Okay, Luz. From here all we need to do is climb down this-" Amity looked down over her map to the large slope in front of them, "fairly steep slope, and we should basically be right there!" She closed up her map and stuffed it back in her bag with a satisfying crinkle. The young witch adjusted her backpack's shoulder straps, tightening them as she did a small bounce on the balls of her feet.
"Great! I have to say, if this were like, a year ago, I think I would've died like ten minutes into this." Luz giggled. "I was so weak. But my time on the isles here definitely pumped me up!" She had a huge grin on her face while she smacked her flexed bicep.
"Yeah… Pumped up…" Amity whispered, her eyes fixated on the top of Luz's arm. All she was able to hear were echoing slaps as the sounds around her quickly faded into a dull white noise. Her labored breathing hitched when she realized Luz was snapping her fingers in front of her face.
"Hey Amity? You okay?" She asked.
"Huh?" Amity managed to spit out. She tried frivolously to blink away her confusion, having a difficult time doing so. She quickly rubbed her eyes and was able to snap out of her trance. "Yep! Totally fine! Couldn't be finer!"
Luz raised an eyebrow. "Well… I'm glad we're here because I think you might be developing heat exhaustion..." She handed another bottle of water to Amity, who absentmindedly grabbed it and started taking a few sips.
Pull it together, Blight. You're better than this! Amity mentally kicked herself for excessively fawning over her adorable best friend. She capped her bottle and placed it in the outside holster of her bag. Just have to focus on the prize. We're almost there anyway.
"I think I see something!" Luz exclaimed, pointing in the direction they had been trekking. Beyond her finger was a dark red blob, intertwined with other shades of the same color. It was just beyond a clearing they could see ahead of them.
Luz grabbed Amity by her hand and began running in that direction. As she tripped and stumbled to catch up, Amity was only slightly dividing her attention to the firm, clammy hand intertwined with her own.
How was this the exact opposite of gross?
"Oh my gosh I can't believe we're almost there! This is going to be sooo amazing!" Luz could barely contain her excitement as they closed in on the clearing. She did, however, slow down to a brisk stride, trying to accommodate Amity's heat exhaustion.
"Just don't get your hopes up too high. I want to see this as much as the next witch, but having so many others try and fail in finding this, I wouldn't be surprised if we didn't either. I just don't want you to be disappointed." Amity said, the last part being much softer than the rest of her words.
"Hey," Luz stopped and faced her, "no matter what we find, or don't find, there's no way I could ever be disappointed when we're together. We could find diddly squat and I would still chalk this day up as being one of the most amazing days I've ever had in my life!" Luz smiled at her.
That damn smile was one of the most heart warming, infectious, beautiful things she had ever had the pleasure of experiencing. Not a day has gone by where that toothy grin hasn't crossed her mind for at least a fleeting second. And whenever it did, the butterflies in her stomach whirled around like a tornado, distracting her from whatever tasks she had to complete. One of these days she was going to control that sensation; however, today was certainly not that day.
Amity smiled warmly back to the girl in front of her. "I feel the same way." She paused for a moment and fiddled with her hair, twirling her short locks around her index finger and releasing them. "You know, if you're interested, maybe after we get back, would you like to go, and, maybe get something-"
She was abruptly cut off by the ear shattering screech of a large feathery bat which was hanging upside down from a large tree branch above them. The girls forcefully covered their ears and bent over, desperately trying to muffle that horrid, piercing noise. The creature stopped for a moment and they knew they had to take their chance at escape before having to endure another round of that hell.
"Come on!" Amity called out, grabbing Luz by the hand and forcing her away from the terrifying creature.
Luz looked down to their clasped hands; if her eardrums weren't in serious danger of rupturing, this would be heaven.
But why would it be? Luz asked herself. Another ground shaking screech from the creature threw the two off balance and stumbling forward over their own feet. No time for that now! She mentally reprimanded herself for thinking about that kind of thing while Amity was still in danger.
The two dodged and weaved through the trees before eventually breaking the treeline. Luckily for them that horrid animal did not seem to follow them, and had only made those two terrifying shreeks. Both teens were hunched over in an attempt to catch their breath. Amity was the first to stand up and look to where they had to go next, and she was completely taken aback.
Sitting in front of her was an untitanly, oversized heart. It towered over the witch unlike anything she had ever seen before. Not only did it have the height on her, but it also seemed to go on for miles in each direction. How in the world did they not see this massive structure before?
"How in the world did we not see this thing before?" Luz asked out loud.
They really are like two peas in a pod.
"It must be concealed by some kind of spell which only allows you visual assessment when below a certain height or within so much distance." Amity answered.
"Woah." Luz awed, looking it over. Before long she started walking around the one side, admiring what an amazing feat she was able to see with her own two eyes. Eventually she came across something different than just the outside of what they were looking at. "Hey, Amity! Come here!"
With a quick trot she was over and looking at the same thing Luz was. It seemed to be a large circular structure evenly divided into three subsections. These subsections looked like flaps which curved out towards them; two of them also had a hole in the outer portion of the circle.
"What do you think it is?" Luz asked.
Amity looked at it critically for a few moments. "Well, if I had to take a guess, it almost looks like a heart. At least that section there looks like a witch's heart valve." She pointed at the circular structure.
Luz cocked her head at it as well. She rubbed her chin and hummed, deep in thought. After a few moments she put in her two cents. "I think I remember something similar from my bio class in school! Humans have a four chamber heart!" She proudly proclaimed.
Amity looked at her and raised an eyebrow. "But do they have a valve like that?" She asked.
Luz pursed her lips together and silently opened her mouth before closing it once more. "I have no idea." She reluctantly answered.
Amity stifled a giggle by covering her mouth which caused Luz to look over at her, confusion written all over her face before it was washed away by a smug smile.
"And what're you laughing at, top student? Some of us aren't as academically adept as you are!" She tried to mask her voice in a fake irritated tone, but ultimately failed to convince even herself.
A short low snort managed to escape the giggling witch's mouth, quickly leading to an all out laughing fit. She managed to pull herself together before going on for too terribly long and looked back at Luz, wiping a stray tear from her eye. "You can not do a very good angry voice!" Amity said with a smile.
A perfect, heart melting smile. Luz thought with a twinge in her heart. "Well I'm not really an angry person!" She answered back with a smile on her face just as wide as Amity's.
She could only laugh in response. "Okay, dork. Let's go inside and figure out if there's even anything here."
"Yeah, okay…" Luz reluctantly answered. As much as she wanted to know if the item they sought even actually existed, in that moment there was something else she desired even more. Something which seemed to be within reach, if she could only push past one last mental wall holding her back. Maybe more of a heart wall… She moved her arm the slightest bit, but stopped herself. What if Amity didn't feel the same way back? What if in wanting to take this leap of faith and throwing herself completely out there she would end up losing the one thing in this world that she cared about most? What if she lost her forever?
She couldn't do it.
At least, she couldn't do it until she knew for certain that there was at least some miniscule amount of her feelings being reciprocated. After all, she would rather be friends with the beautiful witch beside her than to never be able to talk to each other again.
The sound of leaves crunching under Amity's boots pulled Luz out of her mental debate.
"You coming?" The green haired witch asked, moving towards the towering heart.
"Huh? Oh! Yeah, definitely!" Luz answered almost a little too enthusiastically. She jogged to catch up to Amity as they both approached the towering object.
Even from the short distance back that they were, this thing seemed to loom over them even more scarily from its base. The valve was pretty high above them, so Luz pulled out one of her many plant glyph papers. She placed it on the ground and gave it a tap. The paper buzzed to life with a lime green hue as a platform of vines manifested itself underneath the feet of both witches, rising them up to their desired location.
When they were eye level with their target, Amity reached out and tried to pry open the entrance with both her hands. "Oh Titan, it's so... dry. Like, gross dry." She shuddered, failing to open the seam.
"Here, let me help." Luz said, coming over to her and grasping the one side with both her hands as Amity did the same on the opposite side. "Oh man, it is weirdly dry!" She huffed out while trying to pull it open with Amity's help.
As the two struggled, a bright pink light burst through the seams, blinding the duo for a moment. They rubbed their pained eyes attempting to get the pain to subside. However, before they could finish, a loud, ground rumbling noise came from right next to them, knocking them down to where Amity ended up falling over Luz.
The valve was slowly opening, and in doing so, narrowly missed catching Amity and pushing her right off Luz's vine. After what felt like an eternity the rumbling came to a halt. The two looked up and in front of them was a gaping hole with each of the three leaflets protruding away from the center.
"Well, I guess the both of us were strong enough to get it started…" Luz mumbled, still taken aback by what had happened to them.
"Come on, let's check it out." Amity said, grabbing Luz by the hand and pulling her behind.
I can't believe I just went and grabbed her hand! Oh Titan. Don't look back! Even though she was clam and confident on the outside, Amity was having a nervous breakdown. She was never romantically bold around Luz, out of fear she might change the dynamic of their relationship for the worse. But for whatever reason, she had a surge of confidence and just went for it. And to top it all off, Luz seemed to just go with it! She wasn't trying in the slightest to get away from her! That was a good thing, right?
Meanwhile, the young Latina was having her own mental breakdown. Amity had just grabbed her hand and started pulling her. While that was normal for herself, there was no way Amity would do such a thing to anyone. It just wasn't the kind of witch that she was. But right here, right now, she wasn't acting the same. And it seemed to be for the better...
Both teens crept through the large opening, watching out for any hidden traps which may be armed to ward off unwanted intruders. The further they got, the darker the room became. Luz casted one of her light spells, and as the orb floated just a small distance above them, they were able to see the room for what it was worth.
First off, the ground wasn't solid. It was ridged and had the texture of a wicker basket with parallel lines intertwining as they ran the length of the floor. But aside from that, it felt pretty similar to the normal ground. Second, it had a wretched, heavy odor. It was like someone mixed blood and alcohol, then let it sit alongside a rotting egg for weeks. And lastly there were also long, thick cords, dividing into smaller cords which extended from the ground to the leaflet openings behind them.
"This place is so cool!" Luz exclaimed. She took a whiff of the air around them. "And a little gross too." She commented in a nasally voice due to her pinched her nostrils.
"Yeah, I wonder what this place even is…" Amity said mindlessly.
"Didn't you say it looked like a heart?" Luz asked, her nose still covered.
"Well, yeah. I did. But the only heart which would be this big would be the Titan's, and it's been dead for as long as anyone can remember."
Luz tapped her chin. "But Belos said he could communicate with it. Wouldn't that mean that it could still be alive somehow? I mean, unless he just lied to everyone." Luz spat out the last part with venom to spare.
Amity smiled and stifled a bitter chuckle. After all, his coven had been her goal ever since she developed her magical abilities. And having a liar on top of an executioner be the symbol of her desires would only further the shame she felt towards herself for such an unacceptable dream. "I don't think it's outside the realm of possibility that he lied to everyone. Because this definitely looks like a heart."
Luz hummed in agreement. She was still scanning around the room searching for some kind of clue. After a minute she ended up setting off a few more light spells to illuminate everything a little better, but still to no avail. "Well, I think Eda mentioned something about a heart earlier too. But I was kind of preoccupied with breakfast and don't really remember it… So what do you think we're missing?" She asked.
"Well, we don't even know if there's anything actually here. It's still just a hunch I have." Amity said, running her hand across one of the walls.
"Yeah but you're like, one of the smartest people I know. I totally trust your hunch, one hundred percent!"
The corner of Amity's lip curled up and she tucked a stray green hair behind her ear. "Thanks…" She said softly.
As though it were the cue they were waiting on, a bright pink light illuminated the entire room with a violent display of its radiant, shimmering hue. The two teens were taken aback by the sudden eruption of light and had to shield their eyes from its hot intensity.
"What in the world is that?!" Luz exclaimed.
"That might just be what we came for!" Amity called back.
The flash of light lasted but for a few short seconds before it dulled down to a slow pulse. The girls uncovered their eyes, spots plaguing their vision as they tried to focus on the light source.
"Okay," Amity began, "we need to get up there and figure out what that thing is."
"Way ahead of you, Blight!" Luz slapped down a plant glyph, and in an instant they were both propelled upward, rocketing towards the pulsing pink light source. The vines stopped quickly at one of the thick, pale tubes suspended from the walls where both teens were thrown about a foot into the air. Luz fell face up onto the vines with a thud, with Amity dropping perpendicular onto Luz's stomach, flattening her out.
"Ugh!" Luz gutted out. Her arms laid spread out for just a moment before she got up onto one elbow to check on the girl atop her. "Amity, you okay?" She asked, moving her bangs.
The green haired witch pushed herself onto her forearm, supporting herself with her hand as well. She turned to Luz and stared at her with widened, golden eyes. There she was, laying on top of the girl she likes, with her hair being pushed to the side by said girl.
Wait, was she getting closer? Her gleaming chocolate eyes were getting larger, her cute little nose was becoming a little bigger, and those perfect, light pink tinted lips seemed to beckon come here.
"Amity?" Luz asked for the second time, not that Amity could hear the first.
"Huh?" She replied, pulling out of her daze. It only took a moment, but when Amity realized she was almost touching her nose to Luz's, she scrambled. Her limbs were moving fast enough to break the sound barrier as she jumped to her feet. Her heart was moving a mile a minute and it showed in her beet red face. She still had enough wits about her to reach a hand out to the lovely, and now very confused, girl on the floor.
"Uh…" Luz drug out while she slowly and absentmindedly extended her arm to grasp Amity's hand.
Amity pulled her up with pursed lips and warm cheeks. Her eyes darted around the room until they landed on the radiating pink hue just a few paces away from them.
"Uh…" Luz continued, now with her finger up, ready to clarify what was going on. But before she got the chance she was once again grasped by the hand and drug off by Amity.
"C'mon, we're almost there!" Amity blurted out as she drug her companion behind her. Stupid, stupid, stupid! How could you get so distracted by her! She mentally kicked herself.
Easy. She mentally argued against herself. She's the most perfect person on the Boiling Isles.
Amity grunted. She couldn't argue with such sound logic.
The two approached the source of the light, still hand in hand. Luz had attempted to question what had just happened again, but was only met with silence since her companion was in an argument with herself. She would just have to try again a little later.
The shimmering light was blinding up close. Both teens had to shield their eyes from its intensity as they stood next to it.
"So… What now?" Amity asked. She knew full well that whatever they had been chasing was right in front of them, but what exactly could it do? There was a possibility that grabbing it could have serious, or even fatal, consequences, so doing that would certainly not be in their best interest. However, they had nothing to test this theory on, so should they even grab it at all, or should they just take a picture as proof they found it? Alternatively, it may be possible to hold this item in some sort of high density container, such that it would not be able to exert any malicious effects on its surroundings, like them.
"Dibs!" Luz called out. Within the millisecond it took Amity to process what exactly she had said, Luz already had her arm fully extended and her hand open. Amity tried to pull her away, but it was futile; Luz already had the gem in her hand.
Without warning, the small stone flashed in a brighter light than it was emitting before, blinding both Luz and Amity. It took them both by surprise, but they covered their eyes up fast, both using the crook of their arm as a safe haven. Luz continued to hold the object in her tight grasp, refusing to let the fruits of their labor go.
No more than a minute had passed and both girls hesitantly began to check if the light had died down. They were relieved to see that it had, but what they were met with was something neither could have have ever imagined.