Work Text:
Darkness gave way to light. It was a light burning and intense. Slowly but surely, the world came into focus. She couldn’t even remember how she got here. Wherever here is.
With all of her senses addled, Eda couldn’t make heads or tails of, well, anything. For better or for worse, she was hardly one to keep her thoughts silent.
“Where am I? What is this?” As she glanced around, her surroundings were unfamiliar, but her present company could not have been more familiar. She was bound before Emperor Belos himself. “Aw, farts. I got caught.”
Then she saw who was standing at his side. Lilith. Of course she was. All at once it flooded back to her. The Duel with her sister as she held Luz hostage with a sickening smile on her face. A smug sense of superiority because she knew she’d finally won.
Her sister who’d cursed her then bound her and drug her here before this tyrant. Before Eda was able to make her distaste known, the Emperor began to move towards her.
“Edalyn Clawthorne. The Infamous Owl Lady. The Wild Witch of Bonesborough.” Once he got close enough he kneeled down to speak with Eda at eye level. “Mentor of Luz the Human.”
With those words it didn’t matter who he was. It didn’t matter that she couldn’t move anything but her head. She wouldn’t let anyone lay a finger on Luz. “You stay away from her or so help me Titan-”
He interrupted her with a chortle of self-importance. The kind of laugh from someone who is merely humoring everyone around them. “You’ve got it all wrong. The human is safe. For now. I just want the portal she came through.”
Eda the Owl Lady intended to be defiant to the last. And she intended to protect Luz to the last. Until her final breath. “Tough, ‘cuz I ain’t telling you nothing!”
With that outburst Belos began to rise back to his full height. “Ugh, a pity. Although I suppose I could ask the human herself.”
Without any hesitation or further dramatics, he snapped his fingers and in an instant some of his goons were upon her to begin dragging Eda’s immobilized body away.
Eda’s steely resolve melted away in an instant as she felt the weight of her own helplessness. “Wait! Don’t touch her! Lilith! Don’t let him hurt her! Lilith!”
The once proud Owl Lady continued to scream and beg as she was drug along various darkened hallways and passages. She had no idea if her words were even reaching anyone at this point, but it was all she could do. It was all she could do.
But eventually even that felt pointless. Bound and trapped in the body of the beast she was completely and utterly powerless. Eda had always prided herself on being the master of her own fate. The captain of the ship that was her life. But now she was caught in a maelstrom and there was nowhere to go but down.
As she was pulled along she started to laugh even, though it got no response from the guards hauling her. How funny was this? It would be poetic if it weren’t so pathetic. In her mad desperation to do something, anything to help Luz she had instinctively called out to her big sister for help.
Her big sister. Perfect Lily. Growing up she’d always idolized her sister and always thought they would always be together. But that didn’t last, of course.
The more she thought about those desperate cries to Lilith for help, the angrier it made her. If it weren’t for Lilith none of this would even be happening. Only a complete and total idiot would call her for help.
Anger turned to laughter again. Eda was often told she was an idiot and a fool, but now she guessed she had proof. Everyone had been right about her all along. This was always how it was going to end. There was never anything else.
It felt like her mind was beginning to get more and more scattered. So all she could focus on was the most prominent memory in her mind right now.
“Then why were you so easy to curse?!” Lilith’s voice echoed in rage as she remembered it with her face twisted in anger.
It hurt to think about. It hurt to think that the sister she loved so dear was the one who cursed her. The one who cast her into the exile that would color every moment of her life from that moment forward.
What hurt more was that Eda had known for a long time. The memory of being cursed haunted her dreams for all these years. She’d seen it countless times, her own sleeping form so fragile and well, trusting. She felt so safe in her own home.
And then the obscured figure steps into the doorway. For most of her life Eda never got a good glimpse of the figure, but who else could it have even been? Who else could just walk up to her room in her house?
But she’d ignored the possibility for all these years. Lilith was her sister. They might not see eye to eye but, she tried her best to tell herself that Lily would never hurt her. Not like this.
The Owl Lady felt her anger rising again as she remembered feeling bad for Lilith. Remembering Lilith’s wry smile every time she gave her some encouraging words or reminded her how she still cared about her. All while Lilith knew what she’d done. All that pompous talk about how joining the Coven was for Eda’s own good.
She felt sick remembering seeing Lilith start throwing a tantrum after their Grudgby game. In that moment she felt such pity for her poor struggling older sister. She had to do something! She couldn’t just let Lily suffer like that! She couldn’t let her sister get in trouble again. And to think people called Eda the con artist.
All that talk about how she was only hurting herself by refusing. All that talk about how this was the only answer to the problem. But as much as her anger rose she couldn’t feel it’s sting like she normally could.
Normally anger was one of those feelings that let you know you’re alive. Pulse pounding, blood burning, the heat rising until it threatens to burn you alive. But this anger felt so dull and listless. Maybe it was because Eda had just been chained into place on a platform of some sort. A reminder that she was helpless and no amount of anger could change that.
Instead of trying to break the chains or any such waste of energy, the Owl Lady simply slumped over, an action that proved to be far more dramatic in this unusual body. She felt completely dead on the inside. Even sadness and fear had lost their edge. She felt nothing.
She couldn’t just give Belos what he wants. That’s not on the table. But for the sake of Luz and King, maybe she could strike a deal? For them, she would do anything. She cared about the two of them so, so much more than her own pitiful life.
So she began trying to practice her lines.
“Oh great Emperor Belos if you allow my apprentice and my… weird demon thing. Dang what is my relationship with King? Best friend sounds lame. Besides if he hears that I referred to him with anything other than regality he’ll get me for sure.”
As she paced around with what little space the chains gave her Eda couldn’t help but keep getting distracted by the unfamiliar sound of claws on stone. Her claws.
“Ugh, I have aches in places I didn’t even have before. And I got an itch on my… wing? I guess that’s the wing. This sucks. On a number of levels.”
Complaining somehow always made things a little better.
“All right let’s try again. Oh great Emperor Belos if you allow my apprentice and my Demonic Ally a pardon, then I would be willing to cooperate with you. I will swear loyalty to you. Just please, allow me to say goodbye to them. Then when he lets me go I give Luz the portal key and send her home. Sucker. Yeah, I still got it.”
The Owl Lady would pat herself on the back if she were capable of it. With that plan decided, that just left one point of concern. Lilith Clawthorne.
“When I see her again I am going to tear her apart. For putting Luz in danger like that, for using her as a weapon against me, for everything she did to that poor kid! Titan only knows what she did and said after I blacked out. It looks like she got away. If Belos had her, he would make sure I knew it. I wouldn’t have to guess.” With that thought in her head suddenly she decided to see if this strange bird body was good for anything.
“They can’t call it the Owl Beast for nothing, right? Surely I’m strong enough to break this chain, right? Then I can go fly straight to LIlith and give her what she deserves. No, I can go straight to Luz and King and get them to safety. She’s not more important than they are.”
Eda spoke to herself as she thrashed against the chain. It rattled and cracked as she poured every fiber of her being into this. She kept at it for longer than she’d ever imagined possible. Until every muscle this absurd body had was burning and begging for rest. She kept going past that point even but with only exhausted half-efforts. Eventually she flopped over, completely spent.
“Ugh, she didn’t even give me a good curse. I mean, the Owl theming was fun, but come on! I need some power here! I could’ve been the Slitherbeast Lady! I could’ve made that work!”
Now Eda was just sulking as she gnawed on the chain. Maybe the teeth were strong. Owls aren’t even supposed to have teeth.
She felt the lethargy beginning to set in again. Her best plan was to hope that Belos had enough of a heart to let her see Luz and that Luz would follow instructions for once in her life. To just walk away instead of doing something incredibly dangerous and stupid. Yeah, both were pretty unlikely.
She felt her mind slowly starting to get hazy again. So much for the almighty Emperor. His power to give Eda her mind back was already beginning to fade. Then again a good soldier doesn’t need their mind.
Her vision was beginning to blur and her voice was growing weak. The mighty Owl Lady, the most powerful Witch on the Boiling Isles, left alone in a dark room weakly calling out as her consciousness bled out of her.
“Don’t let him hurt her… Lily… Don’t let him hurt her…”
Light gave way to darkness.