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Chapter Text

Luz liked to think she was one of the best wild witches around. She was certainly one of the most skilled and powerful. At sixteen she had already completed more successful rescues and retrieval missions than most of the other members of the underground. She’d infiltrated the conformitorium almost a dozen times. Stolen important books from the libraries of almost every single coven head. She’d even managed to steal the true emperor’s crown from the castle vaults on an, admittedly stupid, dare. With all that in mind, this mission should have gone smoothly. It should have been a piece of blood cake. It should have been a quick and quiet affair.

“Over there! We’ve got her cornered!”

Too bad none of those things had ended up being true.

Luz bit back a curse as another barrage of spells shot over her newest hiding spot behind a decorative vase, some of them managing to graze the magic-resistant hooded cloak she wore on all raids like this. Her eyes darted back and forth around the room as she searched for any hint of a way out she had missed. Her knuckles went white as she tightened her hands on her staff and scowled when nothing new revealed itself. Just like her initial search when she darted into this room the only ways out were still only the door the emperor’s guards were pouring in through and the door to the vault.

“Circle around her! We have her now!”

Now if only those guards would leave her alone for more than a second so she could actually put together an escape plan. Her fingers traced over the two, no, three potions she had left on her bandolier. The metal eater she’d gotten specifically to break into the vault, a healing potion, and the itching powder one she’d initially made as a joke for a friend’s kid. She’d actually forgotten about that one. She couldn’t help smirking as a plan started to come together. It was a terrible plan that relied on at least one bit of information she’d gotten actually being right for once in this mission but it was all she had.

“You want me? Come and get me!” she shouted as she threw the itching potion into the air. As expected the guards immediately shot everything they had at it, smashing the bottle and turning the potion inside into a quickly expanding gas. A quick spell circle later and a sudden wind was spreading the cloud throughout the room, acting as the perfect distraction to let her lob the rust potion at the vault door. WIthin seconds a hole had been corroded through the magically reinforced door just large enough for her to slip through.

“Disperse the cloud you idiots! And stay on the door! We can’t let her get away!”

Luz grunted as she wiggled her way through the ever-growing hole in the vault door. It wouldn’t be long before the guards managed to get in, especially with the door continuing to corrode away, but if she could get her hands on the right relic it wouldn’t matter. Going into this she’d hoped she’d have a chance to fully clean out the vault of forbidden artifacts but now all she could hope for was to get her hands on the Rainbow Staff and teleport out of here. She darted from display case to display case, desperately hoping that the thing’s name was a good indicator for its appearance.

“Stop her! Stop her now!”

Once more Luz was forced to dodge a barrage of spells. Glass cases shattered around the room and ancient artefacts of the wild ages were knocked to the ground. Her heart was in her throat as she caught sight of an iridescent crystalline staff almost as tall as she was. Her eyes narrowed and she grimaced as the number of spells being cast into the room only increased. It was now or never. Darting from behind a display case she leaped into the air, one hand stretching out to try and reach the staff. She forced down a wince when a particularly powerful spell was deflected off her cloak before slamming into the staff. Her worry bout the artifact’s integrity only lasted a moment before the entire room was enveloped in bright light and she was knocked unconscious.

As far as Eda was concerned there weren’t that many things in life better than managing to get her hands on a good haul at rock bottom prices. Apparently there had been some friction between the mister and the soon to be ex missus of the estate and they had both been very eager to unload as many of the other’s sentimental items at hilariously low prices in an attempt to screw each other over as much as they could out of sheer spite. Sure, they’d been a little miffed when they realized that she’d been going to each of them separately to try and get all the deals she could but by the time they realized what they’d done to themselves she’d already loaded up the trailer and was on her way out. She didn’t bother holding back her lopsided grin as she recalled the looks on their faces as she drove off and they realized they had no one to blame but themselves. 

“Nothing like pulling one over on a couple rich pricks like them, eh King?” she asked her passenger. King, for his part, happily accepted the head scritches until he decided that Eda had exceeded the allotted physical contact for the hour and batted her hand away. “Fine, be that way you little brat,” Eda muttered without any real annoyance. Even with a cat as friendly as King you got used to rejection. That and it wasn’t like there was much that could really get her spirits down right now anyway. The three hour drive back home was almost over, she’d picked up a fortune of new things to sell in her antique shop, and she even had sales receipts for everything she’d gotten this time around so even if the previous owners tried claiming she’d stolen something the cops wouldn’t be able to do much more than detain her for a bit to make sure everything was in order.

Honestly, she kinda hoped that they would try that. The only thing better than outsmarting the cops was getting to sit around and get them to admit that she had done everything legally and there was nothing they could do to her. There really wasn’t anything she could think of that could dampen her mood.

Unfortunately, one such thing she had never thought of being possible began happening in the sky just overhead. With a sound like a thousand nails being dragged across a chalkboard, a ragged crack tore open in the sky in front of her. Shock and confusion were at the forefront of her mind as she realized something had fallen through the tear. Her eyes widened and she bit back a curse as she recognized the falling object as a person. Heart thundering in her ears she pulled off to the side of the road and slammed on the brakes, eliciting an angry yowl from King as the sudden stop sent him sprawling to the floor of the car.

“Shit, shit, shit, shit,” she muttered under her breath. Her eyes never left the falling figure as she all but leaped from her car and rushed towards where it looked like the person would be landing. A sickening crack rang out as they hit the ground and Eda couldn’t help the cold feeling in the pit of her stomach when they only noiselessly flopped around like a rag doll. “Come on, you better be alright, don’t leave me here to deal with your dead body. I do not want to get detained for suspected murder again.” Eda couldn’t stop the sigh of relief that escaped her when she finally reached the person’s side and noticed the slow rise and fall of their, or her rather, chest that indicated they were at least still breathing. “Hey, uh, kid. You alright?” Eda asked with a wince. Of course they weren’t alright. They got spat out by some sort of hell pit in the sky and dropped onto the shoulder of the highway. She may not have been too sure what was going on but it was pretty clear that ‘alright’ really wasn’t on the menu. Thankfully it appeared that the mystery girl was more than willing to prove Eda’s pessimistic assumptions at least partially wrong.

“Potion,” the girl coughed out. Her eyes fluttered open and closed but couldn’t seem to focus on anything. Her head trembled as she tried to lift it off the ground, but only managing to knock the cloth mask around her face loose. “Only one on my bandolier, please.”

Normally Eda would be a bit more suspicious about anything that a person called a potion. As a consummate scammer herself she recognized a scam when she saw one and all that holistic medicine with potions and healing crystals and crap pinged her scammer sense something fierce. But normally those potions came from people who reminded her of her, very short, hippie phase. Not people that had been spat up by hell. Moving the girls cloak aside she quickly found a thin glass vial filled with a golden liquid that shimmered with little motes of light. She didn’t hesitate to pull it free, uncork it, and lift the girl’s head ever so slightly to pour it into her mouth.

With the immediate concerns, hopefully, taken care of Eda let herself actually take a good look at her unexpected visitor. The bluish-purple cloak and cowl would certainly make for a solid disguise once properly applied and her clothes underneath reminded Eda of the ponces she’d seen the one time she’d snuck into a ren faire. Everything else just screamed brown. Brown eyes, brown hair, tanned brown pointed ears...

“Pointed ears?” Eda muttered as the girl swallowed the potion. “Is she a witch?” Her normal suspicions about things like this were, once again, being pushed aside by the very nature of how the girl had come to be here. Her musings were brought to a sudden halt as the sounds of nails on a chalkboard assaulted her ears once more. Her head whipped up again to see dozens of smaller tears opening up in the sky. This time much further out, almost all of them overhead the city. It might have been her imagination but she could have sworn she saw small specks of light falling from them before tears closed up, leaving the night sky immaculate once more. Eda couldn’t help her slowly growing frown as she stared out at the city. Even if she didn’t understand what exactly was happening one thing was for sure: things were going to be getting very complicated very soon.

Luz counted herself lucky when she only woke to feeling like she’d tried to ride a slitherbeast. Again. To say that her memories of last night were fuzzy would be a drastic understatement, but she did remember the heist going wrong.  That and someone that either didn’t know who she was or was sympathetic enough to the underground to help her drink her healing potion. Everything after that was a blur of indistinct colors and sounds but the fact that she had woken up on someone’s couch and not chained to a wall awaiting petrification was always a good sign.

That said she really didn’t want to push her luck. Between her cloak, mask, and judicious use of illusions Luz had managed to keep most of her crimes from being directly associated with herself but she was still a wild witch. All it would take was her host noticing her lack of a brand or connecting her face to one of the lesser circulated but still present bounty posters all confirmed wild witches had.

She hissed and placed a hand to her forehead as her attempt to sit up was met with a lance of pain that nearly sent her back to laying on the couch. Apparently she’d been even worse off than she’d thought if she still felt this bad after a potion. Gritting her teeth and working through the pain Luz forced herself all the way up and took a look around the room. On the plus side there wasn’t any emperor’s coven paraphernalia hung up so at the very least her savior wasn’t one of the brainwashed fanatics. On the minus side there was a lot of very fancy looking stuff all over the place. Sure the giant black mirror looked way too bulky and ineffective for her to care for it but something as unique looking as that had to have cost a pretty snail. 

“Finally up eh? I was starting to wonder if you were ever gonna wake up.”

Luz tried to jump to attention at the sudden voice, but adrenaline could only overcome so many of the aches and pains she was still suffering and it certainly didn’t manage to do anything about the blankets still wrapped around her legs. Her full body collection of bruises was soon given several new additions as all she managed to do was tumble into an undignified heap at the feet of the person who had saved her.

“Woah there! You already fell out of the sky once, don’t go trying for a repeat performance already!” the woman said as she knelt down and did her best to untangle Luz’s legs from the blankets and help her back up on the couch.

“Sorry,” Luz muttered as she let herself get manhandled back onto the couch. Seeing as her rescuer seemed more concerned about her wellbeing than asking awkward questions about how she’d ended up falling from the sky Luz took a moment to take stock of said rescuer. A tall, older woman dressed in pajamas and a garish t-shirt, with sharp golden eyes and a chaotic mess of grey hair that probably massed more than Luz’s entire body did was tucked back behind a pair of round ears. Luz shook her head in a vain attempt to shake some sense into herself as she stared at the woman’s ears. “I… are you a human? What’s a human doing on the Boiling Isles? How did a human get to the Boiling Isles?”

A strange look crossed the woman, the human’s , face at Luz’s questions. She glanced down at the mug Luz only now noticed she was carrying before seeming to come to a decision. “Come here kid. Might be better easier to explain if I can get you to the window.”

Luz didn’t resist as the human helped her to her feet and led her over to a window and pulled back the curtains. Luz squinted and blinked furiously as her eyes adjusted to the sudden change in light. What she saw when her eyes had adjusted took her breath away in all the wrong ways. If it weren’t for the human’s surprisingly strong grip she would have collapsed to the floor again.

Outside the window were crowds of humans. Metal monsters rushed down a wide black stone street flanked by buildings of shining metal and glass and brick, and beyond them even more buildings of the same make, taller than any she had ever seen before. “Did… did I teleport into a secret human sanctuary hidden somewhere on the isles?” she asked. Her voice shaking with fear and quickly dwindling hope.

The human snorted. “Unless us humans have managed to hide an entire planet somewhere on your isles I don’t think so.” Her voice softened as she continued, “You’re a long way from home kid.”

The kid hadn’t moved once since Eda had led her back to the couch. Not much of a surprise there though. It’s not every day you find out you got dumped somewhere you’d never seen or heard of. And unlike that time Eda had gone on that bender and wound up in what had to have been the smallest town Nevada had to offer the kid couldn’t exactly call home and get someone to come by with a ride and some fresh clothes.

“I’m gonna go make something to eat. You good with egg salad sandwiches?”

The kid made a noise that, very charitably, could be interpreted as something resembling a yes. Maybe. Either way it was a good enough reason for Eda to leave the kid to come to terms by herself for a bit. The fact that it also gave Eda some time to process the fact that the kid was either really into playing a role or was an actual real-life witch was an incidental plus.

Further pushing off dealing with the inevitable world-shattering revelations Eda busied herself in her home’s tiny kitchen. A quick sniff made her sure enough that the egg salad was still good and some rummaging around the pantry turned up just enough bread for a couple sandwiches and some potato chips that, though on the broken down side, were still perfectly fine. Before long she had two perfectly serviceable plates of food and it was time to face the music once again.

A tension she didn’t realize she’d been feeling left her shoulders as she saw that the kid had at least moved around since she’d left to get the food. “Here ya go kid. Eat up.” A look of shock passed across the kid’s face, almost too quick to see before she took the plate of food and poked at the sandwich. After a few moments she seemed to come to a decision, picked up the sandwich and took a bite. She blinked and chewed slowly, obviously not sure what to think of the food. In the end it looked like she’d decided it was good enough and tucked in. A new, ever so slightly less awkward silence settled over the room as they both worked through their meals.

“Luz” 

Eda blinked and looked over to see the kid had stopped eating and was watching her.

“My name. I’m Luz. Luz Noceda.”

For the first time since she’d seen the kid crash land Eda smiled. “Nice to meet ya. I’m Eda Clawthorne.”

While Eda and Luz were getting to know each other a very different scene was playing out on the other side of the city. A white-cloaked man wearing a beaked mask bit back a hiss of pain as a human woman did her best to both apply a splint to the man’s broken arm and ignore the fireball poised to be thrown at the children that had been sleeping in the healer’s building he had woken up in.

“Isn’t there anything better you can do to heal me human? And remember, no lying.”

“All we can do is set the bone and immobilize the arm,” the human replied. “We might be able to do more with some surgery but…”

“And let you knock me out and cut me open? I’m no fool human. Now finish your work.”

The man suppressed another wince as the human continued to wrap his arm in fabric. He was really starting to regret not progressing beyond the basic healing spells offered to the emperor's coven. But then again he never expected to get stuck in some backwater city of magicless primitives, incapable of doing anything but covering up a wound and waiting for it to heal. His fireball grew in intensity as his mind turned once more to the wild witch that had caused him to be thrown into this pathetic realm. He would find his way back home, no matter who stood in his way. And if the witch happened to be here as well he would take great pleasure in exacting his revenge on the disgusting criminal.

“It’s done,” the human said as she applied a series of metal clips to the cloth covering his arm.

He glanced down at his arm and nodded in acceptance of the treatment. A twirl of a finger and he cast a spell of one of his more preferred schools placed and an oracle’s curse on the woman. “I suggest you don’t tell anyone about me human. I will know if you do so and I will find you.” The fireball crackled ominously. “And you will not like what happens when I do.” Dismissing the fireball he turned to the window and threw it open. With a thought he summoned his staff and took to the sky. He may be far from the Boiling Isles with no idea how to get back home but he was not going to let that stop him from returning. No matter what.

Chapter Text

Luz groaned as she threw off her covers and did her best to try and find a reason to get off of the inflatable mattress Eda had set up for her in a storage closet. A reason that had been getting harder and harder to find over the week she’d been trapped in the human world. “Maybe I’ll just stay in bed today,” she muttered to herself. It wasn’t like she was just going to find a random portal back home after all. She’d gotten her hopes up when Eda mentioned that there had been other portals besides the one that she fell through but despite her hopes, there hadn’t been the slightest hint of one since.

Her own research, once Eda had shown her how to use the computer, hadn’t turned up much of use either. In between bouts of getting the computer sick somehow, Eda eventually stopped trying to explain how computer viruses were different from normal ones, mostly got her rumors, misinformation, and fictional stories.

In the rare few instances of stories that mentioned things she did recognize from the Boiling Isles they were fragmentary at best and never seemed to mention how those things had gotten to the human realm. It did bring to mind the old stories of people getting caught outside in the horrorcanes that blew through the isles every so often and vanishing without a trace but she was at a loss how she could actually use that information. Sure it sounded like it might be a lead but even if there really was a connection there she would need to predict the weather in another realm, determine where the porta would appear in the human realm, and even then it would still end up throwing her in the middle of a horrorcane with no shelter. There wouldn’t be much point in getting home if it meant that she’d almost certainly end up dead as soon as she got there.

Hours passed as Luz continued to fail to find the energy to get out of bed. Even when Eda’s pet cat King, who Luz was sure had to be some sort of demon, wandered into the room and did his best to get her out of bed so he could claim his rightful, in his mind at least, spot on the mattress she hadn’t budged. Something he’d been quite ready to voice his displeasure about. Thankfully he’d been placated by some head scratches before deciding he had better things to do and left her alone. It was too bad the next intruder turned out to be a little less easily bribed.

“That’s it kid. You need to get up and do something before you mope yourself to death,” Eda declared. “Sitting in here and feeling sorry for yourself isn’t going to help. You need to get out there and clear your head. See the sights and think about something else for a bit. Luckily for you, I have just the thing for that!” She pulled out a human scroll and tossed it to Luz who, after only a single fumble, managed to catch it. “I got a list of addresses there of people who bought some crap from me off Craig’s List. You deliver those things, take some of the money for yourself and do something fun. The bus can get you anywhere you need to go.” She trailed off before fixing Luz with a calculating look. “You do remember how buses work right? Not gonna freak out about metal demons again?”

For the first time all day Luz’s face changed from morose indifference as she flushed and pointedly looked away from Eda. “It’s not my fault we don’t have cars in the Boiling Isles,” she insisted for what had to have been the hundredth time.

“Just make sure you don’t end up making another bus crash into a building,” Eda cackled. Now get dressed and grab something to eat. Grocery day isn’t ‘till tomorrow so it’s just PBJ for lunch.”

While Luz would never admit it to the woman she was glad that Eda had barged in and forced this job on her. It had done a wonderful job of keeping her mind off everything that had been plaguing her all morning. There was a familiarity to running errands for someone else that let her fall into old reliable patterns of thought. Keep an eye on the backpack, make sure no one is paying too much attention to you, keep your disguise on. Sure she wasn’t transporting anything dangerous or, hopefully, illegal this time. And this time there weren’t any coven guards keeping an eye out for her and no bounty hunters looking to make a quick snail. And her disguise was just an old jacket and a beanie instead of her usual cloak and cowl...

Honestly it really wasn’t that similar to the sorts of missions she would sometimes run for the underground but the superficial similarities were there and even that small level of familiarity was enough to ease her nerves. Although one thing she could have done without being familiar was the reactions of the people she was delivering things to.

“Look. Eda said you were paying three hundred sn- dollars. The receipt,” Luz brandished the piece of paper as though it were a sword. “Says that you were paying three hundred dollars.” She put the receipt away and brandished the human scroll with an email from the man in front of her. “The email you sent says three hundred dollars. You are paying three. Hundred. Dollars. So pay up and sign the receipt or I’m just leaving you here and someone else can get this thing.”

Luz could practically hear the man grinding his teeth as he looked between her and the garish clock that was, supposedly, once owned by some guy called Elvis. His eyes narrowed as he decided on a new tactic for getting a discount. “You were late. You should knock a hundred dollars off the price. I was supposed to have it this morning.”

“The only agreed-on time was today. It’s still today and it’s still three hundred dollars. Take it or leave it.” Luz shook her head and noted that if the man clenched his jaw any harder he would probably start cracking his teeth. “You have two minutes to decide.”

The man’s face went through an interesting series of color changes before he sagged, defeated, and pulled out his wallet. “Bleeding me dry,” he muttered before pulling out several bills and handed them over to Luz.

Money in hand, and fully counted to make sure it was all there, Luz handed over the clock. “Pleasure doing business with you, please never buy anything from us ever again.”

The man huffed and Luz could see the gears turning in his head as he tried to figure out something to say in order to ‘win’ the conversation. Eventually his lackluster wit failed him and he settled for slamming the door in her face.

“And that’s another one down. And only...” Luz pulled up the list of customers Eda had given her. “No more. Huh.” Despite the abrasiveness some of the customers had had Luz couldn’t help but feel adrift now that the task was over. She could go back to Eda’s place but then she would just end up moping again. Eda had told her to treat herself but what did she know about having fun in the human world? She let out a frustrated groan when she finally got back to the closest bus stop. A quick glance showed that if she stuck around she’d be waiting for another twenty minutes for the bus to arrive. Twenty minutes with nothing but her own thoughts to keep her company.

“Nope. Not doing that.” She pushed herself up from the seat and looked up and down the street. Surely she could find something to do around here. Sure she wasn’t all that great at finding things to do but that had been in the Boiling Isles. Back there she was a wanted fugitive, raised on the outskirts of society. Going into town had always been a risk, every moment spent hoping that no one would look too closely at her and realize that she was a wild witch.

Maybe this could be a new opportunity for her. A chance to try new things and maybe even make friends. People closer than allies of circumstance or Jerry. No one liked Jerry. It wasn’t that she didn’t love her mom or that she didn’t value her time spent with the various tutors she’d grown up learning from but there were times that she longed to spend time with kids her own age. Getting to spend time with actual friends without worrying about coven guards recognizing her and needing to run away. Maybe it would be like the Teen Witch Azura books she always loved reading in between missions.

With a determined nod she strode down the street with a renewed determination to make the best of the situation she’d found herself in and not to treat it like the terrifying mass of uncertainty, homesickness, and fear of what her mom was thinking had happened to her that it was. All she had to do was find something to do. Surely it wouldn’t be that hard to find something interesting to do. After all, walking down the streets in any town in the Boiling Isles was sure to lead to all sorts of adventure, you just had to follow the screams. Best case scenario they were screams of joy and there was something cool going on, worst case scenario they were screams of terror and it would lead to something she could do, usually a chance to be a hero and save someone from the disasters that occurred around the isles on a near hourly basis.

Almost three hours later found Luz continuing to wander around the city looking for something, anything, to do. She hadn’t noticed it during her deliveries, with her entire focus on making sure she didn’t screw anything up, but the human city was eerily quiet. Well, not quiet but lacking in the sorts of noises she usually associated with a city. There were the constant rumblings of the metal vehicles, the dull roar of tightly packed crowds, and the general noises of people living life but it lacked the excitement that she was used to. Three hours and she hadn’t run into a single impromptu duel or heard people screaming in joy or fear. No crashes from clumsy or angry demons and not a single instance of a person almost getting eaten by a sneaky monster.

It was all. So. Boring.

As though in, highly delayed, answer to her prayers for something to happen, one of the human cars shot by, screeching like some sort of siren demon with a pair of flashing blue and red lights on top. While the first one was a novelty the three subsequent cars made her start wondering what was going on wherever they were going. It quickly became apparent that the cars moved far too quickly for Luz to keep up and she was left to make a decision. She could leave well enough alone. Going off to do something else and leave this mystery unsolved. Or she could think like a wild witch, get on her staff, cast a quick invisibility illusion, and follow from the air.

Kind of an obvious choice in retrospect. Sure she wouldn’t be able to move too fast without disrupting the illusion but it would certainly be faster, and far less effort, than running and it had the chance to do wonders for her boredom.

Once she took to the sky her destination became much clearer. Both because she could see several of the siren cars up ahead and because she could see a growing cloud of smoke that had begun to billow out of the fancy-looking building the siren cars had surrounded. While she was sure that the people in the siren cars could probably handle the fire themselves she didn’t see anything wrong with swinging by and maybe helping out a little bit. If she had been back home her mom would have surely chided her for her reckless heroism but without any coven guards on the lookout for her she was sure she could indulge in some heroics without issue.

And then the front of the building exploded.

Even as far from the building as she was Luz could feel the blastwave of the explosion ruffle her hair and disrupt the illusion keeping her hidden. Thoughts of reapplying it were driven from her mind when she saw a man striding through the burning rubble as though he were taking a stroll through the park. His entire body was wreathed in flames and a giant flaming hand hovered behind him carrying a bag full to bursting with what she could only assume was valuables plundered from the building. With a gesture he sent a wave of fire out towards the humans that had made a perimeter around the building, sending them scrambling for cover.

Luz’s grip on her staff tightened to an almost painful white-knuckled grip as she saw the man using what could only be magic. While she had been confused by a lot of the things she’d seen on TV Eda had always been patient in explaining the things that humans could do with science and what things were just part of their stories and shows. Manipulating fire to this degree was one of those things that she had been assured only existed in fiction for humans that didn’t know magic was real.

That left only one reasonable explanation. One, if not multiple, coven guards had either followed her through her initial portal or had used the rainbow staff to create a portal to chase her. Sure, robbing random people was a little out of character, albeit not much, for the guards; but she would be surprised if the justification of ‘they’re just humans’ wasn’t one of the first things on their minds upon finding themselves in the human realm.

With her path clear Luz summoned her cloak and cowl, their magic resisting capabilities wouldn't be a perfect defense against that much fire but it would help buy her precious seconds if she couldn’t get a shield up in time.

Leaning forward and riding her staff like a skateboard Luz dove down towards the fire-wielding witch. Her hands worked as she cast spell after spell, creating a growing cloud of blue orbs that trailed in her wake. At the last second she shifted so that she passed within inches of the other witch, the trailing spells, however, didn’t. Each one exploded in a blast of ice that she hoped would encase her opponent enough to slow them down enough for the humans to escape, if not take the witch out of the fight entirely.

For one brief moment she thought her plan might have succeeded perfectly. The witch appeared to be completely frozen in a block of ice almost a foot thick and the humans seemed to be rallying. But then she saw the cracks spreading outward. “Get down!” She screamed as she threw up a hasty shield and ducked behind her cloak.

While the explosion was smaller this time it was no less dangerous. Shards of ice were sent flying as the witch was once more completely engulfed in flames. His breathing was ragged and he had gone to one knee but he was still in the fight. A fight that was now looking to involve him retaliating if the angry glare Luz could feel being directed at her was any indication.

“You…” he choked out. “You too huh? And you’re gonna play the hero?” He began to chuckle as he finished catching his breath, the flames surrounding him growing larger with every word he spoke. “Alrighty then! Let’s see if you can save the day Ms. Hero!”

Luz was already in motion when the witch started throwing fireballs towards her. Never had she been more thankful for all the staff races the more daredevil witches in the underground would rope her into than she was now. The other witch was relentless in his assault, throwing fireball after fireball in her direction. It was all she could do to just dodge what he was throwing at her, let alone begin to counterattack.

“Is that all you got?! I can keep this up all day!” The witch crowed as he paused his assault to create a single, massive, fireball. “Just run away hero! Your little toy isn’t cut out for this!”

Luz bit back a retort, instead using the lapse in attacks to put together spells of her own. The other witch certainly had her when it came to speed but she doubted they could match her variety. “I’ve still got plenty of tricks up my sleeve!” she shouted as she completed her spell. A half dozen illusory copies of herself spang into existence around her and as one they all shot in different directions.

“Ice, flight, and duplication?! That’s not fair!” the witch sputtered as he desperately tried to separate his massive attack into smaller ones capable of targeting all his new targets.

“A wild witch never fights fair!” Luz’s voice echoed out from each of her illusions.

With a scream of outrage the witch started throwing fireballs in every direction he could as he tried his best to hit each of the illusions.

Luz couldn’t help but smirk from her hiding spot around the corner of the building she had ducked behind while the other witch had been distracted by her illusions. Her hand was a blur as she layered spell after spell around one arm, each simple telekinesis spell reinforcing the others and multiplying their eventual effect.

Once she felt she was ready she directed her illusions to bring the other witch’s attention opposite of where she was hiding, giving her a perfect shot as his exposed back. One more spell, a simple gust of wind was cast and then empowered by the dozen telekinesis spells, creating a single powerful air bullet that erupted from her hand and caught the other witch in the shoulder, breaking it with a sickening crack. As expected the witch was spent spinning to the ground with a shriek of pain. However unlike expected all the flames were extinguished in an instant as an intricate black metal crown came loose from their head and rolled along the ground.

Unsure what was going on but unwilling to let the chance pass her by, Luz rocketed forwards, intent on ending the fight. A sucker punch to the side elicited another grunt of pain and halted the witch's attempts to get back up and retrieve the crown. “Surrender. Now.” Luz demanded. Another, less powerful, spell just a finger twitch from completion and pointed directly at her opponent’s head.

The witch hissed out a string of curses and turned a hate-filled glare towards Luz and for the first time since the fight had started she got a good look at him. He wasn’t wearing the white uniform and featureless beaked mask of the emperor’s coven she had expected. Instead, he looked like he could have been any one of the humans she had walked by during her deliveries today. The longer Luz looked at him the more she felt something was off, that she was missing something that should have been obvious. He wasn’t trying to cast any more spells, despite having thrown around all that fire earlier. Even if it was a function of the crown he should have been able to do something else once he had realized the fire wasn’t working. Things weren’t adding up and in Luz’s experience that never boded well.

“Fine, it’s not like I can do anything without the crown anyway,” the witch finally said. His shoulders slumped and he didn’t bother fighting down a wince as he slumped down. “Good job hero. You got me.”

As he leaned back on his good arm Luz finally realized what was wrong. The one important detail she had been missing. The man’s ears were round. “You’re human,” she whispered, too low for anyone else to hear. Her eyes darted to the crown that had been knocked free from the witch, no, the human’s head. Glossy black metal formed intricate patterns of flames, a single risen point at the front framed a large ruby that flickered with an unsettling internal light. The Ifrit’s Crown, said to give the wielder unparalleled control over fire but also rumored to drive its wielders insane when the demon trapped in the ruby tormented the wearer’s dreams. It had been one of the relics of the savage ages that had been in the vault during her failed heist.

In daze Luz lifted the crown in shaking hands. “Where did you get this?”

“Probably the same way you got yours,” the man replied, nodding at Luz’s staff. “Just found it a couple days ago.”

Luz was only distantly aware of the human guards coming up to them and securing the criminal. It wasn’t until one of them pulled her aside that she was shaken out of her funk.

“Hey kid, first off I gotta say thanks for bailing us out like that. Not something I ever expected to say to someone not on the force but…” the man looked over at the flaming rubble and shook his head. “Never thought I’d have to try and arrest a supervillain either.” The guard sighed and pulled a set of handcuffs from his belt. “Now unfortunately vigilantism is illegal so I am supposed to bring you in now. I’m sure it could all get dismissed but something tells me you’re not gonna want to answer all the questions everyone down at the precinct will have. Just keep in mind that we don’t exactly have air support right now so if you jumped on that staff of yours and flew off it would be a darn shame but I don’t think there’s anything we could do to stop you.” He turned a pointed gaze at her staff but made no move to take it away from her.

Luz nodded, caught off balance by the fact that any law enforcement was on her side for once. Granted up until just now she didn’t think she had any crimes to her name and even the one she now had wasn’t the most damning out there. Though she did note that at least one of the other human guards didn’t seem to share the first one’s opinion and shouted at her to stop when she took off into the sky. They even tried to follow her in their car but outrunning ground-bound guards was, unsurprisingly, much easier than outrunning the flying ones she was used to evading back home.

A quick flight over some buildings to gain distance, ducking down to the alleyways to lose line of sight, and she was free. Even better all she had to do to go fully incognito was just stash the crown in her backpack and dismiss her cloak, cowl, and staff. Her exaltation was short-lived though as one very important fact quickly became clear to her.

“And now I'm lost. Great.”

In the end it took nearly an hour and a half to get back to Eda’s house/antique shop. While the eventual bus ride hadn’t been all that long, finding the bus stop had been an endeavor. With the explosions having driven away all the sane people, and drawn in the crazy ones, there weren’t any people nearby that Luz had been able to ask for directions. To make matters worse when she finally did find the bus stop and get on the very next stop turned out to be just around the corner from where she had landed in the first place, just in the opposite direction she had taken her search.

Altogether it was almost, but not quite, enough to bring her down from the emotional high she’d reached upon realizing what the Ifrit’s Crown being here meant. All the other portals Eda had seen the night Luz had been sent here had to have been other things being sent here as well, one of which was almost certainly the Rainbow Staff itself. Finding it would be difficult but it was doable. The task that had felt all but impossible now had a path, a way forward, and a potential end goal that she could work towards.

“Eda! You’ll never guess what happened to-”

“Officers on the scene say that this Wild Witch engaged the assailant, displaying strange abilities similar to those used by the criminal. The public is urged to come forward with any information related to Wild Witch or any of the alleged ‘magical artifacts’ used by the criminal. Coming up next: real magic or elaborate hoax? Join our panel of-”

The sound from the television cut off as Eda paused the news report she had been watching and turned to level an unimpressed gaze at Luz. “I think I have a pretty good guess kid.”

The silence stretched on as Luz’s gaze twitched between the television, an image of her on her staff frozen on screen and the deadpan look on Eda’s face. Eventually, she had to ask the question that was burning at the forefront of her mind. “How long did you have that paused there so you could do the whole ‘we need to talk’ bit?”

Eda didn’t even bother to hide her smirk. “Only about half an hour. Congrats on making the news and getting on the cop's most wanted list by the way!” All joviality quickly evaporated and her deadpan gaze was back. “Still gonna need to talk about all this though.”

Across town another woman was watching that same broadcast and in a very important call. “Yes director. I’ve already seen the video. The misinformation team’s efforts seem to be working. General consensus is currently trending towards this all being an elaborate prank, by who is up in the air but the general public seems sure it’s fake. The additional comments starting flame wars with anyone that disagrees with that viewpoint is also doing a fine job discrediting anyone that believes in magic by association.”

She closed down the tab with the video and returned to her other, more pressing project. “More importantly it appears that these artifacts might be the cause of the breach one week ago. When we didn’t have any of the usual rampaging demons or witches that an incursion usually brings I’d hoped that we might have gotten off scot-free this time.

“Of course I will be heading the investigation to find more of these artifacts. The fire crown used by the criminal and the staff used by ‘The Wild Witch’ as the media are calling her. Both appear to be quite powerful and if they really can be used by normal humans with no ill effects could prove a massive boon for any field agents in the future.” She paused for a moment as she looked over the, in her opinion rather pointless, projections of where things might have landed based on where the portals had appeared a week ago. The chances that any of the artifacts were still in that area were slim and the chance that anyone would actually turn them in to the police were even slimmer. A chance that was likely brought down to zero now that there was proof out there of what those items these random passersby might have stumbled upon could actually do.

“I don’t suppose you would be able to shift some field agents around to help me deal with this could you?” she asked, knowing already what the response would be. The department was understaffed and underfunded at the best of times and the recent years had certainly not been what one would call the best of times. Between increased resources required by the Train Watchers and the usual weirdness the Oregon team had to deal with no one really had time for a largely quiet mid-sized city in California. Even she spent most of her time elsewhere in the state despite her usual wishes otherwise. Add in that even with more agents it would just take less time to confirm that there was very little they could do proactively and there was little reason for more manpower to be sent her way.

She let out a sigh when the expected response came through anyway. Misinformation would, presumably, be able to keep the public at large from looking too much into any big events that occurred and the lack of any actively malicious Boiling Isles resident rampaging through town would keep her case near the bottom of the pile. “Understood sir. Steve and I will handle this ourselves then. You will receive a full report after each potential crash site is investigated. Goodbye.”

With the call complete she hung up the phone and took a moment to rub her temples. The investigation hadn’t even truly started and she already had a headache. Never a good sign. Plus she was going to need to go through all the potential crash sites and put together priority lists, best routes to reach them, and a list of items they would need to requisition before anything could get started. Pulling out her cell phone she hit one of her speed dials and smiled when it picked up before the first ring had even finished. “Steve? I’m still in the office and will probably be here for a while. Do you think you could do a coffee run for me?”

“Yes ma’am Ms Lillith ma’am!” came her subordinate's usual exuberant reply. “Will you need any other help?”

“No. That should be it. I can handle this myself, just need a little pick me up to keep going,” Lilith Clawthorne, head of the lower west coast division of the Supernatural Containment Initiative, replied before hanging up. “And now to get started. This paperwork isn’t going to do itself after all.”

Chapter Text

In the days that had passed since Luz found the Ifrit’s Crown and realized she just might have a way back home she had gone through a rollercoaster of emotions. Her highest point had been that first day afterwards. Putting together a list of all the artifacts she could remember, an unfortunately incomplete list much to her chagrin, for Eda to keep an eye out for in case someone came by to get it appraised had been first to do. After that had been an in-depth search through recent news stories for anything that looked like it could be explained by one of the artifacts. While the search hadn’t turned up much it hadn’t dampened her spirits and she had left Eda’s home in high hopes. Hopes that rapidly dropped.

She didn’t think anything of it when she didn’t find anything the first day. It wasn’t like every person that found one was going to go out and rob a bank after all. She would need a different way to find them. One that she spent the second day working on. Unfortunately, the prevalence of magic on the Boiling Isles had made spells designed to track magic something of a low priority research subject. Researchers in the subject often compared it to finding a drop of blood in a lake. But surely in the magicless human world they wouldn’t face that same interference?

It turned out they did. Not due to the natural magic of the human world, which turned out to be present, albeit nowhere near what it was in the Boiling Isles. Instead, Luz quickly discovered that when the Rainbow Staff had opened all the portals it had bombarded the area with magical energy. Enough that it would likely take years to dissipate enough for the less than stellar tracking spell she had put together to work any further than a couple dozen feet. And that was assuming that the magical output of the other relics didn’t exacerbate the ambient magic issue. Of course, Luz’s own lack of skill in oracle magic hadn’t helped matters much either. Spells of that nature tended to require a much more… centered mind than Luz was generally capable of keeping for any real length of time.

So naturally when the third day dawned Luz had not been in the best of moods. Something compounded by the relative lack of sleep she’d forced herself through in attempts to find something, anything, that would help her. Two things that led to her latest predicament. One that had passed through her mind as possible, but in radically different circumstances.

“Now I’ll have you know truancy is a major crime kid,” officer Wrath lectured her in the lobby of the police station as his co-workers watched on with varying levels of amusement and pity. Apparently, the man had been out of sorts ever since the Wild Witch had given him the slip and he’d been coming down hard on anyone he could, largely to make himself feel better. “You should be in school. I know your parents probably didn’t teach you this but if you want to be worthy of this great nation you need to obey the law and need to go to school.”

Luz blinked in confusion, both at Wrath’s words and the exasperated groans from the other cops.

Wrath, however, was undeterred and continued his speech as though everyone was hanging on his every word. “So I’m going to need you to call your parents and get them down here so they can see how you’re wasting the chances you’ve been given.”

“I already did that.”

Wrath blinked several times as he tried to process what Luz had said.

“When you brought me in and went to your desk to get all your paperwork one of the others let me borrow their phone.”

The officer in question waved over at them with a far too large smile that certainly wasn’t due to hiom getting a chance to mess with Wrath.

“She said she’d be here in ten minutes…” Luz looked up at the clock on the precinct’s wall. “Nine minutes ago.”

Wrath’s mouth worked silently for a moment as he tried to find something to say. Just as he looked like he might have found something he was interrupted by the sound of the precinct door slamming open.

“What up pigs?! Owl Lady in the hizouse!”

Almost as one every single cop spun to face the door, some of them automatically reaching for their tasers, and all but one of them also reaching to check that they still had their wallets. Wrath, on the other hand, simply stared at her, mouth agape and a new flush rising in his cheeks. “E-Edalyn! Wh-what are you doing here?!” he managed to stammer.

Either not noticing or not caring about the general atmosphere of the situation, Eda sauntered over to Luz’s side and flung an arm over her shoulder. “I’m here for Luz of course! Agreed to let her stay with me for a while to help out a friend. What’s she in for anyway?” Not waiting for an answer she turned to Luz. “Did they take your mugshot yet? If they did I can get you a copy. Always nice to get a souvenir of your first time.”

Eda’s focus on Luz, momentary though it was, did end up giving Wrath the moment he needed to recover and take part in the conversation. “Your… ward here is in for truancy. She should be in school right now! We will need to confirm that she is currently enrolled and set things up to make sure she is actually going to school. She needs to make friends her age, maybe get a boyfriend.” Wrath did his best to try and place a hand on Eda’s in what Luz could only assume was supposed to be a reassuring way. “Maybe we could take this elsewhere and-”

“Don’t you worry your cute little head about that Wrath,” Eda said as she maneuvered her hand away from Wrath’s and patted his cheek. “The kid’s documentation just got delayed in the mail so I haven't been able to get her signed up. Once it all gets here I’ll get her all set up and make sure she goes. Scouts honor!”

In the background Luz could hear several disbelieving murmurs about the legitimacy of Eda’s ‘scout’s honor’.

“So if that’s all I think we’re done here.” Not waiting for an answer Eda started leading Luz towards the door. “Nice seeing you all but I gotta get going!”

Luz could practically feel the sigh of relief behind her as Eda led her out the door of the police station. “Eda, what the heck was that all about?”

“I may have a bit or a reputation,” she replied with a grin. “Oh, one sec.” She pushed the door back open. “Hey Frank! You dropped your wallet! You really should keep a better eye on things!”

Luz watched in morbid fascination as one of the cops cursed and ran over to grab his wallet from Eda. Wasting no time he immediately opened it and began counting and recounting the money and cards that were there.

Her grin even larger now Eda maneuvered Luz down the steps of the station onto the sidewalk. “I rearranged his credit cards and actually added a dollar this time. It’s gonna drive him crazy before he realizes I didn’t take anything!” she whispered conspiratorially before breaking into a cackle that lasted the entire way back to her car.

Luz, however, had other things on her mind than Eda’s petty victory over the police. “Hey Eda. Am I really going to be going to human school?”

“What are you… Oh! Yeah, that thing with the documents and signing you up for school! Well, the documents thing wasn’t actually a lie. I got in touch with an old friend of mine and got him to get me a birth certificate and social security card that would pass inspection just in case you ever needed it. Unfortunately, he lives out in the middle of nowhere and the mail always takes forever out there. As for the school thing? Don’t worry. Wrath’ll cool down in a few more days so long as you don’t humiliate him as the Wild Witch too often. Give me a few days and I’m sure I can get some stuff together to fake some sort of homeschooled crap and you’ll never have to worry about twitchy cops pulling you in for truancy ever again without actually needing to deal with school.”

“Ah, right. Uh, thanks for that. I guess,” Luz said with forced nonchalance. Unfortunately Eda had come to recognize Luz’s poor moods quite easily over the last week.

“You, uh, were you looking forward to going to school?”

Luz was silent for a while, trying her best to get her thoughts in order. “I don’t know. Back home on the Boiling Isles I never really had a chance to go to school. The Emperor's Coven started to really crack down on wild witches when I was five, some wild witch managed to get a shot in on the Speaker and almost killed him. Tighter restrictions on what it meant to mix magic, more random checks to make sure people still had their coven brands. At first it seemed like it would all be fine. But then the restrictions on healing magic were strengthened and suddenly mom wasn’t allowed to cast some of her spells. They were too close to oracle magic and had been reclassified. When mom tried to talk it out they tried to arrest her. That’s when we were saved by some wild witches that were with the Underground.”

Luz turned to stare out the window, a faraway look in her eyes as she remembered her first encounter with a wild witch other than her mother. “With mom being a wanted wild witch I couldn’t go to school anymore. It was too dangerous for everyone. So then it was always either my mom or another wild witch that took care of my education. We couldn’t gather in large groups or stick around each other that often so I didn’t really get to spend time with kids my age very often or for very long. Anyone I did meet if we stuck around a town long enough outside the Underground couldn’t know too much about me in case it would tip them off that I was a wild witch. The closest I ever really got to making friends my age was reading books about kids going on adventures and stuff” Luz turned back to face Eda with a resigned smile. “I knew I couldn’t really go to a human school but when Wrath mentioned making friends it just… It brought up a lot of stuff I thought I was over.”

Eda let out a long, slow sigh before pulling off to the side of the road. “Kid, I’m not gonna sugar coat this for ya but human school sucks. It’s a bunch of boring old farts trying to fit everyone into neat little boxes and creepy losers fresh out of college trying to be ‘hip’ and relive what they think were their glory days.” She sighed again. “But even I have plenty of good memories of hanging out with friends in school, vandalizing the teacher’s cars, pranking the cheerleaders,” Eda’s fond smile became a touch more feral as she continued, “blowing up the chemistry lab.” She shook her head as she refocused on the present. “If you want to deal with all the crap then sure, I can swing getting you into school.”

“R-really?” Luz stammered, torn between joy at an old dream finally coming true, even if it was in the human realm, and fear at all the ways that things could go wrong.

“Yeah, It’ll be easier to keep you outta trouble if you’re in school anyway. Probably gonna keep you from getting all moody again too.” Eda gave Luz’s shoulder a friendly punch before pausing for a moment and tapping her chin in thought. “Might have to set up another craigslist account to set up a few more scams though. Textbooks are a scam that they just don’t let you get out of. Hopefully it isn’t as bad as what Lilly had to pay for her college textbooks.”

Eda’s contemplations shook Luz out of her spiraling fear/joy swaps as she realized that she might be able to help out somewhat. “Maybe you could sell some of my snails. You could probably claim they’re some sort of rare exotic coin or something.”

“You might be onto something kid. People are always willing to shell out a lot of cash for weird coins. You got one on ya right now?”

Luz nodded and pulled her emergency money pouch out from inside her shirt. Keeping snails in there wasn’t really all that helpful anymore since no one in the human realm would take the coins but going around without any of them had always left her feeling oddly naked. “Here you go.” Luz fished out a single one snail coin and held it out to Eda, whose eyes had gone wide.

With a shaking hand she took the coins from Luz and turned it over in her hand before turning to Luz. “What are these things made of?”

“It’s just gold, why?”

Luz would swear to her dying day that, despite Eda not having access to any magic whatsoever, her eyes had turned into dollar symbols at those words.

Despite her reservations about the plan, Eda couldn’t suppress a small smile as she watched Luz take the stairs that led from the shop to her home two stairs at a time. The kid had tried her best to hide it but the thought of actually hanging around other kids her age had meant a lot to her. Not that Eda could blame her. From the sounds of things the kid had spent most of her life on the run, training to fight against a tyrannical government that wanted her dead for not falling in line. As much as she could respect the kid’s desire to stick it to the man and be the hero that saved everyone she could also see what it had done to her.

“I’m going soft aren’t I?” she asked King as he leapt onto a nearby shelf that put him at perfect petting height. His response to her question was, as it was with any question she asked him, to just stare at her pointedly until she gave him his desired attention. Attention that she readily surrendered. “Could’a just left well enough alone. Helped her back on her feet and let go do her own thing but I had to help.” She shook her head with a chuckle. “Had to help the crazy little rebel with a bone to pick with her government that landed in a heap in front of my car.” She looked down at King, who was purring up a storm at Eda’s ministrations. “Plus she’s a real-life witch! If Lilly wasn’t working as a government spook at that environmental protection agency I’d let her know about this just to see what her reaction would be. She used to love all that magic crap when we were kids.” Unbidden her free hand drifted to her side. “Course now she’d probably get weird about it.” She shook her head to clear out the intruding memories of her sister’s near obsessive phase when it came to magic and supernatural crap. Honestly, it was for the best that she’d managed to land what had to be one of the most boring governmental jobs out there. Even if it did give her sister access to way  too much high-level crap for her to try and play overprotective older sibling with from time to time. It wasn’t that Eda didn’t trust her sister, she just also trusted that Lillith would immediately go to whatever lengths were needed to keep her 'poor defenseless little sister' safe from the ‘potentially dangerous situation’ that Luz would certainly be classified as.

Deciding that Eda had done her due diligence, King leapt down from the shelf and sauntered off to cause trouble somewhere else. Now free from kitty tyranny Eda made her way upstairs after Luz. Sure she was supposed to have her shop open right now but that was the nice thing about being the business owner and sole employee. No one to call her out on abandoning her post. When she reached the top of the stairs she saw that Luz had already booted up the computer and was following up on the things Eda had told her to look up. She might be willing to help the kid get into school but if she could push off the research bit on what kind of documentation she would need to get forged she would. Granted she would probably have to finish up any research Luz did turn up but the lion's share would be done and the kid had taken to learning Eda’s vast knowledge of google-fu like a fish to water.

Hopefully she would end up downloading fewer viruses this time though.

Of course Eda had her own homework to take care of. With a grin she pulled out the coin Luz had given her. Some questioning had led her to discover that gold didn’t have that much value back on the Boiling Isles. It was nice and shiny and made for good coins and decorations but there were enough people that could brew potions or cast spells to make the stuff that it didn’t have much actual value. Unfortunately those spells were pretty high level for minimal return and the potions required some ingredients that Eda was almost positive didn’t even exist on Earth so Luz’s supply of coins was it as far as sudden windfalls went. Of course, the girl had nearly a hundred of those coins, some of which were larger than others so it wasn’t like they were dealing with a small amount of gold.

The tests she had to run in order to check the purity of the gold were simple enough, though they did cause her to silently curse her old math teacher for being right about actually using math in the real world. A few quick searches on her phone for current gold prices and nearby places to sell, as well as some personal calculations on how best to sell the gold without triggering any alarms to bringing in the heat, allowed her to put together a conservative estimate of how much she could get for the kid’s hoard. An estimate that ended up being a very, very large number that, even with her assuming low selling prices spread out over quite a while, had her feeling lightheaded for several minutes.

“Hey Eda!”

Stifling a yelp, Eda nearly jumped out of her skin as Luz used whatever ninja magics she used to sneak into creepy government facilities to catch her unawares. Luckily for the kid, Eda had just barely managed to resist the instinct to grab the nearest heavy object and start swinging. “Don’t sneak up on me like that kid! I almost tried to clobber ya!” She shook her head and forced down an amused smile at the contrite look on the kid's face. “So what’d ya find?”

The kid’s cheer about sharing what she’d learned about what she’d need in order to start up school turned out to be infectious. Before long Eda was smiling as she nodded at the appropriate times and made the requisite noises of interest. But even as she helped Luz plan out what she’d need to cram for in order to not stick out too  much when she went to school Eda couldn’t help the darker part of her mind that worried that things might not go quite as well as the kid was hoping. However when Luz reached the end of her presentation and asked, starry-eyed and full of hope, if she thought it would all work Eda shoved that dark voice down and nodded. If nothing else she was sure that the kid’s sheer determination would get her what she wanted out of the whole thing after all.

The coven guard scowled as he tried the spell again. His minor successes earlier had bolstered his faith in the oracle spell he’d assembled out of half-remembered lessons on tracking wild witches to try and find any nearby sources of magic. Initial tests had been abject failures but had informed him of the residual magic the Rainbow Staff had left behind and he had almost considered it a total failure before he’d gotten a single, strong tug on his perception. To his disappointment it had quickly faded, but not before he had marked it down. When he finally followed in the direction that the spell had pulled him he had found nothing, even when he had traveled far enough to reach the outskirts of the city.

Further tests had gotten all manner of results. Tugs in different directions, different types of magic, all powerful enough that he would assume that they were generated by a witch of at least a coven head’s power. Each time the spell succeeded even slightly he recorded what kind of magic was sensed and the general area it seemed to come from. Eventually, he had a book full of markings with not a single answer in sight.

It wasn’t until he overheard some of the humans talking during one of his supply runs that he finally found the missing piece to the puzzle. Normally he would ignore the inane ramblings of the humans but one of them had mentioned a phrase that every member of the Emperor's Coven constantly kept their ears sharp for.

Wild Witch.

It had taken some persuading, some magical, some not, to get the humans to elaborate and eventually pull out what appeared to be some sort of human scroll to show him a video of the very same wild witch responsible for stranding him here fighting some sort of fire demon. His rage at the wild witch was soon replaced with surprise when the fire demon turned out to be a human who had lucked its way into finding one of the relics that had been in the vault.

More demands had gotten the humans to determine the time and location that the fight had occurred. While he didn’t have any recorded attempts at casting the spell for that time he did have a number of them leading up to the fight that had all felt like a powerful fire spell that pointed to the same general area as the attack. He was in such a good mood at his discovery that he didn’t even kill the humans for speaking of the wild witch as though she were a hero, and merely cast his oracle curse on them with the same warning not to speak of him to anyone lest they suffer the consequences.

With a grim satisfaction he later spread out a map of the city he had acquired from one of the human shops on a table in his hideout and pulled out his notebook of recorded spell castings. He worked long into the night, marking down where he had felt the tugs and what kind of spells had seemed to cause them. Before long the map was covered by crisscrossing lines of different colors. A chaotic maelstrom of possibilities, any one of which could be the thing that would lead him back home. Or better yet they could lead him to his revenge on that damnable wild witch that had stuck him here in the first place. Beneath his mask, his smile grew manic as he did his best to remember what kind of relics had been stored in that vault and the horrors he could wreak on his enemy if he could get his hands on them. He couldn’t wait.

Chapter Text

Confidence was a virtue that Luz liked to think she had in spades. She had faced down odds that other members of the Underground would have balked at. She had raided some of the most secure facilities on the Boiling Isles with a smile. She was regularly seen as one of the bravest, or most foolish depending on who you asked, operatives around. Yet even with that prestigious track record she still found herself near sick with worry about walking into the building before her.

Farside High School.

It was a massive edifice of stone. A square building of solid brick and concrete that had no right inspiring such fear in her. The Conformitorium was far more imposing. The Emperor’s castle a far better symbol of terror. The frozen expanses of the knee more inhospitable. Yet here she stood, unable to take another step forward, no matter how cheerful the sign out front was or the easy chatter of the students that passed by her on their way into the building.

Between her totally real and not fake at all transcripts, her distressing lack of knowledge on human school subjects that had only been slightly covered by sleepless nights of studying, and the fact that she was going to go from occasionally distant interaction with witches her age to being in a veritable ocean of humans her age had rendered her what could charitably be called a nervous wreck. Even with only four days between Eda promising to get Luz a chance at going to school and her current presence on the front steps of the august building Luz had still had more than enough time to fill her mind with horrifying what-if scenarios. What if scenarios that usually ended with her being chased out of the school or ending up on a government dissection table.

Maybe she shouldn’t have watched some of those alien invasion movies.

“Get out of the way dork!”

Luz was knocked aside as a group of humans made their way into the school. The pink-haired one that had shoved her shooting her an angry glare while some of the other girls tried to offer silent condolences and pitying glances. Rude though the encounter was, it did manage to knock her out of her nerves induced stupor. Taking one more deep breath to try and steady her nerves (it failed) she stepped through the front doors of the school.

With the momentum of her first few steps driving her forward, Luz moved past the cafeteria and into the long, empty halls to begin her search for her locker. A search that soon made her glad she had decided to come in a little early. Minutes passed as she traveled down hall after hall, her pace increasing as she continued to fail to find the ever-elusive locker 251. Finding locker 199 had turned out to be easy enough but every locker close to that was still in the hundreds, eventually Luz was almost running down the halls as her panic began to reach critical mass.

“Are you okay?”

Luz froze at the sudden question. Up until now she hadn’t seen many other students in the halls and the few she had seen had seemed too busy to help her. Or they had been that pink-haired girl and her friends and Luz had a feeling asking them anything wasn’t going to be very helpful. Quickly schooling the manic expression she’d almost certainly been sporting while looking for her locker, Luz turned to see a stocky girl with cheek length dark hair peering at her through round-rimmed glasses “Sure! Sure! I’m perfectly fine! Just… looking for my locker, nothing to worry about, I’m sure I’ll find it eventually! Nothing to worry about!” Her hasty denials quickly fell into a weak chuckle as she tried to look anywhere but at the girl that had come to her aid.

“Of course,” the girls replied, obviously not believing Luz for a second. “Well, maybe I can help make that search go by a little faster. What locker are you looking for?”

After a few seconds of the girl patiently staring her down, Luz gave in. Shoulders slumped and she looked down at the ground as she muttered, “251.”

“Well your first problem is that you’re on the wrong floor,” the girl said, a twinkle of mirth in her eye. “The 200 lockers and rooms are all on the second floor.”

“There’s a second floor?” Luz asked after a second before immediately regretting opening her mouth.

“Yes, there is. I’m not surprised you couldn’t find the stairs though, All the stairs aside from the ones next to the cafeteria are behind doors or tucked away in corners away from the lockers and I doubt you were going too close to the cafeteria or going into those corners if you were looking for lockers.” She started moving down the hall before pausing and waving for Luz to follow her. “Come on.”

Not having any other choice and tentatively hopeful that she might be able to salvage a semi-normal conversation with someone her age for the first time in months, Luz followed after the mystery girl. True to her word there was a set of stairs behind a set of double doors leading to a second floor. “I’m, uh, Luz, by the way.”

“Nice to meet you Luz. I’m Willow,” Willow said with a small nod. “Is today your first day here?”

“Yeah. I’ve never been in a school this big before.” Or in a school at all , Luz silently added. “I guess I should have known there was a second floor.”

“That’s okay. Lots of freshmen get lost on their first days. Could I see your class schedule?”

“Sure!”

Willow hummed as she took the proffered piece of paper from Luz and looked it over. “Looks like most of your classes are on the first floor, so you might want to take books for several classes with you in the morning.” She pointed at Luz’s first class. “I have English with Mrs. Post first period too so I can make sure you get there first. My second period is also pretty close to yours so I can get you there without going too far out of my way. My third period is on the other side of the school though so you’ll have to settle for directions to the rest of them until lunch.”

Luz stopped walking, unable to do anything but stare in shock at Willow. Shaking her head to clear her mind she hurried to catch back up with WIllow. “You don’t have to do all that for me! I’m sure I can figure out most of these on my own!”

“It’s okay, really,” Willow assured her. “Besides, Mrs. Post is a real stickler for being on time. I wouldn’t want you to have to spend the first five minutes of your first class here getting chewed out for being late. Now come on, I’ll show you a little trick to keep your locker from sticking. The school has been putting off replacing them for years and they can be a little tricky to deal with.”

Luz didn’t bother holding back her smile as she followed Willow. For all her nerves things certainly were looking up.

English turned out to be a really easy class. Luz’s hobby of reading in the rare free moments she had during missions had honed her speed reading and comprehension skills to a razor’s edge. Poetry analysis was a new skill to her, but Mrs. Post had seemed happy enough with Luz’s contributions. Even calling a number of her interpretations of the poem novel ways of looking at it.

“So after you finish with Math, your chemistry class will be on the first floor. If you go down the staircase at the end of the hall to the right when you leave math you’ll be in the right hall. After that you should be able to find it easily,” Willow explained as they walked towards their next classes.

Luz nodded furiously as she committed the directions to memory. She only had so much focus to spare though so as they turned a corner she ran right into a person that had been standing there, sending them sprawling to the ground. “I’m so sorry!” Luz frantically apologized as she reached out to help the girl to her feet.

Her attempt to help was met by an unimpressed golden-eyed gaze. “It’s fine,” the girl replied as she brushed Luz’s hand aside. “Just watch where you’re going next time.” Her impressive glare continued as she pushed a lock of green-tipped brown hair back behind her ear and pushed herself up. Upon standing back up she seemed about to say something but froze as her gaze landed on Luz’s traveling companion.

“Willow.”

“Amity.”

Luz’s gaze twitched between the two girls, unsure what to do in regards to the growing tension in the air. It was honestly starting to put her on edge, the last time she’d felt tension like this was back when Francis had been forced to share a safe house with…

“Are you two exes?” Luz asked as her brain-to-mouth filter failed her utterly. Her eyes widened as the two girls stared at her in open-mouthed shock. “Sorry! I just meant to think that because you two were acting like an acquaintance of mine did when he had to share a house with his ex-husband for a while and they were looking at each other the same way you two were all the time so I just thought it might be something similar and now I’m rambling and I really need to shut up why can’t I shut-” Luz slapped her hands over her mouth in an attempt to dam the ceaseless stream of words pouring forth and end her embarrassment. She was sure that by now roughly all the blood in her body was now in her face and could only hope that the lack of blood elsewhere in her body would just kill her and end her suffering then and there.

Thankfully, while the titan didn’t just smite her then and there like she deserved and erase her horrendous blunder from history, both of the girls had finally stopped staring at her and, instead of yelling at and/or killing her for her question, had started laughing. Not trusting herself to open her mouth again Luz opted to hug the wall and ride out the sudden hysterics. After nearly a good minute of laughter that had left the two girls leaning against the lockers and clutching their sides, they finally managed to calm down. Wiping tears from their eyes they turned their attention to Luz, small smiles on both their faces.

“No,” Willow started. “We aren’t exes. Though I’m sure her mom would be pleased if we did end up dating.”

“I know right?” Amity replied before taking on a haughty tone that Luz assumed was supposed to emulate her mom. “Thank goodness you finally found a girlfriend Amity, now come with me to all my press conferences for the next year so I can show off my gay daughter and convince all the liberals to vote for me in the next election. Oh, and it’s that girl that has the gay dads? Even better! Make sure they come along too. I’m sure they’ve forgiven me for insulting them and forcing you to stop being friends with their daughter back when gays were bad optics.” Amity’s lingering smile grew rueful as she finished the, most likely, unflattering impression of her mother. The smile faded completely when she sighed and pulled a slip of paper out of her pocket. “Speaking of, my mother would like me to, and I quote: try to get back on that Park girl’s good side again. My campaign advisors assure me that the potential gains from the liberals for being on good terms with,” Amity paused in reading the note to make finger quotes, “‘the gays’, and sympathizers will more than offset the losses from the further right conservatives.” Finished reading she crumpled up the paper and threw it away. “So, yeah. Mom’s still being mom. Now I can honestly say I tried, for a given value of tried, and she should leave me alone for a couple of months until she remembers you exist again. Sorry for bothering you with her idiocy.” Apologies given, she started to turn to leave.

Willow, however, was having none of that. “Amity, I keep telling you that you don’t have to keep pushing me away like this. All you’re doing is letting your mom control you in a different way.”

This caused Amity to pause in walking away for a moment before she shook her head. “I know that. But at least this way it’s just me having to deal with it.” Squaring her shoulders she continued to walk away, her entire body tense and her steps hurried, until she turned the corner and was gone.

“Ummm, I’m sorry if I-” Luz started before Willow waved away her apology.

“No, it’s not your fault.” She turned to Luz with a sad smile. “If anything I should be thanking you. It’s been years since I was able to laugh like that with Amity. It was nice to be able to do that again.”

“Soooo, if you don’t mind me asking…”

Willow chuckled and shook her head. “That story would take a little too long to tell right now. We still need to get you to math.” She glanced at a nearby clock and grimaced. “And we’re gonna have to run if you want to make it in time. Let’s go!”

While not easy, math turned out to not be the nightmare that Eda had tried to convince Luz it was. It certainly helped that a lot of the more physical fields of magic tended to use a good deal of math. It still wasn’t on par with this pre-calculus stuff but at the very least Luz was able to keep up so long as she paid attention. After that came chemistry, another class that she’d been able to draw on past experiences with. While it lacked a lot of the more esoteric relations between things that potion making used it still followed the same concepts, just explained and explored in far greater detail.

All in all the classes managed to do an admirable job distracting Luz from the story she so dearly wished to hear from Willow. Of course, once lunch started all bets were off. It took some time to find Willow in the packed cafeteria but Luz eventually managed to find her sitting at the end of a table across from a smaller dark skinned and haired boy who was excitedly showing her something on his phone. “Hey Willow, uh, you don’t mind if I sit here do you?”

“Oh, Luz! I was just about to tell Gus about you.” She turned an exasperated but fond smile to the boy. “At least I was before he started bombarding me with his latest Wild Witch theories. Luz, this is my friend Augustus Porter, or just Gus. Gus, this is Luz Noceda. She’s a new student here and I’ve been helping show her around today.”

“Cool! Like Willow said I’m Gus,” Gus said as he held out his hand.

“Uh, right,” Luz said as her eyes flicked to Gus’s phone before shaking his hand. “I’m Luz, nice to meet you.”

“So have you decided if you’re going to do any extracurriculars? The Paranormal Investigations Club is always looking for new members!” He paused for a moment and his expression darkened slightly. “At least members that aren’t Mattholomule.” Just as quickly as it had darkened his expression brightened again. “Maybe you could replace him as a member! He keeps bringing in junk and trying to convince the other members it’s real stuff. If I have to listen to him talk about how some random shiny rock is actually some sort of fairy stone I’m going to lose it.”

“I’ll, uh, I’ll think about it,” Luz replied before sitting down.

“Cool, cool.” Gus nodded. “Seriously though, no pressure. There’s plenty of other cool extracurriculars out there.” He pointed at Willow. “Willow is always looking for more people to help her with the gardening club. They even got a couple of those small greenhouses so they can keep doing stuff during the winter.”

“I think Luz is going to need a little more time to get used to things here before she starts looking around for more things to do,” Willow chided him gently.

“Oh yeah! How’re you liking it here at Farside High so far? Better or worse than your last school?”

“It’s actually my first time going to school,” Luz admitted as she launched into the, mostly true, cover story she’d come up with with Eda’s help. “My mom was always traveling while I was younger so she just homeschooled me or got tutors to do it for her. I was probably going to keep doing that but a friend of my mom’s was able to get me in here when I said I wanted to at least try going to school for once in my life.”

“That’s so cool! Man, I bet this must all be really weird for you then. I hope you have a good time here though. School can be pretty fun sometimes, at least if you can avoid the drama and the random jerks.”

Luz nodded as Gus’s words reminded her of the question she’d been hoping to ask when she got into the cafeteria. “So, uh, Willow, if it isn’t too much to ask…”

Willow laughed and shook her head. “It isn’t.” At Gus’s questioning look she just mouthed ‘Amity’ at him and he nodded in understanding. “Amity and I were friends when we were little kids. Her mom was, and still is, the mayor and is always doing all sorts of high-profile events to try and keep people happy with her. One of them was this reading to the children thing at the library where she had her older kids, Edric and Emira, read to younger kids at the library. Amity and I ended up wandering off from the event and reading a book on our own. Her mom was ecstatic with the whole thing since she could talk about how sweet and smart her daughter was but we just liked spending time together.

“For a couple years we were inseparable at school and would meet up outside of school all the time, sometimes when her mom wanted to do something that looked good to the voters but usually Amity would come to my house or I would go to hers. Whenever I was picked up or dropped off it always ended up being the same one of my dads,” she paused for a second. “Oh, I have two dads. That’s not a big deal for you is it?”

“No? Why would it be?” Luz asked, genuinely perplexed.

Willow let out a sad chuckle and shook her head. “If only everyone thought like that. Anyway! Since my other dad was usually busy he never really met Amity’s parents and they never really asked much about my home life. Her mom’s interest in my dad that always picked me up started and ended with the fact that he was a self-employed small business owner and that she could try to campaign in that direction through him by claiming a close relationship with a small business owner.

“But then one day he was busy dealing with a client and my other dad had to come pick me up. When Mrs. Blight asked who he was and why he was picking me up instead he just said he was my dad. She was really confused for a second and said she thought that my other dad was my only dad. Once she figured out what they were getting at though she wasn’t happy. Same-sex marriage was a big hot button thing then because of Proposition 8 and she decided that letting her family associate with anyone that close to the issue ran too many risks for her re-election. After that she didn’t let Amity see me anymore.

“Of course once the Supreme Court mandated that same-sex marriages were legal in all states she started to change her tune.” Willow chuckled with a vicious smile. “It was so  nice to see my dads tear into her when she remembered we existed and wanted to rekindle my and Amity’s friendship. She obviously just wanted to get in on being on the ‘right’ side of the issue and be able to parade around the fact that her daughter had a friend with gay parents and how they were such good parents to a wonderful daughter.” Willow turned to look across the cafeteria, her gaze stopping where Amity was sitting with, but pointedly ignoring, a group of other students, including that rude pink-haired girl from that morning. “It wasn’t until high school that I realized that none of that was Amity’s fault and that I shouldn’t let what her mom did ruin what had been a really fun friendship. She keeps pushing me away now though because she doesn’t want me to have to deal with her mom’s manipulations.” Willow leaned back in her seat and turned her attention back to her lunch, poking a chunk of what appeared to be meat with a plastic fork. “And that’s it. The big story of Amity Blight. What do you- Luz, are you crying?”

“N-No!” Luz said as she hastily turned away to wipe the tears from her eyes. Internally though she was comparing Willow’s story to the Malin and Hecate subplot in Teen Witch Azura  and swearing that she would get those two friends back together if it was the last thing she did.

Luz’s unfortunate lack of afternoon classes with Willow turned out to be a minor speed bump in her plans to help out her new friend, and she was sure  they were friends now. They had to be! Willow had even shared a tragic backstory with her! She did have one class with Amity, Intro to 3-D art, but had been too busy learning how to use a soldering iron to try and strike up a conversation with the aloof girl.

Eventually the school day ended and Luz was free to try and hunt down her new friend. Remembering Gus mentioning Willow’s work at the gardening club Luz began circling the school in hopes of finding the greenhouses he had mentioned. Despite the size of the school it was a surprisingly easy affair to circle around it and find them. Better yet she could make out the shapes of two people inside the nearest one.

Hopes that she might be able to wait outside for whoever was inside to finish began to dwindle as soon as she got close enough to make out the fact that the conversation taking place in there was decidedly  not  friendly. The already tense conversation seemed to take a turn for the worse as one of the shapes knocked a pot off a shelf where it shattered with a sharp crack. Not wanting to take any risks if it really was Willow in there and potentially in danger Luz rushed to the entrance of the greenhouse.

“No! No! I can fix this! It’s okay!” came a panicked voice.

“How are you going to fix this?! Amelia just barely managed to save that one!” Willow’s own angry shout replied.

“Just watch! I can fix this! It’s going to be okay!.”

Luz threw back the plastic flap to the greenhouse in time to see a small sleazy looking boy holding a gloved hand out to a shattered pot and the partially crushed plant that lay in the wreckage. A hand clad in a glove that was enveloped in an emerald light that caused the plant he was reaching towards to grow at an astonishing rate.

Along with every other plant in the greenhouse.

Luz didn’t waste any time questioning things or slipping away to avoid notice, instead immediately summoning her witch attire. While the particular artifact wasn’t familiar to her, it had been a large vault after all, its effects were easy to see. “Take off the glove!” she shouted as she leveled her staff, aglow with magical energies, at the boy.

The boy spun to face her, shock and recognition plain on his face. “No! You can’t take this from me! It’s mine! I haven’t done anything wrong!”

The glove’s glow redoubled in response to his shout and the nearby plant’s growth rate exploded. What had been mere weeks of natural growth in seconds accelerated to the impossible. Pots shattered and plastic tore as roots dug deep into the ground and branches flailed out blindly.

Luz immediately took to the air, not wanting to be on the receiving end of what looked comparable to the sorts of spells she’d only ever highly skilled plant spellcasters throw out. Worries about Willow being in danger were assuaged when she noticed that the growth was directed outward, rendering both her and the boy safe from the assault. Ducking between razor-sharp leaves and thorny branches she did her best to gain distance from the rapidly growing plants. It quickly became clear that staying close to the ground, while good for not drawing too much attention, was going to become infeasible far too soon. However, her attempts to gain more height were stymied by an ever-growing canopy of antagonistic plantlife. Dodging under another branch bought her enough time to throw together a poorly layered series of fire spells that lanced out, cutting through the foliage and leaving many branches bare and smoking.

Not wanting to wait for another chance Luz shot through the new opening, branches clutched at her cloak and left behind painful scratches wherever they could find skin but she managed to break free and gain the distance she needed.

“Don’t let her get away!”

Luz cursed as the plants redoubled their efforts to capture her, twisting together into a chimeric tree-like monstrosity that lifted the remains of the greenhouse into the air, cradled in a nest of branches. The pulsing green glow of the glove making it almost look like the thing’s heart. The boy at the center of it cackled madly as he held up his gloved hand. “Yes! I can feel it! We can stop her! She won’t take you away from me!”

“Of course it drives people crazy,” Luz muttered to herself. She really should have seen that one coming. Half the things that were in the vault were there because the side effects outweighed the, often considerable, benefits they conferred. She could only hope that Willow was still alright in there. With her opponent’s focus on her, they likely didn’t consider Willow enough of a threat to have to deal with. Of course, that didn’t mean Luz could just leave her there.

Dropping into a dive aimed at a potential weak spot in the tree Luz started preparing more spells. The fire had worked well enough on the smaller parts but the thicker branches had survived largely unscathed. This time she created several razor-sharp blades of wind and sent them spinning around herself. Leaves and branches were sheared from the greater tree and shredded into mulch as she bobbed and wove her way to the glowing heart of the tree. Branches were dodged by the barest of margins, several of them catching on her cloak and hood for a moment before they slipped off the magically smooth material.

She muttered a quick apology to Willow for what she was about to do and sent a pair of the wind blades forward to shear off the roof of the greenhouse, finally giving her a glimpse inside. The boy with the glove was standing in the center of the greenhouse and Luz could see tendrils reaching up from the tree and circling around his legs, slowly growing upwards along him. Further back Willow’s arms and legs had been bound together with a couple of vines. The few plants that hadn’t been subsumed by the tree and numerous pots and gardening tools lay scattered all over the remains of the greenhouse.

“You need to stop using that thing! It’s driving you crazy!” Luz shouted as she sent another pair of her remaining wind blades shooting forward in the boy’s direction. They just barely missed him before continuing on further into the greenhouse.

“No! People are finally going to listen to me! I’m going to have all the respect! All the power! This time people will beg to be my  friend!”

Leaping off her staff, Luz spun it to create a new spell circle, pouring her power into it. As soon as she hit the ground she slammed the butt of her staff into the tree, sending a wave of bitter cold through its trunk. Sharp cracks began to echo around her as the tree sap flash froze, shattering entire sections of the arboreal abomination. For one brief moment Luz thought she had done it.

“I won’t let you do this!” the boy roared and the tree roared with him.

With a blinding flash, the shattered sections of the tree began to shift and regrow, new branches growing up all throughout the clearing. Taking to the air once more Luz did her best to escape but the entrance she had cut out had long since been closed off and the new growth’s thickened bark managed to turn aside any strikes made by her remaining blades of air. Each attempt to dodge only put her in the path of another attack. Each successful attack managing to come closer and closer. In a  final desperate bid, she sent a wave of fire cascading out towards the boy, hoping to distract him enough that he might lose control of the plant but it was blocked by a thick wall of branches.

“You thought you could take away the glove like you took the crown away from that bank robber. But now I’m the one that’s going to take your magic away,” the boy gloated as Luz was finally caught in the branches. His own body cradled in an almost loving embrace by thick branches that completely engulfed his legs and were now curling up his waist. “That staff can do so much. It deserves to be with someone that can use it better. It deserves to be with-”

A resounding clang echoed throughout the area as the boy collapsed into the grip of the branches that had partially enveloped him. Behind him stood Willow, holding a metal bucket that sported a brand new head-shaped dent. “Oh dear, I hope I didn’t do any permanent damage.”

“Willow!” Luz shouted. Glad that her earlier gamble with wind blades she’d had miss the boy and instead free WIllow had paid off, albeit not in a way she’d expected. “You need to get the glove off of him! It’s what’s controlling the tree!”

Willow paused for a moment before composing herself in the face of the absurdity of the situation she was in and yanking the glove of the boy’s hand. Her triumphant smile quickly faded as she saw that the tree hadn’t stopped. “What do I do now?! It’s still growing!”

“I. Noticed,” Luz grunted as the branches continued to snake their way up her body, squeezing ever tighter and causing her bones to creak. “Just run! I can take care of myself!”

“No,” Willow whispered.

“What? Why aren’t you leaving?! You need to-”

“I said no! I’m not leaving you here to die! Not after you tried so hard to save me!” Willow looked down at the glove, her eyes resolute.

“Don’t put it on! You don’t know what it will do!”

“I don’t. But it might save you. And I can’t just leave you to die,” Willow replied as she put on the glove. Her eyes scrunched up as the power flooded into her. Once more blinding emerald light enveloped the area. The branches around Willow began to rise up to cradle the new bearer of the glove before freezing. “Stop.” Willow’s voice echoed with power as she commanded the plantlife. “You will do what I  want.” Her eyes opened to reveal they were glowing with the glove’s magic as she brought up her gloved hand, ablaze with power. “And I want you to stop .” She brought her hand down as her command resonated through the area. The tree groaned and creaked, seeming to almost scream as it began to dwindle. Sweat beaded on Willow’s forehead as she forced the plants to revert to a still oversized and twisted monstrosity but one that was much more manageable and still shrinking. Her willpower expended Willow collapsed to the ground, the emerald glow lessening from blindingly bright to a dull glow,

“Willow!” Luz ran to her friend’s side and pulled the glove free from her hand. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine. Just had to show those plants who’s boss. I always knew plants were jerks but that was something else.” Willow turned to look at Luz. “You should probably get out of here.” She nodded to the still dwindling walls of branches that were now thinning enough to show the small crowd of people that were watching, and recording on their phones, from a rather unsafe distance.

“Right.” Luz nodded and summoned her staff back to her hand. “And, uh, thanks for helping.”

“No problem Wild Witch.”

Luz smiled behind her mask at that and took to the air. She chuckled to herself as a sudden thought struck her in her search for a secluded enough spot to change back to her civilian guise. “And Eda said school would be boring.”

Lilith rubbed her temples as misinformation gave their report on how the tree incident was being handled. She could only count her lucky stars that there hadn’t been that many kids at school and most of them had only managed to record a video that made a modern action movie’s camera work seem steady. The few videos of high enough quality were dealt with the same way all other such videos were, though the thankfully crossover between comments on them led to a solid echo chamber as people referenced comments on other videos as to why that one was fake too.

With a sigh she signed off on misinformation’s report and moved her attention to the next item on the list: the police interviews with the two children at the center of the event. The boy, Mattholomule’s report was rather straightforward. He found the item over a week ago but didn’t realize what it was until recently. A glove that could induce accelerated growth in plants. He had intended to show it off at a school club meeting to impress everyone and had attempted to get a sufficiently ‘cool’ plant from the gardening club to ensure his plan’s success. From there things had escalated into the recorded event. He didn’t know anything about the Wild Witch. He didn't know about any other relics. A complete dead end.

The girl’s interview was much more interesting. Much of Willow’s report matched the first one in terms of describing the incident but she had paused when asked about the Wild Witch. When pressed further she had been evasive. The officer conducting the interview hadn’t pressed too hard, likely due to some lingering feelings of thanks towards the Wild Witch for her intervention at the bank as well as the complete lack of vigilante actions taken since then. It was possible it was nothing but any lead was more than they’d had this morning. Placing the girl under surveillance wouldn’t be feasible at the moment due to lack of manpower but getting some of the techs from misinformation to keep an eye on her social media accounts would be doable. It could lead to nothing but people did have a tendency to put all sorts of clues in their posts without realizing it.

And they needed  leads on the Wild Witch. Current estimates put her at possessing at least three different artifacts now. Likely more given the directed nature of the confirmed artifacts and the diverse abilities she’s shown so far. The kid looked  like they were a good guy but that didn’t excuse the fact that she was gathering a lot of power. Power that she knew could very easily result in long-lasting damages no matter how well-intentioned the wielder was.

She was just finishing up drafting the request for misinformation to try to assign someone to the project or, more likely, just set some bot to trawl Willow’s social media, when she finally noticed the time. “Fffffffff-” her curse fizzled out into a tired sigh as she pulled out her cell phone. No missed calls but that was nothing new. “Might as well get it over with now,” she muttered as she pulled up her contacts and scrolled down to her sister’s name.

“Lilly! I was starting to think you would never call! And to think mom and dad were always so proud of how punctual you were!”

“I’m sorry Eda. Some things came up and I only now realized what time it is. I don’t suppose you went to the appointment anyway did you?”

“Ha! And have another quack poke at me for a couple hours before saying the same thing as all the others? Nah, I got better things to do.”

“Eda, you really should have gone. Dr. Roth is a very skilled neurologist and-”

“And so were the last dozen you got me to see. It’s fine. He won’t figure out anything new because they never figure out anything new.”

Lilith loudly sighed into the phone’s receiver to make sure her sister knew just how exasperated she was. “I suppose I will have to offer him my apologies. I’d attempt to reschedule but I believe that it would be pointless unless I was there to drag you to see him.”

“You got that right Lilly!”

“And we know how well that would go.” Lilith shuddered as she remembered the event that had led to them being banned from Dr. Saresh’s offices. “Well if you can take some time off from your ‘fully legitimate’ business endeavors sometime soon maybe we could meet for dinner. I won’t be needing to travel around any time in the near future and it has been a while since we talked in person.”

“I gotcha. Finally getting a break from capping people for the government eh?”

“Yes, Eda. I’m taking a break from the cutthroat world of environmental analysis to stick around town. I’ll still have plenty of work to do with our findings but I think I can spare an evening for my favorite sister. Maybe bring back Fu Friday?”

There was silence on the other end of the line for a few moments before Eda finally replied. “Yeah, haven’t gotten takeout from Fu’s in ages. I place the order and you pick it up?”

“Sounds good. I’ll see you on Friday.”

“Yeah, see you then. Love ya sis.”

“I love you too Eda.” Lillith hung up with a fond smile. It really had been too long since she’d spent time with her sister. It would also be nice to spend an evening forgetting about her job for once.

Chapter Text

It was with no small amount of trepidations that Luz went to school the next day. Countless scenarios and self-recriminations ran through her mind as she walked her commute. What if someone recognized her? The police had never seen her before so there wasn’t any chance that they would know who she was during her first outing as the Wild Witch but she had been around the other students all day. Any one of them could have recognized her. Willow especially was a concern, having spent so much time with her before showing up as the Wild Witch. Then there was the fact that Luz had referred to Willow by name, something that had surely tipped the girl off! She should have just called her girl or something! Maybe used some sort of spell to change her voice so it wasn’t recognizable too. Would Willow still be willing to be her friend if she did realize the truth? Would Luz have to erase her memories of what had happened?

By the time Luz actually reached the school she was one misplaced word away from a full-on nervous breakdown. Something that was not helped in the slightest when a familiar voice called out to her from a blind spot.

“Good morning Luz!”

Luz nearly jumped out of her skin at the sudden greeting. A jump that turned into an uncoordinated sprawl forward that sent her tumbling to the ground.

“Oh no, are you alright? I didn’t mean to startle you!” Willow said as she rushed forward to help luz back to her feet.

Taking the proferred hand Luz let herself be pulled to her feet, “Yeah, I’m good. I’m good. Just… nerves! Yeah, nerves about my second day of school! Because it’s my second day ever going to school”

Willow nodded in sympathy. “I know what you mean, the first couple of days back are bad enough when you’re used to school. I can’t imagine how bad it might be for you.”

Luz was about to reply when a new voice caught her attention.

“Willow! Willow! I heard you got saved by the Wild Witch!” Gus shouted as he sprinted up the sidewalk towards them. “I tried to call you yesterday but your phone was dead and then it was too late to talk and my dad took my phone away from me but now you gotta tell me what she was like!”

Gus was all but vibrating where he stood as Willow held up a placating hand. “I don’t think I can really tell you very much,” she said apologetically. “I spent most of the time tied up in some vines and she stayed out of reach for the most part. She did seem like a very nice person though.”

“But did you get to see her use magic? It was magic right? Not just some tricks? I know everyone online is saying that it was all just a hoax or someone doing some sort of sleight of hand tricks but it has to be real!”

Willow paused for a second before nodding. “Yeah. It was real magic.” She looked down, considering her words for a moment. “She was able to create fire, and cut things with the wind, and was even able to flash freeze parts of the plant.” The hand that she had worn the glove on clenched as she glanced down at it. “Promise me you won’t repeat any of this to anyone, okay?”

Recognizing the solemnity of the moment Gus gave a sharp nod and mimed pulling a zipper across his lips. “I promise.” Of course he managed to spoil the moment immediately after by dropping all seriousness and bouncing up and down, visibly holding himself back from grabbing her by the shoulders. “Now tell me tell me tell me tell me!”

“Near the end I used the thing that created the plant monster. Matthoumule found a glove that could control plants and make them grow the way he wanted and used it to fight the Wild Witch. At the end the plant grabbed her so I knocked out Mathoumule with a bucket and grabbed the glove.” She clenched and unclenched her hand, her eyes distant as she remembered the feeling of using the glove. “And I used it to save her. It was… it was amazing. Feeling all the plants around me, feeling what they were… thinking isn’t the right word but it’s the closest there is.” She frowned. “Turns out plants are assholes. I mean I already knew that. You can’t learn much about plants without figuring that out. Every single plant out there is always working to screw over the competition in any way they can but it’s another thing to know  it, feel it. After I helped get her free she took the glove with her and flew off. I hope she’s still alright though.” She paused once more, choosing her next words carefully. “It was really brave of her to save me and I hope she knows how thankful I am.”

“That’s amazing,” Gus breathed. “I’m gonna say sorry right now because I am going to be asking way too many questions about all of this for the rest of the day. If I go overboard just tell me, okay? I can take it.”
Willow nodded with a laugh “Don’t worry. I think I can handle telling you when you’re being an idiot. Now let’s get to class. I don’t want to end up being late when everyone mobs me to ask the same questions you were.”

To Luz’s surprise the rest of the day went more or less as smoothly as her first day had, sans fight against a giant plant monster of course. Sure there were plenty of times that people came up to Willow to ask her about what had happened yesterday. A stream that eventually trickled off after one person nearly caused her to be late to class, then had the audacity to try again during the next passing period. Willow simply grabbed hold of the wrist of the hand they were using to try and keep her from leaving and politely explained that she wasn’t going to answer any more questions, all while Luz could swear she heard the boy’s bones creaking under Willow’s grip. She made a mental note to make that if she ever ended up making Willow angry she would make sure to stay out of reach as the boy all but sprinted away, cradling his wrist while Willow smiled serenely.

After that first day things moved on in a way that Luz could only describe as normal. The questions about what had happened on Monday had tapered off by the end of Tuesday as the rest of the student body either lost interest, realized that they weren’t going to be getting anything else out of Willow, or just got caught up on things via rumor and gossip. Her classes had continued without issue as she learned both more about her various subjects but also more about how  to learn and act in classes at school. Her only real issue with her time at school had been her relative lack of progress with her plan to reunite Amity and Willow as the friends they were destined to be.

That said, she somewhat preferred her general lack of progress compared to what happened on Wednesday after school.

Luz’s eyes were narrowed in determination as she shadowed Amity from a safe distance after school once more. She hadn’t expected to use her well-honed skills in stealth while at school but was willing to use every weapon in her arsenal to try and get Willow and Amity back together. She smirked as she called on the skills that had seen her through countless heists and extraction missions, skills that were likely greater than any ten kids her age combined. It was too bad that she failed to take two very important things into account: that much of her stealth experience included extensive use of magic, and that there was a significant difference between sneaking around a bored coven guard that just wanted their shift to end, no matter how stringent their oaths, and a paranoid teenager that was used to dealing with an overbearing parent.

So when Amity turned a corner and Luz went to follow her it was with full confidence that her target was still unaware of her tail and that there was nothing to worry about. A confidence that was shattered when immediately upon peeking around the corner, Amity grabbed Luz’s shirt, spun her around, and slammed her into a locker.

“Why have you been following me?”

A shiver went down Luz’s spine as she found herself staring into a pair of furious golden eyes mere inches from her face. Under such scrutiny she answered in the only way she could. By babbling the truth. “I was just trying to learn about you!”

Amity blinked in confusion for a second before letting up on the pressure she was applying ever so slightly. “Of course you’re a stalker. Why are the cute ones always such freaks?”

It took a moment for Luz to process what had been said, but the moment everything clicked her face turned a brilliant scarlet. “Not like that! I wanted to learn more about you so I could try and get you and WIllow to be friends again! I wasn’t stalking you! I mean, I guess I was but not like that!”

Amity blinked in confusion as she cocked her head to the side. Confusion evident on her face as she regarded Luz in a new light. Ever so slightly her grip on Luz’s shirt loosened and the pressure shoving her against the locker was lessened. “Seriously? All this just to try to get me and Willow to be friends again?” Her eyes narrowed in suspicion and the pressure redoubled. “Try again. No one would do that for someone they just met.”

“I’m telling the truth! It’s just like in Teen Witch Azura where Malin and Hecate met after years of being apart and they looked like they hated each other but they both just really wanted to be friends again and didn’t know how to properly communicate that to each other!”

“You’re trying to get us back together because it would be like a book you read,” Amity asked incredulously, easing up on Luz once more and no longer keeping her held in place against the locker.

“Yes? That’s not weird, or stupid, or anything is it?” Luz asked, doing her best not to stare at Amity’s far too close face. Silence reigned as Luz’s eyes kept flicking between the floor and Amity’s dumbstruck expression.

Suddenly a glint of mischief entered Amity’s eyes and she smirked. “So you’re playing friend maker then? Playing the part of Azura?” She pressed a finger underneath Luz’s chin to force their eyes to meet and leaned even closer in towards Luz, her smirk growing with every word. “That would make me Hecate, right? Care to remind me what Azura and Hecate’s relationship was at the end of the series again?”

Luz felt like she was going to overheat as Amity’s smile grew in tandem with Luz’s blush. “I-I-I need to go!” She stammered out before slipping out of Amity’s loosened grip and scampering down the hall.

“Better luck next time Azura!” Amity called after her.

Yeah, Luz still had to fight down the urge to blush every time she remembered that. Even worse Amity had seemed to take the entire thing as a challenge. Taking every opportunity she had to try and make Luz blush again. Willow had tried to comfort her by telling her that Amity was just messing with her and that she would get bored sooner or later. Though with the reactions Luz was giving her Willow was betting it was going to be later rather than sooner.

It was largely for that reason that Luz was so happy to leave school on Friday. One final bout of teasing from Amity and then she was finally on her way back to Eda’s place for an entire weekend to rest and recuperate. Sure there was homework that she was going to have to do and she had been planning on spending some time trying to put together another magic tracking spell now that she’d had time to clear her head, but really the main thing she was looking forward to was being able to spend a full day without turning into a tomato.

“Hey Eda, I’m back!” Luz called as she walked into the first-floor store of Eda’s house. As per usual, King was there to greet her and demand the usual toll for entering his kingdom. Her entry fee paid via vigorous head and cheek scratches, Luz wandered deeper into the shop. Eventually finding Eda in the back workshop putting some tasteful weathering on what looked to be an only lightly used dresser.

“Luz! Right on time. Forgot to mention something to ya earlier. My sister is coming by today for dinner. If she asks you anything about why you’re here just make something up.” She waved nonchalantly at her houseguest as she continued to artificially age the furniture in front of her. “You think this thing looks late depression era? I’m trying to sell this as an old family heirloom made during the depression. Got the style right but I can’t put my finger on what looks wrong with the aging.”

“Wait, go back to the sister thing. You have a sister? And she’s coming here?!” Luz yelped as soon as she finished processing what Eda had said.

“Yeah, ol’ Lilly. Real stick in the mud but I still love her.” She paused before snapping her fingers and pointing at Luz without taking her attention off the dresser in front of her. “Oh yeah, almost forgot to mention, she also works for the government. Some sort of environmental impact prevention agency or something. Probably not going to dissect you if she finds out you’re a witch but better safe than sorry.” Eda paused as she returned to running sandpaper over the underside of the dresser. “You know, keep your ears hidden, try to pass off anything you don’t understand as her not getting kids these days, that sort of thing.”

“Are you sure this is a good idea? I could just go somewhere else for the night.”

Eda rolled her eyes and tossed the sandpaper aside before turning to face Luz. “Kid, I turned one of my storerooms into a bedroom for ya, you got toiletries in the bathroom, and I doubt I can talk about what I’ve been doing recently without mentioning you. She’s a sharp one and she’s gonna realize you exist.” Eda grinned mischievously. “At least this way I get to blindside her with it. I’m not positive but I think this might be able to beat the reaction she had when she found out I got married in Vegas. Just let me know what story you’re gonna go with beforehand. Don’t want to talk up you running away from home because they were part of some crazy cult and then have you tell her you tried to run away to join the circus and figured this was the closest you could get.” Her grin faded slightly before she turned back to the dresser, continuing in a soft voice Luz was sure she wasn’t meant to hear. “And there’s no way she’s gonna nag too much in front of a guest.”

Lilith didn’t bother holding back her fond smile as she parked her car in front of Eda’s antique shop. She always loved visiting her sister and truly wished her work didn’t keep so busy as to make those visits a rarity. Both for the simple enjoyment of spending time with family as well as reassuring herself that Eda was still fine. Hefting two large brown paper bags filled with enough Chinese food for five people she pushed her way through the front door, ignoring the closed sign displayed prominently on the door, as well as the smaller ‘screw your hours I do what I want’ sign. “Eda! I got the food!”

“Come on up Lilly! I already got the plates set up in front of the TV. Even got the real ones out. No paper today!”

Rolling her eyes Lillith made her way up the stairs behind the counter. Eda must have been in a good mood to have actually done the dishes more than once in a month. “Really going the extra mile then? Did something special happen? Finally find yourself someone special? Don’t think I didn’t notice you ordered more food than usual,” Lilith bantered good-naturedly. Eda wasn’t all that fond of overtly taking advantage of Lillith’s constant offers of assistance overtly but she had long since gotten used to Eda ordering a little extra food whenever Lillith was footing the bill. That said this amount of food was somewhat unusual.

“A little something like that,” Eda shouted back from the living room.

Lilith almost tripped over her own feet at Eda’s response. Moving as fast as she could without making it too obvious how interested she was in this sudden development she crested the stairs and power-walked into the room to find… a young, Latina-looking teenager.

“Lilly, Luz, Luz, Lilly. Say hi kid,” Eda said, glee clear in her eyes.

“Uh, hi. Ms. Lilith. I’m Luz.” The girl on the other hand looked positively mortified at Eda’s blase introduction.

“Charmed,” Lilith replied distantly. “Eda, are you sure… wait,” she paused and blinked as she remembered that this was her sister she was dealing with. She then turned to the much more likely victim in all this with an overblown expression of concern. “Luz. Eda isn’t taking advantage of you is she?” Amazingly enough, Luz managed to somehow look even more mortified.

“Wait, what?!” Eda squawked as her face turned a most interesting shade of red. It was all Lillith could do to keep the concerned look on her face.

“I’m not sure what could have led to you staying with my sister but if she’s pressuring you into anything at all or making you do things you aren’t comfortable with,” Lilith continued, using every fiber of willpower she had to fight down the urge to smirk, “let someone know.”

Luz, the poor girl, looked like she had no idea what to say. A bright flush crept into her cheeks and her mouth worked silently for a few seconds before she turned to Eda with a high-pitched whine, her eyes wide and pleading.

For her part Eda seemed to accept her loss gracefully, choosing only to roll her eyes and beckon Lillith over to the couch. “Don’t worry about it kid. She’s just messing with ya.”

“Yes, because you are entirely blameless in all this,” Lilith said with a grin as she put the bags of food on the table and took her place on the couch before turning back to Luz. “I will admit I am curious as to what led to you staying here but I believe we have more important things to do right now.” With that, she opened up the first bag and the smells of Chinese food filled the room.

Even before spending years honing her senses as an investigator looking into magically related incidents Lillith had had a sense for when Eda was hiding something. Granted the times that Eda wasn’t hiding something were few and far between but most of the time it was small, only legally dubious things, and whatever was going on with Luz was almost certainly one of those legally dubious things. Thankfully her sister’s flagrant disregard for the law only rarely crossed into the morally dubious, and when it did so it was more often crimes of passion enacted against far worse people. For all Eda’s faults, she was not evil. Petty to be sure, but she lacked the willful maliciousness to be called evil. Even she would go to the proper authorities in the case of things like human trafficking or parental abuse, immense distrust in the system be damned.

The girl also seemed in good enough health. Additionally, once she had gotten used to Lillith being there, she seemed perfectly happy with her current living situation. Smiling at Eda’s jabs and returning them with glee. Taking part in the conversation without any of the fear that Lillith would expect from someone who had faced abuse from their caretakers. King too seemed to have accepted the girl if his fearless attempts to play with her chopsticks when she had the audacity to set them down near him were any indication.

If she had to make a guess, Lillith assumed that the girl was likely an illegal immigrant or the child of one. Perhaps her parents had been deported but she had managed to slip the net? It would certainly explain Eda managing to find her on the side of the highway without anything but the clothes on her back and no parents to contact while not showing any signs of abuse. Giving the finger to the government by helping someone they would condemn was something Eda was rather fond of as well. Doubly so when she could claim a moral high ground of helping an innocent child that would have suffered the full brunt of the government’s wrath should she be found. Similarly, Lillith would be amazed if Luz didn’t have a full set of ‘fully legitimate’ and ‘legal’ documentation now that she had stayed with Eda for more than a week. There was one thing that did surprise her though.

“And Eda, Ms. Damn the Establishment herself, got you signed up for school? Without being forced to do so?” Once more the poor girl looked embarrassed at Lillith’s glee while Eda had crossed her arms with a huff and was pointedly looking in another direction.

“Well, I’d never had a chance to go before-'' Luz started to say before her mouth snapped shut with a click. Another point in the illegal immigrant column there. She’d probably been kept moving or had to keep her head down as much as possible to prevent people from asking questions.

“Well I’m glad that Eda has gotten over her hatred of schools for you,” Lilith assured her, all while shooting Eda a triumphant look.

“Screw you Lilly!” Eda called from her recliner.

As was the case whenever one of their well-worn arguments came up things quickly devolved into juvenile but good-natured insults and, now that there was an audience, threats to reveal embarrassing stories from their past. It was nice, Lilith mused, to just spend time with her sister. Laughing and trading barbs like there was nothing wrong. Like there wasn’t the chance that it all might just end far too soon. With the ease of long practice, Lillith shoved those darker thoughts down without letting even a hint of them reach her expression.

As with all good things though, dinner with her sister and her sister’s new ward came to an end all too soon. Heralded like so many other times by the buzzing of her cell phone. A quick check showed a priority message from Steve. An artifact had been discovered and its current owner was proving less than receptive to his overtures. “And of course everything catches fire as soon as I try to spend some time with you,” Lilith sighed. “Apparently some idiot is too important to talk to anyone else and is demanding that I take his call and explain why he got a fine for illegal dumping of chemical waste.” The well-rehearsed lie came easily and with only the barest twinge of guilt as she stood up from the couch with a stretch. “Since I’ll be going straight to the office I suppose you shall have to suffer through dealing with the leftovers Eda.”

“I don’t know how we’ll survive,” her sister replied with a lazy grin. Even with Luz around, there was easily enough food there to keep Eda from needing to cook for a good portion of the weekend.

“I suppose you will simply have to manage.” Lilith turned to Luz. “It was a pleasure to meet you, Luz. Please do your best to try and keep my sister under control. I know she can be a handful.” Ignoring Eda’s indignant snort she gave her sister a quick hug and shook Luz’s hand before seeing herself down into the shop and out of the building, making sure to lock the door behind her. With one more fond smile, she looked up at the still-lit windows of her sister’s home. She sorely wished she could stay but she had a job to do.

By the time she had reached her car her happy smile had melted away, returning her to her usual stern visage. Pulling out her phone she dialed Steve and began to check over her equipment in the backup kit she always kept in her car. “What is the situation?”

“Possible level two conjuration item. Either creates or animates itself as a small rabbit-like demon that serves the desires of its master. Its current owner is Sarah Miles, ten years old, female. Earlier attempts to procure it were rebuffed both by the target and her parents. The artifact reacted to the target’s distress at the idea of losing it and made threatening movements, prompting a retreat.”

It always amazed Lillith to see the difference between Steve at, or out of, the office and him in the field. There was a reason he trusted him beyond anyone else to watch her back. Transferring the call to her car she started it up and began the drive to the target’s location. Nodding in satisfaction when she saw it was only a five-minute drive away. “Understood. I only have access to my emergency kit at the moment. Should I stop by the office for more?”

“The emergency kit should be enough. The entity appeared to have difficulty moving the target’s dolls around when prompted so I don’t think direct confrontation will be too much of an issue should it come to that. The sensors didn’t record any mental influences either. It’s looking like a simple helper demon.”

“Don’t make assumptions about magic. Doing that will only get you and the people you care for hurt. Stay on the line and let me know if anything changes.”

“Understood.”

All seemed to be going well until Lillith was less than a minute away. A distant scream echoed from the phone, quickly followed by Steve cursing. “Situation has changed. I’m going in,” he reported before hanging up.

Pushing the speed limit as much as she dared Lillith covered the remaining distance of the target’s house. Thankful that she had been able to gear up one-handed while driving, Lilith threw open her car door and leapt out to assess the situation. Steve was nowhere to be seen, but the front door to the house was ajar and distant crashes could be heard from the house.

Pulling her gun from its holster she reached the front door of the house and peeked inside. Fresh bloodstains, none that looked large enough to have been from a fatal wound but enough to indicate serious damage, broken furniture, but nothing moving. Her head snapped to the side as another crash came from further into the house.

She was about to move into the next room when Steve came flying through the nearby wall. Barely sparing her a glance he rolled to his feet and fired off several shots into the hole he’d made in the wall. “I’ll keep its attention on me! Remove the bracelet from the target’s arm!”

Nodding she ducked to the side and watched him sprint further down the hall, just in time to dodge the spinning furry missile that came rocketing through the hole and embedding itself in the opposite wall. Lilith tensed as the bipedal rabbi, pulled itself out of the wall, leaving a stain behind from the blood that marred its claws. It paid her no mind as its eyes locked onto Steve and started to move towards him. Seeing an opportunity Stebe fired off another shot that tore through the thing’s head leaving behind a bloodless hole. It didn’t even stop as the hole filled back in and began to charge down the hall, intent on continuing its chase.

Her mouth drawn down to a grim line Lillith slipped through the hole that the demon had come through. Inside were two people that she could only assume were the target’s parents, one of whom had a long ragged gash torn in his arm. The target was huddled in the corner of the room, shivering and crying under the terrified and furious glares of her parents. They looked like they wanted to say something but were too scared to do so.

Ignoring them Lillith ran to the target’s side. Ignoring their sobs she turned her attention to the glowing bracelet on their arm. Roughly seizing the target’s arm she tried to pry the bracelet off, only to be met with shrieks of pain as the bracelet failed to budge. “Of course it can only be removed by its owner,” she muttered. “Hey, hey!” she snapped her fingers in front of the target’s face. “You need to take off the bracelet. I can’t do it for you.”

“But- but-”

“No buts. If you don’t take off that bracelet then that thing is going to kill people. It tried to kill your mom and now it’s trying to kill my friend. If you don’t take that off it they are going to die and it will be all. Your. Fault.”

The target’s eyes widened as they shook their head. “No, no, Mr. Bunny would never-”

“He would and he will. If you don’t take that off you will kill your parents.”

The target was hyperventilating as they stared at the bracelet on their arm. Tears ran freely down their face as they fumbled with the clasp on the bracelet, muttering ‘I’m sorry’ over and over again. Finally, the clasp came undone and the bracelet fell to the floor, no longer glowing.

Lillith grabbed the bracelet the second it hit the floor and turned in the direction she had last heard the sounds of combat. Her heart was in her throat and her hand on her pistol as she waited for either her partner or the demon to return to the room. Her pulse pounded in her ears and her eyes twitched towards every sound until her partner limped into view.

“Hey, you got the bracelet. Cool, cool. I… I think I’m going to need some medical attention.” He slumped against the wall. “Your emergency kit has a healing potion, right? Please tell me it still has a healing potion.”

Lillith let out a sigh of relief as she pulled out one of her emergency healing potions and tossed it over to Steve. Satisfied that he was going to make it she turned to the parents. This was going to be a long debriefing.

It wasn’t until nearly an hour later that Lillith managed to take a seat on the front porch of the house with Steve. Between dealing with the terrified parents, the distraught kid, the eventual police that had shown up in response to the gunfire, and all the calls she’d needed to make to get everything handled on the beaurocratic side she was exhausted.

“Sorry I couldn’t help more with the after-action parts,” Steve apologized.

“No, no. It’s fine. You did have to deal with the demon bunny after all.” She waved off his apology. “At least the clean-up is easy this time. The family’s insurance will cover the damage to the house and the wounds weren’t too bad. The backup healing potion was able to take care of the worst of it. The parents opted for the binding but insisted that the kid get a memory wipe.”

They sat in silence for a while before Steve spoke up again. “How did you get the kid to take of the bracelet? She seemed pretty attached to Mr. Bunny.”

Lilith sighed, her hand tracing her wallet with a picture of her and her sister as kids. “I told her the truth. When it comes to magic, ignorance is no excuse for hurting people you love.”

Across the street, a man in a white cloak and mask observed the proceedings from behind a simple illusion. His first thought upon discovering that a human child had found one of the artifacts had been to sneak in and steal it, but a few scanning spells had revealed that removing it would require consent from the child or removal of her arm. He would admit to having been tempted to simply take the arm removal route. It was just a human after all. There were plenty of them and she would surely survive without an arm, even with their subpar medical care. But looking at her playing with the summoned demon made her look so much like a young witch that he couldn’t follow through.

So he had instead opted to hang back and try to come up with some way to bribe the child into removing the bracelet. Children enjoyed… shiny things? He growled in frustration as he repeatedly failed to come up with something that felt like it would work. Never before had he thought that sleeping through the public relations presentations would come to bite him in the ass but it would appear that there really were times when he needed to interact with children. Or rather there really were times that he couldn’t just threaten to arrest them to get them to leave him alone.

He was so engrossed with his plans to win over a human child he didn’t notice the first strange human show up. In fact, it wasn’t even until the sounds of combat could be heard from the house that his attention was drawn from his planning. Reinforcing the illusion keeping him from sight he crossed the street to peer into the windows of the house in time to see a human man fighting the demon and not only not dying immediately but actually holding its own. The human’s arms were blurs as they alternated between the strange human weapon that he often saw the human guards carrying and a long, utilitarian looking knife.

Hearing the explosions and seeing the human weapon in action startled the coven guard for a moment, and reassured him that his decision to lay low was the right one. While he was sure that he could put together a shield spell that would stop whatever it was the weapon was doing but he doubted he could keep it up and counterattack if assaulted at the rate the weapon seemed to be able to do its work. Let alone in the numbers that the humans seemed to possess them.

Eventually, the demon disappated, either due to the human dealing enough damage or the child managing to calm her mind enough to dismiss it. The coven guard’s mind raced as he realized this might be his chance to get the bracelet. The demon the bracelet summoned didn’t appear to be that much of a force multiplier but anything at all was better than the complete lack of reinforcements or a support network. Slipping in through the broken window he followed the human through the house, unwilling to get too close and risk his illusion failing, hoping that they would be unaware of the true value of the bracelet.

His hopes were dashed when he peeked into the final room the human entered and saw that it turned out to have a partner. One who was clutching the bracelet he sought and didn’t appear to be eager to part with it. He contemplated attempting to steal the artifact but if the other human was as skilled in combat as the first one had been it could pose an unnecessary risk. His lack of skill in healing magic would mean that any wounds he suffered would have to be treated by the primitive human healers. Even if he could continue to force them to treat him he was in no mood to learn what kind of madness they would proscribe for something more debilitating than a simple broken arm. His own healing spells had hastened his recovery but it had taken an unacceptable amount of time. His disappointment at how the evening had gone was discarded when the first human mentioned a healing potion and the second one produced what was unmistakably a healing potion that would have fit right in with a first aid kit back in the Boiling Isles.

Reinforcing his illusion he moved as close as he dared to the two humans, desperate to learn how they had gotten their hands on something like a real healing potion. While they never revealed their supplier they did reveal a good deal of interesting information about their own organization and its role in the human world. They had access to a surprising amount of magical items. Both memory modification tools and ones that could create an everlasting oath that bound a person to not tell anyone about magic. Not wanting to press his luck any further the coven guard retreated from the house. The new information already being incorporated into his plans. While these SCI humans would surely do their best to capture him they would be working equally hard to capture the wild witch once they realized her true nature. He smirked as he contemplated the plan already beginning to form in his mind.

Chapter Text

Willow had known from day one that counting Luz among her, very limited, friends was going to be an interesting experience. If she was being honest she knew from the first second of meeting Luz that that friendship with her would be interesting. Seeing the girl running through the halls, increasingly more and more panicked as she failed to find what she was looking for could certainly be called a massive red flag for someone looking for a low maintenance and quiet friend. But as someone who had experience with having to hunt down lost items, thanks Boscha, sympathy had dictated that she extend an offer of assistance to help her out for a little bit. Only to have that small initial offer balloon into being Luz’s impromptu guide for her first day of school ever.

And boy was it clear that Luz had no experience with how school worked beyond the very most basic ideas behind the institution. Even her knowledge of how to interact with people in general was rather lacking to an almost startling degree. If anything it was a relief to learn that every single one of Luz's expectations had come from reading books. Books that had done a very poor job portraying an actual school experience if her assumptions about lockers eating people or students challenging each other to duels in the halls were any indication. Honestly, most of her ideas about what schools were like sounded like they came from fantasy stories.

Once the oddness of the situation had settled somewhat Luz had been something of a breath of fresh air for her. She had never been one to have many friends, let alone ones she considered close. If she was being honest Gus was likely her only close friend. The other members of the gardening club were friends but not really close ones. It had garnered her something of a reputation as the quiet semi-loner kid that no one really tried to approach. To have someone so genuinely want to try to be friends with her had been both nice and unexpected.

And then the first day ended and the… incident happened.

She had known about the Wild Witch of course. The fact that a real life supervillain had tried to rob a bank and was stopped by an equally real life superhero was all that people were talking about for days, or ever since in Gus’s case. So when Luz appeared in the entrance of the greenhouse and pulled a staff and cloak out of nowhere Willow had immediately realized what was going on. When the police had interviewed her on what had happened she kept Luz’s identity to herself. When her dads, nearly in tears out of worry, had asked her what had happened she kept the secret. Even when Gus, her oldest friend, tried to wring every bit of information he could from her, she omitted the one piece of information he would be most interested in. Who knew what Luz would do if Willow revealed her secret? How much of the bumbling, good-natured girl had been an act to sneak into the school to find the glove that Matthomule had managed to find? And all that was discounting the pointed ears Willow had been able to make out under the hood when Luz had caught her at the end and taken the glove away. Thoughts of what Luz was and what she might be planning had harried her all through the night and the entirety of her commute to school the next day.

And then Luz was there again. With Willow looking for it she could see the lines of worry on the girl’s face, see her eyes darting back and forth as she looked like she was about to have a nervous breakdown. So Willow made a choice, and said hello. Then for the rest of the week, she watched Luz. Watched as the girl did her best to catch up with classes. Watched as she suffered through the cafeteria’s more questionable lunch choices. Willow even did her best to hold back her laughter as Luz managed to annoy Amity to the point that she started getting revenge via an aggressive, and hilarious, flirting campaign. She even managed to succeed almost as often as she failed. It all added up to one, inescapable conclusion: Luz was being genuine. The bumbling good-natured girl she seemed to be wasn’t an act. There wasn’t some grand plan in place. Luz was just Luz, just with a little more hidden away from the rest of the world for one reason or another. Not too different from any teenager, albeit her secrets seemed to be a bit more earth-shattering than the average teen’s.

And all that led to this. Her apology. Not that she would call it such because that would lead to all sorts of questions. To her newest friend, who had certainly proven that she deserved the title. Sure, introducing her new friend to a cafe and buying her a donut wasn’t the most grandiose of apologies but the Meadow Glen Cafe was a very nice place and, in her opinion, had some of the best donuts in the city. Now if only Luz could manage to stop staring at the donuts and actually choose the one that she wanted.

“If you don’t choose something I’m just going to order for myself and grab a table so I can watch you torture yourself in comfort,” Willow said as she waited with the even more impatient cashier for Luz to pick her pastry.

“But they all look so good!” Luz whined, turning a tearful gaze to Willow as she gestured at the glass display case of donuts.

“Then close your eyes and point to one,” Willow suggested. “If you keep this up Gus might manage to order something before you and he hasn’t even shown up yet.” She’d stood stalwart against similar looks from Gus too many times in the past for Luz’s to have any effect. Her flat tone appeared to work as, after only a short whine, Luz pointed to a rainbow sprinkle chocolate frosted cake donut. For a moment Willow was tempted to suggest that Luz get a cup of coffee as well but between not wanting to sit through Luz deciding which blend she wanted and not wanting to see what the girl would be like with caffeine in her system she opted to stay silent.

“You don’t have to pay for me,” Luz protested, again, as Willow handed the money to the cashier.

“It’s alright. Just think of it as congratulations for getting through your first week of school.” Willow turned a sly smile in Luz’s direction. “And for surviving your attempts to patch things up between Amity and me.”

As expected her words were met with a luminous blush and a groan, the usual hands covering Luz’s face were only skipped out of fear that she might end up wasting her donut. “Please don’t remind me.”

“If you just stopped reacting like that I’m sure she’d just give up and move on,” Willow pointed out, just like she had every time Luz had complained about Amity’s flirtations. “You know, there are a lot of people that would be glad to be getting Amity’s undivided attention like this.”

“Well, maybe they can take my spot. It’s hard enough to keep up with classes without Amity swooping in to ask me about how the new earrings she got from some pawnshop look!” Luz’s blush brightened again recalled the look Amity had given her while modeling the, admittedly very nice-looking, earrings.

Seeing the conflicted look on Luz’s, still blushing, face Willow sighed and shifted her chair closer to her friend before placing a hand on her shoulder. “You could just ask her to stop. Amity may be petty and spiteful when it comes to her mom, or anyone that she thinks has wronged her, or her mom, or people trying to get close to her for personal gain, or especially her mom, but she isn’t a bad person.” Willow paused to take a sip from her coffee and rub Luz’s shoulder reassuringly. “I’m sure if you just let her know that she is making you uncomfortable she’d stop. Especially if you’re not a lesbian.” Which I really doubt given the way you blush whenever she flirts with you, she silently added. “She has enough experience having people she isn’t interested in being pushy to not want to force someone to go through that.”

Luz stared at her for a second before her head dropped down into the table and she mumbled something unintelligible.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t quite catch that. Care to try again?” Willow asked.

Not lifting her head Luz mumbled again, louder but no more intelligible.

“One more try,” Willow encouraged as she fought down the urge to smile at what Luz was obviously trying to say.

“I don’t not like it,” Luz finally said loud enough to be heard. Lifting her head from the table enough to shift so that she rested her chin on it instead of her forehead. “I just never really had the chance for anyone to show any interest in me.” Her eyes flicked downward as she studiously avoided Willow’s gaze and toyed with her donut. “It’s kinda nice. Thinking that someone might actually like me for once. Especially someone as cute as Amity. Even if it is just a game.”

“Hoo boy,” Willow whispered. “That’s a lot to unpack.” She’d been expecting a more simple ‘Yes I do like it’, not… that. She fidgeted with her coffee for a moment, taking a deep breath. “Do you… want to talk about it?”

“What are you… Oh! Oh no! It’s not anything like that! Just with mom always moving us around and homeschooling I never really got a chance to spend time with anyone my age to make any friends, let alone… you know.”

Willow nodded with a sigh of relief. She would be lying if she said she hadn’t thought about where Luz had come from and what she might be. The fact that days where Gus didn’t bring up his latest theories about the Wild Witch were few and far between hadn’t helped. With Luz’s sometimes startling lack of knowledge of normal life, her pointed ears, and magic that seemed like it didn’t come from things like the glove or the crown the bank robber had used, Willow was certain that Luz wasn’t a normal girl. Whether she was an alien or some sort of secret government project Willow wasn’t sure but it was obvious that she had been kept from living a normal life. Of course, she normally wouldn’t have entertained such outlandish ideas beyond humoring Gus but with the way things had been going recently and the fact that the result of some sort of outlandish circumstances was sitting right in front of her? She was a good deal more open to considering things she might have never spared a thought for only a month ago.

“... and she just glared at me all during gym on Friday! Did I say something wrong?”Willow blinked as she stared down at Luz’s plaintive look, realizing that she’d let her mind wander to the point that she had stopped paying attention to what Luz had been saying. Thankfully she was saved from having to either do her best to answer Luz’s question without context or, even worse, admit to having not been paying attention by Gus finally managing to show up. Ten minutes late, sweaty and out of breath looking like he’d run a marathon. Or more than a block. She loved her friend but he was no paragon of physical fitness. Even with her inviting him to hit the gym with her he hadn’t really put much effort into going beyond not being too out of shape.

“Hey guys! Sorry I’m late I…” he paused as he hunched over to catch his breath. “Sorry... I ran here... when I realized how late I was.” He stood back up and sucked in a deep breath before walking over to the counter to place his own order. Now armed with three donuts and a coffee that had to be at least fifty percent sugar he joined them at the table. “So, what did I miss?”

“I was just asking Willow what I should do about Boscha being mad at me during gym on Friday. She asked me about what my intentions were with Amity and I explained I was just trying to get her back together with Willow.”

With a groan Willow’s hand met her forehead before massaging her temples, something she was getting the feeling that she was going to be doing a lot whenever Luz was involved. “Phrasing, Luz. I think she thought you were trying to get me and Amity together romantically. Boscha and Amity dated for a little while after Amity came out as gay. Apparently, they ended up breaking up over something to do with me. Neither of them really said what but Boscha was giving me death glares for months after that.”

“Oh yeah, I remember that. That was a weird two months.” Gus said in between bites of his first donut. “The Amity dating thing, not the angry Boscha thing. That happens all the time. It was weird seeing Amity act so openly affectionate with someone.” Seeing Luz’s confused expression he continued, “before she came out she was always trying to be exactly what her mom wanted and made sure she didn’t do anything that could reflect badly back on her mom’s political career. Perfect grades, perfect attendance, constant outreach and public relations extracurriculars, never out too late, never cursing, she didn’t even eat at fast food places,” he grimaced, “pretty much never really living life for herself. I didn’t really notice until she started doing things for herself but it was really sad looking back on it all.”

Conversation, thankfully, moved on to lighter topics after that. From Luz’s impressions on her first week of school to Gus’s latest theories about the Wild Witch. It had been especially entertaining to watch the little twitches Luz did every time Gus made another wild guess. Willow did her best to try and lead Gus down the wrong path from time to time since Luz seemed to not want her secret to get out while also being utterly incapable of not being flustered every time one of Gus’s guesses seemed like it might have gotten too close to the mark, or got so outlandish that she felt the need to defend herself, or maybe were just insultingly far from the truth. In a way Luz’s poker face managed to be so spectacularly bad that it looped around into actually managing to hide the specifics of the truth pretty well simply by reacting to everything. The speculation came to an end, surprisingly, not by Gus running out of steam or Luz getting distracted by something she didn’t understand, though there was a close call when Gus had speculated that the Wild Witch might have some sort of secret bat cave style lair. Instead, it was an unusually loud and obnoxious alert noise from Gus’s phone.

“What’s that?” Luz immediately asked when Gus brought out his phone.

“It's a special notification I set up for my news crawler!” Gus excitedly explained as he pulled up a news app. “It searches all the local news networks, some of the local bloggers, and the social media accounts for people in town for certain keywords. Then it ranks all the stories it found based on which keywords were matched, where they were matched, and the importance of the word. I even set up different alerts for different levels of matches. That one means that something really big happened!” Swapping over to the list of articles a video titled ‘New Hero in Southborough?’ sat at the top of his list. “I- I’ll watch this one at home. Wouldn’t want to bore you guys.”

Before Willow could comment on Gus’s sudden change in attitude Luz had already tapped the video in question. It was obviously shot from someone’s phone, though they at least seemed to be doing a good job of keeping the camera steady. From the looks of things the person shooting the video was hiding behind what appeared to be a store shelf filled with snacks. Smack dab in the center of the video was what looked to be the most stereotypical robber Willow had ever seen outside of movies and games. 

“Give me all the money!” the ski-mask wearing man shouted, all but shoving his gun into the cashier's face. A cashier that Willow recognized.

“Oh, poor Skara,” she muttered.

As Skara was doing her best to open the cash register in spite of her shaking hands there was a bright flash of light from just off-camera. The person recording whispered something that the camera failed to pick up before being turned slightly to show that there was now what could only be described as a superhero standing in the middle of the gas station.

The dark-skinned man was easily six and a half feet tall and had the sort of physique you only ever saw in bodybuilding competitions and comic books, his arms alone had to be thicker than Gus’s entire body. He was wearing a skin-tight blue and yellow bodysuit with a matching domino mask that ran up against a thick shock of dark brown dreadlocks that reached down to his shoulders. Willow’s eyes narrowed as she continued to look over the superhero, something about their appearance tickling the back of her mind. A tickle that became a tantalizing suspicion when the man spoke. “Stop right there criminal scum!”

Unsurprisingly the robber’s first instinct was to open fire on the hero, firing off several panicked shots. While most of them appeared to miss outright, the one that looked like it would be a hit turned into a miss when the hero was engulfed in a flash of light before reappearing off to the side of the robber. Several more shots went wide before the hero disappeared in another flash of light. Once more the hero appeared, this time right behind the robber, one hand cocked back. There was a clang as the hero punched the man in the back of his head, sending him stumbling forward and his gun clattering to the ground.

“I think you’re done here son,” the hero said as he kicked the gun away from the now cowering man. Seeing that the man was unlikely to try anything else the hero turned to Skara. “The police should be here soon. Are you alright?”

Skara nodded silently, eyes still wide and hands still shaking.

The rest of the video just involved the cameraman and a few of the other people in the store asking the hero questions and fawning over him, though he always stepped away from anyone that tried to touch him. Something that happened quite often as people kept trying to feel his muscles. Most of the questions the crowd asked were given, at best, non-answers that didn’t tell anyone anything. The closest they got to a real answer was them asking his name. He had opened his mouth as though he were about to say something before snapping it shut and saying that he hadn’t really thought of one.

For her part, Willow was only paying the barest bit of attention to the video once she saw that Skara was safe. The rest of her attention was split between looking at Gus and trying to recall the time he’d gotten her to join in with his roleplaying group. It had been a rather interesting superhero campaign while it had lasted before dissolving due to conflicting schedules. Gus had put his heart and soul into making his character and had gotten really into the roleplaying aspect. Doing a particular voice, drawing art of his character, the whole nine yards. Looks and a voice that she was now seeing and hearing for the first time since the campaign had fallen apart.

Suspicions in mind she paid much closer attention to Gus’s face as he watched the video. Her efforts were rewarded when she saw him wince whenever the hero in the video did or said something over the top. An embarrassed flush crept across his face when the hero in the video made a particularly bold declaration that Willow was almost certain was cribbed from an anime that Gus was a fan of.

“Okay, that was really interesting,” Gus said as soon as the video was over. Silencing his phone he stowed it back in his pocket, far more eager to move on than Willow would have normally expected.

“Yeah,” Luz agreed, hand on her chin as she stared down at the table. “It looked like he was teleporting but the time delays weren’t right for that sort of thing. He should have appeared earlier after that second teleport if that was the case. He might be going invisible but that wouldn’t account for the bullets not hitting him and the time is too short for him to have run to each location…”

Gus paled as Luz’s voice devolved into incomprehensible mutterings as she tried to figure out how the man in the video had done everything. All with a concentration that Willow had never seen her put into the discussions she’d had regarding the Wild Witch. It did make a certain amount of sense though, she already knew everything about the Wild Witch after all. This person was a whole new puzzle to put together for her.

For her part, Willow just leaned back in her seat and returned to enjoying her, now slightly cold, coffee. While she didn’t have any real proof she was pretty she knew who this new hero was. Hopefully, Gus’s embarrassment at all of this would mean he wasn’t going to be going out and trying to fight crime or something really dangerous. She’d already had the feeling that things would be tense enough with only one friend running around trying to save the day whenever they could. 

She did reserve the right to make fun of both of them for a good long while if they tried to keep the whole secret identity thing up for too long though. She deserved at least that much if her friends were going to try to keep this stuff secret for too long.

The coven guard smiled behind his mask as he looked over the collection of artifacts that he had managed to gather so far. Granted, most of them had far too many drawbacks for him to be willing to make use of them himself but the power they had was undeniable. They had been sealed in that vault for a reason after all. Of course, if someone a touch more expendable were to suffer those side effects?

“So these are them then?”

The coven guard’s smile became strained at the voice of his… partner. No. Pawn was a far better term for the opportunistic worm he had managed to find. Interacting with the human as an equal grated on him but sometimes sacrifices of comfort needed to be made in order to see justice done. “Yes, these are them. Not many of them will give you what you seek…” his hands trailed across the various artifacts before coming to stop on a runed belt. Its side effects were much more manageable than most of the others and would allow this particular pawn to stay on the board for a decent amount of time. “But this one, in particular, should work perfectly.”

“Hmmm, and how do I know I can trust you? You won’t even show me your face.”

The temperature seemed to drop several degrees as the coven guard just barely managed to restrain himself from striking the idiotic human. His voice took on an almost robotic tone as he recited the relevant tenants of the oaths sworn by all members of the Emperor's Coven. “A guard must never remove their mask while on duty. While on duty we are instruments of the titan’s will as relayed through the speaker, on behalf of the true emperor. To remove your mask is to remove your honor as a guard of the isles. Only when your duty is done can you return to the life led outside the mask.”

As expected the human didn’t seem to truly understand the importance of the explanation he had been graced with. With an annoyed huff, the coven guard grabbed the belt and held it out to the man. “You desired to remove the liar that rules this town, yes? This belt will give you the power you need to do so.”

“Sure. And this will give me powers like that fire guy and the witch girl?” the human asked as he took the belt and eyed it as though it might bite him. A rather sensible precaution when dealing with… pretty much anything from the Boiling Isles really.

“Not quite like the fire wielder or the… witch,” the coven guard ground out. “But it will give you the power to strike at your enemy. This I promise.”

The man looked over the belt once more before nodding. “Thanks,” he pulled a thick envelope from his coat pocket and placed it on the table next to the artifacts. “Here’s half the money. Once this thing does its job and helps me to force that bitch to tell the truth and get her sent to jail like she deserves you’ll get the rest.” Without another word he turned and left the room.

As soon as the man left the coven guard began to pack up the remaining artifacts. With his plan in motion and the pawn in play there was no reason for him to stick around here. The possibility that the man would reveal his presence to the wild witch was undesirable but so long as the fool played his part it wouldn’t matter in the end. The fool wasn’t his only pawn in play but with how high profile that belt would be he was perhaps the most likely to play the part he was supposed to. With all his important belongings gathered up, he turned to take his own leave from the room. The only proof that he had been there at all was the envelope, still full of money, right where it had been placed by the human.

Chapter Text

One thing Luz had learned early on when it came to dealing with Eda was that she was almost allergic to schedules. In the weeks since she had come to live with the woman, her store had managed to actually match its posted hours maybe three times. And two of those were in question due to her having been at school when the store supposedly opened. As such Luz was not surprised when she got home from school on Monday to find the front door locked. Looking up and down the street to make sure that no one was paying too close attention to her she cast a quick spell to unlatch the door. 

“Eda! I’m back! You home?” she shouted into the store as she locked the door behind her. Distantly she noticed that King hadn’t taken to his usual spot to demand his customary toll for entering the store.

“Yeah, I’m back in the workroom! Come on back, got something I need your help with.”

Nodding to herself Luz slipped behind the counter and opened the door to the work room. Hopefully, Eda wouldn’t be trying to get her to try and use magic to fake antiques again. It turned out to be one of those things that worked until it didn’t. And then things very much stopped working catastrophically until they had managed to put down the ravenous end table. Shuddering at the memory Luz made her way over to a workbench to find Eda sitting in her usual work chair, head lolled to the side and one arm drooping down towards the floor as the other held her phone at an angle so she could actually see it. King had taken up a vigil on Eda’s lap and was purring loud enough that Luz could hear it from several yards away. “Eda? Is something wrong?”

“Eh, it’ll be fine. Just had a relapse attack thing earlier. Think you could grab a pillow from the couch and my phone charger? This position is hell on my neck,” Eda said, not even bothering to look away from her phone.

“I… you… what’s going on?!” Luz stammered out as she rushed to Eda’s side. “Who attacked you? Was it one of your customers?”

“I’m fine,” Eda assured Luz. “Well, apart from the crick in my neck and the fact that my phone is under ten percent charge left. Tell ya what. You go grab those things I asked for and help me set up and then I’ll explain all this.”

Eyes wide Luz nodded furiously before darting off to find the items Eda had requested. The pillow had been easy enough but the phone charger ended up needing a locating spell to find and turned out to have been buried under the living room rug. Certainly a confusing spot for it to have ended up but one that Luz felt confident in blaming King for. Returning to Eda, Luz was quick to prop the woman’s head into a more upright position with the pillow and plug in the charger into a nearby outlet usually reserved for the power sander and get the phone charging again.

“Ahhh, that’s much better. I always forget how bad these things can get when they reach my neck. Thanks a ton, kid. You probably saved me some serious pain I’d have had to deal with for the next week.” Seeing Luz’s expectant, and still slightly fearful, expression Eda sighed. “Right. Explanations. Brace yourself for disappointment kid ‘cause I’m pretty sure I don’t have all the answers you’re gonna want.” She put her phone down and turned her attention to Luz as much as she was able, even going so far as to grab hold of her hair and turn her head towards her audience. “This is some sort of weird disease or condition or something that I’ve had since I was about your age. Was out playing with Lilly one day and next thing I knew I was in the hospital. Lilly was crying her eyes out saying it was all her fault, and my parents were ranting at the doctor trying to get him to figure out what was wrong with me.

“I tried to reach over to Lilly and found out I couldn’t move my arm. I could still feel it, the hospital blankets and Lilly squeezing my hand so hard it hurt but I couldn’t move it. After a couple more hours I could move things again and felt just fine. Spent a couple days in the hospital for observation before I got to go home. Things seemed just fine for a couple months until I just had this feeling that something was about to happen. Like that feeling you get when you’re at the top of a rollercoaster and about to go down the first drop and even though nothing’s happened yet you can feel that something big is gonna happen. Not too long after I got that feeling my legs just stopped working. I could still feel everything like last time but couldn’t move at all. Took ages to convince my teacher I wasn’t faking things to get out of class. Jackass kept pinching my legs to prove I was faking it because if I could feel things I had to be able to move.

“Anyway. That led to another hospital stay and more observation. I was better after a while but it started to be a trend for me. I’d go months being perfectly fine. Then bam! Paralyzed. And it was all over the place too. Sometimes just a few fingers, sometimes a limb or two. Usually on my right side and in extremities but it took years for us to realize that pattern. My parents tried taking me to all sorts of doctors and they never found anything. Once Lillith got her bigwig government job she tried finding some big-name neurologists to look at me. They even did this whole thing with brain scans and stuff where they could see my brain telling my paralyzed bits to move and the signals getting through and just not doing anything. Lilly still tries to get me to go to a new doctor every so often but I usually blow those off.”

“You shouldn’t do that!” Luz cried. “What if they manage to find something new?!”

“Bah, if there was something those overpriced quacks could find they would’ve done it by now. I’m not going to waste thousands of Lilly’s dollars to sit around some prick’s office for hours so they can pretend to be sad about not finding anything before handing her a bill,” Eda growled. “Besides, I came to terms with this ages ago. I can always tell when it’s coming so I can make sure I pull over to the side of the road or sit down before it hits me.”

“But what if you can’t get somewhere safe or it paralyzes something important! What if it stopped your heart from beating or something?”

“Then I’m dead,” Eda said with a shrug of her still usable shoulder.

Luz’s hand flew to her mouth as her eyes widened in shock at Eda’s blase acceptance of her condition. One shaking hand reached out to Eda’s shoulder. “Eda… I-” Luz stopped speaking when Eda grabbed hold of the hand on her shoulder and gave it a comforting squeeze.

“Like I said. I came to terms with this whole thing ages ago. It was kinda liberating actually,” she said with an easy smile that didn’t quite reach her eyes.

Luz let out a shuddering breath as she closed her eyes and wracked her mind for every bit of healing lore she’d picked up over the years. Despite her mother’s insistence that she learn all she could, Luz had always been a bit more focused on the flashier spells. “Can I at least try to heal you? Maybe magic can find something that human doctors couldn’t.”

Eda was silent for a moment as she took in Luz’s determined expression.  “Heh, you’re reminding me of Lilly right now. After we realized I was probably going to be dealing with this for the rest of my life she started looking into anything that might help. Spent a while looking for weird magic stuff thinking that she might find some sort of magic cure out there. Then again she wasn’t a witch so go ahead and give it a shot. Work your magic kid.”

For the next half hour Luz tried every healing spell she could think of, as well as several hail mary combination attempts that she made up on the spot. Each time the magical energy entered Eda and simply vanished. It was almost like every spell simply decided that nothing was wrong and there was nothing to do before just dissipating. By the end of her experimentations Luz’s eyes were red with unshed tears and her bile sac was practically screaming at her as she tried to coax out a little more energy.

“That’s enough kid,” Eda said gently. Placing her usable hand on Luz’s shoulder and pulling her close. “You tried your best and that’s what matters. Whatever’s wrong with me is bigger than you know how to fix. Hell, maybe it can’t be fixed at all. Don’t beat yourself up over things you can’t change.”

Luz was silent as Eda pulled her into a one-armed hug. “My best,” she whispered, an idea rapidly forming in her mind. “I tried my best but I’m not the best. There are better healing witches than me out there. I think there might have even been some healing artifacts in the vault that might have been sent here.” Her eyes narrowed as she drew away from Eda and looked her straight in the eye. “I might not be able to fix this but I’m sure I can find someone, or something, that can. Just… just let me know if there’s anything I can do to help, okay?”

Eda’s expression softened as she smiled a little bit. “Just don’t exhaust yourself trying to fix me. It’s only a matter of time until you find that staff and find a way back to the isles right?”

“Right! Just remember, anything you need at all! Just ask! Okay?”

“It’s okay kid, you don’t need-”

“Anything at all!”

Eda gave Luz a flat glare before rolling her eyes. “If you’re that eager to help, why don’t you man the shop? I had to shut down earlier than I expected and was hoping to unload some stuff to make room for my latest haul.”

“Can do!” Luz declared. Throwing out a sloppy salute and running out of the workshop to the front shop area.

“That kid… Gonna have to make sure Lilly never gets a chance to see her helping out like this. She’d never let me live it down.” Eda chuckled as she turned her attention back to her phone. “At least she actually helps out instead of just sitting around using me as a pillow,” she said to King, whose only response was to look up at her, his big soulful eyes demanding more attention. “Fine, fine, you little tyrant. Here’s you go,” she muttered, a small smile creeping across her face as she scratched King behind the ears and his purring grew louder.

Luz was no fool. She knew Eda had suggested that she man the shop less as something that needed to be done and more as a way to get her to stop asking for ways to help out. That said she was grateful for something to take her mind off what she had seen. Her time with the Underground had left her intimately familiar with the sorts of things that could go wrong and leave a person in a very rough condition. 

Healing magic might be able to work all manner of wonders but you needed to be able to reach the healers first before they could work their literal magic. Broken and missing limbs, massive gashes, black cracked burns, horrible magical plagues, necrotized frostbitten flesh, and even paralysis from a broken spine or burned nerves, Luz had seen it all. But each time there had been the comforting distance of the mission, of a goal to be working towards that allowed her to push those things to the back of her mind. To see it in a situation where there was nothing she could do but hope that there might be an answer out there instead of having a set goal with understandable steps to take was jarring.

Fighting down a shudder, Luz turned her attention to the chaotic mess that was Owl House Antiques. Towering stacks of mismatched goods rose up close to the ceiling. Each tower bearing only the slightest semblance of order or logic in its composition. One had Ancient woodworking tools that sat inside a handwoven basket hung on a well-weathered hat rack alongside a similar basket of action figures whose finer details had been rubbed away by age, each and every item from the hat rack to the action figure bore a handwritten price tag with a number decided on solely by Eda’s mood at the time.

And that was one of the saner and smaller towers in the store.

Luz had tried, once, to make sense of Eda’s layout before simply throwing her hands up and surrendering. Worst of all was that it all seemed to make sense to Eda. Proving several times that she not only knew exactly what she had available but where it was in the chaos. Squaring her shoulders Luz looked upon the mess once more and strode forth, sure she would manage to figure things out this time.

Before she could get more than halfway down the first aisle she heard the sound of the front door opening to let in a customer. “Saved!” she whispered under her breath before dashing the rest of the way down the aisle. “Welcome to the Owl House! How can I-” Luz’s voice cut off and she skidded to a halt as she caught her first glimpse of the customer that had walked into the store.

“Well it’s not what I came in for, I can certainly think of a few things you can do for me,” Amity said as she looked Luz up and down with a sultry smile. “Things I’m sure you’re very qualified to help me with.” Amity was silent for a moment as she took in Luz’s bright red face before her smile softened into something more friendly than seductive. “I’m sorry, I couldn’t resist. I’ll tone it down while you’re working. Wouldn’t want you to get fired for not doing your job after all.”

“Right… thanks,” Luz said as she did her best to compose herself. “Soooo, can I help you find anything?”

“Yeah, it’s been a while since I came here and I was hoping to find some jewelry that was gaudy but not over the top enough that my mom will force me to take it off. She’s doing a fancy dinner for ‘community leaders’ and I need to make her almost regret making me come. If you can make it clash with my earrings that’s even better.”

“Right, over the top jewelry. That’s…” Luz looked around the room. Eda tended to keep shiny things together so most of her jewelry should be… “over here. I think.”

Amity glanced in the direction Luz was pointing and shrugged. “Looks as good a place as any. Mind helping me pick something out?”

Luz hesitated for a second. Spending time alone with Amity was part of her plan to get her to be friends with Willow again. On the other hand, time alone with Amity usually ended with her a stammering mess. On the other, other, hand Amity had promised that she wouldn't flirt with Luz too much while she was at work. Of course, Luz would have to do her best to make sure that Eda never got the chance to encourage Amity’s flirting. Something that Luz was positive would happen solely because Eda would find the entire situation amusing. Blinking away the horrifying images that line of thought conjured up Luz nodded. “Sure, let’s see what we can find.”

Annoyingly enough Luz’s initial guess as to where the jewelry would be turned out to be wrong. The resultant scavenger hunt saw them splitting up to cover more ground while shouting suggestions to each other across the store.

“Be sure to check any baskets you can pull down! Last time I had to help someone find something it turned out to be in a bucket on top of an armoire.” Luz shouted as opened up a cupboard. “Huh, so that’s where all the old cameras are,” she muttered to herself.

“I think I found them!” Amity shouted back. “There’s some sort of giant bird’s nest here with some necklaces hanging out of it!”

“Yeah, that sounds about right!” Luz replied as she made her way over to Amity, grabbing one of the many stepladders stashed throughout the shop on her way there. Once there it was a simple matter to pull down the mess of sticks holding a collection of jewelry that would have done any bird proud.

What followed was an impromptu fashion show as Luz and Amity untangled jewelry from the chaotic mess in the nest and modeled them for each other. With plenty of laughs to be had with the more outrageous pieces of jewelry. The high points of which ended up being a tie between the giant gold necklace that spelled out ‘Foxy’ in giant blocky letters encrusted in rhinestones and a bracelet that appeared to be fine but on closer inspection spelled out an impressive string of profanity. Since both of those were likely a little too over the top to pass muster, the real winner ended up being an oversized necklace that had several copper discs that, in Amity’s words, were perfect for reflecting light into the eyes of anyone that dared gaze upon her.

“Sorry that it doesn’t clash enough with your earrings,” Luz apologized with a smile. “You could always swap them out for these ones though.” She held up a pair of massive fish hooks that had somehow found their way into the jewelry tangle.

“You joke but my sister’s totally not girlfriend wears some earrings that look a lot like fishhooks.” Amity shot back. “But no, I like these ones.” She turned a familiar flirty smile and half-lidded gaze to Luz. “You seemed to like them a lot too when I showed them off last week.”

To Luz’s immense satisfaction she managed to endure the flirt with only a small blush and stutter before rolling her eyes. “I thought you said no flirting while I was on the job.”

“Huh, I’ve really gotten way too used to doing that,” Amity admitted. “Sorry. If your boss has any problems with it I’ll vouch for you.”

“My hero,” Luz drawled. “Is that gonna be it for you?”

“I think so.” Amity pulled out her phone to check the time. “Yeah, I’ll need to get back home if I want to make it in time for mom’s usual hour-long prep sessions.”

“Cool, that’ll be…” Luz leaned in close to Amity to check the price tag. Not noticing that for the first time it was Amity blushing in their interactions. “Fifty bucks. Then sales tax...” Her eyes narrowed as she tried to find the relevant keys on the cash register. “Fifty-three dollars and sixty-three cents.”

“Right,” Amity said as she shook herself. “Sounds good.” She pulled out her wallet and fished out three twenties to give Luz.

“Aaannnd that’s six thirty-seven back to you,” Luz handed over the relevant change with a brilliant smile. “Good luck with your mom! Hopefully things aren’t too bad at the event.”

Amity nodded absently as she took her change, a thoughtful look on her face. “Thanks a lot, Luz. Have a nice day.”

Luz continued to smile as Amity made her way out of the shop. “That went better than expected,” she mused to herself.

“I’ll say, didn’t think you had already managed to find yourself a girlfriend.”

Luz nearly jumped out of her skin as Eda’s voice suddenly came from a small box next to the register. “Eda?! What’s going on?”

“Calm down Luz. I’m just talking to you through the speaker near the cash register.”

Luz leaned down and gave the speaker a tentative poke. “And you can see through it too?”

“Nah, that’s the cameras around the shop. Lilith helped me set all this up so I could work the shop even if I had an attack. Got speakers all through the shop, cameras covering most of the area, can even lock the whole place down. All that from my phone.” Eda’s voice took on a much more mischievous note. “Of course after we got the first things set up I made a few… additions. Look down the second aisle from the left.”

Luz did as she was told and felt a shiver run down her spine as several of the dolls suddenly turned their heads to face her, their eyes glowing a dull red.

For her part, Eda was laughing like mad, presumably at the look of horror on Luz’s face. “Yeah, I got a lot of stuff like that set up around the shop. Usually I just use it to creep out customers when I get bored but there was one time a few years back when some stupid kids snuck in in the middle of the night. Spent hours tormenting them from my bed.” Her tone became wistful. “I still get ghost hunters coming by every so often asking about the haunted antique store. Good times. But enough about me! You never told me you found a girlfriend! I even got the perfect picture of you blushing when she came in! It’s my new icon for you in my contacts list!” Eda crowed.

Luz felt the familiar sensation of her face starting to mimic a tomato as Eda launched into an avalanche of questions about her ‘girlfriend’.

Amity had known that her mother’s latest public event was going to be annoying. Granted it wasn’t exactly a difficult thing to figure out. She hadn’t had fun at one of these events in… she really didn’t know how long. Probably back when she was friends with Willow. But that had been before she realized just how little her enjoyment of these events mattered.

Her breath came out in a hiss as she leaned against the balcony railing outside the event venue. At another time she might have enjoyed the scenery, looked out at the well tended gardens, strung with lights to tactfully illuminate well curated plants. Even as annoyed as she was she could still appreciate all the work that the owners of the venue put into making the place worth every penny. At the very least it allowed her to keep her mind off the train wreck of the evening she’d just pointedly not stormed out of. 

She felt a wry smile twist her lips as she remembered the lessons she’d been given when her mother realized that Emira and Edirc would likely be doing their best to ditch these events as soon as they could. Instead of attempting to force them to stick around and cause a scene she’d instead gotten an etiquette instructor to teach them how best to leave without looking too angry or annoyed with the event. Lessons that had come in handy to all three of them far more often than anyone liked.

They had certainly come in handy today when she’d excused herself from the dinner.

It hadn’t even started out that bad. She hadn’t been dragged out in front of potential campaign investors or important community figures. All she’d had to do was smile and wave. Offer a greeting or two when someone came to talk to her and make polite, pointless, conversation. Sample a few hors d'oeuvres, the mini quiches had been really good, and do her best not to look too bored. Don’t stand too far off to the side and look like a wallflower but not needing to be in the thick of things and have to deal with everyone that wanted to try and get in good with Mayor Odalia Blight.

But then dinner had happened.

The dinner itself hadn’t been bad. Some sort of well seasoned chicken dish with a name she couldn’t pronounce with a guidebook and an hour to figure out what the little marks over all the vowels meant and a side of nicely steamed vegetables. It hadn’t struck her as odd that they were sharing a table with another family either. Her mother had a tendency to pick and choose people she really wanted to work on getting something from to share their table at these events. The daughter of the family hadn’t even been that bad compared to some of the trust fund babies that she’d had to deal with at these events. Horrendously out of touch with real life and likely the sort of person that would walk into a store and loudly complain about the lack of service or the quality of the products before flouncing out with the promise of calling corporate but certainly not the worst she’d ever had to deal with. 

Good eye candy though.

She really should have noticed the signs after seeing her mom try this exact same thing with Edric and Emira so many times. Even she’d been subjected to this routine a time or two before she’d come out as gay. But then she’d seen that confident glint in her mom’s eye as she managed to steer the conversation towards Amity and the other girl.

“It was certainly a shock when Amity came out as gay, I suppose it just goes to show how out of touch parents can be with their kids,” her mother said with her well practiced fond but distant smile

It hadn’t been that strange a statement. It was one of her mother’s favorite ways of letting people know that she had a gay duaghter and of course she still loved her even if she didn’t understand. But then the other parents, and the other girl, had perked up.

“Ha!” the father laughed, “I hope you at least didn’t have to learn that by walking into your living room to see your daughter making out with her lacrosse team captain! Biggest shock of my life! Then my baby girl just stared me down and told me that if I had a problem with it then I should just shut up.”

Amity didn’t need to look at her mom to see the satisfied look she knew was being directed in her direction. She also knew that she couldn’t just bail right then and there. Doing so right after her mom had set up this particular situation would have made her look bad. So she was forced to endure nearly half an hour of increasingly pushy flirting from trust fund girl. Flirtations that continued despite her increasingly unsubtle hints that she wasn’t interested in a relationship right now. Maybe it was karmic justice for doing everything she could to make Luz blush over the last week. She’d hoped that the fact that she made sure to never go too far and to let up the moment Luz started looking a little too flustered would be enough to spare her any sort of cosmic justice but apparently she’d been wrong. Sure Luz never reciprocated but she also never told Amity to stop. Maybe this was punishment for failing to properly honor her promise not to flirt with Luz while she had been at work?

Amity let out another hissing breath as she looked around the balcony. No one else was out here. Probably all still inside enjoying the dessert. The pie a la mode had looked very delicious but the break in the meal had been too perfect a time to duck out under the pretense of wanting some fresh air for her to stick around, no matter how good the dessert looked. Especially since sticking around would have meant enduring trust fund girl even more than she had already suffered through. She smiled grimly as she noticed a spot next to one of the decorative columns on the balcony that would completely hide her from view and hurried over to it. After one more check to make sure that no one would be able to see her she slammed her hand into the column, venting her frustration into the column. After a half dozen back fist punches to the column she ran out of steam. Pressing her forehead to the column she relished the feeling of the cool stone on her face. “Sometimes I wish these stupid things could just end.”

As if in some twisted way of granting her wish, a scream echoed out from the main event hall. Biting her lip to stifle a curse Amity dashed back into the event hall. Up at the head of the room where her mom had given her speech was a vaguely familiar man who was ranting into the microphone as a pair of giant, purple, goo monsters were throwing tables every which way.

“-and together we will rise up and expose you for what you truly are!” the man screamed, apparently having gotten through the meat of his rant before Amity had gotten back inside to pay attention to him. With a scream of anguish he threw the microphone at the security guard that had decided to try and deal with the nutjob on the stage instead of the goop monsters. The man’s screams grew in volume and deepened as his form twisted and grew. The security guard tried to tackle him but was just sent flying across the room with a single sweep of an arm.

“Amity! We need to get out of here!”

Amity turned to see her mom rushing towards her. “Security is already escorting everyone out of the building! We need to go with them!”

“B-But..” Amity’s gaze turned to the man on the stage who had doubled in size by now and looked like some sort of werewolf. Thick, shaggy fur covered his entire body and all his clothes except for a belt had vanished, possibly shredded by his explosive growth.

“Security can handle him, I made sure to hire a group of specialists after recent events,” her mom insisted as she grabbed Amity’s hand and started to drag her along. Behind her the wolf beast was charging down the remaining security guards, all but two of which had pulled out their sidearms and were firing at the charging monster. Thankfully the goop monsters seemed to have been dealt with, leaving security to only deal with one magical monstrosity instead of three.

“Are you sure they can handle it?!” Amity asked as she looked over her shoulder. Just before the wolf monster reached the security guards, several tables were enveloped in a blue glow and lifted up from the ground. The floating tables arced through the air and slammed into the monster, knocking it aside. Many of the guards backed up to gain more distance but a larger one with an eyepatch was actually moving forward and drawing a sword of all things. Before she could see what was going to happen next her mom managed to drag her through the large double doors that led outside the building.

“They better,” her mom said. “Their entire sales pitch was that they could deal with things like this.” Her eyes darted back and forth before settling on the oncoming van with their chauffeur behind the wheel.

“You knew this was going to happen?!” Amity shrieked as she was bundled into the van.

“I knew this would happen eventually. Random pieces of jewelry and clothing giving people super powers? It was only a matter of time until someone would attack us with them. Either as revenge for something they decided was our fault or because they think doing so will get them prestige or money.” Odlaia stopped her explanation as the van swung around to the main parking lot. Her eyes scanned the lot for remaining attendees to the event. “The rest of the cars here belong to security and no one is left in the lot.” Everyone in the car froze as a resounding noise of shattering glass came from the event center. The wolf monster had been thrown through one of the windows and seemed to be covered in quickly healing bullet wounds and several long, much more slowly healing gashes. The thing howled at the hole it had made in the wall of the building before loping off into the night. 

“Well, I believe they were worth the expense,” Odalia absently noted.

Amity could only nod in agreement and wonder what the hell had happened to make this her life.

Chapter Text

Despite only having gone to school for a week and a day Luz felt she had picked up plenty of what constituted normal around the school. Enough at least to realize that things were very much not normal when she got into school on Tuesday. Generally when she got to school people had filed into the cafeteria and split into their various groups, content to spend time with their friends. Today though most of the students were crowded around a single table.

“What’s going on?” Luz asked as soon as she managed to find Gus at the edge of the crowd.

“Luz! Oh man, you’re never going to believe it! Someone attacked Mayor Blight’s big event last night!” At the horrified look on Luz’s face he quickly backpedaled. “No one got hurt! Everyone was fine! Well, except maybe the guy that attacked. And maybe some of the security guards but nothing too bad,” Gus’s tone started to perk up despite the subject matter as he got to the part that he was excited about. “He had some sort of belt that turned into a werewolf.” He pulled out his phone and opened up an image of what looked like a twelve foot tall wolf demon. “He also had someone else helping him out that summoned… these!” Gus said as he flicked his thumb across the screen to move to the next photo.

“That’s a picture of.... you and a dog,” Luz said after a second.

Gus’s eyes widened as she looked back at the phone. “Oops! One sec!” he flicked his thumb twice in the other direction. “These things were summoned!”

“Abominations?” Luz muttered as she looked at a picture of the gooey purple monstrosities. There had actually been a few relics that dealt with abomination magic that she could remember. None of them had any mental effects but the real danger would be in the abominations acting out random thoughts of their summoner. Even experienced abomination coven witches regularly practiced ensuring that their commands weren’t contaminated by random thoughts and emotions. For a human that wouldn’t even need to know that they should be doing that would probably have abominations acting out their summoner’s most random thoughts and impulses.

“Abominations huh,” Gus said as he looked at the picture again, startling Luz out of her contemplations. “Yeah, that sounds like a good name for them. Good idea Luz!”

“Uh, yeah. Just the first thing that came to mind when I saw them,” Luz said with a weak chuckle, pointedly not looking at Gus.

“Anyway! Mayor Blight had some sort of special security detail at the event that managed to drive off the wolf monster and destroy the abominations. Since the guy seemed pretty unhinged she had part of that security detail come to school with Amity. Hold on…” Gus set his phone camera to record and lifted it over the heads of the crowd. Panning it back and forth to try and get at least a little usable footage. Scrolling through it he stopped at a shot of Amity sitting at a table, surrounded by three men in suits. Two of them somewhat uncomfortable, their hands occasionally drifting to empty holsters at their sides. The last seemed more comfortable, lacking any sort of holster, empty or otherwise. “See? I looked into them a little bit earlier but couldn’t really find much of anything outside of some rumors about them. Really mysterious. Supposedly they specialize in defending against supernatural creatures.”

“Huh, Amity doesn’t look very happy about this though,” Luz noted as she pointed at the girl in the picture. Honestly, Amity looked like she was torn between embarrassment about being singled out like this and pure rage that could lead to her trying to strangle her new security detail.

“Yeah, she started out mostly annoyed but then one of those guys started chucking anyone who got too close to her away and she started getting really embarrassed.” He paused for a second. “Though I think I might have heard her laugh when Boscha was thrown away.”

Luz fought down the urge to chuckle at the image that conjured up. Boscha had been… interesting to deal with on the best of days. The thought of the smug girl getting rebuffed so thoroughly was far more amusing than it had any right to be.

Seeing that there wasn’t likely any chance to try and see how Amity was doing Luz and Gus wandered back to another table to pass time with Willow until the bell rang for the first call to classes.

Despite the interesting start to the day the rest of the morning passed without too many differences from normal. There had certainly been plenty of gawping whenever Amity had traveled through the halls, flanked by her security detail. However, the students had gotten bored rather quickly when nothing ever came of it beyond people being shoved aside from time to time. Luz had almost managed to push the entire situation from her mind simply by being so preoccupied with classes that it had managed to slip her mind.

At least until Luz had stopped by her locker before lunch to drop off some books. She had just finished stowing her books in her locker when she heard the sounds of rapid footsteps echoing through the empty hall. Turning to the noise she saw Amity sprinting through the halls, her eyes locked on Luz.

“Give me your beanie and jacket,” she demanded as soon as she reached Luz.

“I- What?!” Luz yelped as she backed away from Amity’s grasping hands. Doing her best to ward off Amuty’s grasping hands she turned to hide one of her hands so she could draw a quick spell circle out of sight. The circle flashed as an illusion settled around her ears, rounding them off to look like normal human ears. It wasn’t perfect and would probably be dispelled if anyone did more than just look at them but it would have to do. “Fine! Fine! You can have them!” With her attention no longer focused on keeping Amity from stealing her clothes or casting her spell, Luz noticed that there were not the sounds of more people running through the halls.

Amity immediately threw on the jacket and pulled the beanie down as far as it could go before tucking her hair under it. “Now hug me!” Amity demanded. Upon seeing that Luz had locked up on hearing her demand she took matters into her own hands and grabbed Luz into a tight hug drawing her close and placing her chin on Luz’s shoulder. With a slight grumble, she repositioned herself and the near insensate Luz so that her own back was facing the direction she had come from.

Realizing that whatever it was Amity was planning had a chance to be ruined if she didn’t pull herself together Luz took a deep, steadying breath. Mere moments after managing to get her blush down to a reasonable level she saw one of the members of Amity’s security detail run into view. He paused at the intersection and glanced down the hall, his eyes locking on Luz. “Hey you! Have you seen Amity Blight?!”

“Say I went down the stairs,” Amity whispered into Luz’s ear, ratcheting Luz’s blush back up several notches.

“She went down the stairs!” Luz managed to shout back, just barely managing to force herself to speak above a flustered squeak. The bodyguard cursed before sprinting down the hall towards the staircase.

“Are they gone?” Amity asked, still pushed right up into the crook of Luz’s neck.

“Y-yeah,” Luz said with a levelness that she certainly didn’t feel.

“Cool. Thanks for… all of this.” Amity backed away from Luz and plucked at the jacket she had borrowed and pulled off the beanie. “I just wanted to get away from them for a bit, sorry for putting you on the spot like this.” She handed back Luz’s clothes. “If there’s anything I can do to make up for this just let me know.”

“R-right.” With Amity no longer hugging her Luz was finally able to get her flustered mess of emotions fully under control. “Do you, uh, want to talk about it?”

Amity stared at Liz for a few seconds before sighing. “This is your whole hero thing acting up again isn’t it?”

“Hey!” Luz yelped. “I’m not that bad!”

“You decided to try and help patch up Willow and my relationship like two hours after meeting her.” Amity crossed her arms and leveled a deadpan glare at Luz.

“I- Well-” Luz huffed and looked away from Amity. “Fine. I have a hero thing. That doesn’t make my offer to listen a bad idea though, right?”

Amity blinked and shook her head. “Maybe you’re right.,” she sighed. “I just… this isn’t the first time my mom has assigned a security detail to me but it’s definitely the most annoying. That Tom guy is having way too much fun keeping everyone away from me. It’s not like I usually talk to people all that much before school but I kinda got used to listening to Boscha’s crew gossip and stuff.” She leaned back against the lockers, a distant look in her eyes. “I didn’t really care but it was kinda… nice? I guess? To have people hanging around. They didn’t make a big deal about things and it was nice.” She slid down the lockers until she was sitting on the floor, hugging her knees. “I’d actually gotten used to just being another student. People had stopped looking at me as Mayor Blight’s daughter and left me alone.” Her face twisted as though she’d bitten into a lemon. “And now that wolf freak and his friends managed to spook my mom into sending bodyguards to school with me! She’s never done that before!”

Luz joined Amity on the floor, unsure what to say. Her own mom had certainly been rather protective of her to be sure. But her protectiveness hadn’t been without reason. There might not have been any wanted posters of Luz, at least not for most of her life, but with her mom on the list of Wild Witches Luz was, at best, slated to be taken away and sent to be ‘re-educated’, if not just petrified for close association with a Wild Witch. “It sounds like she’s worried about you,” Luz finally said.

Amity snorted at that. “Right, Mrs. Ice Cold, had me stop being friends with people because it might be bad for her career, cares about me. She just doesn’t want to deal with the potential fallout of people questioning whether she can protect the city if she can’t protect her daughter or something.”

Luz grimaced, not knowing what to say. As much as she wanted to hope that Amity’s mom cared about her, she just didn’t know enough to refute anything. It broke her heart to see Amity so distressed but she couldn’t think of anything that could possibly help. Instead, she simply opted to place a hand on Amity’s shoulder to try and offer what little comfort she could.

Amity twitched at the unexpected contact and sighed. “When I saw it was only you down this hall I almost decided to go a different way instead of going with...” She waved a hand. “All of that.”

Luz felt another blush coming on as she remembered the ‘that’ Amity’s plan had entailed. “Yeah, I wouldn’t be too confident in my part of that plan either,” she half-joked. She honestly was surprised at the fact that she had been able to do her part in Amity’s plan without falling apart completely.

“That’s not what I was talking about,” Amity snorted. “I figured that after everything I’d done to you there was no way you would go along with the plan.” She blushed a little as she pointedly looked away from Luz. “It’s… kinda why I ended up being so pushy when I ran up to you instead of explaining things. I figured if I did it that way you wouldn’t really be thinking clearly enough to refuse.”

“Why wouldn’t I have agreed to help you? I have that whole ‘hero thing’ remember?” Luz said with a smirk.

“Yeah but I’ve been messing with you pretty much every time I’ve seen you, remember?”

“Well, yeah. But it’s not like you mean anything bad by that.” It was Luz’s turn to look away and blush. “And it’s not like I ever asked you to stop, even if you aren’t serious about any of it,” she muttered.

“Luz, I-”

“Ms. Blight!”

Both Luz and Amity leapt to their feet at the sudden shout. Turning to face the source of the yell they saw another one of the bodyguards at the end of the hall, only discernible from the others by his decision to wear a collar pin decorated with a large bright turquoise stone instead of a tie, and very obviously out of breath. He jogged down the hall before coming to a stop in front of them. Leaning down with his hands on his knees as he tried to catch his breath. “Ms. Blight… if you… want to spend… some time… with your girlfriend… please let us know.” He straightened up and took one more deep breath to stabilize himself. “We can’t protect you if you just run off like that. I understand that it can be awkward to be affectionate with your girlfriend around a bodyguard but it’s for the best.”

For the first time since Luz had seen Amity she was treated to the sight of her face being the one consumed by an all-encompassing blush instead of Luz’s.

“I- You- She’s not my girlfriend! I just wanted some space away from,” she gestured at the bodyguard, “all of this! There’s already an APB on the wolf guy so is he really going to be going up to a school to cause problems?!” Amity made a noise of pure frustration and shoved past the man.

For his part, he weathered Amity’s rant with more professionalism than Luz had expected. Merely offering Luz a quick apology for intruding on her before following after Amity.

Luz frowned as she watched the others leave a new plan coming together in her mind. At least until her stomach growled. Her eyes widened in shock when she pulled out her phone and found that there was less than half of the lunch period remaining. Cursing under her breath she sprinted down the halls in the hopes that she could get something to eat before it was too late.

Luz, thankfully, did manage to get to the cafeteria on time to grab something to eat. Granted she hadn’t been able to get her first choice but anything was better than making her way through the rest of the day on an empty stomach. Conversation with Gus and Willow wound up being understandably terse. Quick answers given about her tardiness in between large mouthfuls of food as she tried to wolf down her lunch as fast as possible. They had both been rather sympathetic towards Amity’s plight, no one liked being watched all the time and coddled like you were a delicate glass sculpture after all. There had been markedly less sympathy towards Luz regarding Amity’s method of throwing off her pursuers though. When the warning bell rang Luz was more than happy to leave the dirty traitors she had once called friends to laugh at her suffering at Amity’s hands. 

She spent her afternoon classes anticipating, half in hope, half in dread, Intro to 3D art. Normally she looked forward to the class. There was something enjoyable about the process of turning sheets of metal into little sculptures or jewelry. Sure Amity would usually do something flirty before class started but once things were underway she was actually a very solid tablemate. Assisting Luz whenever she needed help and always paying strict attention to all the safety protocols that came with using tools to cut apart metal and solder it back together.

Today would almost certainly be different though. Luz wasn’t really part of any of the school’s many gossip networks and didn’t have any other classes with Amity. As such she didn’t know what to expect from having the security detail there in the classroom. She certainly had ideas about how things would go given how Amity had acted in the hall earlier though. No one who was happy about how things were going was that desperate to get a little time for themselves.

Eventually, the time finally came for art class and Luz nervously settled into her seat. The fact that Amity hadn’t beaten her to class like she usually did was already something of a red flag. It was honestly more unsettling than Luz would admit to not have Amity there to greet her with some sort of innuendo. It wasn’t until there was less than a minute before class was due to start that Amity came all but stomping her way into the room. Following right behind her was a pair of extremely exasperated looking men in suits.

With a huff, Amity sat down in her usual seat at the same table as Luz. When one of the bodyguards looked like they were about to say something she shot them an acerbic glare. Even with the glare, it wasn’t until his partner jabbed him in the side and muttered something to him that he backed down. Seeing that she had gotten her desired personal space Amity slumped down with a sigh.

“Tough day?” Luz found herself asking before she could stop herself.

Amity turned an unamused frown towards Luz before rolling her eyes and nodding. “Yeah. Phil there has actually been a big help since he found us in the halls.” She nodded in the direction of the guard in question. For his part, he smiled and waved when he saw Amity and Luz looking at him. “He’s convinced that we’re dating by the way.” She smirked as her words had their expected effect of causing Luz to blush. “Apparently denying it just meant I was embarrassed about the whole thing so be ready for the entire school to have decided we’re dating.”

Luz closed her eyes and exhaled slowly, doing her best to marshall herself. A skill that she had gotten a degree of practice with that she would have never expected a month ago. By the time she opened her eyes the final bell had rung and class had begun. From then things proceeded with an almost surprising amount of familiarity. Conversation flowed as it usually did with requests for tools or a second opinion on how a piece looked. It wasn’t until class was almost half over that everyone got a reminder that things were different today.

“What the hell are you two doing?!”

It was only due to just how much Mr. Hallis had drilled safety into everyone’s minds that the entire class didn’t jump. Given that many of them were working with soldering irons, metal shears, or just trying to delicately put together their works, the lack of a visceral response to the sudden shout was a very good thing. That didn’t stop everyone from immediately putting down what they were working with so they could watch the drama unfold.

“We are supposed to be keeping a six foot perimeter around the principal at all times,” the third and last of Amity’s security detail shouted at the other two as he stormed over to them. “There are three students within that perimeter and nearly a dozen people between you and the principal. If something were to happen you would not be able to get between her and whatever was here in time to save her!”

“Sir, I can assure you that-” the man with the collar pin started to say before he was cut off by the newcomer.

“I don’t care what you can assure me, Phillip! Your little toy doesn’t entitle you to pick and choose which orders you follow! Is that understood?!” Not waiting for an answer the man swept his arm towards the table Amity was sitting at. “Now I want that table cleared and a perimeter set up around the principal yesterday! Am I clear?!”

Phillip grimaced but nodded. “Yes sir.”

Before any of the security detail could do anything another voice rang out to fill the room. “No! I am not going to let you do this again!” Amity screamed as she rose to her feet, sending the chair she had been sitting in clattering to the floor. “Do you really think those lunatics are going to attack a school in broad daylight?! They were at least pretending to have the moral high ground last night! They aren’t going to throw that away to try and get at me!” She stalked around the table and towards the man in charge of the security detail. “And even if they did show up, what are you going to do about them?! Your entire group didn’t manage to actually stop anything last night! You just drove them off to torment us another day! Why? Are you afraid that if you actually win my mom won’t need you anymore and end your contract?!” She jabbed the newest man in the chest with her finger.

“Ma’am, you need to calm down. We take our jobs seriously and would never compromise our professional integrity in such a way. Everything we do is to ensure that you are kept safe, even if you are assaulted by supernatural entities.” He eased Amity’s finger away from his chest. “In spirit of that, I must request that you return to your seat and allow us to set up the perimeter as outlined in our contract.”

Amity let out a slow, ragged, breath as she ground her teeth. Her shoulders shook as she closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “Right then.” Without another word and with surprising swiftness Amity ducked past the bodyguard and sprinted towards the door. When the bodyguards attempted to intercept her she threw a nearby empty chair into their legs, sending them into a sprawling, cursing, pile. Her immediate pursuers dealt with, she rushed out the door.

“God damn it! After her!”

All three bodyguards surged to their feet and rushed the door, only to slam into it as it failed to open. “She jammed something in front of the door!”

“Then break it down!”

“Now hold on here!” Mr. Hallis said. “You can’t just break the door! I’m sure she’s perfectly fine.”

As if the universe was mocking him it was at that moment that a scream came from behind the closed door.

“Amity!” Luz shouted as she jumped out of her seat.

“Right, door’s coming down,” Phillip said, his hand going to the stone on his collar pin. His free hand was enveloped in a bright blue glow that spread to the door. With a flick of his wrist, the door’s pins flew out of the hinges and the door was lifted free. The other bodyguards didn’t waste a second as they ran from the room.

Luz stared at the sudden display of magic before shaking herself out of her stupor, she would have time to process that when Amity wasn’t in danger. Ignoring Mr. Hallis’s calls for her to stay put, Luz ran out into the hall, hot on the bodyguard’s heels. At the end of the hall, still out of reach of the bodyguards was Amity, a pair of abominations lurching towards her, hands outstretched. She had fallen to the floor and was trying to back away from the purple monsters but was pressed against the wall.

“Over here you freaks!” one of the bodyguards shouted, his hands going to a pocket in his suit coat to pull out a set of knuckle dusters. 

Just a few steps behind the lead bodyguard, Phillip was using his artifact to pull Amity along the floor down the hall towards them. His eyes widened slightly as he glanced backward and saw Luz following after them. With a broad, sweeping, motion he directed the still screaming Amity to slide along the floor over to Luz. “Keep an eye on your girlfriend, kid!”

Luz knelt down to catch Amity, pulling her into a quick hug. “It’s alright. I got you.”

Amity finally stopped screaming as she finally processed what had happened. Her wide, frantic eyes, locked with Luz’s own steady, comforting ones as she slowly began to stop hyperventilating.

For her part, Luz immediately turned her attention to the fight against the abominations the moment she was sure that Amity was safe. The three bodyguards worked together like a well-oiled machine. Phillip kept the abominations off balance by snagging moving limbs with his telekinesis while the other two slowly dismantled the monsters. Now that Luz was looking for it she could tell that there was something special about the knuckle dusters they were using. Nothing major but something enough to disrupt the magic of the abominations whenever they were hit. Under this constant assault, the abominations didn’t manage to last more than a minute. Growing smaller and smaller with each strike until they couldn’t keep their forms together any longer and they fell apart. The goo that made them up dissolving into quickly dissipating smoke.

With the threat dealt with, the bodyguards made their way back to where Luz was still cradling Amity. Something she realized only when Phillip smirked and gave her a thumbs up. A smirk that turned into an amused cackle when the two girls immediately pushed away from each other with bright red faces now that they had time to process what they had looked like. The leader of the group looked Luz up and down before nodding to himself. “You two need to get back to class. I’ll handle letting the faculty know what happened here and that the situation has been resolved.” He turned to Phillip and sighed. “You appear to be better able to keep the principal happy so I’ll allow you to make decisions about the perimeter. Do not mess this up.” His commands given the man strode down the hall, leaving everyone else to return to class.

A class that ended up being far less focused on 3D art than it had been ten minutes ago.

With Phillip in control of the perimeter around Amity other students were allowed to walk up and ask all the questions they wanted. At least until Amity decided that she’d had enough of people asking her what had happened in the hall and glancing meaningfully at Luz. With orders given to reinstate the perimeter for ‘all those morons that keep bugging me’ Phillip bravely bore the brunt of the questioning, deftly steering the general line of the inquiries from what had happened with Amity in the hall to himself and the private security firm he was part of.

“Yeah, we deal with stuff like this all the time. Picked up lots of little toys over the years too.” He fingered the stone on his collar pin. “Like this baby. Supposedly part of a pair but we only ever found the one up in Oregon. We’re positive the other one is still up there somewhere but had to ship out before we could find it. Not quite as fancy as the things that have been popping up around town but still useful.” His smile grew wider. “In fact, those little things are why we started looking for contracts out here. Not often we can get such public contracts while still having a chance at getting some new toys after all.” His grin fell and he sighed. “Though with how public this has all been hopes aren’t that high. Good money though and fighting monsters is always fun.”

Luz’s breath caught in her throat at his words. She knew that there were people out there that had to have realized what was going on and were looking to grab an artifact of their own. Matthoumule had even wanted to try and take away her staff believing it was the source of her power. Add in that so much of what she was seeing online being people doubting that the artifacts were real she figured she would only really have to deal with local people trying to get their hands on them. The idea that there might be a group organized enough and believing in magic despite humans seeming so sure it didn’t exist was completely out of her expectations. She dreaded to think what would happen if these people got their hands on some of the more dangerous artifacts. And if they managed to get their hands on the Rainbow Staff? Luz shook her head with a grimace as she idly continued to try and make a little metal owl, her mind whirling over what all this would mean for her.

Eda would never admit it, not in a million years, but she was actually worried when Luz got back from school and just spent the next hour sitting around silently checking her phone. If it weren't for the fact that the store was empty and there was nothing else to do Eda might have faked being insulted at the absence of the kid’s usual work ethic. She clearly had something on her mind and was unwilling to talk about it. Most likely in some misguided martyrish desire to not worry anyone else. Eda was sure that there was a nice and proper roundabout way to try and get Luz to say what was wrong that was nice and sensitive and completely un-Eda-like that she was going to eschew for the direct approach.

“Hey kid, something up? You’ve been way too quiet since you got back.”

“I… uh…” Luz’s eyes darted back and forth as she obviously searched for some sort of excuse.

“Look, kid. It’s okay.” Eda rolled her eyes with a sigh. For a member of an underground rebellion the kid was terrible at making things up on the spot. “Is it some witch thing?”

“Kind of? I… I might need to stay out late tonight doing magic stuff. Someone got attacked by someone with a relic yesterday and again while at school today. I’m worried that whoever has it might try something again tonight. I was thinking I might be able to keep an eye on her house to see if anything happens but then I might not be able to go to school tomorrow and you worked so hard to get me in and-”

“Hold up!” Eda interrupted. “Don’t worry about school. If things go south I’ll just call in and say you’re sick or something. One day isn’t going to ruin things for you at school. If you think this kid might get attacked then go make sure they’re safe.”

Relief washed over Luz’s face at Eda’s assurances. Without warning she darted forward and grabbed Eda in a hug, causing her to squawk indignantly. “Hey! Let go! I’m awesome for giving you a chance to skip out on school but no touchy!” Eda said as she did her best to try and pry Luz off.

“Thanks Eda,” Luz murmured into Eda’s shoulder.

Eda froze momentarily in her attempts to dislodge Luz. “You’re welcome, you little gremlin. Now let go of me and go do your Wild Witch thing!”

“Right!” Luz said, her usual vitality back in full force. With one more quick hug she summoned her outfit and staff before running out of the store.

“Good luck you crazy kid,” Eda muttered to herself, unable to keep a worried frown from her face. “You better come back safe.”

Chapter Text

When Amity returned home from school it was in stark contrast to how she had left. That very morning she had been filled with rage at her mother’s decision to assign bodyguards to her. So sure that it would only cause her to stand out meaninglessly. She had left the house thinking that the man behind the entire thing would focus his efforts on the main target of his ire. That he would end up attacking her mother. It wasn’t that she wanted her mother to be attacked by some insane wolfman, it just made sense. She had been so sure that school would be the same as always, just disrupted by a group of pointless busybodies.

Then the monsters had attacked her.

It wasn’t the same as when they had appeared at the event hall. Then they had just been focused on causing chaos and destruction. Chairs thrown around, tables smashed, fancy table settings tossed aside like trash. This time they had come for her. They had appeared right in front of her and reached for her, almost certainly to steal her away to use as a bargaining chip. It was only through the intervention of those pointless busybodies that she’d gotten away.

She still resented them for how intrusive they were, distrusted them even more now that she had seen what they were really hoping to get out of their contract.. But she no longer fought against them. Granted the leader of the guards assigned to her had, thankfully, loosened up quite a bit after art class. But they still vetted everyone that came by to talk to her. Still made sure they turned every corner first. But they didn’t shove her into a corner of the classroom and force everyone else out of it. Small victories but ones that made all the difference in the world.

So when they ushered her into a nondescript vehicle after school instead of letting her get on the bus she complied, no matter how stifling it felt. When they took a long, circuitous route to her house she was annoyed but she accepted it, no matter how pointless it was. And when she finally got home and was able to shed her constant shadows she returned to her room and screamed into her pillow.

Emotions properly vented she busied herself with a blessedly normal evening. Homework was completed as soon as possible. Her image as a perfect student may have been initially crafted by her mother but it was far too important, and she was far too proud, to let that particular trait slip. In between assignments she texted back and forth with her siblings. They offered condolences for what she was going through and assured her that nothing had happened with them. While she was sure that the madman that was causing all this trouble wouldn’t have hesitated to harass them as well, Houston was probably a bit too far for him to travel. And that was even if he could find the universities each twin had chosen. There was a lot of tension between the twins and their parents but they had managed to ensure that the twins would be able to go to college as unmolested as they could. She also tried sending a few messages to her dad but never received a response. He was apparently still hard at work on his business trip and was unable to respond immediately.

After homework more texts were exchanged as Amity assured them once more that yes, the magic stuff was real. There really had been a super villain that tried to rob a bank, there had been two super heroes thwarting crimes, and that someone had managed to create a giant plant monster in the backyard of the school. Edric once more expressed a desire to abandon his architecture degree and come back home in hopes of becoming a super hero himself but was quickly talked down.

With the inevitable discussion on the supernatural taken care of the conversation turned to more standard topics. Edirc and Emira both lamented the difficulty of classes, each one trying to one up the other in the strictness of professors and their homework. Amity chimed in from time to time reminding them that she may not have any college professors but she did have Mrs. Post for english. Both of the twins conceded that the woman probably did have most of their professors beat. The twins had just managed to bring the conversations around to romance, along with the requisite needling of Amity to try and find herself a girlfriend, when Amity saw her mom’s car coming up the driveway. Taking the out this presented, there was no way she was going to discuss romance with the twins, she gave her 100% legitimately forlorn excuses about not being able to continue the conversation and said her goodbyes. The twins were less than graceful in being denied a chance to needle her but eventually accepted that she had other things to do.

“Ms. Blight? Your mother wants to see you downstairs,” came the predictable voice of one of the bodyguards.

“I’ll be down in a second,” she assured him as she sent a particularly smug line of emojis to the twins as her final contribution to the conversation. Stepping out of her room she nodded at the man that had been sent to get her, eyepatch guy, she noted, and followed him downstairs. Her mother was sitting in the lounge but got up the moment she entered the room.

“Amity, I heard what happened at school. Are you alright?” her mother asked, stepping towards her. “I knew sending them with her was a good idea. That madman may not have tried anything while I was out today but I knew he had something planned.” She placed a hand on Amity’s shoulder in an all too rare show of care. “Don’t worry Amity. I will make certain this madman never manages to even try to harm you again.”

“It’s okay!” Amity tried to interject. “It was my own fault! I-”

“Even so I will not leave you open to attack,” her mother overrode her. “Whoever controls those monsters may have been thwarted this time but they will certainly try again. They were able to keep a close enough eye on you to catch you the moment you were alone. We must do everything we can to make sure he never gets another chance like that again.”

“I- No! School was bad enough with just the three of them! I promise I won’t leave their sight! There won’t be a single time that I could get singled out at school!”

“Amity, I can’t leave you at risk. There are some other security firms I can call in to reinforce your security detail. I’ll have to make sure that at least one of them is a woman so they can follow you into the bathroom as well.”

Amity’s face flushed with both anger and embarrassment at her mother’s words. “No! I’m not going to let you add even more people to this!” Her fists clenched until her knuckles were white and her nails dug into her palms. “Why can’t you just listen to me for once!?”

Her mother was silent for a moment before her eyes narrowed. She opened her mouth to continue the argument but was interrupted by a sudden shout from one of the bodyguards.

“Monsters sighted! Three down the hall!”

Like a well oiled machine the bodyguards in the room split into two groups. One ran from the room, intent on dealing with the known threat. The other spread throughout the room, checking outside windows and doors for further threats. “Mrs. Blight. This room is too open, we need to relocate,” one of the bodyguards said as he nodded at the floor to ceiling windows that dominated one of the room’s walls.

Amity’s mother nodded firmly, though her paling complexion betrayed her unease with the situation. “Of course. I assume you have already scouted out a more defensible room?”

“The rec room near the center of the house has no windows and limited entrances.”

“Lead on.” Amity’s mother turned to face her. “We’ll continue this after this problem is dealt with.”

Amity looked like she had bit into a lemon but she nodded. Even if she thought there was a chance that arguing with her mother would lead to anything positive when she was like this she wasn’t foolish enough to try and do so while they were under attack. The trip to the rec room was filled with tension as the bodyguard leading the way scanned each room for enemies before letting them enter, and the rear guard twitching their gun in the direction of even the most insignificant seeming noises. All the while crashes, gunfire, and roars could be heard in the distance. By the time they reached the rec room Amity was sweating bullets and jumping at every new sound. Something that came to bite her when her mother decided that the rec room was safe enough for them to continue their conversation.

“Amity. You need to understand this is all for your own good. We are not even safe in our own house. There is no way I will allow you to leave the house without knowing that you will be kept safe.”

Amity stared at her mother for a second, her eye twitching in anger. “So now you care about me?” she hissed. “Or do you just care about how bad it would look if you couldn’t protect your own daughter?”

If her mother was perturbed by the accusation she didn’t show it. “Of course I care about you Amity. Everything I’ve done has been to ensure that our family is safe and happy.”

“Happy?!” Amity screeched, unheeding of the two guards that had opted to stay in the room instead of taking positions outside the room’s doors. “If you really cared about me being happy you wouldn’t try to pimp me out to some random asshole’s daughter just because she was gay! You wouldn't have had me do all those outreach programs! You wouldn’t have forced me to stop being friends with Willow!” Distantly she heard the bodyguards responding to a call from the radio but disregarded it. “All you care about is looking good for the voters! You just want to hold on to whatever power you’ve managed to grab hold of because you have nothingelse!” By the time Amity had finished shouting she was panting for breath, tears welling at the corners of her eyes. She hastily tried to blink away her tears as she stared at her mother. For the first time in her life seeing a look of shock on her face. Her mother hesitated for a moment and looked to be about to say something when the sound of gunfire echoed in the rec room.

Her mother jumped at the sound of the gunfire, her eyes sweeping the room and growing wide as she saw four more of the monsters rising up out of the ground. Not wasting a second she grabbed Amity’s hand and dragged her towards the door furthest from the monsters.

“Mrs. Blight!” the guard just outside the door shouted as they saw the monsters assaulting the guards that remained in the room. “We need to get to the garage! The rest of the squad is dealing with wolf beast right now. We don’t have the numbers to deal with that thing and all these monsters!”

For all that the flight to the rec room had been nerve wracking their journey to reach the garage was far, far, worse. The gunfire had largely ceased, with only the occasional noise coming from further into the mansion, each time closer than the last. Behind them came the heavy thudding footfalls and groans of the pursuing slime monsters. For one brief moment Amity felt a flash of hope come to life when they managed to reach the garage, her mother pointing out the push start car that she had the keys to in her purse. That hope was quickly dashed when the far wall of the garage exploded into a cloud of debris and a massive wolf beast charged into the room.

It had grown even larger than it had been yesterday. Only managing to fit in the room by virtue of it’s hunched stature. Even then it’s massive shaggy head brushed the ceiling of the garage. With an almost negligent sweep of its arms it tossed vehicles aside as it loped towards them. The remaining bodyguard tried to slow the thing down but was tossed aside just as easily as the cars had been.

Behind them came the sound of splintering wood as three of the goo monsters shoved their way into the garage. The massive purple monstrosities groaned as they reached out towards their targets. 

Amity was hyperventilating as she and her mother backed away from the two encroaching threats. The goo monsters rolled forwards, growing in size as they ceased to be confined by the relatively small halls, and the wolf beast sported a deranged grin as he stalked towards them. She thought she was going to faint before she was suddenly shoved backwards by her mother.

“Take me and leave Amity alone,” her mother said, standing unbent before monsters that could, and likely would, tear her apart. “Whatever your grudge is, it is with me. Let her leave and I’ll do whatever you want.”

The goo monsters froze in their tracks while the wolf beast shook with laughter.

“You will confess,” the beast finally said in a voice that made rockslides sound pleasant.

“Very well. Whatever it is you believe I did, I did it.”

The wolf beast blinked and shook its head. “No! You know what you did! You need to say it!”

“Whatever it is, I did it. I swear it was all me. Just tell me what you want me to say and I will say it,” Amity’s mom said. This time though her voice was tinged ever so slightly with panic.

“No!” the beast roared. “You know what it is! You know what you did! You need to confess! You need to confess!” The beast’s shouts quickly devolved into a beastial howl before it fixed a maddened glare at the target of it’s rage. With one more enraged howl it leapt forward, claws reaching out and ready to tear apart whatever it could reach.

Time seemed to slow to a crawl as Amity reached out for her mom, screaming all the while. She couldn’t let this be the end. She couldn’t let her last conversation with her mom just be yelling at her. She just needed more time!

With a deafening roar, two of the three goo monsters shot forward with speed far outstripping anything she had ever seen them reach before. They slammed into the wolf beast like a pair of freight trains. The entire mass smashed through a car and tumbled through the garage door. The last of the goo monsters ambled over to her mother and placed itself between her and the hole the wolf beast had been thrown through. Both Amity and her mother stood in shocked silence as the monsters that had been chasing them through the house shifted to protecting them. 

Any attempts to discern what had caused the switch were put on hold when a new figure came rocketing into the garage. “Is everyone okay in here?!” the Wild Witch shouted. She came screeching to a halt when she noticed the last of the goo monsters standing in front of Amity. “Okay then, just one to deal with.”

As the Wild Witch began to draw circles of light in the air with her fingers Amity managed to break free from her stupor. “Wait! We think they’re protecting us!” she shouted as she rushed forward to stand at the goo monster’s side. It rumbled incoherently and glanced down at her but otherwise didn’t move except to ensure it stayed between Amity and the Wild Witch.

“Protecting you? But then why did they…” the Wild Witch trailed off before she seemed to come to a realization. “The e- I mean… Did you recently buy anything? Like some sort of second-hand jewelry or something?”

Amity’s eyes widened as her hand drifted to her earrings. “You can’t possibly be- I would have noticed I was summoning these things!”

The Wild Witch shook her head. “Not necessarily. The artifacts take a lot of the effort out of casting a spell. All it would probably take would be a moment of heightened emotion and a strong desire. To get away from someone, or not liking something and the abominations would be summoned.” She paused and glanced out the hole in the garage door she had come through. Roars from both the wolf beast and the abominations could be heard from outside. “Normally I’d just ask you to take the earrings off but some backup would be nice to have against the guy outside. I have something that I think can stop him but I need time and for him to get in position.” She nodded towards the abomination. “Think you can get this guy to do that? Or summon some more, I don’t know how many those things can summon.”

Amity stared at the Wild Witch for a moment before nodding. “I’ll see what I can do.”

Showing a level of confidence in her that Amity didn’t personally possess, the Wild Witch stepped back and began to draw a massive circle of light with both her hands. Once it was complete she stepped back and began to repeat the process.

“Okay, uhhh, you,” Amity said as she looked up at the abomination that had remained with her. “Can you hear me?” The thing groaned in what Amity hoped was an affirmative. “Okay. Okay. I can do this,” she whispered to herself. “Go, uhh, stand in front of those circle things,” she ordered as she pointed at a spot in front of the growing line of glowing circles. Panic started to rise in her as the thing just continued to stare down at her, not moving.

“You need to be firm.”

Amity jumped at the sudden suggestion and turned to see her mom looking at her.

“The Wild Witch said they responded to intent and emotion. It should be no different than giving orders to people. Speak evenly, firmly, and make sure your intent is clear. I know you can do this. You are a Blight.”

Amity gulped at those familiar words. Words that her mother and father had both used to try and drive her forward. A Blight gets good grades. A Blight always leads. A Blight doesn’t let their emotions control them. As much as she hated the oft repeated phrase it did center her. Moving her into a mindset she was sure would be far better at dealing with this situation than the bundle of nerves that she had been seconds ago. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath to further center herself. Breathing out she opened her eyes and fixed the abomination with a steely gaze. “Move in front of the rings of light and prepare for the wolf beast to re-enter the garage.” To her slight surprise, the thing immediately moved where she had commanded it. Taking up a loose stance in front of the rings of light, its eyes focused on the hole in the garage.

Her first task done she closed her eyes once more and reached one hand for the earrings. Tracing them with her fingers she reached deep inside herself as she tried to call on whatever it was the things did to summon the abominations. The Wild Witch had said they responded to emotion. Emotions like storming out of a charity event because her mother had tried to set her up with the daughter of some major donator. Emotions like anger at her bodyguards for ruining her day time and time again. Emotions like getting into getting into another screaming rant at her mother. With an ease that she distantly noted couldn’t possibly be healthy for her, she pulled up that rage and frustration. A set of emotions she was so used to shoving down and hiding behind a mask of calm. Once more she opened her eyes as her emotions surged forth, maybe it was just her imagination but she was sure she could feel the earrings responding. On instinct, she held out her hand and saw two rings of light appear on the ground. From those rings rose two more abominations. With a few curt orders, one of them joined his fellow near the rings, while the second was directed to stay near her mother.

Preparations complete there was nothing more she could do but sit and wait. A wait that grew tenser and tenser as the sounds dwindled to nothing outside the garage. Seconds passed with nary a rustle from outside. For one, brief moment Amity wondered if the abominations had won their fight against the wolf beast, or at least had managed a draw. That thought was quickly squashed when a thunderous crash came from above them. Amity only had a second to dive to the side, her mother following suit, as the massive form of the wolf beast tore through the roof of the garage right over them. It had somehow managed to grow even larger since she had last seen it. Forced to stand in an almost four legged stance to even fit in the garage. “Attack him!” Amity managed to shout before the dust kicked up by the wolf beast’s destructive entrance sent her into a coughing fit.

The abomination that had been tasked with guarding her mother was the first to reach the wolf beast. It surged forward and grabbed hold of the best’s jaw, trying its best to wrangle the thing down to the ground. The attempt only lasted a few seconds before the wolf beast reared up and smashed the abomination against the ceiling. Dislodging it enough for the beast to free its jaws. Once free the beast made short work of the abomination.

“Why aren’t you doing anything?!” Amity shouted at the WIld With in a panic as the remaining two abominations caught up with the wolf beast. 

“He’s not in the right position!” the Wild Witch shouted back, panic clear in her voice. “I figured he would come through the hole!” She gestured at the line of light rings that she had made that pointed right at the hole in the wall. “We need to get him in front of them so I can hit him from here! If I try to cast anything else that could actually do something all the other spells will collapse!”

“Right. Right. Just need to get a giant wolf monster to move somewhere it doesn’t want to go. Easy,” Amity muttered as she called up her anger once more to try and summon more abominations. Her heart sank when only a single circle appeared on the ground. Was this some limit to the earrings? Or had she done something wrong? Shoving her anxiety down with the ease of long practice she ordered the newest abomination to join it’s companions in attempting to control the wolf beast.

Thankfully the two abominations had managed to cover for each other well enough that neither had been outright destroyed by the wolf beast. One was noticeably smaller than it had been when she had last seen it and the other was just barely managing to keep the beast’s snapping jaws away from its body. 

“Keep it’s head still!” Amity ordered the two abominations currently wrestling with the wolf beast. “Jump on it’s back!” she ordered the newest entrant into the brawl.

With a rumbling groan the abomination surged into the air in an action that could only be very charitably called a jump. It seemed more like it simply grew taller and fell forward onto the wolf beast. The effect, however, was what Amity had been hoping for. Following the unspoken clarifications it could feel from its summoner the abomination grabbed hold of the wolf beast’s ears and yanked one of them harshly. The beast howled with rage but its head followed the insistent tugging on its ear.

“The rest of you! Get on it too!”

The other abominations rushed to follow Amity’s orders and tried to join their comrade atop the wolf beast. The smaller one failed to grow tall enough to fake a jump onto its back and was caught beneath its feet and trampled apart. The other managed to land on the beast’s back  but could do little more than hold on and try to steer the beast as it shook itself in an attempt to dislodge its passengers.

With a deafening howl the wolf beast moved back and forth, slamming into walls and cars as it attempted to dislodge the abominations from its back and head. Yet for all its wild rampaging it never moved into range of whatever it was the Wild Witch had put together. Before Amity could try to give a command that might help direct the abominations in steering the beast successfully the beast rolled onto its back. Once there it writhed back and forth, using its superior bulk to crush the abominations.

“No no no no no no no no,” Amity whispered as her hand flew to the earrings once more. Her hopes rose as a flickering circle of light appeared on the ground, only to wink out as something failed. Her breath caught in her throat as the wolf beast rose back to its feet and glared at her. With a deep growl that shook the room it began to stalk towards her. Amity stumbled backwards as she tried to call up another abomination, but this time the circle didn’t even begin to appear. “No… please… no…” she whimpered as the beast continued to stalk forward.

“Over here!”

Both Amity and the beast froze at the sudden shout. Turning her head Amity saw her mom standing to the side, arms spread wide.

“You came here for me didn’t you? Here I am!” she declared as she stared down the wolf beast. “Come and get me.”

The beast needed no further provocation. With the target of its hatred once more front and center it completely forgot about Amity. Instead turning to stare hatefully at Amity’s mom. Slow deliberate steps quickly turned into a ground devouring lope as it moved to finally reap its vengeance.

And then, just as it was about to leap forwards for that final lunge that would end its enemy’s life, it passed in front of the Wild Witch.

The Wild Witch thrust her staff forward and a golden light shot out. Each ring it passed through flared with light before being absorbed by the glowing projectile and increasing its brightness and speed. By the time it passed the final ring it was like someone had turned the sun into a bullet. It smashed into the head of the wolf beast and sent it staggering to the side. The thing growled once more but this time the sound was tinged with confusion. It staggered forward, taking several drunken steps that only moved it further away from its goal. Its eyes began to flutter closed as the growls faded into plaintive whines. Finally it collapsed to the ground, breathing deeply as sleep claimed it. The instant it succumbed to whatever it was the Wild Witch had done the beast began to shrink. Within seconds the massive beast had faded away, leaving behind a, thankfully still clothed, man. The Wild Witch rushed forward and began to pat the man down. After a few seconds of frantic searching she perked up and removed an elaborate belt from around the man’s waist.

“Got it!” she whooped, holding the belt up triumphantly and doing a happy little jig right over the sleeping man. After a moment she seemed to realize she had an audience, what little of her face that could be seen behind the mask and under her hood flushing a bright scarlet. “Right! Are you two alright?”

“Yes, I believe we are both unharmed,” Amity’s mom said. “The garage will certainly need some remodeling but it is a small price to pay to have stopped that madman.”

The Wild Witch looked like she was going to say something, likely an apology for the destruction given how embarrassed she looked, when everyone’s attention was grabbed by a new shout.

“Drop the belt!”

Amity’s head snapped to the new sound to see a pair of people wearing suits, guns drawn, rushing into the garage. One a woman with long dark hair reaching down her back and a severe expression, the other an almost ridiculously plain looking brown haired man. “That belt is a dangerous magical artifact and needs to be contained,” the woman shouted, her pistol trained on the WIld Witch, “along with any other magical artefacts on the premises.”

“Wha- I-” the Wild Witch stammered as she stared at the woman. “No! I can’t just let this thing go! Look what someone already managed to do with it!”

The woman’s eyes narrowed. “And that’s why we need you to surrender it. We have the necessary facilities to contain it. Now hand it over or-”

“Or what?” Amity’s mother asked as she stepped between the Wild Witch and the woman. “I doubt you are part of any law enforcement. I would have been informed if there was some sort of federal task force operating in my city trying to deal with incidents like these wouldn’t I?”

The woman clenched her teeth, her gun wavering back and forth as she tried to get another angle on the WIld Witch. “The SCI operates on its own, without involving local governmental bodies. Keeping the existence and ease of use of magic quiet is hard enough without image obsessed politicians getting involved.”

“You will have to excuse me for not believing your story Ms...?”

“Lillith Clawthorne, Supernatural Containment Initiative,” the woman, Lillith, ground out as she fished a badge out from her suit coat.

Amity’s mother hummed as she looked over the badge. “It certainly looks official but I'm afraid that isn’t enough.” She walked closer to Lillith until the gun was almost pressing into her chest. “Now unless you have a superior that can contact, someone I can actually trust, I’m afraid I can’t let you take that belt.”

“Psst!”

Amity jumped at the sudden sound and spun around to see the Wild Witch’s face mere inches from her own. Eyes wide she glanced back towards where her mom and Lillith were continuing their discussion to see another Wild Witch still standing over there. “How-”

“Illusions,” the WIld Witch said, her eyes twinkling with an unseen smile. “Set up another one in front of you so it looks like you’re still just standing around and I’m not here.” The mirth faded from her eyes and her tone became much more serious. “I need those earrings.”

“What? Why? I’m not going to do anything bad with them! I promise!” Amity said.

The Wild Witch shook her head. “You don’t know what kind of side effects they might have.” She nodded in the direction of the sleeping man. “You saw how crazy that guy was getting near the end. The belt was eroding his mind, making him more and more like a beast. I don’t know what kind of side effects the earrings have, but do you really want to risk it?”

Amity was torn as she looked over at the man. She didn’t want to end up like him, but the exhilaration of summoning and commanding the abominations had been unlike anything else she’d ever felt. “Isn’t there something you can do to check if there’s any side effects? You know a lot about these things right? You’re using them too, right?” Amity asked as she turned her most pleading expression on the Wild Witch, a weapon’s grade pout that had even once managed to get her mom to let her camp in front of a bookstore for the midnight release of the newest Teen Witch Azura book.

The Wild Witch looked away, another blush crawling up her face. “I… I might know a few spells that can check for that sort of thing.” She twirled her fingers, creating more circles of light as she did… something. After five more little circles she sighed. “It looks like the earrings aren’t doing anything to you. They just can create and store a lot of abominations.” She glanced away again. “Probably why they were in the vault in the first place. You could store an army in there and pull them out whenever you wanted. No way the Emperor's Coven would want anyone to be able to do that,” she muttered under her breath, not seeming to notice that Amity could hear her. “Okay, so they’re safe but they really aren’t something that humans should be messing around with. Magic is dangerous and I’ve spent my whole life learning-” she abruptly stopped speaking, her attention fixed on a spot over Amity’s shoulder.

“Damn it! That was just an illusion! Steve, scan for the Wild Witch now!” Lillith shouted from over where the illusion of the Wild Witch had once been.

“Crap, out of time,” the Wild Witch muttered. “Fine, you can keep them for now, just be careful.” Once again she spun her fingers and created circles of light. When they dissipated there were four WIld Witches, all flying out of the garage on their staves. “Sorry about the mess but I really gotta go!” they all shouted.

Amity couldn’t help but laugh as Lillith ran out of the building, cursing and yelling at the Wild Witch to stop.

Hours later Amity found herself in her, thankfully still intact, bedroom. Once the danger had passed the house had been mobbed by hordes of people. Police to arrest the intruder and collect statements, medics picking up the bodyguards that had been hurt in the fight, none of which had died though it seemed it had been close in some instances, and, worst of all, reporters. Everything from the local news to paparazzi and everything in between. Years of practice not saying anything and directing particularly annoying people to her mom paid off as the crowd was finally whittled down enough for her to retreat to her current safe zone.

Not that it remained quiet for too long since she hadn’t been in her room for more than ten minutes before her phone started to explode with notifications. Acquaintances from school bombarded her with questions about what had happened. If the people that had been attacking her had been caught, and, once mother had mentioned that the WIld Witch had assisted in keeping them safe, asking all sorts of questions about her as well. Most of the messages were ignored immediately. Messages from Boscha and her posse were read but, almost entirely, ignored as well. Skara at least had been kind enough to just offer her condolences and a contrite sounding offer to listen if she was willing to talk. A pair of surprising messages from Luz and Willow made her pause for a moment. Simply brushing them off felt wrong. Willow certainly deserved more than to be ghosted and Luz deserved that even less after how much she had helped over the last few days. Typing out a pair of simple responses she assured them that she was fine and she would talk some more at school tomorrow. Willow had seemed surprised at that but Amity reasoned that Luz still had her favor and the chances that she wasn’t going to use it to try and further her goal to reignite Willow and Amity’s friendship were basically non-existent. She might as well get ahead of things and try to get that frustratingly selfless girl to use that favor on herself instead.

That just left one more chat group. The one that now dwarfed all the others combined. The twins. Skipping past the gargantuan wall of concerned texts from both of them she assured them she was fine. Of course they weren’t going to let things go with that. Over the course of nearly an hour they managed to drag out almost the whole story from her, interspersed with lots of color commentary. While she did trust the twins, crazy as it sounded, to not spill the beans to anyone about her having magic earrings she didn’t trust the texting app. All it would take was someone happening to see the messages on anyone’s screens or someone getting a hold of the text records. Thankfully it was easy enough to push all the heroism onto the Wild Witch. Unfortunately that led to Edric and Emira deciding that she must have fallen in love with the, no doubt beautiful, gallant witch that had swept in out of nowhere. She finally decided to stop responding when they started trying to come up with the perfect ship name for their new favorite pairing.

With her social obligations taken care of she was finally free to turn her attention to the subject that had been simmering in the back of her head all evening: trying out the magic earrings. Closing her eyes she pulled up her feelings of anger and held out her hand. Either the earrings or herself had had time to recharge or not being under threat of death anymore gave her the concentration needed because when she opened her eyes back up an abomination was rising up from a glowing circle of light. Unlike the times she had called them up before she felt strangely drained. Like she had just completed a strenuous workout session but without the aches and pains that usually accompanied something like that. The Wild Witch had mentioned that the earrings had been able to store the abominations. Maybe she had just been pulling out ones that had been made by someone else?

She shook her head and brushed the thought aside. If it had taken even the Wild Witch, the one person that seemed to know anything at all about these things, effort to figure out what the earrings did, she really doubted that there was anyone that could answer her questions about where the first abominations had come from. One hand drifted to trace the earrings as she tried to figure out the whole storage thing. It took a good ten minutes, and several commands that were only met with a noncommittal groan before another circle of light appeared beneath the abomination and it sank into the ground. Just barely holding back a cheer Amity tried to bring it back. Once more the circle of light appeared and the abomination rose back up out of the ground. “Yes! I did it! I used magic!” Not bothering to hold back a whoop of joy Amity pumped her fists into the air, laughing madly.

“Very impressive.”

Amity froze at the sound of her mother’s voice. Her smile evaporated as she spun around to see her mother standing in the open doorway to her room. “Mother. I didn’t know you were there.”

“I figured as much, you were quite focused on figuring out how to use the earrings.” she nodded towards where the abomination was standing. “Congratulations.”

Amity found herself opening and closing her mouth as she tried to figure out what to say. It ended up being a moot point as her mother didn’t seem to be finished.

“The agents from the SCI returned earlier to take my statement about the incident. I told them that there were several artefacts present. I knew of one turned a man into a beast and another one summoned slime monsters but there may have been more. I also told them that the Wild Witch left with several artefacts. They attempted to convince me to place us both under a magical oath to not spread word about magic or to allow them to erase it from our minds but in light of their handling of the situation earlier it was easy to convince them to leave well enough alone. I do not believe that they will be back to investigate further.” She paused and stared at the earrings. “With how dangerous the town is becoming I believe you will still require protection but with those earrings I believe you will be able to protect yourself. If you agree I can… release the bodyguards from having to shadow you.”

Amity’s eyes lit up and a small smile crossed her face at the thought of being able to go back to a, mostly, normal life so soon. “I… yes. I would like that very much, mother.”

“Excellent. I will let them know that you no longer need assistance.” she paused and closed her eyes, taking a deep breath before continuing. “I would also like to apologize. I did not intend to make your school life so miserable by trying to keep you safe.” She sighed and looked away, down the hall at a picture of herself and her husband. “I also did not intend for my attempts to set you up with Mr. Stevenson’s daughter to put such pressure on you. You simply seemed to have issues with attracting someone on your own and thought you might need assistance. My mother set me up with Alador in a similar way and it has worked out rather well.”

“I- I accept your apology,” Amity finally managed to say. “I would appreciate it if you let me try and find a girlfriend on my own though.”

“Of course,” her mother nodded. “I will leave you to practice your magic then.” She turned to leave and had almost passed from sight when she paused. “Perhaps you could attempt to get lessons from the Wild Witch. I am sure she is quite lovely underneath her costume.” Without another word she stepped out of sight, leaving behind a stunned and somewhat red faced Amity who was trying her best to parse what had just happened.

Eda would deny it to her last breath but she breathed a sigh of relief the moment she received a notification from her home security app that the door to her shop had been unlocked. With Lillith being far too busy to randomly drop in to visit that could only mean that Luz was back from playing protector for the littlest Blight. Something that had gone… interestingly if the early news reports on the incident were any indication. Switching the channel to some nice, mindless, reality tv she could claim to have been watching so she could laugh at the contestants she waited for the telltale creak of the stairs.

“Back already eh? How’d things go?” Eda asked as soon as the creaks reached the perfect moment of Luz being close enough to be heard even if Eda hadn’t been paying much attention. Eda fought down a chuckle as Luz decided that words were far too much effort and simply walked over to the couch, still wearing her witch regalia, and flopped face down into the cushions with a tired groan. “That good eh? Think you made the news?” Another groan was her only response and Eda was actually starting to feel a little worried. “Come on kid, it couldn’t have been that bad, right?”

“Noooo,” Luz moaned as her cloak and cowl dissipated into little motes of light. “I just maybe let Amity keep a potentially dangerous magical artefact is all.”

“Huh, usually you’re pretty good about getting that crap away from people before they can hurt themselves, what happened?”

“The artefact isn’t too dangerous to her actually,” Luz amended. “No side effects, just something that the Emperor’s Coven probably decided was a little too dangerous to have loose in the streets. It can be a little dangerous if you let it react to your emotions too much but now that she knows that it probably won’t go off accidentally.” She held out an arm and showed off a rather nice belt. “Did get the belt that turned that guy into a monster though. So that’s good.”

“Still not hearing why you let junior keep her magic toy there kid.”

After nearly a minute of silence Luz finally spoke up, “she distracted me and got me to check to see if the earrings were dangerous instead of just taking them. Then I ran out of time and had to leave before I could force the issue..”

Eda blinked in confusion for a second before she broke out in a gleeful grin. “You couldn’t say no to a pretty girl could you?” When Luz’s indignant silence proved her right Eda began to cackle. “Ah, that takes me back. Lillith had the same problem when she was younger. Never could say no to anyone she thought was cute. She ended up doing all the work in a group project because her partner had a nice smile.”

At the mention of Lillith Luz perked up and rolled on her side to look over at Eda. “Oh yeah, that reminds me. Turns out your sister doesn’t work for an environmental protection agency. She’s actually part of some sort of super secret magic police or something. Came by and tried to take away the artefacts for public safety or something.” Eda was silent for a moment as she processed Luz’s casual revelation as to the realities of her sister’s job. Silence that Luz seemed to be enjoying given the satisfied look on her face at having managed to turn the tables on her landlord and caretaker for once. The silence didn’t last forever though as Eda finally managed to find the proper response to this potentially worldview shattering revelation.

“I freaking knew she was doing some black ops shit! Environmental analysis my ass!”

Chapter Text

Not for the first time, Gus cursed the fact that he always ended up at school so early. Spending almost an hour waiting around in the cafeteria with little to do but wait for school to start wasn’t the most enjoyable thing around after all. That said, getting his dad to drop him off at school so early was still better than riding the bus in the mornings so every weekday he just bit the bullet and resigned himself to waiting for Willow, and more recently Luz, to show up and liberate him from his boredom.

“Excuse me, do you mind if I sit here?”

It took Gus a second to realize that the question had been directed at him. While not a social pariah he also wasn’t exactly sought out by people very often. Even then it was almost always a member of the paranormal investigations club. “Sorry, I didn’t realize you meant me,” he said as he turned to look at whoever had asked the question and froze. “Amity?”

The girl in question sighed and looked away for a moment before responding. “Yeah, Luz helped me out yesterday so I owe her one. Knowing her she’s going to want to use that favor to try and get me and Willow to be friends again so I figured I’d just come over on my own and force her to use that favor for herself.” She paused for a moment. “But please don’t tell her I said that. I’m pretty sure if she heard that she’d just try and use that favor to try and force me and Willow to hang out somewhere outside of school or something instead of for herself.”

“Yeah, that does sound like Luz,” Gus replied in a daze. Luz’s determination to see that long lost friendship rekindled rivaled his own towards investigating the supernatural. “Oh, uh, yeah. You can sit here,” he added hastily when he realized he still hadn’t answered Amity’s initial question.

Nodding in acceptance of his answer Amity took a seat at the table, managing to remain still for nearly ten seconds before nervously drumming her fingers on the table in front of her. “When do Willow and Luz normally show up?”

Gus glanced at the clock on his phone. “Still about fifteen minutes for Luz. Willow is still about twenty minutes out,” he said. Not wanting to return to the awkward silence Gus soldiered onwards. “We could talk about something else while we wait though. I mean I kinda wanted to talk to you about the whole… wolf monster thing anyway. Not that you have to talk about it if you don’t want to!” he hastily added. “It must have been terrifying having that guy going after you so no pressure! We could talk about something else if you want.”

“I… no. It’s fine.”

“Are you sure? I can get kiiiinda intense when it comes to this sort of stuff. Just warning you.”

Amity chuckled softly at his eagerness and nodded. “Do you know how many times I’ve had to deal with reporters? I seriously doubt you can be much worse than some of those tabloid journalists.”

Gus made a disgusted face at the mention of tabloids and nodded. “Yeah, those guys are the worst. Dad says it’s hard enough to get the real stories out there without those guys going out of their way to make things up.” He shook his head and turned his most serious gaze on Amity. “So! Did you manage to see what the wolf guy used to turn into that monster?”

“It was a belt,” Amity replied with a nod. Anticipating the obvious next question she continued on, “He was able to turn into the wolf beast the videos of the charity event showed pretty fast. And the longer he stayed like that the bigger he got.” She leaned back with a frown. “I think near the end he was bigger than a dump truck. He was able to just knock the cars in the garage around like they were nothing. I think it also did something to his mind. When he caught up to me and my mom yesterday he just kept shouting at her to confess. She didn’t know what she was supposed to confess to and all he kept saying was that she needed to confess.”

“Hmmm, so that’s another one with some side effects,” Gus muttered as he typed out Amity’s explanations into a memo on his phone.

“Another one?”

Gus blinked at the unexpected question before swiping to another memo and turning the phone towards Amity. “Yeah. The glove that Matthoumule used to make that plant monster did some wonky stuff with his head too. Willow thinks it was just him listening to the plants too much though. She said that when she wore it to help the Wild Witch that the plants were kinda talking to her in her head. Since plants don’t have any concepts of right or wrong and are, in her words, ‘greedy little monsters’ that might have pushed him to try and just take what he wanted and lash out when he couldn’t get it. Willow seemed to be able to use it just fine so it might just be that someone needs to be strong enough to resist that one.” Gus paused as he thought over what Amity had said about how the wolf beast had acted. “The belt might have done something similar. It sounds like the guy had a goal in mind when he transformed and the beast kept trying to reach that goal. But it wasn’t smart enough to know how to reach it. He wanted your mom to confess to something so that’s what the beast wanted her to do. But he didn’t specify what he wanted her to confess to so the beast just kept trying to get the right confession without knowing what it was.” Gus idly tapped his fingers on the table as he continued to try and puzzle out the logic behind the beast’s actions. It wasn’t until he glanced at Amity to see if she was done with his phone that he realized she was staring at him. “What?”

“You’re actually making a lot more sense than… anyone else I’ve ever heard talk about this guy.”

“Oh! Thanks,” Gus said as he sheepishly rubbed the back of his head. “I’ve always been interested in the supernatural and there’s a lot of stuff out there if you know where to look. But you have to get really good at picking through all the lies and misinformation and exaggerations to find anything useful.” His expression turned sour and he scowled. “It doesn’t help that there are people trying to cover things up all the time,” he huffed.

Amity opened her mouth but hesitated, apparently unsure whether to say what she was thinking or not. “Does the name Supernatural Containment Initiative mean anything to you?”

Gus’s eyes shot open as wide as they could and his mouth dropped open. “Did they find you?” he whispered.

“Two people claiming to be from them showed up after the wolf beast was put to sleep and the Wild Witch had taken the belt. They wanted to take away the belt and tried to detain her.”

“I knew it!” Gus whisper-shouted. “As near as I can find groups like the SCI have been around forever. It differs from country to country and across the years but there are always groups all over the world that try to keep things like this contained. If what people say is true then they’ve done a really good job. It’s why most of the world doesn’t really believe in supernatural stuff. They’ve hidden or destroyed everything they could find. I’m not sure how accurate it is but there are people that say the current SCI is the successor to the organization that went ahead of the settlers whenever early America would acquire new land and destroy or seal away any magical creatures, practitioners, or artefacts they could get find. The entire thing led to a mass exodus that some people think ended up concentrating a lot of magic somewhere in Oregon but no one really can agree where.”

Amity’s eyes were wide with shock as she thought over what Gus had said. “A month ago I would have said you were crazy but that makes a scary amount of sense. Though if they’re so good at their jobs why are they having so much trouble with all the stuff that’s been going on recently? It’s been all over the news and people keep finding magic stuff.”

“All over the local news,” Gus corrected her. “If you look at all the comments and stuff online there are always people talking about how these things are hoaxes or pranks. They even have a lot of really detailed descriptions of how certain ‘special effects’ were probably achieved in the videos. Haven’t you noticed that we aren’t getting any major attention or tourists coming by to see what’s going on? Even without them debunking everything you said it yourself. A month ago you wouldn’t have believed me. To anyone outside Southborough, it’s just a bunch of fake videos and pranks. Everyone knows magic doesn’t exist after all. As for why they’re having trouble getting all the artifacts that people are finding? I don’t think they’ve had to deal with something this big in a long time. They probably just have people stumbling on old abandoned artifacts or unsealing long forgotten monsters and those things are in very limited supply. We had a massive event that could have dumped dozens of things throughout the city where anyone could have picked them up. There’s just too much to do and they weren’t ready for it.” He paused for a moment and shrugged. “At least that’s what I think happened. I could be wrong.”

“No, no. That all makes perfect sense,” Amity said, sounding like she couldn’t quite believe the words coming out of her mouth. Before she could say anything else a new voice entered the fray.

“Amity? What are you doing here?”

Gus turned to see Luz standing off to the side, clearly confused about Amity’s presence. A quick glance at his phone showed that they had been discussing things for quite a while. Upon realizing that no one had responded to Luz he shot another glance towards Amity to see that she seemed to be searching for a good answer to Luz’s question. Either she hadn’t thought things out this far or he'd distracted her enough that she’d forgotten what she’d planned on saying. “Oh, I asked her to sit with me while I waited for you. I was hoping she could tell me more about her encounter with the Wild Witch yesterday.”

“Gus! That happened yesterday! What if she didn’t want to talk about it?” Luz exclaimed, swiftly moving to take a seat next to Amity in solidarity.

“It’s fine Luz. It didn’t bother me at all,” Amity assured her while shooting Gus a thankful look. “Though we hadn’t even gotten to the part where the Wild Witch showed up.”

“Oh yeah! Please, continue,” Gus said as he opened his memos again.

“Well, eventually the wolf beast managed to corner us in the garage. The wolf was screaming at my mom to confess and tried to kill her when she wasn’t able to confess in the… right way I guess? The abominations, the, uh, goo monsters, didn’t like that so they tried to stop him and tackled him out of the garage. That’s when the Wild Witch showed up.”

“Interesting, she showed up a lot later than the other times she’s helped out against other artifact wielders. Maybe she doesn’t have a solid way of finding them after all,” Gus muttered. He perked up as something occurred to him “Did you already talk to Luz about this?”

“No, why?” 

“She called the goo monsters abominations too when we were talking about them yesterday morning,” Gus said with a shrug. “I guess I just missed something when I was researching those things. Everyone seems to know their name except for me.”

Amity’s eyes narrowed slightly for a moment before she shrugged. “Maybe. There’s bound to be a lot of stuff out there that you haven’t managed to find.” She turned to look at Luz. “Never took Luz for the type to put that much research into supernatural stuff.”

“I just… kinda stumbled on that one,” Luz said, not looking Amity in the eyes. “With everything that’s been happening I was curious and just happened to find a few things.”

Amity nodded slowly in acceptance of Luz’s answer, a contemplative look on her face. After a moment she sighed and returned to her story, “anyway, when the Wild Witch showed up she set up a lot of big, glowing circles in the air. Then when the wolf beast came back into the garage she shot something out of her staff at him that made him fall asleep after it hit him. After that, he just turned back into a person and she took off the belt.”

“Sleep magic too? I’ll have to add that to her list of abilities. Did she use anything other than her staff?”

“No, and she made the circles with just her fingers.” Amity paused for a moment, looking conflicted as she tried to come to a decision. “I think she might not be using artifacts. Or at least not many of them. She mentioned studying magic her entire life and something about the artifacts being in some emperor’s vault.”

Gus’s eyes widened at the new information and he could see Luz do the same next to Amity. “Really?! She’s never spoken to anyone about where she comes from or what she can do or anything! How did you get her to talk to you?!”

Amity’s eyes darted back and forth as she seemed to struggle to come up with an answer. “After the wolf was put to sleep she was asking me about the abominations. I… might have flirted with her a little bit.” Amity smiled mischievously as she poked Luz’s shoulder. “The Wild Witch might be even worse at dealing with that sort of stuff than Luz.”

Luz moved to bat Amit’s fingers away before freezing as a question occurred to her. “Were you serious about that or just trying to distract her?”

Amity blinked and smiled again. “Getting jealous Luz? Worried that a gallant white knight of a witch is going to fly in and sweep me off my feet?” Her smile grew larger. “Maybe I was serious. I bet she’s pretty cute under that mask of hers and I’ve always had a thing for strong girls. But don’t worry, if you want me to not flirt with other girls just say the word Noceda and I’ll save it all. For. You.”

As expected Luz was quickly reduced to a stammering, blushing wreck. Made all the worse by the fact that she’d made the tactical error of sitting right next to Amity. 

“Well, methods aside, that really does help explain a lot about the Wild Witch. I bet she was part of some group that guards these artifacts. Someone probably broke into this emperor’s vault and got the artifacts scattered and she was tasked with finding them all and getting them back. She must be pretty trusted by her emperor if she was sent out to do this all on her own,” Gus mused. “What do you think, Luz?”

“I. Think. That’s. A. Great. Theory. Gus,” Luz ground out, one eye twitching spasmodically.

“Are you alright Luz? You’re not looking too hot,” Gus asked. Concern overrode his desire to try and figure out more about the Wild Witch as Luz’s eye continued to twitch. “Amity! What did you do to her?!”

“Me?!” Amity asked, clearly offended by the accusation. “I didn’t do anything!” At Gus’s incredulous stare she rolled her eyes. “Okay, I didn’t do anything I haven’t done before,” she scoffed. “But she never reacted like this before!”

“Well, what else could it be? I doubt my theories about the Wild Witch could have caused it!” Gus shot back. Before he could say anything else a backpack slammed down onto the table between him and Amity, causing them both to jump.

“I really should just walk away and let all this play out but I’m honestly worried you two might hurt each other or Luz if I did that,” Willow said as she slid into a spot next to Gus. “Now what the hell did I walk into?” She paused for a second. “Also, hi Amity, glad you could join us today.”

“Glad to be here,” Amity replied distantly, still staring at the backpack that had been slammed into the table.

“It’s nothing,” Luz said, having finally managed to shake herself out of whatever had affected her. Gus didn’t think it was likely to be some sort of magic item messing with her but at the same time, it was possible. “Anyway! Hi Willow! Amity was just telling us about how the Wild Witch saved her yesterday.”

“Yeah, she also managed to talk with the Wild Witch and we think she might be working for some sort of magic emperor who was keeping all the artifacts safe,” Gus added.

“Really now?” Willow asked as she looked over at Amity and Luz. She seemed to find what she was looking for when she shook her head and laughed. “It sounds plausible, but wouldn’t anyone working for a magical emperor try to get in contact with Mayor Blight or someone else in charge to try and do things diplomatically? If there is some sort of magic emperor I don’t think she’s working for him.”

“Yeah!” Luz practically shouted. “I, uh, mean. Yeah. That makes a lot of sense. The Wild Witch would totally work with the government if she was working for the emperor,” she finished sheepishly as she realized just how loud she’d been.

“Wow, I’ve never seen you so fired up about one of my theories before Luz,” Gus said with a smile. “Oh! If you thought that was exciting, this'll really knock your socks off! Yesterday I managed to find some people who said that they saw a cloaked figure flying around on a staff yesterday and they managed to see where they landed!” Gus fought down a victorious smile as he saw Luz’s eyes widen in surprise. “I know, right? They called in to my dad’s news studio trying to see if there was a bounty on information about the Wild Witch but they said they couldn’t remember where exactly in the woods she landed. My dad thinks they were probably just drunk or something and imagined the whole thing. But! I used to play in those woods all the time and I know for a fact that there’s this old abandoned shack out there that would probably make a perfect secret base for the Wild Witch!” Gus finished with a massive grin. “I’m going to check it out after school today, I’d be happy to have you come along if you want to.”

Luz’s face went through a gamut of emotions during Gus’s explanation. Surprise, a touch of… fear, maybe? Confusion, and finally landing on amusement. “Still trying to get me to join the paranormal investigations club?” she asked with a laugh.

“I mean, if you’re interested we’d be happy to have you! But no, this was going to be more of a me thing. If I invited the club then I’d have to invite Matthoumule and if the Wild Witch really is there then I really don’t want to be the one that puts them face to face again.”

Luz slowly nodded at that. “Yeah… it would be really awkward for the Wild Witch to have to spend time with him after what he did.”

“I’m sure it wouldn’t be that bad,” Willow assured them. “Matthoumule and I still get along just fine in English right Luz?”

“Matthoumule has made sure to sit on the opposite side of the classroom every day since then,” Luz responded with a small smile.

“Getting along just fine,” Willow reiterated with a happy little smile.

Recognizing that smile as the one that Gus was sure Willow would be wearing when she inevitably snapped and murdered someone for being stupid he valiantly brought the conversation back on track. “So yeah, not asking the club to join in on this. Though if any of you want to wander around the woods with me for hours I’d be happy to have you! Willow? Luz?” He paused for a moment before shrugging. “Amity?”

“Way to make a girl feel wanted Augustus,” Amity said. “But no, despite your tantalizing offer I have some other things I need to take care of after school.”

“I’m sorry Gus, but we finally got a new greenhouse to replace the one that Matthoumule destroyed so the club is getting together to get it set up. I’m sure they could do it without me but I still want to help,” Willow said.

Gus nodded at that. If he was setting up a small greenhouse he knew he’d want Willow around to help with, or more likely just do all of, the heavy lifting. “What about you Luz?”

“Yeah, I’ll come with. Eda said she had plans today and I don’t want to have to try and provide an alibi for her if ends up running from the cops again.” Luz shuddered as she remembered what had happened last time. After a moment she noticed everyone was silent and looked around the table to see that everyone was staring at her. “What? What?! Why are you all staring at me like that?”

After that, school managed to pass more or less uneventfully. At least by the newer, much stranger, standards of what it meant for school to pass by uneventfully. Gus was pretty sure that when abominations and plant monsters tearing apart the school became the bars for eventful things had definitely taken a turn for the strange. Not that he minded of course. Where before people would just ignore him, best case, or outright insult him, worst case, whenever his interests came up, now people were actually listening when he talked about the supernatural. Membership in the Paranormal Investigations Club had skyrocketed after Matthoumule had made that plant monster. Granted it had dropped back to almost its normal numbers by the end of the week when people realized that sort of thing wasn’t likely to happen again. Still, new members were new members.

Members that were not going to be going on this little trip, Gus reminded himself forcefully. Most of the new members were sticking around just on the off chance that they could find the Wild Witch, and he knew that Sam at the very least didn’t have the most pure of motivations. He had been banned from the newspaper and yearbook clubs for a reason after all. Shaking his head he looked around the front of the school as he tried to pick out the one person that was going to be coming along with him on his expedition. Luz had been a bit distracted today, what with her trying to get Willow and Amity to get along again. Something that had been made both easier and harder for her when Amity realized that Willow thought Luz being turned into a blushing wreck was hilarious. Luz had actually pulled him off to the side just so she could ask him if she had made a terrible mistake in trying to get those two back together. Thankfully the bell had rung before he’d been forced to choose between the uplifting answer of it being proof that they could be friends and her plans would work and the fun answer of just saying yes.

“Hey, Gus!”

“Luz!” Gus turned to see that Luz had apparently come through one of the side doors and run around the school to reach him. “You ready to go exploring?”

“Yeah!” She glanced around quickly. “In fact, we should probably go right now.”

“Are you sure? I wanted to wait and give Willow and Amity another chance to come with us and-”

“I’m sure they’re fine we should get going now!” Luz said as she grabbed Gus’s arm and started to speed walk away from the school.

“Luz, did something happe-”

“Where the hell are you Noceda?!”

Gus’s eyes widened as the all too familiar sound of an angry Boscha cut through the noise of the crowd. “You’re right, we should probably get going,” he agreed as he sped up to match Luz’s increased walk speed. At their increased pace it only took them five minutes to reach the bus station that would take them further out towards the outskirts of the city. And that was with one of those minutes being them backtracking when Gus realized that, despite leading the procession, Luz had no idea where they were going and was just trying to increase the distance between them and Boscha. Not that he could really blame her for having that be her primary goal.

“Soooo, what was all that about?” Gus asked from his position on the bench in the bus shelter.

“Well, Boscha may have taken offense at the fact that Amity was sitting with us all day.”

“I do recall her glaring at us before school and during lunch, yes.” Gus shuddered as he remembered the constant death glares that they had been subjected to once Boscha had realized what was going on. It was probably for the best that humans didn’t normally have any magic otherwise he was pretty sure they would have all been set on fire a dozen times today.

“So I ran into Amity and Willow after school and they were discussing things and it looked to be going pretty well. They were both smiling and it looked like they were having a good time. But when I went to say hi to them Amity did the finger thing.”

“The finger thing?” Gus asked, not entirely sure he wanted to know what Luz could be getting at.

“That thing where she puts her finger under my chin to tilt my head up and leans in real close and… nevermind!” Luz shook herself in a futile attempt to dispel her blush at the memory. “And then she asked if I wanted a reward for working so hard to get her and Willow back together and if I wanted to join them sometime for some fun and then Boscha came around the corner.”

Gus winced at that. Luz’s issues with phrasing were rather well known to him and Willow. Amity too, he supposed. She certainly used Luz’s poor phrasing as an opportunity to mess with her often enough. Even some of the people that liked watching Luz get all flustered whenever Amity was messing around with her had probably caught on too now that he thought about it. Boscha though? She seemed to remain ignorant. Whether it was through being too blinded by rage whenever Amity flirted with Luz, paranoia about whatever had driven her and Amity apart in the first place, or sheer willful ignorance she tended to treat Amity’s provocations and Luz’s poor phrasing as the gospel truth.

“So, yeah. She started shouting about me seducing Amity into a threesome with Willow and Amity did her best to not help by just telling Boscha that two girls was enough for her and telling me to, and I quote, ‘flee, my love’.” Luz groaned as she buried her face in her hands. This, of course, did nothing to hide the fact that her blush had gone nuclear. “At least she and Willow also tried to keep Boscha from chasing me down when they realized how mad she was.” Luz turned to look at Gus with a haunted look in her eyes. “Did you know that Boscha can drag both Willow and Amity behind her when she gets mad enough? I didn’t. I don’t think they did either from the looks on their faces.”

Gus was saved from having to come up with a proper response to that by the arrival of the bus. With rush hour and the influx of nine to five workers still a good hour away they were able to get a nice seat near the middle with plenty of open seats around them. “Well,” Gus finally said, “at least you know that Amity is pretty serious about being your friend.” At Luz’s confused look he continued, “I mean you don’t wrangle an angry Boscha for just anyone.”

“Is that how people measure the strength of their friendships here? How willing they are to get between their friend and an angry Boscha?” Luz asked with a small smile.

“No, but it totally should be,” Gus replied with a laugh.

The rest of the bus ride was spent joking about what new barometers of friendship should be introduced around school and whether they met or failed them. Ultimately they decided that standing between a friend and an angry Boscha was second only to standing between a friend and an angry Willow. Because Boscha would probably just hit you a bunch before grumping away. Willow, they both agreed, would absolutely destroy you if you managed to get her angry enough. They were both also pretty sure that they would probably fail that particular test if it came to it.

Thankfully Gus was, just barely, managing to pay attention to the bus stops in between bouts of laughter and realized they had reached their stop just in time for them to rush off before the bus took off again. Their profuse apologies and thanks to the bus driver for not driving off when they’d almost missed their stop were met with a sigh and an eye roll. Looking around the neighborhood Luz shrugged and turned to look at Gus. “Where to?”

“This way,” Gus declared as he pointed their direction forward dramatically before marching onwards. Luz nodded and quickly fell into step behind him, looking around the neighborhood with interest. “I actually used to live around here when I was younger,” Gus explained as they walked down the road. “We had a house that ran right up to the woods. I explored them all the time when I lived there. It’s how I found the old abandoned house back there.”

“It’s so… peaceful,” Luz said as she looked around at all the houses.

“Yeah, it’s a lot quieter out here than it is further into the city,” Gus said as he led Luz over to an old path that led towards the woods. Gus smiled as they made their way into the woods, memories of all the times he’d wandered through here coming back to him. Luz seemed to be really getting into it too. Staring around at the trees in open wonder. “Did you usually live in cities before now?”

She jumped at his question, something unreadable flitting across her face before she nodded. “Cities and a few places that didn’t have so much… green. I mean sure there’s trees here and there in the city. Bushes, flowers, and lots of grass in people’s yards but all this,” she gestured at the trees surrounding them and the canopy of leaves above. “It’s a little more than that. It’s nice.”

“Yeah,” Gus agreed. “Like I said, I always used to come out here when I was younger. I used to go hunting for magical creatures and stuff all the time. I even used to think that the house out here was haunted for a while.” He chuckled as he shook his head. “There were even stories about people going out into the woods and never returning back in the forties. Of course, no one ever knew anyone that vanished. It was only ever a friend of a friend seeing someone they didn’t know going into the woods and never coming out. And even that hasn’t happened in ages.” He paused as he looked around the woods, scanning for familiar landmarks. His eyes brightened as he caught sight of an old, crooked tree. “This way! Only a little further!”

Shoving past several low-hanging branches Gus found the house he was looking for. Sitting in a small dip in the hills it was every bit as decrepit as he remembered it. Though he did note with some wonder that despite looking as crumbling as ever the chimney on the side still hadn’t fallen down and the roof still hadn’t managed to fully collapse despite the giant hole in it. The walls also were amazingly intact despite the large hole in the front wall. “Come on Luz, let’s check it out.”

Luz followed Gus as he gently moved the broken door out of their way and led them into an ancient living room. Most of the room was empty except for a small lean-to in the corner made from a sun-bleached tarp. “Is someone really living here?” she asked.

“Oh my gosh! I can’t believe that thing is still there! I made that a long time ago for when I tried to spend the night in the house to prove that it was haunted!” Gus ran over to the tarp, automatically moving around the rotted planks he remembered just barely holding up young Gus’s weight. Moving the tarp aside he chuckled as he saw that his emergency supply kit had either rotted away or been stolen by opportunistic animals. They had left the old red plastic flashlight though. “Man, I thought I had lost this in the move,” he said as he tried clicking it on. To his complete lack of surprise, it failed to even flicker. “Yeah, there was no way this was still going to work.” Regardless of its functionality he still stashed it in his backpack, for nostalgia’s sake if nothing else.

“You must have really liked coming out here,” Luz noted as she saw the words ‘Gus Was Here’ carved sloppily into the wall trim.

“Yeah, this was my secret base. If other kids were messing with me or I just wanted some time alone I would come through here.” Gus said as he walked over to Luz and smiled as he trailed his hand over the words carved into the wall. “I always made up so many stories about this place having been a witch’s house, or haunted by the previous owners, or that they were driven out by a forest monster.” His smile faded a bit. “Of course I never actually found anything. Never managed to find anything real until those portals opened up in the sky.”

“Well, real magic or not it doesn’t look like anyone is living out here,” Luz noted as she took in the complete lack of any furniture or other creature comforts that a person living here would likely want.

“Of course it doesn’t look like anyone is living here. If you were hiding out in a random house in the forest and didn’t want people knowing you were out here you wouldn’t set up on the first floor, would you? You saw that hole in the ceiling, it’s perfect for the Wild Witch to fly in through!” He beckoned for her to follow him. “There’s a ladder that leads to the attic over here in the....” his voice trailed off as he reached the kitchen and took in the massive pile of rubble that dominated the room. The ceiling had apparently caved in at some point and, from what he could see from the attic where he stood, what was left up there wasn’t too pretty. “Or the attic could be unlivable. That’s possible too.”

“I’m sorry Gus,” Luz said as she placed a hand on his shoulder. “It looks like the Wild Witch isn’t living here.”

Gus sighed and nodded. “I kinda figured as much. I was really hoping I was right but it looks like it was just another dead end.” He kicked at a loose bit of rock and sent it skittering across the floor. “It was nice coming back here though. I didn’t have any friends to share this place with when I was younger and by the time I met Willow we’d already moved away from here.” He turned to Luz with a smile and spread out his arms to gesture to the building as a whole. “It’s a little late but welcome to the super-secret base of Augustus Porter! As the first friend I’ve ever shown this to, you get a special all-access pass to these piles of rubble, a wondrous tarp tent, and all mold you could ever want!”

Luz laughed and gave a small bow. “I humbly thank you for this amazing gift and will always treasure it.”

Gus joined in with the laughter. It might be a few years too late but it was nice sharing this little bit of his childhood with a friend. “Thanks for coming out here with me Luz. Maybe next time we’ll head somewhere a little less run down.” He turned a sly grin her way. “Maybe get Willow and Amity to come with? I’m sure I could handle being the fourth wheel on your three person date.”

“Not you too,” Luz groaned, though there wasn’t any real heat to it.

“Come on you know you-” Gus stopped as a scuffling sound came from the front of the house. “Did you hear that?”

“Yeah, it couldn’t actually be the WIld Witch though right?” Luz asked.

“You never know,” Gus said as he crept forward to peek into the main room. “Let me just check and oh my god that’s a bear!” The words tumbled from his mouth as he saw the massive form of a black bear snuffling around the living room.

“A what?” Luz asked, stepping forward curiously to see what the fuss was about.

“A bear!” Gus hissed as he leaned back into the kitchen and did his best to keep Luz from barging into the living room. “Big, furry, lots of teeth and claws! A bear! It shouldn’t even be out here! No one has seen a bear in these woods in forever!” 

“It doesn’t look that bad,” Luz said from where she was peeking into the living room. “I could just… uh… do something?” she finished lamely as whatever idea she seemed to have at first failed her.

Gus drew in a hissing breath as he did his best to remember what he should do when confronted with a bear. Was he supposed to play dead? Did that work on black bears or was that for a different kind of bear? He knew that at least one type of bear could be driven off by yelling at it and looking big but other bears would just take that as a reason to eat him. For one brief moment, he considered pulling out his phone to try and search for the definitive answer but the sounds of the bear sniffing the air and moving towards the kitchen made that idea feel less than ideal. Even if he managed to load up a page with the answer he was looking for before the bear noticed them it didn’t guarantee that it would give an answer they could use.

He had no choice but to use his secret weapon.

Setting down his backpack he opened it up and pulled out a fist-sized glass ball. Despite appearing to be a single solid piece of glass the interior swirled with an ever-changing pattern of lights. “Please don’t tell anyone about this,” he begged Luz when he saw her eyes widen in realization at what he’d pulled out of his backpack. Holding the ball in his hand he concentrated, bringing up a mental image of a massive grizzly bear. In an instant, it shimmered into existence before him and let loose a thunderous roar as it lumbered into the doorframe. Another mental flex and the air behind the illusion shimmered, creating an image of the kitchen that they could hide behind without alerting the real bear. “It’s just an illusion,” Gus assured Luz as he moved to a better vantage point. “I made another one of the kitchen so that we can move out without actually being seen by the bear.”

Back in the living room, the real bear was backing away from the illusory grizzly. Hoping to tip the scale fully in his favor Gus commanded the illusion to rise up to its considerable height and let loose another house rattling roar. Thankfully this was indeed the tipping point for the bear and it decided that it didn’t want to test its luck against the totally real grizzly. Turning tail it ran out of the house, smashing through the door in its haste to leave. Gus let out a sigh of relief but left the illusion up on the off chance that the bear might come back. “Sooo, I don’t suppose I could just put this away and we don’t talk about it?” Gus asked plaintively.

Standing to the side with arms crossed and a supremely unimpressed expression on her face Luz shook her head. “Not a chance Gus.”

Gus’s shoulders slumped as he sighed and looked down at the artifact. “Yeah, I figured as much.” Taking a deep breath to steel himself he turned to Luz. “After the fire guy and the Wild Witch showed up on the news I knew they had to have had something to do with the portals. I figured that if two people had managed to find magical artifacts then there were probably more out there. Of course, now I know that the Wild Witch almost certainly has magic of her own but I didn’t know that then. So I spent pretty much all my free time going to every pawn shop and thrift store I could find. I figured that there was a pretty good chance that anyone that found something fancy like that crown they’d either keep it for themselves or pawn it off for a little spending money. I found this one in the fifth shop I went to. The owner was an older guy that thought this was just some sort of ‘new-fangled kids toy’ and sold it to me for thirty dollars.

“It took me almost a week to figure out how to use it though. By that time Matthoumule had done his thing with the plants and I realized that the fancy magic artifact might also be a cursed magic artifact. I started writing down my mental state before and after each time I tested it to see if there was anything happening to me that I might not be noticing. I tried doing everything with it I could think of. Simple shapes, people, furniture, sounds, smells, even an entire house once.” The illusory bear walked over to Gus’s side and he waved his hand through it. “Nothing I make is real, but it looks real and sounds real and I’ve never been able to find any mental effects during all my tests so I’m as sure as I can be that it’s safe.” He looked up at Luz with a hopeful smile. “So, could you please not tell anyone about this? I know the Wild Witch is looking for these and if she really is supposed to be watching over them or something I should give it to her but it’s really, really, cool and I don’t want to have to give it up.”

Luz’s hands fell to her sides as she leaned back and let out a frustrated groan. “Are you sure that thing is safe? You have no idea what it could do right? What if it’s… I don’t know… poisoning you or something?”

Gus’s face fell at Luz’s, entirely reasonable, suspicion. “I… Okay, what if I let you hold it? Maybe try using it and you can say if you can feel anything odd about it?” He held out the artifact to her, a hopeful look on his face.

Luz looked conflicted as she took the artifact from Gus’s hand and peered into its depths, tossed it up and down a few times and narrowed her eyes in concentration. Instantly an illusion of a dragon appeared in the living room, rumbling as it turned to look at them.

“Wow,” Gus breathed as he walked into the living room to inspect the illusion. “You’re a natural at this. It took me forever to get an illusion half as detailed as this!” He rushed over to the dragon’s wing and began to circle around it, inspecting it from every angle. “And it looks so realistic too! I bet a real-life dragon would look just like this!” His hand reached out to feel the pebbly scales in front of him before remembering that it was just an illusion. “This is so cool!” He turned to look at Luz, who jumped at his sudden attention. “Can you do anything else?”

“Uhh, I don’t think so? I just got lucky on my first try,” she paused, her eyes darting back and forth before closing with a resigned sigh. “Here’s the artifact, I don’t think it’s dangerous.” With extreme reluctance, she held it out for Gus to take. Gus let out a whoop of joy and ran back to her. With a massive grin he grabbed the artifact from her and created an illusory copy of himself to fake a high five with. “I can’t believe two of my friends got a hold of an artifact,” she muttered.

“Yeah, but Willow didn’t get to keep hers,” Gus said, causing Luz to start as she hadn’t seemed to think he could hear her. “Don’t worry, I’m sure you’ll run into some sort of magical thing eventually. I’ve got this, Willow had the plants, and Amity had the whole abomination and wolfman thing. At this rate, it’s only a matter of time until you run into something.”

Luz stared at him, wide-eyed, for a second before bursting into laughter. “Yeah, I’m sure I’ll run into something sooner or later,” she said. “Just promise me you won’t go fighting crime or something with that. Stopping crime with illusions would probably work great right up until people realized that’s all they were.”

“Yeah, I know. Stopping that guy at the gas station was more than enough for me,” Gus said as he turned to walk out of the house, leaving behind a stunned Luz.

“That was you?!” Luz squawked as she rushed to chase after her now running friend.

The coven guard watched from behind his illusion as the two humans ran from his latest safe house. As tempting as grabbing the artifact from them had been, he didn't want to risk one of them getting away to alert the human authorities to his presence. He’d even scaled back on threatening humans in order to ensure compliance to make sure that he didn’t end up bringing down the scrutiny of the SCI. With an annoyed huff, he turned to the many items he had collected and began running through the logistics of finding a new abandoned building to store them all. He had thought this place remote enough that few humans would wander by. The few that did he had hoped the ensorcelled beast would be able to scare off. It was no house demon but humans had certainly seemed to treat it like it was as dangerous as one.

With an angry growl his fist lashed out and slammed against the sloped ceiling, dislodging several of the tiles that covered the building’s roof. He was so close to enacting his plan! He had no time to move everything! No, it would be a calculated risk but he would have to remain where he was. Set up more alarm wards, more minor defenses to keep people from stumbling onto the building. At least the brats that had come by seemed to have done so on purpose, given the way the boy had known his way around the house. There would be a risk of them coming back but hopefully his plans would be far enough along that a couple of human children discovering him wouldn’t change anything. But he would have to start moving now to ensure that possibility would become truth.

“Soon,” he whispered as he looked at the one largely intact wall of the attic. Bright red strings were strung across a map of the city. All five of them crossed over a single location. Pinned beside that point of convergence were pictures he had created using memories of his one stakeout of the location. It was an old but well cared for shop, with a large sign proudly displaying the name Owl House Antiques. The belt was there. And that meant the wild witch was there herself or a human pawn of her own was there. One trusted enough to keep the relics she confiscated. One that she would rush to help should something happen to them.

Under the coven guard’s mask a cruel smile began to grow. Soon he would have his revenge against the disgusting wild witch that had stranded him here, he would have the undoubtedly numerous artifacts she had managed to gather during her time here. And, best of all, he would have the staff that she had used to bring him here and escape justice at the hands of the Emperor’s Coven.

He couldn’t wait.

Chapter Text

By all accounts, it appeared to be a normal day in the Owl House. At least as far as Luz could tell anyway. There was an occasional customer or two but the store was largely silent. Something Eda confirmed had been happening all day and not just since Luz had shown up. But as time went on she couldn’t help but feel like something was wrong. A feeling that Eda was doing little to help assuage. “Eda, that’s the fifth time you’ve checked on that thing,” she finally said in a totally level and not at all exasperated voice.

“I just got a bad feeling about today is all,” she retorted as she returned the shotgun she kept under the counter to its usual resting place. “King feels it too. Like something is gonna go down.” She nodded in the direction of the aforementioned cat. He had claimed a spot on one of the tallest merch towers sometime before she had gotten back from school and hadn’t come down once, his eyes locked on the shop’s front door.

“Is that why he didn’t come to greet me like he usually does?” Luz asked. Against all odds, she felt a little better now that she had a reason for King to have scorned her like that.

“Yeah. Last time he got like this an ex of mine tried to break into the shop and steal a bunch of stuff and maybe try to burn the place down.” She rolled her eyes. “She gave me all that crap because she didn’t want it and all of a sudden when we broke up she cared about it again and didn’t want me selling it.” She sighed and shook her head. “Word to the wise Luz, don’t date crazy people. They may be great in the sack but it’ll come back to bite you eventually. And not in the fun way!” Eda smiled fondly, ignoring the look of horror and disgust growing on Luz’s face. “The things she could do with her tongue. Still not worth it though, but close. So very close,” she continued, fighting down a smirk at Luz’s expression.

“Okay that’s enough now how about we talk more about how something bad might happen please thank you!” Luz all but screamed.

“Yeah, yeah. Kids these days. So squeamish about stuff.” She paused and tapped her chin thoughtfully. “Though maybe it’s just me. Lilly had about the same reaction whenever I tried to share with her too.”

“Yeah, I think it’s definitely you,” Luz agreed. “Were there any other times you had a bad feeling like-” Luz froze as the ground beneath them rumbled ominously and the entire shop shook. Her eyes darted back and forth as she tried to see what might be causing the very earth beneath them to rumble and buck like a living thing but couldn’t see anything. “Eda! Go back to the workshop! I’ll handle whatever is causing this!” She was about to rush out to the streets to see if a giant had somehow managed to make it to the human realm when she was distracted by Eda’s cackling laughter.

“That was just an earthquake Luz! They happen all the time around here! It’s just the bit of rock we’re on smashing into another bit of rock, nothing to be worried about!”

Luz whipped around to stare incredulously at Eda. “This is normal?!” She had gotten used to the human realm being safer in general than the demon realm. The people were less physically combative, no one ate each other, the wild animals were small and cuddly, and even the rain was perfectly safe. Though that last one had inflicted a near fatal blow of embarrassment when she had first been caught in the rain and ended up diving into Amity’s arms to save herself from dying. That had ended up being a rough day. In any case, she had convinced herself, after a good deal of work, that the human world was a nice, safe place. Once that wouldn’t randomly try to kill her if she made a misstep. “The ground moving around and trying to break everything is normal?!”

“Well, it isn’t trying to break anything, the rock we live on is just floating around on a big ol lake of lava and we just happen to live right on the edge of our rock.” She shrugged. “Happens all the time.” As if to prove her words the ground rumbled once again, albeit much shorter this time. “See, now we just got an aftershock or two and it’ll all be done.” Another rumble shook the shop. “Though they usually get softer, not harder,” she mused. Another, even stronger, rumble shook the shop and the amusement fully faded from her eyes. “Okay, yeah. Something’s up.” Pulling the shotgun from its place under the counter Eda walked past Luz towards the door. 

Wariness back in full force now that even Eda was being cautious Luz followed her outside just as the strongest rumble yet shook the shop. She barely made it two steps out the door before she had to juke to the side to keep from running into Eda. “Why did you…”

Walking down the street was a massive creature of stone. It towered over most of the buildings, with only the larger three-story buildings managing to match or exceed its height. While it was mostly asphalt Luz could see what appeared to be chunks of sidewalk, dotted with the occasional street sign and fire hydrant. Almost as though a section of the street had simply decided to get up and go for a walk. A walk that shook the ground with every step. 

“That’s not an earthquake,” Eda distantly noted. The shotgun drooped loosely from her limp grip. A grip that tightened as she appeared to firm her resolve. “You’re gonna fight that thing aren’t you?”

Luz’s face was set in a grimace as she watched the stone giant crush a car beneath its foot like a discarded soda can but she nodded all the same. Whatever was going on it had to be the result of someone messing with an artifact. An artifact that was only here in the human world because of her. “Yeah. I’m gonna fight that thing.” In a burst of light her cloak appeared around her shoulders. A flick of her wrist and another flash of light later and she was twirling her staff to her side. “If I don’t it’s going to hurt a lot of people.”

For a second it almost looked like Eda might try to stop her. But with a sigh and shake of her head. “You’re right. Go get ‘em kid.”

With a sharp nod Luz jumped onto her staff and rocketed into the air. To both her pleasure and displeasure the giant immediately locked on to her and stopped paying attention to what few humans were still in the streets. Either it recognized her as a threat on its own or there was someone around here controlling it that didn’t want to lose their new toy. Hovering just outside what she estimated the thing’s reach to be, Luz looked more closely at the giant, hoping to find some sort of weak point to exploit. Only to curse and juke downwards as the thing’s arm shot out with unexpected speed and range. Had she been the barest moment slower she might have lost the fight then and there. Not wanting to remain in the range of further punches she allowed her dodge to turn into a steep dive, building speed until a sharp turn sent her hurtling between the legs of the giant. Looking over her shoulder as she passed it she was rewarded with the sight of it doing its best to try and turn around. A best that was sorely lacking with the giant needing several seconds to make even a small change to its orientation.

And that time was sorely needed if she was going to find a way to put this thing down. Unlike the fire wielder or the wolf beast, she wasn’t dealing with something she could strike at conventionally. Stone didn’t need to sleep and her best air bullets would barely crack this thing’s outer layer. And unlike the plant monster, she didn’t see any convenient human controller that she could focus her attention on. With no better leads she darted behind the giant’s shoulder and conjured a large spike of ice. Eyes narrowed in concentration she shoved her hand forward and the icicle shot at the giant with as much force as she could muster without layering her spells, sending it slamming into the thing’s shoulder.

The giant let out a deep rumbling groan at the impact and did little more than speed up its turning ever so slightly as anger gave it further reason to try and keep up with her. Luz scowled as a quick scan showed that her strike had barely managed to crack the pavement that made up the giant’s shoulder. That certainly ruled ice out if she wanted to stop the thing in less than a week.

Luz was shaken from her thoughts as she realized that the giant had stopped trying to turn to keep up with her. Before she could do more than stare in confusion the giant let out an angry bellow and brought its arm down on a nearby house. Luz’s expression turned to horror as a stone fist the size of a car plowed through the house’s roof and turned the second floor into rubble. “No no no,” she whispered as she shot over the giant’s shoulder and into its field of view. “I’m right here you monster!”

With her new goal of keeping the giant’s attention on herself, Luz found that she was forced to remain either close to, or more often inside, the monster’s reach. Not only did she have to dodge constant swings that might be able to take her out of the fight in one blow she had to make sure that those misses didn’t end up causing even more property damage. All of this added up to leaving her almost no time to try and come up with some way to destroy an animated chunk of street and sidewalk.

She was distantly aware of sirens as police cars and ambulances came roaring down the road. Thankfully the police seemed to realize that there was little they could do against the monster as they, after only a few gunshots as far as Luz could hear, moved to simply keep civilians out of the way and clear a path. Something Luz was thankful for as a surprisingly fast downwards jab whistled by her and smashed a nearby car. Taking the opening created when the thing had to pause to get the remains of the car free from its arm she shot downwards and leapt off her staff. Spinning it in the air to prepare a spell she poured everything she could into. With a mighty swing, she slammed her staff into the back of the giant’s leg, right behind the knee where the spell activated with a deafening crack.

Luz just barely held back a whoop of joy as the blow tore a chunk out of the giant’s leg, causing it to stumble forward and fall to its hands and knees. Tired but still feeling up for another spell she took to the air once more, shooting to a spot over the giant’s head. Once more she leapt off her staff and used it to prepare the kinetic energy spell. With another deafening crunch a network of cracks spiderwebbed out from the impact point and the thing stopped moving. Staggering to her feet Luz shook the numbness from her arms and looked over her staff, wincing as she noticed that the cracking noise hadn’t just been from the stone. Her once proud staff was just barely holding together. She’d known when she chose to use the spell that the side effects would be bad but she hadn’t expected them to have all but snapped her staff in two. Pushing down her feelings at seeing the staff her mother had given her in such a state, she inspected the damage closer, hoping that maybe something could be done to fix it.

Her focus on her staff turned out to be a bad idea as a hand of stone shot forward and wrapped around her. With a clattering rumble portions of the giant’s head fell away to reveal a large, glowing, and very much intact, gemstone. The gem pulsed angrily and the air was filled with a horrid shriek as the giant tightened its grip on Luz. With her entire body trapped in the stone fist that was little she could do but scream as she felt her bones creak under the ministrations of the giant.

“Let her go!”

Luz’s eyes widened in shock as Eda came running out of nowhere brandishing a sledgehammer. With a mighty heave, she brought it down on the fingers crushing Luz. The first one shattered but managed to bleed off enough of the force that none of the others gave way.

“The gem!” Luz choked out as the pressure on her lungs was lessened enough for her to take a quick breath and speak. “Smash the gem!”

Eda locked conflicted for a moment but nodded and charged forward, sledgehammer raised high. The gem, either due to being so focused on Luz or simply not considering the human a threat, didn’t react at all. Choosing instead to further increase the pressure it was exerting on Luz. Its confidence seemed to be well placed as Eda’s first blow appeared to do nothing. Either undeterred or simply lashing out in hopes that she might do something, Eda lifted the sledgehammer once more and brought it down. This time the gem, while still in one piece, had its once flawless surface marred by a single, thin, crack that blossomed from the impact point. With a scream of rage, Eda lifted the sledgehammer once more and brought it down on the gemstone with all the vengeful fury she could muster. This time when the sledgehammer came down the gemstone shattered, exploding in a burst of light and sound that sent Eda flying backward. In a series of sickening thumps, she was sent tumbling along the ground, bouncing several times before coming to an all too still stop.

“Eda,” Luz whispered as she stared at the prone form of her first human friend. “Eda!” she screamed as she twisted back and forth in an attempt to break free from the stone still holding her. The sound of breaking stone filled the air as the concrete and asphalt that made up the stone giant began to break apart. With the magic no longer reinforcing it the stresses that had been built up with every movement the giant had made began to show. Luz’s struggles redoubled with the realization that her goal was in sight. It may have been her imagination but she was sure that each twist cracked the fingers more, giving her more space to more vigorously struggle. Her eyes widened as one of the fingers finally crumbled enough to free her hands.

Her desperate spell detonated the weakened stone around her. Uncaring of the shards of stone that were blasted into her by the spell she continued to struggle and cast in the hope that she could break free and see if Eda was alright. By the time she managed to fully free herself and fall to the ground her hands and face were covered in cuts and bruises. The healing spell she cast was almost an afterthought as she rushed to Eda’s side. Tears streamed down her face as she reached out a hand to see if Eda was breathing. For one tense moment that seemed to last an eternity there was nothing, and then the slight tickle of air as Eda breathed out. Luz’s smile was a shaky, desperate thing as she moved to cast a basic healing spell on Eda. It wouldn’t fix everything but it would ensure that Eda would be stable enough to get to receive more specific medical attention. She had only just begun to draw the spell circle when something pressed up against her forehead.

“Step away from my sister witch.”

Luz froze as her eyes focused on the gun barrel pressed against her forehead and the woman wielding it. “Lillith! It’s okay! I’m going to-”

“I said step away from my sister!” Lilith roared, shoving Luz’s head back with her gun.

Luz’s gaze darted down to Eda, still unconscious but at least not looking like she was going to expire anytime soon, and held up her hands placatingly. “Please, just let me heal her. I can help,” she said as she slowly rose to her feet.

“You can help by backing up and letting me help my sister,” Lillith said, keeping the gun pressed into Luz’s forehead. “Steve,” she jerked her head towards Eda. “Make sure Eda is fine. I’ll deal with the witch.”

“Yes Ma’am,” the man behind her said with a salute. With practiced ease he began checking Eda over for broken bones or other injuries, his professional demeanor not giving any hints as to the results of his inspection.

“Now, you’re going to come with us quietly and in cuffs or unconscious. This is your one chance to decide.”

Luz grit her teeth as she frantically ran through her options. Without her staff she couldn’t just fly out of here. Although even if she did have it she still wouldn’t have been too keen on trying to get away from Lillith while there was a gun resting against her forehead. Simply letting herself be taken in wasn’t looking like that good of an option either. Whatever organization Lillith was working for felt far too much like the inquisitorial sections of the Emperor’s Coven for her liking. People that went with them rarely came back, and never the same as they used to be. Taking a deep breath to steady her nerves she did the one thing she could think of to salvage the situation and pulled down her mask and hood. “Lillith, It’s me. Luz. Please let me help Eda.”

Lilith’s face went white as she stared down at Luz’s pleading face, her eyes fixed on Luz's pointed ears. The hand holding the gun began to shake as her mouth worked soundlessly. Just as Luz was beginning to hope she had made the right move Lilith’s face twisted into an expression of fury. “This is all your fault!” she screamed. “You witches coming in and messing with innocent people! Dropping dangerous things into our world and ruining lives! Ruining my sister’s life!” Her arm began to shake even more, not in surprise as Luz had initially assumed, but anger. “I should have known something was wrong! You charmed my sister somehow! Ensorcelled her into letting you stay with her! What else have you done to her you monster!?”

“I-I didn’t do anything to her!” Luz protested as she tried to back up. “She did everything on her own!”

“Liar!” Lilith shoved her gun forward, keeping it trained on Luz’s forehead. “You did something! Witches and demons and monsters, they are always up to something!” The finger she had resting on the gun’s trigger began to twitch. “All you do is hurt people that don’t deserve it! I should just-”

She was cut off as a hand shot out and pulled the gun down towards the ground and away from Luz. The sudden movement would have caused Lillith to pull the trigger were it not for the second hand gripping hers firmly enough to prevent her from firing. “Miss Lillith, we need to take the witch in alive,” Steve said, heedless of the burning glare Lillith was directing his way. “Your sister will be fine. It took all the potions I had to get her stable but she will be fine.”

Both Luz and Lillith looked over towards Eda. She had been laid out flat on the street and seemed to be resting peacefully. Luz broke out of her relieved stupor first and began to cast an illusion spell that would give her the cover she needed to escape. She wasn’t sure what she would do after she escaped but she could figure that out when she had the breathing room to deal with it. She was halfway through drawing the spell circle when something slammed into her back from above, sending her spinning the ground just as Lillith began screaming about not letting Luz escape. There was a soft hiss and something pierced her neck. Her thoughts became sluggish and darkness began to creep into her vision as she stared up at the nearby rooftops, her eyes fixed on a white-cloaked figure looking down at her, staff glowing and pointing in her direction.

Eda woke to far less pain than she felt she had any right to be in. Bleary eyes searched the room she had woken up in and she was shocked to see that at some point during her impromptu and undesired nap she had been taken back home instead of to a hospital. Maybe Luz had managed some of her fancy mumbo jumbo and magiced some of the wounds away? She sat up with only the barest ache and rubbed the sleep from her eyes as she searched her memory for anything that might explain what had happened. The last thing she remembered was getting blown across the street when she’d shattered the gemstone. An angry growl escaped her as everything came up blank. Another glance around the room informed her that it was a little past two in the afternoon. Something that she supposed would account for the lack of Luz. She would definitely have to rib the kid about school being more important than her poor, injured, friend sometime in the future after the kid managed to forgive herself for letting Eda get hurt in the first place. 

“Eda! You’re finally awake!”

Eda blinked in confusion as Lilith swept into the room and nearly bowled her over in her haste to see if she was alright. “I’m fine! I’m fine!” she grumbled as she did her best to bat her sister’s hands away. “And I’ll be even better when you stop poking me and let me get out of bed.”

Lilith grimaced but complied with the ‘stop poking’ directive. The ‘let me get out of bed’ was summarily ignored though. Grabbing hold of her sister’s shoulders Lilith gently but firmly pushed Eda back down into her pillows. “Eda, you’ve had a very traumatic experience and I can’t let you get out of bed. Now if I can trust you to not go anywhere I’ll go get you some food. I had Steve come by earlier with some chicken noodle soup. I’ll just need to warm it up for you.”

“Wow, getting your boy toy to run errands for me sis? You must’ve been real worried.”

“He’s not my boy toy,” Lilith responded without even the barest hint of a blush at Eda’s name for her partner. She had gotten used to her sister’s insinuations on that front a long time ago. “Now can I trust you to not do anything foolish or will I have to restrain you?”

“Kinky,” Eda said with a smile. Seeing the exasperated look on her sister’s face she let herself smile and nodded. “So long as getting up to use the toilet isn’t considered foolish I’m fine.”

“Very well,” Lilith said with a nod. “But do call for me if something happens. I wouldn’t want you to survive all of this to break your neck on your toilet or something.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Eda chuckled. “Now get in the kitchen and make me some soup!”

“Of course, your majesty.” Apparently reassured that Eda wasn’t going to kill herself trying to go to the bathroom Lilith made her way out of the room to go prepare the soup.

One trip to the bathroom later Eda was feeling a good deal better. Physically at least. Mentally she was starting to worry again. Lilith being here explained why Luz was comfortable enough, or more likely had been forced, to go to school. Eda was pretty sure that if it weren’t for Lilith, Luz would’ve been sitting right there at her bedside until she woke up. The amount of mothering she would have received might have even been worse under Luz’s care now that she thought about it. That said, she had checked her phone and seen a worrying lack of text messages from Luz. The girl wasn’t quite the avid texter that tv assured her all teenagers were but she had taken to it with zeal. Eda had expected to have dozens of unread messages from her asking if she was up yet or if anything was wrong from the little witch. “Eh, maybe they just don’t let kids use their phones at school,” she eventually decided, doing her best to smother the niggling fear in the back of her mind.

Her business taken care of Eda reluctantly returned to her bed. She would have much preferred to move out to the living room and claim her favorite recliner but she was sure that any attempts to do so would result in an angry/concerned scolding from Lilith that she didn’t want to deal with on her best days, let alone today. Unfortunately, this left her with very little to do as she waited for Lilly to get back from the kitchen with her soup. Minutes ticked by as she impatient switched from poking herself to check for any lingering wounds, checking the cameras in her store to assess any damages, thankfully only a few things seemed to have been knocked over, and kick her feet fitfully as she debated the merits of ignoring her self-assigned live-in nurse and moving over to her recliner. She was saved after nearly ten minutes of soul-rending boredom by Lilly walking into the room carrying a steaming bowl of soup. “Took ya long enough,” she groused.

“Well excuse me for wanting to make sure that you didn’t have to suffer through cold chicken noodle soup,” Lillith replied airily as she placed a small fold-out table over Eda and placed the soup atop it.

“And that took more than ten minutes?” Eda asked incredulously. “What were you trying to do? Boil it away?”

“Well, unlike some heathens, I used the stove to warm up the soup and not the microwave. Especially not that death trap you call a microwave.”

“Hey! I’ll have you know that’s the finest microwave money can buy for under fifty bucks!” Eda retorted, jabbing at Lilith with her spoon.

“Of course,” Lilith replied with a condescending nod. “Now I’m going to get a bowl for myself. Can I trust you not to dump all that into your bed?”

“It was one time Lilly!” Eda shouted as she watched her sister leave the room, laughing all the while. With distractions dealt with she turned her attention to the soup. Each spoonful took some time to cool down to merely hot instead of scalding but it was good soup. “Should’a known the boy toy would get the good stuff if it was Lilly asking for it.”

Eda continued to eat her soup in silence. Even when Lilith returned with a table and bowl of her own they remained focused on the food in front of them. Only when both bowls had been emptied and their stomachs had settled did the conversation restart.

“I was really worried about you Eda,” Lilith admitted.

“Yeah, what else is new?” Eda scoffed with a roll of her eyes.

“This is different!” Lilith all but shouted. She stood up and walked over to Eda. “I almost lost you,” she said as she placed a hand on her sister’s shoulder, tears forming at the corners of her eyes. “That thing could have killed you at any time or maybe even done something worse. I’m used to you being a little reckless but this was a whole new level of reckless! And trying to fight a giant stone monster with just a sledgehammer!? You’re lucky you weren’t crushed!”

“If I hadn’t done anything then L- then people could have gotten hurt. Gotten killed. Besides, I’m Edalyn Clawthrone! Most badass antique store owner in the world! I ain’t gonna let some loser’s art project put me down!”

Lilith sighed in exasperation but didn’t contest Eda’s claim. Obviously because she knew she would lose the inevitable argument that such a denial would bring about. Instead, she opted to gather up the bowls and tables. “I’ll take care of these and pack up the rest of the soup and put it in the refrigerator. Can I trust you to stay in bed?”

“Scout’s honor,” Eda said with a crooked grin as she threw up a salute.

“Yes, because you were an exemplary scout.”

“Not my fault they couldn’t handle a little fun!” Eda cackled as Lilith sighed and left the room. With nothing to occupy her mind, her thoughts drifted once more to Luz. Another quick check of her phone showed that she still hadn’t received any messages. With a small grin, she quickly typed out as melodramatic a message as she could, bemoaning the fact that she had woken up after a terrible ordeal without anyone there beside her and sent it off. Luz probably just needed the encouragement after all. She knew from personal experience that sometimes letting things sit was better for your mental state than constantly trying to get answers where nothing was forthcoming and hopefully this would give the kid the confirmation she would need that things were fine.

“There should be enough soup in the refrigerator for two more meals at least,” Lilith said as she walked into the room. “Now I can either look you over and see if you really are in as good of shape as you seem to think you are or I can force you to stay in bed for the rest of the day, your choice.”

“Well, when you put it like that, poke away Doc,” Eda grumbled. With nothing better to do, and unwilling to use the usual innuendos she usually defaulted to when people got this touchy with her on her sister since it would only prolong the treatment, she asked the question that had been sitting in the back of her mind almost since she’d woken up. “So how’d you manage to convince Luz to go to school?” Lilith’s hand, which was tracing down Eda’s arm looking for damage, suddenly squeezed down tightly. “Gah! Hey, ease up there Lilly! What was that for?”

“I’m sorry Eda, you just caught me off guard.” She shook her head. “Luz has been taken care of.”

“Taken care of? What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

“It means you don’t have to worry about Luz being around anymore, Eda.”

“And I asked you what the hell that’s supposed to mean?! God, Lilly, you’re sounding like some sort… of...” Eda trailed off as her eyes grew wide. “Lilly. What did you do to Luz?”

Lilith stopped her inspection of her sister and her eyes grew cold. “I didn’t do anything.”

“Don’t give me that bullshit Lilly. I haven’t seen Luz since I woke up and I know keeping her from my side after what happened to me last night would be almost impossible. I also know that there is no way she wouldn’t have texted me at least once if you had managed to get her to go to school. Now where. Is. She?”

“Luz has been taken care of Eda. You need to focus on resting. You’ve been through a very traumatic ordeal and-”

“Shut it!” Eda shouted. “Please Lilly! Just tell me what happened,” she begged, her tone growing more and more desperate. “Please don’t tell me you did what I think you did.”

“And what do you think I did?” Lilith asked, sounding genuinely curious.

“I think you and your men in black bundled her up and dragged her off and disappeared her.”

“Eda, I do work protecting the environment! I told you I-”

“Am a member of the SCI,” Eda finished for her. At Lilith’s shocked expression she continued, “Luz told me about it. You came by sometime during the attack to try and contain the situation, keep word about magic from spreading too far. There you found the Luz. The Wild Witch. And you dragged her off to some god-forsaken government facility to be poked and prodded at until she dies.” Some of the edge bled from her voice as she turned a plaintive look at her sister. “Please tell me I’m wrong.”

Lilith’s expression hardened as her entire body shook. “That thing has been taken care of. It was using you. That’s all those monsters ever do! If it weren’t for that thing you wouldn’t have gotten hurt!”

Eda stared at her sister in shock. Despite her mounting concern, she had still held out hope that she had been wrong. “That thing? Lilly, listen to yourself! You met her! We had dinner together! How can you just-”

“And I hate myself for not recognizing it when I first saw it! I should have known! You just randomly decide to take in something pretending to be a kid? Get it signed up for school? Make sure it gets whatever it wants? It was controlling you! It did something to your head and made you think you should protect it! It was even using you to try and gather up those artifacts! Who knows what it would have done with you when it got what it wanted?! I saved your life! I’m looking out for you like I always do because you sure as hell can’t look out for yourself!”

“And since when did I ask you to butt in all the time?! Hovering over me like I’m about to drop dead any second! Trying to control everything I do! The only reason I can even live my life at all is because you’re always busy hunting witches or demons or whatever!” Eda screamed back. “And for your information, Luz was not brainwashing me! Is it so hard to believe that I felt sorry for a random kid stuck with no way to get back home?!”

Lilith recoiled slightly at the accusation but rallied immediately. “Of course you would say it isn’t brainwashing you! That would be the first thing that it would brainwash you to think! Easier to get someone to go along with things if they think it’s their own idea! It was just using you so that it could have someplace to stay while it was trying to get its hands on those artifacts! After it got them all it was probably going to kill and eat you or something! You don’t know what these monsters are like!”

“She’s just trying to find her way back home and keep people safe from those things! Luz has a heroic streak a mile wide and wouldn’t hurt an innocent person to save her life!”

“And you’re still defending it! Even after it used you for all this time! You need to open your eyes, Edalyn! That thing is a monster and it deserves whatever happens to it!”

Eda froze at Lilith’s words. “What Luz deserves,” she ground out, her entire body shaking with rage, “is to live a happy life with her friends. Not whatever black-ops bullshit you’re planning on doing to her.” She let out a ragged breath and fixed her sister with the angriest stare she could muster. “Now get out of my house.”

“Edalyn I-”

“Get out or I will call the cops.”

“Eda, you can’t-”

“I will even specifically ask for Wrath. You know he’ll side with me in an instant.”

“You can’t-”

Eda silently held up her phone and dialed a nine.

“Be reasonable-”

Eda dialed a one.

“Fine! You win! I will leave you to suffer under your delusions.” Lilith turned on her heel and stomped towards the door. “But when you come to your senses and realize what really happened here I will be here for you Edalyn. I love you.” With that, she closed the door with surprising gentleness.

As soon as Lilith was out of sight Eda sighed. “Love you too sis,” she muttered. “Even when you’re being a bitch.” Dismissing the dial-pad she pulled up her security app and watched as Lilith left the shop and locked the door behind her. Eda’s face settled into a determined grimace as she removed Lillith from the app’s approved users list and closed it down. Taking a deep breath to steady herself she laid her phone down on her bedside table and got up. She had plans to make and no idea how much time she had to make them in.

The coven guard let out a frustrated sigh as the SCI woman finally left the shop the wild witch had stashed the artifacts in. The damnable human had spent the entire night and almost the entire next day in the shop keeping an eye on the wild witch’s pawn. Did she perhaps have some idea of what was being kept in the shop? Fighting down a rising sense of panic he cast the locator spell again. Just like all the other times he had cast it since the wild witch had claimed the belt the spell tugged him towards the antique shop. There was still the possibility that the woman had just happened to miss the belt and taken other artifacts but he felt that there would have to have been a more prominent response if that had been the case.

Yes, it was unclear just how many of the artifacts the wild witch had managed to secret away but he was sure that finding anything would have gotten the SCI woman riled up far more than she had seemed to be. Regardless she was out of the building and all that was left was the shopkeeper that the golem’s destruction had injured. Given the deplorable state of the human healers there was no way she was in any state to stop him from getting the artifacts. After all, even healthy she would be no match for an exalted member of the Emperor’s Coven. A satisfied grin spread under his mask. Soon he would get back the artifacts the wild witch had stolen, most important of which being the Rainbow Staff that she had to have. The staff that the disgusting rebel had used to trap him in this titan forsaken world. His grip on his staff tightened as his grin grew manic. He would finally be able to go home. He was finally going to get everything he deserved.

Chapter Text

Once more Eda fought down the urge to look at the ‘Find My Device’ app as she tore through Luz’s room. The fact that the little dot indicating where Luz’s phone was had only moved a little bit since Eda had first checked it was promising though. While there was no guarantee that Luz was in the same place, early tests had shown that whatever magical bullshit she used to store her staff, cloak, and now her phone and wallet didn’t stop signals from getting through. Sure, in a normal situation Eda was confident that Luz would have pulled the phone out at the first opportunity she got to try and make sure everything had turned out okay but this was far from a normal situation. The kid, if all her stories were true, had plenty of experience with this sort of thing and would be cool-headed enough to keep her phone in reserve until it was needed in a situation like this. Hell, if things went as well as they always seemed to in the kid’s stories Eda might not even have to do anything.

Of course, that knowledge was nowhere near enough to keep Eda from putting together her own plan B.

Another box was pulled open and flowery teen adventure books thrown out as Eda continued her search. She didn’t know exactly where Luz kept all the artifacts that she collected but they were definitely somewhere in the room. She was just about to rip into another box when an insistent beep directed her attention to her phone. Her eyes narrowed as she saw a notification from her security app that her front door had been forced open. “Just can’t leave me alone can you Lily?” Eda muttered under her breath. It wouldn’t be the first time her sister had forced her way in after being removed from the approved users list after all. It wouldn’t even be the first time she’d done so less than half an hour after a big argument either. Lilly just couldn’t leave well enough alone when she thought she was right.

Annoyance at her sister quickly turned to confusion though when she pulled up the security feeds. Unlike every time Lilly had broken in, the door hadn’t been carefully closed and relocked. Instead, it swung free, missing its handle. Flicking through the security feeds she saw one aisle in disarray, like someone had stormed through it not caring if they knocked things over. Ice settled in her veins as she heard the creaks of someone taking the stairs two at a time. “Alright buddy, you picked a bad time to break into my house,” she growled as she looked around the room for a weapon. Despite Luz’s ongoing efforts to personalize the space for herself the room still had many of the hallmarks of one of Eda’s junk storage rooms. Boxes full of random crap were all over the place, many of which could make for a solid weapon in a pinch. Her eyes settled on an old walking stick with a carved owl handle and a toothy grin spread across her face.

Taking up a position to the side of the door Eda listened as the creaking turned into heavy, thudding, footsteps. Her eyes narrowed as those footsteps moved unerringly towards the very room she was in. Straining her ears she was just barely about to make out the sound of someone talking to themselves. She couldn’t make out the words but the fact that they came from the other side of the door was more than enough for her to raise the walking stick high in preparation.

The door creaked open slowly and Eda held her breath in anticipation. Time seemed to drag on as the shadow of the intruder slowly moved, step by cautious step, into the room. As soon as a white, beaklike nose poked past the door Eda jumped out from hiding, swinging the walking stick with all her might. In an impressive display of reflexes, the home intruder ducked under the swing and rushed past her into the room, giving her her first real look at them. What limbs she could see before they were hidden by a voluminous gold edged white cloak were thin and lanky, the cloak’s hood and a white porcelain mask shaped like some sort of bird completely hid the intruder’s face from view but there was no mistaking the rage in their bearing.

“You dare strike at a member of the Emperor’s Coven?!” he demanded

“I dare a lot of things buddy,” Eda replied as she readied another swing.

“Of course, I should have expected as much from a human,” the intruder sneered as he reached out and drew a circle of light. 

Eda’s eyes widened in surprise as the spell was completed and a blast of light shot out and slammed into her walking stick. While the impromptu weapon managed to survive the abuse unscathed it was knocked from her stinging hands. 

“Now sleep human,” the man said as he cast another spell.

Eda attempted to dodge the spell but was too slow. She froze where she was as she felt something wash over her and then… Nothing happened. She stared at the intruder, blinking in confusion and almost positive that behind the mask the man’s, no, the witch’s face had a similar look of confusion. Not wanting to squander the opportunity that had been handed to her she rushed the witch, intent on ending the fight before he could attempt to cast another spell.

“No! Sleep! Sleep!” the witch shouted as he danced under Eda’s swings, casting another of what Eda could only assume were sleep spells. “Why isn’t this working?!” he shouted as the spells splashed uselessly against Eda. “What are you!? How are you immune to my magic?!”

“No clue,” Eda quipped as she continued to chase the witch down. This time one of her punches managed to land true, catching the witch in the side.

Moving with the blow the witch gained enough distance to summon his staff and attempt an offensive of his own. Driving Eda back with heavy swings of the staff he began to cast another spell.

Eda yelped as a jet of flames shot out from the circle towards her. Diving down she felt the heat of the flames pass just over her head and winced in preparation for the smell of burnt hair. Preparation that proved to be pointless due to a distinct lack of any foul odors.

“How are you doing that?!” the witch screeched as he continued to back away while preparing another spell. “What is wrong with you?!” 

This time the spell circle didn’t launch any projectiles towards Eda, instead spinning rapidly before bursting into light and fading away. Whatever it was the spell did made the witch pause for a moment, a moment that Eda capitalized on. Grabbing another nearby bludgeoning instrument, an old weathered nine iron this time, she leapt forward. A sharp crack echoed throughout the room as the golf club slammed into the witch’s leg. Eda scowled as the strike failed to visibly break the man’s leg but she contented herself with the knowledge that he wasn’t going to be walking without a limp anytime soon and those fancy dodges from before were going to be a lot harder for him to pull off.

The witch bit down on a scream of pain and threw his staff at Eda, forcing her to duck under the projectile. Eda was no novice when it came to brawls though and made sure her eyes never left her opponent. So when he removed his glove and thrust his hand forward, some sort of tattoo on the back of his hand glowing ever so slightly, she was ready. Snapping her forearm to the side she deflected the strike and opened him up for a counterattack. The witch wheezed as her fist slammed into his sternum. With a hacking cough, he stumbled to his knees, and in doing so brushed against Eda’s arm with his glowing hand. Her mouth opened in a silent scream as her entire body was suddenly wracked with pain greater than anything she’d ever suffered through before. Unable to move or speak she fell to the floor, her limbs stiff as pulses of agony ripped through her body.

“I don’t know… who you angered… to get one of those implanted in you,” the witch wheezed as he tried to catch his breath. “But they must really hate you.” He levered himself to his feet, wincing as he put weight on the leg Eda had managed to hit. “I’m sure you’re very confused right now, human. Your kind aren’t too bright so I’ll do my best to simplify things for you.” He tapped her side and the pain fell to an almost manageable level, although she still couldn’t move. “Someone implanted you with a fascinating little parasite. Something we usually use to keep wild witches under control. Anyone with the brand of the Emperor’s Coven can activate it and cause unimaginable agony.” Another tap and the pain increased, albeit still not to the level it had been initially. The witch snorted and shook his head as he picked his staff back up. “Even better, it eats all magic used on or by the person. No invisibility spells to escape, no healing spells to save them. They can only sit there, helpless as a human until their fate is sealed.” With a twirl of a finger he cast a spell and a small arrow of light appeared above his hand, pointing to a box in the corner of the room. “I’m not quite sure how it managed to survive in you with no natural magic to feed off of. Perhaps something I can look into later. You humans may be largely useless but if we could replicate whatever it is that was done to you perhaps a few of you could prove useful. Disposable soldiers immune to magic would be useful from time to time after all.” He pulled down the box and dumped its contents onto the ground, revealing the crown, glove, and belt that Luz had managed to collect. 

“No no no,” the witch whispered as he shook the box again in the vain hope that something else was stuck in there. “This can’t be all that wretch has managed to find!” Turning the box back over he inspected the interior, head twitching back and forth as he tried to pry non-existent secrets from the cardboard. “It has to be here! She has to have it!” Throwing the box to the ground he began casting spell after spell. 

Even while distracted by the unbearable agony gripping her Eda could tell that whatever it is the witch was hoping to get from casting those spells he wasn’t getting it. Fighting through the pain Eda managed to grin. “Looking for something?” she barely managed to grit out between clenched teeth.

“You…” the witch growled as he turned on her. “Where are the rest of the artifacts?! Where is the staff?!”

“Wouldn’t you like to know?”

Growling in rage the witch stalked over to Eda’s side and tapped her again. The pain soared past its initial levels and Eda let out a hissing screech as it washed over her. “Tell me where the staff is!” the witch demanded as he reduced the pain back to a manageable level.

Eda drew in a shaky breath, distantly noting that her phone had beeped sometime during her last bout of pain. Either someone else had gotten into the shop or there was rough weather on its way. I really should set those two to different alert noises, she dazedly thought to herself. “Can’t show you where the thing is down here now can I?”

The witch paused and even with the mask in the way Eda could tell he was glaring at her. “And give you another chance to strike at me? Do you truly think I would fall for that?”

“Then give me one arm. Unless you’re worried I can kick your ass with one arm tied behind my back.” Silence stretched on as Eda desperately hoped that the notification was Lilly having come back to try and needle her some more. A phrase that she had never thought before and was doubtful would ever be repeated. “I don’t remember where the thing is off the top of my head. Got it saved in my phone though.”

“I will be the one to use your phone,” the witch declared after several seconds.

“Fine, feel me up them ya perv. Phone’s in my back pocket.”

With an almost agonizing slowness, the witch reached out and pulled the phone from Eda’s back pocket. Either due to her needling or some sense of propriety, he deliberately avoided coming into contact with anything but the phone itself. “How do I open this device?”

“Lock code is 0110. Tap the icon that looks like a treasure chest. Should be labeled ‘Goodies’.” 

“I see,” the witch muttered as he unlocked the phone and looked for the app in question. After a moment’s searching, he found his quarry and tapped it.

Eda winced as every horrible, obnoxious, or ear-splitting noise she’d ever managed to find on a public domain sound effects site was played at once. Screams, air horns, nails on a chalkboard, and all manner of horrendous noises erupted from her phone at full volume as she cursed the fact that she hadn’t been able to cover her ears like she usually could when she tricked people into trying to open that app. Now if that’s Lilly down there this’ll hopefully bring her up to see what went wrong or if it’s someone else just drive them off so they don’t get in trouble, she thought. However, her hopes were dashed when she saw three kids crest the stairs.

Willow had known something was up the second she had gotten to the cafeteria to see that Luz was missing. Sure it could have easily been a simple cold or some other minor thing but she had known, deep in her soul, that the only thing that would keep Luz from school was something big. Luz just loved coming to school and spending time around people far too much to let something small keep her from showing up. If Luz wasn’t here that meant Willow’s own initial plans of planting the new seeds she had picked up and stowed in her pocket probably weren’t going to happen today.

Then Gus had shown her the shaky cell phone camera footage of the Wild Witch fighting some sort of giant stone golem.

Willow had spent the entire rest of the day on a hair-trigger. It didn’t take much to put two and two together to figure out that something must have happened to Luz during the fight. Willow herself had seen Luz almost get crushed by the plant monster that Matthoumule had summoned after all. As skilled as she had seemed from a distance Willow had been close enough to tell that Luz had been making things up on the fly during the fight. Whatever it was that Luz did before she decided to be a superhero around town, it probably didn’t usually include fighting giant monsters.

When she had mentioned checking up on Luz as an excuse to head out right after school had ended she hadn’t been surprised when Gus and Amity had both volunteered to come along with her. It was obvious that underneath all the needling and over the top flirting Amity truly did care for Luz. If she hadn’t really cared she would have never gone as far as she had with Luz’s attempts to get her and Willow to reconcile after all. As for Gus? He was just that kind of friend. Willow herself had been subjected to his almost but not quite overbearing surprise visits when she had the flu or something similar before and the chances that he wouldn’t do the same for Luz were astronomical.

Finding Luz’s house had, despite her fears, turned out to be rather simple. Both Amity and Gus had a tendency to go to pawn shops, antique stores, and thrift shops regularly, albeit for very different reasons. Both of them knew about the Eda that Luz would regularly mention as a family friend who let her live with her over an antique shop and Amity had even visited the place while Luz had been on the clock there before. So with a quick stop at a bakery to pick up some get well soon pastries to supplement their well wishes they had made the surprisingly short trek to Owl House Antiques to find that the door had been very obviously forced open.

After nixing Gus’s immediate suggestion of splitting up to cover more ground and unwilling to call the cops just yet in case it was nothing, the three of them moved further into the shop, eyes peeled for anything that might explain the situation. With Amity’s observation that nothing seemed to be missing, something she couldn’t be too sure of given the chaotic nature of the shop, they moved towards the stairs that presumably led to the living area of the building.

They were about halfway up when they heard an unholy amalgamation of every terrible noise WIllow had ever heard mixed in with dozens more she didn’t even know existed. While the specifics of what that sound was supposed to mean was lost on her, Willow was sure that it didn’t signify anything good. A thought that was quite obviously shared by her friends. As one the three of them ascended the stairs as quickly as they could. Once at the top Willow saw a woman that she could only assume to be Eda, her expression a pained grimace as she lay on the ground, and a man in a white cloak and mask carrying a staff very similar to Luz’s.

“Well shit,” Eda said.

The man in the cloak turned to look at them, surprise evident in his bearing if not his features. With an angry growl, he brought his staff to bear towards them.

“Scatter!” Gus shouted as he followed his own advice and dove behind a nearby stack of boxes.

Amity and Willow both quickly followed suit, just barely managing to jump out of the way of a jet of light that shot from the staff. Before another jet of light could be shot at them Willow dragged Amity behind a large sofa that she hoped would be able to protect them from whatever was being shot at them. “What do we do?!” Willow all but shouted.

“Why do you think I would know?!” Amity responded in kind.

“You’ve gone to self-defense courses on what to do if you get attacked by a crazy political assassin or whatever haven’t you?!”

“Yeah! But not when they deal with… magic.” Amity’s eyes widened as she realized something. Surprise gave way to a severe yet pleading look. “Please don’t tell anyone what I’m about to do.”

Before Willow could do more than stare at Amity in confusion her old friend moved one hand to her earrings and closed her eyes. Without warning a large purple circle of light appeared on the ground and one of the goo monsters that had attacked Amity rose up from the ground. “Abomination! Attack!” Amity shouted as soon as the thing had fully manifested.

“You thieves think you can best me with stolen magic!?” the man shouted as he fought with the creature just out of sight from their safe haven behind the sofa.

“Yeah we can!” Gus shouted as a veritable army of Guses ran out from behind the cover he had chosen for himself.

“Of course all my friends have magic,” Willow muttered dazedly as she watched Amity begin to summon another monster. Peeking over the top of the sofa she saw that the man was doing his best to fend off attacks from the first one while also trying to fire shots off at the Gus army. Whenever one was hit it would disappear in a burst of light, only to be replaced with another one from somewhere else in the room. As she watched the chaos unfold she noticed a very familiar looking glove sitting on the ground next to an upturned box.

“Screw it,” she muttered to herself. “Might as well join the madness.” Peeking over the top of the sofa from time to time she made her way along the sofa and back behind the recliner. One more quick check to see that the man was now fighting two goo monsters, although one was looking beaten down and had lost much of its mass. Seeing her opportunity she dove out from behind the recliner and grabbed the glove. Slipping it on she grabbed the seeds she had intended to bring in for the gardening club and threw them at the man.

Willow felt the magic of the glove pulse through her as she reached out towards the flying seeds, willing them to grow. Each one exploded into a mass of roots and vines, writhing and twisting as they tried to find something to grab hold of. A something that they found in the distracted man. The expanding mass of plant life impacted his back and quickly spread across him, restricting his movements enough for a punch from one of the goo monsters to strike true and send him flying across the room. Not wanting to trust that the fight was over Willow commanded the plants to continue growing across the arm that still held the staff, squeezing it until he dropped it with a grunt of pain.

“Check if Eda is okay,” Willow shouted to Gus and Amity as she kept her gaze fixed on the restrained man, vines and roots quickly growing to completely engulf him. Whatever it was he had done to Eda was still in effect and Willow didn’t want to run the risk of him doing it to anyone else. She scowled as she felt the plants whispering in the back of her mind to just finish the man off. With an ease borne of shoving down similar thoughts back when bullies had mocked her for losing her one friend she silenced them. She would only allow the magic to do what she wanted it to do. Not allow it to run rampant the way Matthoumule had.

“Eda says she doesn’t really know what the guy did to her. He said something about a coven and a magic-eating parasite. All he had to do was touch her and he was able to make it put her into a lot of pain,” Gus relayed from his position at Eda’s side.

“What did you do to her?” Willow asked the man as she willed the vines around his mouth to part.

“I only gave her what she deserved,” the man wheezed.

“How do we fix it?” Willow demanded.

“Only a member of the Emperor’s Coven can control the parasite,” the man responded. “Give me your artifacts, tell me where the Rainbow Staff is, and I might be persuaded to relieve the woman from her pain.” He sneered. “Or are you humans so barbaric you don’t care about one another?”

Filing the ‘humans’ crack away for later, something she was sure that Gus was also doing, Willow commanded the vines to wrap back over the man’s mouth. “Okay, so we have some sort of parasite that he thinks we can’t do anything about. Ideas?”

“I don’t know,” Gus said with a frown as he walked over to Willow’s side. “I’m sure there’s an artifact out there that could help but I don’t think we could-” he stopped talking as he saw Amity waving for them to come over to the couch she had moved Eda to.

“I heard what he asked for to fix me,” Eda said quietly as soon as they got close enough that they could have a conversation the man, hopefully, wouldn’t be able to hear. “We can’t do it.”

“But what about-” Amity began.

“No, I mean we literally can’t do it. He’s looking for the same artifact that…” Eda paused as she looked over the three of them, barely managing to suppress a wince of pain as she did so. “Okay, how much do each of you know?”

“If you’re talking about what I think you are then I already know,” Willow admitted, pointedly not looking towards Gus.

“I have my suspicions,” Amity said as she glanced towards the belt that she had last seen the WIld Witch flying off with. “Very strong suspicions.”

“Oh, about Luz being the WIld Witch? Yeah, I know that,” Gus added. When Willow and Amity both looked at him in surprise he sighed and slumped down a little. “Okay, I know it now. Before I had my suspicions too but it felt a little too… perfect I guess? I mean a random new girl shows up in school right and is a magical superhero while also becoming friends with a school club that is dedicated to trying to find supernatural stuff? That sort of thing only ever happens in comic books and stuff so the writer can try to have an audience surrogate character around to speculate about the hero in-universe and hint at all the world-building and stuff. Sure it can be done well but that sort of contrivance can be really hard on the suspension of disbelief,” he explained with a shrug. “I was actually kind of hoping that Luz wasn’t the Wild Witch and all my suspicions were wrong because it felt like that would all be too cliche.”

“Right…” Eda said, taking another deep breath as she visibly fought back the pain. “So Luz is terrible at the whole secret identity thing and I’m totally going to make fun of her where we get her back but that guy,” she glared at the bundle of vines on the opposite side of the room, “wants the same artifact Luz has been looking for since she landed here. The artifact that she, and therefore I, do not have. And even if we did have it I’m pretty sure he would just ramp up the pain and run away instead of healing me.”

“But we can’t just leave you like this!” Gus protested.

“Bah, it isn’t that bad,” Eda denied. When Amity glanced down at her white-knuckled clenched fist she scoffed and slowly untensed her hand. “See. Everything is perfectly fine,” she hissed out through gritted teeth.

“There has to be something we can-” Gus froze and his eyes widened. “Guys. I have an idea. A really stupid idea that we probably shouldn’t try but might work.”

Willow and Amity glanced at each other. “And that idea is..?” Amity prompted.

“Well, the wolf beast was able to heal from being shot and stuff right?” Gus asked with a small, eager smile. “The videos showed him getting shot during the attack on the event hall but the bullets never penetrated very far and the wounds healed up really quickly. The only thing that seemed to do any real damage was that sword the one bodyguard used and I bet it had some sort of magic. That guy said the parasite thing eats magic so maybe the belt can overwhelm it enough that she can transform and then heal away the parasite.”

“That is the dumbest idea I’ve ever heard,” Eda deadpanned.

“Yeah, we don’t know what sort of side effects there-” Willow began.

“Let’s do it,” Eda interrupted. Seeing the three teens staring at her she shrugged. “What? I’ve done way stupider stuff before now for a much smaller payoff than stopping unending pain. Plus I need to get this fixed before I slip up on not screaming in pain and losing my badass cred with you kids,” she finished with a chuckle that ended in another poorly hidden wince.

When no one responded or made any move to do anything beyond staring at her incredulously Eda sighed. “Just give me the damn belt. It can’t make things any worse. Besides, Fanboy here is right. Jackass said the parasite thing eats magic. Chances are that thing won’t even manage to do anything at all to me before the parasite gets its fill.”

Gus looked like he wanted to ask all sorts of questions about everything Eda had just said but managed to rein in his curiosity. “Are you sure?” he asked. When Eda only glared at him he held up his hands and backed away. “Right, you’re sure.” Not wanting to risk angering Eda further he quickly retrieved the belt and held it out for her. “Are you going to need help with this or..?”

“I can still dress myself, kid. I’m not that old yet,” Eda grumbled as she forced herself up. Looping the belt around her waist she screwed her eyes shut and cinched it tight. After a few seconds she slowly opened one eye and glanced down at the belt. “Huh, kind of expected something to- '' Her other eye snapped open and her entire body went stiff as a board. A high pitched squeal, almost like a balloon deflating, could barely be heard from her open mouth as her entire body began to convulse.

“Eda!” All three teenagers shouted as they leapt forward to try and do something, anything to stop what was happening. Attempts to remove the now glowing belt, in the rare times they were able to get a hold of it past Eda’s flailing limbs and constant convulsions were met with failure and singed hands. Whether it was some sort of defensive measure or some sort of reaction the belt was simply too hot to touch. In the end with no better ideas they did their best to at least try and keep Eda steady and hope that whatever was going on would end soon or that they would come up with some sort of better idea than sitting around and hoping.

Their efforts to keep her steady were met with unexpected resistance as her entire body seemed to ripple and distort as the belt tried to make her change into something. Feathers sprouted across her arms and quickly vanished. Her teeth shifted between normal human ones and razor sharp fangs. Even her screams alternated between pained shrieks and inhuman growls. More than once the changes almost managed to allow her to free a limb but they just barely managed to keep her under control.

Then, just as suddenly as it had started, Eda’s convulsions ceased. Every trace of the monster she had almost become faded away. Hands that had been clenched hard enough for her nails to dig into her palms slowly unclenched as she gulped down air. “That… was not fun,” she finally managed to say as she extricated her limbs from the teenager’s grasp. “Can’t say I’ll ever want to do that again but I think it worked.” She rolled her hands and stretched, the haggard look on her face giving way to tentative happiness. “In fact, I think I feel better than ever!” Leaping off the couch she leaned back and cracked her back. She pointed a hand in Willow’s direction. “Glasses-”

“Willow,” Willow interjected.

“Okay, Willow, let Mr. Emperor’s Coven over there talk,” Eda growled with a sinister glint in her eyes. “Luz’s girlfriend!” She said as she pointed at Amity. “Get me my nine iron. I have some questions for our friend here.”

“Wait, what about Luz? Where is she?” Willow asked, mentally filing the light blush Amity was sporting at being called Luz’s girlfriend away for later.

“Got kidnapped by my sister for some men in black bullshit. We’re gonna go get her real soon, I promise.” A wicked smile crossed her features as Amity handed her the golf club that had been laying in a corner of the room. “I was going to see if I could ransom some of the artifacts she’d gotten her hands on for her but I got a new idea now. But I’m pretty sure this guy,” she walked over next to the man and drove her foot into his side, “is going to make a much better bargaining chip. Just got a couple… questions I want to ask him first.” It might have been a trick of the light or some hopeful thinking but Willow was almost positive that the tightly bound man was shaking slightly as Eda smiled.

Chapter Text

As odd as it was, one of the first things to go through Luz’s mind when she woke up in a relatively bare room was akin to relief. While she certainly wasn’t happy to be in what was obviously some sort of prison cell it was familiar territory for her. Getting arrested in disguise for minor infractions as a way to get into a prison wasn’t always the smartest plan but it was one she had successfully pulled off several times.

However, this odd relief was quickly drowned out by a myriad of other emotions. Worry about Eda, anger at Lilith, and fear about the white-cloaked man she had seen standing on the rooftop as she blacked out. As much as she wanted to hope that it was her mind playing tricks on her she just couldn’t believe that. At the very least one Coven Guard was here in the human realm. How long had they been here? What sort of damage had they caused? Her life as a wild witch has taught her a good deal more acceptance for other people that had easily extended to humans. But the intolerance towards anything different the Emperor’s Coven taught could just as easily extend to humans as well.

Thankfully she was equally as sure that the same condescending intolerance would also likely open the guard up to getting sucker punched if he ever ended up trying anything with Eda. The woman had a mean right hook, something Luz had learned the first, and only, time she’d tried to scare her. Eda had been very thankful that Luz's healing spells could take care of that. Something about child protecting servers or something.

Shaking her head to get back in the moment, Luz looked around her cell. It was honestly nicer than a jail cell had any right to be. The bed she had woken up in was rather nice, as good as the one she slept in at Eda’s house if not better, a toilet and sink with a privacy curtain to keep people from watching her do her business, and even a desk and chair with several books, blank paper, and pens. If it weren’t for the massive metal door with no visible means of being opened from this side she would have thought the room more a low end hotel or really cheap apartment. Though the lack of decoration apart from an odd black glass dome in the center of the ceiling did keep the place from feeling too much like something a person would be renting.

She was pulled from her musings by a sudden harsh buzzing noise coming from what looked to be some sort of speaker next to the door. “Please move to the center of the room,” a curt voice said.

Although she was sorely tempted to ignore the order Luz knew that there was no point starting something too early. Normally her jailbreaks had the benefit of lots of planning and foreknowledge about the place she would be escaping. As annoying as it would be she was going to need to gather that information here before making a move.

The instant she reached the center of the room a loud buzzing noise came from the door. As soon as it ended the door began to swing open away from her, revealing an almost comically short woman with black hair that came down over one of her eyes carrying a clipboard. To each side of her was a much taller man dressed in what appeared to be some sort of armor and carrying a large gun. “You are Luz Noceda, correct?” the woman asked as she read something on the clipboard.

“That’s me,” Luz agreed, not elaborating further. Being willing to go along with whatever was going on for now didn’t include giving away anything she didn’t have to after all. Although with Lillith having been the one to bring her in she knew there was likely no point hiding things like her name or where she had been staying.

“Excellent.” The woman wrote something down and looked back up at Luz. “You came through the portals that appeared over Southborough earlier this month, along with the various magical artifacts that have been showing up around town, correct?”

Luz nodded but didn’t say anything.

The woman frowned slightly and wrote something down. “And once here you used some manner of mind control magic on one… Edalyn Clawthorne, correct?” she asked, the barest hint of exasperation entering her tone as she read Eda’s name.

“What?! No I didn’t!” Luz shouted, taking a step forward only to freeze as the two guards immediately leveled their guns at her.

The woman frowned and lowered her clipboard. “Please remain at the center of the room Ms. Noceda. Now, if you would like to contest the report we have on your actions you may do so. Now, once again. Once you arrived here you used some manner of mind control magic on Edalyn Clawthorne, correct?”

“No, I did not,” Luz hissed out through clenched teeth. “Eda found me on the side of the road and gave me a place to stay while I recovered. When she found out I had nowhere to go she decided to let me stick around until I could find my way home.”

“Interesting,” the woman muttered as she presumably wrote down what Luz had said. “Your actions as the Wild Witch are well known to our organization but have you used magic on any other humans since your arrival here?”

“I…” Luz trailed off as she tried to think of how she had used her magic since he had arrived in the human realm. “I’ve used some illusions and stuff to play pranks on Eda. I also tried to heal her when she got sick.”

The woman nodded at that. “And this is the extent of your use of magic on humans? No curses, hexes, evocations, or otherwise harmful incantations?”

“What?! No! I mean, when they were using the artifacts to hurt people I kinda hurt some people but other than that I haven’t done anything!” Luz cried. “And tripped Boscha when she was being a bitch,” she added under her breath.

The woman stared down Luz as she ran through her denials. After a moment another note was made on the clipboard. “One final question for now. You are a wild witch and do not possess the brand of any of the covens of the Boiling Isles, correct?”

Once again Luz was caught off guard by the woman’s question. “You know about the covens?” When the woman didn’t respond Luz sighed and rolled her eyes. ”No, I don’t have a coven brand,” she confirmed.

“Thank you,” the woman said as she made one final note. “And yes, we are aware of the coven system the Boiling Isles uses. We’ve been collecting information on your realm for quite some time.” Without another word she turned on her heel and left the room.

One of the guards that came with her stayed behind for a moment. “Meals will be at eight, noon, and five. It is currently 7:00 A.M.” He motioned to a button next to the door. “If you need anything, press the button and talk into the speaker. Do not cause any trouble.” With that he backed out of the room, not taking his eyes off Luz the entire time. Another buzzing sound came from the speaker by the door as it swung shut and locked with a heavy chunk.

“Well, at least it’s more hospitable than any of the other prisons I’ve been in,” Luz said to herself as she walked up to the door. A few experimental taps didn’t tell her anything beyond that the door looked to be made of pure metal. Metal that had looked almost half a foot thick from what little she had been able to see of it while it had been open. “Probably not getting through that way.” Running her hands along the wall didn’t seem to reveal much either. They seemed to be made of some sort of stone, likely every bit as thick as the door had been if not more. She couldn’t really tell if the floor was the same as it was covered by a rather nice carpet but she doubted anyone that had put this much effort into designing the cell had left a security hole like that. Another glance at the ceiling sparked some hope though. Where there were lights and ventilation there were also ways out. Too small for her to fit but possibly enough to do something. 

Something that she would need to plan extensively before trying anything or else lose the element of surprise.

With an angry huff, she flopped back down on the bed. A part of her itched to pull out her phone and make sure that Eda was alright. She could feel the mental not quite weight of the phone in her subspace. Her distressingly empty subspace. Her cloak and cowl had apparently been removed while she had been unconscious and her staff… She shook her head and pushed those thoughts down. The staff might not have been a true witch’s staff, wood capable of supporting a palisman was under the strict control of the Plant Coven after all, but it had still been a gift from her mom. Pushing those thoughts down even harder so as to not get stuck on worrying about how her mom was doing she forced herself to think of the, no less worrying but more solvable, question of what had happened to Eda.

As justifiably angry as she was with Lillith for her part in her capture, Luz could at least acknowledge that Lillith did care for Eda. Lillith’s partner had even mentioned that he had managed to get Eda to drink a potion of some sort that had helped her. Add in what Luz had been able to piece together about Eda and Lillith’s relationship and she felt she really could rest knowing that Lillith was likely sitting at Eda’s bedside right now, waiting for her sister to wake up.

It was just too bad that baseless paranoia had a tendency to ignore little things like facts when it came to causing worry. It wasn’t until a now familiar buzzing noise came from near the door that Luz realized she had managed to spend nearly an hour sitting around worrying about things she couldn’t change.

“Please move to the center of the room,” the same voice from before said.

A few moments after Luz complied with the orders the door swung open once more and the same woman from before, sans any guards this time, entered the room carrying a tray piled high with food. She walked along the edge of the room over to the small desk and placed the tray on top of it. Pulling her clipboard from under her arm she walked to the same spot in front of Luz she had stood in their first meeting. “Luz Noceda. You stated that you were a wild witch on the Boiling Isles. What crimes did you commit in order to earn this title?”

“Why?” Luz asked, her eyes narrowing.

The woman cocked her head to the side slightly before seeming to come to a realization. “We have no interest in punishing you for any laws you may have broken on the Boiling Isles. We are more interested in whether you are one of the ‘innocent’ wild witches or one of the guilty ones. Previous testimonies and intelligence have shown that some wild witches attain the title by refusing to conform to the coven system of the isles.” Her gaze narrowed. “Others attain that title by practicing forbidden magics that often entail blood sacrifices, cannibalism, and various spiritual desecrations.”

Luz grimaced and shook her head furiously. “No! I’d never do any of that stuff! I was just part of a group that wanted to change how things were in the isles!”

“A rebel group? Against the emperor?”

“Yeah,” Luz nodded.

“I see.” The woman wrote something down on her clipboard. “As thanks for your compliance with your questioning so far you will be allowed to ask one question.”

Luz blinked in shock at that. She had almost been expecting to have to somehow get her warden to slip up or mention something she wasn’t supposed to in order to get any information. If she asked the right question she might even be able to get some sort of information that would help her escape! But if she did that…

“Is Eda okay?” Luz asked after a moment.

“The woman you were staying with?” the woman clarified.

“Yeah. Last I saw her she got thrown down the street after she managed to destroy the gem powering the stone giant and she looked really hurt.” Luz took a deep breath to steady herself. “Is she okay?”

The woman was silent for a moment before nodding slightly. “She is expected to make a full recovery. Lillith Clawthorn requested the day off so that she could keep an eye on her sister just in case anything happens as well. Should Eda relapse or suffer some complications I believe it will be handled.” She paused before noting something down on her clipboard. “I will leave you to your meal now.” With that, she turned on her heel and left the room.

Luz frowned as the buzzer sounded again and the door swung shut. The lack of a definitive answer on Eda’s condition was disappointing but the assurance that, as far as could tell, her friend would be fine lifted a massive weight off Luz’s shoulders. Maybe it would have been better to ask something that might have helped her get out of here, but at the same time, she didn’t think she could have lived with herself if she hadn’t made sure Eda was okay after getting hurt so much saving Luz’s life.

Her nose twitched as, for the first time, she noticed the smells coming from the food that had been placed on the desk. Her stomach rumbled as it made its vote on what should be done next abundantly clear. Nodding to herself she walked over to the desk and pulled back the chair. “Definitely better than any of the other prisons I’ve even been in,” she said as she looked down at a plate of scrambled eggs, bacon, a cinnamon roll, hash browns, and a small assortment of fruit. After casting a few discrete spells to see if she could find any poisons, potions, or other contamiments and finding nothing untoward in the food she dug in. Demolishing all but a few pieces of fruit, grapes if she remembered correctly. Those she slipped into her sleeve, a plan slowly forming in her mind.

Hours passed as she cast less and less discrete spells. Each time waiting to see how long, or even if, her wardens would come by to stop her. Everything from small illusions to fireballs were completely ignored and it set her on edge. These people had knowledge about the Boiling Isles, they had certainly dealt with witches before, so why were things going this smoothly? Were they that confident in the security of their cell? It certainly seemed thick enough that it would take a very powerful abomination or demon to brute force their way out. Healers, potion makers, and beast keepers would also likely be almost completely neutered here. Some healer spells meant to numb pain or prevent a patient from thrashing could help subdue guards but weren’t enough to mount an escape. Illusionists, bards, and maybe plant witches might be able to get out so there were probably extra measures for them in place somewhere. For a moment she considered construction magic but a quick test on the walls showed that they were warded against magical tampering. She might be able to get past them but she doubted her captors would sit around and let that happen. Looking at the cell with all these thoughts in mind she had to admit that it would likely be very difficult for a traditionally trained coven witch to break free.

Good thing she wasn’t a traditionally trained coven witch.

She might not have the raw power and more complex spells that the more specialized witches would have been able to throw around but she had a variety that she doubted even some members of the Emperor’s Coven had. She was just about to use one of those spells when the door buzzer sounded. 

“Please move to the center of the room.”

Luz sighed and did as the voice commanded. While this prison may not have been nailing the general aesthetics she was used to but they definitely nailed the stringent schedules and demands. Once again the woman that had come in the last two times entered the room carrying another tray of food.

After placing the food at the desk she gathered up the remains from the last meal and returned to the door to pass them off to one of the guards. Cleanup completed she returned to the same position she had asked her questions from before. “How did you travel from your realm to ours?”

“There was an accident with a powerful artifact. Someone damaged it and it sent me here along with a lot of other artifacts.”

“And these are the artifacts that have been used by the citizens of Southborough?”

“Yeah.”

“And do you have a list of all these items?”

“Uh, no. I don’t,” Liz admitted with an embarrassed blush. “Things were… hectic at the time and I didn’t even know everything that was in the room.”

“I see.”  She paused for a moment and put a hand to her ear. She nodded slightly and turned her focus back on Luz. “Do you know where the artifact that brought you here is?

Luz’s shoulders slumped as she shook her head.

For a brief moment a look of pity crossed the woman’s face before she schooled her expression back to one of professional indifference. “You may ask one question.”

Luz shook her head and brought her focus back to the present. “Why are you doing all this?”

The woman raised an eyebrow at the question for a moment before answering. “I will assume you are referring to your accommodations and our interactions with you.” When Luz didn’t object she continued. “Despite Ms. Clawthorne’s testimony, you are currently deemed a low-risk prisoner. Despite having been living alongside humans for quite some time the only record we have of you breaking the law is a single account of truancy.” Luz’s eyes widened and she cursed Deputy Wrath under her breath. “Contrary to what you may believe, suppression and containment are not our sole concerns. It is far better if we can rehabilitate individuals and integrate them into society. Giving us access to their expertise when it is needed and helping ensure that individuals with the requisite abilities and skills are scattered throughout the country when some random monster or forgotten relic shows up. With your current suspected progress you should be cleared to return to Southborough in six to eight months.” She ignored Luz’s look of horror as she put a hand to her ear again. “Apologies. A year to a year and a half. New, more stringent protocols have been put in place due to misunderstandings the last individual left the program with. Though with how well you have integrated with human society already we may manage to shave off one or two weeks from the long term estimate.”

“A year?!”

“To a year and a half, yes. After which you will be placed into a proper foster home. I believe we have openings in Indiana, Nebraska, and Massachusetts”

“But what about school?! And my friends?!”

“The school will be notified that you have moved out of state, and if any of your friends are open to resuming your relationship after you complete the program they will be free to do so. They will, of course, not be able to contact you before you are deemed fit for society, however.”

Luz stared in horror as the woman turned and left the room. Her mouth worked silently as she tried to come up with some objection, some reason that she couldn’t go along with that insane plan. A small part of her took note of the buzz and the door closing once more but the lion's share of her focus was on what the woman had said. Her look of horror soon shifted to one of determination. Escaping from this place needed to happen as soon as possible. After that, she could get with Eda and figure out what to do next. Eda would have some sort of plan. She had to.

Kikimore groaned once the door finally closed behind her. “Please tell me that girl is stepping up her attempts to escape,” she asked into the microphone in her collar.

“Oh yeah. The little witch is really going at it now. My money is on some sort of plant spell with that grape she hid down her sleeve, though Cassi is adamant she’ll use some sort of illusions to sneak out,” Phil replied from his position in the security center.

“Finally,” she groaned as she continued down the halls. While she could understand the Director’s decision to stress test the new cell setup with a witch that, according to all non-Lillith testimony, wouldn’t want to permanently harm anyone while attempting to escape, she still wasn’t fond of it. If only the idiot girl had managed to keep out of Lillith’s crosshairs long enough for a less… confrontational… agent to make contact. But no, all other agents were busy dealing with their own conflicts. Gravity Falls was acting up again, the train was doing something new, and one of a trio of missing persons had managed to show up with a family of anthropomorphic frogs of all things.

Biting back another groan, Kikimora pushed down longing thoughts of her own office back at headquarters. She should be sitting at her desk, filing reports and determining which projects required the Director’s personal attention. Not playing passive-aggressive babysitter to a teenage witch. The same lack of agents to assist with the Southborough situation also had made it so that the only person the Director could trust to get things done properly here had been her.

Her commiserating was interrupted for a moment as she stopped in front of a large, secure door. After a lengthy process of opening it that involved her id card, two biometric verification steps, and a password, she walked into the security center. “How is it looking?”

“The kid just managed to make an abomination out of a portion of the carpet and gave it the grape,” Phil said from his spot in front of a wall of monitors. “Pretty sure she doesn’t realize there’s a camera in the room.”

“I would think not. Security cameras aren’t really the sort of thing that people talk about very much. Anyone that has talked to her likely hasn’t realized how little she knows about our world,” Kikimora agreed. “Has the next rotation of guards been alerted to what they will need to do?”

“Yeah, Johnson argued a bit but agreed when he found out they’d be getting hazard pay for the entire shift. They’ll only use non-lethal ordinance and will disengage the moment things start to look dangerous.”

“Excellent. While the Director would prefer that the witch is recaptured so he can apply pressure on that front when he presents his proposal to Ms. Noceda the survival of all personnel is vastly preferable. Worst case scenario that meeting will simply have to take place at the witch’s base of operations with a different set of pressures.”

“When is the director supposed to get here anyway?”

Kikimora checked her phone and frowned as she read a new email. “He has been delayed. Something came up in Danville. Again. He should arrive around four-thirty.”

“Which will probably put him coming in right around the witch's escape attempt if I’m reading things right.” At Kikimora’s inquisitive look Phil continued. “She has the carpet abomination waiting next to the door. Made a couple others too and gave them some seeds from the watermelon that came with her lunch. My guess is she’s gonna use some plant magic to make all those grow and stop the door from closing.”

Nodding at his assessment Kikimora moved to the desk she had claimed for her time at this base and started up her laptop. She might as well try to get some actual work done while she waited for the child to work up the courage to actually attempt the escape she was planning for.

With the ease of experience, Luz shoved her tension down as she waited in the center of the room for the door to open. The guard had said that dinner would be at five and according to the clock she’d found on the desk that was now mere seconds away. Right on cue, the door buzzed and the familiar statement rang out. Once again the small woman entered the room, swapped out the food with the used plates. With a firm mental command, Luz ordered the carpet abominations to slip out through the open door. The material wasn’t the most conducive to making a proper abomination and their abilities were very limited but they were at least capable of doing their job of carrying small items around. Her pulse pounded in her veins as she drew up as much magical power as she could and waited for the perfect moment to strike. The woman had moved to the same position that she had been during the previous questionings and looked down at her clipboard.

Now!

Luz spun her arms to create a single giant spell circle and poured her magic into it. Just outside the door the seeds she’d managed to collect erupted into a mass of grasping vines that entangled the guards to either side of the door. Not wanting to give the woman a chance to do anything she simply bowled her over in a mad rush towards the door. Once outside she glanced around for the button that she was sure the guards had pressed to open and close the door. Her eyes fixed on a large red button with a plastic case covering it. Flipping up the case she hammered the button with one hand as she began casting an oracle spell with the other. “Come on come on come on, show me the way out,” she muttered as the escape spell did its work to point her to the closest exit to the building she was in.

“Stop where you are!” A guard further down the hall shouted as a deafening siren began to blare throughout the halls.

“No thanks!” Luz shouted back as she summoned several illusory copies of herself and sent them charging forward while hiding herself under an invisibility spell. Finally, the escape spell pinged and an arrow appeared above her wrist, pointing her in the same direction she’d sent her illusions. Hoping that the guard was too busy trying to figure out what to do with the swarm of Luzs surrounding him, she dashed forward.

Slipping by the distracted guard was easier than she’d expected, as was getting through the door at the end of the hall. What lay beyond wasn’t as easy though. It figured that the fastest way out would also be the most heavily guarded one.

“Stop her!” one of the guards flanking the door she had run through shouted as he brought some strange gun to bear. Not wanting to risk the man making a lucky guess she opted to create a shield between herself and her newest pursuers. Just in time too if the crackling pings of something hitting her shield moments after it was cast were any indication.

“Don’t bother using the tasers yet! We need to take out the shield and keep her from using magic first!”

Luz’s eyes widened at that. While she wasn’t up to date with the sorts of tools that the SCI had for dealing with magic she certainly didn’t want to risk anything she didn’t have to. Splitting her concentration she began to cast two different spells. Her eyes flicked down to the oracle arrow still hovering over her wrist to see that it was pointing at a door to the fight halfway down the hall. Her course set she cast her spells. The first being a simple light spell overcharged to a blinding intensity, the second being another illusory double of herself that she directed to keep running down the hall as she ducked into the side door.

Her heart pounded in her chest as she ducked to the side and waited for the two guards to run past her. As much as she wanted to get out as fast as she could she also couldn’t risk them seeing her out of the corner of their eyes and realizing they were chasing an illusion. The second the thudding footsteps of the guards went past her she resumed her flight through the halls.

Careful listening and minor oracle spells helped keep her from running into guards for several hallways but each escape was by a narrower and narrower margin. Even worse was the fact that the guards were all keeping in touch with each other. Those radios might not have been as powerful as the remote communication spells the Emperor’s Coven used but they were far better at disseminating information to everyone as quickly as possible. More than once she had to wedge herself into an uncomfortable corner and cast an invisibility spell to keep from being found as the guards managed to somehow track which doors she’d opened and drew an ever tightening noose around her. She managed to start buying herself time by opening every door she came across but even that only barely managed to slow down the guards chasing after her.

Once more she froze as a pair of guards swept through the room she was hiding in. A sigh of relief escaped her as they failed to find her and moved on to the next room but it did nothing to calm her racing heart. At this rate, she was going to be captured sooner or later. They probably had an entire squad of people waiting at the exit for her to show up too. All with orders to not move until she was captured.

Her eyes widened as a thought occurred to her. They would keep this up until she was captured so what if they did manage to capture her? Or rather, if they thought they did. She glanced around the room she was hiding in to see if there was anything that could be used for her plan. Chairs, tables, lots of tools that looked like they might belong in a potion maker’s lab. A small smile flitted across her face as her gaze landed on what looked like some sort of metal coat rack with a long white coat draped overtop it. “Perfect,” she muttered.

Working fast in case another patrol decided to re-check the room, something else these guards had over the ones she was used to dealing with, she began to cast her spells. Some beast keeping spells to animate the coat rack, a little abomination magic to give it some more body, and as powerful an illusion as she could cast to make it look like her. By the time she was finished casting the spells, she was panting for breath like she’d run a marathon but in front of her stood a near perfect doppelganger. If her calculations, and the dull throbbing ache in her bile sac, were right then the illusion making it look like her would even be able to stand up to repeated physical contact, though each hit would drastically reduce its operating time. 

Taking a deep breath to steady her nerves she flung the door towards the exit open and commanded the decoy to run out ahead of her. She didn’t bother fighting back the a grin as she heard a veritable mob of people shouting that they had found her and, after what sounded like several muted gunshots, that they’d found the real thing this time. Once the decoy was far enough away Luz commanded it to let itself get hit by the next shot and go down. She didn’t need to wait long for a victorious cheer to sound out from deeper in the building as the guards believed they had finally managed to capture their target.

Slipping out of the room Luz moved through the building as quickly as she dared. Move too slow and she wouldn’t be out by the time they discovered her ruse. Move too fast and she might alert a guard that had stayed behind to her presence. It was a delicate balance that ratcheted up her stress right up until she entered a large, open room. At the front were a set of glass double doors and beyond that a parking lot. It was freedom and she was almost there. Casting one more suspicious glance around the room for any guards she crept forward. Her entire body trembled with poorly suppressed excitement as she reached for the door.

Only to seize up as something impacted her side and zapped her with a powerful jolt of electricity.

“That was quite impressive,” a deep voice said as the air to either side of the doors leading outside shimmered and several people seemed to materialize out of thin air. “Placing the illusion on the golem was an excellent idea. We actually thought we had you.” A tall, thin man in a dark suit walked over to where Luz lay twitching on the ground. “If we hadn’t had some men waiting here under invisibility spells you might have actually escaped. Amazing how rarely witches actually expect magic when they’re dealing with ‘mere humans’.” He knelt down and turned Luz’s face so she could see him. Long silver hair cascaded down the man’s back and framed a pair of pale blue eyes that almost seemed to glow in the dim light. “Now I believe we have some things to discuss.”

Luz was hoisted up by a pair of guards as the man in front of her stood back up. “I am Belos, Director of the SCI, and you have made quite a stir little witch. Magical artifacts raining down from the sky, humans using them to cause all manner of trouble, and a brave little witch trying her best to save the day. It’s almost like a comic book,” Belos chuckled. “But we can’t just let you keep running around like this. The Boiling Isles may be a land of chaos but here we prefer a more ordered existence. You can either work with us in aid of that or…” he trailed off as one of the guards walked up to him and whispered something in his ear. He whispered back something that Luz didn’t manage to make out, the look of smug condescension he’d had so far had faded away and was being replaced with traces of frustration.

Before either Belos or the guard could say anything more the sound of a roaring motor and squealing tires rang out from the parking lot outside. Luz could just barely make out the slamming of a car door, seconds later the front doors of the building were kicked open. Luz’s jaw dropped open as Eda strode through the now open doors.

“Alright boys, I’m here to pick up my kid and am willing to bargain,” she said with a cocky smirk that only faltered slightly when she saw the state Luz was in.

Magic, Eda noted, certainly made staking places out easier. Almost too easy actually. If this had been a less important situation she might have actually had Fanboy not even bother with the illusion keeping them hidden as they waited outside the SCI building for Luz to escape. The trip there had been surprisingly short, only an hour long jaunt outside the city. Short enough that each of the kids had easily been able to sell their parents on being out for some sort of study session.

“She stopped again,” Girlfriend said again as she hovered over Eda’s phone. Her eyes glued to the Where’s My Phone app.

“She’s stopped plenty of times before. Don’t panic unless she starts heading back where she came from,” Willow said, her own eyes no less fixated on the app.

Not that Eda really had any room to make fun of them with how the only time she wasn’t looking at the phone was when she was joining Fanboy with a pair of binoculars to watch the building. “Any movement?”

“Nothing new,” he said as he scanned the front of the building again. “The guards in the entry hall are all still on high alert but staying where they are. They really don’t want her getting out.”

“Heh, she must be giving them the runaround if they’re putting this much effort into making sure she doesn’t try to get out through the front,” Eda chuckled as she brought her own binoculars to bear. Another scan of the front of the building revealed nothing new. No windows to peek into and no extra exits beyond what looked to be some sort of loading bay. Looping around the building was, unfortunately, a no go. At least if they wanted to do it by vehicle anyway and she was in no mood to go hiking around the forest in the middle of nowhere if she could help it. Time spent running back to the car could mean the difference between being able to pick Luz up and escape and getting caught by the men in black.

“She’s moving again!” Girlfriend said as she shook Willow’s shoulder.

“I can see that!” Willow replied as she shook free of Girlfriend’s grip. “I think she’s close to the entryway!”

“Guards are moving out! Do you think they found her?” Fanboy asked, his grip on the binoculars tightening.

“You three keep an eye on things and let me know when I need to move,” Eda commanded as she turned her attention back to the steering wheel and readied her keys in the ignition. However, this ended up playing out they would need to be ready to get moving as fast as possible.

“I see her!” Fanboy shouted, waving a hand to get the other’s attention. “She’s running towards the doors! She’s gonna make it!” His excited jittering ceased. “No… Something happened! She fell down… I think someone is grabbing her!”“Right. That’s our cue,” Eda growled. “Luz’s Girlfriend, make with the goop monsters, I don’t want any guards messing with our ride. Fanboy, make sure you get some illusions stopping people from recognizing you three. Don’t want the feds looking into any more of us than we have to.” Ignoring the grumbles at her choice of nicknames she started her car and gunned it towards the wooden bar separating the road from the parking lot. 

It never stood a chance. The wood splintered and the man at the security post next to it was left staring in shock as they blew past him. From the rearview mirror Eda could see him frantically shouting into his radio as one of Girlfriend’s goo monsters rose up out of the ground behind them and descended on the guard’s shack.

As they approached the building Eda turned just enough that she would be able to circle the car around and get her door as close to the building as possible. The kids all shrieked as she managed to drift into an almost perfect parallel parking job that came to a stop inches from the curb. “Okay ya pansies, remember. Keep the car going, don’t let the crazy guy out of the trunk unless I say so, and don’t let the feds mess with the car.” Not waiting for a response she threw her door open and strode up to the double doors of the building. A small part of her mind noted that the doors didn’t even seem to be locked. Overconfidence or them needing to pull in more people that didn’t follow procedure? Either way, it left things open for her to make the sort of entrance she’d wanted to for years.

With a mighty kick, she shoved the doors open and walked into the building like she owned the place, mentally checking an item off her bucket list as she did so. “Alright boys, I’m here to pick up my kid and am willing to bargain,” she said with her best, most infuriating, cocky smirk. Her eyes roamed over the situation, taking in the dozen guards in some sort of weird swat gear covered in lightly glowing squiggles, some tall jackass with more money than sense going by his suit, and… her grin faltered slightly as she got a good look at Luz’s limp form, just barely able to move her head to look in Eda’s direction.

As one, the guards not holding Luz realized that they should probably be doing their jobs and all pointed their weapons at Eda. Mr. Business Suit also seemed to finally realize what was going on as his well-disguised look of surprise melted away into the sort of cool confidence she was used to seeing on people like that. A look she always relished wiping away.

“I see. And you must be the younger Ms. Clawthorne. Your sister seemed to think you were indisposed,” Mr. Business Suit said.

“Yeah, well, you’re probably used to her being wrong about crap. She can be pretty stupid at times,” Eda replied as she nodded towards Luz. “I’m willing to bet that whatever crap she fed you about the kid is at least half wrong and half outright made up.”

Mr. Business Suite laughed at that. “Your sister’s… views on the supernatural are well known by everyone that has had the pleasure of working with her. Ah, but where are my manners? I am Director Belos.” He held out a hand that Eda pointedly did not shake.

“Yeah, yeah, nice to meet you too,” Eda grumbled. “Now if I could just take my kid here and go home that’d be nice.”

“I’m afraid we cannot simply let you walk out of here with an individual of Ms. Noceda’s talents,” Belos said. “I’m sure that once we can be assured that she is no danger to anyone she can return to you. Perhaps in a year or two.”

“Yeah, not happening. Here’s my offer: the kid and I walk out of here, and I leave you with someone I can assure you is a danger to everyone. You can take him apart instead of the kid and we all go home happy.”

Belos narrowed his eyes at her and stared her down for several seconds. Bastard had one hell of a poker face but Eda could tell he was caught off guard by her proposal. Eventually, he seemed to find what he was looking for. “And I assume you can prove this individual exists?”

“Only if you promise me that you’ll let the kid go if I do.”

“If we come to some manner of agreement where you take Ms. Noceda with you it will only be under the condition that she reports in regularly with an SCI operative for evaluations on her integration with human society. You will be placed on the list of approved foster homes for individuals such as herself and will have to join her on at least some of these visits. That is, of course, assuming you can live up to your end of the bargain.”

Eda smirked at that and turned back to the still open doors leading out into the parking lot. “Hey Luz’s Girlfriend! Get the jackass out of the trunk!” She couldn’t help but chuckle at the reactions of the various guards, easily read even through their all-encompassing swat gear, as a goo monster pulled the white cloaked witch out of the trunk of the car and brought him inside the building. Holding up a finger to cut off Belos before he could speak, Eda reached under the witch’s mask and yanked off the duct tape they had applied to stop his ranting.

“You worthless, miserable humans! I will kill you all! I will bring the full wrath of the Emperor’s Coven down on each and every one of you! You will pay for all of this!” the witch immediately screamed the moment his mouth was free.

Eda smiled as she basked in the visibly shocked looks on both Luz and Belos’s faces. After reaching her personal quota of smugness for the moment she began to shout herself to ensure she could be heard over the ranting of the witch. “There ya go! One crazy witch that just wants us all to die!”

Belos motioned towards one of the guards next to him and they fired their weapon at the witch. Bolts electricity streaked out of the weapon and caused the witch to twitch madly for a moment before slumping in the goo monster’s grip. “It’s not every day someone from outside our organization manages to subdue a member of the Emperor’s Coven,” Belos noted. “I suppose someone as skilled as that could be trusted to reign in another witch if she ever tried to cause trouble.” He motioned to the guards holding Luz and they gently laid her down on the floor. “If you would be so kind as to leave the coven guard in our care you may leave with Ms. Noceda.” He paused as the goo monster passed the witch into the arms of a pair of guards. “A member of our organization will meet with you in the next few days to work out the finer details of Ms. Noceda’s probation.”

Eda nodded as Belos and the guards all began to leave, making their way further into the building. As soon as they moved away from Luz Eda ran to her side. “Come on kid,” she whispered as she picked Luz up. “Let’s get out of here.”

The car ride back home was made in silence. Luz had been surprised to see her friends waiting for her in the car but had accepted it easily enough. Girlfriend and Willow had pulled Luz into sitting between them in the back as they silently fussed over her the entire trip. Fanboy kept sneaking peeks at the back seat, his gaze often going to Luz’s ears whenever he wasn’t just making sure that the kid was still alright. He was obviously bursting with questions but was holding back for her sake. 

An hour later Eda parked the car in front of her antique store and the entire menagerie piled out and followed her upstairs. The leftover chicken noodle soup was warmed up and divvied up amongst everyone along with some random snacks Eda managed to find in the pantry. It was only after everyone had managed to claim a seat in the living room that Luz finally spoke.

“So… how long have you guys known?” she asked, one trembling hand going to the ears she usually kept hidden under her beanie.

“Since the first day. I saw you put on your costume in the entrance to the greenhouse,” Willow said.

“I found out today, but I had a feeling about it after Gus mentioned you talking about abominations before,” Girlfriend said.

“Same for me,” Fanbo- Gus said with a shrug.

“You’re really not that good at the whole secret identity thing,” Willow added with a small smile.

That got a small chuckle out of Luz as she stared down at the bowl of soup. “And… you don’t care? That I’m not human, I mean.”

Rolling her eyes, Girlfriend proved Eda right about her choice of nickname by being the first to go over to Luz’s side to give her a hug. “Of course we don’t care,” she said as the other two joined in and offered their own sappy affirmations.

For the first time since she had come back, Luz finally smiled and Eda finally felt like things were going to work out. With a small smile of her own, she walked over to Luz and threw an arm around the teenager blob. At Luz’s surprised look Eda rolled her eyes. “Don’t get used to it kid. I’m just glad you’re back.”

“Me too,” Luz whispered.

Kikimora sighed as she pushed herself away from her desk, allowing the office chair she sat in to slowly come to a stop in the middle of the security room. As glad as she was that they could call today a success, she was not fond of the sudden interruption Edalyn Clawthorne had provided. The director had, thankfully, managed to rally to the sudden intrusion with aplomb. In the end, they managed to test the security of this facility’s design against non-traditional magic users, gotten many members of the security team experience dealing with a hostile magic user, returned a positive asset to Southborough under their own control, and, as an unexpected bonus, gained possession of a quite obviously hostile witch that almost certainly had a long list of crimes to his name.

She really could have done without getting locked into the detainment chamber though. It had taken far too long for the guards to free themselves from the plants that had wrapped them up and press the release button. While part of her wished that she’d had some manner of override on the inside she was also well aware of why that was a bad idea.

Her shoulders slumped as she sighed and watched the new witch get carried through the facility. Specialized gloves had been slid over his hands and then latched behind his back to prevent him from casting any spells and there were never any fewer than three shock rifles trained on his back at all times. It would seem that having a teenage girl run circles around the guards was pushing them to be a little more vigilant. Sure the girl had shown a surprising level of skill in both stealth and magic that far outclassed what people around here generally had to deal with but she knew from experience that a bunch of big tough guys tended to take getting their asses handed to them by a little girl quite hard.

The entire procession managed to reach the detention chamber without incident. Though there may have been a time or two that a jumpy guard had discharged a shock into the witch when he had twitched. She made a mental note to have those guards get recertified in weapon use. The rifles may have been designed by the best scientific and magical minds they had access to to be almost impossible to cause any lasting harm with but it never hurt to ensure that the people using them were properly trained and didn’t pick up any bad habits that might translate to other areas.

She was shaken from her thoughts on just how much retraining those guards should be subjected to when the Director followed the guards into the chamber and waved for them to leave. While not unheard of for the Director to personally interrogate a prisoner from time to time it was usually after several other people had taken a crack at it and gotten most of the mundane details out of the way.

As the door closed behind him the Director looked directly at the camera. “Turn off all monitoring equipment.”

It took several seconds for anyone in the security center to work through their shock at what he was asking. Finally, seeing that no one else was willing to be the one that broke protocol, even for the Director, Kikimora stood up and walked over to the main console. “Are you sure sir?” she asked into the intercom.

“Ah, Kikimora. Yes. I am sure. There are certain things that I need to discuss with this one. Please treat this entire conversation as a class two memetic hazard.”

“Class two… Sir, that will leave you in the room with the witch for the next six hours! Even after that, you’ll need to go through another twelve hours of mental screening!”

“I am aware of that Kikimora. I’m the one that set up the protocols after all,” the Director chuckled.

“I… yes sir,” Kikimora relented. “Shutting down all monitoring equipment now. See you in six hours Director.” Kikimora sighed as she put in the requisite codes and shut down all electronics in the detention chamber. Rubbing her eyes she groaned as she turned to look at the rest of the people in the room. “Alright people, we have six hours to prepare for a full mental screening. That means getting three psychics flown out here to test for mental contamination, prepping the deprivation chamber for twelve hours of use, and alerting all top-ranking SCI agents that the Director will be unavailable for the foreseeable future.” She paused as she looked around the room, taking in the varying levels of surprise on everyone’s faces. “Did I stutter? Move, move, move!” Another sigh escaped her as she watched everyone in the security room scramble to follow through on her orders. Some days it really wasn’t worth getting up in the morning.

Unfortunately, her sentiment turned out to continue to be true over the next eighteen hours. As the highest-ranking staff member present on-site she needed to be awake and available for the entire memetic hazard protocol as well as the following twelve-hour mental screening. Normally there would be a small group of people that could handle this but since she occupied a one of a kind position between the Director and the rest of the organization she didn’t have a single person that could swap with her without breaking containment regulations. Suffice to say that by the time the Director completed his mental screening, coming up clean as a whistle, she was less than pleased with him.

“Belos,” she growled as she clutched her twenty-third cup of tea. “Please tell me that this was all worth it or I might strangle you.” Seeing the amused glint in his eye she had to fight the urge to grab his tie and yank him down to her level. “You know I’ll do it Belos. I’ve done it before and I’ll do it again.”

“Of course, Kikimora. Of course,” Belos said placatingly. “And yes, this was all very much worth it.” He looked down at the beaked mask he was holding. A mask that Kikimora had last seen being worn by the witch. “We will need to step up our involvement in the Southborough anomaly. There is an artifact that the SCI must take control of.”

“I’ll… see what we can spare. Personnel have been stretched thin as of late. We just don’t have any available agents with the experience necessary to complete this sort of mission.”

The Director hummed in thought for a moment before smiling ever so slightly. “Then perhaps we should cast the net wider as it were. After all, we have a prime candidate for assisting us heading back there now.”

Kikimora looked at Belos in confusion for a moment before her eyes shot open in shock. “Sir! You can’t honestly expect Ms. Noceda to work with us after all of this!” The plan had been to have her in place as a passive deterrent. Possibly allow her to continue her work as the Wild Witch. Not rope her directly into SCI business.

“If this were a normal situation then yes, this would be a poor decision. But this is not a normal situation. Ms. Noceda has experience dealing with far worse than what we subjected her to. Furthermore, the worst of it can easily be placed at the feet of Agent Clawthorne. Between her personal history with magic and her readily apparent beliefs regarding its users, it will be easy to paint her actions as grossly out of line for an agent of our organization.”

Kikimora nodded slowly. From what she had read of incident reports they wouldn’t even have to exaggerate much in regards to Lilith’s actions. The woman had done a fine job capturing a very slippery individual but her conduct in doing so and the fact that she had almost killed the child would have likely been enough to force her back into training for some time if it weren’t for the ongoing situation in the town.

“Excellent. Now, what is the status of this location?”

Blinking in confusion at the sudden subject change, it took Kikimora a few moments to collect her thoughts. “Ms. Noceda didn’t manage any major damage while escaping. The detention cells are in working order, and even her having scavenged one of the labs for materials to make her distraction can easily be fixed.”

Belos nodded. “Not quite what I was asking but good to know. What projects are being worked on here and how much space is available?”

Once again Kikimora was thrown for a loop. “This is a rather low priority facility so there isn’t too much here. The vault doesn’t contain anything over a class four item and the current research projects are…” she trailed off as she tried to remember the dossier she had read almost a full day ago. “Research on a few of the less volatile items from the Avalon Estate if I remember correctly.”

“Excellent. They can be shelved for the moment.”

“Sir?”

“Project Unity will be being moved here,” Belos said, either not noticing or not caring when Kikimora dropped her cup of tea, letting it shatter on the ground. “We may need to relocate some of the junior researchers and the facility will need to have its security procedures and wards updated of course.”

“B-but sir! We can’t possibly-”

“We can and we will,” Belos declared. “This may well be our best chance to see Project Unity come to completion. We cannot miss this chance, Kikimora.” He looked down at her, his eyes cold and dark. “I won’t allow it.”

“Yes sir,” Kikimore managed to say, holding back the shiver that ran down her spine at his glare. “I’ll get started on it immediately.”

Hunter moved through the woods with a purpose. After years of searching everywhere he could, scouring every corner of the internet and tracking down every lead he could he was finally on to something. Southborough wasn’t the first place he’d been that was touched by the supernatural in some way but it was the first one that felt right. Taking a deep breath he focused and drew a stuttering circle of light in the air in front of him. Once again he felt the pulse of his own magic that had always come from casting the spell, then a few seconds later he felt a second pulse. Reorienting himself towards that second pulse he continued his trek through the forest. A sad smile crossed his lips as he thought about how proud his mom would have been for figuring out the trick she’d always used to keep track of him when he was a baby could now be used to possibly find answers to, hopefully, everything. 

Pushing aside another branch his eyes widened at the oddity he had been led to. Sitting in the middle of the woods was a house. No roads or electrical wires leading up to it, not even a hint of plumbing or any of the modern amenities he would expect from a house at all. There was a small frown on his face as he shifted the front door aside, taking careful note of the relatively fresh claw marks on the frame. “Black bear?” he wondered aloud. Something to keep an eye out for but not too odd. Turning his inquisitive gaze to the rest of the room he took in a faded blue tarp making a tent against a wall with the words ‘Gus Was Here’ carved in the wall trim nearby. A secret base for a kid that lived in the neighborhood maybe? No, everything was too worn to be recent. More likely a secret base for someone that had long since moved on.

With a shrug, he moved into the kitchen and paused his explorations as he noticed the pile of rubble that sat in the center of the room. The dust around the rubble showed that whatever had happened had happened long enough ago that another collapse was unlikely. It also meant that at the very least he probably wasn’t going to have to shift through this pile of rubble. Glancing upwards into the attic he was surprised to see a much tidier scene than what he had encountered so far on the ground floor. The walls, while not pristine, at least looked sturdy and cared for and he could just barely make out what looked to be a map of the city crisscrossed with red string on the wall.

A manic grin split his face as he began to explore the house in earnest, looking for any way to get into the attic. His grin didn’t diminish in the slightest when a thorough search of the house showed that the only normal way into the attic had likely been in the kitchen, that very entrance possibly even having been the minor structural weakness that had caused that section of the ceiling to collapse. He could always return later with a ladder or something else to help get into the attic but he hadn’t come this far to let his search be delayed by something as inconsequential as a ladder. 

When simply jumping proved to not be quite enough to get him the height he needed he turned his attention to the dilapidated cabinets and counters of the kitchen. Slow, methodical tests found the most stable bits of remaining furniture. A solid section of countertop that, if his estimates were correct, would support his weight just enough for him to make at least one jump for the attic.

Gingerly balancing on the counter he tried his best to not make any sudden movements that might damage his launchpad before he heaved himself attic-ward with a determined shout. The countertop creaked ominously beneath his departing feet and he heard a few cracks as some of the rotted wood got that much closer to snapping entirely but it got him the height he needed. Grabbing hold of what looked to be the most stable of the remaining beams that were sticking out into the hole in the ceiling he allowed himself to stabilize before pulling himself upwards. It was with a manic, breathless laugh that he eventually managed to drag himself into the attic, his arms burning with exertion and no small amount of splinters.

Once he’d managed to catch his breath he finally got back to his feet and began to survey the little hideaway he’d managed to find. The map of the city was interesting, but the pictures of some local antique store didn’t really do much to let him know what the person that had been hiding here had wanted with the place. The pile of white cloth in the corner turned out to be an entire pile of white capes of varying quality. Whoever had lived here seemed to have a fixation with them that their obviously mediocre tailoring skills hadn’t managed to satisfy. Though some of the later ones almost seemed professional. Apparently, the owner had gotten better over time. When he really focused he could feel the barest traces of magic coming from the cloth. Not much but enough to convince him he was in the right place. Finally, he reached a table covered in all manner of jewelry, articles of clothing, and other knick-knacks. Picking up one of the more interesting ones, a conical red crystal, he held it up to the fading sunlight. He was about to put it down and reach for the next item to catch his eye when it glowed with a dull red light and the item he had been thinking of grabbing lifted into the air and floated towards him.

His jaw dropped as his gaze shifted from the red crystal to the floating item, a triangular cloak clasp, and back. A giddy smile split his features as he turned his attention to the rest of the items on the table, his mind reeling with the possibilities. With a shaking hand, he once again drew a circle of light in the air. Not only was the second pulse nigh instantaneous this time, but with how close he was he could tell it wasn’t just a second pulse, it was a whole collection of pulses. Layered on top of and magnifying each other. That multiplication was likely the only reason he’d been able to find this place from so far off. Joyous laughter bubbled out from him as he stared around the room. For the first time in his life, he might finally have answers! His eyes flicked to and fro around the room as he tried to find something that might tell him when the person that was living here would be back. Eventually, his darting eyes landed on a well-worn notebook leaning up against the map on the wall.

Curiosity as to what was in it warred with the desire to respect what little of the hideout owner’s privacy was left but it was a short-lived and one-sided battle. He carefully picked up the notebook and turned it to its first page. “Day two of being trapped in this blasted realm. No sign yet of the wild witch that stole the Rainbow Staff. I can only hope that she has decided to stay here for the moment or died in transit instead of simply abandoning this titan forsaken land and returning home to the Boiling Isles. Since I don’t know how long I will be stuck here I will make my usual debriefs here for review when I managed to return home,” he read with eyes wide and a grin so wide it almost hurt. His hard work was finally paying off. He was finally getting his answers.

Chapter Text

The days since Luz had come back from the SCI building had been full of tension. In a perverse way, it was a return to form for her. Living on the isles in general taught you to keep on your toes, but for a wild witch that feeling was magnified a hundred times over. You always needed to keep an eye out to make sure you didn’t get caught in some Emperor’s Coven trap or that the person you were talking to couldn’t learn enough about you to sell that information to bounty hunters or was a bounty hunter themselves.

The human realm, though? It had been safe. Sure there was always that tiny fear in the back of her head about what people would do if they found out she was a witch. Or that someone might get their hands on a particularly dangerous relic and hurt someone else and it would all be her fault. But there was a lack of the more direct fears. She could wake up and just go about her day knowing that unless extenuating circumstances got involved the worst she had to worry about was homework and whatever the discount option in the cafeteria was.

It had been… nice.

Now though? There was a pall over everything she did. The SCI hadn’t contacted them outside a very one-sided package that had been delivered the next day with her cloak and cowl. There hadn’t been any information on the handler she would supposedly be assigned to or how often she would have to deal with them. Every second of every day there was a whisper in the back of her mind reminding her that something might go wrong and they might decide to revoke their approval of her living with the general populace. Sure, she had almost managed to escape them once but she didn’t think they would be quite so lenient if they decided they wanted a repeat performance.

Honestly, if it weren’t for her friends she was sure she would be in a far sorrier state. Random texts from them and occasional visits while she recovered from her ordeal, something that had led to her taking a couple of days off school, had done wonders for keeping her from freaking out too much, even if they had been somewhat… off lately. Though she did begin to reconsider just how much they had her best interest in heart when they dumped a stack of papers almost an inch thick on the table in front of her.

“-and here’s the rest of the homework I was able to pick up for you,” Amity said as she indicated the thick folder she had placed on the table. “The teachers were pretty understanding about you missing school when I mentioned you lived on the street that got attacked by the golem.” She turned towards the kitchen where Eda was fixing herself a snack. “Though I think that the forged doctor’s note was overkill,” she said as loudly as she could without actually shouting.

“Bah, you’re just jealous you don’t have access to my skills and had to go to school instead of hang out with Luz,” Eda replied as she hip-checked the pantry closed. “Now come on, it’s Friday and you squirts should be out having fun, not sitting around here doing homework,” she said with a shudder.

“Luz has fallen behind in classes and needs to make up for lost time. The sooner we can get this all finished the sooner we can properly enjoy the weekend,” Amity primly replied as Gus and Willow nodded in agreement.

“Laaame,” Eda groaned. “Fine, you guys do your ‘homework’ thing you like so much. I’ll be downstairs if you need me,” she said as she shot a very unsubtle glanced towards Luz.

“I’ll be fine!” Luz huffed as she buried the feelings of betrayal at her friends having turned this get-together into a study session and turned her attention to the first, and largest, stack of papers.

It turned out that going with that particular stack wasn’t the best idea. Of course the largest stack of papers was her math homework. Where most classes would have only a couple assignments a week Mr. Pritchard didn’t believe in not assigning homework. Usually not much but a page or two of questions a day was the norm, not the exception. Her friends were more than willing to help her with the parts she’d missed while kidnapped and recovering from her kidnapping. Amity in particular was a major help since she was already in advanced math classes. But in the end, it was still a long, dull slog of math. Something that she was sure no sane person would ever willingly subject themselves to.

“Finally,” she groaned as she wrote down the answer to the last question. “I’m free!” she shouted as she threw her hands up in the air, sending her pencil flying off to some unknown corner of the room.

“She does realize she still has the rest of her classes to do, right?” Gus stage whispered to Willow.

“Don’t care! Math is done!” Luz exclaimed as she leaned back into the sofa. “That’s like, half the homework you guys brought me!”

Looking down at the papers Willow shrugged and nodded. “That looks about right. You do still have Mrs. Post’s analysis on ‘The Rime of the Ancient Mariner’ though.”

Luz didn’t bother looking over at Willow, preferring instead to keep reclining on the sofa. Instead opting to wave off her friend’s concern. “That’ll be easy. Mrs. Post always likes my analysises… analysi?”

“Analyses,” Gus supplied.

“Wait, Mrs. Post actually likes you?” Amity asked, flabbergasted. At Luz’s hurt expression she quickly continued. “I don’t mean it like that! It’s just I don’t think I’ve ever heard of Mrs. Post liking anyone before.” She paused for a moment. “Okay, apart from the major suckups. But they don’t really count.” She shook her head and stared at Luz. “How did you do it?”

“She likes my unique take on literature,” Luz explained with a grin. “She says that I almost always bring a new perspective on the work we’re analyzing.”

The others processed this for a moment. Willow and Amity eventually just shrugged and nodded. Gus, however, remained contemplative.

“So do you think it’s a new Luz perspective or a new witch perspective?” he finally asked.

Luz sat back up and held up a finger to answer but faltered. Her hand began to droop as she gave Gus’s question some serious thought. “I don’t know. Both? Some of it probably is a witch thing. Or a raised on the Boiling Isles thing. Growing up as a wild witch is also probably part of it,” Luz trailed off as she wrestled with the philosophical ideas of how one’s upbringing and environment shape their perspective.

“Is wild witch a title?” Gus wondered aloud, shaking Luz from her musing. After a moment he seemed to realize he had said that out loud. “Not that you have to answer that! I was just talking to myself!”

Luz blinked at his sudden panic. Confusion was quickly replaced by suspicion as she glanced towards Amity and Willow, both of whom were glaring slightly at Gus. “Gus, are Amity and Willow keeping you from asking me questions?”

The two girls in question jumped slightly before blushing and looking away.

“Hey, don’t worry,” Gus assured Luz. “I know I can get caught up in things and they just wanted to give you some time for things to calm down before I started asking questions.”

“We just wanted you to have some time for things to calm down after… everything,” Willow explained.

“Come on, I’m fine! They didn’t even get to the part where they tortured me!” Luz assured them. Apparently incorrectly since her words were met with half angry, half worried, stares.

“Torture? They were going to torture you?” Amity asked with an eerie calm, one eye twitching slightly.

“Well, probably?” Luz replied with a shrug. “That was basically a prison and that’s what the wardens do to their prisoners. To keep them all in line.” She looked around at the incredulous looks her friends were giving her. “Right? Is… is that not how humans do things?”

“No!” Gus said before pausing and thinking for a moment. “Well, it’s illegal! Prisons are supposed to treat their prisoners humanely, not torture them.”

“Huh, hope the SCI goes along with that if they ever grab me again,” Luz muttered to herself. Her eyes widened as she saw that she hadn’t been as quiet as she’d thought and the others had heard her given the looks on their faces. “Oh yeah! Gus! You had some questions right?” she asked in an attempt to move the topic to something far less personal.

“No,” Willow said firmly. “Luz, please, just talk to us. You’ve been on edge every time I’ve seen you ever since we got you back.”

“Come on Willow, I’m fine,” Luz tried to assure her.

“No you’re not!” Amity interjected. “You’re always looking around and your ears twitch every time you hear an unexpected noise! It’s like you’re expecting to be attacked whenever we see you!”

“Well, you guys have been acting weird too!” Luz retaliated. “This is the first question Gus has asked me about magic or witches or anything since then!” She turned to Willow. “And you keep glaring at Gus and Amity when they say anything that might be about magic or the SCI or me being a witch!” She turned to Amity and an embarrassed flush bloomed across her cheeks but she soldiered on. “And you haven’t tried flirting with me at all since you found out I wasn’t human!” Her hands balled into fists as she looked down at the homework. “Things are different now and I get that but all this,” she spread her arms out and motioned vaguely at her three friends. “Isn’t going to help! I just… I want to go back to the way things were. When the human realm felt safe and I had friends that were willing to just be normal around me.” By the end of her tirade, she was panting for breath. Mid breath she froze as the realization that she had blown up at her first, and only, friends sunk in. Her eyes widened as she took in the shocked and uneasy looks around her. Then she saw Willow opening her mouth to say something, one hand reaching out to… to what? Placate her? Tell her it was all in her head? Chastise her for yelling at them? Luz didn’t wait to find out.

Ignoring the shouts from behind her she ran down the stairs, only barely managing to remember to grab her beanie and jacket and slip them on before she covered the last steps.

“Luz? What are you doing down here?” Eda asked as Luz walked towards the door. When Luz didn’t answer, Eda's tone took on an edge of concern. “Hey kid, you alright?”

Luz paused for a moment, one hand on the doorknob to the front door. “Yeah… I’m fine. Just need some fresh air,” she said as she turned the knob and walked out. Distantly she heard the sounds of footsteps coming down the stairs but she tuned them out and jogged down the sidewalk.

She didn’t know how long she had jogged by the time she slowed down to a walk, everything since leaving the shop was just a blur. With her emotions finally spent she slowed to a stop and leaned against a nearby building. “Good job Luz, you probably just drove away your only friends,” she muttered to herself. Glancing up and down the street she groaned and slumped against the wall as she realized that she didn’t have the faintest idea where she was. She knew she couldn’t be too far from the shop, there was no way she had been going that long after all, but nothing looked familiar. Her hand twitched to summon her phone but she stopped. If she summoned her phone she might see messages from the others. Her hand shook as her mind raced with the possibilities of what those messages might say. Apologies, recriminations, accusations, or, worst of all, there might be nothing.

With a huff, she shoved her hands into her pockets and resumed walking down the road. Minutes slipped by as she looked around the crowded street and tried to let herself get lost in the journey. In another time she would have even managed to succeed in enjoying the walk. The weather was nice, not too hot or cold, and there were plenty of people going too and fro. Going into office buildings, shops, and restaurants. At that last one Luz was reminded that she hadn’t eaten since a small snack hours ago. Between homework and… recent events she’d managed to ignore the growing hunger but the tantalizing smells coming from the various restaurants were doing their best to stoke her hunger. Not wanting to go back and get confirmation on how badly she’d screwed up, she opted to duck into the nearest restaurant in hopes of finding something to eat. Human world food tended to be pretty weird but a lot of it was also really good once she got over her squeamishness about it. 

“Slice and Dice,” she read as she looked at the old sign hanging over the front door. Immediately upon entering her stomach informed her she had made a good choice as she teek in the delicious smells inside the restaurant.

“Welcome to Slice and Dice! Best pizza in town!” the man at the counter said with a huge smile. “What can I get ya? We got some pizza by the slice here if you want it now or you can order a pie of your own.”

Luz nodded as she walked up the counter and looked at the various pizzas behind the glass. Most she recognized. There was a pepperoni and a cheese, others were new but rather straightforward, like the chicken bacon, but the last one… “What’s a White Album?”

“A crowd favorite,” the man said with an even larger grin. “It has four different kinds of cheese with a parmesan cream sauce. Guaranteed best cheese pizza you’ll ever have.”

“Uhh, I’m actually lactose intolerant,” Luz said sheepishly.

“You poor child,” he said, eyes wide and a single tear running down his cheek. “What a cursed life you must live, to be so forsaken as to not be able to eat cheese.”

Not able to help herself, Luz giggled at the man’s overdramatic lamenting of her situation.

“But don’t worry! Through the power of science, we have progressed beyond the frailties of the human body! Behold!” He swept an arm behind him to indicate the closed refrigerator behind him. “Vegan cheeses!” At Luz’s questioning look he faltered slightly but rallied and repeated the motion towards the refrigerator. “Cheese without lactose! Yes! Through the power of science, there is a cheese for anyone!”

“Really?” Luz asked with interest.

“Yes! And through countless hours we here at Slice and Dice have figured out the perfect way to make a vegan White Album! Go ahead and grab a seat in here or around the corner if you want to eat outside.”

“Ah, but how much-” Luz began as the man swept into the kitchen and began to grab things from the refrigerator.

“On the house!” the man replied as he turned and held a shaking fist over his heart. “It is my duty! No! My honor! To introduce you to the greatest cheese pizza in the world!” His serious look faltered into a more good-natured smile as he continued, “also we haven’t had many chances to use the vegan stuff lately and it’s getting close to its expiration date. I’d rather have someone enjoy it on a pizza than have it go bad.”

Any further protests on Luz’s part were brushed aside as she was once again told it wasn’t a problem. With nothing else to do she walked out the back door of the restaurant to see several tables set up outside and claimed a seat. 

She almost immediately regretted having chosen a place where she would have to wait for her food when she managed to exhaust the sights interesting enough to distract her after only a few minutes. After that, she was back to reaching for her phone before faltering due to her own fears and insecurities. At least being a nervous wreck made time pass quickly, because she could have sworn she had only just started the back and forth between almost checking her phone only to stop herself when the man from before came out of the restaurant.

“Here you go, kid! Greatest vegan pizza you’ll ever eat!”

“Thanks,” Luz said as she looked at the very delicious looking pizza that had been placed in front of her. “That was really quick.”

The man shrugged. “Eh, we’re a bit slow right now,” He explained. “Now go on, give it a taste and let me know what you think.”

Luz nodded and grabbed a slice of pizza. Long strings of gooey cheese stretched out as she pulled it from the rest of the pizza and took a bite. Her eyes widened as both the taste and the temperature of the mouthful hit her at once. It took a few seconds of shifting the mouthful around and doing her best to cool the pizza without showing off half-chewed food to the world but she eventually managed to swallow. “That was really good! It also might have burned the roof of my mouth a little but it was worth it!”

The man grinned and was about to say something when the faint sound of a bell came from the restaurant. “Ah, another customer awaits. Glad you could finally get a good cheese pizza you eat. And be sure to mention it to your friends! Enjoy your meal!”

Luz’s smile faltered a little at his mention of friends but she shoved those thoughts down and turned back to the pizza. Eda had mentioned getting pizza before but had refrained when her question of whether or not to get extra cheese had led to the revelation of Luz’s lactose intolerance. There had been plenty of over the top melodramatics about what Luz was missing out on then too. Now that she was actually eating some pizza she had to admit that Eda might have had a point. Pizza was really good. Though she couldn’t help but wonder how much of her current opinion was colored by the fact that this was apparently the best pizza in town and free. Everyone knew free food always tasted better after all. She had just finished her first slice and was preparing to start in on the second when she heard the sound of a chair being pulled away from the table.

“Good afternoon Ms. Noceda,” a vaguely familiar man in a suit said with a small smile as he set down a paper plate with a slice of pepperoni pizza down on the table. At her confused expression, his smile faltered. “I’m Agent Steve, of the SCI.” He held out a hand that Luz shook on autopilot, her mind racing as she tried to figure out if she had done something wrong. Apparently her worries were easily read as Steve laughed and shook his head. “No need to worry Ms. Noceda. I’m just here for our check-in with you about your stay here. Normally this would be handled by the highest-ranking agent in the area but Ms. Lillith is…”

“A bitch?” Luz supplied before she could help herself. While a small part of her could recognize that Lillith had been acting in what she thought was in her sister’s best interest Luz also knew that didn’t come close to excusing everything that had been done or said.

“Not good at dealing with the supernatural in a diplomatic capacity,” Steve finished far more charitably. “Which can translate to her being a bit of a bitch at times,” he added after a moment. “She is an excellent field agent when there is a monster that needs to be stopped or people need to be protected. But when it comes to seeing witches, demons, and monsters as people she can falter.” He shook his head sadly. “And that is multiplied a hundred-fold when her sister is brought into the picture. After Ms. Edalyn was infected by a magical parasite as a child-”

“Wait wait wait! Eda’s condition is caused by magic?!” Luz interjected.

“Yes, it’s why Lillith joined the SCI in the first place…” he trailed off before his eyes widened in shock. “Oh! Right! She wouldn’t have told you or Ms. Edalyn about that! You, uhh, you won’t tell Lillith I spilled the beans about that right?” he asked sheepishly.

“Maybe, maybe not,” Luz said with a devious smirk. “Finish the story and I’ll make sure I never tell Lillith I heard it from you.”

“Fine,” Steve huffed, looking far more like a petulant child than an agent of a secretive government agency. “When they were kids Lillith found something that had come from the Boiling Isles, she described it as a little metal disc with insect legs and teeth along the edge. She and Edalyn were playing with it when she accidentally pressed it against her sister’s side. It burrowed inside her and apparently vanished. No x-rays or other procedures ever found anything. If it weren’t for the fact that Edalyn’s paralysis attacks started happening right after that Lillith might not have ever realized it had done anything at all. She was found by the SCI after a field agent saved her from a fairy that had promised a cure for Edalyn if Lillith could entertain it for three days.” His face grew grim. “She managed it but when the cure the fairy proposed was death Lillith tried to break off the deal. The agent found her the next day when he managed to uncover evidence the fairy was kidnapping people for its ‘art gallery’. Lillith was the only person they managed to get out of there still alive and sane. After she recovered she ended up joining the organization to try and find help for her sister and to try and make sure that no one else would go through what she had.” He paused as he took a bite of his own pizza. His eyes brightened as the taste hit him and he held up a hand to forestall any questions as he happily ate his pizza. Annoying as it was to have the conversation interrupted, Luz couldn’t fault the man for wanting to eat if his pizza was anywhere near as good as hers. “I don’t know how she felt about magic before that but I know she really doesn’t trust it now.  From what I heard it took years to get her to trust even the healing potions the research division put together enough to use them without being forced to. I know it doesn’t make how she acted when she took you in any better, but I hope it makes it more understandable.”

Luz sighed sadly and nodded. She’d met plenty of that sort of person on the Boiling Isles as well. Perfectly friendly one second and the next talking about wild witches like they were some a bunch of freaks that deserved to be hunted down. They somehow managed to be nice, friendly, and moral just as long as a particular group of people never came up. “Is she ever going to be part of these meetings?” she asked before taking another bite of pizza.

Steve shrugged and made a non-committal hum. “We’ll have to see. She will probably do all she can to avoid interacting with you but you do live with her sister. Even if Ms. Edalyn never had to be a part of these meeting and Ms. Lilith never led them, you would still cross paths again eventually.”

Luz nodded at that. Even if Lillith didn’t show up at the shop or any of these meetings Luz wouldn’t put it past Eda to try and force the issue. Luz was about to take another bite of pizza when a new thought occurred to her. “How did you even find me for this meeting in the first place?”

“That’s actually one of the things I was going to bring up!” He held out his phone and opened up an app. A map of the city appeared and he tapped an icon marked with Luz’s face. The map then zoomed in on the outside dining area of Slice and Dice. “As you can imagine the SCI tends to be wary of letting supernatural immigrants go without any means of tracking them. So when an individual is brought into our custody we use a nifty little magi-tech device to place a tracking spell on them. Derived from some old Native American magic from what I hear. You could probably remove it if you put your mind to it but then we would have to assume you went rogue, hunt you down, and possibly end up killing you if you look like you’re resisting,” he explained cheerily.

Luz’s face paled as she stared down at the little red dot that showed exactly where she was. “What if something else removes it?”

“Well, that’s what cell phones are for! As part of the information packet you’ll be given we include several numbers where an SCI agent can be contacted at any time. Feel free to call them if you run into any issues at all.” The cheery look on his face faded to something far more somber. “Any issues at all. Need identification to get a job? Call us. Got a little tipsy and can’t drive home on your own? Call us. Angry fundamentalist mob found out you’re a witch and want to burn you at the stake? Call. Us. The SCI may have been initially founded to contain or eliminate anything deemed too dangerous for normal humans but that isn’t all we do. We also work to make sure that any supernatural individual that wants to live with humanity can do so. That includes making sure you get a chance at a normal life.” He paused and looked around for a moment and shrugged. “At least as normal as you can get with the way things are around here these days. You’ve already done a great job fitting in so I don’t think we’ll have to do much with you other than meet every couple weeks. The Arizona guys are gonna be pretty jealous with how little work we’re gonna have to do with you.” He finished off his pizza and pulled a folder of papers from a briefcase that Luz hadn’t noticed before. “We’ll have to bring Ms. Edalyn into these meetings eventually as well but I thought it would be best for the first one to be a little more personal. If you want to keep things between us we can do that for the most part but that just means we’ll end up meeting with her separately. So stay in school, try not to be too obvious about having magic, and call us if anything goes wrong.” With a smile on his face he stood up and offered Luz a folder of papers.

“W-wait, that’s it?” Luz asked as she took the surprisingly hefty folder from him. “You’re not going to tell me to stop looking for artifacts or stay away from Eda or my friends or take me back to prison if I slip up even a little?”

Steve smiled and shook his head. “Not at all! Ms. Edalyn and your friends have shown to be an excellent influence on you! As long as you are willing to talk with us I doubt there’s much you would willingly do that would have us lock you up without giving you warnings and time to correct your behavior on your own. As for the superheroing you’ve been doing? Keep it up. This wouldn’t be the first town to have something like that going on with the rest of the world none the wiser. You’ve done a commendable job stepping in to help people when we were otherwise occupied or too far away to assist in time.” He placed a hand on Luz’s shoulder and looked her in the eye. “You’re doing good work here Luz. Keep it up. And.. maybe… let us know when you find a particularly dangerous artifact. I won’t pressure you to relinquish them to our care but do remember that someone already broke into Edalyn’s shop once to get at them.” With those ominous words, he smiled, gave her a jaunty wave goodbye, and walked away.

“That was… odd,” Luz said to herself as she reached for another slice of pizza. Blinking in surprise when her questing hand was met with nothing she glanced down to see that she had managed to finish the entire pizza already. “Huh,” she muttered as she patted her stomach. Sure it had been a small pizza but she hadn’t expected to finish it all that fast. A quick glance at the sun also showed that it was also starting to get a little late. Making sure to pass through the restaurant so she could once again say thanks for the pizza Luz returned to the street and looked back and forth. “Right. Still lost,” she muttered.

Mustering her courage she pulled out her phone and looked at the notifications. There was a single text from Willow in the group chat. Opening it up a small smile crept across her face. “Sorry about earlier. Whenever you’re ready to talk about it let us know. Sorry for making things weird,” she read. Still smiling Luz opened her map app and brought up directions to get back to the shop. For all that she felt her meeting with Steve should have unnerved her it had actually done the opposite. The fact that the SCI had a way to track her wherever she went and any attempts to subvert it would prompt a dangerous response was worrying but compared to the nightmare scenarios she’d been dreaming up it was positively tame. She still didn’t fully trust that they were going to be as hands-off as he claimed they would be but it still sounded better than what she had to deal with in the Boiling Isles when the Emperor’s Coven would do their random sweeps looking for wild witches. A tension she had been carrying ever since she’d been captured left her as she felt like a weight on her shoulders had been reduced. Things may not have worked out in the best ways she could imagine but the future looked both brighter and far more certain than it had a few hours ago. Opening the messaging app back up she began to type a response in the group chat, her smile growing with every word.

Her friends had all returned to their own homes by the time Luz made it back to the shop. Disappointing as it was for their time together to have been cut short like the way it had been, she understood that they had their own families to return to for dinner. An understanding that may have been helped along by the veritable storm of texts that had been sent back and forth since she’d opened the floodgates. Her response to Willow’s message had quickly sparked a storm of apologies, counter-apologies, and promises that things would be better. Things had loosened up after that though and the chat had devolved into friendly jokes, jabs, and happy conversation. Even their original plans to meet up tomorrow had been reconfirmed without issue. In the end, her return walk ended up taking almost three times what her flight had. When she finally did make it back she was immediately greeted by a purring King and an Eda who was doing her best to look nonchalant.

“Took you long enough to get back here kid,” Eda said as she took in Luz’s peaceful smile. “Things get worked out then?”

 Luz nodded and attempted to move further into the shop. Those attempts were futile as King pressed further into her hand and ramped up his purring. In an instant, Luz’s desire to move forward was halted and she resumed lavishing attention on the cat. “Yeah,” she said. “I’ve been texting them the entire way back here from Slice and Dice.”

Eda relaxed slightly at Luz’s words. Her nonchalant demeanor becoming more fact than just a facade. “Really now? I thought you couldn’t do cheese. Or am I going to have to surrender the bathroom for the rest of the night?”

“Actually they had lactose-free pizza! Apparently there’s some sort of special cheese called vegan cheese that I can eat. They made a pizza with that.”

“And it was good?” Eda asked disbelievingly.

“Yeah!” Luz responded. Her cheer faltered slightly as she remembered the other events that had happened at the pizzeria. “I also ran into someone from the SCI there.”

Eda froze at Luz’s words. “What happened?”

“Well, they have a way to track me wherever I go so… that’s a thing,” Luz said with a sigh. “If I ever try to subvert it they’ll assume I’m doing something I shouldn’t and come running.” She paused for a moment as she realized that she had almost stopped petting King while discussing things. At his insistent head bump, she resumed her ministrations, a small smile returning to her face. “But they seem to want to be pretty hands-off. No keeping me from going to school, or being with my friends, or making me move somewhere else. They even want me to keep hunting for artifacts and they won’t even force me to give anything I find to them. They did pretty heavily hint at how this might not be the safest place for them though.”

“Huh, better than I was expecting,” Eda said as she finally got up from behind the counter to join Luz at the front of the store. “And that was it?”

“Yeah, Steve, the guy I met with, seemed like an okay enough person. He tried to be really formal and serious though. He didn’t always manage it.”

Eda paused and looked at Liz with a small frown. “Brown hair, about so tall,” she held up a hand, “ridiculously average-looking?”

“Yeah?”

“Huh,” Eda paused for a moment, one finger tapping her chin in thought. “Yeah. I can see it.”

“You know him?”

“Yeah, pretty sure I mentioned him to you before. He’s Lily’s subordinate, real goofball. Didn’t think he had a serious bone in his body, guess I was wrong. Last time I saw him was when Lily called me in as a ringer to help him clean up his kitchen after he tried to copy some sort of food hack video he found online. Completely ruined his stand mixer and ate through part of his countertops. He made me some cupcakes as thanks.” She smiled in fond reminiscence. “Man knows his way around the kitchen.”

Luz stared at Eda incredulously as she tried to reconcile the man that had consistently referred to her as Ms. Noceda with the image that Eda was painting. Though he had seemed a lot less formal when he was thrown off his game by... 

“Eda!” Luz shouted, causing King to shoot away to another corner of the shop. ‘Sorry King,” she apologized, only to receive a stoic glare in return. Resolving to make it up to the cat later she turned back to Eda. “He told me about how you got your disease! The one that paralyzes you!” At Eda’s incredulous stare Luz continued. “He said that when you were a kid you and Lilith found some sort of parasite demon that burrowed into you and it was what was causing these problems! Now I don’t know what kind of parasite it might be but now that I know what I should be looking for I can-”

“Woah there, kid! Hold up. You don’t need to do anything! It’s all taken care of.” Eda interrupted, holding up her hands to try and stop Luz’s torrent of words. “At least I think it is.”

“But… that’s not how these things work! If it would have fixed itself it would have done that a long time ago! How could…” Luz’s eyes narrowed as Eda looked steadfastly anywhere but at her. “Eda. What happened?”

“Well… remember how that coven guy came here and tried to steal all the artifacts you’d gathered?”

“Yeah, you said he came by and everyone teamed up to stop him and that it was really badass.”

“Well… there may have been a bit of time between him showing up and your friends showing up,” Eda said sheepishly, still doing her best to not look at Luz.

“Eda. What happened?” Luz growled.

“Woah,” Eda said, shocked at Luz’s tone. “Haven’t been asked that question quite like that since my mom found me in the basement surrounded by what was left of the couch.” She shook her head. “Anyway! The guy may have tried casting a bunch of spells on me and when none of them worked he did something with this tattoo on his hand that was able to control the parasite. He had it turn on the pain and left it there by the time your friends showed up and kicked the crap out of him. Since we didn’t know how to fix things and the whole ‘eternity of pain’ thing didn’t sound fun we tried out that monster belt.”

“You what?!” Luz shrieked, her eyes wide and incredulous.

“The wolf guy got some sort of healing thing so we thought maybe that would help?” Eda offered.

“Eda! You were under the effect of a very dangerous magical parasite! If it was a magic eater-”

“Pretty sure it was. At least if a magic eater is what those coven guys use to mess with wild witches they capture.”

Luz’s eye twitched as she took a deep breath. “You were under the effect of a very, very, dangerous magical parasite. Who knows what adding a powerful transformative magic to the mix would do!”

“Well, it worked!” Eda protested.

“And we have no idea what kind of side effects it might have had!” Luz’s eyes narrowed. “Okay, we’re heading to the back and I’m giving you a checkup. You aren’t doing anything until I know what you managed to do to yourself!” Grabbing Eda’s hand she pulled the woman to the back room. Either too shocked to properly resist or understanding that any real resistance would likely be met with swift retribution, Eda followed along placidly.

“Now sit!” Luz commanded as she pointed to Eda’s work chair. Once Eda was properly situated Luz began to cast every detection, diagnosing, and analysis spell she knew. Unlike last time she’d had Eda in this very same situation, her spells were actually managing to do something. However, just like last time she wasn’t having much luck figuring anything out. There were traces of magic there, but not enough to actually do anything. It reminded her a little bit of what a demon’s magic felt like but even weaker. Though if humans were anything like witches Eda would likely be carrying faint traces of the magic of the belt, the parasite, and whatever the coven guard had done to her for a while. Everything she got back on Eda’s physical condition was interesting but without any knowledge of what sort of baseline she should be comparing against there was very little she could actually do with any of that. 

“So you finally ready to admit that I’m just fine?” Eda asked after Luz let out a particularly loud groan when another spell told her nothing she didn’t already know.

Glaring balefully at Eda Luz wracked her brain for anything else she might be able to do to try and figure something out. Once again her relative lack of skill when it came to oracle and healing magic was biting her in the butt. “I really don’t want to. But since I can’t think of anything else to do to try and figure out what you did to yourself…” Luz sighed and slumped against the work table. “Sure. Everything looks fine. But please don’t ever do something like this again!”

“Fine, fine. I promise I won’t mix magics I don’t understand again,” Eda solemnly stated, eyes closed and one hand over her heart. “Now if you’re done grilling me about reckless use of magic I seem to recall you wanted to try and get that backlog of homework done today so you didn’t have to worry about it for the weekend.”

Luz’s eyes widened as she remembered the pile of papers she’d stormed out on. “I know you’re reminding me of this just to get me to back off and not bother you but thank you anyway.” Luz left a smirking Eda behind as she rushed back up the stairs so she could try and get as much homework finished as she could. With the plans to meet with her friends tomorrow still on she wanted to make sure she could spend the entire day with them and not on homework.

“How did it respond?”

“She, Ms. Lilith. She responded favorably during the meeting,” Steve replied as he leaned back on the park bench he had claimed for his phone call with his supervisor. “When I assured her that we weren’t going to disappear her and that continuing with the friendships she’s made was a major plus in our book she was quite pleased. Assuring her that her actions as the Wild Witch were also acceptable seems to have tentatively placed us in her good books for the moment. We will, of course, need to keep working on that if we’re going to retain her as an asset but the groundwork has been laid.”

“Just keep an eye on it-”

“Her.”

“It. And make sure it isn’t doing anything to anyone.”

“Make sure she isn’t doing anything to Ms. Edalyn you mean.” Steve sighed and his shoulders slumped. As much as he respected Ms. Lilith, he was still fully aware of the reasons he was the one that had been assigned this particular mission. “The potions that healed her would have started the work to undo any brainwashing she was under. The passive scans at the SCI building only showed only a trace of magic, likely residue from whatever the second witch did to her. Ms. Noceda is not doing anything to Ms. Edalyn.”

“You don’t-”

“I do know that,” Steve interrupted harshly. As much as he hated cutting her off like that he knew it had to be done. “The Director really wants Ms. Noceda on our side. You are going to have to work with her at some point if you stick around this post.” When his declaration was met with silence he continued, “In order to help get her on our side I faked slipping up and mentioned how you got recruited to the SCI and why you used to have an interest in magic. She pressed for the full story and took it in the expected direction, allowing her to make a distinction between your personal actions and those desired by the SCI. This also had the benefit of making her understand you better and make the idea of working with you acceptable if not desirable. You need to be able to do the same.”

On the other end of the line Lillith huffed and remained silent for a moment. “Did you have to tell it- her” she sourly corrected herself after a moment, “that?”

“Yes ma’am. Understanding someone is the first step to not hating them. By telling her the reasons you have for disliking magic and its practitioners she is more easily able to see you as a person and not just an enemy,” Steve explained. “If you ever want to actually spend time with Ms. Edalyn again you will need to extend that same understanding to her.” Steve winced at the affronted growl Lilith made but soldiered on. “Whether you like it or not, Ms. Noceda is part of Ms. Edalyn’s life now. The fact that you tried to stop that will not be forgotten or forgiven any time soon. Neither will the fact that the Director himself threw you under the bus for being so forceful in detaining Ms. Noceda and allowing your personal feelings to dictate your actions in the field. Even if you quit the SCI today you would still have to learn to get along with Ms. Noceda.”

Moments passed in tense silence as Ms. Lilith obviously searched for something to say. “Fine,” she finally relented. “I’ll see what I can do to make peace with… her.”

“That’s all I ask.” With his final task of the day complete, not that Ms. Lillith knew attempting some degree of reconciliation between her and Ms. Noceda had been in the list of things to accomplish he’d been given by the Director, he was finally able to relax. “So did you get a chance to watch the latest episode of The Great British Bake Off?” he asked as he got up from the bench and began to amble down the path. He could practically see the eye roll and exasperated smile he was sure Lillith was making right now. Things were looking good for Steve.

Chapter Text

Amity hadn’t known Gus for all that long but she had thought she had most of the important things down. His investigative talents, his love of the supernatural, his desire to help others, and the sheer intensity with which he felt things were all rather obvious. Others were less so but she had been rather confident in her appraisal of him. One such trait that she had been rather sure of was that he always showed up early to things. Once she had started spending her time with Gus, Willow, and Luz she had noticed that even with her mother having drilled the mantra that being on time was the same as being late she only rarely managed to get to school before him. She had thought he held similar values. Now that she was sitting alone at a table outside the cafe nearly half an hour before the agreed upon meeting time without a single person in sight she was beginning to think she was wrong in that belief.

She wasn’t so arrogant as to think that she was incapable of getting things like this wrong and was willing to admit that this was certainly one of those times. With the clarity of hindsight, and the burning need to distract herself, she began to think that perhaps Gus’s punctuality was more by necessity than by choice. Little comments and remarks were re-examined as Amity came to realize that his early arrivals were more likely due to being the best of bad choices. Cat was very similar, only getting into school as early as she did because her older sister was the one with the car and was so paranoid about being late that she always made sure to leave as soon as possible. When given the decision between leaving early and riding the bus Cat always chose to leave early. Something that, having ridden the bus herself, Amity could certainly sympathize with. It wasn’t too hard to imagine that Gus was facing a similar decision.

Another sigh escaped Amity as she looked around to see if anyone had shown up during her latest self-enforced distraction. Nope. No one. Maybe next time she would only show up fifteen minutes early instead. With both her previous train of thought and the subsequent bemoaning of the lack of things to do concluded, Amity’s mind drifted back to the topic she’d been trying to avoid all morning.

Treating Luz normally again.

On the surface it sounded like an easy task. Sure things were going to be different now that she knew Luz was the Wild Witch. As well as an honest to god real-life witch from another universe.  A distinction that she hadn’t even thought would have been needed before now. The fact that her earrings had been revealed to Willow and Gus, who had, in turn, revealed or acquired artifacts of their own to keep had added another wrinkle to the previous status quo. They had, once Gus had exhausted himself asking questions about how the other artifacts felt to use and getting a chance to try them himself, settled into a sort of understanding. They didn’t really show off to one another but when one of them wanted to use magic around the others they didn’t bother to hide it. Surprisingly enough it was Willow that had been the one to most abuse that understanding. Regularly giving random plants little pick me ups or experimenting with fixing the damage done to them by careless passersby.

Amity chuckled to herself at the memory of Willow lovingly coaxing a flower to bloom only to, without the slightest change in tone, lambast it for trying to convince her to kill off all the other flowers so it could take their places. The smile slipped from her lips as, once again, her distraction ran its course and she returned to the problem of Luz. While it sounded like an easy enough proposition, simply stop treating her like she would vanish if Amity took her eyes off her, the details were proving to be more difficult. Primarily the accusation that Luz had leveled towards Amity during her breakdown: that Amity hadn’t flirted with her once since she had been retrieved from the SCI. Like so many other things in life, Amity had fallen into an easy routine when it had come to flirting with Luz. Simply say something suggestive or make appreciative comments about Luz every so often when they happened to run into each other. However, if it looked like they would be talking for a while she would save it for the end so that she got the final word as it were. Then just bask in that happy tingling feeling of knowing that she had reduced a cute girl to a blushing, stammering, wreck. But like so many routines, once it was broken it was all too easy to reexamine it and realize it might not be so easy to pick back up again as she thought.

The simple answer was to just go for it again. Keep making those little comments. Poke fun at Luz now and again. She even had all sorts of new ammunition for it too! With Luz being a superhero there was a whole new world of references she could make. Sure, Luz might not get them all but that would make it all the sweeter when they eventually watched those movies together and she would get to see Luz put the pieces together. The fact that she’d also finally seen Luz without the ever-present beanie also added to her list of things to make appreciative comments about. Like how cute it was that her ears wiggled when she was happy.

A dull thud echoed through the open air dining area as Amity dropped her head to the table at that thought. That was the real problem of going back to flirting with Luz. With the streak broken, she was actually thinking about the things she’d said, that she was even now thinking. The initial thoughts she’d had about the whole thing still being a game back when she’d started had finally managed to lose their momentum and let her realize just how genuine some of the comments had ended up being. It didn’t help that Eda had kept calling her Luz’s Girlfriend or that she’d entertained an idle daydream or two about the Wild Witch after the superhero had first shown up. Like she’d told everyone that first morning she’d decided to hang out with them, she had a thing for strong girls, and superheroes were pretty much always strong and sexy. Knowing beyond a doubt that Luz was the Wild Witch had made those old daydreams vastly more embarrassing and, as she would sometimes admit in the deepest recesses of her mind, more interesting.

“You look like you’re having fun.”

Another groan escaped Amity at the familiar, amused, voice. “Good morning Willow.”

“Good morning Amity,” Willow replied as she pulled out a chair to join Amity at the table. ‘I see you got here early.”

“I thought Gus might be here early too,” Amity muttered. “Since he was always early to school.” She didn’t have to look up to know that Willow almost certainly was looking at her with that small, gleeful smile she always had when she thought something was hilarious but was too polite to say anything.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen Gus willingly be early for something in his life,” Willow noted, her smile evident in her amused tone. “I hope you haven’t been waiting too long.”

Lifting her head so she could check on her phone Amity grimaced. “Only twenty minutes.”

Willow winced in sympathy and placed a hand on Amity’s shoulder. “I’m sorry.”

“You don’t have anything to apologize for,” Amity said as she brushed Willow’s arm aside. “It’s my fault for getting here so early. And I’ve paid for it by being tapped here with my own thoughts for twenty friggen’ minutes,” she groaned.

“Thoughts about a certain someone?” Willow guessed with a knowing smile. “Is it really going to be that hard for things to go back to normal?”

“Easy for you to say,” Amity grumbled. “Your normal was just hanging out with her and not treating her like she’s made of glass. My normal included flirting with her all the time!”

“And you don’t want to?”

“I- It- I don’t know! Looking back on it I kinda feel like a jerk for always coming on so strong without meaning to follow through. If someone was that pushy with me I would have punched them long ago! How did she manage to put up with me?”

“She was really determined to see us be friends again,” Willow answered simply. “Though if it makes you feel any better whenever she complained about you flirting with her she was much more exasperated with her reactions to you than with you.” Willow’s smile turned mischievous. “She was actually rather happy to be receiving all that attention. A little disappointed that it was all a joke, but she did like it.”

Amity’s face flushed at Willow’s words. Sure, Luz’s reactions showed that the girl was almost certainly a lesbian, or at least bi, but it was another thing to get actual confirmation. “That’s the thing. I’m not sure they were all jokes,” she finally admitted.

Willow’s eyes widened in surprise and no small amount of glee. “Really?”

Taking in the look on Willow’s face Amity could only wonder if her old friend had always been this interested in romance or if this was just because it involved her friends. “I mean most of them were. All the really over the top ones definitely were. But then sometimes when we were just hanging out things would… slip out?” Amity groaned and dropped her head to the table again, welcoming the dull ache that came from banging her head against the table. “I didn’t really think about it until I stopped. It was just something I did. Now that I look back on it…”

After a few moments of silence, Willow spoke up, “so what’s stopping you from going for it?” At Amity’s incredulous stare she continued. “I’m sure Luz wouldn’t say no. And you wouldn’t be beating yourself up so much if there wasn’t something there on your end either. Just go for it.”

“Easy for you to say. You haven’t been doing everything you could to make any changes to the status quo seem like a joke.” Amity sighed as she contemplated reintroducing her head to the table again. “I just feel like I screwed up somewhere and if I just do that all over again I’ll just mess things up. But now Luz is expecting me to try flirting with her because that’s our normal apparently.”

Willow stared at Amity for a while before shrugging. “Well, you said that things would sometimes slip out right? Just let it happen. Luz will be happy things are back to normal and you’ll have scaled it back enough that you don’t feel like a jerk. You just need to stop overthinking things.” At Amity’s deadpan glare she laughed sheepishly. “Which is probably a big problem for you huh?”

Amity nodded sharply but didn’t say anything.

“Right… so... distraction! How are Ed and Em doing?” Willow asked.

Amity blinked in surprise at the sudden, and impressively blatant, subject change. She was about to just say that they were the same as they’d always been when she realized that she hadn’t talked about them with Willow since before they were forced to stop hanging out together. “Pretty good actually. Ed’s working on an architecture degree believe it or not and Em’s going to culinary school. They keep joking around that she’s going to open a bakery and he’ll be the one to design it but I’m not sure how much of it is a joke any more.”

“Ed’s going into architecture? Didn’t he hate math?”

“He still hates how arbitrary it is but he can deal with it as long as he can connect it to real things. It is so weird to see him struggle with a high school geometry problem and then calculate where load bearing struts need to be in his head.” At Willow’s disbelieving look Amity laughed. “I can get you their numbers if you want. I’ll have to let them know we're friends again though first.” Amity paused as a new thought occurred to her. “Oh god, they are going to tease me so much for finally making up with you.”

“I’m sure they won’t be that bad,” Willow assured her.

“No, they will be,” Amity said, waving off Willow’s assurances. “And not in the way you think. Ever since I came out of the closet and refused to make up with you they have been adamant that I’m holding a torch for you and me keeping you at a distance is some sort of elaborate self-flagellation to atone for letting mom split us up. Every time they remember you exist they always joke about if I finally asked you out.”

“That’s more dedicated to a bit than I ever remember them being,” Willow said with reluctant admiration. “I remember them getting tired of things after only a few months.”

Amity froze for a moment, torn between explaining just why the twins had been so adamant about that and just letting things lie. In the end, she realized the truth was the best bet simply because she was sure the twins would eventually manage to talk to Willow and bring it all up. “It’s because when I, foolishly, decided to let them help me try to find a girlfriend, the person that fit every single thing I said I was looking for was you,” she admitted. Seeing the genuine look of surprise on Willow’s face she elaborated, “I never had a crush on you though, you were too much like a sister to me.”

After processing things for a few moments Willow finally nodded to herself. “Well at least you have good taste,” she said, eliciting a half angry, half embarrassed flush from Amity.

“Fine, see if I ever tell you anything again,” Amity muttered, fighting down a smile. Moments like this made her regret not trying to patch things up with Willow properly earlier. Years had gone by without moments like these and years more would have likely come if Hurricane Luz hadn’t swept into their lives and been so determined to shake things up.

As if summoned by those thoughts Luz came sprinting down the sidewalk, just barely managing to slip by a passerby and almost tripping when her attempts to slow down almost made her hit a chair at one of the other tables. “Hey guys!” she called out before collapsing into a chair to try and catch her breath. “I would have been here earlier but I forgot that my s- bike was damaged and Eda wouldn’t let me borrow her car.”

“You have a driver’s license?” Willow asked in disbelief.

“I think so!” Luz replied brightly as she reached into her pocket and pulled out a wallet. “That’s this thing right?” She asked as she brandished a driver’s license with her name and picture on it. “Eda said I should keep it on me so I’d always have a valid ID in case the police try to deport me.” She paused for a moment. “Whatever that means.”

Both Amity and Willow stared at the license in shock and no small amount of horror. After having joined Eda on the heist to rescue Luz they had both come to realize just how little Eda cared about the legality of things she decided to do but neither of them had really thought that she would be crazy enough to get Luz a driver’s license.

“I’m not really sure how this thing makes me able to drive a car though.” Luz looked down at her driver’s license thoughtfully. “Can the car just tell that you have one and let you drive it or what? Normally I’d ask Eda but sometimes she gives me wrong answers because she thinks it’s funny.”

“Is that why you thought lockers would eat people when you first came to school?” Willow asked dazedly, still processing the fact that Luz was legally allowed behind the wheel of a car despite all common sense stating it was a terrible idea.

“Oh, no. That’s because it’s what lockers are like in schools on the Boiling Isles. You teach them your scent at the start of the school year and they’ll try to eat anyone else that tries to get into your locker. At least that’s what I read. I, uh, never had a chance to go to school before I came here. What with the whole wild witch on the run from the government thing.”

As much as Amity was interested to learn more about Luz’s history she had another, far more pressing, question to ask, “Are you sure you should be talking about this in the open?”

“It’s okay! No one is close enough to eavesdrop reliably enough to make out everything we’d be saying.”

“Oh, do you have a spell for that or..?”

“Nope! I just have a lot of experience eavesdropping on people and I’ve gotten good at keeping track of everyone around me.”

Like with so many other things that Luz said, her answers just brought up more questions. In the end it was Willow that spoke up. “Well, maybe we should wait until Gus gets here. I’m sure he’s going to want to hear all of this too and you probably don’t want to have to repeat yourself.”

Luz paused as she considered that and eventually nodded. “Yeah, it does feel weird to tell you guys all this sort of stuff without Gus here to freak out about it.”

With that decision made they kept the conversation largely to more mundane things as they waited for Gus to finally show up. Willow managed to bring the conversation back around Amity’s siblings despite Amity’s best efforts. Luz, of course, was enthused to learn more about Amity’s family and had lamented the fact that she was an only child. Something Amity, as a younger sister that had suffered all manner of torments under her older siblings, needed to contest. Treacherous fiend that she was, Willow decided to ‘help’ by recounting all the pranks that Ed and Em had subjected Amity to in excruciating detail. All with that innocent little smile that meant she knew full well what she was doing.

Eventually, she was saved by Gus’s arrival. After a greeting that was most certainly not a shout of desperation to change the subject and also didn’t leave Gus wide-eyed and worried he’d done something wrong, she suggested that they all finally step inside to order something. While she had picked up a drink earlier to justify sitting at the table for so long, something she still felt slightly guilty about despite every other table being completely empty, she was eager to get some actual food.

That was when she was first introduced to just how indecisive Luz could be when it came to food.

“Well, she did come from a whole other universe, right? They probably have all sorts of different foods over there,” Willow muttered with a shrug. Careful to speak quietly enough to not be overheard by the exasperated cashier. “At least she’s doing better than she was when I got her a donut.”

“How long did that take?” Amity asked, not entirely sure she wanted to hear the answer.

“Almost ten minutes of staring at the display case without managing to narrow things down at all. It wasn’t until I forced the issue and just told her to pick something at random that she made a decision.”

Amity nodded at that. At least right now Luz had managed to narrow her choices down to two different crepes. That said it didn’t look like Luz was going to make a choice between those two any time soon. Eventually, Amity sighed and stepped up to the counter next to Luz. “If I get the savory crepe with egg and bacon, you can get the sweet crepe with apple and caramel and we can share.”

Luz’s eyes widened and sparkled like she’d just been told she’d won the lottery. “One apple caramel crepe please!” she declared with a massive grin, causing the cashier to smile and visibly struggle not to sag in relief now that a decision had finally been made.

After Luz paid for her food she moved away and the cashier turned to Amity. “Egg and bacon crepe right?” At Amity’s nod, he finally let out a sigh of relief.

Amity couldn’t help but smile a bit at the man’s exasperation as she paid for her own food. “Sorry about that. Oh! And could we each get a knife or something to cut the crepes with?”

“We have some plastic utensils in some cups near the entrance. Grab a couple when you head out,” he said as he pointed at a couple of large plastic cups overflowing with plastic knives and forks. “You’re sitting in the outside area right? We’ll bring the food out when it’s ready.”

Thanking the cashier, Amity stepped away from the counter so that the others could place their own orders. Gus and Willow were able to quickly place orders of their own, both having been here before and knowing exactly what they liked. After that, they all headed back outside, with Amity remembering to grab a couple of knives for later, and the discussions about Luz and her past began in earnest.

To Amity’s surprise, she and Willow ended up asking almost as many questions as Gus did. Something about there being so much to learn about what made Luz Luz and where she had grown up had just caught her interest and refused to let it go.

Questions were asked about what it was like to be a witch, what kind of people lived on the Boiling Isles, how she cast magic, if they could learn it, and how she had managed to come here. Every answer inevitably led to more questions as Luz would casually mention things that were obviously common knowledge for her but completely unknown to them. Questions about covens, history, flora, fauna, and weather. That last one had actually done a good job explaining why Luz had frantically jumped into Amity’s arms a while back when it had started raining. Something WIllow was quick to bring up.

Unsurprisingly their questions eventually turned towards the man who had attacked them. “So… what was that Emperor’s Coven guy’s deal anyway?” Gus asked.

For the first time since Luz had started answering questions the smile slipped from her face. “They’re the military, police, and a lot of the government all rolled into one. They’re the only coven allowed to mix magic. Technically they serve the Emperor. But no one’s seen him in ages. Officially he is in deep communion with the Titan and is too busy to deal with matters of state. Instead, the Speaker brings important matters to him and relays any responses as well as being in charge of making laws and taking care of most governmental matters. It’s a highly coveted position in the Emperor’s Coven and it changes hands a lot. According to the other wild witches though, the Emperor was actually assassinated and the official story is used to keep the Isles under control. A group of wild witches managed to find some sort of artifact that they thought could take him down for good and went on a mission to kill him. No one ever came back from it but no one ever saw the Emperor again either.” Her face twisted into a grimace. “After that, the Emperor’s Coven started to really crack down on any sort of troublemakers or wild witches.”

Gus opened his mouth to ask another question when Luz held up a hand to stop him. An instant later a new voice called out. “I got crepes for Luz, Amity, Willow, and Gus!”

Amity smiled as she waved down the man with their food, the tantalizing smells of the freshly made crepes noticeable even from here. Her thoughts were quite obviously shared by everyone as their eyes were glued to the food as it was divided up amongst each of them. Willow and Gus started in on their own crepes immediately, leaving Luz and Amity to work out the best way to split things.

“Can we do the egg and bacon one first?” Luz asked.

Amity nodded and cut her own crepe lengthwise, carefully handing one half to Luz and doing her best not to spill any of the fillings. While her own stomach was grumbling at her for not immediately starting to eat her own food she couldn’t help but wait for Luz to take her first bite. She wasn’t disappointed as, after several aborted attempts, Luz finally took a massive bite of her half of the crepe. Her eyes shot open and radiated pure joy as she stared down at the crepe. 

“It’sh sho good!” she declared around a mouthful of crepe.

With her desire to see Luz’s reaction satisfied Amity turned her attention to her own half of the crepe, tearing into it with far less decorum than her mother would have preferred. In a testament to just how hungry she’d been, she actually managed to finish it off only a short while after Luz finished practically inhaling hers.

“And now for dessert,” Luz said as she licked her lips in anticipation. Taking the second knife from Amity she divided the crepe in the same way that Amity had and passed one half over.

Amity took the crepe but, once again, didn’t immediately dig in. While still not quite full she wasn’t hungry any more and there was no way she was going to miss out on Luz’s reaction to the sweet crepe.

Once again Luz’s entire being radiated joy when she took a large bite of the second crepe. Though this time she at least had the presence of mind to finish chewing and swallow before extolling the virtues of what she had eaten. “It’s so sweet!”

“Just like you,” Amity found herself saying with a small smirk. For one brief moment, she froze as her mind caught up with her mouth.

Luz too froze for a moment, apparently not having expected this particular return to normalcy. A deep flush quickly spread across her face and, now that Amity knew to look for it, there was a slight twitch in the fabric of her beanie where her ears were hidden before she turned away to resume eating her crepe. But not before Amity could see a tiny smile on the witch’s face.

Amity’s own smile softened as she turned her attention to her own crepe, pointedly ignoring Willow’s own smirk. Maybe getting back to the way things used to be wouldn’t be so hard after all.

Hunter groaned as he pulled himself off the pile of cloaks that he had been using as a bed for the last several days. Rubbing the sleep from his eyes he fumbled around for the box of snack bars he had grabbed in his first, and only, trip away from the hideout he’d found. As loath as he had been back then to leave without ever meeting the man who had written the journal he couldn’t go forever without food or water. The expedition had taken a good portion of his remaining money but had netted him enough water and non-perishable food that he hadn’t had to stray far from the house since. Sure going to the bathroom in the woods was uncomfortable, doubly so since he hadn’t picked up any toilet paper at the time and leaves made for a poor substitute, and his meals had gotten boring very quickly, but sticking around all day every day managed to get him the answer he needed. Even if it wasn’t the one he wanted.

The Coven Guard wasn’t coming back.

His last entry had mentioned his plan to get the Wild Witch captured by what sounded to be some sort of magical men in black and then sneak into where he was sure the witch was hiding her artifacts so he could get the Rainbow Staff back. While Hunter didn’t have confirmation on when that had been, the Coven Guard had only ever counted days since he had gotten trapped here, the fact that the antique shop he had marked as the witch’s storage area had been attacked by some sort of giant stone monster gave him a good guess as to the correct time frame.

The generalities of the plan also let Hunter know what had probably happened. While he was sure the Coven Guard was a respected person in the Boiling Isles, the man made no effort to hide his disdain for humans. Something that even he had known would make him a target for the men in black. Sure, there was the possibility that the man had just managed to find the Rainbow Staff and return home but Hunter was positive that wasn’t the case. There had been several mentions of how important many of these artifacts were and there was no way they would just be left to gather dust on Earth if a way back home had been found.

No, Hunter had to admit to himself. The Coven Guard had almost certainly been captured. And while he didn’t know what that would mean for the man Hunter knew it was nothing good. Rubbing his eyes again with a groan he turned his attention to the room at large. His best chance at answers was almost certainly gone. Sure, he could try to see if this Wild Witch would be any help but after everything he’d read in the journal he doubted it. Apparently, she was a skilled manipulator and had more than once convinced good, well-meaning people to engage in open rebellion against the government when it suited her goals. Hunter shuddered to think what a person like that would be willing to do to humans.

His gaze settled on the table of artifacts once more and a plan began to form. The journal detailed what each of the artifacts was and which ones were dangerous to use. Plenty of normal people had successfully used other artifacts so surely there would be nothing stopping Hunter from doing the same. With those items supplementing his own magic he would be able to continue the hunt to find the Rainbow Staff. He nodded to himself as the plan continued to form. With the Rainbow Staff’s ability to teleport things he would probably be able to get the Guard out of wherever he was being kept as well without too many problems. And once rescued the guard could introduce Hunter to the Boiling Isles and get him all the answers he could ever want.

A smile blossomed across his face as he continued to think about how he would be respected and lauded for bringing all those artifacts back to the Boiling Isles. He would finally be among his own people, getting everything he had always dreamed of. His giddy thoughts paused for a moment as he realized that he wouldn’t be able to do everything openly. He would need some sort of a secret identity. He pulled one of the cloaks from the pile and settled it on his shoulders and pulled the hood over his head. “Not enough,” he muttered to himself as he turned to look at the artifacts on the table. He smiled as he found the one he was looking for: a golden mask shaped like an owl’s face. It was enchanted with Beast Keeping magic to make any beast submit to the wearer, but actually using the magic in the mask could cause you to pick up the mannerisms of the beasts you commanded. If overused the user would eventually mentally become little more than a beast themselves. As long as he didn’t actually use it though he would be fine and it would serve to protect his identity perfectly.

Putting on the mask he pulled out his phone and snapped a couple of quick pictures to see what he looked like. Behind his mask, he smiled giddily as he saw what he looked like in his costume. It needed a little more work, maybe a few of the other, less dangerous artifacts too but it was a good start. He’d need a name too. The Coven Guard had never mentioned his own name and the Wild Witch had just taken her title and used that for her own moniker. Maybe he should follow suit? “Maybe… the Golden Guard,” he said to himself as he admired pictures he’d taken of himself. Yeah, that would do just fine.

Chapter Text

Luz left the cafe in higher spirits than she’d been in since before getting caught by the SCI. Despite the worries in the back of her head, things had managed to move much closer to the old normal that she’d enjoyed so much. It wasn’t fully the same, the fact that all her friends were in on her secrets would have been enough to upset the status quo even without the whole kidnapping thing after all. Yet despite the differences, Luz almost felt that she preferred the new normal. Or rather what she hoped was the new normal. While there was still a need for secrecy in general that need was gone with her friends. So long as she was sure no one else was watching or listening in she could actually talk about things she thought she’d never be able to mention outside the Owl House. 

Gus, in particular, had managed to be a surprising comfort. Sure, answering all his questions about everything related to the Boiling Isles could be exhausting and made her a little homesick at times. But at the same time, he had such an earnest desire to learn about things she hadn’t let herself think about in so long that it ended up feeling nice to have someone to listen to her. The fact that almost everything she mentioned was met with a declaration that he would love to see it in person when she found the Rainbow Staff was equally surprising in how it managed to buoy her spirits. Never once did Gus seem to have any doubt that Luz would eventually manage to succeed. The idea that she might fail and be trapped in the human realm forever was apparently such a farfetched idea in his mind that it didn’t even merit thinking about. It was a level of confidence that managed to loop past being daunting and land back into being comforting.

“So where should we go next?” Willow asked, breaking Luz out of her thoughts.

“I’m not sure, I didn’t really plan things out beyond breakfast,” Amity admitted.

“Well, what do hu- teenagers usually do around here for fun?” Luz asked, cursing herself for almost slipping up in a way she hadn’t since her early days in the human realm. Thankfully her friends either didn’t notice or were too deep in thought about answering the question to call her out on her near miss.

“Well, if we want to live the stereotype there’s always the mall,” Amity suggested after a moment with a degree of reluctance. 

“Oh! That sounds interesting. Is it some sort of combat arena?” Luz asked with an eager smile. A smile that faltered as she saw each of her friends staring at her in confusion.

After a few moments Willow’s eyes lit up and she started to laugh. “Not m-a-u-l. M-a-l-l,” she explained. “It’s just a big building with a lot of different stores in it.”

“Like an indoor market?”

“Yeah, that’s a pretty good way of looking at it actually. Just instead of a bunch of stalls that can change from day to day you just have the same stores all the time,” Amity explained with a nod. “Usually overpriced, overhyped, clothing stores.”

“I think I like Luz’s version more,” Gus said. Suddenly a huge smile split his face. “Actually that gives me a great idea! I know what we can do! Laser tag!” Willow and Amity seemed caught off guard by the suggestion but both nodded after a moment’s consideration,

“What tag?” Luz asked.

Luz’s eyes were wide and eager as she looked around the large, dimly lit room. In the background she could hear a cacophony of sounds from the dozens of arcade cabinets that dominated the larger section of the room. Normally they would have commanded her attention, drawing her in with their enticing beeps and boops and colorful depictions of gratuitous violence.  However this time her attention was captured by something far more interesting. A series of large televisions showed a large, multicolored battlefield. A massive, multilevel structure with all manner of looping paths, bridges, and corners to hide behind. All through the structure were people wearing some sort of vest dotted with lights and pointing a futuristic-looking gun at each other. 

“Glad you’re liking it so far,” Gus said.

“It’s like someone made an entire game out of a witch’s duel,” Luz replied, not taking her eyes off the screens for a second. 

Gus opened his mouth to ask the obvious question but was quickly cut off by Willow.

“Come on, we need to get signed up for the next game. This one is almost over,” she said as she gently steered Gus and Luz towards the counter. Behind her, Amity scanned the room for a moment before shrugging, apparently not finding what she had been looking for.

Willow’s desire to get them to the counter quickly turned out to have been for the best as the current game ended almost as soon as they had paid for their own game. A loud buzzer sounded throughout the room as the people on the screens began to file out of the room. After a few seconds, the screens changed to show the scores of all the players. 

“Woah, red 32 did really good,” Gus noted as he read the end game statistics.

Reading the scores herself Luz had to agree. Red 32 had easily claimed the top spot in the general leaderboard, more than doubling second place’s score and almost managing to have gotten the majority of the points for the red team. “Do you think we’ll be playing against them?” she asked.

“I hope not,” Amity replied with a sour frown.

Before Luz could ask for clarification she was distracted by Gus pulling on her sleeve. As she turned to ask him what was up she saw him pointing towards the staircase that led down from the exit to the arena. Leading the pack with a large, self-satisfied smile, was a very familiar face.

“Of course we’d run into Boscha,” Amity muttered. At the questioning glances from the others, she sighed and continued. “She usually drags everyone down here once a month. She says it’s to hang out but I think she just likes the fact that she’s so much better at this than everyone else. She usually does it earlier in the month so I thought we might be able to miss her but…” Amity trailed off as Boscha noticed them and stalked over with a cruel smirk.

“It’s been a while, Amity. What brings you and the loser squad here? Want to beg for a chance to get back in my good graces?” Boscha asked with a smirk.

Amity rolled her eyes and ignored Boscha’s provocations. “Come on guys. Let’s get ready for our game.” Without even glancing towards Boscha, Amity moved to lead everyone away.

Boscha, however, was having none of that. “Sure! Run away! Just like you ran away from me!”

Amity’s steps faltered for a moment. And she took a deep breath. Just when it looked like she might respond she simply shook her head and continued walking away.

Willow and Gus quickly fell in behind her, clearly not wanting to let themselves get drawn into Boscha’s argument. Luz did her best to try and follow but was stopped when a hand grabbed her shoulder and roughly spun her around.

“This is all your fault,” Boscha hissed as she jabbed a finger into Luz’s chest. “Before you showed up things were just fine. Then you seduced Amity over to your little band of losers.” Her eyes narrowed. “Don’t think I don’t know what you’re trying to do.”

Luz stared at the pink-haired girl in confusion for a moment. “Well, that makes one of us I guess.”

Her answer only seemed to further enrage Boscha. One of the girl’s eyes was twitching spasmodically and Luz could almost swear she could her Boscha’s teeth grinding against each other. Thankfully an out from the confrontation provided itself in the form of the final call for the next game being sounded.

“Well that’s for me so I really should be getting out of here!” she squeaked as she pried Boscha’s hand off her shoulder as gently as she could, something that proved to be far more difficult than she had initially expected. Thankfully Boscha didn’t seem as willing to start something as she had been in the deserted hallways after school because her only response to Luz’s swift retreat was a barely audible growl and a narrowing of her eyes.

Luz had to almost sprint to reach the doorway with the person doing the last call for players for the next game. Something that earned her a tired sigh and an admonishment to not run inside the building. Offering a quick apology she slunk over to where her friends were sitting.

“Did Boscha hold you up?” Amity asked. At Luz’s nod, she winced. “Sorry about that. I really didn’t think she’d be here. She didn’t try anything, did she?”

“No, she was just angry that I sed- convinced you to hang out with us instead of her. Also something about knowing what I was trying to do which was weird.” Luz’s eyes widened as a new thought occurred to her. “She thought I was on a date with you two didn’t she?” she asked with a groan.

Willow smirked and nodded. “That does sound like something she would assume after what happened the last time she saw the three of us hanging out together.

Luz’s face reddened as she remembered that particular incident. Specifically, Amity having all but said that she was in a relationship with both Willow and Luz. “But Gus was here too!”

“Well, and no offense Gus-”

“None taken.”

“But she probably didn’t think he was important enough to notice.”

Gus nodded along with Willow's statement. “Honestly I kinda like that she didn’t think I was important enough to notice. Otherwise I might have to deal with her too. I’ll leave that to you guys. I wouldn’t want to interrupt your date after all,” he said with a mischievous smirk.

Luz couldn’t help but blush as Gus and Willow, traitors that they were, laughed at her reaction to his statement. Thankfully it appeared she had at least had an ally in suffering in Amity, whose own blush seemed to match Luz’s own.

Before Luz could process that any further, a young woman wearing a shirt bearing the laser tag building’s logo on it moved to the center of the room and began explaining the rules to everyone. While the others had been here before and could get away with only paying the bare minimum of attention Luz had to make sure she didn’t miss anything. Thankfully things were rather simple. No running, no climbing on things, no physical contact with the other players, keep both hands on the gun, aim at the little lights on the other player's vests, don’t aim at people’s eyes.  Then things started getting more complicated. A monitor behind the woman started up and began displaying various traps and terrain hazards that could be activated by players, as well as explanations of more complicated parts of the game like how long it took the vest to reactivate and revive you depending on how far you were from your home base.

By the end of it, all Luz felt pretty confident that she understood what she was getting into. That said there was one question that she had to ask, albeit not of the woman explaining things. “So, is there a Rusty Smidge in this game?” she asked her friends. At the looks of confusion she got in return she began to elaborate. “All games on the Boiling Isles have this thing called the Rusty Smidge. If you manage to grab it you automatically win.” She blanched slightly as she took in the looks of confusion and distaste from her friends. “It helps keep everyone paying attention to everything right up until everything’s been decided! How else can you get a come-from-behind victory at the last second? Without it a team could get so far behind that it’s just pointless to keep playing!” she said as she tried to defend her home realm’s ways of running games.

“Yeah, no. There’s no Rusty Smidge,” Gus said. “You just gotta get as many points as you can by taking out the other team.”

Grumbling to herself about non-sensical human games Luz followed her friends into the waiting room and picked up her vest. Both it and the gun were lighter than she’d expected.

“You ready?” Amity asked

Luz nodded and turned to the door leading into their team’s entrance to the arena. At the sound of a buzzer, the door opened and their team just barely obeyed the letter of the law by speed walking into the arena. “Okay where do we… where’d Gus go?” she asked as she looked around and found that Gus had already vanished. “Willow, did you see where-” Luz paused as she realized that Willow had managed to slip away too, leaving just her and Amity near the entrance to the arena.

“Huh, looks like it’s just the two of-” Amity stopped talking and ducked behind a wall while motioning to Luz to not move into the open space Amity had just vacated. “Two people down the hall!”

Luz’s eyes widened and she gripped her gun tightly. Taking a deep breath she began to peek around the corner, only to hear a droning buzz as her vest’s lights turned off.  Glancing down she realized that one of her shoulders had been sticking out just enough to be targeted by the opponents down the hall. After a few moments her vest lit back up but by then Amity had already taken care of the other players and they had retreated to find some other unaware targets to ambush.

“Sorry about that, I should have warned you about that. Your shoulders can stick out a bit so you need to be careful when peeking around corners,” Amity apologized as she exited her cover.

“It’s alright! Just part of learning a new game!” Luz declared. 

“Okay, the other team’s base is over that way. Capturing it is worth a lot of points and people usually play too aggressively to defend it all that well. Come on.”

Luz nodded and fell in behind Amity. Experience gained through countless raids and stealth attacks on imperial convoys came to the forefront as she kept glancing around for any signs of enemies. All too soon she caught the reflected light of an opponent’s active vest on a wall and pointed it out to Amity. “Over there, at least one person,” she whispered.

Amity nodded and pointed to the other end of the wall the person was hiding behind. “You sneak up behind them and keep an eye out for anyone else. I’ll get thier attention.” At Luz’s nod, she moved into a more visible piece of cover and began firing at the barely visible opponent.

Taking the opportunity she’d been given Luz slipped behind the person and fired away, striking true and managing to take him out, only to be taken out herself as another opponent on a walkway above them rained shots down at her. “Above us!”

Amity nodded and turned her attention to the other player, managing to score a deactivating shot after only a few misses.

“Aw man,” the person Luz had taken out groaned. “I thought we had you.”

“Maybe next time,” Amity replied as she led Luz towards an area without any other players so they could wait for her vest to reactivate.

This proved to be the general trend for the rest of the game. Sometimes they were the ones ambushing, sometimes they were ambushed. With almost every encounter Luz learned something new about playing, more often than not about how to actually aim her gun. Going into this she’d thought there wouldn’t be much of a difference between this and firing spells from her staff but she had been very wrong. The two-handed grip the gun required in order for it to actually fire ended up being just different enough that she was constantly having to correct herself. By the end though she was usually among those still standing whenever they finished a fight.

Unfortunately by the time she really felt she’d gotten the hang of things the final buzzer sounded and everyone had to leave the arena.

“So how do you think you did?” Gus asked when he and Willow caught up with them in the gear room.

“I think I did pretty good,” Luz said as she hung up her vest. “It took a little while for me to get used to things so I doubt I’m the top scorer for our team.” She threw a half-hearted glare in his direction. “I might have done better if you and Willow hadn’t run off as soon as the game started.”

“Sorry! I just got caught up in everything!” Gus apologized. “I’m a lone soldier, ghosting through the battlefields taking out every enemy I come across,” he said as he held a fist to his chest and looked off into the distance.

“And I usually follow him around and take care of all the people that he doesn’t notice until they get him,” Willow added with a smile. “He’s a really good distraction.”

Gus huffed and crossed his arms at Willow’s declaration but didn’t contest it.

“Besides,” Willow continued, “splitting up like this is usually for the best so that the other team can’t get too many points at once if they sneak up on you. Or did you two not want to spend some time together?” she asked with a smirk.

“I’ll have you know I had a great time with my one real friend who didn’t immediately ditch me,” Luz said as she threw an arm over Amity’s shoulder. When Amity didn’t say anything to back her up Luz shrugged and removed her arm from her friend’s shoulder. “Now come on, let’s go see how we did.”

As they all started to make their way back to the main room Amity finally spoke up, a small smile on her face. “I had a lot of fun playing with you too.”

Reassured that things were fine Luz smiled and looked up at the screens to see the results of the game. To her surprise, she’d actually done pretty good. She was by no means the top player but she managed to, just barely, slip into the top half of the team.  Overall the other team had managed to eke out a victory over them but Luz felt that for her first game things had gone pretty well.

“Man you suck at this.”

Luz froze at the familiar voice and took a deep breath to compose herself. “Hello, Boscha.”

“Are you seriously still here Boscha?” Amity asked incredulously.

“Of course I am. I was going to play in the next game but you guys distracted me and I didn’t get in in time. I figured I should just stick around to see how well the queen loser would do. Turns out she sucks,” Boscha replied with a smirk.

Despite herself, Luz couldn’t help but stare agape at Boscha’s reasoning. While this certainly wasn’t her first interaction with Boscha it was the first one where the girl was doing something other than glaring at her, lambasting her for ‘stealing’ Amity away, or angrily trying to figure out what Amity saw in her. Early in Luz’s tenure at school she had mentally categorized people into groups based on which characters from her books they resembled and Boscha had gotten thrown into the ‘angry ex’ category and hadn’t really done much beyond that. Now Luz was seeing a whole new side of the angry girl. Something that turned Luz’s entire understanding of her on its head. Boscha wasn’t just an angry ex, she was the angry bully character that probably had low self-esteem and compensated by being a jerk!

Something of Luz’s excitement at figuring out her peers a little more must have shown on her face when Boscha’s own expression darkened. “What are you so happy about?”

“Nothing! Just remembered something funny!” Luz quickly defended herself.

“Riiiight,” Boscha drawled. “Freak. I don’t know what Amity sees in you.”

“Just ignore her Luz,” Amity said as she placed herself between Boscha and Luz. “We need to get to the counter and get signed up for the next game before they start calling people up to the debriefing room.”

Luz nodded and followed Amity to counter but couldn’t help but notice the strangely smug look on Boscha’s face. “Do you think she’s going to be in the next game too?”

“Probably,” Amity admitted. “I almost wish Skara never introduced Boscha to laser tag but the alternative was her trying to drag everyone out to go paintballing again and after the first time…” Amity trailed off with a shudder, one hand drifting to her shoulder.

“Did you hang out with Boscha and her friends a lot?” Luz asked before she could help herself.

“Not a lot but yeah. They weren’t close friends but it was nice to hang out with someone every now and then. Even if half the reason they invited me along was because my mom is the mayor. The other half was probably because Boscha wanted me to come with and no one was willing to argue with her.”

“They couldn’t have been that bad, right?” Luz asked as she paid for her entry into the next game.

“Not really. Most of them weren’t that bad, just really blunt that the main reason they let me stick around was because their parents wanted an in with the mayor or because of Boascha wanted me around. I figured hanging around the ones that were honest about it was the lesser of two evils compared to the ones that pretended my mom had nothing to do with them being friendly.”

Luz was saved from trying to navigate that particular minefield by the announcement that debriefing for the next game was about to start.

“You two ready for another game?” Gus asked with a smile.

“You’re not going to run off again as soon as the game starts this time are you?” Luz nettled him, with a smile of her own.

“Not my fault you can’t match my finely honed warrior instincts,” he replied in as smug a tone as he could manage.

“Yeah, I guess my experience as an underground rebellion fighter is nothing next to your laser tag prowess,” Luz snarked back.

Willow and Amity quickly joined in the good-natured bickering as they entered the briefing room. Even when it started they merely turned down the volume since there wouldn’t be any difference since they had last heard the rules.

Their joviality came to an abrupt end when, as they were grabbing their vests and guns Boscha sidled over to them and, after looking them over, pointedly grabbed a vest for the opposing team. “Good luck,” she said with an almost impressive lack of sincerity.

“Oh no. She’s going to be a nightmare isn’t she?” Willow asked as they all watched Boscha move over to the other team’s entry door into the arena, smirking at them the entire time.

“Maybe it won’t be that bad?” Gus tried to assure everyone.

It took less than a minute for Gus’s attempt as assurances to be proven wrong. In another situation, Luz would have been impressed with how quickly Boscha managed to not only find all four of them but also take them out without being shot once. Luz was positive she’d managed to get close a couple times but had eventually been taken out right after glancing towards Amity when she’d heard her friend’s vest make its death noise.

This time when Gus opened his mouth to try and say something uplifting as Boscha walked away, laughing mockingly the entire time, Willow merely glared at him and his mouth snapped shut.

“You guys should split away from me,” Luz said after a moment. “I’m pretty sure she’s going to be going after me to try and prove a point.”

“What? No! We can’t let her ruin our fun!” Gus immediately replied, a sentiment that the others echoed with firm nods.

“It’s okay,” Luz said with a smile. “I think I’ve gotten the hang of this and can at least keep her busy. Just keep an eye out for me and help out when you can but I got this.”

After getting a nod from each of her friends, some more reluctant than others, Luz set off on her own, intent on evening the score. Though she would never mention it to her friends, things actually got a lot easier for her once she struck out on her own. Without anyone around to distract her and a clear mission in mind she was able to easily fall into the mindset she usually reserved for going on dangerous missions against the Emperor’s Coven. Her ears, even covered by the beanie, were keen to any new sounds. Eyes long used to picking out the slightest movements and flashes of color flicked back and forth as she looked for the barest hint of the red lights that heralded a member of the enemy team.

Even with all her attention focused on trying to pick out the most minute details possible, it was a stroke of luck that she managed to notice Boscha in time to keep from being ambushed. The ensuing firefight was tense as they each worked to keep as many targets as possible behind cover while still getting shots off at their opponents. It was only when Luz saw the look of slight satisfaction on Boscha’s face while her eyes were focused elsewhere that Luz noticed the sounds of another person coming up from behind her early enough to tag them before they could get the drop on her. Luz coming out of that encounter on top wasn’t something Boscha seemed to have planned for since Luz was able to catch her out of cover immediately afterward, getting a solid shot in on her and taking her out.

Boscha didn’t say anything when she got tagged. For a short moment, her eyes widened in shock before narrowing in consideration. Backing away she didn’t take her eyes off Luz until she turned a corner and vanished. In the distance, Luz could faintly hear the sound of a vest turning back on and knew the fight was back on.

What followed was one of the tensest games of cat and mouse Luz had ever been a part of. While she had a lot more experience being stealthy, engaging in guerilla warfare, and had a slight advantage in better hearing, Boscha knew the layout of the arena and how to play the game far better than Luz did. 

Once Boscha realized that attempting to set up normal ambushes and sneaking up wasn’t working she started leading Luz into environmental hazards. Once Luz grew wise to that Boscha would retreat in the same way, only to double back and open fire on Luz when she tried to find a way around a supposed hazard.

Every so often other players would wander into the crossfire and inevitably be used as distractions, intentional or not, by their teammate in an attempt to get a step up on their adversary. These interruptions grew rarer and rarer as time went on, with one such interloper muttering about seeing why everyone was staying away from this part of the arena to give them an idea why.

Eventually, after dozens of skirmishes, some won, some lost, Luz had Boscha pinned behind a wall in a corner of the arena. Her own cover, a cube that came up to her chest, gave her just enough cover to duck behind if Boscha looked like she might get a chance to take a shot while also being able to keep her aim steady at the only place her opponent could come out from.

“You really think you’re gonna win this don't you?” Boscha shouted from behind her wall.

“I think I have a pretty good chance,” Luz replied with a grin. “I’m not the one hiding behind a wall right now after all.”

“Shows what you know, Noceda.”

Seconds ticked by as Luz stared at the wall in front of her, eyes fixed on the bit of Boscha’s face she could see. The part of her that was used to real standoffs was screaming at her to open fire, that her opponent had made the mistake of leaving cover. She roughly shoved that part of her down as she reminded herself that unless she hit one of the targets on Boscha’s vest nothing would happen.

Also, it was against the rules to shoot people in the eyes for some reason. The people explaining things had said that like it was supposed to be obvious but Luz didn’t really see what such a small amount of light could really do to a person. That said they had been very adamant about it and Luz didn’t want to get kicked out.

Underneath her beanie, her ears twitched as she heard Boscha repositioning herself. Luz’s eyes narrowed in concentration as she focused on blocking out the sounds of everything except Boscha’s movements. Each scrape or shuffle was a goldmine of information about what might be going on behind that wall. Every other noise was worthless. All she had to do was-

She nearly jumped out of her skin as her vest played a dying noise.

Her head whipped back and forth as she tried to see where Boscha had managed to shoot her from, only to see that, from what little she could see, Boscha seemed every bit as surprised as she had been. Realization dawned on her as she slowly turned around to see another member of Boscha’s team pumping his fists in the air in celebration.

Once Boscha joined Luz in realizing what had happened she sidled out from behind her cover with an amused smirk. “Forgot this was a team sport didn’t you Noceda?”

Luz was saved from having to come up with a retort when the twin sounds of two vests getting hit echoed around her. Off in the distance, she could just barely make out two of her own teammates, one of whom was waving in her direction. “Yeah, teammates are great huh?”

Boscha looked like she’d bitten into something foul as she shot an enraged glower off into the distance. Anything she might have said or done was cut off as the game end buzzer sounded throughout the arena,  causing her expression to shift from merely angry to apoplectic. For one brief moment, Luz was sure that Boscha was about to start swinging. Thankfully reason, or something similar, managed to win out and Boscha settled for shoving past Luz as roughly as she could.

Shrugging to herself Luz simply let Boscha claim that small victory and followed her out of the arena, albeit at a distance she figured would be enough to not further engage the girl. Once back in the lobby she made her way over to a smirking Amity and Gus.

“Enjoy yourself?” Amity asked with a smile that sat somewhere between exasperated and fond.

“Yeah, actually,” Luz admitted. “It got pretty intense near the end and it was kinda neat to do all that without any actual stakes.”

“You mean no stakes beyond Boscha holding this over your head forever if she beat you,” Gus clarified.

“Yeah, apart from that,” Luz agreed. “But would that really change anything?”

Gus paused to consider that for a moment before shrugging. “Good point.”

“So are you ready to see how you did?” Willow asked.

“As I’ll ever be,” Luz confirmed as she finished putting her vest away and joined her friends in returning to the main lobby.

It took her a few seconds to find herself on the leaderboards, but when she did she couldn’t help but laugh. “I got last place!”

Her friends stared at her score in confusion for a few seconds before joining in with her laughter as they came to the same realization she had. Spending almost the entire match in tense standoffs against a single opposing player with a decent number of their encounters ending with both of them still standing was horrible for getting a high score. Even the second lowest score on her team was more than double her own.

“Does anyone remember which number Boscha was?” Amity asked eagerly as she scanned the other team’s leaderboard.

“No but I think I can guess which one she was,” Luz replied as she looked at a score on the very bottom of the list that was very similar to her own. A little larger than hers but still the worst on her team.

“That’s her,” Willow confirmed. “I made sure to memorize her number just in case.”

Off to the side Boscha was grinding her teeth as she tried to burn holes in the screens with the power of her hate. For a few seconds, her glare was redirected towards Luz and the others. In the end though, she opted to stomp her way out of the building.

Luz joined in with her friends laughing at both Boscha’s horrible score and her own. After several minutes of laughter, every time it seemed to be dying down someone had looked at the scoreboards and started back up, they all finally managed to calm down. With laser tag done and lunch looming on the horizon everyone began to debate what the best place to go for lunch would be. A fond smile crossed Luz’s face as she took in her friends, the first she’d ever had, having fun together with her. For one brief moment, her smile faltered as a dark uncharitable part of her mind reminded her that as she was sitting around not hunting for the Rainbow Staff. While she was having fun her mom was back on the isles, likely mourning for her presumed deceased daughter. But she managed to shove that thought back down and out of mind. Just like she did every other time it wormed its way to the front of her mind. With a cheer that was largely genuine Luz joined in with the argument about lunch. Offering up her own two cents about a nice little pizza place that had offered great vegan pizza.

Despite knowing that there was no way anyone would be suspicious of him, it took every bit of nerve Hunter had to just walk into Owl House Antiques. The Coven Guard had been very certain that the Wild Witch had been storing her stolen artifacts in this shop. Now that he was here and actually seeing it, Hunter could understand why this place had been chosen. The entire store was packed with stacks of random items that he doubted even made sense to the owner. And if the actual storefront looked like this there was no way that any storerooms were in any better condition. A person could probably leave almost anything here and no one would bat an eye. He was even willing to be that he could shove his entire collection of artifacts somewhere in here and never have to worry about them being found or sold.

Not that he would, of course, his collection was far too precious to ever risk in such a way.

That said, the detection spell he’d cast outside the shop hadn’t managed to find anything. Or at least nothing noteworthy. The entire street had varying levels of magic residue, presumably from the gem that had powered the golem having been shattered here earlier that week. The complete lack of any other magical signature was almost been enough for him to confirm that the Wild Witch had moved her stash of artifacts somewhere else after having managed to somehow best the Coven Guard. A collection as large as what he could only assume she had would certainly have a magical signature to match after all.

But almost wasn’t good enough and now he was wandering the aisles looking at all sorts of random junk. And what junk it was! Even if his wallet wasn’t in quite such an anemic state, he really needed to step up his search for a part-time job, he wouldn’t have bought most of this stuff for half the price the owner was asking for. That said there were some interesting finds hidden amongst the garbage that dominated the landscape. Others, well...

His wandering gaze landed on another ancient porcelain doll and he shuddered. Those things were just creepy. He knew he was imagining things but he could have sworn one of them had turned to look at him while his back was turned. While part of him was sure he was just imagining things, the rest of him couldn’t help but think of the very real poltergeist he’d run into before. It didn’t help that the next aisle he walked down had three of the damn things all staring in his direction. “Probably just a prank, someone set them up so that they would be staring down the aisle in case someone came down this direction,” he assured himself under his breath.

“Or they could be possessed.”

Hunter most certainly did not yelp in fright at the sudden voice. Nor did he nearly trip over his own feet in his haste to turn around and see who had snuck up on him.

“Ha! Calm down kid, I’m sure anything possessing the dolls wouldn’t be too interested in you,” a tall white harried woman said with a broad grin. “Welcome to the Owl House, you looking for anything in particular or just trying to figure out what to try and get mom and dad to buy for ya?”

“Just looking around,” Hunter assured her.

“Ah. One of those ones eh?”

“I’m not sure what you’re talking about.”

The woman’s eyes narrowed and her grin grew sharper. “Right,” she drawled. “You’re totally not here to check out the places that oversized living lawn ornament almost trashed.”

Hunter froze for a moment as his thoughts kicked into overdrive. While it wasn’t quite the conversation topic he would have preferred it was so close to it as to be child’s play to shift things around. “I… may be here for something like that,” he hedged, letting some of his nervousness slip through so as to make his confession feel more natural. “I was actually hoping to ask about the Wild Witch.” Seeing the woman nod in understanding he continued, “does she come by here often? She showed up pretty fast.”

“Oh yeah, she comes by here all the time. I’m her best friend actually. For… fifty bucks I can get you an autograph.”

Hunter’s shoulders drooped as the woman proceeded to try and sell him on a ‘100% genuine Wild Witch autograph’ that consisted of a messy scrawl on a napkin that didn’t even have the right number of letters to say ‘Wild Witch’. The first word looked a little too short and the second far too long. He really should have known better than to try and get a straight answer out of the woman. “And do you have a bridge to sell to me too?”

“As a matter of fact, yes,” the woman snarked as she pointed to an admittedly nice model of the Golden Gate Bridge. “Only sixty bucks! For one twenty you can get that and the autograph.”

Hunter couldn’t help but chuckle in reluctant admiration at the woman having thrown up such a quick response to his jab. “Shouldn’t it be one ten?”

“The autograph game is a cutthroat one kid, prices never stay the same. Only seventy bucks and the autograph is yours.”

“I’ll have to pass. Thanks anyway,” Hunter said as he shook his head. It was pretty clear he wasn’t going to be getting anything else out of this. There was no way this con artist had any actual connection with the Wild Witch. Honestly with everything he’d read about the dangerous criminal it was probably for the best this woman hadn’t actually met the Wild Witch or she would probably be dead or mind-controlled or something. The artifacts had probably been hidden in the attic or some other place the Wild Witch could fly up to. Now that the hiding place had been exposed she’d definitely moved on somewhere else. It would be foolish to stick around a base an enemy had already managed to find after all. He was drawn from his thoughts when the door to the shop opened and a new voice called out.

“Hey Eda! I’m back!” a tan teenager wearing a jacket and beanie said as she made her way over.

“Luz! Just in time! I was trying to get this guy to buy a Wild Witch autograph!” Eda said.

Luz’s face flushed as she stared at Hunter in shock. “I thought you were going to stop trying to sell those!”

“Hey, some suck- customers bought ‘em! Gotta follow the market trends right?”

Face still red with embarrassment Luz turned to face hunter. “I am so sorry about her. You didn’t actually give her any money for an autograph did you?”

“Don’t worry, I know a scam when I see one,” Hunter assured her before turning back to Eda. “Thanks for the offer but I need to get going.” Waving away further, ever increasing, prices for the supposed autographs Hunter made his way out of the store. He may not have figured out where the Wild Witch was but he had certainly figured out one place where she wasn’t. It was starting to look like his first outing as the Golden Guard was going to have to be a shot in the dark after all. But he would find her, and he would make sure she was brought to justice for everything she’d done.

Chapter Text

There were a lot of things that Eda would never admit to others. Being as open a person as she was there were very few things that she wouldn’t just say outright. If anything she preferred saying things that made people uncomfortable just so she could see their reactions. No, most of the things she wasn’t willing to say out loud were more so that she wouldn't get arrested. While she didn’t usually believe she had done anything worthy of jail time she was very aware that the justice system wouldn’t take her side in a good number of those cases and she was nowhere near rich enough to be able to just flip the law the bird. The list of things that she wouldn’t admit to for reasons other than worry about jail time had consisted of only a few items.

Of course, she was sure that there were more things that deserved to be on that list that she just didn’t think about. She wasn’t so foolish as to believe that she knew herself perfectly inside and out, but she was pretty confident that she understood herself well enough to know what things she felt but also didn’t want to say. For the longest time, the list had only consisted of two things. That she actually liked how much Lilly fused over her from time to time, and that she regretted the advice she’d given Raine all those years ago.

Now though, that list had managed to grow. Sure, it was only by a single solitary item, but it had grown. And that new thing was that she cared far more for the little witch that had, quite literally, fallen into her life than she was willing to admit aloud.

At first she’d thought it would just be a short-term thing. Give the kid somewhere to crash until she found her magical whoozits and then she’d be gone. She would get a place to stay for a bit and Eda would get a cool story to tell gullible customers. Maybe she’d even get some sort of exotic toys from the kid she could pawn off as strange and wondrous antiques with an unknown history or something. The kid was a weird magical monster from another realm after all so how close could they really get?

Eda was pretty sure might have managed a week before realizing that despite all the obvious differences between Luz and a human teenager, none of them mattered. The kid may have been some sort of spell slinging rebel badass but she was still a kid. One that wanted friends, a normal life, and to feel validated. And damn it if Eda didn’t want to see the twerp get those things. She’d managed to worm her way into Eda’s heart with an ease that might have been distressing if she looked like she was capable of manipulating her way out of a wet paper bag.

Normally this just meant that Eda would go a little out of her way to make sure the kid had an easier time of things. Keep the fridge stocked with actual food instead of just relying on frozen dinners and canned soup, making sure she always made it to school on time, something that still caused shivers of disgust to run down Eda’s spine, and doing what she could to keep the little trouble magnet safe. Now though? Now it manifested as her glaring angrily at her sister from the other side of a locked door.

“Edalyn, please let me in,” Lilith begged as she juggled the door’s handle fruitlessly.

Not relenting in her glare in the slightest, Eda mentally thanked the fancy little doorbell with a built-in camera she’d picked up a while back so she could direct any deliveries properly when she was suffering a paralysis attack.  Without that thing, she probably wouldn’t have noticed her sister idling outside the store in time to remotely lock the door and keep her out. “I don’t see why I should. Last time you came around here you got Luz disappeared by your goons and I had to bust her out of some sort of secret government facility. What’re ya gonna do this time? Get all of us disappeared?”

Lilith winced at Eda’s words and looked away. If it weren’t for what had been said during their last conversation Eda might even think Lilith was regretting what she had done to Luz instead of regretting how Eda had reacted to what had been done. “That… is part of why I’m here. I wanted to… apologize.”

Eda raised a single eyebrow and her frown deepened. “A little early to try and apologize. Luz won’t be back from school for a while.”

Lilith winced again. “I… was aware of that. I simply wished to apologize to you first before apologizing to… her.”

While Eda certainly noticed the pause before her sister actually managed to refer to Luz like a real person, the fact that she seemed to be willing to at least try was promising. “Well, don’t bother trying to apologize until the kid gets here. All or nothing. Take it or leave it.”

“I-” Lilith began before clenching her teeth and looking down. Taking a deep breath she started over, “I can accept that.”

“Alright then. Since I can’t just let you sit outside my store until Luz gets here, come on in,” Eda said as she unlocked the door. “Buf if you screw this up I will never let you live this down, you hear me?” she added as she flung the door open and jabbed a finger into her sister’s chest.

“Understood!” Lilith squeaked.

“Good,” Eda’s eyes narrowed as she backed away from her sister and motioned for her to enter the shop.

Lilith seemed to know not to press her luck and entered the store without a word, faltering only slightly when she noticed that there had been a customer in the store the entire time.

Before the man could ask the questions that he very obviously wanted answered, Eda started to shove him out of the shop. “Store’s closed, family business. Scram.”

“B-But the sign says-”

“Read the second sign!” Eda interrupted as she finished shoving him out of the shop. With the lesser annoyance dealt with she locked the door and flipped the sign to closed. She paused for a moment before tapping on the glass of the door and pointing at her ‘Screw your hours I do what I want’ sign that hung underneath her store hours one. For a moment the man looked like he was going to argue but an angry glare shot in his direction cut that off. Finished locking up and sure that the customer wasn’t likely to try anything too stupid she returned to the counter where Lilith was waiting. “So. Apologies. I think this is gonna rate an apology dinner.”

Lilith blanched at that. Apology dinners were something special. Something they’d cooked up ages ago for when one of them had missed up big time. Whoever had messed up would get whatever the other wanted from wherever they wanted as part of the apology. Usually, they went easy on each other’s wallets, choosing instead to bask in the superiority of the one in the wrong accepting that fact, but for the really bad ones they would pull out all the stops. They were also something that they only did for family.

“Of course,” Lilith said after a moment. “And I suppose you already know where we will be going?”

“Nope!” Eda cheerfully replied. “Luz gets to decide. She’s the one you screwed over after all. And man did you screw up big time.”

Lilith’s eye twitched as her obvious attempt to make the dinner about apologizing to Eda fell flat. “Right. I don’t suppose you have any ideas where she will want to eat? If she wants to eat somewhere nice we may need to get reservations.”

“I got a few ideas but I’m not gonna decide for her.”

Lilith sighed and slumped against the counter. Her irritation was only temporary as she seemed to remember something. “I almost forgot. I made a quick stop before coming here and got you something. While I’m sure you have introduced th- Luz to junk food I doubt you’ve shared any of these.” With that, she revealed a box of assorted fine chocolates, the sort that she only ever got Eda for Christmas. The sort that also held a record of lasting for only forty hours after being received before being completely devoured.

“I know this is all a transparent ploy to do something for me and butter me up while trying to pretend it’s for Luz but damn it if it isn’t a good one,” Eda said, her eyes transfixed on the chocolates. Taking a deep breath to steady herself she closed her eyes and waved the chocolates away. “Now go put those under the counter and stop tempting me. We can eat them when Luz gets back.”

“Eda… are you actually growing up?” Lilith asked, her eyes wide with disbelief. At Eda’s shocked, and slightly affronted look a wide grin split Lillith’s face. “You are!”

“No I’m not!” Eda most definitely didn’t pout.

“You are! You’ve never shown restraint when it comes to these chocolates!” Lilith crowed, waggling the box in front of Eda slightly. “Maybe it’s a good thing L-” before she could continue further she froze, her mouth snapping shut.

This time it was Eda’s turn to smirk at her sister. “What was that dear sister? Were you about to say that it might have been a good thing Luz moved in?” At her sister’s reproachful look Eda’s grin grew. “You were! You were about to say something good about Luz!” She poked her sister in the side. “I knew there was still something in there that remembered having fun with the kid on Fu Friday!”

Lilith huffed and crossed her arms but didn’t say anything. Instead opting to look anywhere but at Eda. 

In a surprising turn of events poking at her sister, both physically and verbally, lost its luster far faster than Eda had expected. Eda could normally easily prolong lording a victory like this over Lilly for an hour, if not more. This time she found herself getting bored after only a few minutes. God, the kid really has done a number on me hasn’t she? she wondered to herself. Heaving a sigh she leaned back against the counter. “You’re not wrong, ya know?” At Lilith’s puzzled look she continued. “About Luz I mean.” Part of her dreaded baring her soul like this and she could only hope it would make the impression she was hoping for. “I figured it would just be like having a new roommate at first. Break out the tape, split rooms in half, do my best to sneak as many of her snacks as I could while blaming it all on someone else, maybe her boyfriend or girlfriend if she ever got one. The usual kind of stuff.” Ignoring the affronted look on Lilly’s face as she no doubt realized what the last thing in Eda’s list was referring to. “Turns out it was a lot more like finding King all those years ago. Even down finding them on the side of the road all beat to hell.” She cast a fond look over to where King sat atop a pile of antiques, all the better to survey his kingdom. “She’s just got this… curiosity and love for the world that was endearing. Before I knew it I was trying to get her into school because she wanted to get there and worrying when she freaked out over whether or not she’d screwed things up with her friends. Was it fast? Yeah, but that’s how I’ve lived since forever. At least it was for something good this time.” Taking another deep breath she turned to her sister and met her eyes. “So please, just give the kid another chance. I know you’ve dealt with all sorts of shit from magic but they’re not all bad. And Luz is one of the best.”

Lilith managed to hold Eda’s gaze for several seconds before glancing away in shame. She seemed about to say something when an insistent beep came from her pocket. Her eyes widened and darted down to her side as she pulled her phone out of her pocket. “I… I need to take this real quick. I’ll be right back.”

“Of course she’d take the first chance to run away she got,” Eda muttered as she watched Lility move to the front of the store. Not that Eda really felt she had too much room to talk. She knew if she was in the same situation she’d probably be reaching for any out she could find. Absentmindedly running her hands across the counter she was surprised to find that the box of chocolates was still on the counter. “I shouldn’t… but maybe just one.”

Licking her lips she pulled the top of the box off and stared hungrily down at the assortment of candies in front of her. “Eenie, meenie, miney...” she trailed off in the middle of her usual candy picking method when she realized that chances were pretty good that there was a chocolate or two in here that Luz couldn’t eat. So for the first time in her life, Eda lifted the tray out of the box to consult the cheat sheet underneath. “The things I do for ya kid,” she chuckled to herself. However, instead of just a cheat sheet detailing which sweets were which for cowards and/or people with dietary restrictions there was also a small device. A half-sphere of metal with complex geometric designs etched across its surface.

“Eda, sorry I had to step away I-” Lilith began before choking as she saw what Eda had found.

“Lillith. What. Is. This?” Eda asked, her voice devoid of all emotion.

“That.. well… it’s a scanner. From work,” Lilith explained sheepishly. “It… it scans the surroundings, specifically people to… to see if they’ve had long term spells cast on them.”

“Spells like?”

Lilith winced at the growl that had entered Eda’s tone and soldiered on. “Enhancements, wards, defenses,” her voice lowered and her gaze dropped to the floor, “bewitchments.”

“You still thought Luz was doing something to me,” Eda stated flatly as she turned around, the device still in her hand. A familiar tingle ran along her arms but she ignored it. “This whole thing was an excuse to try and prove that Luz was dangerous wasn’t it?!” Eda shouted as she slammed a hand against the counter, causing it to rattle ominously.

“I was just trying to-”

“Trying to what?! Look out for me?! Because your dumb, immature sister can’t look after herself?!”

“No! That’s not it!”

“Were you even going to stick around for Luz to come back?! If I hadn’t insisted on it, were you even going to apologize to her?!”

Lillith’s eyes widened as she took a step backward, her eyes fixed on Eda’s arm. “Eda yo-”

“Shut up!” Eda screeched as she took a step to follow her sister. “You are either going to sit here and wait until Luz comes back and apologize to her, and mean it. Or you are going to leave right now!” she shouted as she jabbed her sister in her chest with a finger. A taloned, red-feathered finger.

Everything seemed to stop as Eda turned her gaze down at her hands, and then her arms as her eyes traced the unbroken line of feathers up to where they seemed to fuse with her dress. “Lilly. What the hell is going on?”

“I was hoping you would know,” Lilith replied distantly.

The two sisters locked wide, shocked eyes with one another for several seconds. Neither one knew who started screaming first.

While neither of them knew how long it took for them to reach a mutual lull in the screaming that wasn’t immediately restarted by one of them, things eventually did manage to quiet down in the Owl House. At some point in the screaming, the two sisters had moved to the back of the shop, with Eda eventually relegated to her work chair against her will so that Lilith could inspect her.

“What did you do?” she asked as she traced a finger along Eda’s arm.

“What makes you think that any of this is my fault?” Eda asked, affronted by the insinuation that all of this was somehow her fault.

“Well since the scans from the device I planted in the chocolate box all came back negative I know that the- Luz hasn’t cast any major spells on you. Certainly nothing that would cause a reaction like this. This is also obviously the first time this has ever happened to you as well or you wouldn’t have reacted so… loudly.”

“Yeah, like I was the only one,” Eda muttered as she let her sister lift one of her arms to inspect it from all angles.

“So! This means it was something recent, and something that Luz did not do,” Lilith concluded forcefully. “So once again: what did you do?”

Eda grumbled for a moment as she tried to think of any possible line of sweet-talking that would get her out of having to admit to what she was almost certain was the cause of her current predicament. When nothing presented itself her grumbling only intensified. “I used that wolf belt thing when that other witch attacked me.”

“You used the- wait! When what other witch attacked you?!”

“The guy we traded for Luz? Spindly guy, wore a white mask and cloak, really racist towards humans? Kinda like you are with witches but somehow even worse?” Lilith flushed at the comparison but said nothing. “Pretty much right after you left he snuck in to try and find all the artifacts Luz had found. Apparently, he thought the kid had managed to keep hold of the staff that brought them both here and wanted to get it back. He did something with the parasite in me, then I got some help from some concerned citizens that helped me beat the guy up. Since we couldn’t figure out a way to turn the parasite back off we figured that since the wolf guy had super healing powers when he was transformed it was our best bet to get me back to normal. Hurt like hell for a while but it worked.”

By the time Eda had finished her explanation Lillith’s face was locked in a rictus of horror. “Edalyn what the hell have you been involved in?”

“They, uh, they didn’t tell you about all that?”

Lilith slowly shook her head. “Steve better not have known about all this or I am not going to help him with his stained glass projects for a month.”

“His what projects?”

“Not important,” Lilith brushed the question aside. “Do you have any idea how dangerous it is to mix magic like that? You didn’t understand either of the things that were going to be affecting you, let alone how they were going to react to one another! You could have gotten yourself killed!”

“Yeah, yeah. I already got an earful about this from the kid,” Eda muttered reproachfully as she wrenched her arm free from Lilith so she could properly cross her arms to complete the image.

“And she was right to do so!” Lilith exclaimed. Her mouth twisted into a grimace when she saw the smug look Eda shot her way. “Oh shut up. I may not like her but I can respect that she knows what she is doing when it comes to magic. Besides! Even if I didn’t agree with her on the principle of the argument I would have to be blind to not agree with her now that we’ve seen the side effects of playing with magic like that! Who knows what this could be doing to you!?”

“Well maybe if someone stopped shouting so much we could do something about it!”

“And what could you possibly do about it?! I can’t think of anything we can do about it and I actually know about magic!”

“Ha! And what are you gonna do about it? Try and lock me up?” Eda asked as she stood up from the chair and poked her sister in the chest with one claw.

“Of course not! We just need to keep you back here until we figure something out and-”

“No way am I letting you keep me cooped up anywhere! If I want to go out looking like this I will! Maybe I like the new look! It’s fierce!” Without warning a pair of wings burst from her back, knocking loose items around the room to the ground.

Once more the two sisters locked eyes for several seconds. Thankfully things didn’t immediately devolve into pointing and screaming. Well, at least no screaming. 

“I feel like I should have expected that,” Eda idly noted as she toyed with opening and closing her wings.

Lilith simply settled for pointing one shaking finger in Eda’s direction while her other hand covered her open mouth.

“Yeah, I have wings now. I noticed,” Eda groused as she tried to get one of her new wings around to properly inspect it. “You don’t think this is permanent do you?”

With words still failing her, Lilith pulled out her phone and snapped a picture of Eda before silently handing the phone over to her sister.

“Okay you’re starting to creep me out here Lilly,” Eda said as she took the phone from her sister and looked to see the picture that had been taken. “Oh. Yeah. That’s kinda unsettling,” she noted as she took in the changes that had overtaken her face. “The black eyes are actually pretty cool but the whole thing with my ears and all that hair coming out of them? Yeesh.”

“How are you taking this so well? You shouldn’t be taking this so well,” Lilith muttered as she took her phone back from her sister.

“Eh, at this rate I don’t think there’s too much that will surprise me about this. I’ve managed to go so far past freaking out I think I’ve looped back around to being calm. Though come to think of it…” Eda glanced down at her legs and nodded. “Yep. I have bird legs now too.” She paused for a moment as she flexed her wings and took in her new plumage. “You think I can fly?”

That seemed to shock Lilly out of whatever stupor she was in. “I will not let you go outside like this! Do you have any idea what could happen when people see you running around looking like this?!”

“Ha! Knowing the way things have been going around here they’ll probably just ask for my autograph!”

“You-” Lilith paused, one finger held up in the air as she tried to refute Eda’s point. “You may have a point there. But! That is no reason to risk it!”

Before Eda could reply the familiar sound of the bell at the front of the shop ringing reached them. A wicked grin crept across her face as she slowly nodded her head. Across from her, Lilith began shaking her head no. Knowing exactly where this routine was heading Eda decided to cut to the chase and forgo the exaggerated looking over her sister’s shoulder to distract her and instead simply bolted for the workroom door. Obviously not expecting the sudden change in tactics, Lilith was too slow to stop Eda from bursting through the door and entering the main room of the shop. “Welcome to the Owl House, home of all your… antique… needs...”

“Eda?! What the heck happened to you?!” Luz screeched.

“Uhh, well, you see-”

“Edalyn Clawthrone come back here this-” Lilly shrieked as she came running out from the backroom, having managed to overcome her shock at Eda simply bolting like that. Her tirade was cut short however the same way Eda’s own attempted introduction had been the moment she saw Luz. “Ah. Luz. It has… been a while.”

It was honestly hard for Eda to tell whether it was her or her sister that managed to get the most dumbfounded look from the young witch. A task made more difficult by Luz closing her eyes, spinning around and muttering something under her breath. After a little while, Luz turned back around, opened her eyes, and visibly slumped.

“Please tell me I just walked in on some weird human thing,” she pled, prompting an indignant glare from Lilly. “Or just some weird Eda thing. That would work too.”

“Nice to know you think so highly of me kid,” Eda groused with a small smile. For a moment she was tempted to see just how long she could play the whole harpy thing off but with Lilly here she figured her chances were pretty slim that it could even last a minute. “Nah, turns out there may have been some teeny tiny side effects from me using that belt. Maybe. Surprise!” she said as she threw out jazz hands and spread her wings wide, just barely managing to miss knocking over one of her towers of antiques.

Luz’s face shifted through a wide range of emotions. Surprise, anger, fear, even relief for a moment. In the end she settled on resignation. “This is why you don’t just use random magical artifacts to treat other random magical ailments.”

“Ugh, not this again. I’ve already gotten this once today from Lilly,” Eda complained as she drew her wings back in. “Don’t need to hear it again.”

Luz was silent for a moment before turning to look at Lillith. An uneasy feeling started to creep down Eda’s back as the two stared each other down, various expressions flitting across their faces. Then, as one, they both nodded. “Wait, what just happened here?” Eda asked as Luz joined her behind the counter and grabbed hold of one arm. “Okay come on it’s not that bad,” Eda protested as Lillith grabbed her other arm and the two began to drag her back into the workroom. “I’m glad you two are working together now but do we really need to do this?”

“I’ll try and see what some diagnosing and oracle spells have to say about all this,” Luz said as she opened the workroom door and began the process of forcing Eda back inside.

“I had snuck a scanner into the shop to try and covertly test Eda for any mental influences. It should have still been recording when Eda transformed,” Lilith replied.

Luz sighed and turned a tired look in Lilith’s direction. “Fine. Might as well have your paranoia do something useful for once.”

Lilith huffed but didn’t respond. Instead pulling out her phone to presumably look over the data her scanner had picked up.

“Come on kid, you don’t have to do this,” Eda said while Luz began casting the now annoyingly familiar diagnosing spells.

“You just turned into a bird demon! Humans aren’t supposed to do that! What if you can’t change back?” Luz asked as she continued casting her spells.

“Eh, I figured worst case scenario I get put in one of those witness protection program things Lily’s bosses have going on.” Eda turned to her sister. “They have ways of dealing with stuff like this right?”

“Yes but-”

“See? Everything is gonna be fine. Besides, it kinda slipped my mind earlier what with the,” Eda motioned up and down to indicate her entire body, “stuff going on, but right before I changed I got that little tingly feeling that usually meant I was gonna have to spend the next hour paralyzed. I figure this’ll be pretty much the same thing.”

Both Luz and Lily were dead silent as they stared at her, mouths agape. After a moment Luz turned a slightly accusatory gaze towards Lilith.

“Don’t look at me like that! Eda didn’t say anything about that earlier. We were occupied with… other things,” Lilly defended herself.

“Things like sneaking a scanner in here because she didn’t trust you,” Eda added helpfully.

“Yes. Things like that,” Lilly ground out. “Things may have escalated into a disagreement-”

“Pretty much a screaming match.”

“Disagreement. And neither of us noticed her changing until her arms were already finished. I rushed her to the backroom immediately after that.” Lily paused as something seemed to occur to her. “The wings didn’t come in until we started having another disagreement. Eda was quite adamant about galavanting about in public while transformed.”

“You wanted to lock me up and throw away the key,” Eda interjected.

“No, I simply wanted to keep you away from the public until we understood what was going on,” Lilith retorted.

“So what you’re saying is that Eda was angry each time the transformation happened?” Luz asked, desperately trying to get the conversation back on track.

“Yes. I don’t know how the belt worked but I would imagine a heightened state of emotion would have caused the change to occur faster,” Lilith explained. “The scanner didn’t pick up anything unusual during transformation but a sufficiently internalized spell could potentially go unnoticed by most scans in the same way the original parasite did.”

Luz nodded at that. “Hmmm, that might explain why my spells aren’t finding anything either. But usually something as big as a demon transformation would have some noticeable effects.”

“But Eda is transforming without the belt,” Lily paused and looked over at Eda. “Right? You aren’t still wearing it are you?”

Before Eda could answer Luz waved the question away. “No she isn’t. I didn’t even know she had used it until she told me a few days ago.”

“This would be much easier if we knew what the parasite that had been inside her was.”

“It was a magic eater,” Luz supplied. “At least I think it was. From what Eda could tell me of what the Coven Guard said at least.” At Lily’s questioning look Luz continued. “It’s a type of artificial demon that eats magic. Normally it’s used to keep dangerous prisoners under control. The only ways I ever heard of them being removed was either by a member of the Emperor’s Coven or by distracting it with some other source of magic to eat.”

“Magic like the belt?”

“No, even an artifact as powerful as the belt would be a drop in the bucket for the parasite, it would have to be a…” Luz trailed off as she looked in Eda’s direction thoughtfully.

“Oh, you nerds finally gonna talk to me instead of just about me?” Eda asked with mock indignation. To her immense satisfaction, both nerds looked away ashamedly. At least they’re working together and getting along, she thought to herself.

“Sorry-” they both said in unison before cutting themselves off and looking at each other sheepishly. After a few moments of awkward silence, Lily motioned for Luz to continue.

“Well, it’s just a theory right now but if I just cast this..." Luz cast a quick spell and her face lit up at whatever it seemed to do. “It worked! The belt was some sort of multi demon seal!” At the confused looks she got from Eda and Lilith she began to explain. “Well, sometimes when there is a really dangerous demon running loose the Beast Keeping Coven seals it inside of something until it can be properly controlled or dealt with. Sometimes that control comes in the form of creating an item that can channel the demon through a person. By itself that wouldn’t be enough for the belt to have been in the vault, but from what I can tell there isn’t, or wasn’t I guess, one demon sealed in there. There were a lot of them! When you wore the belt it tried to find the demon best suited for you, but the magic eater tried to grab everything the belt had. When it did that it ended up grabbing all the demons and kinda fusing together. At least that’s what I think happened.”

“So… what? I have a bunch of demons stuck inside me that I can turn into?” Eda asked as she poked her stomach.

“Well, you can probably only turn into the one that best fits you. And even then I don’t think you’ll be able to do a full change. Other than that, yeah! You’ve got a whole menagerie in there! And best of all, having all those demons in there to keep the magic eater busy should keep it from doing whatever it did to paralyze you all the time.”

“Huh, neat. Any ideas on how I turn back?”

“Yes, actually,” Lilith said as she stepped forward and took Luz’s place as the primary expositor. “While your changes all occurred in moments of heightened emotion they haven’t shown any signs of receding even now that you are calm. But at the same time, you haven’t shown any real desire to change back either.”

“Hey, that's…” Eda’s voice trailed off as she scowled and realized that she really hadn’t had any real desire to change back in her few times of calm. She’d wanted it to stick around long enough to try and show off to whoever had come into the shop in an attempt to stick it to Lily and after that, she’d just been going with the flow and not really thinking too much about turning back. Closing her eyes, she took a deep breath and focused on the idea of changing back. Of losing the feathers and wings. Of going back to being human again. An odd tingle passed over her entire body and she could swear she felt the feathers and wings receding into her body. When she opened her eyes again it was to the smiling faces of Luz and Lilly.

“I knew you could do it!” Luz cheered as Lilly nodded in agreement.

“Yeah, well, I am pretty awesome,” Eda agreed. “Though now that I’m human again I think Lilly has something she needs to do.”

“I- yes. Of course.” Lily sagged in defeat. “Luz. Despite all my attempts to find otherwise, I have come to the conclusion that you never brainwashed Eda. I was wrong to treat you as I did and I am…” Her teeth clenched as she forced the next word out, “sorry.” Glancing over to Eda she sighed again. “Additionally since I, in Eda’s words, screwed up big time. I owe you an apology dinner from any restaurant you want.”

“Choose a steak joint! I know a place where all the waiters wear suits and the cheapest thing on the menu is a thirty dollar appetizer!” Eda shouted.

“Oh! Uh, well Amity shared some leftovers from a Dominican place on… Essex I think, that were really good,” Luz said after a moment’s thought.

Eda’s face lit up with glee at the kid’s choice. Sure it wasn’t going to hit Lilly in the wallet all that hard but it had its own chances for fun. “Make sure to order the spiciest things you can! Lilly loves spicy food!”

Lilith stared at Eda in horror for several seconds before shouting denials about her love of spicy food and begging Luz to at least order one mild entree.

For her part, Eda just leaned back and watched the shenanigans with a smile. Things might not be patched up, but at least they were looking up.

Hunter couldn’t help but scowl as he flew over the city, looking for any sign of… anything really. From what he had been able to gather from the news, Southborough hadn’t seemed to be able to go more than a few days without at least something happening. Usually something involving the Wild Witch. Frankly, it had almost been to the point that it had looked like the town had become the setting for some sort of monster of the week show.

Yet here he was, for the third day in a row, flying around on a staff cobbled together from two artifacts and a broom handle, with nothing jumping out at him. Well, nothing of note at least. One police officer seemed to have a major hate boner for anyone flying around the city. At first confusing Hunter for the Wild Witch, then immediately labeling Hunter as a menace to society that needed to be taken down when he realized he had the wrong person.

The fact that Hunter had, upon realizing that the man calling for him to land just wanted to try and arrest him despite not having done anything wrong, used the gem on his staff to telekinetically steal the man’s badge and put it on a nearby rooftop was completely incidental.

For what had to be the hundredth time that night Hunter cast his magic detecting spell in the hopes that he could find something this time. His eyes widened in surprise as, for the first time since he’d started his hunts, he got a return ping. Banking sharply he followed the feeling of magic down towards a small clearing in the middle of a copse of trees that sat between two mansions.

As he got closer he was able to catch a sudden flare of purple light from the clearing. His eyes narrowed in determination behind his mask as he sped up, intent on catching whoever was doing this off-guard. Once close overhead he scowled as saw one of the goo monsters that had attacked the mayor rising up from a ring of purple light. He hadn’t been too sure where he was before but if these things were here he felt he could safely assume he was near Mayor Blight’s home.

Not wanting to give the monster a chance to do anything he leapt from the staff and twirled it above his head. With a mighty battle cry, he completed his spell and brought his staff, now wreathed in flames, down on the monster, splitting it in twain.

“Show yourself! I’m not going to let you try to attack the mayor… again…” his declaration trailed off as he now saw that the clearing was filled with monsters. “Oh, guess we’re gonna have to do this the hard way then.” He was about to launch forward and bring the fight to the monsters when a new voice rang out through the clearing.

“Wait! I’m not going to attack m- them!”

Hunter froze as someone, a younger girl maybe? Clad in a baggy, form concealing hoodie and sweatpants came out from behind one of the monsters. Her hood was drawn up and cinched tight over her head with what looked like a scarf warped around her lower face, leaving only a pair of eyes he could only barely make out in the dim light.

“Like I’d believe that,” Hunter scoffed. “They danced around it a lot but they never actually said they managed to catch the person that attacked the Blights with these things. But now that I’ve found you I can fix that and I can reclaim an artifact that doesn’t belong in human hands in the name of the Emperor’s Coven!”

The hooded figure yelped as Hunter used the gem at the end of his staff to lift her into the air. “Abominations! Attack!”

It was Hunter’s turn to yelp as each of the nearly dozen monsters, abominations apparently, surged towards him. Despite his best efforts, his concentration keeping the girl in the air was broken and she fell to the ground. Before he could attempt to recapture her she darted into the woods, leaving him behind to fight her summoned abominations.

 “Okay. That could have gone better,” he muttered to himself. “At least you guys should be good stress relief right?” He asked the encroaching wall of goo rhetorically as his staff lit up with flames once more. With another, slightly more frustrated, battle cry he leapt into the fray, sending goop flying everywhere.

Chapter Text

Luz was perfectly aware that for a lot of kids going to school was just something they had to do. While there were certain classes that made her sympathize with that, mostly math, her sense of wonder with actually being able to go to school was largely intact. Something that had been reinforced even more after having been forced into an unwanted vacation during her abduction by the SCI and subsequent recovery time. While hanging out with her friends outside of school had been nice, being able to see them at school had managed to finally hammer home that things were actually getting back to normal.

At least that’s what she thought before someone grabbed her shoulders from behind and dragged her down a side hallway one morning before school.

“Don’t hurt me I didn’t do it!” she yelled as she brought her hands up to cover her face.

“What are you- Oh just be quiet we need to talk!” A familiar voice hissed.

“Wait, Amity?” Luz asked as she lowered her hands to see her friend looking at her in exasperation. Her mind raced as she tried to think of a reason for Amity to ambush her like this. Wait. Getting dragged into a secluded hallway away from everyone else by the girl that had been flirting with her for weeks now and being told that they needed to talk? Luz felt her face go nuclear as her mind grabbed hold of that thread of logic and proceeded to run rampant with it.

“Yeah, I…” the tension in Amity’s bearing quickly melted away into a look of concern when she saw Luz begin to hyperventilate. “Are you okay?” She leaned in closer and pressed a hand to Luz’s forehead. “Did something happen to you? You didn’t run into-” She froze and her eyes widened as she came to a realization. Her eyes flicked downward as she realized that she was now almost pressing up against Luz. With a yelp, she scrambled backward. “Sorry! Sorry, I didn't mean to get that close! I just really needed to talk to you about something where people aren’t going to overhear us and now that I hear myself saying that again it sounds kinda sketchy but it’s for a really good reason I swear!”

“Right!” Luz squeaked in response, her blush only partially fading in the face of Amity’s own panicking.

“Right! Right. Focus!” Amity took a deep breath before looking around to check if anyone else was nearby. “I think I ran into another coven guard last night and I don’t know if he could track me here or something.”

Luz’s face switched from embarrassed flush to frightened pale in a flash. “Are you sure?”

“He flew in on a staff while I was...” Amity glanced around again. “Practicing,” she finished as she tapped her earring. “He thought I was the person that had sent the abominations to attack my mom-”

“Which you kinda were,” Luz interjected before she could help herself, earning her an embarrassed glare from Amity. Despite the seriousness of the situation it felt nice to get one over her friend for once.

“And he thought I was going to finish the job. Then he said that the artifact didn’t belong in human hands and that he would take it back in the name of the Emperor’s Coven! He was even able to use magic without an artifact like you do!”

What little good humor Luz had managed to gather vanished at that. Even if she could discount the person’s implicit claims of not being human as them being dramatic or possibly even being some other sort of creature that had made its way to the human world, she couldn’t ignore the fact that they had name-dropped the Emperor’s Coven. The only people in the human realm that should know about them would be the SCI or people they knew about. People that she really hoped the SCI would have let her know were in town and trying to gather artifacts if they had that information. The only other people that would know enough to name drop the coven would have to be from the Boiling Isles. Of course, they would also know exactly how much trouble you could get into attempting to impersonate a coven guard and would never try to do that. The only people that would really try to do that would be other wild witches. And she really hoped that any other wild witches that might have managed to make it here would be smart enough to realize that the humans wouldn’t recognize the authority of the Emperor’s Coven.

“This isn’t good,” she whispered.

“Of course it isn’t good! I didn’t stick around to see what happened but I left a dozen abominations back there to try and deal with him and none of them came back!” Amity whisper-shouted.

“Well since you ran away and left them behind, the link between you and the abominations would have gotten strained and made them much easier to destroy. Instead of pulling themselves together whenever they get hit hard, they would just collapse. Plus without you there to tell them how to fight, even subconsciously, they probably really sucked at it.”

Amity started Luz down with a deadpan glare for a few seconds before sighing. “I feel like that shouldn’t make me feel better but it does help a little. I was worried he was some sort of super guard or something.” At Luz’s questioning look she continued. “He had a lot more bling than the other one. His mask was gold, he had this big red gem on his staff, and a bunch of other little things. Only one pauldron though, which was kinda weird.”

“That is weird,” Luz agreed. “Not the pauldron thing, I bet it looked pretty cool but him wearing anything other than just the cloak and mask. The coven guards are supposed to be uniform and interchangeable. They even have all sorts of enchantments on their masks that enforce loyalty to the Emperor, make their voices sound the same, and I heard it even makes them temporarily forget their own names so that they aren’t anything but a coven guard,” Luz explained with a shudder. “The only way he would be able to get away with anything extra would be for him to be high up in the coven. Like, really high up. Right-hand man or nephew of the Speaker high up.”

“So we’re either looking at a super-skilled high ranking witch that is so good he’s allowed to act out or someone’s spoiled kid,” Amity summarized with a groan. “I think this is the first time in my life I’ve actually wanted nepotism to be the answer.”

“Me too. At least he doesn’t sound as bad as the last one,” Luz offered with a shrug. “It sounded like he thought you were going to attack... you, I guess, and didn’t want that to happen.”

“I guess so,” Amity reluctantly agreed. “But what should we-” she was cut off as Luz placed a hand over her mouth.

“Someone’s listening in,” Luz said in defense of her actions as Amity’s face reddened in what had to be anger at being cut off so rudely. Resolving to apologize to Amity properly later she glanced down the hall in time to see a flicker of movement as someone moved out of sight. Holding a finger to her lips to indicate they needed to stay quiet, Luz crept back down the hall. When she focused she could just barely make out angry whispers. Multiple people maybe? One of them was probably being berated for almost getting caught.

Careful not to make the slightest sound Luz finished making her way to the end of the hall. Steeling herself she jumped around the corner to confront whoever had been trying to listen in on them. Her elation quickly turned to confusion when she found Gus and Willow lurking around the corner. “Gus? Willow?”

“Did you say Gus and Willow?” Amity asked as she moved to catch up with Luz.

“Yeah! What are you two doing here? You could have come and joined us!” Luz said as she looked between her two oldest friends.

“I dunno, I think Amity might have had a problem with me joining,” Gus said, only to wince and glare at Willow who was only smiling innocently.

“Why not? You’re really good at figuring out the right questions to ask when it comes to magic stuff happening around here,” Luz said with a shrug.

“Wait, this was about some sort of magic thing?” Willow asked, a trace of disappointment in her voice. “What kind of magic thing would make Amity drag you down a secluded hallway so she could have you all to herself?”

Amity glanced up and down the hall for any potential eavesdroppers. “I ran into another member of the Emperor’s Coven last night. I wanted to get Luz’s perspective on it all and didn’t think it would be a good idea to talk about it in the cafeteria.” She paused and glared at Willow for a moment. “And that was all we were talking about.”

“Why didn’t you call any of us?” Gus asked. “We could have totally come over and helped kick this new guy’s butt!”

Amity looked away and mumbled something under her breath.

“What was that?” Luz asked.

Amity flushed and mumbled again, louder but no more intelligible.

“Come on, it’s okay, we’re here for you,” Willow assured her as she placed a hand on Amity’s shoulder.

“I panicked okay! I ran off when he showed up and then I lost contact with the abominations I left to fight him and the other one was able to find where Luz was staying and we probably only beat him because he didn’t expect us and I didn’t want anyone else to be in danger okay! I figured he’d lost interest or something when he didn’t follow me but didn’t want anyone else to get caught up in things if he was just watching the house waiting to ambush anyone that might show up,” Amity looked around at the others, her stress clearly catching up to her. “I wanted to talk to Luz alone because I didn’t know if he could track me or something and I didn’t want anyone to get into danger but Luz was my best bet!”

Luz winced as she realized that she’d gotten so caught up in the other details she had never answered the question that had obviously been plaguing Amity ever since she’d run from the new coven guard. “Hold on a second, let me check something.” She quickly spun up a couple spells to look for any sort of trackers that might have been placed on Amity. Her spells wouldn’t catch everything but those sorts of trackers would take a lot more time than the scant few seconds Amity said she’d been in contact with the man to cast. “It’s okay, there’s nothing keeping track of you. You’re safe. And as long as you don’t use magical communication he shouldn’t be able to intercept any texts or calls if he comes by again.”

Luz was thankful to see the tension that she had failed to notice before bleed out of Amity’s posture. “Thank god,” she muttered as she shot a thankful smile in Luz’s direction.

Luz’s heart ached at that far too grateful smile and quickly came to a decision. “Amity, do you want me to keep watch over your house again in case he comes back?”

“Again?” Amity asked. After a moment’s thought, and flailing attempts from Luz to explain she appeared to come to a realization. “So that’s how you managed to get to my house so fast when the wolf guy was attacking.”

Thankful that she no longer had to try and come up with a good way to explain why she had more or less been trying to follow Amity covertly from a distance without making it sound like she was stalking her Luz nodded. “Yeah, I was worried after you had been attacked at school and figured something would end up happening at home.”

“Wait,” Gus interjected, “how would you sneak around without anyone noticing you this time without your staff?”

Luz froze as the plans she was putting together in her head all fell apart at that simple reminder. “Oh yeah. I keep forgetting about that…” At Luz’s words, the mood of the group dropped like a rock. While most of the events surrounding her capture by the SCI had largely been dealt with, the loss of her staff had remained a touchy subject. “Well, I’m sure there’s still something I can do!”

After several moments of silence, Willow offered up a suggestion. “What about the SCI?”

The others froze at the suggestion. Gus and Amity shot worried glances that weren’t anywhere near as subtle as they likely thought they were in Luz’s direction. 

“That… does make sense,” Luz admitted. “Steve wanted me to call him if I needed anything and I’m pretty sure he would want to know that there was another coven guard running around.” She slumped and looked around at her friends. “I’m not too happy about it either but one thing you learn as a wild witch is that sometimes you have to accept help you don’t like.” She looked over at Amity with a wan smile. “And if all I have to do to make sure that you’re safe is ask the SCI for help then it’s a good trade.”

Amity stared at Luz in open-mouthed shock, a blush slowly growing to consume her face. “Th-thank you, Luz,” she just barely managed to say. “That means a lot to me.” Before she could say anything else the first warning bell rang, causing everyone to jump. 

“Shoot! We’ll have to discuss this later!” Luz said as she glanced down at the backpacks that she and Amity had yet to get to their lockers.

Despite the rocky and slightly panic-inducing start, the rest of the school day managed to pass without much trouble. Though that may have been helped along ever so slightly by the fact that the only place that they could really discuss magic safely was at lunch, and even that wasn’t exactly foolproof. Thankfully the conversations then had mostly remained on more light-hearted subjects, though Luz was almost positive that at least part of that was due to Willow poking fun at Amity for something that neither of them would explain.

In any case, the school day had come to a surprisingly swift end, leaving Luz with the undesirable task of actually following through on her declaration to Amity. 

“You don’t have to do this if you don’t want to,” Amity said. While the others, with a little prompting from Willow, had decided to head home on their own, Amity had chosen to stick around for the conversation with the SCI both for solidarity and because she was sure that it would end up involving her anyway.

“Yes I do,” Luz said as she squared her shoulders, pulled up contact info she’d been given, and hit the call button. A grimace spread across Luz’s face as the phone wasn’t picked up on the first or second rings. On the third, her nerve started to fail her and she was tempted to just hang up. It wasn’t until the fourth was halfway over that the phone was finally picked up.

“Hello, this is the southern California office for the Environmental Investigations Center, how can I help you?” a familiar voice asked.

“Lilith? I… I thought this was Steve’s number?”

“Luz? I…” A disgruntled sigh could be heard on the other end of the line. “So that’s why he suddenly had to go to the bathroom,” Lilith muttered only barely loud enough to be picked up. “No, this is the main number for our offices. If no one picks up the phone the call will get forwarded to the personal cell phone of either myself or whoever’s extension was dialed with the number. And if his behavior just now was any indication then I wouldn’t be surprised if Steve gave you a number with my extension on purpose.”

“Oh… I can wait for him to be available if you want,” Luz suggested, half hoping that Lilith would agree. While the dinner last night hadn’t gone poorly, it had been abundantly clear that whenever Eda wasn’t there to egg them on, Luz and Lilith would both default to awkwardly staring at anything except each other. While certainly better than the outright hostility that would have likely come from a meeting before Luz had a better idea of what Lilith had gone through and Lilith had managed to fully convince herself that Luz wasn’t one of the dangerous magical creatures, the awkwardness wasn’t something she was eager to relive.

After several seconds of tense silence, Lilith finally responded. “No, go ahead and debrief me on what happened.” Her voice simultaneously grew distant and louder as seemed to move the phone away from herself while shouting, likely in whatever direction Steve had gone. “I don’t think that traitor is going to be coming out of the bathroom until we have a conversation!” 

Luz couldn’t help but smile a little at Steve’s antics, even if they were causing her a bit of an inconvenience. “Okay, A-” she cut herself off as she looked over at Amity, doing her best to silently ask if she was okay with being mentioned by name. At Amity’s affirmative nod she continued, “Amity ran into another coven guard.”

There was silence for a few moments before Lilith responded. “Oh! Mayor Blight’s daughter! When and where did this happen?”

“She said it was last night outside her house. She was going for a walk when she saw him,” Luz said, using the lie they’d decided on earlier to hide Amity’s possession of the earrings from the SCI.

“And how did she know he was a coven guard?”

Luz winced at the suspicion in Lilith’s tone, unsure whether the suspicion was directed at the lie or just at Luz herself. “Amity… kinda… knows I’m a witch,” she forced out. While neither of them were fond of having to reveal that particular tidbit they were sure it would drastically increase the chances that the SCI would let Luz join in on whatever help was going to be offered if Amity was already in the know. 

“I see.” Lillith took a deep, steadying breath and let it out slowly. “I’m glad you’ve found someone to confide in other than my sister. Lord knows she can’t be trusted to help you fit in around here.”

Luz nearly dropped her phone in shock at the simple acceptance and almost praise. “Uhh, thanks.”

“Now, do you believe that this coven guard will attempt to return to Ms. Blight’s house again?”

“I think so, he was looking for something and Amity said he didn’t find it.”

“I see… Would I be correct in assuming you were already planning on standing guard over her house again?”

“I- how did you know I did it once already?”

“You managed to come to Ms. Blight’s aid before we did, even with the exceedingly obvious attack. Additionally, she was willing to come with Eda to try and rescue you from the SCI, something I doubt she would have been willing to do if the friendship was too new or shallow. So you two have been in contact for quite some time. It’s all rather simple,” she finished in a smug tone.

For her part, Luz was trying her best not to react in any obvious way at how casually Lilith had dropped the knowledge that the SCI was aware of Amity’s presence at Luz’s rescue. And if they knew about her the chances that they didn’t know about the others was slim at best. “Yeah,” Luz said slowly. “I was hoping I could maybe join up with you when you do… whatever it is you were going to do about this.”

“Normally we would just file for additional surveillance around the Blight estate just in case something else happened. Nothing too invasive, just a few magic detectors. But if you think the target will be returning to try to complete whatever it was he was trying to do we will probably be doing a stakeout,” Lilith said, a hint of annoyed resignation in her voice. “If you will be joining us I would recommend that you bring something to do while we wait.”

“I know what you need for a stakeout,” Luz replied exasperatedly. “I probably have spent weeks worth of time spent sitting outside coven buildings.”

It was only after several moments of silence that Lilith finally responded. “I suppose you would. I will see you there in an hour.”

Before Luz could respond Lilith hung up. “Well, that went well,” she muttered.

“That was things going well?” Amity asked incredulously.

Luz’s shoulders slumped as she sighed. “Yeah. It was.”

Lilith was well aware that she could have foisted the stakeout on Steve. As the senior officer, she had the ability to pull rank and force Steve to take the overtime shift. She even knew that, if she expressed enough unease about the prospect of spending hours alone with no one but Luz he would have volunteered to be the one to take the shift in a heartbeat.

But it wouldn’t have been right.

She had always prided herself on being willing to do anything she would ask her subordinates to do. In that same vein, she had long since promised herself that she would never take advantage of Steve’s pathological need to be of use to people. Exaggerating her unease at spending hours alone with Luz, which was nowhere near as bad as it once was but was still there, would have required breaking that personal vow. So here she was, sitting in a car outside of Blight Manor, with a witch that looked like she might be even more anxious than Lilith herself felt.

The initial setup had, of course, been somewhat non-standard. The subjects of her surveillance only rarely actually knew what they were being protected against after all. Initially, Mayor Blight had been rather chilly in being told that the SCI would be watching over her house for some time due to an anonymous tip that there might be a magical entity lurking around. It wasn’t until Luz appeared in her guise of the Wild Witch, who she later had found out had to be driven by Eda since she still hadn’t replaced her staff, that the Mayor had actually started being… not quite friendly, but agreeable. The woman certainly had the appearance of friendliness but it had that practiced air that so many politicians had when putting on a mask for the public.

The addition of Luz had also altered the setup ever so slightly. Even without easy flight, Luz was able to place items in places that would have usually required ladders or larger expenditures of effort. She had also been able to place many of her own spells and detection wards that covered some areas Lilith’s own devices didn’t. She’d also been a major help in tailoring the situation to the enemy they were facing. While the playbook for dealing with a Boiling Isles Witch was thorough it was also full of things that were very specific to particular types of witches. The coven they were part of, the type of witch they were, and their standing in the coven could lead to drastically different tactics that could all be seen as potentially viable in a normal situation. With Luz’s aid, they were able to prune things down to what could be specifically be expected from a skilled member of the Emperor’s Coven.

For some rare, brief, moments it had even been almost enjoyable to work alongside the experienced young witch. However, those moments were rare and often interrupted by one of the two remembering that they were actually managing to not be awkward with the person they had a very complicated past with.

Of course, even the most awkward moments of setup had nothing on the awkward silence that came from actually being on the stakeout.

It wasn’t as bad as it could have been. Luz had opted to take up a vigil on the roof of the manor. It afforded her a good vantage point and was one of the more likely points of ingress and she could easily cast a spell to slow her fall enough that jumping from the roof would prove harmless if the target tried crossing the lawn on foot. Most importantly it had meant that Luz didn’t have to sit in Lilith’s car for the entire stakeout and they only had to talk to each other during the quarter-hour check-ins.

Of course the downside to this was that the only company Lilithhad outside of those check-ins was her own thoughts.

She wasn’t so self-absorbed to not be able to recognize her own shortcomings. She knew that she had… issues dealing with magic. She was reluctant to call it racism, mainly because she didn’t like having that term applied to herself. But she was well aware of her own predilection to choose a normal human partner for any fieldwork over a magical one. Even in situations where the magical one was the objectively better choice. She was also aware that those feelings were greatly amplified whenever her sister was involved. Such situations were rare but not unheard of. Eda had a penchant for ‘finding’ all sorts of unusual items after all. It was always just a matter of time until she managed to pick up some magical item from an estate sale or a garbage dump again. Such things had a tendency to ‘accidentally’ end up getting broken and thrown out.

By every rational metric, Lilith was aware that Luz was good for Eda. The child had given Eda something to focus on other than herself and had even managed to push her to improve her own living standards. Her living areas were cleaner and Lilith had even seen actual food in the refrigerator and pantry last time she’d visited. If Luz had been a normal child, Lilith would have been celebrating the fact that Eda had managed to find a reason to act like the adult she pretended to be. She had helped keep Eda safe when the parasite had paralyzed her and done everything she could to try and find a way to fix things. When Eda had somehow managed to merge the damn thing with a menagerie of demon souls and turn into some sort of harpy, Luz had been there as well to try and figure out what happened and aid Lilith in lambasting Eda for her foolishness.

Lilith heaved a sigh and dropped her forehead against the steering wheel. There was a part of her, small but growing each time she interacted with the child, that wanted to accept Luz. A part of her that realized that the child had a good heart and was different from all those monsters that tried to prey on unsuspecting humans. Yet at the same time, she couldn’t help but recoil every so often when she dealt with the young witch. Her presence brought up so many things that Lilith tried to keep repressed. Tried to keep sequestered to her work life. Things that she would spend time with her sister in order to forget. She was aware that resenting Luz for inadvertently taking away that one safe haven she had was in poor taste, but it didn’t stop her from feeling that deep in her heart.

Taking a deep breath she lifted her head from the steering wheel and cursed her momentary lapse in concentration. She was a seasoned agent with over a decade of experience doing things like this! She had no excuse for letting herself get so caught up in her own thoughts that she was neglecting the mission. Steeling herself she turned her attention to the readouts of the myriad of instruments that had been planted throughout the Blight estate grounds. Just like before there were only two sources of magic in the area. The first, more obvious, one being Luz atop the roof. The second one had been a mystery the first time she’d seen it but a quick visual scan of the area the source had been found in had revealed the youngest Blight sitting at a window, staring up at Luz. Lilith had cursed at that. She’d had twenty dollars on the Wild Witch not having shared any of the artifacts she’d collected but it was looking like she’d let at least one of her friends keep one. Notes were made as to who had the artifact as well as who had won the pool but nothing else was done. If the child ever stepped out of line with her new toy the SCI would be there to swoop in and contain her. Otherwise, they were willing to leave her be. Doubly so now that this city was in need of people capable of dealing with the unexpected whenever the SCI had their attention focused elsewhere. She was just about to return her attention to visual scans of the property when one of the instruments detected a flare of magic coming in from the northwest.

“Luz, magical signature incoming at 335!” she said into her walkie-talkie. 

“At what?” came Luz’s confused reply.

Lilith huffed as she was reminded that for all Luz’s experience in situations like this she didn’t have the same training and callouts. “Towards the road!”

“Got it!” There was a moment of silence as Lilith watched the icon moving towards the house. “I see him! He’s flying in on a staff towards the trees at the edge of the property! I’m going to go stop him!”

“Stay where you are! Do not engage until I can provide backup! Luz!” Lilith shouted into the walkie-talkie. When there was no response Lilith scowled and gathered up what little of her kit she hadn’t been wearing and jumped out of her car. With her gun drawn, she ran as fast as she could towards the last place the magical signature had been detected.

Even before she reached it she knew what she was going to find. The multicolored flashes of light that could be seen between the trees were a dead giveaway as to what was going on. It was only through finely honed combat instincts that she managed to, just barely, dodge a bolt of energy as it, along with several others, lanced out of the trees. 

Now that she was closer and some of the intervening greenery had been pruned away, she had a good view of the battle itself and she didn’t like what she was seeing. Luz was certainly doing her best to try and control the fight against the golden masked guard but each attempt at a more subtle working was very quickly overwhelmed by her opponent’s superior firepower. Illusions were quickly scythed down by wide-ranging blasts of energy, and Luz’s attempts to gain distance were quickly invalidated by short-range teleportation. The guard seemed determined to keep this fight in a close-quarters melee.

“Not so tough when you have to fight someone head-on are you?!” the guard mocked as he sent another scattershot of energy at Luz. “I’m going to beat you, then I’m going to stop that terrorist and take their artifact so they won’t be able to torment these people ever again!”

Luz faltered at his words and that momentary pause almost cost her the fight when the guard teleported behind her and slammed his staff into her side, sending her sprawling to the ground.

“Stop right there!” Lilith shouted as she strode into the clearing, one hand holding her gun at the ready and trained on the guard. “Unidentified witch, put down the staff and keep your hands where I can see them.”

Unsurprisingly the guard didn’t immediately respond, somehow managing to appear incredulous at her words. “You’re one of them aren’t you? You’re one of the ones that try to capture witches.” His hands visibly tightened on his staff and it began to tremble in his grip. “Are you defending her? Are you siding with a wild witch?”

“The only side we’re on is ours. This area is currently under our protection and no one will be allowed to act with impunity here. Now step away from the girl, put down the staff, and keep your hands where I can see them.”

The trembling of the staff increased as the guard’s grip on his staff tightened further. “Of course. He was so clear about this. She got to you.” He leveled the staff towards Lilith. “She gave him to you and now you’re after me!” 

His entire body lit up in the glow that heralded one of his teleportations and he burst into light. Even before Luz shouted a warning Lilith was already in motion, her free hand drawing a knife from her belt as she spun around. She was already bringing the knife up in a slash when a burst of light appeared in the space that had mere moments before been right behind her and the guard reappeared, swinging his staff at her head. Surprise was apparent in his bearing as he tried to shift his attempted strike into a block as Lilith’s knife swept in towards him. An attempt that was a moment too slow as the knife managed to slice through his shirt and likely draw blood before Lilith had to fall back in order to dodge the flailing staff.

Once more the guard burst into light and vanished. Not expecting him to fall for the same trick twice Lilith spun around and sprinted towards Luz. Rule one of facing a teleporter was to never do so alone and while Lilith would have certainly preferred someone else to watch her back, she could accept Luz perform that role acceptably.

As she approached she heard the sound of the guard’s teleportation behind her and saw Luz’s eyes narrowing. Taking a chance she dove forward and to the side, the air above her head rustling as she felt something pass through where her head had been. At the same time, she could make out a flash of light as Luz sent a fireball in her direction. Her dive turned into a role that brought her to a crouch at Luz’s side as she heard a yelp come from the guard. 

“Did you get him?” she asked Luz, not turning around and keeping her focus on the young witch’s blind spot.

“Singed his cloak. He teleported before anything could catch fire,” Luz responded.

The sounds of teleportation echoed around the small clearing as the guard tried to find somewhere to attack from. But each time he appeared he was immediately met with a spell or the slash of a knife.

“Can you do anything to stop him?” Lilith asked as she saw the guard appear for a split second off to the side, too far for her to strike with her knife and not sitting still long enough for her to line up a shot.

“Putting something together now,” Luz replied. “Really wish I had my staff but I’m making do.”

The next time the guard vanished Luz slammed her windmilling arms into the ground and pillars of earth shot out in a circle around them. Just in time for the guard to reappear right in front of one of the many expanding pillars. He wheezed out a curse as he was sent flying backward, skipping against the ground before coming to stop at the base of a tree. Before Lillith or Luz could follow up he pulled his staff close and shot into the air, just barely managing to stay on with the arm he had hooked around it.

For a moment Lilith was tempted to try and take a shot but then he started using his teleportation again to stagger his retreat and she knew any shots she would attempt would almost certainly miss. Heaving a sigh she reholstered her weapons and turned to Luz. Her mouth worked silently for a few moments before she managed to speak. “Thank you. For watching my back in this fight.”

Luz nodded slowly. “Same.”

Lilith returned the nod and looked around the area. “We’re going to need to keep surveillance up here for the next few days.” She turned to look at Luz. “We will be able to bring in some tools that should help negate some of the guard’s advantages but we will be willing to accept your assistance with the stakeouts.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Luz replied after a moment. “Will it be you on all these or..?”

“That depends on whether or not Steve managed to come up with more reasons to try and force us to spend time together. He seems rather focused on getting us to reconcile.”

Luz stared at her for several moments, numerous emotions flickering across her face until she settled for an exasperated chuckle. “So this is what that feels like.” At Lilith’s inquisitive look she explained. “I used to spend a lot of time trying to get Amity and Willow to be friends again when I first started going to school. Steve’s trying to do the same thing with us!” she finished as she doubled over in laughter.

Lilith stared at the girl in shock for a few moments before joining in with quiet chuckles of her own. It wouldn’t be until she returned home that night that she realized it had been the first time she’d laughed with Luz since that very first Fu Friday.

The moment Hunter got back to his hideout he collapsed into the pile of cloaks and let out a pained groan. The limited healing magic he knew had been enough to reduce his fractures, cuts, and sprains to what amounted to a full body bruise. Sure, he could try his hand at using some of the healing artifacts but the only one that had acceptable side effects required a degree of skill he wasn’t sure he possessed.

Shoving down thoughts of attempting to use an artifact anyway he instead turned his focus to the Wild Witch and her ally. As much as he wanted to hope otherwise he knew that she, and by extension her organization, had sided with the Wild Witch. The worst part of it all was that he couldn’t bring himself to blame them with the limited information they probably had. They had been presented with a charismatic manipulator who was good at hiding what she was and an openly bigoted hothead. Add in that he had orchestrated an attack to draw her out, an attack that had no casualties aside from the witch, he’d checked, and there was plenty for the Wild Witch to work with to get them to distrust the guard. It would be up to him to reverse that mindset, revealing the Wild Witch as what she was while getting them to understand that the guard, while not a good guy, wasn’t the bad guy of this story.

The fact that the man remained his best shot at getting to the Boiling Isles with enough goodwill to actually get the answers his family had been hunting for generations was just a nice bonus. Sure, he was tempted to try and see if the Wild Witch could get him those answers too but even if only half the things in the guard’s journal were true about her and her terrorist organization he doubted they had access to the sort of knowledge he was looking for.

He sighed and rolled over as he acknowledged that convincing the men in black that the guard was the one they should be helping was going to be easier said than done. Doubly so now that he’d ended up fighting against them as well, likely causing them to see him in the same light as the guard. Any future conflicts with the Wild Witch would have to be without them present until he could get the proof he needed to turn them to his own side. Or, a traitorous part of his mind said, he discovered that the evidence he’d thought were answers about his family’s past were nothing but lies again. In any case, he was going to need to avoid the Blight’s place for now. Loathe as he was to just leave them to the mercies of whoever was creating those goo monsters he just had to hope that the SCI would be able to handle things.

Another ragged sigh turned into a wince as he hauled himself up off the pile of cloaks and moved over to the map on the wall. Gone were the strings pointing to the Owl House. Instead, there was now a chaotic mosaic of strings based on what he could parse from the Coven Guard’s notebook detailing his attempts to find artifacts. While the man had managed to find a good number of them there were still many that had remained unrecovered. He was still only halfway through the book but maybe he could get a head start on these now instead of later. His encounter with the Wild Witch had shown that, while he was able to stand up to her, he probably wasn’t going to win a straight fight too easily any time soon. Especially if she adapted to what she’d seen him use so far. Any one of these artifacts could turn out to be the one that would give him that little extra edge that would win the fight. “Let’s see here, healing magic on the south side of town, some sort of generalist ice magic on the west, lots of illusion magic near the high school…” Hunter muttered as he traced his hand along the list of still unrecovered artifacts.  “Choices, choices.”

Chapter Text

For all that Gus had been sure that the appearance of the new coven guard would be the start of a crazy new chapter in their lives that would see them going on all sorts of adventures to keep the human world safe from the dystopian witch police, things had turned out to be surprisingly quiet. The day after Luz had come back from standing guard of Amity had led to him asking all sorts of questions but the only thing that had really come from it was him and Willow getting a new way to tease Amity by calling Luz Princess Amity’s personal knight in shining armor. The fact that Luz apparently didn’t have a relevant cultural background to understand what they were going for and agreed wholeheartedly to the description was an unexpected, and much beloved, plus.

Unfortunately, or fortunately, depending on how you looked at it, the new coven guard hadn’t shown back up since that first night. As glad as Gus was that Luz didn’t have to end up in a fight for her life again he couldn’t help but feel worried about what the new guard was doing. There was so much about the new guard that didn’t make any sense. Why hadn’t he shown up until after the first one had been beaten? Had they just gotten lucky that they’d managed to run into him before he followed in the previous guard’s footsteps and attacked Luz directly? Was he as concerned about humans as he appeared to be? Gus shook his head to break himself out of another spiral of questions and turned his attention to his latest obsession.

Training with his artifact.

Luz had been adamant that she would do everything in her power to keep her friends from having to fight. She seemed to take everything that the guards did personally. Like the entire situation was her fault and her problem to fix. Which, Gus had to admit, could be seen as true when viewed from a certain angle. Luz was the reason that the coven guards were here after all, even if she hadn’t actually done any of that on purpose. That didn’t make any of the things that they did her fault or her responsibility though. That was something that Amity and Willow both agreed with him on. They had all been equally adamant that they would all need to figure out how best to use their artifacts the next time they ran into a situation like Amity’s with the new guard. Her encounter had also taught them all that using their artifacts near places that were known to have involved magic also wasn’t the best idea since the new guard seemed to be checking in on areas that had been involved in previous incidents.

It was a good thing that Gus had long since managed to find the perfect place to practice with his own artifact that he had managed to keep hidden. An old factory that had been abandoned sometime during the great depression and never really picked up since. He’d stumbled on it years ago in hopes of finding some ghosts or something but all he’d really found was a security guard that didn’t even come close to working hard enough to justify whatever he was paid to keep people from squatting in the building. He hadn’t had much use for his find after he’d realized there weren’t any ghosts hiding in there but once he’d found his artifact it had been the perfect place to test it out. Now that he needed to start pushing the limits of what he could do he had once again found a use for the old building.

“Come on, come on, come on,” he muttered as he focused as hard as he could on the orb in his hand, willing it to make the image in his head a reality. After a few moments, a giant dragon burst into being. A wide grin split his face as the beast moved in time with his thoughts, snaking its sinuous neck over towards him and growling. Even knowing that the creature was not just fully under his control but also an illusion that couldn’t do anything to actually hurt him he still felt a chill run down his spine.

“Cool,” he whispered as he reached up to run his fingers along the illusion, with a bit of extra focus he moved that little bit closer and pushed his hand through the illusion. His grin grew larger as the illusion continued to stare down at him, unbroken despite having come in contact with him. “I did it!” he shouted, throwing his hands up into the air and just barely remembering not to let go of the orb. The toss wouldn’t break it, something he was ashamed to admit he knew from experience, but he didn’t want to have to spend time trying to get it out from under a machine when it inevitably rolled under one of them. Again.

He was about to dismiss the dragon and try making something new, something more complex than the dragon to try his hand at getting the details down better when the sound of hands clapping echoed throughout the warehouse. His joyous smile became strained as he quickly cast an illusion of a mask over his face. While he didn’t know how long he’d had an audience he didn’t want to give them any more chances to memorize his face. Mask in place, he slowly turned to the source of the clapping. He felt like someone had dumped a bucket of ice water down his back as he saw a white-cloaked man wearing a golden mask sitting on a support beam in the ceiling, clapping slowly and sarcastically.

“Good job,” the coven guard said. “I’m sure you’ll be a real hit at school with your new trick there.” He stood up and pointed his staff in Gus’s direction. “At least you would be if you were going to leave this building with that.”

Gus didn’t wait for the guard to cast whatever spell he was preparing. Choosing instead of dive behind one of the large weaving machines. His quick thinking was rewarded when a chunk of rubble right behind where he had been standing glowed red and lifted into the air, shooting towards the guard.

“Well, you’re certainly better than the last person I grabbed an artifact from,” the guard said as the rock halted in mid-air before dropping to the ground. “Not that the bar is too high though. There really isn’t much you can do to stop someone with healing magic after all.”

Gus peaked out from behind the machine just in time to see the guard begin to glow. His eyes widened and his mind began to race as he realized that must be the sign that the guard was about to teleport that Luz had told him about. Thinking fast he cast an illusion of himself sitting two feet to the right of where he sat as well as one of a pile of debris where he was sitting.

In almost the same instant Gus cast the illusion there was a flash of light and the guard was standing right in front of him. “Now hand over the orb and no one gets hurt kid,” the guard drawled as he shoved his staff towards the illusory Gus. When the illusion didn’t respond beyond shaking its head the guard’s staff began to glow red once again, this time the entire machine behind the illusion was engulfed by the red glow and began to edge forward, moving almost an inch before the guard canceled his spell. “Of course,” he muttered. “The illusionist is hiding behind an illusion.” His gaze shifted towards the illusion of the pile of rubble. “Now where could you possibly be?” he asked as he moved to stand in front of where Gus was hiding. “Boop,” he said as he poked the illusion with his staff.

Just as the guard’s staff came into contact with the illusion Gus dismissed it and closed his eyes and turned away from the guard. Focusing as hard as he could he created an illusion of the brightest light he could. Even behind his closed eyes and with his gaze averted he could still see the light. The guard, though, got a front-row seat to the entire show.

“Gah! You bastard!” he shrieked as he recoiled from Gus, one hand desperately trying to get under the mask so he could rub at his eyes. “When I get my hands on you you’re going to wish you were never born!”

Not wanting to stick around to see just how the guard would follow through on his threats Gus sprinted away. As much as he wanted to run straight for the exit of the building he knew there was no way he would make it there before the guard recovered, let alone got far enough away from the building for the guard to give up the chase. Instead, he pushed his still growing skills with illusions to their limits and called up a dozen copies of himself shrouding his real body in an invisibility spell. There was a burst of light above him as the guard teleported into the rafters and he sent his clones scattering in every direction as he ran towards the factory offices.

“Congratulations kid, you have officially topped the list of most annoying people to deal with. And that includes that wild witch running around town!” he shouted as he waved his staff at the floor of the building. Bursts of lightning shot from his staff and lanced downwards towards the clones, dissipating all but a couple of them. With a second wave of his staff those clones too were speared by blasts of lightning and vanished. “Alrighty then! If that’s how you want to play then let’s play!” For the first time since he’d shown up the guard drew a spell circle in the air. As soon as the spell was cast his gaze snapped to where Gus was hiding under his invisibility spell. “Got you!”

Gus was just barely able to dodge the blast of lightning the guard sent in his direction by diving behind another massive piece of machinery. “Of course, he can sense the illusions!” he muttered to himself as his mind raced to try and find a way out. Thankfully the guard seemed to be willing to give him some breathing space by not teleporting over immediately. It looked like the one flashbang to the face was enough to keep him from just popping up without proper precautions. “Come on, think! He can sense where the spells I cast are so invisibility isn’t going to work.” Gus’s eyes widened and he started to grin. “So what if I don’t try to not be noticed?” Gathering his thoughts he focused not on quality or realisticness of his illusions but simple numbers. Hundreds of simple circles erupted out from where he was standing, creating a stunning multicolored smokescreen that would have probably been fascinating to look at in a more peaceful setting.

His grin grew sharper as he heard a distant curse and thud as his avalanche of illusions reached wherever the guard was. With a thought, he dispelled the illusions between him and the offices and began to run as fast as he could without making too much noise. With another thought he sent the illusions spreading out towards every exit he knew of in the place, but left his path to the offices unchanged. His ploy was met with success as he heard barrage after barrage of energy bombarding almost every section of the room except the area he was heading.

As he ducked into the offices he quickly spied an old, worn down desk that he slipped under. With that momentary reprieve, he pulled out his phone and fired off a quick text to the group chat, urging his friends to try and get help. He wasn’t sure if they would call the cops, the SCI, or even just come themselves but he really wasn’t too picky. For a moment he switched over to the dial pad and contemplated trying to call the police himself. While it would ensure that someone was on their way it would also require making a level of noise he wasn’t too keen on making. Unfortunately, the choice was taken out of his hands when someone responded to his message in the group chat and his phone played the usual notification sound. Gus cursed and quickly muted his phone but the damage was done.

A resounding bang echoed around the room as the guard blew what was left of the door off its hinges, sending the ancient hunk of wood clattering into the desk. “Knock knock kid!”

Praying that the guard hadn’t had enough time to learn the layout of the room he’d just burst into, Gus summoned another series of simple illusions, solid black squares that ran floor to ceiling on every wall of the room. Instantly the room was plunged into absolute darkness as the illusory walls did the one thing they could do to the real world and messed with light. When Gus had tried the idea out early on in his testing on the hunch that the illusions were basically changing what light was being received by a person’s eyes he’d been pleasantly surprised to see that illusions could cast shadows and tint light when thin enough. Something that the guard was apparently surprised to learn.

“Oh come on! They’re illusions, how are they even doing this?!” he shouted as he began to draw a circle in the air.

Not wanting to wait and see what kind of spell was being cast, Gus crawled over to where he knew the wall had partially collapsed, slipping through into the next room, throwing up an illusion of what he hoped was a passable imitation of the other room’s wallpaper over the hole he’d crawled through. Not wanting to risk losing the lead he had on the guard, however minor it might be, he glanced around the room to determine his path forward before throwing up a similar set of illusions to plunge the room into darkness. Immediately he made his way to the door and poked his head out of the illusion covering the door and was pleased to see that the guard hadn’t moved back into the main room of the factory. Steeling himself he closed his eyes and focused on the orb in his hand, trying to draw out as much power as he could as he prepared what he hoped would be his final stalling tactic. This time when the simple black rectangles burst into existence it wasn’t just along the walls. Dozens of them ran in every direction, crisscrossing and intersecting to create a madhouse of illusions that wouldn’t let light through and, even if some of them were destroyed, wouldn’t reveal the entire floor. One hand outstretched he slowly walked forward into the room, fumbling for the nearest bit of machinery. After a half dozen steps he found something. His questing hand blondly groped the machine as he hoped he found the one he was looking for.  A tense smile split his face as he found the large gap between the machine’s bottom and the floor of the factory. Slipping underneath it he curled up around the orb and began casting more and more illusory black rectangles in the main room as he prayed for help to arrive and shivering slightly against the cold floor.

Hunter hadn't known about the different schools of magic that witches used until he had found the Coven Guard’s book detailing the artifacts he had narrowed down the positions of. Even now he was pretty sure that there were more out there that either didn’t have artifacts associated with them or just hadn’t been noted down in the book. At the time his mind had raced with the possibilities of each school. The zookeeping and veterinary possibilities of beast keeping magic, the good that could be done with healing, and even the cool tricks that could be pulled off with illusions. That said he had also spent a good deal of time trying to figure out how to deal with each of those schools of magic if he ever had to fight someone that used them. He wasn’t foolish enough to think that someone using illusions would be an easy fight but he’d certainly thought it wouldn’t be that hard.

Turns out Past Hunter was a moron who had no idea what kind of chaos a good illusionist could cause.

It had been bad enough when the kid had managed to recreate a flashbang with illusions. Something that Hunter had needed several seconds to recover from. Then the kid had shown just how little Hunter knew about illusions by managing to block out all the light in a room with them. Even the fastest light spell he could cast didn’t manage to reveal the presence of his target. Even after he scoured every inch of the room he found nothing. Out of frustration, he fired a barrage of lightning bolts back towards the door he had come through just so he wouldn’t have to deal with those illusions anymore. The illusions in front of him destroyed, he jumped back onto his staff and shot into the main room, only to discover that he had entered hell.

It was clear that the feat in the previous room had been replicated here. However Hunter quickly learned that he had, once again, underestimated what could be done with illusions when his arm, and his light spell, passed through another one of those damn illusions. Thoroughly done with dealing with illusions he reached into the winglike artifact he had affixed to the end of his staff and shot a dozen bolts of magical lightning arcing throughout the warehouse. His mood, already at a low point after dealing with so many illusions and having wasted most of the lightning artifacts energy for the day on finding out how wrong he was in his guesses, plummeted to an all-time low as he saw that even after the bolts shattered what had to be over a dozen illusions he hadn’t even made a dent in the dizzying hellscape of darkness that had been cast over the factory. A hellscape that grew before his very eyes as he saw a machine disappear behind a newly erected black wall.

Biting down the urge to scream at the madness that he had invited on himself he quickly scanned the room, trying to catch a glimpse of a wall before it was inevitably swallowed up by another illusion. A task that he failed at. “Okay, I have…” He closed his eyes and focused on the lightning artifact. “Two more barrages left. If I can’t get out of here with those…” he trailed off as he did his best to shut down that train of thought. None of the other artifacts he had could fire projectiles, and the few that could possibly be useful all required either line of sight or were just plain dangerous to use without it. He shuddered as he remembered the one time he tried using the teleportation artifact to go through a solid object. He wasn’t sure how long he’d been knocked out but it had been at least a good fifteen minutes.

After a few seconds of consideration, he decided his best bet was to just turn around and try to get back to the office he had just left. Unfortunately, the fact that he’d been flying both up and away from the door made backtracking rather difficult. The fact that he’d flown around a bit before realizing the depths of the hell he’d been consigned to moved that task from difficult to near impossible. Taking a deep breath he turned in the direction he was most hopeful about containing a way out and sent a wide-ranging barrage of lightning bolts out in front of him. 

His eyes darted back and forth as he tried to catch any glimpse of a door, a window, even a wall would be enough for him to start on a way out. His heart leapt as he saw a patch of wall just off to his left. Quickly reorienting his staff so that he could find his way to the wall even if another wall was thrown up in front of himself he began slowly drifting forward with one hand cautiously outstretched. He didn’t want to end up finding a wall by smashing his staff against it after all.

His paranoia was well justified as he had only made it halfway there when another series of walls were thrown up and he was once more left in complete darkness. With his view of the wall obscured, his paranoia once again shot sky high and his speed dropped down to a bare crawl.  After what felt like forever his fingers brushed against the harsh surface of the wall. His breath caught in his throat as he began to slowly lower himself to the ground, his feet twitching in anticipation. 

He almost jumped out of his skin as one questing foot caught on something. For a moment he thought he’d reached the ground but he quickly realized that only one of his feet was touching something. Shifting his foot around he realized he had managed to find a machine or piece of furniture. Glaring down at the black wall he shifted to the right until his foot was no longer able to touch whatever was past that particular illusion. Once more he continued downwards until both his feet found something solid to land on. Still not trusting that he had actually found the ground he slowly got off his staff and used it to feel around the area. When he failed to find any sudden dips he turned away from whatever elevated surface had originally tricked him into thinking he’d managed to find the ground and walked forward. Before every step he took he tested the area ahead of himself with his staff. It was slow going but it kept him assured of his safety as he made his way across the wall of the factory.

It took all his willpower to not whoop for joy when his hand finally found a doorframe. With trembling legs, he took slow steps into the opening and slumped against the wall when he felt the gentle touch of daylight on his face. A delirious chuckle escaped him as he staggered through the room he found himself in and expended his last lightning barrage at the window, reducing it to shimmering shards of glass. In one swift motion, he leapt out of the building and onto his staff, intent on returning to his hideout to recuperate. He wasn’t going to let this encounter stop him from eventually claiming the orb but now at least he knew that task wasn’t anywhere near as easy as he was hoping for. As he flew off, he distantly noted that someone was running towards the factory, part of him wanted to warn them of what they would be running into if they entered the building but he simply could muster up the energy to care. There was a somewhat lumpy bed of cloaks calling his name for both sleeping and screaming into purposes and it would not be denied.

Luz almost tripped over her own feet when she saw the blasts of lightning shoot out of the window of the building that Gus had said he was in. Her entire body tensed up as she saw the new guard fly up into the sky and off into the distance without even sparing her more than a passing glance. As he flew off, Luz offered up a grudging mental thanks to Eda for convincing her not to run off in full Wild Witch regalia. Even now part of her wanted to summon her cloak and cowl and staff and confront the guard. Make him pay for whatever it was he had done to Gus. But the larger, and more rational, part of her mind reminded her that Gus was, hopefully, still in the building and could still be in need of help.

Her worries about finding Gus hurt, or worse, stalled the moment she opened the door to the factory and was greeted with a solid black wall. Reaching out a tentative hand she poked at the wall and her eyes widened as her hand passed through it without resistance. “An illusion?” she muttered under her breath as she slowly moved through it. She’d thrown illusions of her own in front of cliffs before in order to trick pursuers before after all. Hesitance turned to confusion as she was greeted with complete darkness.

“How did he…” she trailed off as an idea occurred to her. Stepping backward she retreated back to the light of the evening sun. “Of course! Illusions can cast shadows so he just threw up illusions over all the entrances to the room so he couldn’t be found!” Nodding to herself she punched the illusion in front of her, hitting it with just enough force that instead of letting her through it was destabilized. However, instead of being able to see a now illuminated room she only saw a few feet of floor before another black wall cut off the rest of the room, with another one running at an angle to her right and passing just over her head. “Oh, plan B then,” she muttered as the true extent of Gus’s defenses dawned on her.

“Gus! It’s me, Luz! It’s safe to drop the illusions now!” she shouted as she stepped into the room. When there was no response her slowly growing hopes began to plummet once more. Her mind raced as she tried to think of a way to find her, likely severely injured, friend. In a flash of inspiration, she pulled out her phone and called Gus, her ears straining for the sound of his phone ringing. When she didn’t hear anything she glanced back at the open door and moved just out of sight of anyone that might be looking in and began to cast a spell. Eavesdropping spells were always a mixed bag since all they really did was make your ears really sensitive. All it took was one loud noise and you could easily blow your cover and catch the attention of whoever you were trying to listen in on when you freaked out because someone burped or something. Luz winced as the spell was completed and the previously faint rumbling of cars going driving by became a dull roar and the faint birdsong became insistent screeching.

Closing her eyes in an attempt to narrow her focus she texted Gus on the group chat, not trusting her now overly sensitive ears to not be overloaded by her own phone if she tried calling him. There, just barely there even with her increased hearing was the buzz of a phone. Mentally marking her direction she released the eavesdropping spell and began the laborious process of making her way through the building. Each time she reached an illusory wall she had to carefully poke her hand through far enough that she could be sure she wouldn’t just end up punching an actual wall or something just behind the illusion. Once sure that attempting percussive dispelling wouldn’t result in a broken hand she would punch the illusion and continue her journey onward.

Five walls in her heart leapt into her throat as the entire room was engulfed in darkness. When she realized it was due to another illusion popping up she was torn between relief and fear. Gus was obviously still alive and well enough to still be throwing up illusions, but he still hadn’t responded to her. It would be one thing for him to not have heard her shout, but he had to have been keeping an eye on his phone in hopes of seeing a response to his call for help, right?

Shaking her head to dislodge those dark thoughts, Luz redoubled her pace through the factory. A loose piece of pipe proved invaluable in speeding up the process of dispelling illusions, allowing her to recklessly smash through them with only having to worry about jolting her arm when she connected with something solid behind them. After what felt like an eternity, Luz dispelled an illusion revealing a machine set high off the ground, with the barest hint of a shoe poking out from underneath. Dropping to her hands and knees she crawled under the machine to find Gus, pale, shivering, and clutching at his artifact.

Careful not to jostle him, Luz slowly rolled him over and began to work at removing the artifact from his grasp. “It’s okay, Gus. I’m here, I’ve got you,” she whispered soothingly as she pried his freezing fingers from the orb. To her dismay, the only response she got from him was a tired groan as he feebly tried to keep her from taking away the artifact. Eventually, she managed to remove the orb from his grasp and use it to dispel all the illusions Gus had used it to make before stowing it away in Gus’s backpack. She couldn’t help but smile a little as she felt the sunshine on her face once more. What little joy the sunlight brought her vanished as she pressed a hand against Gus’s forehead and found it to be icy cold.  Unsure what she should do she cast a simple warming spell to help deal with the cold and hauled him up onto her back. Thankfully he seemed aware enough to wrap his arms around her shoulders in a weak grip that would help a little with keeping him from sliding off her back. Precious cargo secured she made her way out of the factory. Eda’s place wasn’t too far from here and she fired she could make it there without too much effort.

Once she’d realized the truth about Luz, Willow had known that there would be times when dangerous things would happen. That first day with her alone had been proof enough that the safe normal life she’d been living had been upended regardless of Luz’s direct involvement. When they had encountered the first coven guard and she had taken up the plant glove she’d also known that she and the others were accepting a place in the thick of the adventures. Adventures that would include dangers and chances to be hurt.

But it wasn’t until she was kneeling next to Eda’s couch, helping Gus eat some chicken noodle soup that those dangers truly sunk in.

“It looks like he just overused his artifact,” Luz explained as she hauled another down comforter from some random corner of Eda’s living quarters and plopped it on top of Gus. “Since you guys don’t have bile sacks I figured the artifacts would just pull all their energy from their own stores, but it looks like they pull a little of your energy away when you use them. Normally you wouldn’t run into many problems between feeling a little tired and hungry if you used it a lot. If you used it to try and constantly cover a massive room in gigantic illusions it can really drain you. Eventually even taking some of the energy your body usually uses to stay warm and conscious. If you can keep yourself warm and get something to eat you should be just fine.”

“So don’t overuse the artifacts,” Gus said with a weak chuckle.

“Right,” Willow agreed as she bopped him softly on the head. “Don’t overuse the artifacts.”  Getting another spoonful of soup she held it up for Gus to sip at.

“At least I managed to drive off the new guard though,” Gus said with a smile.

Willow nodded with a small, encouraging smile as she continued to help him eat. Internally though she was seething with rage. This new coven guard had better hope that he wasn’t going to run into her any time soon because she wanted to have words with him. Painful, painful, words.

“Are you alright?” Gus asked.

“I’m just worried about you,” she deflected, pushing her anger down deeper. It wouldn’t do to make Gus while he was still recovering. She could deal with a little anger. She always did after all.

Chapter Text

It took all Luz had to not smile as she walked into school the day after Gus had been attacked to see Amity fussing over him almost as much as Willow had the day before. “Glad you’re feeling better,” she said as she slid into an open seat across from Gus.

“Yes! I am fine! See Amity? Luz knows I’m perfectly fine!” He said as he waved off a rather put out looking Amity. 

“Are you sure? I just-”

“I’m sure!” Gus interrupted her. “You don’t need to make up for not being able to help yesterday!”

Luz looked over at Amity, just now realizing that they hadn’t really heard anything from her yesterday beyond a simple confirmation hours after they’d sent an all-clear message to the group chat. “Yeah, I’m sure whatever was going on was super important!” she assured Amity.

“Well, according to my mom it was,” Amity scoffed. “Some retired musician is going to be coming to town for some sort of surprise concert/LGBTQIA event this Saturday and managed to get in contact with mom about having the event take place in one of the larger parks in town. Sure, some random secretary or paper-pusher could have handled it but mom wanted to make a good impression on her, and by extension everyone going to the event. So of course mom had to go to the one gay person she knows to try and get input on everything and constantly tell me that it sounded like it would be an interesting event full of people that ‘share my interests’ and I would have fun there!” Amity groused as she threw her hands into the air.

“A what event?” Luz asked as she tried to parse out what the acronym could possibly mean.

Amity stared at her incredulously until Gus jabbed her in the side with his elbow. 

“Didn’t grow up here,” he reminded her, glancing meaningfully at Luz’s beanie.

“Oh! Right, I suppose you might have a different term for it on the- back home,” she quickly corrected herself. “It’s a blanket acronym that covers the traditionally non-accepted gender identities and sexualities. Same-sex relationships, trans rights, asexual representation, stuff like that.”

“Huh, why would anyone have a problem with any of that? I don’t really know what the trans stuff is but why would anyone care about whether asexual people want to have sex or not and same-sex couples can just use the same-” Luz’s eyes widened in comprehension. “Right. No magic.”

“Use the same what?” Gus asked eagerly, always on the lookout for new information about the Boiling Isles.

“Oh, well I heard it started out as something specifically for same-sex couples or witch/demon couples but there’s a potion that can make sure that one, or both, partners conceive a child. But since the potion ensured a healthy child and eliminated labor everyone started using it. At least that’s what my mom said and she’s pretty knowledgeable on this stuff.”

“How does that even work with a guy?” Gus eventually asked.

Luz shrugged. “I dunno. Mom never explained that and I wasn’t in the room when Mr. Danier had his kid. I just know it works.”

“Do you also have potions for changing someone’s gender?”

“Yeah, I actually used one to get a foolproof disguise once. I changed back because it felt weird, uh, down there,” Luz finished with a blush. 

“I see,” Gus hummed. “And you said something about demon/witch couples?”

“Yeah, it’s not too common since all the different species of demons have their own ideas on what makes someone attractive that don’t always line up with each other or with witches but it happens every so often.”

“So it works between any species? Like even a witch and a human?” Gus asked with an odd glint in his eye.

“Yeah? I don’t see why it wouldn’t. Why would you...? Gus. Are you planning on trying to find a girlfriend or boyfriend on the Boiling Isles? I know you really love magic but it shouldn’t be the one thing you want-”

“No, no, just curious,” Gus replied, holding his hands up to forestall further questions. “It’s just a really interesting topic, right Amity?”

“Yes!” Amity yelped, her entire face flushed bright red.

“Gus! You’re embarrassing Amity!” Luz turned to Amity. “Sorry about that, we can talk about something else. Like… Did you ever decide whether or not you were going to go to this concert?”

“I- Yes! No! Maybe? I’m really not sure but my mom kept pushing for it. She even said she’d get me some backstage tickets so I could take someone with me to see the musician,” she replied, very obviously thankful for the subject change.

“You should go with Luz! I’m sure she’d love to hear some human music in person and you could teach her a lot about human culture!” Gus interjected with a smile.

Amity glared at him, a red flush returning to her face once more. “I’m sure Luz has better things to do than come to a concert. That new guard is still out there and he’s already managed to find two of us, who knows when he’ll show up again?”

“I actually have something that might be able to help with that!” Luz declared. “I was going to wait until Willow showed up because it involves her too but I can start now if you want.”

Despite the eager gleam in Gus’s eyes the decision to wait for Willow ended up being unanimous. Thankfully the wait ended up being rather short, with Willow only taking a few minutes to show up. That said, when she did show up…

“Why are you all staring at me like that?” Willow asked as she froze under the intense stares of three people.

“Luz thinks she’s figured out how to keep from having… you know who show up again without warning,” Gus explained eagerly. “We were just waiting for you to show up so she could explain it to everyone!” He paused for a moment before shooting Luz a grin. “Also Luz might be going to a concert with Amity, not too sure on that one yet.”

“We’ll come back to that second part later,” Willow said with a smile. “But what’s this about you know who?”

“I realized that the guard only ever showed up when you were using your artifacts. So then I did some tests while we were waiting for Gus to recover from overusing his. Normally the artifact’s magic fades into the background magic that bombarded the town when all the portals opened up. But when the artifact is being used it’s a lot more noticeable. I’m not very good at that kind of magic and even I could find it much more easily. I think the coven guard is a lot better than me at those sorts of spells. It’s probably not enough for him to figure out exactly where you are the moment you use your artifact, but if you do it in the same place over and over again he’ll eventually find you. He already knew that the abomination artifact had been used near Amity’s house and Gus, you said that you had been using that building to train in for a while now right?”

Gus nodded thoughtfully at that. “So all we need to do in order to not have him find us is not use the artifacts?”

“Well, that would be the easy way to do it,” Luz agreed. “Though I doubt you guys would really want to us give up on them entirely.” Luz smiled as all her friends nodded in agreement with her. She knew that she would never be able to just give up on magic either. “So then you just need to make sure you do things safely. Try not to use your artifacts in the same place too often and try to make sure that you’re never alone when you use them. Or just make sure that it would be too much trouble to actually reach you.

“I’ve also been working on trying to put together something that will overload any magic the artifact puts out with magic that shares the same signature as the background magic. It won’t be enough to completely hide it but it should be able to obscure it enough that he would need to be pretty close in order to find you. It’s… going,” Luz finished lamely.

“Is there anything we can do to help?” Amity asked.

“Unless you know any enchanters that use titan magic, I don’t think so,” Luz replied with a grimace.

“What about the SCI?” Gus asked. “They know a lot about the Boiling Isles, right? And they’ve run into enough people that they knew all about the covens and stuff. Maybe they have someone who managed to find out enough to be able to reverse engineer some enchantments or something.”

“I’ll… look into it,” Luz conceded. “Even with their help, it’ll probably be a while before I can actually get something put together. Until then we’ll just have to keep being careful.”

“So no running off on your own anymore until Luz finishes her jammer,” Willow chastised Gus with a small smile.

“Yes, mom,” he replied in kind before turning back to Luz. “So do you think we could use this at some point? If we know he’s going to show up wherever we use our artifacts a lot we could set up a trap and lure him in!”

As much as Luz wanted her friends to stay safe and out of harm’s way, even more so now that she had seen Gus in such a sorry state, she knew they would never accept not being part of whatever she would end up doing to deal with the new guard. “I’ll think about it. We’ll only get one shot at this since he’ll be able to recognize the magical signatures of the different artifacts. If we lure him in with one we’ll never get him to fall for that one again.” Everyone else at the table nodded at that. As nice as it would be to be the one getting the drop on the Emperor’s Coven this time they needed their plan to be perfect.

“Now that that’s out of the way what was this about Luz and Amity going to a concert together?” Willow asked eagerly.

“Apparently some retired musician is going to be coming here for a surprise concert and was setting it up with Amity’s mom and Amity was maybe going to get some tickets. Nothing concrete yet,” Luz explained with a shrug. “Gus seemed to think I was the best option for Amity to give an extra ticket. Do you two not like music or something?”

“Well, it depends on the music I guess,” Willow said with a shrug. “Not usually a big fan of live shows though. People tend to get really pushy.”

“I do like going to live shows for the bands I like but I figured Amity would have a better time with you,” Gus explained. “Out of all of us, she’s closest to you after all.”

“What? But what about Willow?” Luz asked, her gaze shifting between Amity and Gus.

“Luz, just because we were best friends long ago, it doesn’t mean we’re immediately back to being best friends,” Willow said with a bittersweet smile. “We’re friends again but I’m pretty sure half the reason she hangs out with us is because you’re here.”

“I- but- I’m not that good of a friend!” Luz protested

“That’s not true!” Amity interjected with a shout. When the attention of the entire table turned to her she flushed but powered onward. “You’re a great friend Luz. You do everything you can to help people, no matter how much effort it takes or how hard it is. I was… maybe not quite terrible to you at first but I couldn’t have been easy to deal with and you kept at it because you didn’t want to see a friendship stay lost. It’s… inspiring. How you just go where your heart tells you to without worrying about what anyone else might think. I really l- like that about you,” Amity said with a blush.

Luz stared at her wide wide eyes, mouth moving soundlessly as she tried to process Amity’s glowing appraisal of her. “I… uh… thanks, Amity,” she said as a similar blush crept along her face as well. “I’m really glad I have a friend like you too!”

Amity twitched slightly at that but nodded as Willow patted her on the back. “Thanks, Luz. I’m glad we’re friends too.”

“So! About that concert!” Gus interjected. “You never said if you were going,” he paused, “or who this musician was.”

“Well, I still haven’t decided whether I’m going or not but I think the musician’s name is…” Amity trailed off as she pulled out her phone. “I did a search on them after I was done talking with mom so it should be in here somewhere.” She scrolled through her phone for a bit. “Raine Whispers, they never really got too big with most people but they’re popular in the LGBTQIA community because their concerts always do donations to a bunch of LGBTQIA charities and they’re always been really upfront about their experiences as non-binary. They apparently grew up here and that’s why they decided to do their surprise retirement concert here. Looks like there’s a demo of some of their songs here too,” Amity said as she tapped her phone and a song began to play.

“Huh, that sounds really neat,” Luz said when the song finished. “Are you sure you don’t want to go to the concert? It sounds like it might be pretty cool.”

“Uh, sure! If you want to go I’m sure mom would be able to get tickets for u- for all of us.”

“Actually,” Gus interjected, “you said this was on Saturday right?” He glanced over at Willow. “I’ve already got some plans then. I think Willow does too, right?” Willow nodded. “Yeah, see? You two will just need to have enough fun for the four of us!”

“Are you sure?” Luz asked. At Gus and Willow’s resolute nods she shrugged. “Okay. Well if you’re sure.” She turned to Amity. “I guess it’ll just be the two of us!” she said with a smile.

“Yeah,” Amity said with a small smile. “Just the two of us.”

The days until the concert passed with almost disturbing normalcy. After the disturbingly regular meetings with the new guard Luz had been sure that, even with their new security measures, they would have run into him again before too long. It hadn’t helped that the only enchantment specialist that the SCI employed still hadn’t gotten back to her on her initial designs. Steve, and she was a little guilty about how relieved she was that she’d gotten him instead of Lilith, had assured her that the man was very good at his job and would almost certainly be able to put something together she could make, even if it was taking some time. It was a little shocking just how eager the SCI had seemed to be to look over her findings with replicating the ambient background magic that saturated the town.

Of course, lack of new guard trouble didn’t mean a lack of other types of trouble.

“So what’s got you so worked up,” Eda asked over breakfast the day of the concert. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you put this much effort into getting ready for something since your first day of school.”

“I’m going to go to a concert with Amity today! It’s a big event that her mom was working to get set up so she was able to get a few tickets!” Luz explained as she readjusted her beanie for the fifth time that morning. She’d given some thought to trying to find something else to wear but hadn’t found anything else that really felt right. She had found one of those little flag patches that people were using for the event and grabbed the one that Willow had assured her was for people that liked boys and girls.

“Finally got yourself a date with little miss broody eh? Good job!” Eda congratulated her as she held up her cup of something she called bootleg Irish coffee for a toast.

“I- it’s not a date!” Luz spluttered with a radiant blush. “Willow and Gus just had plans today and couldn’t come!”

“Riiiiight,” Eda drawled. “It’s still just the two of you. So it’s still a date.”

“No, come on. There’s no way it’s a date! She would have said it was a date if it was one.”

Eda smirked and put down her cup. “I’m gonna let you in on a little secret kid: teenagers are dumb when it comes to these sorts of things. It’s way easier to just accidentally on purpose set up a two-person outing and not say it’s a date to test the waters than it is to just ask someone out.”

“Yeah right,” Luz scoffed. “Amity flirts with me all the time as a joke. If she really wanted to ask me out she would. She’s way too confident to not be able to just ask me out if she really was interested.”

Eda snorted at that but didn’t argue. “Whatever. Who’s playing at this thing anyway? Is it someone I know or am I too old to recognize any of your young people music?” she asked as she began to take another sip from her cup.

“Actually you might know them! Their name is Raine Whispers and they used to live around here before they made it in the music industry.”

Upon hearing the name of the musician Eda gasped, sucking a mouthful of her drink down the wrong tube and falling into a coughing fit. After several hacking coughs, she managed to get it under control enough to stare at Luz. “Did you say Raine Whispers?”

“Yeah, they’re retiring and wanted to do one more show where they first started out! Did you ever meet them when they still lived around here?”

“Uhhh, yeah, you could say that,” Eda said with a small frown as she fidgeted with her cup. “There still tickets available for this thing?”

“Maybe?” Luz said with a shrug. “I think the tickets were more for the spots close to the stage. There’s a larger area further away that anyone that wants to come in can stand in and listen to the concert. Something about not wanting to restrict the show to people that had money to throw around or something.”

“Yeah, that sounds like them,” Eda muttered wistfully.

“So are you going to come with us?”

“I… nah. At least not right away. I might swing by later during the show but I don’t want to mess with your date,” Eda said as she stood up and started taking care of her dishes.

“Not a date,” Luz repeated as she began to take care of her own dishes.

“Not with that kind of attitude it isn’t. Come on kid, are you really gonna tell me you would say no to little baby Blight if she asked you out?”

Luz blushed as she scowled at Eda. “I don’t know and it doesn’t matter anyway. If she really was interested she would have asked by now.” Her scowl softened into a melancholy frown. “Besides, even if we did end up dating we’d eventually have to split up anyway. I’ll find the Rainbow Staff eventually and there’s no way I can just abandon everyone back home and I can’t just force Amity to come live on the Boiling Isles.”

Eda snorted at that. “That’s quitter talk kid. You’re finding all the ways this won’t work instead of trying to find the ways it could. When you get your hands on this staff of yours you’ll be able to come and go whenever you want. You and your little girlfriend could live anywhere and just commute to the other realm whenever you wanted to. And don’t tell me that there isn’t anything that your rebel friends would be able to do with the ability to travel between worlds. An entire world where they don’t have to worry about the Emperor’s Coven? And I’m willing to be the SCI would be plenty happy to have access to that many witches too. If you couldn’t set up some sort of deal between you guys I’d be amazed. Hell, it’s not like it would be the first time some secretive US organization covertly helped some rebel organization remove a dictator from power so they could get a government they liked better in place.”

“I… you really think that would all work out like that? That it even could work out like that?” Luz asked, a tiny spark of hope beginning to burn in her chest.

“Of course it could! Sure, that’s more best case scenario stuff but do you really think that your friends would just let you take the staff, say goodbye, and never come back while they just sit around this world forever?”

“Well, it isn’t their fight! And it’s so much more dangerous than the human realm is! Even with all the artifacts and the coven guards and the SCI it’s still much safer than the demon realm!”

“And they aren’t going to care,” Eda reiterated. “Now stop thinking that there’s no way any of this will ever work, go on this not-date with your not-girlfriend, and start thinking about how to knock her socks off and get those nots taken care of so you can take your girlfriend on a date for real,” she said as she slapped Luz on the back.

“You’re right,” Luz said after a moment. “Not about all the Amity stuff,” she quickly backpedaled as saw Eda’s grin. “About everyone, and trying to find the solutions that will get me what I want instead of just expecting everything to fail.” Luz smiled at Eda. “Thanks a lot for that.”

Eda’s own expression slowly morphed into a fond smile. “No prob kid. Glad I could help.” In an instant her smile became mischievous. “I’ll probably show up at this concert later today and I want you and your totally not girlfriend to at least be holding hands by then. Need something to gossip about with Steve next time he swings by for a status update!”

“I- you- when did you even meet him?!” Luz barely managed to get out.

“He swings by every so often to get updates on how you’re handling things. Also about the harpy stuff. He is surprisingly easy to bribe into spilling the beans on Lilly once you get the actual work stuff done.” Her wicked grin grew teeth as she continued. “Pretty sure if I can get him the deets on your relationship I might be able to get him to tell me what happened with Lilly at last year’s Christmas party so don’t disappoint me!”

Not wanting to deal with Eda any further Luz pulled her jacket on and clamored down the stairs. “Stupid Eda reading into things that aren’t there,” she muttered to herself when she reached the bottom of the stairs. “I think I’d notice if Amity was actually into me.” She rolled her eyes at just how wrong Eda had to be and made her way to the front of the store, pausing to pet King when he popped out of a random nook in one of the towers of merchandise.

Alas, she couldn’t stick around as long as King seemed to want her to. A quick check of her phone showed that she was supposed to meet Amity at the park where the concert was being held in twenty minutes, and the bus that she’d have to take to get there on time was going to reach its station in five minutes.

“Sorry King! I gotta go!” she apologized as she ran towards the front door. In her rush to get to the bus station she didn’t pay attention as she ran out onto the sidewalk and right into someone loitering outside of the shop.

“I’m so sorry! I wasn’t watching where… I… was…” Luz trailed off as, halfway through offering a hand to help up the person she had knocked over, she realized just who she had knocked over.

“Oh, it’s alright, I shouldn’t have been standing too close to the door,” Amity said as she grabbed hold of Luz’s hand.

“No… I should have watched where I was going,” Luz said as she pulled Amity to her feet and fully took in what her friend was wearing. The plain, if well cared for and made, clothes Amity usually wore were gone. In their place was a light blouse that left her shoulders bare and pair of well-fitted dark pants with a floral design winding up the side. Pinned to one of her sleeves was a flag that Luz recognized as the lesbian pride flag. Even her hair had been done up slightly and there was a trace of makeup that Luz wasn’t used to seeing. Oh my titan this is a date isn’t it, Luz thought to herself. “Y-You look nice,” she mumbled out before glancing down and realizing that she hadn’t let go of Amity’s hand. “Sorry!” she yelped as she jerked her hand free.

“It’s alright,” Amity laughed, a small, smug, smile flitting across her features for a moment. “And I’m glad you like it. I’m actually so used to dressing up for events my mom has me going to I almost went all out but figured something a little less would be better.” She twirled around in a way that made Luz’s brain seize up for a moment. “I’m glad you like it.”

“Yeah.” Luz glanced down at her own outfit, every bit the same as what she normally wore to school apart from the flag pinned to her sleeve. “I feel a little underdressed now,” she muttered.

“You’re fine,” Amity assured her as she drew Luz into a one-armed side hug. “I’m sorry for showing up unannounced like this but I figured Eda wasn’t going to be able to take you to the park and I didn’t want to force you to have to ride the bus,” she said as she gestured towards her car sitting a little further down the street. “I… also kind of wanted to surprise you with a ride.” A wry smile crossed her face. “I think I ended up more surprised though.” She pulled out her phone and quickly checked the time. “Now come on, if we leave now we’ll be just in time to be decently early.”

Luz nodded dumbly and her mind raced as she followed Amity to her car. Was this a date? Amity had managed to explain away dressing up so maybe it wasn’t? Luz’s footsteps slowed as she continued to grapple with the idea of whether or not she was about to go on a date or not. Once again her mind turned to all the romantic subplots that had shown up in all her stories for answers. Mentally comparing them to her current situation in desperate hopes of finding anything that might help her figure things out. For a moment she even let herself wonder what kind of advice Eda would give her in this situation. After the initial light-hearted mockery and intentionally bad advice of course.

“What are you waiting for?” Amity asked, jolting Luz out of her thoughts. “Getting cold feet without Willow and Gus here to distract me from messing with you?”

Luz felt her heart skip a beat at the brilliant smile Amity shot her way. “Eda would say to go for it and work on making sure I could keep it,” she quietly muttered to herself before shooting a smile back at Amity. “Sorry! Got caught up in my thoughts!” she said as she made her way to the passenger side door of Amity’s car. A small smile spread across Luz’s lips as she made a decision. No, this wasn’t a date. A real date needed both people to think of it like that and decide, together, that it was a date. But that didn’t invalidate hanging out with her friend and, maybe, just maybe, seeing if she was interested in upgrading their outing to a date later.

After Luz properly wowed her of course. And how hard could that end up being anyway?

“And?” Belos asked as Kikimora read over the results of their latest test regarding the data Ms. Noceda had provided.

“The secondary project is a complete success. R&D has put together a machine that perfectly generates a masking signature that will reduce the viable detection radius of an artifact in use to less than a yard. Production can be handled in-house but could just as easily be done by Ms. Noceda should we provide her with the proper materials.” She flipped to another page. “Materials that are quite easy to obtain and are quite likely to already be within reach for her.” She paused and flipped back to the front of the report. “The primary project is… suffering complications. Ms. Noceda’s notes on the energy signature have greatly aided in narrowing down the desired signature but without a better idea on what the scientists should be looking for things are moving slowly. There are some estimates saying as early as Wednesday but…” 

“But I believe we have both long since learned not to take the first, second, or even third estimates that R&D provides,” Belos finished for her. “Have they at least managed to complete a partial filter?”

“Yes. Actually using it in the field will still be barely more effective than going without but it does work.”

“Have them provide…” Belos glanced down at the list of available personnel Kikimora had provided him with earlier that day. It was a shorter list than he would have liked but even with the reshuffle to get Project Unity more resources they only had a handful of agents that could be spared. “Eberwolf and Darius with the prototype device as well as all the scanning equipment that could get better readings and have them move around town. They will either get lucky or gather enough data that R&D might be able to put together a real estimate.”

“Very well sir,” Kikimora said with a nod as she jotted down his orders on another page on her clipboard.

“And the progress with Agent Clawthorne’s latest request?”

“Surprisingly easy to procure. There was already an ample supply in the Connecticut branch storage units. She received it earlier today.” She paused and slowly lowered her clipboard. “She was apparently quite happy to receive it so soon.”

“Have the rest of it shipped here as well. It may allow us to make some more headway with the coven guard. If nothing else I believe it may prove invaluable for both Project Unity and in future… negotiations.”

“Of course sir. Anything else?”

“No, I believe that will be all.” His gaze drifted to the annoyingly large pile of papers sitting in his ‘in’ tray. “I will likely be busy for the rest of the day but let me know immediately if anything new comes up regarding the Southborough situation or Project Unity.”

Kikimora nodded and left the small room Belos had commandeered to act as his office. As soon as she had closed the door behind her Belos let himself slump down into his chair. Opening up a drawer he pulled out a tin flask and shook it, frowning as he heard the small amount of liquid remaining slosh around. “Going to need to procure a new batch soon,” he muttered before taking a swig. He shuddered as he felt the liquid do its work before turning his attention to the papers. The SCI wasn’t going to run itself after all.

Chapter Text

Amity was torn between thanking Willow and Gus for doing everything in their power to ensure that it would only be Luz and her going to the concert and frustration that they hadn’t given her any real choice in the matter. On one hand it was a way to do a sort of test date before she worked up the nerve to actually ask Luz on a real one. If it were anyone else she would have already asked Luz out ages ago. She was no stranger to going on a date with someone to see if there was a chance for something more. But none of them had ever really worked out beyond a date or two. Even Boscha had only managed to reach four dates before they had broken up. But she had also never been this invested in wanting to make sure that first date worked out or so thoroughly screwed things up before asking a person out.

Which led to her temptation to be frustrated with Gus and Willow’s constant attempts at matchmaking. Always finding reasons to try and get her and Luz alone together whenever they were all out doing something. She could admit that, from an outside perspective, this was all likely rather humorous. Getting to see the ever unflappable Amity Blight get flustered by being the one with a crush for once. At least both Gus and Willow had given their full blessings to her to mess with them every bit as much if they ever got it as bad as she had.

Not that she ever really expected to be able to cash in on that. Gus struck her as the sort of person that wouldn’t be able to last an hour before asking out a crush. As for Willow? Amity wouldn’t be surprised if Willow had a crush on someone right now and just managed to hide it all under that serene smile she always had.

But speculation about the love lives of her friends could wait for later. Now she had other, much more important, things to keep her mind on. Things like her crush sitting in the passenger seat of her car.

“Sooooo, is there anything I should know about how concerts work in the human realm?” Luz asked as she fidgeted in her seat. 

“I’m not sure. What are concerts like in the demon realm?” Amity asked, doing her best to keep from smiling as she saw the witch’s eyes flick back down towards her exposed shoulders. If the, quite obvious, moment of shock and appreciation she’d gotten when Luz had first seen the outfit Amity had chosen hadn’t been enough the constant glances and determined attempts to abort them had made her positive that her choice in attire had been the right one.

“I don’t really know much about concerts back in the demon realm,” Luz admitted. “They’re usually big Bard Coven affairs and wild witches aren’t really appreciated there. I did see a little bit of one while I was infiltrating the coven head’s mansion though! He was playing a song that caused anyone that couldn't resist it to start dancing along with the music. Apparently it was supposed to help weed out the lesser witches but I think it was just because he was a jerk.”

“I… see. Well, we won’t have to worry about mind control music today.” She paused for a moment as she remembered just what sorts of things had become commonplace around Southborough in the last month. “At least we shouldn’t have to worry about any mind control music. There weren’t any enchanted instruments in that vault were there?”

“I think there were,” Luz said after a moment’s thought. “I’m not sure if any of them made it here or what they would do if they did though. But what would the chances really be of someone deciding to bring a random instrument they found in an alleyway somewhere to a concert? Chances are much better that they would find something like your earrings and just wear them here without realizing what they were.”

Thankfully they were at a stoplight when Luz decided to try and allay Amity’s worries in what had to be one of the most disastrous ways possible. Otherwise, Amity wouldn’t have been able to direct the most unimpressed glare she’d ever mustered at her passenger.

“Oh! I… uh… I mean I really doubt we’ll run into anything magic at the concert!” Luz said as she quailed under Amity’s glare.

Amity sighed and turned her attention back to the road. “I don’t think you can promise that,” she said after a moment. “After all, you’ll still be there and I wouldn’t have it any other way,” she said as she shot a quick smile towards Luz. A smile that grew into a satisfied smirk when a light blush spread across Luz’s cheeks.

After Luz had fully recovered, the rest of the drive was spent in idle small talk. Once they arrived at their destination Amity was happy to note that they were early enough that parking was merely annoying instead of utterly miserable. The parking lot for the park itself had already been fully filled out, and the streets that allowed parking adjacent to the park were taken as well. The extra nearby lots that often held the overflow when events like this occurred in the park were almost completely empty though. It would still be a couple minutes walk to get to the park but it was far better than the alternative. Listening to Skara complain about having to walk nearly a mile from the parking spot her parents had found for a similar event had been more than enough to resolidify Amity’s belief that merely being on time wasn’t good enough for situations like this.

“Is that it?” Luz asked as she got out of the car and stared at the stage that had been erected earlier in the day.

“Yeah,” Amity said as she looked over what could be seen of the stage. It was a pretty simple affair, minimal lighting since the show wasn’t intended to go too long, curtains to hide the workers in the back, and a relatively simple sound system compared to some of the concerts she’d been to. Further back in the field away from the stage were several groups of people, some of whom seemed to have set up some sort of impromptu stalls and tables while they were waiting for the event to start. “Usually things like this tend to be a bit bigger but this one was so last minute that no one really had time to set up a more complete venue.”

“Huh, well it’s definitely a lot quieter than I expected,” Luz commented as they made their way towards the park. 

“I’m sure it will get a lot louder once people start to really show up and the concert begins,” Amity assured her.

“No, well, yes that too. But a place like this in the Boiling Isles would be a lot rowdier right now.”

Amity paused to think over everything Luz had told her about the Boiling Isles before nodding in agreement. “I can imagine. From what you’ve said things tend to be a lot quieter here.”

“Yeah,” Luz said with a small smile. “It’s kinda nice.” Her tone grew sad. “But I still miss the Boiling Isles.”

Amity reached out and gave Luz’s hand a reassuring squeeze. “Don’t worry. We’ll get you home and then you can show us all the things you’ve been telling us about.” Amity’s heart fluttered as Luz smiled one of her usual brilliant smiles.

They continued on in silence until they reached the entrance to the park where a young man with white hair was sitting in a booth and looking over a clipboard. As soon as he noticed their approach he looked up at them with a well-practiced customer service smile. “Welcome to Rain Whispers’s retirement concert. Do you already have tickets or would you like to purchase some? All proceeds will go towards various charities,” he said as he indicated a large sign detailing the various charities that the money would go towards.

“We already have our tickets,” Amity said as she held out the pair of tickets that her mom had given her.

“Huh, backstage passes too. Neat. Keep a hold of those. The security guards at the main concert area will need to look at them to let you in there and after the show you’ll need to present them in order to get backstage.” 

Amity nodded and turned to Luz to see that she was staring at the man in the booth with a look of intense concentration. Amity was just about to ask her what was wrong when Luz snapped her fingers and the concentration gave way to recognition. “You’re the guy that came by the Owl House trying to find things out about the golem!”

The man blinked in confusion for a few moments before a similar look of recognition passed over his face as well. “Oh yeah, you came in when that conwoman was trying to sell me that fake Wild Witch autograph! Huh, small world.”

“Yeah!” Luz said cheerily. “I knew I recognized you from somewhere! Just couldn’t quite remember at first.”

“I’m impressed you remembered me at all,” the man admitted with a chuckle.

“Well, it’s been a while since Eda tried to foist one of my signatures off on people.”

“Your signatures? Heh, I knew those things were fake,” the man said with a smile as he shook his head. “Well, I hope you and your girlfriend enjoy the concert!”

Amity’s face flushed at those words, suddenly acutely aware of the fact that she had never let go of Luz’s hand.

For a brief moment, Luz’s hand tensed up before she just smiled and nodded, her hand tightening slightly as she led Amity away from the booth. “Sorry, uh, if that was awkward for you,” she said as soon as they had gotten enough distance between themselves and the booth. “For not correcting him there, I mean. I just figured it was easier to let him think that than try and do some sort of flustered denial. That always just makes people double down on thinking they’re right,” she explained with an embarrassed chuckle. “Especially people like Eda,” she added under her breath, just barely loud enough for Amity to hear.

“Ah, no… it’s alright,” Amity said. Okay, just tell her you wouldn’t mind being her girlfriend! She mentally screamed to herself as her mouth refused to work. Say it you idiot! Before she could get her treacherous mouth to actually speak the words that she was telling it to say, Luz, in all her easily excitable glory, got distracted by one of the tables that had been set up by some enterprising merchant.

“Cool, what’s that?” Luz asked as she darted forward too fast for Amity to keep up and breaking her hand free.

Amity whined at the loss of contact before sighing and resolving to do better next time. For now, she opted to follow Luz over to what looked like some sort of pride-themed bakery stand. Although ‘stand’ was a rather generous descriptor of the blacket covered with pastries that the ancient hippie was hawking his wares on.

“Hey, little ladies! If you’re looking for some baked goods you’re in the right place! And if you’re looking for some baked goods I got those too!” He lowered his bright pink sunglasses and looked them over more closely. “Though, uh, I might need to see some ID before I can sell any of those ones to you.”

“Amity look! He has cookies of all the flags!” Luz squealed as she pointed to a line of massive sugar cookies with various stripes of frosting running across them. “I’ll get one of the bi cookies and a lesbian cookie,” she said as she fished out her wallet and extracted a twenty-dollar bill from it.

“Right on little sis!” the man said as he took the twenty and handed her her change and two large plastic-wrapped cookies. “You two enjoy the concert ya hear? Gotta celebrate being able to be you!”

Luz nodded happily before turning to Amity and holding out the lesbian flag cookie. “Here!”

“Oh Luz, you didn’t have to-” Amity started.

“But I wanted to,” Luz interrupted firmly. 

Amity couldn’t think of anything to say in response to that. It wasn’t that she was completely unused to people buying things for her. There were plenty of people that thought buying her something that she had spent more than a few seconds looking at was a way to gain favor with her and, by extension, her mother. The last time she could remember someone just buying her something for the hell of it was… the last time the twins had swung by, maybe? Shoving those thoughts aside she unwrapped the cookie and nibbled at it. Her eyes widened slightly at the taste. She couldn’t quite place it but it certainly wasn’t just a sugar cookie. The icing too was much more flavorful than she was used to. “Thanks,” she muttered in between bites of the cookie.

Luz smiled at that before unwrapping her own cookie and taking a bite. “Oh, this is really good!” she said as she began to wolf down the cookie.

It was all Amity could do not to laugh as Luz absolutely demolished the cookie. By the time Luz had finished her cookie Amity wasn’t even halfway done with her own. “Want some?” she asked as she saw Luz eying her cookie. “You did pay for them after all.”

Luz seemed to be at war with herself. One hand twitching to reach for the cookie before freezing and starting the process all over again.

Fighting down the urge to laugh at Luz’s predicament, Amity broke off a portion of her cookie and held it out to Luz. “Here, let me know if it tastes any different than yours did.”

Luz’s conflicted grimace vanished in an instant as she happily took the cookie and took a slower bite than before. “Tastes the same as the other one did,” she said before proceeding to demolish the piece of cookie she had been given.

Chuckling to herself Amity finished off what was left of her portion of the cookie. “It’s still quite a while until the concert starts, what do you want to do until then?”

“I…” Luz trailed off as she looked at the fountain in the center of the park whose sidewalk was flanked with flower beds. “I actually wanted to look at all those flowers.”

Amity nodded and walked over to the flowerbeds with Luz. She couldn’t help but smile as Luz began to carefully inspect each and every flower, gently prodding petals and leaves. More than once she got a surprise as a bug fled from her inspection.

“They’re so… soft,” Luz said to herself. When she realized that she’d spoken aloud and that Amity was looking at her she continued. “Plants in the Boiling Isles always have to be tough enough to survive the boiling rains, or the random demons and witches. Most of them either are just really tough or have some defenses against things. Lots of thorns and super tough bark and leaves,” she explained. “Not many of them are so delicate feeling.” She smiles a little bit. “Though plenty of the plants back home can get really beautiful, and some of those aren’t even so they can hypnotize you into coming closer!”

Amity noded as she sat down on the concrete edge of the flower garden. “Tell me about them.”

Time passed happily as Luz shared a surprising breadth of knowledge about the flora of her home realm. She’d mentioned some things before in more broad strokes but this time she was going into a level detail she hadn’t before. At least a level of detail Amity hadn’t experienced before. She wouldn’t be surprised if Willow had managed to coax out a similar conversation in the past. Amity did her best to try and provide interesting bits of trivia for Earth flora when she could but she knew she wasn’t able to be anywhere near as thorough as Luz was being in her descriptions.

The conversation ended up being so engrossing that it was only due to the alarm Amity had set on her phone that they managed to bring things to a close before the concert began. Thankfully the organizers for the event had made sure that there was a path clear to the interior area even as the outer section of the audience grew ever more crowded. After flashing their tickets to the man at the flimsy rope fence that Amity doubted would really keep out anyone that would really bother trying to sneak in they managed to grab a pair of, thankfully right next to each other, chairs and took a seat.

While Luz got an edge seat Amity was forced to make polite conversation with her seat neighbor until the concert began. Surprisingly she found that she didn’t really mind though. The man managed to largely keep the conversation going himself as he gushed about how awesome it was that he found out about the concert in time to drive down to Southborough to attend. Something that Luz picked up on and eagerly used as a chance to ask questions about Raine’s music. When the man had found out that this was their first time seeing Raine performing and had, in fact, never really heard of her before they heard about the concert, he had offered his condolences that they had only managed to find out about her for her farewell concert.

All conversation slowly ceased as a voice began to play from the speakers on the stage. “The concert will begin shortly. Please take your seats and end all conversations. Thank you and have a wonderful time here today!”

In the silence that followed a low, quiet note could be heard rising up. The single note became a trembling chord as a teal haired person that Amity belatedly realised was Raine Whispers walked out onto the stage playing a violin. They were wearing a maroon and black vest over a white shirt with matching pants, a bright smile crossing their face as they almost danced to the center of the stage, playing all the while. From behind the curtains several more people with instruments of their own appeared and began to set up of their own. With a flourish, Raine finished playing and took a deep bow.

“They never actually talk during the shows,” the man next to them explained. “All the lyrics are prerecorded and played from the speakers.”

With another bright smile and exaggerated flourish of the bow, Raine began playing in earnest as the concert began. While the genre of music wasn’t to Amity’s usual tastes, it was a folksy style that ran the gamut from lively and upbeat to slow and mournful, it was well made and well-executed enough that she had a hard time focusing on anything else. The rest of the audience seemed to feel the same way. Instead of the moderately rowdy crowds she was used to in the concerts that she went to of her own volition this one felt a lot more like the crowds in the concerts her mom would get her to go to. After nearly an hour of almost non-stop music, Raine finished their current song with a single sharp note and held out a single hand. A stagehand came rushing out from behind the curtain with a wireless mic and placed it in the waiting hand. Amity could feel the entire audience, herself included, hold their breath as Raine smiled and brought the microphone up to speak.

“Uhh, hi,” they said hesitantly before taking another deep breath. “I know I don’t usually do this sort of thing but… last concert should be special right?” They smiled shakily. “I just want to thank you all. For cheering me on, for coming to concerts, buying cds, and just being amazing fans. And for my final concert, I wanted to share some of the best, and worst, advice I ever got.” They closed their eyes and took a steadied themselves. When they opened them again there was a firmness in their posture that wasn’t there before. “When I was first starting out my career a friend of mine told me that this was my life and I should go for whatever the hell I wanted and screw everyone else. If I wanted to go be a star then I should just leave town, forget everyone here, and make it big. Everyone else, including her, was just going to slow me down. I ended up taking far too much of that advice. You should go for your dreams. You should ignore the people that tell you to give up and that you’ll never make it. But don’t just cut off everything. You don’t have to cut out the good to get rid of the bad. And when someone tries to cut themselves out of your life for what they think is your own good, don’t let them. You don’t just need to find a future where you accomplish your dreams. You need to find one where all your friends are there too.” Their smile sharpened. “Even if you have to beat them over the head until they realize that they aren’t standing in the way of anything and that they deserve to be right there at your side.” She raised her bow high once more. “So here’s one more song, never before played, never going to be put out on a cd. Dedicated to that friend that gave me that wonderful, terrible, advice.”

Something in the song that followed took Amity’s breath away. It almost felt like it was speaking directly to her. Telling stories of good times and bad, joys and sorrows. Of finding everything you had been looking for but finding it hollow. Far too soon the song came to an end and Amity found tears welling up in the corners of her eyes. The silence in the aftermath of the song was deafening as Raine and their band took a deep bow and began to walk behind the curtain to a sudden, thunderous, applause. Before Amity realized it she was on her feet as well, giving a standing ovation to Raine Whispers’s final concert.

Eventually, as all things do, the applause came to an end and the crowd began to spread out. Amity, however, reclaimed her seat next to Luz. Or at least it was technically the seat next to Luz as the witch had yet to sit back down. Instead her eyes were transfixed on the curtain that Raine had disappeared behind. Curious, and slightly worried, about what was managing to keep the usually animate and chatty witch so still and quiet Amity spoke up. “Penny for your thoughts?”

Luz’s eyes widened as she turned to face Amity, a slightly scared look on her face. “You can buy thoughts?!” she hissed.

“What? No! I.. well I guess you kind of can but not in a stealing them or taking ownership of them kind of way, just pay someone to share ideas with you and stuff,” Amity said as her train of thought was thoroughly derailed into wondering about the history behind that turn of phrase. “I was just wondering what you were thinking about,” she finished lamely.

“Just… thinking about what Raine said. Following dreams and not letting go of things.” She took a deep breath before sitting down next to Amity. “Amity… was this a date?”

Amity froze, her face paling at Luz’s words. “I… No! Of course not!” she squeeked. “It would only be a date if I asked you out on a date! Or if you asked me out on a date! I don’t have to be the one to make the first move! And the other person has to accept! This was just an outing between friends!” she blathered as she mentally cursed herself for digging an ever deeper hole.

Luz chuckled a little bit at Amity’s floundering. As her chuckles died away she seemed to come to a decision. “Do you want it to be one?”

All the color that had vanished from Amity’s face returned tenfold at those words. A small cynical part of her looked into Luz’s eyes, trying to find something that would tell her that this was all a joke or something but found nothing but honesty. “Yeah. I’d like that,” she eventually said, glancing away as her blush intensified to heretofore unseen levels.

“Cool!” Luz said, obviously just barely managing to keep her tone calm as her face began to light up to match Amity’s. “So, it’s a date?” she asked as she held out a hand.

“Yeah, it’s a date,” Amity replied as she reached out to take Luz’s hand. An act that was, unfortunately, interrupted by the sound of an explosion and several screams. Both Luz and Amity turned to the source of the noise to see that several lawn chairs, a picnic blanket, and an entire van had sprouted various limbs and eyes and were starting to terrorize the concertgoers.

A gamut of emotions flashed across Luz’s face: fear, frustration, worry, anger. Eventually, she turned an apologetic look towards Amity. “I.. I have to-”

Amity held a finger up to Luz’s lips to stop her. “Go save the day. I’ll see what I can do from the sidelines,” she said before screwing up her courage and giving Luz a quick peck on the cheek. A wicked smile crossed her lips as she saw her action had the desired effect of turning Luz’s entire face bright red.

“Gotcha!” Luz eventually managed to say before she glanced around to see if anyone was looking their way. Apparently satisfied that no one was paying attention to them she was engulfed in a dim burst of light and the costume, such as it was, of the Wild Witch appeared. Her hand twitched as though to grab something before aborting and clenching into a fist. “Let’s do this,” she muttered as she cast a spell and leapt nearly thirty feet into the air towards the possessed objects.

When Hunter had taken the temp job to help run Raine’s concert he had expected it to be a quiet day. Do some short notice work, get a decent amount of money out of it, listen to some music, maybe have to deny an angry customer or two. That sort of thing. He hadn’t expected to run into any sort of magical mischief whatsoever. Sure, he had brought his gear with him, but that was more due to paranoia about it being found and stolen than any expectation to actually use it. 

He certainly hadn’t expected an entire picnic, a set of chairs, a van, and who knows what else to come to life and start attacking people. It had only been for a moment but he could have even sworn he saw some sort of harpy monster flying around. He hadn’t managed to catch sight of it again after that first, bare, glimpse so that one might have just been an ugly bird.

Of course now his biggest concern, apart from whether or not people were getting hurt, was actually managing to get his costume on without being too obvious about it. While the booth he had been assigned to wasn’t too cramped it wasn’t designed for long-term comfort and the space available where he couldn’t be seen was even smaller. While a small part of his mind that wasn’t occupied with the ongoing crisis was amused at the fact that he was essentially attempting a variant on the superhero changing in the phone booth thing, the rest of his mind was screaming that he was taking too long.

After what felt like far too long he finally managed to get everything on and assemble his staff. With a surreptitious glance over the counter to see if anyone was paying attention to the booth, no one that he could tell, he steeled himself and leapt over the counter while focusing on the teleportation artifact. In a pulse of energy he burst into light and shot forward, the entire world seeming to slow down and fade into indistinct blurs as he felt himself racing towards his destination. Another burst of light and he reappeared above what looked like an animated picnic basket. With a roar he spun his staff around to wreath it in fire and brought it down on the little monster. His satisfaction at the crunch it made as it was crushed was short lived however as a sudden gasp from behind him caught his attention.

He whirled around, ready to help whoever was still at the mercy of these monsters get out safely when he found himself face to face with the Wild Witch. Seconds ticked by in a tense standoff before her eyes flicked over his shoulder and she conjured a fireball at whatever had caught her attention. A quick glance over his shoulder showed the smoldering remains of one of the animated blankets writhing feebly on the ground.

“Hey,” the Wild Witch said sharply. “I don’t like you. You don’t like me. But it looks like you’re at least better than the last guy so can we not fight each other until everyone here is safe?”

Doubts ran rampant through Hunter’s mind as he considered her offer. The guard had said she was a manipulative person and it was entirely possible that she was offering this truce so that she would have a better chance at getting whatever artifact had caused this in the first place. But at the same time even if she lying about wanting to keep people safe, she would have to put in at least a token effort to save people until they managed to find whatever it was that had caused this. A token effort that would likely end up saving people that he might not have otherwise been able to help. “Fine. Until everyone is safe.”

The Wild Witch nodded and leapt into the air, easily clearing him as she moved towards a group of folding chairs that were snapping at anyone that got too close. Not wanting to be outdone he teleported towards the same monsters and grabbed one with the telekinesis gem before slamming it into a second until they both stopped moving. The last three were all smashed between a pair of earthen hands that erupted from the ground when the Wild Witch punched her own hand into the ground after landing. Nodding to each other they turned to scan the surrounding area for other monsters.

“The van!” she shouted as she pointed to where a giant monster that only bore a superficial similarity to a van had grabbed hold of a pair of people and seemed to be about to eat them. 

Without thinking, Hunter grabbed the Wild Witch’s hand and focused on teleporting them both. When they reappeared he was far more winded than he normally was after a teleport and stumbled upon landing. Thankfully the witch only suffered a brief moment of disorientation before she cast a spell that shot a blade of air at the monster’s arms, severing them both and sending the people it had grabbed tumbling to the ground. Steeling himself Hunter grabbed the monster with his telekinesis and lifted it into the air. With a shout he managed to launch it several dozen feet upwards. It did it’s best to catch itself, but what limbs it had weren’t designed to try and catch several tons of metal slamming into the ground like that. They, and a good portion of the front of the van, crumpled as it crashed into the ground.

With the monster taken care of, at least for now, he turned his attention to the two people that it had tried to eat. Something that the Wild Witch was already doing. “Are they alright?”

“Just a minor sprain. Nothing a quick healing spell couldn’t fix.”

“Right…” Hunter said as he watched the Wild Witch help the two people to their feet and point them away from the chaos, telling them to be careful as they ran off. Ever since he’d read the journals he’d had an idea of what the Wild Witch was supposed to be like. An idea that was not meshing with the reality he was seeing unfold before his very eyes. It was a conundrum that tickled at the usually quickly suppressed thoughts about the veracity of what he’d learned. Thoughts that said maybe the one source of real answers he’d found was just another false lead. Another failure. Another instance of him being nothing but a gullible idiot that-

Any further thoughts, along with all the air in his lungs were driven out as something slammed into his back, smashing him into the ground. His wide eyes darted from what little he could see of the van monster that was now pining him to the ground and the Wild Witch. His blood ran cold as he realized that he had screwed up and created what had to be a perfect situation for her. If there had been any air in his lungs he would have screamed or cursed.

“Get off him you titan damned demon!” the Wild Witch shouted as her hands glowed and she threw something underneath the monster that quickly grew into a mishappen tree trunk, knocking the van monster on its side.

Blessed air filled Hunter’s lungs as soon as the beast was knocked aside. Rolling onto his side he spied a pole that someone had used to prop up a tent they had set up on the park grounds. It was enveloped in a red glow before shooting into the air and slamming down into the still prone van monster. Hunter’s breaths came in ragged gasps as he lifted the pole out of the monster and drove it back home again and again and again. His vision blurred as he just focused on making sure that thing was dead. It wasn’t until a hand started to shake him that he came back to his senses and the red glow left the pole.

“Hey! Hey! It’s dead! You killed it! It’s okay. It’s dead,” the Wild Witch said soothingly. “It’s gone.”

“I-” Hunter started as he turned to look at her. Anything else he thought to say was lost as he saw the genuine compassion and worry in her eyes. “I’m okay,” he said gruffly as he tore his arm from her grip. “Are there any others left?”

“I don’t think so. There were a few more but my da- abominations! My abominations took care of them. Because I managed to get the abomination earrings from the person that attacked A- Mrs. Blight,” the Wild Witch said. “Now we just need to find the artifact that did this!”

“But-”

“We just need to find the artifact!” she reiterated. After a moment she slumped a little bit. “You, uh, don’t happen to know where the thing that caused this is do you?”

Hunter stared at her incredulously for a moment before casting his magic locating spell. “It’s over that way,” he said, pointing towards a tree that had had several torn-up belongings scattered underneath it.

The two of them moved over to the tree and began to poke at everything that had been left behind, only to find nothing that looked like it was from the Boiling Isles. “Hold on,” Hunter said as he cast the spell once more. His eyes narrowed in confusion as the non-Wild Witch response he got came from right above them. “It’s… in the tree?”

“Huh, let me check,” the Wild Witch said as she cast a spell and leapt up onto the branch he’d pointed at. “There’s a bird nest up here with something inside it! I just- No! Don’t peck at that!”

Hunter watched in mild confusion as a tiny wisp of light left the nest and settled into a book that lay at the base of the tree. In an instant, it grew teeth and a pair of arms while a single eye opened on its front cover. Without a second thought the Hunter immediately destroyed it and looked up to see what the Wild Witch was doing.

“Okay, let me just- ow! No! Stop pecking me! Stop that! Just- ow! You little… Got it! I woah!” she yelped as she fell backward off the branch. With a thud she landed on the ground at Hunter’s feet,  one hand covered in small wounds held up triumphantly and clutching a shiny piece of metal with a large yellow eye on it. “I got it! I think a bird managed to find it and thought it was neat enough to bring to his nest. Then the babies started pecking at it and activated it by accident. They’re all still okay by the way. Just angry about losing this.” Her eyes took on a haunted look. “Really angry about losing it.” Shaking her head she looked around at the myriad of cars in the distance and remains of hundreds of places that people had claimed to wait for the concert to start. “Someone else probably found it and brought it here and the bird grabbed it from them while they were at the concert.” She fell silent for a moment as she looked down at the artifact before turning her attention back to Hunter with a sigh. “Guess it’s time to fight over this now, huh?”

Hunter blinked in surprise as he remembered that their ceasefire had been that they wouldn’t fight until everyone was safe. And now that they had the artifact that had been causing the issues the truce had run its course. An hour ago he would have relished the chance to fight the Wild Witch again. To fight the person that he was so sure was every bit the monstrous terrorist that the journal described. But that wasn’t what he’d seen here today. She’d cared about the humans that were affected by magic. She’d allowed herself to be hurt by baby birds while grabbing the artifact because she didn’t even want them to get hurt. And… and she’d saved his life when she hadn’t needed to. All she’d had to do was wait and let the van monster crush him and she wouldn’t have to do anything when she found the artifact.

Heaving a sigh he shook his head. “Don’t bother. I’m in no shape to fight you and besides, you saved my life. Go ahead and keep that one.” He locked eyes with her. “But if you ever use it to harm any humans I will come for you and take it back.” Holding back a wince he gingerly climbed onto his staff and lifted into the air. Sparing one last look at the Wild Witch he rose into the sky and took off to find somewhere he could change back and return to his booth, hopefully before anyone noticed he had gone missing and decided to dock his pay for the event.

Eda had had a lot of things going through her mind when she’d gone to Raine’s concert. Worries about seeing her old flame again, old pains about how she’d just cut them off so that they wouldn’t have to deal with a girlfriend that might just die at any time, and regrets about how thoroughly she’d rebuffed all attempts at reconciliation until they tapered off years after Raine had left. But most of all had been the worries that Raine would just not recognize her or want nothing to do with her.

Nowhere in that list had been having to fight off a possessed speaker.

While not the most immediately relevant or dangerous of the monsters that had been running rampant throughout the concert it had been the one furthest from the people that were able to do anything about it and, completely coincidentally, the one most likely to end up hurting Raine.

Was it selfish of her to prioritize an old friend over everyone else? Probably. But selfishness was something Eda had long since come to terms with herself about. Besides, she’d seen Luz jumping towards the bulk of the beasties so those ones were screwed. Add in that the few others that weren’t on the stage were getting absolutely trounced by Luz’s not-girlfriend and Eda felt that she could indulge a little selfishness. Though once she got into the thick of things she started wondering if following her selfishness hadn’t also ended up being the smart move.

Her initial thoughts about the speakers being easy to take out had been quickly proven wrong as they threw out ever more cables to try and catch her. It was only due to the fact that whatever magic that parasite had absorbed to wind up with this setup had apparently included a whole boatload of instincts to go with the form. Allowing her to flit around the pair of speakers with the ease of a lifetime of practice as she did her best to rip their guts out. Something she actually managed to accomplish with one of the speakers. There was something deeply satisfying about dragging her claws through the speaker and tearing out the wires that seemed to be the best guts substitute she could find.

It was only too bad that those same instincts that let her use her new body with such ease also reveled in the spilling of those guts a little too much. So much so that she didn’t even realize that the second speaker had managed to close the gap and launch its next attack until she was already ensnared in a net of sparking wires.

“Let go of me you giant piece of crap!” she shrieked as she tried to claw her way out of the net. But if the electricity coursing through the wires wasn’t bad enough any time she actually managed to slice through a wire another one was added on to the ever-tightening net to keep her in place. Even worse the rate at which she was managing to cut through the damn things was slowing as those oh so helpful instincts started to just panic and she had to focus on not letting them run away with things. She could feel that she was seconds from succumbing to those panicked instincts when a familiar voice rang out.

“Pick on someone your own size!” Raine shouted

Eda couldn’t help but grin as Raine’s voice was joined by several others, along with a cacophony of thunks and thuds as various objects were smashed against the hard plastic backing of the speaker holding her hostage. Eda’s efforts redoubled as she fought to make sure that the time her old friend and their band had bought her didn’t go to waste. Something that turned out to be unnecessary as she burst out of the cocoon of wires to find one of Raine’s bandmates, a dainty little slip of a girl repeatedly slamming a sledgehammer into the prone back of the speaker monster, screaming about how she was finally getting her revenge on that useless piece of garbage. The others were looking on in a mix of agreement and slight but justifiable fear. They were actually so engrossed in watching the girl vent her apparently long-held frustrations out of the speaker that it wasn’t until Eda moved towards them that they realized she’d freed herself.

“Oh! Uhhh nice bird monster?” Raine said as they visibly stopped themselves from backing away. “Please be a good monster,” they whispered under their breath.

A wicked grin crept across Eda’s face as she got a terrible, awful, and altogether too much fun to ignore idea. Rising up to her full height she spread her wings and reached one claw out towards the now trembling Raine and… flicked her forehead. “That’s for saying my advice sucked, even if you are right about it being crap,” she said with a chuckle.

“I- you- but- Eda?!” Raine eventually managed to say, their eyes wide with disbelief.

“Wasn’t that the name of the chick Raine dated ages ago?” one bandmate asked another.

“Yeah. Didn’t know she was a giant bird monster. Kinda hot though,” another replied.

“What? Don’t recognize me? I know it’s been a while but-” Eda began before being cut off by Raine hugging her.

“What happened to you?! You never responded to the letters I sent to let you know I was going to do my retirement concert here! I thought you didn’t want to see me again!”

“Letters?” Eda asked in confusion.

“Yes! Letters I-” Raine stopped and moved away from Eda as the confusion and worry on their face gave way to suspicion. “Eda. You do actually check your mailbox more than once a month now. Right?”

“Of course I do!” Eda replied indignantly.

“And you actually check what you got?” Raine pressed. When Eda steadfastly didn’t return their gaze they sighed. “Over twenty years and you haven’t changed a bit have you?” they asked fondly.

“Eh, you’d be surprised,” Eda said as she scanned the park. All the other monsters seemed to have been taken care of and the kid’s not-girlfriend had put her abominations away. When Eda squinted she could just barely make out Luz’s cape from somewhere behind the corpse of the van monster. Satisfied that things seemed to have worked themselves out or were at least being handled she turned back to Raine. “If you don’t have anything going on I’m sure we can play catch up.”

“I... I’d love to but-” Raine began.

“But nothing! We got this boss!” one of the bandmates said.

Raine looked to be about to protest again when their entire band shushed them and just shoved them back towards Eda. “Just go have fun! We can handle the cleanup without you. And if anyone comes by with backstage passes we’ll just have to give them a raincheck.”

After a moment Raine’s shoulders slumped and they chuckled. “Fine, if you say so.” They turned towards Eda with a smile and held out a hand. “Shall we?”

Eda nodded and willed her harpy form away, ginning hugely at the stunned look on Raine’s face when the transformation was complete. “Sure. Antonio’s isn’t too far from here if you still like Italian.” At Raine’s nod, Eda grinned and took their hand. “So it all starts with this kid I found on the side of the road…” she began as she and her old friend started to make their way out of the park.

Chapter Text

Luz was pretty sure that if Willow’s smug grin got any larger then it might qualify as a medical emergency. Willow, Gus, and Amity had all come by Eda’s place the day after the concert to, ostensibly, talk about what it was like to see Raine performing live as well as discuss what had happened with the coven guard. What had happened instead was that Willow and Gus took one look at Luz and Amity’s interlaced fingers and immediately began asking questions about that instead. Luz could only thank the titan that Eda was out of the house because she had, in her words, ‘business to attend to’, and wasn’t there to join in on the questions and light hearted mockery. Luz had gotten enough of that, along with the ‘I told you so’s last night after Eda had caught her lingering with Amity.

“I still can’t believe you both knew that Amity was interested and didn’t say anything!” Luz groused.

“What? And give up on all that free entertainment?” Gus asked. “You could've at least made a short comedy romance story about you two. Maybe even a full book depending on how much drama there is in the future.” His grin faded. “That and while I don’t think Amity would have gone as far as to kill us if we spilled the beans I wouldn’t want to bet on it,” he said with a nod in Amity’s direction.

“I wouldn’t have gone that far,” Amity grumbled. Her sour look faded into a small grin. “Luz would have never forgiven me if I killed one of you. Now amputation on the other hand…”

Gus recoiled slightly at the shark-like grin Amity shot his way. “Luz. Your girlfriend is really scary.”

Luz laughed for a few seconds before a thought occurred to her. “Did… did we ever really decide that we were girlfriends?” she asked. When Gus and Willow shot her disbelieving looks she blushed but did her best to defend herself. “I mean, in the end we decided it was a date and that we had fun but we never really defined anything or made plans for another date and we are holding hands now but-” she was cut off as Amity put a finger to Luz’s lips.

“Luz. Do you want to be my girlfriend?” she asked as she removed her finger to let Luz talk.

“Yes.”

“Congratulations. We are now officially girlfriends,” Amity said with a solemnity that didn’t match the slightly goofy grin on her face. After a moment’s pause she darted forward and gave Luz a quick kiss on the cheek.

Luz was only able to bask in the happy feelings for a few moments before an insistent beep came from her pocket. Blinking in confusion at the unusual alert sound she fished out her phone and saw the icon for the store’s security system. “Hold on, I need to check this,” she said as she started to unlock her phone.

“Since when did you have to keep an eye on the security system?” Amity asked as she glanced at the phone from over Luz’s shoulder.

“Whenever Eda heads out and leaves me here she sets me to the main user on the security account. She wanted me to turn anyone that tried to break in into a newt and didn’t listen when I said I couldn’t do that. This alert is for when someone is loitering outside the shop for too long. I just need to check… oh.” Luz’s face fell slightly when she brought up the feed for the camera and was greeted by the sight of Lilith standing outside the door, making attempts to reach for the doorknob that were always aborted before she even got halfway there. In her other hand was a large bag with what looked like a box pressing against the sides.

“Is something wrong?” Willow asked when she saw the expression on Luz’s face.

“Not… wrong, really. Lilith is outside the shop and is trying to work up the courage to open the door. Probably doesn’t know Eda is out and the door is locked,” Luz explained. With a sigh she stood up and put her phone away. “I better see what she wants.”

“I’ll come with you,” Amity said immediately.

Soon after both Gus and Willow voiced their own support for the idea and the four of them made their way downstairs. Unsurprisingly, Lilith had yet to even try opening the door, let alone go for whatever would be next after she realized it was locked. Sure, the closed sign was up but that didn’t really mean much where Eda was concerned. For a moment Luz contemplated opening the door like a normal person but quickly disregarded that for the more fun options. “Hey Lilith!” she shouted as she threw the door open.

“Luz!” Lilith yelped as she jumped backwards, almost dropping the bag she was holding on to. “I…” she trailed off as she glanced into the shop. “Eda is out isn’t she?”

“Yep.”

“I see.” Lilith took a deep breath before glancing over at the others standing behind Luz. “I was hoping that Eda would be here so that she would stop bothering me about this but her input on this is secondary.” She paused once more as she seemed to steel herself before shoving the bag in Luz’s direction. “Here. To make amends for… everything, I suppose.”

“Thanks?” Luz said as she looked at the bag. With a shrug she pulled out a simple brown box. It took a few seconds to work at the tape enough to actually open the thing to reveal… “A log?” Luz asked as she pulled a blueish log out of the box.

“Ah, I suppose you might not be familiar with it. Intel on the Boiling Isles has indicated that it has grown rather rare for the average witch. That,” Lilith said as she tapped the log, “is palistrum wood.”

Luz’s eyes shot open as she stared back down at the log, her hands trembling as she realized she was staring at a literal fortune. “I thought the palistrum trees were all in the Emperor’s personal gardens,” she whispered.

“Plenty of things can travel between realms with the natural portals. Seeds don’t make it through in one piece all that often and even then the chances that they will be able to survive wherever they land are equally small. But at least one palistrum seed made it through some time in the past and managed to thrive. These days there is just a small grove of the trees in the wilderness of Connecticut. Its ability to absorb magic and make it its own has proved useful to the SCI from time to time and there is a small stockpile of logs that we have access to, along with the grove itself. Since we only rarely have any use for it and it tends to be forgotten amongst everything else we keep in storage It was actually rather easy to requisition a log for you. 

“Between your assistance with Eda’s… issues and working with you on the stakeout I felt you deserved something special. As well as something as recompense for my… less than friendly actions since I learned you were a witch. My first thought was to repair your staff but rejuvenating a witch's staff requires the creator’s magic or it will end up destroying the staff entirely. I still have someone looking at it to see if they can repair the wood so you can get it rejuvenated by the original creator but for now.” She tapped the log once more. “I am hoping that this will be a suitable replacement. At least until you manage to get home and can contact the staff’s creator or someone that knows another method to properly repair it.

“I also hope that this can serve as an olive branch of sorts. Even with my… behavior towards you on the night Eda was injured and in the following days you never stooped to my level. Even in my worst moments you were able to set that aside and work with me. I understand if this may come across as hollow or me attempting to bribe you to forgive me and I can only hope that you will give me the chance to follow through on this.”

Luz stared at Lilith as the speech finished, her mind racing as she tried to think of something, anything, to say in response to either Lilith’s apology or the log of palistrum wood she’d been given. “Th-thank you,” she eventually managed to say, her eyes darting back down towards the log in her hands. “I… I don’t think anyone outside the Emperor’s Coven has been able to make a palisman in… I don’t know how long. Longer than I’ve been alive at least.” She clutched at the log. “You didn’t have to do this.”

The traces of apprehension that still remained in Lilith’s features melted away as she smiled. “Perhaps not. But I felt that you deserved something after how I had treated you. If it makes you feel any better the palistrum wood, while interesting, isn’t anywhere near as valuable to the SCI as to have made it costly to acquire. In the end I was able to get it as long as I promised to let them know how your carving went.”

Luz felt tears begin to gather in the corners of her eyes. Actually getting a palisman was the dream for young witches across the isles, wild or not. Not just for the much greater power that such a staff afforded a witch but also for the lifelong companion that would be made when carving the palisman. Unfortunately the only palismans that you saw outside the upper echelons of the Emperor’s Coven these days belonged to long running family lines that hadn’t given the Emperor's Coven sufficient reason to take it away from them. There were rumors of an ancient colony of palismans hidden somewhere deep in wild areas of the Boiling Isles but if anyone had ever managed to find it and come back alive they weren’t talking.

“Oh my titan I’m going to carve a palisman,” Luz whispered to herself. “What if I screw it up? I don’t know how to carve things! And I only heard stories about how making one is supposed to go! What if I do it wrong?!” Luz began to hyperventilate as she stared down at the log in her trembling hands. “I don’t think I can do this! Something will happen and I’ll screw it up and-” She was cut off as a pair of hands grabbed her shoulders and spun her around.

“You aren’t going to mess this up,” Amity said as her golden eyes bored into Luz’s own. “We can get you some carving tools and practice. And even if you somehow do manage to screw up, Lilith said that getting that log was easy. So even if everything that could go wrong, does, you will still be able to try again.” Without warning Amity pulled Luz into a, somewhat uncomfortable due to the log getting squished between them, hug. “So don’t worry about it. Things will work out. We’ll make them work out.”

After a few seconds in Amity’s arms Luz finally nodded against her girlfriend’s shoulder. “Yeah. It’ll all work out.” She pulled back and smiled at Amity. “I just have to go for it. Just like asking out a cute human.” When she saw the blush that exploded across Amity’s face at her words, her smile grew into a victorious grin. “I think I get why you always teased me so much. This is fun.”

“Oh, is that what we’re going to be doing now? Do you really think you can handle all this?” Amity asked as her blush faded away into a sultry grin, pulling one arm tighter around Luz’s waist as her other hand came up to cup Luz’s cheek. “I’m down to find out if you are Noceda.”

Luz’s previous bravado vanished in an instant as she found herself staring down an almost hungry gaze. “I… uh… well…” Thankfully her friends quickly came to her rescue.

“You guys do remember we’re still here right?” Willow asked.

In an instant Amity’s expression changed from sultry to embarrassed. “S-sorry,” she muttered as she backed away from Luz. “Got a little carried away.”

“A little carried away she says,” Gus said as he nudged Willow with an elbow. “I’m pretty sure if you hadn’t said anything they’d’ve started making out then and there.”

“And I believe that is my cue to leave, I wouldn’t want to further interrupt you two,” Lilith said as she nodded at Luz, not quite managing to suppress a small smile. “But please don’t hesitate to call the SCI if you need any assistance with carving your palisman.” She looked meaningfully at Amity “Or if you run into any other complications regarding integration with human society or how particular spells interact with humans. I would prefer not to hear Ms. Blight’s name attached to a pregnancy scandal. Human birth control is rather different from what I expect is used on the Boiling Isles after all.”

“Okay thanks a lot you can go now!” Luz shouted as she began to shove a now laughing Lilith out the door. Once the infuriating woman was fully out of the shop Luz closed the door with a huff and turned to meet the gaze of a very embarrassed Amity and an equally amused Willow and Gus.

“I think I can finally see the family resemblance between her and Eda,” Willow said. Her smile faded as she glanced down at the log Luz was still holding under one arm. “So… that’s a big deal isn’t it?”

Luz glanced down at the log before nodding. “Yeah.” She traced a hand along the log. “It really is.”

Hunter growled as he flipped through the guard’s journal once again. Hoping that, against all odds, he would find something new. Something that would help explain things. Once again he reached the end of the journal with nothing new to show for his efforts. Nothing that he could possibly even begin to hope would reinforce his floundering idea that the guard had been in the right.

As desperate for answers as he was, he wasn’t so foolish as to completely disregard reality when it clubbed him over the head with information. And yesterday had been very enlightening in regards to the Wild Witch.

She had prioritized saving humans when there was no reason for her to do so beyond maybe indulging him since she’d realized he wasn’t as racist as the real coven guard. She’d even done her best to make sure the baby birds that had been pecking at the artifact causing the issue were kept safe even as they pecked at her hands. And… and she’d saved his life.

Everything in the journal had painted wild witches as remorseless terrorists. Doing everything they could to undermine the rightful ruler of the Boiling Isles. There was no low to which they would not stoop in their quest for personal power. The guard had wondered at how the Wild Witch had been manipulating people, whether she was sacrificing them in profane rituals, or even just outright killing and eating them. All that and more had seemed to be the standard modus operandi for wild witches in general. If the journal was to be believed they were all monsters of the highest degree and the best thing for everyone involved would be for them to be put down for good.

Hunter growled as he slammed a fist against the wall of his hideout. Once again his desperation to find answers had screwed him over! He’d been so sure that what he’d found was right, that it had to be right that he hadn’t questioned anything! He’d been so willing to believe that he might have finally found what he’d been looking for that he’d ended up going all in on the first option given to him. An option that was starting to look a lot less desirable than it had been when it was first presented. An option that may well have included throwing his other option into the garbage before he realized what he had given up on!

“No,” he whispered as his fist tightened and his nails dug into his palms. “I can still make this work.” Even if the Wild Witch was willing to go for a truce now and then with Golden Guard she was unlikely to agree to any long term peace between them. But at the same time she didn’t know who he was under the mask. If he ever managed to run into her outside of his costume he could try and strike something up there. Unfortunately, he had already used all the useful artifacts he had with his original identity, leaving nothing behind that he could use to make something unaffiliated with the guards. 

Hunter's eyes widened as a new idea struck him and he turned his gaze to the table of artifacts. People always came running whenever someone used an artifact in public. The Wild Witch, the men in black, the guard, and now the Golden Guard. Normally those events ended with someone losing the artifact and getting cut off from the supernatural world entirely. But what if, when the Wild Witch flew in, the victim showed that they had magic too? That they weren’t just some run of the mill human? That they were just like her?

His mind spun with the possibilities. If he played his cards right he could approach the Wild Witch as Hunter, while still looking for artifacts as the Golden Guard. He would be able to get information directly from the Wild Witch while still building up everything he needed in order to break out the guard and get his side of the story. Once he had the full story from both sides he could make a decision. Decide which person to believe and help get back to the Boiling Isles. 

He frowned as a sudden thought occurred to him. If he did manage to get in contact with the Wild Witch he would probably need someplace that they could meet that wasn’t a run down house in the middle of the woods. Homeless shelters were also out if he wanted to keep his new collection of artifacts somewhere he could keep an eye on them. With a sigh he pulled out his wallet and began counting out his pay from the concert job. He’d hoped the rather sizable bonus that he’d been given as recompense for the event being interrupted by an artifact would last longer. “Maybe one of the long term stay hotels?” he muttered to himself as he tried to make a guess at how long he’d be able to stay in such a place. His face fell as he realized that, even with an optimistic estimate he only had enough to stay in a decent place for maybe a week.

“Looks like it’s back to craigslist for me,” he muttered despondently. After allowing himself a moment to bemoan his situation he took a deep breath and squared his shoulders. It would all be worth it in the end. After all this was done he would have the answers he was looking for.

One way or the other.

Chapter Text

“So this is going to keep us from being found by the new guard?” Willow asked as she looked down at the simple bracelets Luz had presented them all with after school. The young witch had been certainly busy in the days that had passed since the concert. Between learning to carve and building the bracelets from the designs the SCI had provided her with she’d had plenty of very busy days.

“Yep!” Luz declared with a smile. “There were a few changes I had to make in order to fully adapt the design for titan magic but it all worked out in the end.” She picked up a bracelet and slid it over her wrist. “While you’re wearing it, it will output a jamming field that imitates the background magic of wherever you are. And when you aren’t wearing it it’ll also charge passively based on all background magic, not just titan magic. It should be good for about a full day’s worth of use.” She grimaced a little as she removed the bracelet and set it back down. “Unfortunately it takes about two hours to get back an hour's worth of charge, so make sure that you charge it more than you use it.”

“Shouldn’t be too much of a problem,” Gus said as he picked up his bracelet. “We could still use it for eight hours every day and that sounds like plenty.” With a huge grin, he slipped his bracelet into his backpack. “I can’t wait to start using my artifact again. The whole thing with the guard may have been really scary but I got so many ideas of how I can use my illusions from that and I can’t wait to try them out!” His manic grin faltered a little bit as he fished out his phone and looked at the time. “But that’s gonna have to wait. Dad got a raise at work yesterday and he wanted to go out to a nice restaurant to celebrate. I’m gonna have to get going if I want to get home in time to do anything before we have to head out for dinner.”

“I hope you have a good time,” Willow said as Gus started to take off and everyone waved goodbye to him. With him gone Willow turned to look at the remaining two members of their little group. Specifically their intertwined hands. “And I’m guessing you two have plans?” Willow asked with a smile. A smile that grew when she saw her pointed look and question had caused both Luz and Amity to blush slightly.

“Yeah, I haven’t had the free time to do much lately so…” Luz trailed off as she squeezed Amity’s hand.

Willow smiled and nodded. “Well you two have fun on your first real date then,” she said as she scooped up her own bracelet and slipped it into her backpack.

“Our second real date thank you very much,” Amity declared haughtily, though not without a small smile.

“First one didn’t count,” Willow declared as she began to walk away from the couple. “You didn’t actually do anything after you tried to make it a date so it wasn’t a real date!”

“Screw you too Park!” Amity called back without any real vitriol.

Willow simply continued to make her way down the street, Luz’s questions about the validity of the date the two had been on just barely audible as she retreated. Willow made it as far as the bus stop before she realized that she didn’t have any plans for the afternoon whatsoever. Gardening Club hadn’t met today, both her dads were still at work and could possibly end up working late, and now all her friends had something else to do. She was certainly no stranger to being left to her own devices alone like this but it had become something of a rarity ever since Luz had come into her life. Doubly so once Luz had managed to come through on her early declaration that she would restore Willow’s long-lost friendship with Amity.

Almost every bit of free time she’d had ended up being shared with someone. Either for the simple joys of friendship or for the more pressing matters of how magic and its users were impacting their lives. She hummed as that thought gave way to the reminder that she could, once again, make free use of her artifact. While not as exuberant as Gus was about magic or as dedicated to increasing her skill with it as Amity, she wasn’t without joy when it came to her artifact. Of course, the fact that it tied so neatly into her hobby was a welcome bonus.

After a quick check of her phone to see if either of her dads had sent her a message about dinner showed that things looked to still be on track for her having to deal with that herself, she stood up from the bus stop bench. The nearest park wasn’t the largest or in possession of the most hiding places where she could really let loose with the glove, but it was usually empty around this time of day and would be a perfect place to get back into the groove of using it. It also helped that the small bit of forest off to the side of the park was usually completely empty.

The trip to the park was, thankfully, as uneventful as she had expected. While Willow wasn’t quite at the point where she expected every outing she had to end in some sort of adventure she was fully aware that such events were becoming, if not common, then at least unsurprising when they did happen. “Not that the day is over yet,” she muttered to herself with a smile. She was about to go play with the very magic that was the catalyst for so many adventures after all. That had to at least double the chances of some sort of adventure happening.

She took stock of all the people she could see as she made her way through the park. There was a small group of people playing soccer on one of the fields. Some sort of after school club or middle school soccer league if she guessed correctly. Beyond that there were the usual scattered people walking dogs or jogging, off in the distance there was even a couple that looked to be having a picnic. 

While she might normally head towards some of the flowerbeds or maybe to one of the older trees that stood tall and proud in the more open areas of the park, her goal today was somewhat different. No, today her focus was on the small wooded area that had been left alone as part of some sort of environmental initiative. Something about how in order to build the rest of the park a certain percentage of the woods that had been here before needed to remain standing and untouched. The place was usually left alone by the visitors to the park since it didn’t have the nice manicured grass or carefully trimmed trees and bushes. Sure, you could pretty regularly find some kids exploring the place but it would be empty enough that she could get away with practicing with her artifact.

A small smile ghosted across her face as she entered the woods, pushing aside the occasional branch and reveling in the crunch of old leaves under her feet. Before long the dense plant life had completely cut off almost all sight of the rest of the park. Certainly enough for her to start trying out her first idea without anyone any the wiser.

Pulling both glove and bracelet from her backpack she slipped them on and began to concentrate. Her occasional uses of the glove had gotten her used to coaxing plants along their natural growth. Pushing them to excel in what they were going to be doing anyway without ever really moving outside their lane. Get a stronger root system, fight off disease, grow a new stem or leaf here or there, and sometimes simply repair what already existed. But between what little plant magic she’d seen Luz use and the impressive, if ill-conceived, display Matthoumule had engaged in when she had first been introduced to magic she knew that she could do more. Reaching deep into the glove’s magic she could feel the primal desire to grow, to expand, to brush aside everything that dared try and impede the plantlife around her. It would be easy to let that all wash her away. Let herself be subsumed by those base desires of the plants and give them the energy to grow a monster similar to what Matthoumule had created. With her knowledge of plants she could likely create something even grander, more dangerous, and even less controllable.

With a growl, she stamped down on those impulses and instead reached down to a small fern. Power pulsed along her hands as she commanded it to grow along her arm, wrapping her in thick vines that crisscrossed all along her body. With the rudimentary system complete she cut off the new vines from their originator and moved her focus solely to the new growth. Her eyes narrowed in concentration as the areas of her body that weren’t covered in vines were hidden by swiftly growing leaves, thicker than most of what could be found in the natural world and magnitudes tougher than even the strongest natural plants. Leaves and a few smaller vines began to move up along her neck and into her hair, building out a simple helmet and facemask. Drawing inspiration from some of the succulents that a fellow club member was growing she grew a series of thick translucent leaves over her eyes. In the end, it created an effect almost like she was wearing swimming goggles over her glasses.

With her suit complete she began to twist around, trying to get the best view of her work as she could. After a moment’s thought, and a facepalm, she remembered her phone and commanded the vines to pull it out of her pocket and move it through her armor. Unlocking the phone and accessing its camera ended up being a minor trial as well as she did her best to create capacitive leaves before giving up and simply moving the leaves away from her fingertips.

Several quick photos later she was looking through a small gallery of images that depicted something that looked like it belonged in some old monster movie from when they had to use people in suits to play the monsters. The leaves and vines thickened her already stocky frame into a surprisingly dense-looking form with the semi-translucent leaves over her eyes reflecting just enough light to look menacing.

It was perfect.

Stowing her phone back away she prepared herself for the fun, and hard, part of her desired experiments: actually using her new armor. With a flex of power and intent she tried to make the vines around her arm move with her as she threw a punch to try and augment the strike. To her slight surprise and glee it worked, albeit a little too well. Unprepared for the force of her own punch she was spent spinning around until she fell to the ground in an undignified heap. Furthermore, her arm hadn’t been ready to handle that sort of extreme acceleration and everything from the right side of her chest outward ached as her body was forced to move far beyond what it was used to.

“Maybe I shouldn’t put that much oomf into it,” Willow muttered to herself as she rubbed her arm with a wince. Picking herself back up off the ground, with only minor assistance from her new plant-based power armor, she settled in to try another punch. Now that she was both ready for it and no longer using as much force she was capable of to throw the punch she managed to do it without hurting herself or losing balance. After a few more test punches to make sure that the first one hadn’t been a fluke she turned her attention to the next big test. Actually hitting something.

“Okay. Just… gonna punch a tree,” Willow said as she turned to look at the nearest tree. She settled into a stance that she vaguely remembered from a movie she’d seen and… “Nope. Not gonna do it. This is a terrible idea.” Stepping out of the stance she’d taken she turned her attention to the forest around her. Surely there was something around here that she could punch without running the risk of breaking her own arm, right?

After a some searching she found an old branch that had managed to remain untouched by most insect life and was thick enough that she would have had to lever it up and stomp on it to break it. Levering it up with one hand she did her best to set up a punch with the minimal amount of awkwardness she could manage. Exhaling sharply her hand shot forward and smashed through the branch with almost no resistance and, even better, almost no backlash against her arm. Sure, a lot of that was probably mitigated by the fact that she’d managed to punch through her target and she wasn’t going to be trying her luck on anything that had a decent chance of being able to just sit there and take her punch but it had proven that her ideas were working!

Riding the high of her more out-there idea having gone off without, too much of, a hitch she moved on to simpler things. Growing thorns from her armor, controlling the plantlife around her in more delicate and complex ways, and seeing just what the limits were to what would stick around after the magic left the plant she was controlling. It turned out that while a plant could sustain a larger than average growth without magic, anything that started verging into unnatural would wither away and vanish as the magic that had allowed it to grow like that was removed.

Time passed in a blur as Willow lost herself in the wonders of exploring magic. Between the thick canopy helping keep the sun from view and no one to tell her how long she had been at it, she had no idea just how long it had been since she’d started. It was only when she felt a wave of tiredness sweep through her that she realized she was almost certainly pushing it in terms of using the artifact. She had no desire to see what would happen if she became delirious due to the artifact leeching too much from her. Gus had already shown that a person could continue to use an artifact even in that state after all and she really didn’t what would happen if the plants ever slipped free of the iron grip she kept over them and were allowed to run rampant.

She was just about to dismiss the armor when a sudden crack reached her ears. Eyes narrowing, she spun around to see who had snuck up on her only to see a young man running through the forest, pursued by two men in suits. The boy looked to be around her own age, with pale white hair and reddish eyes, his plain clothes were threadbare and unkempt but obviously cared for. The two men chasing him were an almost surprising study in opposites. One bearing perfectly coiffed dark hair and immaculate dark skin wearing a suit that looked like it had once been cared for with similar levels of care but now was covered in strange off color splotches led the pair, shaking an angry fist at his prey.

“Get back here you reprobate!” the man yelled. “This suit is worth more than your entire wardrobe and you will pay for sullying it!” 

Behind him was another man, maybe half his partner’s size and whose mass seemed to consist mostly of a massive shaggy mass of red hair. His own suit carried similar splotches but they were much harder to make out due to the suit already looking to be barely cared for. While he looked human there was something off about him. His gait carried a more animalistic bent and his face held a feral look that triggered warning bells deep in Willow’s mind.

“I said I was sorry!” the boy shouted as he continued to run through the forest, doing his best to dart behind trees to break line of sight from his pursuers. A sensible, if fruitless effort given the relative thinness of the majority of trees in this section of the woods.

Cursing Gus and Luz’s poor influences she started running forward to catch up with the boy. If she didn’t do something to help out someone so obviously in need of assistance her friends would never let her live it down. Well, Amity might not ever let her live it down. Gus and Luz would probably just look at her disappointedly and just reassure her that they were glad that she didn’t get hurt or something. Her heart thundered in her ears as the increased running speed her armor allowed her caused the trees to whip past her. She felt a small smile crossing her face as minor flicks of power caused the brush to move out of her way, taking the detritus that littered the forest floor with it to leave her a free path to work with.

A shout caused her eyes to flick towards the men that were chasing after the boy. The smaller of the two was pointing at her and shouting something incomprehensible. Focusing her thoughts she held out her hand in their direction and willed the plants under their feet to grow and grab at them. Unfortunately her distance from her targets proved to be enough that she could only cause a minor hindrance with the plants, but at the speed they were running even a minor hindrance could be dangerous. Something the larger of the two quickly found out as a vine shifted just enough to snag at one foot as he took a step. He didn’t quite end up falling to the ground but he did end up stumbling into a tree, something his companion seemed to take an inordinate amount of amusement from.

With the pursuers taken care of, or at least delayed enough for part two of her plan to be put in motion Willow sped up as much as she could. Within seconds she managed to catch up to the boy and scooped him up, marveling at how light he felt. “Hold on, we’re getting out of here,” she said as she did her best to keep up the pace she’d set in catching up to him. 

For his part, he seemed to take being kidnapped by a giant plant monster rather well. Only staring at her with wide eyes and gripping her arm tightly enough that it would have been painful without the armor.

After a few moments of running, they reached a section of forest where the trees were older and thicker. Thick enough that they could slip behind one and enact the last part of Willow’s plan. Another wave of tiredness washed over her as she sent a vine snaking up the tree to pull them into its branches. Biting the inside of her cheek to try to focus herself, she called on the artifact again to create a collection of bark, branches, and leaves that would camouflage them from below and allow them a chance to rest.

“Keep quiet,” she whispered to the boy. “I don’t know if we lost them yet.”

The boy nodded and mimed zipping his lips shut.

Their decision to remain silent was quickly rewarded when the sounds of angry cursing and crunching leaves began moving towards them. “Are you sure this is the direction they went?” came the voice of the taller man. After a moment he continued, “don’t give me that you mongrel. That brat completely ruined this suit!” Another moment of incomprehensible growls and grumbles that Willow came to realize must be the smaller man responding, the first one spoke again, “of course I remember our mission! Just because I  want to make sure that some monster doesn’t go running around using harmful magic on people doesn’t-” The man was interrupted by a barking laugh before continuing, even more indignant. “I am not biased! That child is a menace to society and should be locked up!” The man’s voice slowly faded into the distance as he and his partner moved away from the tree. 

Once the voices had dwindled into nothing the boy Willow had rescued decided to speak up. “So… you’re not a forest spirit or a faerie that’s going to demand a favor for rescuing me are you?”

Willow froze at the genuine apprehension and worry in his voice. “What?! No! I’m just using a magic glove!” With thought and a pulse of fading energy Willow moved the vines and leaves from her arm to reveal the glove and her forearm. “See?”

“Oh, so you found one too?” he asked. “I’ve got this harp. I’m… not really that sure what it does. Apart from ruin people’s suits, I guess.”

“Okay, I-” Willow paused as she felt another wave of exhaustion pass over her. “Hold on, we need to get down. I don’t know how much longer I can keep all this going.” Thankfully the boy didn’t protest as she lowered them both to the ground and dispersed most of her armor, leaving only the mask and helmet to at least attempt at keeping her identity somewhat unknown.

“Keeping the mask?” he asked with a chuckle.

“Well, I’d rather not let some random person I met in the forest know everything about me,” she explained as she leaned back against a tree and slid down until she was sitting on the ground.

“Are you alright?” the boy asked after a moment as he knelt down at her side, concern obvious in his face.

“Yeah. Just overusing these things can be really tiring. After a while they start draining you of energy to keep using magic. I was already running pretty low after testing a lot of things with this before I ran into you.” She paused before turning a half-hearted glare towards the boy. “Still have enough to tie you to a tree if you try anything though.”

The boy backed away and held his hands up placatingly. “Message received! I won’t do anything to you.”

Willow kept up her glare for a few more seconds before letting it drop and returning to resting her head against the tree. “Good. Don’t want to have to make myself even more tired by having to kick your ass.”

“Sooo… have you been using your artifact long?”

Willow blinked and turned back to look at the boy, who flinched back slightly at her tired gaze. Though she supposed that with the mask and lenses still in place pretty much any look from her was probably a little unsettling. “Kinda. I’ve had it for a little while. This was my first time really using it though. I wanted to be a bit more ready for…” she trailed off as she looked the boy up and down. While he looked older than her it didn’t look to be by much, and if the limited knowledge on the harp he’d found was true… “Alright. I’m going to give you a crash course in all this. First off, how much do you know?”

“About the artifacts?” he prompted. At Willow’s nod, he continued. “They showed up a while ago, probably from those holes in the sky, they let you use magic, there’s at least one person collecting them that people are calling the Wild Witch, and using the artifacts too much can tire you out.” He paused and glanced in the direction they’d last heard the men in suits going. “I also think there’s some sort of government organization trying to keep an eye on things.”

“Well, you have most of the important stuff there,” Willow said. “But there’s one more person you need to know about. We’ve just been calling him the guard.”

“The… guard?”

“Yeah. He’s… trying to collect as many artifacts as he can. And he’s willing to hurt people in order to do it. Luckily he doesn’t seem to want anyone to die but…” Willow glanced down at the harp the boy was still holding. “Just don’t do anything that might catch his attention. He also has some way of tracking magic when it’s being used. I…” she glanced down at her wrist. “A friend of mine found a way to keep him from tracking magic.” With a sigh, she loosened the bracelet from her wrist. Explaining where it went would be annoying but she doubted the Luz would object to making sure that one more person was safe from the guard and Luz had already repeatedly assured them that the bracelets were pretty easy and cheap to make once she had put together how. “She’ll be able to make a new one for me later and if the guard was going to show up from tracing magic he’d probably have been on your trail and shown up by now.”

“I… see,” the boy said as he turned the bracelet over in his hands. “Oh! I’m Hunter, by the way.” He held out a hand. “You don’t need to tell me who you are but since you’re doing so much for me…”

Willow nodded and shook the proffered hand. “Don’t worry about it. I just don’t want anyone else to run into that guard.”

Hunter looked down at the bracelet again pensively. “Is he really that bad?”

“Yes,” Willow hissed, causing Hunter to recoil at the venom in her voice. “Oh! I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to startle you. I just… a friend of mine had a run in with him and things didn’t go so well. Just be careful.” Willow stood back up to prepare to leave and paused as she remembered something. “And that bracelet should only be used for about eight hours a day at most. It takes a while to charge up but it does that based on the background magic. If you ever need to use your artifact when you don’t have the bracelet try to do it in a high traffic area that you can’t get attacked easily in.”

Hunter nodded as he continued to look down at the bracelet. Willow had just started to walk away when he spoke up. “Will I ever be able to meet you again?”

Willow froze at his question. A large part of her wanted to say no. Not out of malice or lack of care, but for concern for others, Luz especially. Bringing someone in didn’t just mean letting them know about her. It could compromise everyone so everyone would need to agree before anyone could really be allowed to learn much about them. But at the same time, she didn’t want to leave someone hanging without anyone to talk to about the new complication in their life. “I… can’t give you my name or a phone number or anything but…” She pulled her phone out and made a quick throwaway email address. Then, using one of the more fun tricks she’d figured out with her artifact, grew a flower petal that had the email address spelled out on it with the flower’s pigment. “Contact me here if something goes wrong or if you have any questions.”

Hunter looked down at the flower petal with wide eyes. “Thanks,” he said quietly.

While he was engrossed with staring down at her creation Willow turned around and started making her way towards where she’d stowed her backpack. It might not have been as flashy as what Luz, Gus, or Amity had done but it felt nice to help someone in need.

“This is unacceptable,” Darius grumbled as he looked down at his utterly ruined suit. “Do you have any idea how hard it is to dispel magical color changes like this? And of course R&D still hasn’t approved my requests to add a set of proper self-care spells to the enchantments on these things.” He lifted the suit jacket from the sub-par motel ironing board with a look of disgust. “Utterly ruined.”

“You’re just jealous the kid got you good.”

Darius’s face fell at the, unintelligable to most others, words of his diminutive partner. “And of course you’re back,” Darius groaned. “Did you at least find something while I was trying to fix this abominable mess?”

“Nothing yet.”

“Of course not. It’s not like this mission could just be over with and I could go back to New York. But no, I’m stuck out here because Clawthorn is too busy playing with children to assist with the Director’s pet project.”

Eberwolf shrugged and, like the animal he was, threw his suit jacket and tie on the floor of their room. “If we were still in New York you’d just be complaining to Bishop about having to stomp around the sewers.”

“At least then I knew what to do to keep my clothes clean,” Darius huffed. “Now are you going to pick those up or am I going to have to clean up after you like a pet that hasn’t been housebroken?”

“Not my fault you can’t stand this sort of thing,” Eberwolf retorted with a grin that had teeth far too sharp to look like anything a human might have.

“And this is why I requested separate rooms,” Darius muttered under his breath. “Did you at least remember to send the data from the latest scans to R&D?”

“Yeah, yeah,” Eberwolf said with a roll of his eyes. “They said something about everything making sense and finally making a breakthrough before I hung up on them.”

“Again?” Darius asked. It wasn’t the first time R&D had made it sound like the new data was going to be the lynchpin in getting this god-forsaken mission done with after all. Looking back down at his jacket he considered breaking out some of the more specialized tools he had brought with him. They hadn’t been brought along with undoing magical clothing blemishes in mind but it would be worth a shot. He was just about to get out his kit when he felt the faint buzz of his phone receiving a message. Interest at who would possibly be sending him a message now of all times was quickly replaced by tired annoyance as Eberwolf’s phone began playing its own notification sound. With gritted teeth, Darius sat through the nearly minute long insipid song the little gremlin had chosen for his notification sound. A choice that he was sure had been made solely to annoy him.

“R&D sent back a message,” Eberwolf oh so helpfully informed him with a smug grin. That smugness slowly morphed to genuine interest and glee as he read the message. “Looks like they might not have been full of hot air this time. They have some new frequencies to key into the scanners along with an update to the scanner’s enchantment.”

Darius grumbled curses under his breath as he looked down at the kit he had already started getting out to try and deal with the stains in his clothes. Tweaking the enchantments would take long enough that he would have to choose between getting his beauty rest and cleaning up his suit. With a grumble he put away the ironing board and glanced into his closet at the nine remaining identical backup suits that were hanging up in there. Cutting the rotation down one set would just have to do.

Looking over the email that had been sent by R&D he felt a little of his annoyance fade away. If these numbers were even half as good as what they were saying they were, this mission might actually be over before too long. They could finally hunt down that damnable artifact, the director could really get his little pet project off the ground, and, most importantly, Darius could go back home to the dry cleaners he could actually trust.

It was only a matter of time.

Chapter Text

“Don’t worry, you got this,” Amity assured her girlfriend as she stared down at the log in her hands. “You’ve been practicing all week and you’ve gotten really good. In fact I’m pretty sure that apart from making Willow’s new bracelet you haven’t done anything but practice whenever you had some free time for the past couple days. And even if something somehow does manage to go wrong, Lilith can get you another palistrum log.” She rubbed Luz’s shoulder reassuringly. “Everything is going to be fine.”

“But-” Luz began.

“No buts,” Amity admonished her before she could finish vocalizing her worry. “Everything. Will. Be. Fine.” She maneuvered to Luz’s other side, careful not to jostle anything on the workbench in the back of the Owl house that had been claimed for today’s task and gently moved Luz’s hand to the first chisel. “Now go ahead. I’ll be here to help if you need me.” She paused for a moment as she recalled the misshapen abominations she’d carved when she tried to join in with Luz’s carving practice. “Well. I’m here for moral support at least. I probably shouldn’t be allowed to use any tools on that log.”

Thankfully her joke landed and Luz broke into a happy grin. “They weren’t that bad,” she said with a chuckle. “That last one even actually managed to look like a bear!”

“... yes. A bear. That’s what it was supposed to be,” Amity said as she thought back to her last attempt to carve a cat. “Now go on. I’ll be right here to tell you how good you’re doing whenever you need me.” She started to step back towards the seat she’d dragged out of one of the back roon’s corners, after making sure nothing had decided to move in during its tenure in back here of course, before an idea struck her. Seeing that Luz still hadn’t actually even gripped the chisel, let alone picked it up, she darted forward and gave Luz a quick peck on the cheek. “For luck,” she told her adorably blushing girlfriend. Her tasks accomplished she stepped back and settled down into the, surprisingly comfortable, old recliner and watched as Luz picked up the first chisel.

Amity had always found it rather hypnotic to watch Luz carve. Seeing her swap from tool to tool as her creation began to take form beneath her ministrations. Trying to guess what Luz was making was always difficult in those early stages as she sheared away large chunks of material that wouldn’t be needed for the final product. Making those guesses and changing them as the creation became more defined had become something of a game for Amity. Even to the point that she’d begun asking Luz to not tell her what she was trying to make until it was done, just to see if her guesses were correct.

One would think that with something as important as Luz’s palismen there would have been hints dropped here or there that might speed the guessing process along. Some little minor turn in a conversation that would help illuminate what sort of animal Luz wanted to try and create for her lifelong partner. However Luz, as she so often did, both defied and fulfilled Amity’s expectations. Rare were the days that she didn’t muse at least once about what she would carve from the palistrum log and share her ideas of what it would be. Rarer still were the times that the same animal came up twice in a row. So far she’d mentioned cats, bees, chameleons, dogs, snakes, bats, otters, and several kinds of birds including owls, cardinals, doves, and blue jays. This had led into questions about why she was choosing Earth animals instead of Boiling Isles ones and she’d explained that she wanted her palismen to always stand as a reminder of the human realm. Of course that had led to everyone listing all sorts of animals that she could use to model her palismen off of. It had been a lot of fun until Gus had mentioned giraffes and set off a ten minute long tirade/interrogation/freakout about the creatures.

Apparently they had come from the Boiling Isles after being banished for being freaks. Thankfully that particular discussion was eventually ended when Willow suggested calling the SCI to ask for a conclusive explanation of what was going on. Amity still wasn’t sure whether she was happy with the new knowledge that all giraffes could talk and, although they had long since stopped doing it, could consume people’s souls.

Shaking herself out of her reverie she turned her attention back to Luz and was pleased to see that she had already carved away a large amount of the wood. With a smile she stood up and walked over to her girlfriend’s side to better inspect the progress. There was obviously still a lot left to do, she hadn’t been lost in her thoughts that long, but she could see the shapes that were starting to form. Whatever the animal was it looked to be a bit on the longer side, so probably not a bird or a bat. Personally Amity preferred the cat. Though she’d done her best to not mention that to Luz for fear of influencing the decision too much. “Looking good so far,” she said as she watched Luz continue to shave away chunks of wood.

When there was no response Amity finally turned her full attention to Luz. “Luz?” she asked with a frown. It wasn’t unusual for Luz to get lost in whatever she was doing, but she always had enough awareness of what was going on that Amity didn’t need to worry about startling her when she was working. After another few moments of silence Amity leaned forward to get a better look at Luz’s face and gasped in shock. Instead of the usual warm brown eyes she was used to seeing, Luz’s eyes were glowing white. “Luz?” she asked again, a tinge of concern in her voice. “Come on Luz, talk to me. Is this supposed to be happening or did something go wrong?”

Despite Amity’s question Luz simply continued to mechanically carve at the log. Her hands making smooth, precise cuts to shave off long strips of bluish wood.

With a grimace Amity hesitantly reached out to grab Luz’s shoulder and give it a light shake. “Come on Luz, please tell me this is normal,” she begged.

Luz didn’t respond, only continued to whittle away at the wood in her hands.

As tempted as she was to try and shake Luz from her trance, Amity knew it was a bad idea. At the bare minimum she would run the very real risk of causing Luz to accidentally damage the wood beyond usability. Sure, another log could be acquired but Amity didn’t want to be the one to justify Luz’s paranoia and make it even worse. On the worse, and still very likely outcome was an attempt at snapping Luz out of it to cause her to harm herself of Amity with the sharp chisel that was even now gouging out chunks of wood with ease.

And all of that was just the physical side of things that Amity was sure could happen. It was abundantly clear that whatever was going on had to do with magic. Whether this was all part of the palisman making process, a side effect of it being done outside the Boiling Isles, some mutation from the tree growing in the human realm, or something else that she didn’t know enough to even suspect. She simply didn’t have the information needed. Or it could have been intentional, a dark, uncharitable part of her whispered. While Lilith had certainly seemed sincere in her desire to start over in her relationship with Luz it didn’t get rid of all the anger and deception that had plagued their earlier meetings. No, Amity eventually decided. If Lilith really was lying about wanting to make amends with Luz she would have chosen a much subtler route to try and get rid of Luz. Having her die from the log that Lilith had explicitly given her would have driven an irreparable wedge between Lilith and Eda. Such an action could even cost her her career if it was done without the SCI’s knowledge and Eda raged loud enough at the right people.

Of course if that was all correct that meant the next course of action was, unfortunately, quite obvious: Contact Lilith.  Pushing down her worries about taking her eyes off Luz she turned and made her way to the door of the workshop and cracked it open. “Eda?” she hissed as she glanced around what she could see of the shop. “Eda?” she repeated a little louder. She was about to try a third time when Eda popped her head into view.

“What’cha need kid? Luz didn’t cut off one of her fingers, did she? Or is this something else?” Eda asked with a smirk. “I did leave you two alone in there without any adult supervision, that wasn’t a mistake was it?” Eda’s smirk quickly evaporated as she finally took in the look on Amity’s face. “What’s wrong?”

“I don’t know!” Amity admitted as she opened the door a little further. “Something happened with Luz and I don’t know what it is.”

Eda nodded and pulled the door open enough to enter the room. “You alright there Luz? You’re not getting all hyper focused again are you?” she asked as she followed Amity over to Luz’s side. At Amity’s frantic gestures she leaned down to look at Luz’s face and immediately recoiled. “The hell is wrong with her eyes!?”

“I don’t know!” Amity reiterated. “I wasn’t really paying attention since I didn’t want to interrupt her while she was working but when I got up to see how she was doing she didn’t respond and when I touched her shoulder she didn’t even twitch and now her eyes are glowing and I don’t know what to do other than to call Lilith and I don’t have her number!” Amity said in one breath.

“Calm down kid,” Eda said as she placed a steadying hand on Amity’s shoulder. “Luz’ll pull through this. She always does. But I do agree that calling in Lilly is probably the smart thing to do. Give me a sec and I’ll get a hold of her. Or Steve. He might be the one manning the phone right now.”

Amity rested her hand back on Luz’s shoulder as Eda began talking on the phone. Unfortunately it seemed that Lilith was indeed the one that had been available and would be there as soon as she could. That was fine. Amity would be able to handle being around Lilith again if it was to help out Luz. The fact that their rare interactions after Lilith had kidnapped Luz had been on the shorter end and only rarely with Amity having to interact with the woman at all had always been a small but enjoyable blessing. Even before Amity had started dating Luz she had found Lilith to be distasteful. A feeling that had only increased tenfold once Luz and Amity had started dating. Knowing that Lilith had been responsible for what had to have been one of Luz’s worst experiences in the human world had been bad enough. Then all the underhanded attempts to try and curry favor with Eda without actually seeking forgiveness from Luz, even going so far as to sneak some sort of device into the house to try and ‘prove’ that Luz was a monster had only cemented Lilith’s position in Amity’s mind as the worst sort of person.

The others, Luz included, had softened their outlook on the woman after learning more about her and what she had suffered at the hands of magic and its users but Amity had remained steadfast in her dislike. Just because someone had a tragic backstory that explained their reasons for doing terrible things it didn’t make it okay that they did those things. They couldn’t just get away with ruining someone else’s life because life made them predisposed to make a bad decision or the circumstances forced them to do something they should have known was wrong. Amity hissed as she realized she had been clenching her hands tightly enough for her nails to dig painfully into her palms.

“Lilly will be here in about twenty minutes, depending on traffic,” Eda said as she slipped her phone into her pocket. “Luz still the same?”

“Yeah,” Amity replied as Luz continued to whittle away at the log. “Lilith didn’t say what it might be over the phone did she?”

“Nope,” Eda grumbled. “Said she might have some ideas but that she didn’t want to commit to anything until she saw Luz and get some readings or something from her.” Eda turned to look over at the young witch, worry clear in her expression. “She did say not to try and shake her out of it though.”

“Like I needed to be told not to shake the person using a bunch of sharp tools to chop away at a hunk of wood,” Amity huffed as she crossed her arms and sank back down into her chair.

For several minutes the only sound to be heard in the workroom was the steady rasping of tools against wood and the soft clatter of chunks of wood falling to the worktable’s surface. Eventually though, Eda broke the silence as she threw her hands into the air. “Screw it! I’m going back out front. Can’t do anything here and I’m not going to torture myself over not being able to do anything.”

Amity glared reproachfully at the woman as she followed through on her exclamation. She knew it was uncharitable to resent Eda for abandoning Luz when there was nothing that could be done to help, but she couldn’t help but feel betrayed by that abandonment. “Fine. I’ll just be the only one here to keep an eye on Luz,” she muttered to herself. A restless part of her itched to pull out her phone or grab one of the books that were being stored back here or do pretty much anything to take her mind off her current situation. But each time that feeling began to surface she would ruthlessly quash it. Luz was her friend, her best friend, her girlfriend. She wasn’t going to abandon her. She couldn’t.

Minutes continued to tick by as she kept her gaze on Luz. Occasionally she would stand up and make sure that Luz’s workspace was being kept clear of loose shavings or that all the tools she might need would be in reach when she might need them. Other times she would move to stare into Luz’s glowing eyes, searching for any hint of the person she knew instead of this… automaton.

It was during one of those staring sessions that she heard the distant sound of Eda shouting something.  When Amity strained she managed to make out a few words, the most important of which being ‘Lilly’. For the first time in ages Amity fully looked away from Luz to stare at the door. Before much longer it swung open to reveal Lilith carrying a pair of briefcases. The woman’s face was set in a stony expression Amity had never seen before as she strode into the room and placed the briefcases onto the workspace.

“Has anything changed?” Lilith asked as she opened a suitcase and began to pull out various unrecognizable objects.

“No. She’s just kept working on her palisman,” Amity replied. “She’s changed which tool she’s been working with a few times, but I don’t think that really counts.”

“No,” Lilith agreed as she placed several small metal half-circles on the worktable and pulled out her phone. After tapping through things she frowned. “Nothing too unusual so far,” she muttered. “She’s outputting a steady stream of magic into the wood. It’s not a dangerous rate but it could cause issues if she keeps this up too long.”

“How long does she have?” Amity forced herself to ask.

“Easily another hour, possibly more,” Lilith said as she placed something against Luz’s chest, almost over her heart. Another check of her phone and she nodded slightly. “Two hours at the minimum at this rate. Possibly two and a half. After that she’ll be out of bile and hopefully snap out of it.”

“What?! Is that all you can do? Just say to wait until she exhausts herself?!” Amity screeched. She was primed to continue when Lilith fixed her with a thoroughly unimpressed glare.

“That is our backup plan. We have at least two hours to come up with something else.” Her admonishment delivered, Liilth turned her attention to the other items in the first briefcase. This time she pulled out a machine and placed it on the table. At the press of a button it ejected a small glass vial that she filled with shavings from the plaistrum log before returning it to the machine. It hummed for a few moments before Lilith’s phone pinged and she read through whatever it was the thing had to say. “Her magic is also in the wood shavings, along with some of the ambient magic.” Lilith frowned as she scrolled through some more things on her phone. “Of course they haven’t loaded everything into the new database,” she grumbled as pulled up her dialpad and pressed a quick dial option. “Steve?” she asked as soon as the person on the other end picked up. “I need you to get into the old file system and find me any Boiling Isles books that mention palismens. Preferably their construction.” She nodded as Steve responded. “Understood. I’ll put you on speaker so go ahead and just start talking when you find something.” Putting down her phone Lilith picked up the second briefcase and opened it, revealing lines of plastic tubes filled with liquids of all the colors of the rainbow.

“What are those?” Amity found herself asking before she could stop herself.

“Potions. This is an all in one collection of every potion that we keep in stock. We have recipes for more specialized situations that we don’t keep pre-brewed of course but this is a solid portion of everything the SCI has managed to create.” She trailed her fingers along one of the rows, her eyes occasionally flicking down to what looked like a list of the potions. “Some of them are from the Boiling Isles, adapted to the ingredients we have on hand, others are from other planes or even local traditions.” Her finger came to rest on a vibrant green potion that she slid out and placed on the table before returning to the case. She repeated the process another three times, grabbing a potion seemingly at random and adding it to the pile. Her potion selections made, she pulled another strange device out of the briefcase and closed it. Before she could start using the new item she was interrupted by Steve's voice coming from her phone. 

“I found a few things, a children’s tale about palismen, a historical text that details the palismen of famous witches, and a book on old coming of age traditions of witches,” he said. “Which one do you want to hear first?”

“Start with the children’s tale.”Amity looked over at Lilith in confusion as Steve began to recount some story about palismen. “A children’s story?” she asked incredulously. If this woman was trying to get out of helping Luz she was going to-

“Silence,” Lilith commanded. “Steve, go back two sentences. The part about the titan’s breath.”

Amity clenched her teeth in silent anger as Lilith continued to sit there listening to some children’s story about the palistrum trees and the palismen. While certainly interesting and worth listening to in any other situation it was all Amity could do to keep from exploding at Lilith. It was clear that any interruptions would just slow things down and keep her from reaching anything that might actually help Luz.

“Interesting,” Lilith murmured when the story finished. “Please wait a moment Steve, I need to check some things.”

“Yes ma’am.”

With the phone silent once more Lilith picked it up and placed one of her devices near Luz’s heart again. She glanced down at her phone and nodded to herself before removing the device and going back to the one she had used to examine the palustrum shavings. Once again she grabbed a recently removed bit of wood and placed it inside. Again she looked over her phone at the readings and nodded to herself. “Thank you Steve, go over the other books and let me know if you find anything else.”

“That’s it?!” Amity asked incredulously as Lilith began to fiddle with the machine she’d pulled out of her potions briefcase.

“Yes,” Lilith replied as she slotted one of the potion vials into the device and maneuvered it under Luz’s face, carefully placing it in a location that Luz wouldn’t accidentally knock it away. Soon the potion began to bubble and a mist the same color as the potion began to rise up out of the machine. “This device aerosolizes potions. It isn’t as efficient a delivery method as drinking them but it works when a person isn’t able to drink them. This one should help stimulate her bile sac, allowing it to produce more bile for a while. There will be a crash later on but some aches later are better than draining herself dry like this,” she explained, preempting Amity’s question.

“So you’re just going to let this keep going? Are you even going to try to help Luz?”

“Unless Steve comes back with more information this is the best we can do,” Lilith said with a shrug. Upon noticing Amity’s incredulous stare she sighed. “Did you listen to the story?” At Amity’s hesitant nod she continued. “Then you heard the multiple references to the titan in relation to the trees and the palismen. ‘The trees borne of his breath gave their branches freely’ and ‘a fragment of the titan’s will burst out of the log at the young witch’s touch’ for instance.

“Old stories like this tend to carry simplified truths, things that parents hope to teach their children. In this case the lesson is that the palismen come from the titan. The titan that isn’t here. Where the closest thing to the titan is…” she finished leadingly as she glanced at Luz.

“Luz,” Amity whispered.

“Correct. Luz’s magic is being drained at a similar rate to what is being taken in by the log with almost no losses during transfer. I would assume that normally a witch would have a gut feeling about what to make when carving their palismen, with the titan’s will or ancient instincts imprinted on the magic or whatever it is that gives the magic its form and rules subconsciously directing the witch to carve a particular animal. The witch or the log itself would likely take in the magical energy of the isles for construction as well instead of having to provide it all themselves. I wouldn’t be surprised if even a non-witch could carve a working palisman if they were on the Boiling Isles. But here? Where the magic is so thin? It needs a boost. And it’s taking that boost wherever it can.”

LIlith sighed as she glanced over at Luz. “As long as this doesn’t go on too long everything will be fine. And from the looks of things Luz is pretty far along with the carving. Unless the draw gets stronger she should be fine at this rate. Tired and aching for a few days but fine.” She walked over to a chair that sat off to the side of the workshop. “All we can do now is wait,” she said as her eyes flicked over towards the door to the main shop.

Amity glanced in that direction just in time to see a flash of grey hair and the door shutting. “You did that on purpose.”

“If I hadn’t Eda would have hovered over that door until Luz was done and worried herself to death,” Lilith replied with a shrug. “She always hated looking weak or letting people know she cared about them but was never actually any good at it.” Her explanation finished she sat down in the chair she’d claimed and pulled a book out of… somewhere.

“So now we’re just going to sit here and hope you’re right?” Amity asked.

Lilith was silent for several moments as she gazed impassively at Amity. “Unfortunately this sort of situation is a far larger part of my job than you would think. For every instance where you go in guns blazing and stopping some monster from killing people there are ten where you simply have to pick up the pieces. Hope that whatever eye witness accounts you can get point you in the right direction and that you’re using the proper methods to treat whatever has happened. Luz is fortunate that her situation is rather mild. Loss of her life, mind, or soul are all practically non-existent. At worst she may need several weeks of recovery with minimal magic usage to bounce back from overusing her bile sac. Unlike palisman creation, bile exhaustion is something that the SCI has rather detailed records on.” She frowned. “Though they largely come from our older records from when the SCI was less… diplomatic.”

“Right, because you know all about diplomacy,” Amity scoffed as her eyes flicked back to Luz.

Lilith frowned and lowered her book. “You aren’t very fond of me are you?”

“What? No! You just kidnapped my girlfriend, accused her of all sorts of crap just because she’s a witch, and kept trying to get her kicked out of the place she’s been living at by convincing Eda she's a monster. Why wouldn’t I like you?” Amity fully turned away from Luz to glare down at Lilith. “You can’t just give Luz a gift and act like everything is back to normal. Like you didn’t betray her over nothing. It doesn’t work like that.  I would kn-” Amity froze for a second as Lilith raised a single eyebrow at her unfinished sentence. “I just don’t trust you.”

Lilith nodded and simply turned back to her book.

Luz shook her head and stared down at the piece of wood in her hands in surprise. Where once there had been a thick log of palistrum wood there was now a sleek, well made carving of an otter. “Is… this how plaismans are normally made?” she asked herself just as a wave of exhaustion washed over her. Before she could contemplate what had happened any further a hand grabbed her shoulder and spun her around.

“Luz! You’re okay!” Amity asked as Lilith watched on from a seat off to the side.

“Yeah… When did Lilith get here? Did something happen?”

“Luz. You’ve been in a trance carving your palisman for almost two hours,” Amity explained, her grip on Luz’s shoulder tightening. “I… I was worried you weren’t ever going to wake up.”

Luz’s eyes widened in shock as she glanced back at the worktable. It was littered with shavings of wood and now that she paid attention to it she could feel the ache in her hands that always came from her carving practice. “But… is that supposed to happen?”

“I don’t believe so,” Lilith said as she stood up and walked over to the worktable. “The current theory is that without the titan present to provide the magic that usually goes into carving a palisman the process pulled on the closest available substitute. You.”

Luz glanced down at the figure, at the palisman, on the worktable. “Huh.” Her confusion and unease only lasted a moment as she continued to look at the palisman on the table. Her palisman on the table. A giddy smile began to blossom across her face as she reverently picked it up. “But it worked, right? I managed to finish making my palisman?”

“You still have plenty of bile and could have continued carving without issue,” Lilith said with a shrug as she began to pack away a number of strange devices. “I’m not aware of any other steps in making a palisman but I will admit that my knowledge is rather lacking in that department.”

“Right!” Luz said as she began to turn back to the workbench, a process that was made ever so slightly more difficult due to Amity still holding onto her shoulder tightly.

“Oh! Sorry!” Amity said as she noticed she was still holding Luz’s shoulder. “I-”

Luz didn’t wait for Amity to try and apologize or explain away her obvious worry. Instead opting to fully turn towards her girlfriend and pull her in for a tight hug. Amity stiffened for a moment, apparently unsure what to do, before easing into the hug and reciprocating it. “Thanks for keeping an eye on me,” Luz said as she pulled Amity tighter. “Sorry for making you worry.”

Amity remained silent in Luz’s arms for a while before pulling back. “Just promise me you won’t do this again.”

“I’ll do my best!” Luz declared with a cocky half smile.

“Fine, I guess that’s all I can really hope for,” Amity sighed after a moment. “Now is your plaisman done or are you going to end up breaking that promise already?”

“Right! The palisman!” Luz said as she spun back around in Amity’s grasp. With a small smile she pulled Amity’s arms closer around her before turning her attention to the palisman. “I... think I have to name it. All palismen have names and I think that was part of the process of making one.” She picked the wooden otter and examined it. “Oh man I’m really bad at this,” she muttered as she turned it over in her hands. “I should have thought of the name before this! I thought I would have more time while I was carving it or it would just come to me or… or…” she looked back down at the otter, her eyes locking with the wooden ones before her. “Lutri,” she whispered. “Your name is Lutri.”

The wooden otter suddenly burst into light as it seemed to change from wood to flesh. Color spread across it as it leapt out of Luz’s hands and raced up along her arm before coming to rest on her shoulder where it could nuzzle against her cheek.

Surprise was quickly overtaken by joy as Luz did her best to nuzzle Lutri back. Springing to her feet and breaking free of Amity’s loosened grip she held out an arm. With a happy chirp Lutri raced down her arm and leapt into the air. In another flash of light he turned back into wood and a staff extended down his base to fall into Luz’s hand. With a wide smile she stepped away from her girlfriend and gave the staff an experimental spin. Even tired as she was, her magic surged forward with an ease that she’d never felt before. The large spell circle she created with the spinning staff coalesced into a dozen balls of light that she sent spinning through the workroom.

Luz smiled as she saw Amity, Lilith, and from a crack in the door, Eda looking at the display with small smiles on their faces. Her smile grew even wider as she looked down at the otter curled around the end of her staff. With a joyful laugh she pulled Amity into another hug, unable to control her joy. Everything was perfect.

Willow smiled as yet another picture of Luz’s new palisman was posted to the group chat. Ever since Luz had finished her palisman, which had apparently included some sort of trance that neither Amity nor Luz had bothered to explain, she’d been posting every picture she could take of it into the chat.

Granted, it was very cute.

She was about to add her own response to the latest picture when another alert popped up on her phone. Quickly typing out another message agreeing that the little otter was, indeed, very cute, she expanded the notification. “That was faster than usual,” she muttered to herself as he opened the latest email Hunter had sent her. She had been reluctant at first to give him too much information, intending to try and frame everything as stuff she and her friends had found out on their own through trial and error or something, but Luz had instead decided that it would be fine to share any non-personal information that she wanted to. 

Initially Willow’s answers had been as clinical and vague as she could make them. Giving Hunter information that she had the others had or could have figured out on their own. Some stuff about the Emperor’s Coven, where the artifacts came from, what he would need to do to keep hidden from the guard. Things like that. But Hunter had had such a genuine desire to learn more that it had ended up infecting Willow as well. She quite often ended up having to contact Luz about questions Hunter asked, something that Gus ended up rather enjoying as well since it led to more discussion about magic, witches, demons, and the isles.

She’d also been tempted to try and hide her connection to the Wild Witch. But between the fact that she had an artifact that the Wild Witch was known to have absconded with and the fact that they had access to the ability to make new ones in the form of the cloaking bracelets Hunter had been quick to discern the connection.

Her smile grew as she began to type out a response to Hunter. Thankfully this latest email covered the one subject that she knew well enough to answer without needing to attempt the herculean task of getting Luz to pay attention to anything other than her palisman. After rereading the email a few times to check for errors she sent it off and leaned back to await his inevitable response. Normally she needed to wait for a while to get a hold of Luz and shoot messages back and forth or talk about whatever had been asked. But on the rare occasions that she knew enough to answer immediately she almost always got a response back within minutes. Honestly, Hunter had a desire to learn about magic and the Boiling Isles that rivaled even Gus’s. Gus had even offered to try and meet with Hunter so he could share his extensive collection of notes that had been put together from hours of conversation with Luz. 

Amity had immediately shot that down, not trusting Hunter’s ‘random boy found running from people in suits that might be the SCI’ credentials one bit. Luz had been more open to the idea, because of course she would be down with making friends with someone else in the know. Even Willow herself had almost found herself agreeing before ultimately siding with Amity’s argument that bringing in someone was too big a deal to do with someone they knew so little about. 

An argument that Willow was finding harder and harder to continue to agree with as she continued to exchange emails with the curious boy. She chuckled as, right on time, another notification popped up on her phone. Well, two notifications actually. Unsurprisingly one of them was another picture of Luz’s palisman, this time nestled in the hair of a blushing Amity. Another quick reply to the group chat later she was reading the latest email from Hunter, the small smile still on her face.

Chapter Text

Luz let out a whoop of joy as she shot through the air. Out of everything that she had missed about having a staff, flying was definitely at the top of the list. Sure, less power to use spells wasn’t fun. And needing to rework a lot of the spells she was used to using with a staff was annoying but they paled in comparison to not being able to just fly. Closing her eyes she exulted in the feeling of the wind whipping past her, a massive grin plastered across her face. Even better, Lutri seemed to be even faster than her old staff had been. In fact, over the last couple of days, she’d learned that Lutri was better in pretty much every way than her old staff had been. Of course without actually having her old staff on hand to compare things she couldn’t be too sure about just how much easier casting spells was or how much faster she flew but she knew it wasn’t a small change.

No wonder the Emperor’s Coven was so eager to make sure that they were the only ones with Palismen.

Unfortunately, that line of thought led her wandering mind to the ever-growing sore spot she had found in the days since completing her palisman. Where was the guard? Sure, outfitting her friends with the new bracelets could certainly account for him not showing up to harass them. But it didn’t account for him never showing up to try and tangle with her during her newly resumed nightly flights. The first few nights she’d made sure to have someone following her by car so that they could provide backup when the guard took offense to her flying around so openly. But, no attack ever came. Even now, with no one shadowing her and no backup beyond a panic button that would alert Steve, Lilith was busy dealing with some sort of internal beaurocratic nightmare, there was still no one harassing her. It wasn’t all bad though, with a little help from Steve she’d managed to find someone that was using an artifact that let a person control animals to stealthily rob banks by having rats sneak in and steal small amounts of cash every night.

Tonight though, she had a slightly different mission in mind, one that she’d had in mind for a while now. Meeting Willow’s new friend. Hunter had, unsurprisingly, been eager to meet her once Willow had, with Luz’s blessing, let him know that she knew the Wild Witch. Now that she had a staff again and was relatively sure that flying around wouldn’t get her immediately shot down by the guard she figured it was time to oblige him.

To her surprise the address he provided turned out to be a hotel of some sort. Unsure whether she was supposed to walk in or what, she pulled out her phone and looked over the email that WIllow had forwarded to her with the directions for the meeting. Rereading it she realized that the extra directions at the end might be a little less superfluous than she’d thought. “Second floor, third window from the left,” she muttered. 

Looking up at the second floor of the hotel she saw that one of the rooms had a light on and the curtains drawn. Shrugging her shoulders she flew over to the window and tapped on it. Thankfully her decision was quickly proven to be the right one when a boy matching Willow’s general description came up to the window.

A very familiar boy.

“Wild Witch!” Hunter said as he opened the window. “You’re here!”

“Yeah,” Luz replied with a nod as she did her best to hid her surprise at realizing just who she was meeting with. Had he already found his artifact when he came by Eda’s shop or had he gone there hoping to find something? While Luz was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt it did kindle a slight hint of worry in her mind. “Nice to meet you.”

“Yeah, yeah,” he said distractedly as he looked her up and down. “I... didn’t think you’d really show up.”

“Right, think you could let me in? I’m kinda conspicuous out here.”

“Oh! Sorry!” he yelped as he scrambled backwards.

Luz’s eyes scanned the room as she floated inside. Nothing jumped out at her in particular but at the same time, she wasn’t really too up to date on what was suspicious in the human realm. The room was oddly clean but her only real experience with human rooms was Eda’s and she didn’t think hotel rooms would usually be at Eda’s level of disarray. Still, it was better to be safe than sorry. Under her cloak, she cast a couple of quick anti-espionage spells. They weren’t foolproof but earlier tests with Eda had shown that they did recognize electronic recording devices. Once everything came back clean she allowed herself to relax slightly as she stepped off her staff and dismissed it. “So, you had some questions and wanted me to take a look at your artifact?”

“Yeah,” Hunter said as he shuffled around and grabbed a bag from the other side of the bed. Unzipping it he revealed a small harp and, after a moment of hesitation handed it over to Luz. “Do you think you’ll be able to tell me more about what it can do?”

“Probably. Never really had to do this too much before I came here but I haven’t been wrong so far,” Luz replied with a shrug. Reading magic like what was on the artifacts was, thankfully, not all that different from what she had to use to read and disable magical alarms and locks. Tracing the magic present in the small instrument even ended up being easier than it had been with some of the other artifacts. “You got really lucky all this did was mess with someone’s suit,” she said after a moment. “I think whoever made this thing was trying to make some sort of thing where you could play a song and make certain things happen. Not like bard magic where the music itself is magic but each string has… part of a spell or something. Strum the right strings in the right order and you can get all sorts of spells. Strum the wrong ones and you could really hurt someone, even yourself. I don’t think anyone but the person who made it could really tell you how to use it safely.” Luz glanced over at Hunter, not entirely sure how to phrase what she knew she had to say.

“You’re not going to let me keep it are you?” Hunter asked after a moment, causing her to jump. “I mean, the way you described it… It sounds really dangerous and you’re already holding it so there isn’t much I could do to stop you from just taking it,” he explained with a strained smile.

Luz clenched her teeth and looked down at the harp. “You’re right,” she said after a moment. This thing is way too dangerous for a human to just hold on to. It might even be too dangerous for most witches to hold on to.” She sighed. “This one really deserved to be in that vault,” she muttered. Shaking her head she turned back to Hunter. “What can I do to make it up to you?”

Hunter stared at her for several moments, mouth agape. “I… what do you mean?”

“Well, I can’t really give you any other artifacts to replace this one. The only other ones I have that I could give you in return are… okay, not as dangerous as this but one makes random demons and the other runs the risk of you going insane and deciding to burn everything down. I don’t think either of those would really be a good idea to give away and the only other ones I know of aren’t in my possession so… I guess do you have any questions about magic or anything? Wi- My friend said that you were asking a lot of questions so is there anything you want to ask me directly?”

Before Luz could do anything Hunter lept forward and grabbed her shoulders. “Really?!” he asked with a massive eager grin.

“Yes,” Luz said slowly as she eased his hands off her shoulders. “Just… stay calm. Okay?”

Hunter’s eyes somehow managed to widen even further. “Sorry!” he yelped as he jumped backwards. “I just… I’ve been looking for answers to a lot of this for a long time.” He took a deep breath and sat down on the bed. “You uh… might want to take a seat. This might take a while.”

Almost an hour later Hunter didn’t have to fake a smile as he watched the Wild Witch fly away with his harp. While he wasn’t too enthused at having to give away one of the artifacts that the guard had managed to gather it had done its job perfectly. Too dangerous to actually use and dangerous enough that the Wild Witch would be unlikely to let him keep it. The fact that she’d mentioned the chance of trading him a different artifact if the ones she had available hadn’t been almost equally dangerous had caught him off guard though. For a moment he’d been worried that he would have to come up with a reason to not accept a different artifact if she’d managed to find something to give him in exchange.

Thankfully the entire plan had ended up working. Sure, it hadn’t really gone quite the way he’d wanted. Meeting the plant girl had been an unexpected, but not unwelcome in the end, shakeup. He actually felt a little bad about deceiving her like this but it would all work out in the end. Either the Wild Witch really was in the wrong, which was looking even less likely now that he’d been able to talk to her, or he would end up siding with them and be able to just retire the Golden Guard. He’d probably have to get rid of any artifacts that he’d obviously used in the costume but it would have to be done.

In the meantime though he had so much new information to go over! It didn’t explain everything of course.  He still didn’t know how his family had gotten the ability to use titan magic but it was more than he’d ever even hoped to get before. History, weather, society, nature, and, most of all, magic. He hadn’t revealed himself as having magic of his own yet of course. While things were likely to go better with the Wild Witch than they had with… pretty much anyone else he’d ever shown his magic to, he’d been burned too many times to give up that secret without being absolutely positive about how it would go.

But all that was something he could think about later. For now he had a real bed to sleep in and the promise of free breakfast tomorrow morning. He sighed as he dropped down onto the bed, luxuriating in actually having a mattress to sleep on again, even if it was only for one night. The last time had been… Hunter frowned as he wracked his brain for the last time he’d had an actual mattress to sleep on. Maybe three months ago? He’d had plenty of money then so he’d been willing to splurge a little. 

His smile began to return as he pulled out his phone and typed up a thank you email for the plant girl. Hopefully all this would end up working out and he could stick around long enough to actually make some friends for once. All he needed to do was get some fact-checking on the Wild Witch’s side of the story, make sure that whichever side was really right had a good opinion of him, and finally, finally, relax for the first time in years. 

His smile faded slightly as he pulled out his wallet and traced a finger over the picture he still had there. “It’s finally happening, mom. I’m getting those answers we’ve been looking for.” His smile cracked slightly. “Wish you were here to see it.” Shaking his head to clear his thoughts he replaced his wallet, determination shining in his eyes. He was going to have some big days coming up in the future and he needed to be ready for them.

“Must we traipse through the woods again?” Darius asked as Eberwolf, obnoxious little gremlin that he was, leapt from tree to tree with an almost admirable grace. “We already searched here and found nothing. It is clear that those fools in R&D are exaggerating their claims again.”

“Sure, just let me know when you’re going to let the Director know you won’t be completing the mission. I want to make popcorn so I can really enjoy the fallout,” Eberwolf replied with a sharp-toothed grin.

Darius grunted but didn’t favor his partner with a response. Instead, he looked down at the scanner once more to see if the infernal thing was working properly. “And now it’s showing probably readings east southeast,” he reported, taking some small pleasure in the look of exasperation that crossed Eberwolf’s face. The less petty part of his mind agreed with Eberwolf’s assessment that retreading the same patch of forest for the fifth time now was very low on his list of activities to pass time with but he certainly wasn’t going to voice any agreement right now.

With a resigned sigh, he turned in the direction of the latest readings and followed Eberwolf as the little beast jumped from tree to tree with a growl. He couldn’t help but chuckle at his partner’s obvious frustration as he followed along at a much more sedate pace. It wouldn’t do to run into a branch or trip over a root and sully another suit after all. He was still working on cleaning up the mess that disgusting urchin had made of one of his other suits after all and didn’t want to add another one to his list of clothes that needed more personal attention to be made presentable after all.

Once he hit what appeared to be a deer trail that moved in the general direction he was headed he looked down at the scanner again to check his heading. Indeed, it was still showing a good location east southeast. Stronger than any they had seen so far but still unlikely to pan out with how things had been going. Then, as though the universe was specifically trying to spite him the heading changed to due north. “Natural fluctuations of the magical field my ass,” he muttered as he smacked the device on the side a few times in the vain hope that it might do something.

“Darius!”

He looked up to see Eberwolf staring down at him with a look of pure rage etched across his features.

“I saw it! I saw the stupid thing and then it vanished!”

Darius’s eyes widened as he glanced down at the possibly not as broken as he thought it had been device. “Only a few seconds ago?” At Eberwolf’s nod, a slow grin began to creep across his face. “Well, I’ll be. R&D was actually right this time.” His grin vanished as he looked up at Eberwolf. “Object is in motion, scanner is working correctly but it is unclear whether we will be able to reach it quickly enough to detain it under normal methods.” He saw Eberwolf’s eyes light up in glee as he realized what was coming. “Given the importance of the mission and the remoteness of our location, I believe that all possible means should be utilized to complete the mission.”“Agreed,” Eberwolf said as he began to change. Fur spread across his body and his limbs thickened as his Faoladh heritage came to the fore. Within moments a short, stocky wolfman stood on the tree branch, fiddling with a specially shaped earpiece.

“I will keep you appraised of its general location and when it moves. If it looks to be moving into a populated area use your best discretion on whether to continue or not.”

Eberwolf nodded as he finished getting his earpiece in place. Crouching down he tensed up as he waited for Darius to give the signal.

“Northeast, around seven hundred feet,” Darius said into his communicator. As soon as he spoke Eberwolf rocketed off the tree and into the distance almost faster than the eye could see. Seconds ticked by as he kept his eye on the scanner, waiting for either the readings to change or for Eberwolf to let him know the artifact had been secured.

“I got-” Eberwolf’s voice came over the comms before being cut off.

“Eberwolf! Come in you mangy mutt!” Darius shouted into the communicator. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the readings for the artifact change, then change again. “Damn it Eberwolf come in!” he shouted, his grip on his scanner tightening to the point that it began to creak under the unexpected strain. He was about try contacting his partner again when a sudden crack sounded above him.

Looking up he could just barely make out Eberwolf grasping some sort of staff. At its head was a large circle with a single dot in the middle, suspended amidst splinters of wood all the colors of the raibow against the backdrop of a brilliant corona. With a roar, Eberwolf grabbed the disc and pulled it from the rest of the staff. The surroundings were illuminated with a blinding flash of light as a wave of magical energy pulsed outwards.

Blinking the spots from his vision, Darius looked around to see where Eberwolf had gone to now. His eyes finally alighted on the groaning form of his partner lying curled up in a ball on the ground. Rushing to his partner’s side, he pulled out an emergency healing potion. “Are you alright?” he asked as he turned Eberwolf over. His concern quickly vanished, however, when he saw the shit-eating grin on his partner’s face.

“You were worried about me,” the little gremlin said.

“Of course I was,” Darius sniffed. “I wouldn’t want all that time I spent civilizing you to go to waste after all.”

The two of them stared at each other for a few more moments before the barest hints of a genuine smile crossed both their faces.

“I see you have the artifact,” Darius noted.

“The important bit at least,” Eberwolf agreed as he presented the disc he’d ripped from the staff. Now that it wasn’t part of the staff it looked a lot more like an eye. Gone from wide with a pinprick iris to half-lidded and almost peaceful looking.

“Excellent. I’ll call in for pickup and we can get this handed off to the Director,” Darius said with a grin.

“Be sure to ask for extra vacation time for this,” Eberwolf said. “I don’t want our entire bonus for doing this to be put towards another set of fancy suits again.”

“Philistine,” Darius grumbled in a tone of annoyance that didn’t quite reach his eyes as he pulled out his phone to make a very important call. Predictably the Director picked up after the first ring.

“Do you have it?” the Director asked without preamble.

“We’ve got it, sir. We have the core of the Rainbow Staff,” Darius reported as Eberwolf stroked the core of what may well have been the most important artifact in the entire Southborough Anomaly. “Should we alert Agent Clawhtorne?”

“Not yet,” the director replied. “The Rainbow Staff will be invaluable to seeing Project Unity completed. Once that is done Agent Clawthorne and Ms. Noceda can be contacted about the staff. For now, though, bring it in. I still have a lot of work to do.”

In a secure room sat a witch. The room had been more comfortable in the past but the witch had repeatedly shown he couldn’t be trusted with nice things. His every second was monitored for attempts to escape or preparations to assault anyone that had the misfortune of being assigned to bring him his meals for the day. Dozens of escape attempts had been foiled, dozens of assaults repelled. Even the recent lull was seen as him preparing another attempt more than him actually toeing the line for once.

And for good reason.

He had learned a lot about the security of his prison. Of what they would allow him to do and what they forbade. Long dismissed lessons on more efficient spellcasting and using smaller circles had been dredged up from old classes and seminars. Lessons on patience and planning had been beaten into him after repeated failures. Lessons as well as a grudging respect for his captors. While not witches these humans had managed to attain an impressive level of magical might.

Twitching his finger the man cast another small spell. Another tiny step forward in the final plan. Maybe he could escape now. Maybe his current plans were enough that he could reclaim his freedom. 

But maybe it wasn’t.

He still didn’t know how the human that called himself the Director had managed to remove his mask. To undo the enchantments that were woven into each mask like they were nothing more than baby witchling’s first wards.

His finger twitched again as another tiny spell was cast. Another step closer to his inevitable victory. A victory that he would take when the time was right. When they would surely think that they had finally won. Perhaps another witch might have trouble sensing what they were building. But he could feel it. Feel what it was meant to be. Feel what it needed.

So yes. He would wait. He would prepare. And when the time finally came he would strike. And he would finally go home.

His finger twitched again as another spell was cast.

Chapter Text

One of the nice things about being in college was the sheer control you had over your schedule. With the right planning, as well as a willingness to put in longer hours some days, you could manage three, or sometimes even four, day weekends with some regularity. Planning that Emira, and after that first year Edric, were more than willing to put in. Normally they spent their extra time relaxing with each other, friends, their significant others. Now though they were using it for something special.

They were going home for the weekend.

It wasn’t something they did often. Sure, they certainly had enough money to do so. Their parents had set each of them up with a large enough trust fund that, so long as they weren’t stupid with it, they wouldn’t need to worry too much about money. For the most part, they left that money alone. Preferring to stand on their own as much as they could, free from any potential restrictions their parents might put on how to live their lives. But for something like this they were more than willing to dip into that trust fund and get a few tickets back home.

When the first stories had shown up in their news feeds they had thought they were jokes. That Southborough was having a slow enough news day that they decided to fake a supervillain robbing a bank. The comment section had largely been people pointing out all the ways the video had been faked and complimenting the news studio on doing such a good job. Then the second story had come in. And the third.  Then Amity had, in one of their usual group chats, bemaoned all the weird magic stuff happening around town and, after repeated pesterings, confirmed that everything they had been reading was real.

There had been some talk about going back home after that. Edric wanted to see if there was some way he could get superpowers too and Emira was slightly worried about Amity getting into trouble. Her worries had only been exacerbated when news came of an honest to god werewolf attacking one of mom’s events. It had all worked out in the end but it had taken a while for either of the twins to keep from compulsively checking the Southborough news site for bad news.

It was only when that paranoia started to fade and things had seemingly started to get back to normal, or at least as normal as things could get when you had to keep an eye on whether your mom had been kidnapped by a supervillain or something, that they noticed one thing that hadn’t fully returned to normal. Amity had started getting evasive. It wasn’t anything overt of course. Between their parent’s lessons and Amity’s own issues with having overbearing siblings, she’d gotten quite good at hiding things. Unfortunately for her, the twins had both gotten equally as good a spotting those few tells she did have.

Like most things, it had started small. Occasionally she would mention being busy with ‘stuff’. That she hadn’t noticed a text because she was busy with something she would never elaborate on. Anytime they pressed her on it she would take a little longer to respond than she normally would have. They had both thought she’d finally found herself a girlfriend but those taunts and questions had been shut down with the usual swiftness they had come to expect from such inquiries.

Then the things she wasn’t telling them began to get larger. Mentions of hanging out with friends started to get vague. No more bitching about Boscha being Boscha or pitying the others in the loose group she occasionally spent time with. Just mentions of hanging with friends without ever naming names. When pressed about things they did there were never any real details. It was all so very suspicious.

So they had pulled enough money from the trust fund to get a pair of round trip tickets, found a time where they could both finish up any homework or projects they had to do quickly and prepared to head home to see what was going on.

They had, of course, let their parents know they were going to be in town for the weekend and had asked them to keep it a surprise for Amity. Their father had extracted promises that they weren’t going to use the surprise as a way to prank Amity first but they had agreed in the end.

“So. Drugs, a gang, or a girlfriend?” Edric asked as they sat in a cafe across the street from the school. “Oh! Or maybe a cult! I bet a couple of those have started up around all the weird stuff that’s been going on.”

“Come on, like Amity would join a gang or a cult. Now if she was the leader of it...” Emira trailed off with a smile as she glanced down at her phone. School had finished five minutes ago so Amity would probably be making her way out of the building around now. A glance down the street showed a steady stream of people making their way out of the building, some headed towards the student parking lot, but far more heading towards the busses.

“Hey, I think I see Willow!” Edric said as he pointed to a girl that certainly looked like a much older version of Amity’s oldest friend flanked by an energetic shorter boy and a girl that was rocking a slightly punk sort of look. “Think we should go over and say hello? Amity keeps saying she only sees her as an old friend but I bet we could score her a date if we tried.”

“Yeah, like you know anything about getting a date with a girl,” Emira scoffed.

“I’m sure I could do better than you, Ms. Activist,” Edric retorted. He grinned smugly as his sister’s face flushed at the memory of that particularly spectacular failure.

“I made it work out in the end,” she replied as haughtily as she could.

“I think you mean Viney made it work out in the end.”

Before Emira could think of a proper reply, a familiar flash of color caught her attention. Her eyes snapped towards the movement and she smirked. “Mittens has been sighted.”

Edric smiled as he followed his twin’s gaze to where Amity was indeed making her way out of the school. And, if he wasn’t missing his guess, making her way straight towards Willow. “You don’t think?” he asked with a thoughtful frown.

“Maybe,” Emira replied. “It would explain why she didn’t tell us anything. Probably wanted to try and score with Willow without us interfering.”

Edric nodded solemnly. “I knew all her denials were just a cover.”

Both twins smirked victoriously and began making plans to tease their little sister when they saw the positively radiant smile that blossomed across Amity’s face when she saw Willow. However, those plans came to a screeching halt when it was the other girl that darted forward to hug Amity and give her a quick peck on the cheek.

“Huh,” they both said at the same time. Silence reigned as they watched Amity chatting animatedly with the other three kids, her hand interlaced with what was quite obviously her girlfriend.

After a few moments, Edric stood up. “I’mma go say hi.”

“What?! No! You can’t just go up there! It’ll ruin the surprise!”

“Oh come on! What better surprise than showing up at school? She’d never expect it!”

“You-” Emira paused for a moment. Torn between standing her ground and admitting that Edric was right for once. Thankfully that moment’s thought was enough for her to come up with a third option. “We should follow them!” At Edric’s questioning look she continued. “Give them a chance to finish up what they’re doing and see if Amity is going to go on a date. It’ll give us a chance to follow them. We can wait for the perfect moment to pop in, maybe snap a few pictures to share with her later…” she trailed off with a smirk as she saw the mischievous grin that was spreading across her twin’s face.

“That’s perfect!” Edric crowed as he rejoined Emira at the table.

“Of course it is, it was my idea after all.”

“Really? Because I seem to recall an idea you had last week tha-” Edric began before Emira slapped a hand over his mouth.

“Do not mention the beagle incident,” Emira growled. Her hand remain over her twin’s mouth for a few more seconds before she felt an unfortunately familiar sensation brush against her palm. “Oh gross! Are you ever going to stop licking my hand to get out of that?” she groaned as she wiped her hand on a napkin.

“Depends. Are you ever going to stop doing that to shut me up?”

“I’ll show you-” Emira paused as she noticed movement out of the corner of her eye. “Mittens is on the move,” she said, drawing her twin’s attention towards their retreating sister. Their retreating sister who was still hand in hand with her girlfriend.

“Gotcha, let’s roll,” Edric said as he threw the paper plate continuing the undesired bits of his sandwich into a nearby garbage can. With an all too large smile, he ran over to the old motorcycle they’d been forced to leave behind when they had gone to college.

“Hey! You only won driving to the school! You didn’t win driving all day!” Emira protested as she held out a hand.

Edric rolled his eyes but acquiesced and held out his own hand.

Tension grew as the twins stared each other in the eyes, doing their best to get the measure of their opponent. “Rock, paper, scissors, shoot!” they said together as their hands bounced up and down. A quick glance downwards revealed they had both chosen paper. “Rock, paper, scissors, shoot!” they repeated. Another tie, rock this time. This time they didn’t bother talking, merely bobbing their hands up and down three times in another rematch. Both paper. Then rock. Then paper, rock, scissors, paper, paper, paper, rock, scissors.

Paper and rock.

“Ha-HA!” Edric shouted as he threw his arms into the air in jubilation. “I win again!”

Emira glared down at her closed fist and contemplated punching Edric in his smug face as he did his usual idiotic victory dance. “Fine, you win,” she grumbled, following Edric as he moonwalked over to the motorcycle. “But that was only for this next drive. We’re going again next time.”

“You mean you’re gonna lose again next ti-” Edric began before getting interrupted by his twin’s fist slamming into his stomach. “Right. No more gloating,” he wheezed.

Shaking her head Emira grabbed the helmets from the motorcycle’s seat. “Come on, I don’t want to lose Mittens because you were too busy hacking up a lung,” she said as she tossed Edric his helmet.

“Yeah, yeah,” Edric said as he put on the helmet. “We still have some time. Might even have some more if Mittens decided to sneak in a make-out session before they started to leave the parking lot.”

“Better safe than sorry,” Emira insisted.

Unsurprisingly it turned out that even getting a girlfriend hadn’t managed to tone down Amity’s punctual nature. After less than a minute of waiting, they saw Amity pulling out of the student parking lot, girlfriend happily sitting in the passenger seat.

“Not going home,” Emira muttered as Amity took a left out of the lot instead of the right that would take her home. “Date or just driving her girlfriend home?”

“Only one way to find out,” Edric replied as he revved the engine and began to tail Amity.

While not knowing where Amity’s girlfriend lived proved to be a problem when it came to discerning Amity’s ultimate destination, they were able to pretty quickly decide that the two were probably going on a date. If Amity was trying to get to any of the residential sections of town she was taking a very inefficient route that was, for the time, jam-packed with traffic. Nothing like the actual rush hour after five but still crowded.

Of course those crowded streets, along with the knowledge that Mittens never went even a single mile over the speed limit, gave the twins the confidence to slip down other roads from time to time. Sneaking ahead of Amity’s obvious route in an attempt to be at least a little less conspicuous. Sure, it was suspicious to see what looked to be the same motorcycle multiple times in a trip, but recognizing that fact was a lot harder than recognizing that the same vehicle had been behind you all trip.

“So where do you think they’re going?” Edric asked as they waited at the side of the road past an intersection that Amity would pass by soon. “My money is on the park. Mittens is definitely the kind of person that would make a list of all the cheesy romance tropes and do her best to hit them all, no matter how bad an idea that is or how certain people showed her that it doesn’t work.”

“Better than trying one of your harebrained schemes. Jerbo thought you were trying to kill him, not romance him,” Emira retorted. “And she’s probably going to the High Rise Cafe. Has a great view of the sunset over the park. Guaranteed to score major points with the ladies.”

Before either of the two could needle each other some more Amity’s car showed up in one of their mirrors and quickly invalidated both their guesses for where their sister was heading by turning right.

“Shit!” Edric said with a grimace as he started the engine. “Is that alleyway up ahead still clear or did they finally get around to putting up that fence mom kept talking about?”

“How should I know? Just go for it anyway and we’ll figure it out when we get there!”

The engine roared as they slipped into a hole in the traffic and began to make their way down the road. Sure, they could go along until the next intersection, but that was a good half mile further down the road and the only turn there led onto a one-way road that went the opposite direction to what they wanted. Edric’s grimace melted into a savage smile as they neared the alleyway and saw that, like always, the largely unused street was still every bit as dirty and open as it had always been. With a victorious shout, he turned them down the alleyway, weaving past old dumpsters until they emerged on the other side. “Do you see her?”

“Not yet,” Emira replied as she scanned the street. “She can’t have gotten too far ahead. She should still be… there! In that side lot next to that… Is that a dispensary?”

“Huh, maybe she loosened up now that she has a girlfriend?”

“Who knows. But I know how we can find out!” Emira said with a smirk.

Edric quickly mirrored the smirk as he maneuvered them into the same parking lot. “So do you think mom has gotten any less strict about weed?”

“What do you think?” Emira asked. “Make sure to stay quiet long enough for me to snap a picture of her in there. I wanna have it on hand next time she gets on my case for not doing my homework last minute.”

With triumphant smiles, the twins opened the door to the dispensary and walked in to find… nothing. Oh, sure, there was plenty of merchandise on display, rolling papers, books, oils, a large shelf of edibles, but no Amity or her girlfriend.

“Hey there! What can I do ya for?” an elderly hippy behind the counter said as they looked around.

“Did… anyone else come in here recently?” Emira asked.

“Nope! You two are the first people I’ve seen in hours. Why? You come here following some underage kids or something? ‘Cause I can guarantee that everyone I sell to is of age! Can’t fool my eye for fake ids either.” He chuckled a bit. “Used too many of ‘em myself to not get good at recognizing ‘em!”

“Oh. Well, thanks anyway,” Emira said. “Come on Ed, let’s get out of here.”

Edric shrugged and put down the book on the applications of CBD oil down he’d been looking at. “Think that wasn’t Mittens’s car?”

“No, that was it. They must have just-” Emira froze as, right across the street stood Amity and her girlfriend, camera out and pointing right at them as they left the dispensary. “Well shit.”

Edric didn’t share her moment of dismay at the obvious blackmail being gathered and rushed across the street to pull his sister into a hug. “Ha! You got us good Mittens!”

“Mittens?” the girlfriend asked.

“It’s the- Ed! Put me down! It’s the nickname Ed and Em have for me,” Amity explained. “You know, you should be more worried that I got a shot of you two sneaking back home and stopping by a dispensary before letting mom and dad know you were in town.”

“They already knew we were coming by this weekend,” Emira said as she finished making her own way across the street.

“And you told them to keep it a surprise didn’t you?” Amity groused as she shook her head.

“Yep!” Edric replied with a smile. “Though speaking of surprises, how long did you know we were tailing you? I was sure we were keeping a low profile.”

“Oh, I noticed you staring at me, Willow, and Gus back at school. When I pointed you out to Willow she said you were Amity’s siblings,” the girlfriend replied.

The twins stared at her for several seconds before turning to look at each other. After a few more moments they shrugged and turned to Amity. “Didn’t know you were dating a spy sis.”

“Of course, we didn’t know you were dating anyone at all.”

“It’s almost like you didn’t trust us with your relationship status.”

“Or that you made up with Willow! We’re hurt, Mittens!”

“Though we are surprised you didn’t get together with her. We were so sure you had a crush on her.”

Amity flushed scarlet as a mumbled something under her breath before pausing to center herself. “Is that why you decided to come back home?”

“Of course!” the twins replied together.

“Though we didn’t know you’d found a girlfriend.”

“I thought you might have joined a cult.”

“Or a gang.”

Amity rolled her eyes but didn’t manage to hide her fond smile. “Well, since you two are here I suppose I should introduce you. Luz, this is Edric and Emira, my older brother and sister. Ed, Em, this is Luz, my girlfriend,” she said with a small blush.

“Nice to meet you!” Luz said as she leapt forward to shake their hands. “It’s so nice to meet you two! Amity… hasn’t really said too much about you but it’s always nice to meet more of Amity’s family!”

“Uhhh, nice to meet you too?” Emira said as she stared down at the girl in befuddlement. Between the old beanie and faded jacket, she’d thought the girl would be a little less… peppy than this.

“Nice to meet you!” Edric said with a massive grin. “If you ever want some juicy stories about Amity feel free to-” He was cut off as Amity buried a fist in his gut.

“Don’t. Ask them about anything like that,” Amity almost growled as she slowly twisted her fist in Edric’s gut.

Luz looked more amused by the situation than anything else and shrugged. “Okay. Sooooo, what do we do now?”

Amity opened her mouth but paused, apparently realizing she hadn’t planned anything past the confrontation.

“We could go and grab a bite to eat,” Edric suggested. “You know, get to know our future sister-in-law.”

Both twins grinned as Amity’s face lit up like a stoplight.

“Yeah. I’d love to get to know Luz a little better,” Emira added as she slung an arm over her sister’s shoulder. “Come on, I know a great place over by the park. Good food, nice and romantic view of the sunset.”

“Okay, that’s enough!” Luz declared as she pulled Amity from under Emira’s arm. “Nobody makes my girlfriend blush like that.” She paused and glanced at Amity. “Except me,” she said before kissing Amity on the cheek, causing her blush to redouble.

“Ha! I knew I liked you,” Edric crowed as smiled warmly at Luz. “Were you the one that got Mittens to make up with Willow too?” At Luz’s nod, Edric’s smile became warmer. “Thanks for that. Amity has been beating herself up over that for ages!” When Amity shot him a tired glare he only laughed.

Before the conversation could go any further everyone’s attention was grabbed by the distant sound of a police siren. A siren that was getting louder. As they all turned to see what was going on and find out whether staying so close to the street was a good idea the twins were shocked to see what looked like a person flying over the street, a duffel bag stuffed with jewelry under one arm.

The twins stared at the person in disbelief as he shot past them, little wings on his shoes fluttering furiously as they kept him aloft and sped him down the road. To their even greater shock, Luz and Amity seemed to be more annoyed by the entire situation than anything else.

“Do you think I should?” Luz asked as she glanced between Amity and the twins.

Amity frowned for a moment before pulling out her phone. “Go for it. Despite them being… them, I trust them not to make a big deal about it.”

Luz nodded and, before either of the twins could ask what was going on, a burst of light engulfed her. When it faded, the Wild Witch that had been showing up in the news was standing before them, holding out a staff that looked a little different from the one they had seen in previous news stories.

“Have fun with your family! I’ll call you when I get this guy and we can decide what to do then!” Luz said as she straddled her staff. With a whoop, she shot into the air after the thief just in time for the cop cars to join her in the chase.

“Amity is dating a superhero,” Emira said dazedly as she stared at the retreating forms of the cars and the Wild Witch. She was shaken out of her stupor but a familiar clicking noise.

“And that’s another picture for the future,” Amity said as she looked down at her phone. “Like it?” she asked as she turned her phone so the twins could see the picture of their dumbfounded faces she’d taken. “I’m thinking of making it my contacts picture for you two.”

“Forget the superhero thing,” Edric said with a trace of pride in his voice. “Little Mittens got one over us twice today.” Crocodile tears welled in his eyes as he flung his arms wide. “I’m so proud of you little sis!” he shouted as he pulled the now protesting Amity into a bear hug.

“Hey! No! Stop! You were supposed to stay shocked longer! Let me go!” Amity screamed as Edric picked her up and began spinning around with her.

Emira rolled her eyes and moved to her sister’s aid with a smile. With practiced ease, she stopped Edric’s spinning and pulled Amity free. It was nice to see that there were some things that never changed.

Belos could barely contain his excitement as Agent Darius handed him the briefcase containing the eye that had powered the Rainbow Staff. Countless years of hoping, planning, and searching were finally coming to an end. “Thank you, agent.”

“Of course sir,” Darius said with a smug grin. “You can always count on me.” He winced as Eberwolf kicked him in the shin. “On us.” Another wince. “And Eberwolf wants extra vacation days for this.”

“Only Eberwolf? Are you that eager to return to New York and traipse around the sewers looking for mutants with agent Bishop again?”

Darius sighed and pointedly didn’t look at Eberwolf’s smug grin.

“Don’t worry. You two will be rewarded accordingly. An extra week’s vacation for putting in so much extra effort for this, along with a small bonus on your next payday,” Belos assured them.

“Thank you, sir!” Darius said as he snapped off a salute, one that was sloppily mirrored by his partner.

Belos smiled as he watched the two agents leave his office, Darius doing his best to admonish Eberwolf for unprofessionalism while Eberwolf seemed to be doing his best to cut off Darius’s every other word.

Once the door was closed and Belos was left alone in his office, he placed the briefcase on the desk and opened it. Inside was a golden disc, bisected by a single line. Tracing his fingers over it he could feel the power within as the line split ever so slightly and the eye began to open. With a frown, he removed his hand and allowed the artifact to return to dormancy. While he was sure he could eventually control the thing he had no desire to be lost amongst the infinite realms for however long that would take. No, he decided as he snapped the briefcase closed. This had to be brought to its final destination.

The Project Unity lab.

Picking up the briefcase he made his way out of the office and towards the labs. The few people that he ran into on his way there moved out of his way immediately, both due to his rank and due to the obvious determination in his steps. Eventually, he found himself in front of a heavy steel door and began the laborious process of opening it. A keycard, biometrics, and a passcode all needed to be verified before the door could be opened. But when it was…

“Director~!” a voice almost sang from deeper within the room. “Do you have it! Please tell me you have it!”

 “Of course Professor Woods. It’s right here.”

“Yes!” Professor Woods crowed as she grabbed the briefcase from him and immediately opened it. “It’s beautiful!”

“Do not remain in contact with it for longer than necessary, doing so runs the risk of activating it and losing it again. I would rather not have to wait for you to get bored exploring the multiverse for Project Unity to be finished.”

“Don’t worry,” she said dismissively as she sprinted over to the center of the room. Laying the briefcase down reverently, she pulled on a pair of thick, rune encrusted gloves and tapped the eye. “No noticeable reaction. Gloves appear to be working properly,” she said to herself. “Commencing test!”

With that, she lifted the eye from the suitcase and turned to the metal frame that sat in the middle of the room. With a solemnity and care that one wouldn’t have expected from the hyperactive woman she carefully slotted the eye into the open space in the middle. 

The air in the room seemed to thicken and pulse as the eye opened wide. Energy filled the air as the collection of palistrum wood rose up and began to gravitate towards the metal frame.

“It’s working!” Woods cackled before diving out of the way of a flying log.

Belos watched on in barely restrained glee as the wood slowly melted over the frame, darkening into a reddish-brown. The air around him trembled with energy as the massive generators attached to the metal framework whirred and chugged, doing their best to supply it with the power it needed. His breaths came in short gasps as the density of the power in the air began to almost suffocate him, for a few moments he wondered if he was going to be able to remain conscious throughout the final moments of the convergence.

And then it was over.

From where she was sitting, Professor Woods cackled as she looked at the culmination of her work. There, in the middle of the room, there was now a door, the eye sitting proudly in the upper panel. 

Ignoring the joyous laughter of the professor, Belos walked up to the door and opened it. To his disappointment, he could only see a vast, inky black expanse. “It’s not quite ready,” he muttered.

“Ah! That’s the space between!” Woods said as she joined Belos in staring at the void. “It’ll probably take a while to get the right coordinates down to reach the isles but the eye should be predisposed to trying to reach there. It shouldn’t take more than a few days, maybe a week or two. Could be a month if things end up being really tricky.”

Belos sighed and closed the door, ignoring Wood’s continued babbling. It wasn’t the final triumph he’d been hoping for but it was one of the most important steps in the plan completed. Before too long the way to the isles would be open once more. And then things could really get started.

Chapter Text

If there was one thing that living with Eda had taught Luz, it was to always be ready for schedules to change. The woman seemed to be almost allergic to the idea of an orderly life in any way, shape, or form. So when Eda had come up the stairs Saturday morning and asked Luz if she and her friends were free to have dinner that afternoon on Lilith’s dime she hadn’t been too surprised. Honestly, the only real surprising thing about that was that it was Lilith being seemingly spontaneous.

While Luz’s relationship with the woman was a good deal better than it had been in ages it was still largely professional. Only ever showing up for the occasional weekly check-in or only incidentally spending time with Luz with the real purpose being to visit Eda. Even those visits had followed a certain pattern. Almost always occurring on a Friday to share a meal with Eda, with Luz being something of an afterthought. The closest thing to a spontaneous visit had been when she’d come to assist with Luz’s carving coma and another visit a few days later to get a proper interview about the palisman, scan it with a few instruments, and make sure Luz wasn’t suffering any aftereffects from the experience. To have Lilith be the proponent of an unexpected dinner party, especially one with so many guests, was intriguing.

Not that Luz actually put any real thought towards figuring out what might be going on though. As far as she was concerned if it wasn’t immediately apparent what was going on her time was better put towards other things instead of vainly trying to figure out Lilith’s motives. Though she had to admit that decision would have been a good deal harder to come to if it weren’t for the fact that she would learn what was going on today instead of at some unknown time in the distant future.

Instead, she busied herself getting in touch with Willow and Gus. Gus had, unsurprisingly, immediately accepted. He then had to back pedal, actually ask his parents if he could come over for dinner, and come back with a real affirmative. He then spent the next ten minutes trying to hash out an idea of what might be planned for the evening with Luz. It took her five attempts to finally steer the conversation towards ending but she eventually managed it. Willow was, once again unsurprisingly, much calmer when it came to getting a response. A quick check with her dads and she gave a happy affirmative that she would be coming by the Owl House that afternoon.

“Gus and Willow are both fine to come over this afternoon,” Luz reported to Eda as the woman did her best to make the dining room usable. The living room that had hosted most of the meals the house’s residents had partaken in was just too small to handle five people.

“Your girlfriend too busy to show up?” Eda asked as she looked over the mismatched dishes in the cabinet. 

“Well, I didn’t actually ask her but her brother and sister are back in town this weekend and I figured she’d want to spend the weekend with them,” Luz said with a shrug, just barley keeping the forlorn tone from her voice.

Eda paused in her search for acceptably clean dishware to stare at Luz. “Ya know, I never really thought about it before but you’re an only child aren’t ya?”

Luz frowned, taken aback by the question. “Yeah? Why?”

Eda chuckled and shook her head. “Just give her a call anyway. Better safe than sorry right?”

Luz glanced down at her phone as Eda returned to her hunt and eventually shrugged. Eda was right, it wouldn’t hurt to make sure. To her surprise, Amity didn’t answer on the first ring like she almost always did. Luz was almost sure that Amity was too busy doing something to answer when the call was accepted in the middle of the third ring.

“Luz?” Amity asked, sounding slightly out of breath.

“Yeah, Lilith is going to be bringing food over for some sort of dinner thing this afternoon and said I could invite anyone I wanted. I know you’re probably going to be busy with your-”

“I’m in,” Amity interrupted.

“Really? Are you sure you…” Luz trailed off as a series of bangs came from the other side of the phone.

“Hello? Luz?” came an unfamiliar voice.

“Yes?”

“Awesome! Em here, just wanted to ask you a few questions!” Emira said as several more bangs and crashes came from the background. “One sec.”

Luz’s eyes flicked towards the phone in incredulity as best they could without removing it from her ear. “Is something wrong with Amity?” she asked as she heard the sounds of heavy breathing and rapid footfalls.

“Mittens? Yeah, just a little preoccupied.” Emira said. Her voice suddenly became more distant, like she’d moved the phone away from her mouth. “Don’t lead her back here you idiot! Back around the other staircase!” Another couple crashes could be heard on the other end before Emira returned. “So yeah! Questions! Mom was asking about significant others yesterday and found out we’re all gay as hell and she was lamenting not having anyone to carry on the Blight name and Amity got all quiet and blushy, you know it is, and wouldn’t answer any questions. So! Do you have some sort of fancy lesbian pregnancy magic or something?”

Luz blushed at Emira’s description but soldiered on. “Well, it’s not just for between women. It works for everyone, men, women, demons.”

“Huh, and does it need magic or can it work for anyone?” Emira asked, genuine curiosity clear in her tone.

“It should work between anyone. There are plenty of non-magic using demons that use the spell in potion form when their particular species aren’t compatible with each other,” Luz explained, falling into the pseudo-lecture mode that she often defaulted to when fielding similar questions from Gus.

“Huh. Neat.” There was a pause before Emira continued. “Question two! Have you and Mittens fu-” A massive crash echoed from the other side, cutting Emira off. “Hey wait what is-” she started to say before the loud familiar groan of an abomination cut her off.

Several seconds later a slightly out of breath Amity returned to the phone. “Sorry about that Luz. I had to… deal with some family issues. I’d love to come by for dinner today. When should I show up?”

“Sometime around five, five-thirty. I think Eda is lobbying for some place called Salvatori’s. She won’t admit it but I think she just wants it because it’s alliterative with Saturday.”

“Yeah, I can see her doing that.” Amity paused for a moment at the sound of distant shouting. Her voice grew slightly distant as she responded to someone on her side. “You’ll be fine you babies, I just told them to keep you two still.” Another pause as Amity sighed. “Luz. Is abomination goo toxic?”

“Oh, well, it depends on the type of abomination. Standard abominations are usually created with existing goo with different recipes allowing for different types of abominations. Whether it’s toxic or not depends on the recipe. The ones your earrings make are the pure magic kind, so once they get dismissed the goo will go away too. It’s still probably not good for you but as long as you don’t keep the abomination summoned too long it shouldn’t cause any problems.”

“Well, that’s a relief. I’ll see you at five then. Bye.”

“Bye!” Luz smiled as she ended the call. “Hey, Eda! Amity will be coming too!” 

“Ha!” Eda crowed. “I knew it! No one can stand their siblings for too long!”

“You are getting ready to spend time with your sister right now.”

Eda scoffed and waved away Luz’s words. “Yeah, but only for a few hours and she’s bringing food. Totally different. And anyway, I’m pretty sure you and your girlfriend are still in that honeymoon phase where you can’t stand to be apart. There was no way she was going to turn down a chance to spend time with you.” 

Luz blushed but didn’t deny the accusation. She had been spending more time with Amity since they had gotten together after all. With no other option available to her, Luz decided to stick her tongue out at Eda. “You’re just jealous that you don’t have someone to spend time with.”

Eda froze for a moment before her eyes narrowed and she began to smirk. “Is that how we’re gonna play it? You don’t think I have game? I bet you dish duty when dinner is over that I can get someone to be my date for the dinner tonight.”

Luz knew there was a good chance she was being played. Eda didn’t make bets like this unless she was either sure she would win or sure that no one would call her bluff. Determining which one it was could be near impossible since Eda’s over-expressive poker face looped so far past being bad that it ended up being good. It always made figuring out the proper path forward rather difficult.

Well, almost always.

“You’re on!” Luz said immediately.

Eda actually looked taken aback by Luz’s declaration, her grin slipping ever so slightly as she attempted to rally herself. “Alright then! If you’ll excuse me I have to make some calls.”

Luz laughed as Eda walked away. Eda was either going to end up not managing to get anyone and Luz could hold that over her head, or she would end up getting someone over for a date, and then it would be Luz’s turn to make snarky comments. Sure, she’d have to do the dishes but she had some spells that would make that a breeze, and Eda hadn’t specified no magic when making the bet.

Luz’s smile continued to grow as she heard Eda's muffled, but still recognizably strained voice coming from the living room. There really was nothing quite like a win-win situation.

Amity, predictably, was the first one to arrive. Luz had actually been half tempted to tell her that to come to the Owl House half an hour later than what she’d told everyone else to see if she would still be the first one there but had decided against it. While it would have been funny in the moment she was sure that Amity would find some way to make her suffer for it. Thankfully any of Eda’s usual remarks about Luz being sappy with Amity managed to get headed off by asking questions about how the hunt for a date had gone.

Eda had, of course, said that she had gotten a date and that they were just running a little late. That had set off all sorts of speculation about who she might have managed to get. Speculation that had, unfortunately, been rather sparse once Luz had realized that Eda didn’t really have all that many friends or even acquaintances.

That said they had a very fun time suggesting that she had tried to call up Steve and steal him away from Lilith. Complete with putting together dramatic ideas of how Eda would end up having to duel Lilith sometime during the night in order to prove herself worthy of dating Steve. Things had gotten even better when Luz had remembered her brief sojourn in the Police Station and Deputy Wrath’s obvious infatuation with Eda. That line of teasing had actually managed to render Eda speechless in horror at the thought of actually dating the man and had been worth a good many laughs.

Eventually, Willow and Gus managed to show up. The former apparently having picked up the latter to ensure that he wouldn’t end up being late for the meal. Gus had valiantly tried to defend himself but had quickly found that no one was willing to come to bat for him and agree that he would have totally made it there at a reasonable time. Something Willow ruthlessly shot down by ‘helpfully’ reminding him that even with her text that she was on her way he’d still taken nearly ten minutes to get ready when she’d shown up.

With the addition of Willow and Gus, the conversation turned to speculation about what had prompted Lilith to set this all up. Ideas had flown loose and fast, some more outlandish than others, as they did their best to figure out Lilith’s motives. Gus was sure it had something to do with the SCI, possibly that they had managed to learn something from the guard they had in custody. Amity was positive it was some sort of apology for pretty much everything and even mentions of the previous apology dinner didn’t dissuade her. Willow claimed to have an idea but didn’t want to share it in case it got everyone’s hopes up. Eda offered up her far-fetched idea that the whole thing was an attempt to try and ask Steve out on a date without asking him out on a date. Personally, Luz thought Lilith was just trying to set up a nice, relaxing time. It had been quite a while since Lilith had been part of something that didn’t have motives other than simple relaxation and fun. Eventually, their discussions were brought to a halt by the sound of knocking on the front door of the Owl House.

“Well, I better get down there and help Lilly bring everything in. Pretty sure she can’t bring in enough food for everyone herself,” Eda said.

“I’ll come with!” Luz offered. A sentiment that was quickly echoed by her friends.

Eda shrugged “Eh, if ya want to help out, sure. Less work for me in the end.”

The procession thundered down the stairs and made their way towards the door, discussion turning to the subject of the upcoming meal as the scent of food began to reach them. The now much more eager group sped up towards the door and opened it to reveal Lilith, carrying several large aluminum trays that probably shouldn’t have been stacked on top of each other like that.

“Hello, Eda, Luz, Luz’s friends. I don’t suppose any of you could take some of these from me, could you? They’re a little heavier than I expected,” Lilith said with a strained smile.

“I got ya,” Eda chuckled as she grabbed the top tray from the stack and passed it over to Luz. “This it? ‘Cause I don’t think that’s enough to feed four teenagers.”

“No, that’s just what Lilith insisted that she carry,” a voice said from just out of sight.

“Yes, well…” Lilith tried valiantly to defend herself but came up short. “Just harry up with the rest of it.” With her load considerably lightened Lilith stepped into the building revealing…

“Raine Whispers?” Amity and Luz both asked as the retired musician stepped into the Owl House, Steve following behind them almost as an afterthought.

“Raine! Glad you could make it!” Eda said with a smile. “I’d hug ya but I don’t think that would go too well.” She glanced between the tray of food she was carrying and the couple of smaller ones in Raine’s hands.

“Of course I made it! I think this is the first time you’ve ever invited me over to your house!” Raine replied as they looked around the Owl House. “It’s very interesting.”

Eda flushed slightly at that but quickly rallied. “Come on upstairs. I got plates and crap set up on the table. We can get this stuff set up and dig in.” Eda said as she turned to head back towards the stairs. Although not before shooting a smug look in Luz’s direction.

“Wow, Eda’s got more game than I thought,” Luz muttered to herself before joining everyone in going back upstairs to eat.

Dinner was a surprisingly silent affair in the beginning. Once the trays had been set up and Lilith had explained what each dish was the group had dug in with gusto. Everyone was far more interested in filling their stomachs than making idle conversation. Luz especially wanted to try everything she could. Lilith had made sure to mention which dishes had a lot of milk so that Luz could avoid them but they were in the vast minority and Luz was still able to try almost everything there. She even managed to sneak a bite of some of the more lactose heavy dishes from Amity’s plate. Small ones though. She had long since learned her limits and had no interest in pushing them. Even if the rigatoni bianco was delicious.

Eventually though, everyone managed to get to the point where conversation managed to trump food in what people really wanted.

“So… you and Eda,” Luz began as she looked over at Raine.

“Ah, yes. Me and Eda,” Raine said with a fond smile. “I suppose she hasn’t mentioned me at all?” At Luz’s head shake, they continued. “Of course she didn’t. We used to date in high school and she decided to break it off so that I could go be a, in her words, big rock star. Never answered my calls or responded to any letters. Even when I sent her invitations to my final concert she didn’t respond. Though that was more because she never checks her mailbox. I thought she might have actually moved away until she showed up the day of the concert looking like some sort of harpy and attacked some speakers that had been turned into monsters.”

“Oh! So you know about…” Luz trailed off, not sure how much to mention.

“I know enough,” Raine said as they looked pointedly at Luz’s ears. Luz’s, as she suddenly realized, completely uncovered ears. She’d gotten so used to not needing to wear the beanie around her friends at the Owl House it had completely slipped her mind. 

“Oops.”

Raine smiled but didn’t say anything.

Shaking her head Luz refocused on the more important matter at hand. “So are you two friends again or..?”

“I believe we are officially ‘it’s complicated’,” Raine said with a laugh. “We’ve met up several times since, but Eda has always been reluctant to try and give things labels.”

Luz nodded. “Yeah, I can see that.” Her eyes suddenly lit up as an idea occurred to her. “So you two dated in the past, that means you have all sorts of embarrassing stories you can tell me that I can use to mess with Eda when she makes comments about me and Amity right?”

Raine smiled. “Of course! Did you ever hear about the time that-”

“Hey everyone! Why don’t we hear why Lilly wanted to get us all together tonight!” Eda interrupted before shooting an exasperated glare at a thoroughly unimpressed and unrepentant Raine.

Lilith blinked in surprise at the sudden shout but, after seeing that everyone had turned to look at her, shrugged and stood up. “Yes, well, I suppose now is as good a time as any. Even if it does give Eda an out in regards to Luz learning about her high school indiscretions.” She paused to expertly dodge a pillow thrown by Eda. “Luz. The Rainbow Staff has been found. But!” Lilith held up a hand to silence the avalanche of questions that everyone started to ask. “It was damaged when it came to our realm and again when being collected. Thankfully the core of the artifact remains intact and is currently being used in a project that will allow easy, constant travel between our realms. We are still dialing in the proper coordinates for the device but current projections put us at having a way for you to return to the Boiling Isles anywhere from a few days from now to a month.” She lowered her hand. “Now, I suppose you will all have questions.”

Silence reigned after Lilith finished speaking. Despite the initial outburst everyone seemed to be looking towards Luz, waiting to see what she was going to ask.

“I… Will I be able to come back after I go home?” Luz finally asked in a small voice.

Lilith smiled and moved over towards Luz to place a comforting hand on her shoulder. “Of course you will. The current plans are to try and get in touch with your group and use that to begin diplomatic relations with the Boiling Isles. I gather that there will be at least a token attempt to meet with the Emperor but from what I understand no one really expects that to go anywhere.”

“What’d I tell ya Luz? Our government spooks have tons of experience meeting with revolutionaries and getting them to overthrow regimes and replace them with ones we like better!” Eda declared with glee.

“What about the rest of us?” Amity asked, her hand reaching out to interlace fingers with Luz’s. “Will we be able to come and go as well?”

“You three might be a tougher sell,” Lilith admitted. I don’t think you will be able to have quite the same level of access as Luz but I believe that your connection to her may be enough for us to consider you as potential diplomatic assets that can work to strengthen our relationship with Luz’s group.”

Slowly, Luz began to laugh, tears gathering at the corners of her eyes. “I’m going to be able to go home,” she whispered. “I’m going to be able to go home!” she repeated louder. “I…” she glanced around at everyone else. “You’ll be able to come visit me! Eda! My mom would love to meet you! And Amity! She would love seeing you too! And Willow! I’ll be able to show you the gardens that we keep for potion supplies and you can finally see all the plants I’ve been telling you about! And I’ll be able to show Gus everything!” She gasped. “I’ll be able to show Lutri to everyone! Mom is going to be so happy that I got a palisman!” She turned and drew Amity into a tight hug. “I’m going to be able to go home and come back to see you whenever I want!”

“Once we get the door dialed in to the Boiling Isles,” Lilith reminded everyone. 

Luz shot Lilith a deadpan glare that was slightly marred by the tears in her eyes from over her girlfriend’s shoulder. “After that, yeah. But it’s finally happening! It’s… it’s finally happening.”

“It’s finally happening,” Belos said as he once again glanced at the video feed of the portal room. “Only a few weeks at the worst and everything will finally be ready.” His hand fell down to trace along a large drawer on his desk, itching to pull out the item that lay within. “Decades of planning and it’s almost finally time.”

His musings were cut short by a sudden coughing fit. After nearly ten straight seconds of coughing, he finally managed to get it under control enough to pull out his flask and take a swig. He shuddered as he felt the potion do its work. Eventually, both the wracking pain from his coughing fit and the burning of the potion subsided. With an annoyed grunt, he fished a small mirror from his pocket and looked over his face. “Still good,” he muttered as he put it away. 

What good mood he still had evaporated as he glared down at the vibrant green liquid in his flask. The potions had been declining in usefulness for years now but that trend had been accelerating recently. Even worse, attempts to make better versions always ran into the usual roadblocks of old knowledge that might help having been destroyed ages ago or ingredients potent enough to actually help having been similarly wiped out.

With a grimace, he capped the flask and put it back in his pocket. Once more he glanced at the video feed of the portal room. “Just a little while longer. And then I can finally go back.”

Chapter Text

The days somehow managed to both drag and speed by as Luz waited for further news about the portal to the Boiling Isles. Sometimes she could go through the day for hours like before. Going to class, doing homework, spending time with her friends, and just living the sort of peaceful life that was the goal of so many members of the Underground. Then she would remember that the portal was being worked on. That it was going to be done sometime soon. She would check her phone in the distant hope that she had somehow missed a message from Lilith. She would be unable to think of anything except the portal until something else demanded her attention.

Sometimes it was a teacher asking a question. Sometimes it was her friends knocking her out of her funk. Sometimes it was just her remembering that there was something that she needed to do. But it was always temporary.

Her friends had quickly learned to do their best to not mention the Boiling Isles or the portal. Even Gus had managed to cut down his insatiable desire to learn more once he realized that it inevitably sent her into a spiral of wondering when the portal would be finished. What everyone was thinking back home. If everyone was still free.

What her mom thought had happened to her.

Miraculously Luz managed to keep from worrying herself to death. Albeit not without rather extensive help from her friends and girlfriend. So when a message from Lilith finally came through Thursday evening Luz was, just barely, able to open it without having a self-inflicted panic attack. “The portal is almost fully calibrated,” she read, “current tests are landing in the boiling oceans and in-realm coordinates will be completed tomorrow. Will you be joining the initial group heading to the isles?” Luz’s hands trembled as she tried, and failed, to type out a response.

“You alright kid?” Eda asked as she placed a comforting hand on Luz’s shoulder. “Want me to message her back for ya?”

“Yeah.”

“And you’re gonna join ‘em right?” Eda asked. At Luz’s incredulous glare she had the audacity to look affronted. “Just making sure!” She looked down at the phone and typed out a quick confirmation. “There we go, kid. Looks like you’re gonna be heading back home for the weekend. If you want to stay longer just let me know and I’ll get a doctor’s note put together for you. Make sure that the school doesn’t get too suspicious about you vanishing for a while and stuff.” She handed Luz back the phone. “Now let your friends know what’s going on. I’m sure they’ll want to come with you, or at least just be there to say goodbye for the weekend.”

Luz’s eyes lit up at that as she looked down at her phone. Slowly at first, but with increasing certainty as she continued, she began to type up a message in the group chat. Unsurprisingly Gus was the first one to respond. Immediately confirming that he wanted to come with her to the Boiling Isles if possible, or at least be able to go to the SCI building without the pressures of having to rescue someone like last time. Willow had been only slightly slower to respond, saying that she was hopeful but needed to ask her dads. She also quickly added a question about whether Gus was just saying he was going to go or if he had actually asked his dad yet. That had led to an amusingly long silence where the ‘Gus is typing’ text appeared and disappeared almost a dozen times before he said he’d ask his dad.

Amity’s response came a short while after that and, unsurprisingly, began with an apology for not responding sooner and an explanation that she had been doing homework. She too confirmed that, as soon as parental permission was acquired, she’d be coming with Luz as well. Preferably to the Boiling Isles but at the very least to be able to give her a proper goodbye.

Of course, the chat had quickly descended into chaos as Gus began to send messages about Amity wanting to meet Luz’s mom and Amity began to fire back with barbs of her own. Willow, for the most part, stayed out of it beyond some veiled jabs at both Gus and Amity that only served to enflame the two against each other even further. It took nearly half an hour of arguing, friendly insults, and wild tangents for the three of them to fully confirm that they had gotten their parent’s permission and would be, at the very least, heading over to the SCI building with her tomorrow.

Gus and Willow were only going to be able to spend the night and part of the next day in the Boiling Isles if the option came up. Amity, by virtue of being the only one of the group whose parents, or at least the deciding parent, were aware of Luz’s status as a witch was able to wrangle an okay to be away for the entire weekend. She said that she managed it by appealing to her mom’s desire for her kids to do big things with their lives and talking up being part of the first diplomatic mission to another realm as being a pretty big thing. Though she did, after much pressure, admit that her mom had told her to ‘have fun with her girlfriend over the weekend’. To no one’s surprise, Gus had been distraught that there was no way he was going to be able to go back to his dad and convince him to approve a weekend-long sleepover at a friend’s place.

Luz smiled and she felt a knot in her chest loosen as she continued to banter back and forth with her friends. Only one more day and she would be able to show off her home to her friends and show off her friends to her home. Only one more day.

Gus was nearly bouncing with excitement as Eda pulled into the parking lot of the SCI building. He had been looking for things that proved the existence of organizations like the SCI for years. Sure, the confirmation of their existence had been a big deal but it had also been overshadowed by having to rescue Luz from said organization and all the other revelations of that day. To be able to actually go in as a guest and be able to look around, even if he doubted they would get as free of reign as he was hoping, was nothing short of amazing.

“Calm down, the building isn’t going to go anywhere,” Eda said with a sigh as she looked at him in the rearview mirror. “At least I don’t think it is. Not really sure what these guys have up their sleeves,” she added after a moment’s thought.

Gus rolled his eyes, something Eda both noticed and scoffed at, and did his best to restrain his excitement. 

Willow glanced over at his still slightly vibrating form with a small smile. “You know they are probably going to take us straight to the portal and not let us see anything else, right?”

“Yes, Willow. I know that. But there’s no reason for me to not hope that we might get to see something else. Lilith keeps mentioning magic other than what Luz uses. That means that there might be magic that I can learn naturally!”

Willow chuckled. “Well, maybe you can ask if they’re accepting interns.”

Gus paused as he considered her, obviously sarcastic, words. “Do you really think they do?”

Willow began to respond before pausing herself to ponder that same question. “I… don’t know.”

“Come on kids, you can kiss up to big brother when we actually get inside,” Eda interrupted them.

Gus blinked as he looked around and realized that they had reached a parking spot. Eda seemed to have taken the one closest to the building, potentially out of spite based on the reserved sign just barely visible out of the front windshield. “Right!” he said as he scrambled to undo his seatbelt and get out of the car.

His enthusiasm continued unabated as he followed the others up to the front of the building where they were let in by a pair of serious looking men in suits. As tempted as he was to ask then and there if they were accepting interns he knew that now was not the time. Eventually, the entire group was led to a simple meeting room where Lilith was waiting for them.

“The civilian group here for the briefing,” the man that had led them there said before leaving the room.

“Please take a seat everyone. This may take a while,” Lilith said as she gestured to several chairs.

“So what’s all this about Lilly?” Eda asked as she claimed a seat and immediately rested her feet on the conference table. Something that Lilith rather pointedly ignored.

“This is a briefing for your visit to the Boiling Isles. Normally a trip like this would be restricted to agents that had completed a number of courses in wilderness survival, combat, magic knowledge, and had passed certification exams on all equipment that might be part of the mission. However due to the… unusual… circumstances here as well as the relative safety of this excursion you will be getting away with the abbreviated version.” Lilith’s smile became ever so slightly more viscous as she pulled a thick sheaf of papers out from a folder and slammed it onto the table.

It didn’t look like too much, probably not even fifty pages by Gus’s estimation. But from the look of horror on Eda’s face and the slight triumph he could see in Lilith’s he had a feeling that there was something more going on there.

“Each of you will be responsible for reading this entire information packet and completing a test on your knowledge. Failure to complete any portion of this will result in your immediate expulsion from this mission. Is that clear?” Lilith asked.

Eda’s groan almost completely drowned out the chorus of yeses from everyone else.

The information packet was, thankfully, not as dense as Gus had feared. Several pages were dominated by pictures showing the use of different pieces of equipment that they looked to be being assigned for the trip and the entire thing was even single-sided. What little information that wasn’t about the equipment they’d be given was dedicated to various tidbits about the Boiling Isles and what to expect from the various people living there. Things that Gus was already very well acquainted with. Unsurprisingly he managed to finish it first. Willow finished not too long after with Amity and Luz claiming a respectable third, possibly due to them reading it together and being distracted by each other. Eda, however, wasn’t even halfway done by the time everyone else had finished.

“Anyone who has finished can follow me to take the test,” Lilith said as Eda grumbled something under her breath. When she saw that Luz was looking over at Eda with concern Lilith sighed and smiled. “I’m sure that Eda will finish up before too long,” she said very loudly. “She wouldn’t want to disappoint you after all.”

Eda made a choking noise as all eyes in the room turned towards her. She glanced back and forth, doing her best not to look Luz in the eyes. Eventually, she mumbled something under her breath and hunkered down to get back to reading the packet.

“Don’t worry, she’ll be fine,” Lilith assured them as she led them into another room. “Believe it or not she always managed to score very well on tests after a night of cramming. It’s the only reason she was able to get away with almost never doing any homework and still manage to graduate high school.”

The test itself ended up being rather easy as well. The bits about the Boiling Isles had long since been burned into Gus’s brain and all of the equipment that they were going to be issued was, by design, built to be as easy to use as possible. The closest thing to an actually difficult question had come from one of the Boiling Isles questions being slightly vague, causing him to write a full paragraph detailing the two things he thought they could be talking about. A paragraph that, judging from the look of surprise that shifted to resignation on Lilith’s face when she picked up the test, was not expected.

Lilith’s grading of the tests only took a few minutes, interrupted only by Eda barging into the room and demanding a test of her own. To no one’s surprise, everyone managed to pass. “Excellent,” Lilith said. “You all passed on your first try.”

Off to the side, Eda twitched ever so slightly.

Lilith appeared to ignore her sister’s twitches but the poorly hidden upward tick of her lips belied that apathy. “Steve will take you to get your equipment and take you to the portal room.”

Outside the room Steve was waiting for them, his serious demeanor immediately melting as he smiled at them. “So you’re all going to be with the first expedition party?”

“Yeah,” Luz affirmed she leaned into Amity. “I can’t wait to go home and show everything off to everyone.”

Steve’s smile grew even larger at Luz’s statement. “Well, then I guess I better get you guys your gear so we can get this show on the road huh?”

Still smiling, Steve led them into an armory that wouldn’t have looked out of place in some sort of spy movie. Strange gadgets and gizmos sat on shelves all across the walls and guns both familiar and exotic sat in racks. It took all of Gus’s self-restraint to not simply rush over to see what he could figure out about everything in the room.

Either ignorant or uncaring of Gus’s internal turmoil Steve pulled a pack from one of the shelves. “Each of you will be given a standard tactical survival kit.” He placed the pack on the table and began to pull items out. “Each one will contain a tent enchanted with decreased visibility and increased internal volume, a collection of survival tools, a cloak enchanted to resist both magical and mundane damage, a magic cutting knife that has been shown to work against titan magic, three MREs, one communicator designed to work across the realms as long as the portal is functional, a cooking kit, and a magic-based stun gun.” He gestured at the spread of items on the table. “You passed the basics test so you know how to use or set up each of these items. If we had more time you would have to prove that you know how to use each of these items by setting and packing them up, as well as disassembling the stun gun and reassembling it.” His demeanor, already more serious than it had been before he entered the room hardened even further. “None of these items are toys. They are designed to increase the likelihood of you surviving this mission. You are a group of humans being led around by a wild witch. This is not going to be safe. If any of you are having second thoughts, now is the time to back out.”

He stared down each of them in turn, and Gus liked to think that each of them stared back at him just as intently as he stared at them. That said, Gus felt a small tremor of relief when Steve moved his gaze to the others.

Apparently satisfied with what he’d seen he sighed and nodded to them. “Alright. I’ll Lead you four to the portal room. The earliest planned departure time isn't for another half hour but I’m sure that you’ll want to see what we managed to put together.”

Gus nodded and picked up his pack and, after a moment’s consideration, began to shift the things he’d brought along in his own backpack into the other pack. An action that was quickly mirrored by the others.

“Is there any chance that we might be able to keep these packs?” Amity asked as she continued to shift over items from a duffel bag more than twice the size of the pack with no signs of running out of room.

“That’s something you’ll have to bring up with people higher up than me I’m afraid,” Steve laughed. “I doubt they’ll be willing to hand over any gear on a permanent basis but you might be able to get the number of the person that made them. He does custom orders from time to time if you can pay his prices.”

“What kind of prices?”

Steve leaned over and whispered something into Amity’s ear that made her go pale. “That much?” she asked as she looked down at the pack.

“He does good work and is one of the only people that can do that work,” Steve explained with a shrug. “You can kind of set your prices to whatever you want in that situation.”

Amity nodded absently before turning her attention back to repacking her stuff. Once it was all taken care of they all hefted the, surprisingly light, packs over their shoulders and glanced down at the now empty backpacks and duffle bags they had brought along.

“Go ahead and leave them here,” Steve said as he opened the door. “We’ll hold on to them and return them to you when you get back.”

Gus nodded alongside the others and followed Steve out of the room. The man led them through a series of bland hallways, dotted with doors that rarely had windows Gus could try to peek through, and even more rarely had windows where that peek actually amounted to anything. They did run into a number of people as they traveled through the building though. Some of them looked on in confusion before shrugging their shoulders and moving on while others nodded and offered their well wishes.

Both far too soon and not soon enough for Gus’s tastes they reached a large steel door. Steve had to swipe a keycard, get a retinal scan, and put in a password that seemed to also read his fingerprints. However, once all that was completed the steel door began to creak open to reveal a surprisingly sparse laboratory. On the far end of the room were a pair of large metal contraptions that Gus was pretty sure were generators of some sort. Thick black cables led from those to a free-standing metal frame surrounding what looked to be a mahogany door, inset with a large golden eye.

“Is that it?” Luz asked, almost too quiet to hear.

“Yes, it is,” Steve affirmed. “It is currently set to a back alley in Ribsfield. Near… Marrow street if I remember correctly.”

Luz brightened at that. “Oh! I think I know where that is! Well, not that exact area but I know where Marrow Street is in Ribsfield. There’s a bakery near there that’s run by someone sympathetic to the Underground.” She paused and her cheer deteriorated. “At least there was last time I was there. I hope nothing has happened to them since I’ve been gone.”

Amity and Willow both placed comforting hands on Luz’s shoulders at that.

“Don’t worry Luz!” Gus assured her. “I’m sure that they’re still around!”

Luz’s smile returned a bit at that, still unsteady but undeniably there. “Right.” She perked up as another thought appeared to occur to her. “Oh! The baker there has a crow that’s whitelisted for contacting the Underground! If we can get there we’ll be able to send a message to everyone else that I’m back! And they’ll be able to let us know where my mom is staying!”

Gus smiled as Luz began to talk about the various members of the Underground and how excited she was to introduce everyone to them. He couldn’t wait.

Hunter, fully clad in his Golden Guard outfit, took a deep breath as he circled the building for the fifth time. He’d found it earlier in his stay in Southborough out of paranoia. As benevolent as the SCI’s iron-fisted control over magic was, it was still an iron-fisted control. While he’d never done anything that likely counted as more than a negligible blip on their radar he’d heard enough stories of what they did to people that they deemed too troublesome for human society. Sure, some of those people were ones that he would have done his best to get rid of as well but everyone knew that winding up on their hit list could be as simple as having the wrong agent be the one that found you.

Thankfully the building didn't seem to be too heavily defended or warded. Whether that was due to them not having had the time to truly dig in like some of their other locations or because they were just that sure that no one would realize just what they were building he couldn’t be sure. Of course, less defended still meant very well defended.

A frustrated sigh escaped him as he cast the magic locating spell again. Just like before there was a massive return ping. Something that he might have been able to feel even if he hadn’t come out here in the desperate hope that the plant girl’s last email had been referring to this building and not some other SCI building. He’d been elated when he’d first gotten the email mentioning that she would be unavailable for a while due to the SCI managing to create a portal the Wild Witch could use to get back home and that she wanted to show her home off to them. 

But then the reality of the situation had set in.

The fact that the SCI was willing to let the Wild Witch and a bunch of largely uninvolved teenagers use the portal either meant that said teenagers had some major clout or some sort of in with the organizations, or that there was something the SCI wanted from them. Things that were unlikely to apply to him. Sure, he might be able to bribe his way in by giving them a lot of the artifacts. He could possibly even make up a story about managing to catch the Golden Guard by surprise to explain away having artifacts associated with that persona. But in the end, he would be banking on a government organization to actually want to help him. Something he was rather leery of using as his first option.

No. If he wanted to get to the Boiling Isles he would have to do it on his own terms. If that meant sneaking into a government building full of people that could and likely would disappear him if he got caught then that was the risk he was going to have to take. Another circle around the building predictably revealed no new entrances he could use to enter. What few windows there were looked to be sturdy enough that he couldn’t just break in even if he could disable whatever security was in place around them. The few doors to the building were either the heavily watched and patrolled front doors or a series of small side exits that were heavily reinforced affairs that had would certainly make too much noise to bother trying to break through.

He was halfway through his seventh circle when a flicker of movement caught his attention. One of the side entrances had opened up, revealing a man in a white lab coat. Hunter could barely believe his luck as he watched the man fish out a pack of cigarettes and begin his smoke break. Not wanting to waste this opportunity, Hunter swept down into the trees, doing his best to remain out of the man’s line of sight. Once he was close enough he began to cast one of the, depressingly few, spells he actually knew. His brow furrowed in concentration as he completed the spell and felt the magic settle over him, rending him invisible. It wasn’t perfect of course. Moving too fast would cause him to fade in and out of sight and if his grip on the spell ever wavered for even an instant, a task that grew harder the longer he kept the spell going, it would immediately end and discharge the energy into the air around him in a very noticeable light show. Still, it was a spell that had saved his life plenty of times before and he was confident it would see him through today. Even if it was looking like he was going to have to hold the spell longer than he ever had before while also doing his best to track down whichever room had the portal in it. No sweat.

Hovering bare inches of the ground he drifted towards the smoking man and began to wait for his chance. Minutes passed by as the man slowly finished his cigarette and lit up a second one. Hunter was seconds away from screaming at the man when, upon finishing his second one, he pulled out a third. Thankfully the man was stopped from following through on that by an insistent beep from his phone.

“Of course,” the man muttered as he looked at something on his phone. “First smoke break all evening and now the experiment is ready for the next phase.” Still grumbling to himself the man put both the cigarette and his phone away and turned to the door. After nearly a minute of pushing buttons, scanning cards, and grumbling, the door was opened and the man stormed inside with Hunter floating through the air right behind him.

Crushing the temptation to relax now that he had finally entered the building Hunter looked down the hall, hoping vainly that there might be some sort of sign or map that could point him in the direction of the portal. As expected there was nothing to give even the slightest hint of where he needed to go. Taking a deep breath he closed his eyes and began to draw a second spell circle. His hand trembled as he worked to keep the spells from interfering with each other but he powered through the feeling to cast the magic detecting spell.

The air was so full of magic that feeling the return ping was difficult but he was just barely able to make it out. A satisfied, and slightly relieved, grin began to cross his lips before a second, every bit as faint ping reached him. “Two?” he whispered under his breath. Shaking his head he firmed his resolve. If there were two things that could be the portal all he had to do was go to one and hope it was the portal. If it wasn’t he would just have to make it to the second one. It would be difficult to keep the invisibility going that long but he would manage. He had to.

Thankfully the building layout was straightforward enough that he had little trouble finding his way. Sure, he had to stop once to reorient himself and recast his magic detecting spell but it was better than he’d feared. After several minutes of traveling the halls, freezing and holding his breath any time someone entered the same hall as him and praying that he wouldn’t get caught, he reached his first destination.

It was a massive steel door, flanked by a pair of security guards. Hunter’s heart sank as he realized that he was going to have to wait for someone to use the door again. Assaulting the guards and trying to force his way in was certainly a possibility but he didn’t relish the thought of having to fight his way through the entire facility if it turned out that the portal wasn’t behind this door. With a pained sigh and grumble he settled in to wait, desperately hoping that someone would need to enter or leave the room in front of him before he had to find somewhere that he could drop his invisibility spell and recuperate for a few moments.

And then the door exploded.

The witch smiled as he walked through the twisted metal wreckage that was all that remained of the door that had kept him imprisoned for so long. All around him the sounds of blaring alarms screamed warnings of his escape. A quick glance to the sides showed that one of the guards that usually flanked the door was at the very least unconscious, if not dead or dying from the chunk of metal buried in his stomach, and the other seemed to be slipping in and out of lucidity. A quick kick to the head placed him firmly out of lucidity and into unconsciousness.

In front of him was the real prize though, albeit not in a way he expected. When he had sensed the treasure trove of magical artifacts just outside the door he’d known he’d had to act then and there to have the best chance to actually make it to the portal that the humans had managed to construct but he’d been expecting a cart being pushed along by them or perhaps some human minion carrying them from one storage area to the next.

He hadn’t been expecting a child to be wearing them.

Confusion turned to anger as he recognized the various artifacts that the child was wearing as ones he had managed to collect during his earlier time in this damnable realm. Not waiting for the child to shake off their disorientation from the blast he stepped forward and removed the more dangerous artifacts from their grasp. Eventually revealing a young human boy.

“W-wait,” the boy managed to say, his eyes still barely able to focus. “I… I’m like you.”

The witch looked down at the boy with disdain. “You are nothing like me, human.”

“No! I… I…” the boy held up a shaking hand and, to the witch’s amazement, began to draw a spell circle in the air.

“Interesting,” the witch murmured as he looked at the surprisingly well done magic detecting spell the boy had managed to cast. “Perhaps there may be a use for you yet. At the very least I’m sure the Healer’s Coven would love to figure out how a freak like you works.” The child’s eyes widened in shock and no small amount of fear before his injuries caught up with him and he lost consciousness. With a flick of willpower, the witch activated the gem at the end of the staff the boy had crafted and lifted him into the air. The boy represented a number of questions that needed to be answered. Questions that would determine whether the boy would be simply discarded like a human, consigned to the conformitorium like the thief he was, or perhaps something more. At least he had brought enough items to make the witch’s earlier escape plans easier to enact. Something that might even allow any sentence he received to be reduced by a few years.

The witch was shaken from his thoughts as a pair of humans burst through a door at the far end of the hall. With a wave of the kludged together staff, the witch sent a series of lightning bolts arcing down the hall to strike at the humans. He frowned as the bolts didn’t manage to kill his targets, whatever enchantments they had woven into their suits had been enough to disperse the energy enough to keep the blast from being as lethal as the witch had intended and, unfortunately, the artifact didn’t have the energy to waste on confirming the kills. With a grimace, he straddled the staff and slung the boy on top of it in front of him.

With a wave of his hand, the hundreds of beast keeping spells he had been casting on the walls came to life, animating tiny chunks of the wall into single minded biting demons that would spread throughout the facility. A cruel smile crossed his lips as he saw the tidal wave of tiny rocks flow out of the room and begin snapping at everything they could reach. It really was a stroke of luck that the boy had managed to put together something that could at least act like a proper staff, lifting him into the air and out of the range of the gnashing stoney teeth. With a maniacal laugh, he shot forward, intent on reaching the portal and finally returning home.

Willow had long since come to terms with the fact that she was the most paranoid of her group of friends. Before it had just been her doing what she could to try and make sure Gus didn’t get swept into weird pyramid schemes or cults in his search for the supernatural. For a little while, she had thought maybe it would be different with Luz. That the witch’s exuberant personality was an affection to help her fit in with everyone else. But it somehow turned out that the girl who had spent most of her life as part of a guerilla movement against a tyrannical regime was somehow more trusting and less paranoid when it came to other people than Willow was. Amity was, thankfully, a break in that trend for the most part but whenever Luz entered the equation the girl’s priorities underwent a rather impressive shift. She was still the distrustful daughter of the mayor that was always on the lookout for people that wanted to use her to get something but she was always willing to at least give things a chance if she thought Luz would enjoy them.

So when everyone had started making plans to use the portal that the SCI had managed to create to go to the Boiling Isles she had been largely alone in questioning the benevolence of the organization. Sure, the vast majority of their interactions with the organization had been positive. With most to all of the bad ones being able to be laid squarely at the feet of Lilith having major hangups about magic in general and especially in proximity to her sister. But at the same time, the willingness of the organization to throw Lilith under the bus like that had done more to make Willow suspicious than anything else. Then there was the gift of the palistrum wood. It may not have been as valuable in the human realm as it was in the demon realm but it was still something that they did to try and get on Luz’s good side. There was something they wanted from her.

Of course, the obvious answer was that they wanted a contact with the rebel group Luz was part of. Everything Willow had heard about the Boiling Isles painted a picture of a government that would be unwilling to engage in peaceful talks with the human realm and she doubted that the SCI would stand for that. But at the same time, Willow was worried that there was something more. Something that she was missing or just didn’t know enough to realize was being planned. So while the others were at varying levels of excitement for the upcoming trip, she was reticent. The magic glove never left her hand and she had the magic ready to latch on to any of the dozens of seeds and cuttings she secreted on her person.

Even as they all gathered in the room with the portal, with Eda being a late addition nearly five minutes after the rest of them had all gotten there, she had kept an eye on the SCI agents in the room and when the Director had finally joined them she had kept an eye on him as well. Eda may have jubilated about pulling a fast one over him but Willow couldn’t help but feel that Eda hadn’t been alone in declaring that encounter a victory.

“You have all completed the accelerated tests. Good. I admit I would be disappointed if one of you were unable to join us in this momentous occasion,” the Director said as he looked them all over. He smiled as he turned to the portal. “This had been a pet project of mine for years now, years of planning, research, and searching for a way to open a portal to the Boiling Isles.” His hand tightened on the handle of the large metallic case he was carrying before he turned to look back at Luz. “And you will be a key part of this I think. Protocol dictates that we at least give the local government a chance to meet peaceably but…” he trailed off as his gaze drifted towards a wall. “After speaking with that coven witch that you brought in I doubt that such a meeting will go well.” Once more his gaze returned to Luz. “When that inevitably happens I believe that I will need to count on you to begin laying the foundations for peaceful relations between our realms.”

Luz seemed flabbergasted by the man’s speech. Whether it was due to the apparent confidence he had in her or in his grandiose plans for the future she was silent for several moments. “I… I’ll do everything I can!” She assured him. “I don’t have too much pull with a lot of the more senior members of the Underground but I’m sure I can get them to listen to you!”

Willow frowned at the look of satisfaction that flashed, ever so briefly, across the Director’s face.

“I’m sure you will perform admirably,” the Director said with a warm smile. Before he could say anything else a distant whump echoed throughout the room, the vibrations of the noise causing almost everyone to look around in surprise and confusion. Those few that remained stoic throughout the event quickly joined the others in beginning to move when alarms began to blare throughout the building.

When one of the closer agents began talking on his walkie Willow was only able to make out a few words, but those few words were enough to worry her. Guard, witch, escape. Luz seemed to have heard enough as well. She had already summoned her staff and cloak and was looking over the room to take note of everyone’s position as well as all possible entrances.

To Willow’s minor annoyance the Director seemed completely unperturbed by the sudden turn of events. Only pulling out a walkie of his own and calmly giving out order after order.

“What’s going on?” Eda asked, thin black veins already running through the whites of her eyes and a number of tiny red feathers poking out of her forearms.

“It appears the coven guard is making another escape attempt. One that is going distressingly well for him,” the Director admitted with a faint grimace.

Luz’s eyes narrowed at the director’s statement. “He’s tried this before?”

“Indeed. So far the best he’s ever managed to do was incapacitate a guard or two before being taken down. In his time here he’s never managed to even leave his cell before now.”

Luz’s grip on her staff tightened as she looked around the room again. “He’s going to be coming for the portal.” When everyone looked over at her she blanched but soldiered on. “I was able to sense that thing long before we got here. There’s no way he couldn’t feel it too.” She turned to Eda. “You said he was fixated on finding the Rainbow Staff when he attacked you, right?”

Eda nodded with a grimace. “Yeah, he was really sure you had it. Freaked out when he couldn’t find it.”

“So his number one priority is probably going to be getting to this portal and escaping. Can anyone find him right now?”

One of the guards relayed Luz’s question to whoever was on the other end. Even before he shook his head the growing grimace on his face was answer enough. “He did something to create a bunch of little rock monsters. One of the analysts thinks it’s some sort of beast keeping magic.”

“Describe them,” Luz demanded.

The man seemed to fight off the urge to salute before he responded. “Little pebbles, spindly legs, one eye, lots of teeth.”

“Might be some basic demon creation. Some Beast Keepers prefer to create their own beasts to command. Luckily anything that small probably isn’t going to have enough magic to give it a real reproductive system or a long lifespan so they’ll die out before too long. But for now they’re going to be running around trying to fight everything they can. If you don’t move they probably won’t do anything to you but I can’t guarantee that.”

The Director nodded as the guard relayed that information to everyone he could. “You seem quite sure about his motives and tactics. Where do you think he will go next?”

Willow frowned and started making her own conjectures as Luz began to talk over everything she thought the guard might do with the Director. The obvious way in would be the door but that was reinforced to a degree that getting in that way would require far too much work to be worth it and even then would likely alert everyone inside the room as to where the guard would be coming from. The walls maybe? Luz seemed to agree with that estimation. Even if they were reinforced the walls would be much easier to deal with than the door and they covered a large enough area that keeping an eye on all of them would be difficult at best. He could come at them from any angle and there were plenty of places behind cabinets or machines that a person wouldn’t even be able to notice any signs of the wall being broken down. Her gaze swept over the room once more before pausing halfway through her sweep. “What about the ceiling?”

Luz and the Director both looked at her before turning to face each other.

“Did you destroy his staff?” Luz asked.

“Yes. Many people wanted to study it but it was deemed too great a potential security risk to be kept intact. If he were to try and walk across the rooftop he would trip a number of our defenses and either be incpacitated or forced back into the building.”

As if the universe was trying to go out of its way to prove the man wrong, a sudden rumble came from the ceiling right over the portal. Before anyone could do anything the rumble became a thunderous crack that sent chunks of stone and fiberboard tiles clattering down to the ground. And amidst that avalanche came a man on a staff with some large bundle sitting in front of him.

The second he entered the room he leapt off his staff and sent a torrent of lightning bolts throughout the room. Willow, like so many others, was already in motion when he released the attack but many more weren’t so lucky. A good number of the guards were unable to dodge in time and slammed into nearby walls where they slumped down and stopped moving.

Those that managed to emerge unscathed, a group that thankfully included Willow herself and her friends, turned what weapons they had towards the guard, ready to open fire on him. She sincerely doubted that the man would be able to withstand everything that could be thrown at him, especially after his first showing against just Willow, Gus, Amity, and Eda. However, those plans were quickly derailed when the dust was blown away from the guard to reveal him pointing his staff not at any of the people scrambling to respond to his entrance, but at a familiar young man.

“If any of you attempt to retaliate I will kill this child,” the guard said with the smug grin of a person who was absolutely sure that he was holding all the cards at the moment.

Willow stared at the unmistakable face of Hunter in shock. She trembled as she tried to think of how he had managed to end up captured by the guard. The guard that could only have been loose for at most a few minutes. Worries slowly turned to shock as she began to recognize what her friend was wearing. While she had never seen that outfit in person it had been described to her often enough. The white cloak and single golden pauldron, the staff with the red gem set above a golden wing, and now that she was looking she could see the mask of the new guard hanging around Hunter’s neck. Her hand, gripping a handful of seeds that she had already pumped full of magic dropped as confusion, worry, and betrayal warred in her mind.

The Director wasn’t so conflicted though. “Open fire.”

“But-” Willow began before she was cut off, both by the Director and the cracking sound of the guard’s electric weapons discharging.

“Both of those people are enemy combatants. That child is clearly the guard that has been causing trouble recently in Southborough and could only have been captured so quickly if he was already here without authorization. I will not allow a dangerous criminal to escape in order to save the life of another, equally dangerous, criminal,” The Director stated as he began to move towards the nearest group of agents.

Thankfully the guard didn’t seem to be about to follow through on his threat. Instead opting to sprint behind one of the large machines next to the portal. Whether due to not having the time to turn his attention away from the firefight or deciding that there was no point WIllow wasn’t sure. Whichever the case Willow knew that she needed to join in helping take down the guard. Gus had begun throwing around illusions the instant the firefight had broken out, hiding SCI agents from view and sending tiny distracting illusions into the guard’s face. Amity too had been quick on the draw, summoning a pair of abominations and moving them in between their group and the guard to keep them safe and she was well on her way to summoning a third she no doubt intended to send forward to strike at the guard directly. Eda had fully transformed but was hanging back, clearly unwilling to leap forward into the mess of energy blasts and lightning bolts without knowing just how much of each she could take.

Luz, however, had remained unmoving, her eyes darting between what could be seen of the guard and Hunter between Amity’s abominations and Willow. Eventually, she simply shook her head and began aiming her staff through holes in the abomination’s defense to add her own shots to the barrage that was peppering the guard’s hiding spot. Taking a deep breath Willow focused as well. Luz had the right idea. Whatever was going on would have to wait. Hunter would have to answer for everything he had done later but for now she just had to make sure he would survive long enough for her to get her turn.

The seeds in her hand burst into a writhing mass of vines that began to snake along the floor and ceiling. Either at Amity’s unspoken command or by whatever intelligence it possessed, the abomination guarding them shifted around slightly to ensure Willow had a perfect view of where she was sending her vines. Her face split in a toothy grin of satisfaction as she saw the panicked look on the guard’s face. While he had managed to take down a few more of the SCI agents, their constant barrage, along with Gus’s distractions and the encroaching abomination had forced him entirely on the defensive. A defensive that was clearly faltering. Each spell he cast was some attempt at creating a shield or barrier to hide behind but they were failing as fast as he was getting them up. 

Willow’s grin became even more feral as the first of her vines reached his position just as he did something that caused the abomination to lock up. He screeched as one of the vines snagged his ankle and squeezed down with all its might. Willow couldn’t be sure if one of the cracks that echoed around the room was the SCI agent’s weapons or the guard’s ankle breaking but she hoped it was the latter. A sudden gout of flame severed the vine that had grasped the guard but several more were right behind it.

The witch was well and truly panicking now. His eyes were wide and flitting back and forth as he tried to find some way to escape the situation he had placed himself in. It was rather obvious he had expected that holding a teenager hostage would have resulted in something other than a firefight. Finally, as he saw Willow’s vines descending on him from the ceiling he snapped. The gem on his staff glowed as Hunter was lifted into the air alongside the witch and he lurched towards the portal in a mad dash. The last of his shields fell to shots from the barrage as he reached the door and slammed his hand into the eye.

There was a gasp behind Willow as Luz almost dropped her staff. “Stop! Stop firing!”

Her shout went unheard as several blasts hit the guard in the back. His body twitched and spasmed as he was spun around to slump against the door but his hand remained in contact with the eye. Suddenly a bright glow erupted from his chest, right around his heart. In a flash, the glow shot along his arm and into the eye.

“No no no no no no,” Luz whispered. “Please don’t let it work.” 

Before Willow could ask what Luz meant the eye on the door began to glow ominously.

“Not again,” Luz begged.

Willow froze for a second as she finally realized what had Luz so scared. Without a second thought, her arm snapped out to grab hold of Luz’s. On the young witch’s other side the rest of the group had come to the same realization and grabbed hold of Luz as well.

“Don’t worry kid,” Eda said as her wings swept in around all of them. “We got ya.”

Then everything went white.

“Well that could have gone better,” Belos mumbled as he picked himself up off the cobblestone street he had found himself in. Pulling the walkie on his lapel closer to his mouth he clicked it on. “All agents, report.”

Silence reigned for several seconds until the walkie crackled to life. One by one his agents reported in. Far fewer in number than he had been hoping. While his decision to only have the lower-level agents accompany him really had been largely due to necessity, that plan had been made under the assumption he would have far more resources at hand than this. Now though he was forced to reconsider his earlier preparations. While some more senior agents might… disagree with the steps he would soon be taking it would have been worth needing to deal with that insubordination so long as they were there to get him where he needed to be before they began to question him. 

Pushing aside his annoyance at the situation he clicked his walkie back on. “Prepare your disguises and do what you can to determine your location. If you are in Ribsfield we will determine a rendezvous location. If you didn’t land in Ribsfield we will determine a path to regrouping later. Confirm orders. Belos out.”

Belos sighed and leaned against the wall and his agents confirmed their orders and undoubtedly began to carry them out. His eyes flicked down to the metal case that had, thankfully, managed to remain in his grasp during the unplanned teleportation. His entire being itched to open it but he held himself back. At best it would likely bring the wrong sorts of attention. At worst… he growled at the thought of this Speaker the guard had talked about so reverently getting his hands on it.

No. It would remain there for now. The time would eventually come but it wasn’t now. Gripping the case even tighter Belos shoved himself off the wall and looked out at the larger street at the end of the alleyway. The occasional witch or demon passed by the mouth of the alleyway but few of them even glanced in it, and none were foolish enough to enter a random alleyway with someone they didn’t recognize standing in it.

Belos chuckled as he brought up one hand and drew a quick spell circle. Within moments his suit had been replaced with clothes similar to those he had seen the passing witches wearing, the case in his hands had been replaced with a simple wooden cage covered with a cloth, and his ears had become pointed. “It’s good to be back,” he muttered as he stepped out of the alleyway and into Ribsfield, humming a happy tune under his breath.

Chapter Text

To Luz’s immense relief the transition between realms was a lot smoother this time around. She still ended up somewhere above the ground but she was at least conscious this time. Even better, her first sight in the demon realm wasn’t the giant ribs of the titan or the familiar cityscape, but Eda’s rusty red wings. Even as gravity took hold and she began to plummet downwards she couldn’t help but feel happy that she hadn’t been separated from her friends. Of course, she quickly shoved that feeling aside to focus on the more immediate problem of falling. Before she could even begin to try dealing with that though she found herself pulled upwards by the back of her shirt.

“Hoo boy! You kids need to lay off the pizza!” Eda groaned.

Looking around, Luz could see that Eda had managed to grab hold of each of them. She and Gus were suspended by Eda’s hands while Willow and Amity had the dubious honor of being grasped by Eda’s feet. “Don’t worry Eda, I’m fine,” Luz reassured her as she repositioned her staff and shifted her weight over to it. Free from Eda’s talons and the tyranny of gravity Luz was finally free to actually look around and realize just how far they were from the ground.

“Eda.”

“Yeah kid?”

“You can just let go of Amity and WIllow. We’re only a couple feet up.”

Eda blinked and glanced down at the ground. “Huh. Well, you heard the kid. Brace yourselves.”

Willow and Amity both landed as gracefully as they could, while Gus remained in Eda’s grip for a little longer as she came in for a landing. Predictably, Gus was the first one to start asking questions.

“Are we in the Boiling Isles?”

Luz couldn’t help but smile a little bit at the excitement in his voice. “Well,” she drawled as she looked out of the abandoned looking yard they had landed in at the massive ribs looming over the skyline. “Certainly looks like it.”

“And we don’t have a way back,” Eda added.

Gus’s grin faded a little bit at that reminder but he squared his shoulders and soldiered on. “We don’t know that for sure. We still have those communicators they gave us, right? They said that they’ll work as long as there’s some sort of connection between our realms so all we need to do is pull one out and check.”

“Already on it,” Willow said, already rummaging through her pack. With somber determination, she pulled the small device out of the pack and began to fiddle with it. “Here’s goes nothing,” she muttered.

There was a static-y screech as the device turned on that caused everyone to wince. Thankfully the racket was short-lived and soon replaced by a familiar voice. “Hello, we are receiving your signal. Please respond.”

After a moment’s searching Willow managed to find the talk button on the device and pressed it. “Lilith? Ah! This is Willow. Luz, Gus, Amity, and Eda are all with me here and we’re fine. We are currently in the Boiling Isles but I don’t think we know where we are.”

“I’m pretty sure we’re somewhere in Ribsfield but I’m not sure where,” Luz piped up.

“Luz thinks we’re somewhere in the city we were supposed to land in but isn’t sure where. What happened to the portal?”

“Currently down,” Lilith all but growled. “That witch did a number to it. Professor Woods is still trying to figure out what happened at all, let alone how to fix it. Does Luz have any idea what might have happened?”

Luz grimaced as Willow turned to face her. “I think the guard tried to overload the portal. He… he probably burned himself out trying to overload it.”

“I see,” Lilith said. “Hopefully this will speed up the process of getting the portal back online but I believe that you will all be trapped there for some time. I’m sorry.”

Everyone’s faces fell at Lilith’s proclamation. Even Gus’s excitement at finally being able to explore the Boiling Isles dissipated on hearing that there was no clear end date to their trip.

“Is there any particular way that any of you want this situation to be revealed to your parents if we can’t get the portal back up in time?”

Luz winced and stepped away from the others as they began to discuss their options about how to tell their parents that they were trapped in another universe for the foreseeable future. “I shouldn’t have let them come,” she whispered to herself.

“None of that kid.”

Luz yelped and jumped at Eda’s voice. After taking a moment to compose herself she stared glumly up at the harpy woman. “What do you mean? This is all my fau-”

Eda quickly silenced her with a talon to her lips. “I said none of that. This whole situation was completely out of your hands. The SCI failed to keep the guard in prison, that other kid obviously did something too in order to have been there, don’t think I didn’t see how you and Willow reacted to seeing him by the way, that idiot Belos was the one that kicked off the whole firefight, and that guard was the one that decided to mess with the portal. None of this is on you.”

“But it’s my fault you were even there to begin with! Gus, Willow, and you were just supposed to be here for a day! Now their parents are going to have to worry and… and… I just should have been able to do something!”

Eda sighed and pulled Luz close with one of her wings. “If you wanna take things that far that it’s our own fault for deciding to come with. We all made decisions that we thought were perfectly reasonable and safe. It’s not any of our faults that other people had to go and ruin it all. Now come on, you really think your friends are gonna want to see you moping and beating yourself up like this?”

Luz looked away but shook her head after a few moments.

“There we go. Now come on, it sounds like the kids are wrapping things up and you still need to show us around this place. Getting stranded here doesn’t mean we can’t still play tourist after all. Hell, sometimes it’s even the best time to go play tourist. Remind me to tell you about the time I got trapped in San Fran. If you’re lucky I might even share the really good parts,” she said with a wink

Luz couldn’t help but chuckle at Eda’s nonchalance in regards to the situation. Something that Eda noticed with a warm smile.

“That’s a bit better, now come on.”

Luz nodded and followed Eda back over to where the others were still clustered around the communicator.

“Luz! Glad you’re back. Lilith wanted to know a little more about what you think the guard did to the portal,” Gus said as he held the communicator out to her.

Luz took it and hesitantly raised it up closer to her face. “Lilith? Gus said you wanted to ask me some things?”

“Yes. You mentioned that he burned himself out attempting to overload the portal. What exactly did you mean by that?”

“He… It’s something that a witch can do when they’re really desperate. You use up every bit of bile you have to get tons of power for one big spell. It’s… not something most witches can come back from. Even if you managed to survive casting the spell you’re probably going to completely collapse your bile sac and either just die slowly or end up being unable to use magic for the rest of your life. I’ve never heard of a witch living very long after that even if they do recover.”

“I see. Well, at the very least this will prevent the guard from causing any more trouble. Thank you for the information, Luz. Hopefully this will give Dr. Woods at least some idea on what needs to be done in order to bring the portal into full working condition. Do any of you have any other questions?”

“Yeah, what happened to Mr. Business Suit?” Eda asked.

“Since I assume you’re talking about Director Belos, he contacted us a few minutes ago as well. I believe that Kikimora is still talking with him. He did mention that you should go about making contact with your friends in the Underground. If he ends up needing anything from you I’m sure he will find a way to get in contact.”

“Right, because I’m just itching to help him out,” Eda drawled. “Well, that’s me taken care of. Anyone else got questions?” After a quick glance around Eda nodded. “Right. Talk to ya later Lilly.” She clicked the communicator off. “Guess it’s time to start being tourists.” She looked over at Luz. “Lead on kid.”

Luz shook her head and held up a hand. “Not yet.” She looked over at Amity, Gus, and Willow with a small smirk. “It’s your guys’s turn to have to wear disguises to go outside. Eda and I won’t stick out very much as long as she stays in her harpy form but humans aren’t exactly common on the Boiling Isles”

“Really now? I seem to remember you talking about having wanted posters of yourself,” Eda drawled with a smirk.

“Nothing with my actual face on it,” Luz retorted with a smirk of her own.

Eda snorted and glanced down at the tactical backpack that Luz had gotten from the SCI. “And I guess that thing isn’t going to raise any questions?”

“That…” She trailed off in thought for a few moments before coming to a decision. “It’ll definitely look unusual but the worst we’ll probably get is someone trying to steal it.”

Eda shrugged. “Eh, if you say so.”

Luz nodded and turned to see that the others had finished putting on their cloaks. “One more thing.” One quick spell later each of them had pointed ears.

“Is there a reason we couldn’t just do that?” Willow asked as she looked at Amity and Gus’s ears.

“Never go with only one level of disguise if you don’t have to. Illusions are great until some demon slams into you because they weren’t watching where you were going and they get dispelled or you run into some witch that has a grudge against illusionists and likes dispelling illusions all the time. The cloak will give us a little extra time to reapply the illusions without anyone noticing anything,” Luz explained. “Now come on, got a couple stops to hit up.”

Keeping the smile off his face was much easier than Gus had anticipated when they left the yard they had found themselves in. Sure, he was in the Boiling Isles. A land of mystery and magic. A place that he had been learning about for ages now. A place that had been consuming his dreams ever since Luz had first started telling him about it. Everywhere he looked he was almost assured to see something new and exciting. Witches using spells to do all sorts of mundane tasks, demons roaming the street without anyone sparing them a second glance, even the architecture was interesting! And that was without even going into the massive ribs that dominated the skyline like some sort of demented mountains. Luz had said that the island was the corpse of a giant creature known only as the titan but he had never really internalized just how big the thing had to be.

“Try not to look around at everything like that,” Amity admonished him as he found himself staring at a shop selling potions. “You’re being really obvious right now.”

“It’s actually not that bad,” Luz interjected. “Ribsfield is a big city and it’s not that unusual to see witches from small communities gawking like this.” A sly smirk crossed her face. “I think you’re actually a bit more suspicious hiding in your hood like that.”

Gus couldn’t help but smirk triumphantly as Amity grumbled out an apology. “So where are we going first, Luz?”

“First place I always go when I get back to town after a while.” She pointed to a large building with what looked like posters all along its side. “The bounty boards.”

Gus looked on in confusion as Luz jogged up to the side of the building and began to peruse the massive wall of bounties. Confusion that only increased when he saw her freeze before sighing in relief.

“Is that your-” Willow began before Luz slapped a hand over her mouth.

Gus’s eyes widened in comprehension as he looked at the poster that had caught Luz’s eye. Camila Noceda, wild witch, dead or alive, twenty five hundred snails.

“Bounty boards always take down posters when the bounties are claimed, no matter where they get claimed,” Luz explained in a whisper. “Anyone up here is still alive and free.”

Gus couldn’t help but smile at the relief in Luz’s voice. She had never tried to hide how dangerous it was for wild witches on the Boiling Isles or that she and her mom were wild witches but it was easy to forget just what that meant. After being away for so long Luz finally had confirmation that her mom was still safe. Not wanting to intrude on anything he looked over the other posters. While some of them had actual crimes listed the majority of them were just listed as ‘wild witch’. They all seemed to have rather low bounties though. Apparently just being a wild witch wasn’t enough to make you worth too much. The general criminals seemed to have higher bounties as a rule and the largest… “Rebel witch?”

“Aye, crazed witches that be trying to take down the emperor!” a voice behind him said.

Just barely suppressing the urge to yelp in surprise Gus turned around to see a massive furry demon had come up behind him. The thing looked almost like someone had given a sasquatch a gym membership and all the steroids they could find along with deciding that five eyes were much better than two.

“Don’ worry kid, I ain’t gonna eat ya,” the demon rumbled. “Don’t see hedgies out near the bounty boards too often.” A massive grin filled with crooked teeth spread across his face, far longer than what Gus would have expected. “Not lookin’ for any relatives are ya?”

“No, just wanted to know what I needed to look out for. My dad said I should make sure I learn who to look out when I get to the city so I know when to run away,” Gus lied quickly.

“Yer dad’s a smart witch then. There’s been all sorts of freaks out these days.” The demon leaned down. “Some say there’s even been a human runnin’ around. Nasty business,” he whispered. Or at least as close as he seemed to be able to.

“I’ll keep an eye open for that then. Wouldn’t want to run into any humans after all.”

“Right. Keep outta trouble kid. Ya seem like the good sort,” the demon said as he clapped Gus on the shoulder, sending him sprawling to the ground. “Might need to toughen up a bit though!”

Gus flushed with embarrassment but didn’t get up immediately. Had that been enough to undo the illusion Luz had placed on him? Glancing around he saw that the demon had walked off, still laughing, and that no one else seemed to be paying him any attention. Well, almost no one.

“Gus? Are you alright?” Willow asked as she held out a hand to help him up.

“Yeah, just a little bruised,” He assured her before lowering his voice. “Is my illusion still on?” His face fell when Willow winced and shook her head. For a moment he was tempted to try and handle it himself but he’d left the illusion orb in his pack out of fear of someone recognizing it or just deciding it looked expensive and trying to steal it. “Let’s get back to Luz.”

Thankfully Luz hadn’t gone too far and was easily able to reapply the illusion without any issues. “Did you find everything you needed?” Gus asked as soon as everything was as safe as it could get.

Luz nodded. “Yeah. Found what I was looking for, didn’t find anything for the ones we’re going to see,” she whispered. Her serious tone dropped as she smiled. “Now who wants to try the best baked goods on the Boiling Isles?”

Luz couldn’t help but smile as she led her friends through the twisting streets of Ribsfield. Sure, they were trapped here for the foreseeable future and had no idea where the SCI agents that had gotten sent here with them were. And sure, Willow and Gus were probably going to have a lot of explaining to do when their parents found out what they had been doing and what had happened. Amity might have some explaining to do too but her mom already knew about everything so the most awkward questions for her were probably already taken care of.

But she was back home! And they already had confirmation that the whole trapped in another realm thing was temporary! There was very little Luz wouldn’t have done when she first showed up on Earth to have a guarantee like that. Let alone the fact that they could call home and talk to their parents, reassuring them they were safe and alive whenever they wanted. A few dark thoughts flitted through her mind for a moment before she shook her head to banish them. Only a little longer until they could get to Herman’s bakery. Then she could borrow a crow and call her mom and everything could finally start coming together.

She was so caught up in her thoughts that she almost missed Gus starting to make a detour towards a flock of pixies. “Okay, no. Don’t go near the pixies. If you aren’t careful they’ll eat your skin,” she admonished him as she pulled him back towards the others.

“Really? They don’t look that dangerous,” Willow said as she looked over at the small swarm of pixies.

Luz shrugged. “Honestly the less dangerous something looks on around here the more suspicious you should be of it.” To prove her point she picked up a rock and tossed it towards a large, colorful plant growing along a wall in a nearby alley. A plant that shot the rock down with pinpoint accuracy. All the others stared down at the shattered remnants of the rock and the small vines that were, even now, growing out of the seed that has smashed it. Not wanting to be responsible for the plant spreading, Luz cast a quick fire spell and incinerated the new plant. “See?”

The others, still staring down at the charred remains of the plant, nodded in agreement.

“Cool! Now come on! It’s just around the corner,” Luz said as she sprinted ahead of them, a devious grin on her face. It was always fun to see a first timer’s reaction to the bakery after all.

“Luz, why are you…” Amity’s voice trailed off as she stared at the large sign hanging over Luz’s head. “Seriously?” she groaned

Behind her, Willow was just shaking her head, the barest hint of a smile being hidden behind a hand. Gus and Eda, though, took one look at the sign and burst out laughing.

“Welcome to No Bun Intended!” Luz said with a grin. A grin that grew even larger when Amity groaned again at the awful pun. “Come on in, they have the best painstries.” She faltered at the door for a moment when she remembered that she had long since stopped carrying snails with her and had completely forgotten to grab them in the hustle and bustle of getting everything else taken care of. “Well, maybe Herman will let us have some of the day-old ones for free.” Those plans get immediately put on hold when a familiar voice rang out the moment she stepped into the shop.

“Luz?!”

“Uh, hi, Herman,” Luz said sheepishly as the massive bear of a witch scrambled out from behind his counter.

Before Luz could do anything else she was swept up in a hug. “We thought you were dead! That...” he trailed off as he glanced around the, thankfully empty, bakery. “Mess you were involved with made headlines all over the isles! They were saying one of the guards ‘nobly gave his life to bring down a dangerous wild witch’. They even took down that awful poster they had of you wearing your entire getup.”

“Yeah, I… uh… kinda noticed. But it’s okay! I finally managed to make it back and everything is going to be okay! But.. uh… you don’t still have that crow from the…. others, do you?”

Herman’s eyes widened as he dropped Luz back to the ground. “Oh my titan. You need to talk to your mom!” He darted back behind the counter, shouting to carry on the conversation. “She never gave up on you coming back you know? At first everyone thought it was just because she didn’t want to accept that you were gone but then that little spitfire showed up and everyone started thinking there might actually be a chance after all.” He came scrambling back to the front of the shop, an old crow held in his hand.

“What is that?” Gus asked as he stared at the crow.

For the first time since they’d come in, Herman seemed to realize that Luz hadn’t come in alone. “Oh! My apologies! I was so focused on Luz that I never introduced myself! Herman Danier, at your service,” he said with a large, customer service smile.

“Don’t worry Herman, they know everything. I was actually staying with them while I was… gone.”

In an instant, his smile became far more genuine. “In that case, thank you for keeping an eye out for her. I’m sure Camila will be very eager to meet all of you. Speaking of which!” He handed the crow over to Luz. “Your crow, my dear.”

Luz looked down at the crow for a few moments. “She’s still at the same place, right?” At Herman’s nod she raised one trembling hand and began to dial the number that had been drilled into her head a hundred times before. Someone picked up on the other end at the first caw and Luz’s breath caught in her throat at the sound of a voice she had longed to hear for ages.

“Hello?” Camila said.

“Hey, mom. I’m back,” Luz said, tears welling up in the corners of her eyes.

Despite his best efforts, Hunter was still no expert on the Boiling Isles. He’d certainly given it his best shot. Asking the Wild Witch as many questions as he could via the plant girl about as many topics as he could. In the end though, he had still only managed to just barely scratch the surface of the culture, climate, flora, fauna, and history of the isles. Not too surprising given the sheer breadth of knowledge he was looking for but disappointing all the same. Of course, one thing that he was absolutely certain about despite never having asked questions about it was that being found next to a dead guard was a very bad thing.

He knew he should be feeling at least something about the all too still body of the guard laying a few feet away but he simply couldn’t muster the energy to care. Ever since he had started actually talking, via proxy but still talking, to the Wild Witch his belief that the guard was in the right had been fading. Talking to the Wild Witch in person had driven the first nails into the coffin that housed his hopes that the guard might be a reasonable person and the last ones had been driven in by the guard himself. Between the brief, and very unpleasant, first meeting with the man and hazy, half-formed memories of being dragged around and used as a hostage, Hunter didn’t really think too highly of the guard or the institution he represented.

At least the man had gotten him to the Boiling Isles. His memories around the teleportation were vague but it was the only reasonable answer to why he was… wherever this was and not locked up in some cell by the SCI.

Slowly lifting himself up off the ground and ignoring the full-body ache that throbbed with his every movement he looked around the place he had woken up in. It looked like it might be some sort of abandoned house. There was a thin layer of dust over everything and the furniture that was smashed was scattered around the room like a tornado had blown through. Placing a hand on the splintered remnants of what he assumed to be a table he shoved himself up the rest of the way. He winced as his every muscle protested his ascension to his feet but he knew he couldn’t stop there.

Grumbling under his breath at the situation he took another look around the room. Between the better vantage point and actually being able to string his thoughts together, he was finally able to really take in his surroundings. While he didn’t recognize the particulars of the room he was in things looked close enough that he felt reasonably sure he was in some sort of kitchen. The oven and stove looked a bit odd, and there was something off about the refrigerator, but the vast array of cooking implements and cupboards made him pretty confident about his guess. Confidence that was replaced by creeping confusion as he looked around the room again. Between the dust and disarray, he’d thought the teleportation had landed him in some abandoned house but there was way too much stuff here. Abandoned buildings usually didn’t have full sets of pots and pans or a full selection of cooking utensils. Any ones that did usually didn’t have them for long unless something was very wrong with the buildings.

Or unless the building wasn’t really abandoned.

With growing dread, he looked up at the ceiling of the room. Instead of an uninterrupted expanse of wood or whatever was used on the Boiling Isles to make ceilings was a large, ragged hole. Even as he looked at it a few splinters broke free and drifted to the ground.

Hunter nearly tripped over himself as he did his best to stumble towards a door. Pain shot through his legs as he sprinted across the uneven rubble that he was now realizing was the result of him and the guard crashing through someone’s roof. Thankfully the doorknob was recognizable enough and the door opened outwards, allowing him to simply slam into it while pawing at the knob to escape the house. For one brief moment elation soared through him as he stumbled out into the open air of the Boiling Isles.

That elation died a swift death as he saw some sort of lizard-like monster pointing at him and shrieking in a voice that sounded like it belonged to a housewife screaming about a mouse in her house. “There it is! I told you there was a human in my house! Arrest it! Arrest it now!”

Hunter barely had enough time to curse before the coven guards standing in front of the creature turned their staves on him and blasted him back into unconsciousness.

Chapter Text

Camila couldn’t help but fret as she paced through the small house she had claimed in the Lung Forest Safe Haven. Part of her hated that she had cut her conversation, the first in far too long, with her daughter so short. If Luz hadn’t promised that she would be coming straight here Camila knew she probably would have never put down the crow.

“Ms. Noceda? Are you alright?”

Camila froze before turning to face the girl she’d been sharing her house with. “Better than alright Vee! Luz is back and she’s on her way here!”

To Camila’s surprise a flash of dismay crossed the young human’s face before it was quickly smothered by the all too fake look of happiness that always meant Vee was very much not fine. “That’s wonderful Ms. Noceda. I can start moving my things-”

Camila stepped forward and drew the girl into a hug. “You don’t need to go anywhere, Vee. Luz would never forgive me if I kicked you out of here, even if it was to get her room back.” Camila pulled back and saw that confidence the Vee had been slowly building up during her time in the isles start to come back. “And how many times have I told you to just call me Camila?”

“Thanks, ” Vee whispered. An idea seemed to occur to her as her face lit up. “You… uh… don’t think she’d be interested in…” her hand drifted to one of the card holders that sat on her belt.

“I’m sure she’ll be very excited to see them,” Camila reassured her. Left unsaid was her certainty that Luz would probably be ecstatic to be able to spend time with anyone her own age that she didn’t have to hide things from. As much as she disagreed with the way that the Speaker ran things there was still a part of her that wished that she had been able to stay a coven witch if only so Luz wouldn't have had to grow up so alone. Once again her thoughts began to whirl as she wondered just what had happened to her little girl since she had vanished.

“You’re pacing again.”

Camila winced as she realized that Vee was right. “I’m sorry. I just keep getting lost in thought and start worrying about what happened to Luz while she was gone. Then I start wondering if she’s even going to make it here or if she might run into a guard patrol and flying this late can be dangerous so what if she runs into a-”

“Camila!”

Camila jumped at the sudden shout and turned an apologetic look to Vee. “Sorry.”

“Come on, there has to be something to distract you while we wait for Luz to get here,” Vee insisted. “Maybe make Luz’s favorite snack?”

Camila’s eyes widened as she gasped. “You’re right! Who knows what she’s been eating wherever she was?! I need to make sure she gets a proper meal!” She declared as she rushed to the kitchen.

“Wait! Not a whole meal! Just a snack!” Vee shouted as she followed behind.

“Ah, yes. I suppose it is a little late to make dinner. Oatmeal razor cookies it is!”

Time passed in a pleasant blur as Camila and Vee worked on making a batch of fresh cookies. Thankfully the process of working with razorberries required a level of concentration that managed to almost entirely distract Camila from her worries, at least for a little while. The worries came back once the cookies were placed in the oven and there was little else to do but wait, but they were at least more tolerable. Vee seemed to sense Camila’s growing worries and did everything she could to distract her. It was certainly a well-meaning effort but the poor girl had enough trouble coming up with conversation topics that she ended up asking how the oven worked.

Granted, she did manage to keep Camila from worrying too much about Luz, even if it was more due to trying not to laugh as Vee did her best to salvage her attempts at conversation than anything else. Time passed and what few dishes were dirtied by the cookie making process were cleaned, conversation was managed to be had, and the minutes ticked on. The cookies were removed from the oven and let out to cool, and Vee jumped on the new topic of what sort of differences there were between human and witch deserts. Something that managed to eat up a good quarter-hour. They were just about to taste test the first of the cooled cookies when the familiar alarm that signified unknown visitors entering the camp sounded.

“Luz!?” Camila yelped as her head snapped towards the sound.

Vee moved to stand next to Camila and placed a comforting hand on her shoulder. “It will still take a few minutes for Luz to get through security.”

Camila tensed at the reminder but eventually relaxed as much as she could. Yes. It would only be a few more minutes. Just a little bit longer and she would finally get to see Luz again. Even with Vee’s reassuring presence, she felt herself trembling as the seconds ticked by with agonizing slowness.

Just as Camila was beginning to wonder if the alarm had been for someone else there was a hesitant knock on the door. Hope bloomed in her chest as she shot forward. Begging with every fiber of her being that it was Luz on the other side. With reckless disregard for safety, she threw the door open and tears began to well up in her eyes.

 “Luz!”

Her daughter barely had any time to react before Camilla bowled into her, drawing her into a hug so tight she could swear she could hear Luz’s bones creak. Tears flowed freely as she relished in finally being able to hold her daughter once again. Tears that were quickly reciprocated as Luz returned the hug with equal vigor. The two of them talking over each other as they tried their best to greet one another, reassure one another, and ask questions about what had happened since they had last seen each other.

Camila wasn’t sure how long it took for them to loosen their grip on each other and actually be able to look one another in the eye. For the first time in far, far too long Camila was able to just look at her daughter once more. “Welcome home Luz.”

Luz, once she realized just how she must look with tears and snot running down her face, was quick to try and clean herself up before stepping back from her mom and gesturing to her friends. “Mom, these are my friends. They helped me out a lot while I was… gone.”

Her mom, upon hearing that Luiz was introducing her to her friends, did her own quick bout of self-care to try and look presentable. “Oh! I’m so sorry! Please, come in! Come in! There are cookies in the kitchen!”

Luz brightened at the prospect of her mom’s cookies but soldiered on with introducing everyone. Cookies could wait for at least a little while. “This is Eda, she let me stay with her and helped me get into school.” Eda smiled and waved. “And these are my friends Gus and Willow.” Willow waved as well and Gus, after realizing that he had been mentioned and tearing his attention away from the interior of the house, joined in. “And… Amity. My… my girlfriend.”

Camila, who had already looked quite happy at hearing Luz introduce someone as her friends, beamed radiantly at Amity. “I’m so proud of you Luz!” She turned to Amity. “And I’m so happy to meet you Amity!” she said as she drew Amity into a hug every bit as strong as the one she had graced Luz with.

Luz couldn’t help but smile a little at the look of confusion and slight panic on her girlfriend’s face as she tried to process the sudden burst of affection from someone she had just met. After letting Amity stew in that confusion for a few moments more Luz moved to free her from her mom’s grip.

“Oh! I’m so sorry.  I just… with Luz coming back and-”  Camila apologized.

Amity, once she managed to get her breath back, held up a hand to forestall any further apologies. “It’s okay, Ms. Noceda.”

Camila looked relieved at that. “Just call me Camila. You...” She paused as she looked closer at Amity. “You’re human.”

Luz glanced over at Amity to see that, yes, her mom’s hug had been strong enough to disrupt the illusion hiding Amity’s ears. “Yeaaaah, about that. The reason I was gone so long was because I was kinda… sorta… lost in the human realm.” With a wave of a hand she dismissed the illusions hiding Gus and Willow’s ears and nodded at Eda, who immediately began to revert to her human form.

Luz watched with bated breath as her mom processed what she had said. To her surprise, it took far less time than she had figured and the response wasn’t quite what she had expected.

“I knew it.”

“You… did?”

“I… well, I assumed that you had gotten lost there,” Camila admitted. “When you didn’t immediately come back the news covered what happened, and it mentioned that you and a guard had vanished. Some of the people that you talked about that mission with told me that one of the things in the vault was the Rainbow Staff and that it could teleport you anywhere. At first, I thought you had been teleported to one of the other titans. But then I met Vee.”

Luz blinked in confusion as her mom gestured to someone standing uncomfortably in the corner and doing her best not to draw attention to herself. A very human someone.

“Um, hi?”

“Hi,” Luz replied as she looked the girl up and down. Dark black hair with an almost blush tint ran down to her shoulders and she looked almost unhealthily pale, something that was exacerbated by the embarrassed flush in her cheeks.

“One of the portals that was opened by the staff managed to catch Vee. A few young witches managed to find her and, after realizing that what the Emperor’s Coven would likely do to her, managed to get in touch with us. She’s been staying with me ever since.” Camila explained.

Vee was silent as she shuffled back and forth, glancing away from Luz every so often. “I’m Veronica, but everyone just calls me Vee.” After a moment she managed to actually lock eyes with Luz and hold out a hand.

“Nice to meet you Vee,” Luz said with a smile as she shook Vee’s hand. “Thanks for watching out for my mom while I was gone.” Luz’s words seemed to do the trick, as Vee relaxed ever so slightly. She still looked like she wasn't quite sure what to do or to say but she no longer looked like she was about to run away. Of course, that ease turned out to be rather short-lived when, the very moment Luz had finished shaking Vee’s hand, Gus leapt forward.

“Have you really been in the Boiling Isles this whole time? That’s amazing!” He said as he quickly took up the hand that Vee hadn’t fully retracted from her time shaking Luz’s hand. “I’m Agustus by the way but everyone calls me Gus. I have so many questions to ask you!”

Vee looked either too shocked or too afraid to break the handshake and only nodded mutely. Thankfully Willow was quick to run interference. “Calm down Gus,” she said as she maneuvered Gus away from Vee. “Sorry about that, he gets excited about these sorts of things.”

Gus grumbled for a bit and rolled his eyes but didn’t actually contest the point. “Sorry,” he mumbled. “I just didn’t think anyone got caught up in those portals. I checked the missing persons every day for a week after and no one was ever reported missing.”

For the first time since Luz had seen her, something other than varying levels of discomfort flitted across Vee’s face. “Of course he didn’t,” she muttered. It was only after she looked around and realized everyone, except Camila, was staring at her that she seemed to realize what she had said. Her entire face went red as she tried to shrink down into herself.

“It’s okay Vee. You don’t have to worry about that anymore,” Camila said as she rested a hand on the girl’s shoulder.

“Ya know kid,” Eda said as she sauntered over to Vee’s side. “I know a thing or two about emancipating kids, you ever need some help I bet I can get you out of there real quick.”

Vee looked surprised at Eda’s suggestion, clearly unsure about what to do about it. At Camila’s encouraging nod, who had in turn received one from Luz, she nodded. “I’ll think about it.”

“Great! Been a while since I helped out with something like this but it’s way easier than setting up a whole fake identity for someone and not even the cops questioned Luz’s ids. Just give the word and it’ll all be smooth sailing.”

Camila perked up at Eda’s words and began asking questions about what Luz had been doing during her time in the human realm. Questions that Luz immediately saw she was going to have to add her own two snails in order to keep Eda from telling wild, misleading, and only barely true when viewed from a particular angle stories to answer.

Luz didn’t stop smiling for a second.

Gus couldn’t help but smile as he watched Luz excitedly start explaining everything that she had been through in the human realm. Luz had always had moments of melancholy when it came to her mom. Moments that had drastically increased in frequency once she found out she was going to have a chance to finally go back home and see her again. To finally see this moment actually come to fruition was beautiful.

Equally beautiful yet far more hilarious was Amity’s constant fidgeting as she quite obviously had no idea how to properly interact with her girlfriend’s mother. Fidgeting that got even worse when Luz started to talk about their earlier interactions. If it wouldn’t have likely ruined the moment Gus would have pulled out his phone to take a few commemorative pictures. With the opportunity to collect some teasing material for the future denied to him he instead turned towards the other subject of great interest.

Veronica.

The girl had calmed down quite a bit now that the attention was back off of her. She’d also held a quiet conversation with Eda for a bit about what would go into getting emancipated and finding a way to live on her own. Eda had been quick to suggest getting her hands on as much Boiling Isles currency as she could and sell it back in the human realm. Something Gus filed away himself for later use. He’d probably have to rely on Eda to actually sell it but even if she took a cut it would be a solid addition to his allowance.

Even when Eda had finished her conversation with Vee, Gus made sure not to immediately jump into a conversation with her. He still really wanted to ask her questions about… pretty much everything, but with the initial surprise gone he could fully reign himself in so he wouldn’t overwhelm her. With him calm enough to not push her too hard and her hopefully at ease enough to get interviewed he walked over to her. “Hey, sorry for jumping at you like that earlier.”

She didn’t jump at his attempt to start a conversation, which was certainly good. “Oh, that’s okay.”

“So… would you mind if I asked you some questions?”

“Me?” she asked, sounding genuinely confused.

“Yeah! You’ve been on the Boiling Isles for a long time now! I bet you’ve seen all sorts of cool things and had all sorts of amazing adventures!” He shuffled his pack around and pulled out the illusion orb. “Back in Southborough we had all these artifacts that got scattered around. I managed to find this one! It lets me make illusions.” He focused on the orb and created an illusion of a small butterfly. With a thought, he sent it fluttering over to Vee.

“That’s amazing!” she breathed as she watched the butterfly flutter around. She held up a hand and smiled as Gus made the butterfly land on her outstretched finger. “Enchanted items are pretty common around here but they’re usually really specific. Like a picture frame that can project a single image and stuff. I actually have a couple of little inkstones that can draw anything you can keep a clear picture of in your mind though and that’s really high-end for what people outside the Emperor’s Coven can usually get their hands on.” Suddenly she gasped and her eyes lit up. “But I did manage to figure something else out!”

Still smiling she moved her hand to what looked like some sort of deck box on her belt. Closing her eyes in concentration she tapped a little black oval on the front of the box before pulling out a card. On it was a strange drawing that looked kind of like a fancy umbrella in a circle. Then, with great solemnity, she tapped the card with a finger. To Gus’s shock, the ink lines glowed for a moment before the paper crumpled up and became an orb of light.

“Teach me your ways!” Gus all but shouted as he just barely managed to restrain himself from grabbing hold of Vee’s shoulders.

Unsurprisingly, there was something about the way he practically shouted at her or maybe even the look in his eyes that made Vee attempt to back up before realizing that she had already situated herself right against a wall to stay out of the way. Granted, if you asked him he would say that his reaction was entirely justified. While there was certainly the possibility that there was something special in the ink or the paper that Vee had used she had still, as far as he could tell, used magic all on her own. Something that he wasn’t alone in expressing surprise at.

“What was that?” Luz asked. Either the sudden light show or Gus’s shout had broken her out of telling a story to her mom, one that was probably embarrassing in some way to Amity given her fading blush, and she was now staring at the ball of light in open-mouthed shock.

“It’s… it’s a glyph,” Vee explained as she tapped the box on her belt again. “They’re… at least I’m pretty sure they’re the building blocks of magic.” She held out the card so everyone could see what looked like a diamond growing out of a half-circle. When she placed the paper on the ground and tapped it, it glowed light blue for a moment before a small ice sculpture rose up out of the ground.

“That’s amazing!” Gus and Luz said at the same time.

“How did you find those?”

“What can you do with them?”

“Is there one for every spell?”

Before either of them could ask any more questions Camila placed a hand on each of their shoulders. “One at a time, please.”

Gus froze as he finally noticed how Vee looked ready to bolt and likely would have if he and Luz hadn’t more or less blocked her in. “Ah, sorry,” he muttered as she looked away from her.

“Sorry,” Luz echoed.

After taking a deep breath Vee glanced between the two of them. “It’s okay.” She smiled slightly. “You had some questions?”

Gus grinned. He may be trapped on the Boiling Isles for now but he really wouldn’t have it any other way.

Belos couldn’t help but frown in disappointment as he waited in the Speaker’s audience hall. While the guards that had led him here had separated him from the rest of the agents they hadn’t confiscated anything beyond the standard-issue knives that each of them had carried. Every other piece of equipment had simply been looked at with a shrug and been allowed to be kept. Even his own secret weapon had been glanced at and dismissed as nothing.

It was all so… disappointing.

Sure, excuses could be made about the guards not being familiar with human technology or the various types of magic from the human realm and beyond. You might even be able to excuse them for being in a situation that they most certainly weren’t trained for. It’s not every day that a diplomatic group shows up out of nowhere asking to meet with their leader. Especially not one made up of humans.

Well, mostly humans at least.

But it really didn’t excuse the sheer negligence on display here. He’d had an inkling of what might be awaiting him during his many interrogations with the guard back on Earth. The man’s arrogance had been almost as astounding as it had been helpful. Leaking secrets like a sieve with only the barest psychological trickery. Belos had interrogated children with more guile than that man.

A tired sigh escaped him as he drummed his fingers along the metal case containing his secret weapon. He could certainly understand the implied power of leaving a person waiting on you. It was something he himself had done from time to time. But there was a time and a place for it and, even when it was used, you didn’t make your target wait this long. Anticipation and worry could only grow for so long before being replaced with annoyance and apathy after all.

Proving his point, when the door at the far end of the hall was flung open and a guard walked in to announce the entrance of the Speaker all Belos could feel was boredom. That boredom quickly gave way to disbelief when the Speaker actually entered the room. While Belos could feel the man’s power even from here all of that was overshadowed by his ridiculously opulent outfit. Bracelets, rings, necklaces, a massive ornate belt buckle. The man had to be wearing twenty pounds of jewelry scattered across his person and, unless Belos was mistaken, not a single piece was enchanted. The man’s clothes were no better either. They all looked to be made of rotspider silk, a rare and precious commodity to be sure. One worth more than most people would see in a decade for a single square foot of the cloth, but with no redeeming qualities beyond its rarity and luster. It rankled Belos to think that this was supposed to be the man all the isles looked up to as a leader in place of their supposed recluse Emperor.

“So, you are the one that leads those beasts, yes?” the Speaker said once he had taken a seat at a throne even more opulent than his outfit. 

Biting back a snarl, something he had more than enough experience with, Belos bowed to the waste of space before him. “That is correct my lord. I am here in hopes of securing diplomatic relations with the between out realms.”

The Speaker’s lips twisted in disgust. “And what could a bunch of humans offer my glorious empire?”

Belos took a slow, hissing, breath as he tried to calm himself. Diplomacy first. That was the plan. Establish himself in the palace, learn the weaknesses of the regime, strike at the right time and right place to ensure a smooth transition. Lashing out now would only result in a fight that would see the loss of far more resources than he wanted to deal with replacing and require far more work to ensure no one tried the same later on. Even if it would be oh so gratifying. “While the human world is lacking in magic as you know it, magic is not unheard of there. Additionally, humans have managed to create wonders that can match, and sometimes outdo what a witch can accomplish through the power of their technology.”

A momentary look of interest flickered across the Speaker’s face before he snorted derisively. “I would have to see proof of such wonders before I could even begin to think of meeting with whoever holds your leash. And you look ill-equipped to provide that proof.”

“Indeed. Due to unforeseen complications with the portal that was made to connect our realms we were brought here earlier than expected. And due to those same complications, the portal will be unable to be used for several days at least.” He pulled a small remote from his pocket. “When it is fixed I will be able to call for it to be opened at my location at any time.”

To Belos’s complete lack of surprise the Speaker’s eyes immediately snapped to the remote. He didn’t even bother to hide the hunger in his eyes as he stared at the remote. “May I see this device?”

Belos mentally shrugged and held out the remote for a guard to walk over and take. In the back of his head, he began a countdown to the betrayal that was no doubt going to occur.

The Speaker took the remote with undisguised eagerness. Eagerness that grew as he slowly puzzled out the dreadfully complex single button device. No, Belos had to admit, that wasn’t quite fair to the man. Witches rarely ever made things truly simple. To run into something that was designed to be able to be figured out by anyone and used without any chance of failure or harming the user was something of a rarity in the Boiling Isles.

“I see…” the Speaker mused as he tucked the remote into a pocket. “I believe I have everything I will need from you.” The man stood up and began to smirk. “You really are a fool to have given this device up so easily. As soon as this portal of yours is fixed I will open it and a squad of my finest guards will take control of the portal in the human realm. Your pathetic attempt at diplomacy will provide us with the foothold we need to conquer your realm. But you? You won’t live to see the results of your idiocy. Guards? Kill him.”

“And zero,” Belos muttered as small balls of red light flickered into being at the end of his outstretched pointer fingers. With a flick of his wrists, the heads of the guards next to him were twisted around with a sickening crack. “I’ll admit this wasn't my best attempt at diplomacy,” he mused as he clicked the metal case open and reached inside.

“K-kill him!” The speaker shrieked as he stumbled backward into his throne.

“I really was going to give this a shot until I actually met you,” Belos mused as he pulled the horned golden helmet from the box and a pair of magical blasts splashed harmlessly off the shield spell projected by his tie clip. “And even then I gave you a choice. Take the obvious chance at betrayal or do the smart thing and play nice for a little bit.” A crooked smile crossed his features. “I can’t say I’m too disappointed though.” And he put on the helmet.

“You,” the familiar voice echoed in his mind, every bit as angry as he remembered.

“Me,” he thought back as, for the first time in far, far, too long he reached out and pulled. The aches and pains that had plagued him for decades were swept away as raw power surged through him.

“You shouldn’t be here,” the voice said, a hint of pain undercutting the anger.

Behind the helmet, Belos smiled as he felt the magic surge through him. With a lazy twirl of a finger spires of rock shot out of the ground and immobilized the remaining guards in the room.

“You should be dead.”

To Belos’s pleasant surprise the Speaker actually managed to find his spine, or at least anger enough to pretend to have one, and began casting spells of his own. Abominations rose up out of the ground and surged forward, a portal brought forth a truly massive griffin, and fireball after fireball was launched towards Belos.

A flick of Belos’s wrist scattered the abominations into piles of inert goo, a beast-keeping spell brought the griffin to heel, and focused gouts of flame shot forward to pierce and disperse the fireballs.

“Wh-what are you?!” the Speaker stuttered as he continued to cast spells in an attempt to drive Belos back. An attempt that was clearly failing as Belos continued his inexorable march forward.

“Me?” Belos asked as he walked up to the Speaker. A simple air blade spell, enhanced by the power rushing through his body lopped the man’s head off. Kicking the body aside Belos settled himself onto the throne and looked at the imprisoned guards that were staring at him in horror. “I’m the Emperor.”

The Titan, of course, disagreed. “You’re a monster.”

Chapter Text

Eda groaned as she stretched the kinks out of her back. Those sleeping bags the SCI had provided them with were far more comfortable than they had any right to be but she had still ended up sleeping on the living room floor. Between the lack of guest rooms in Camila’s house, apparently guests usually stayed at a sort of flophouse, and the general desire to not let everyone know that the group that had come in last night were mostly human, they had been forced to find sleeping space wherever they could. Vee had been quick to give up her space in Luz’s room but Luz had put a stop to that pretty early on.  It had been pretty clear that while the kid was certainly a bit thrown by Vee’s presence in her home she didn’t want Vee to feel like she wasn’t welcome.  

Of course, the kid’s ulterior motive became obvious pretty fast when, once Vee and her mom had left to start packing up the rest of the cookies, she had gushed about Vee possibly ending up as her sister. Honestly, Eda could see it. From what she had managed to coax out of Vee about her home life it was pretty clear that no one around here was going to be letting her go back to that. Add in the way that Camila and she had obviously bonded during Luz’s absence and Eda could easily see Luz getting a new sister out of all this.

Looking around the room they had all slept in, she was unsurprised to see that all the munchkins were still fast asleep. Even in another universe getting a teenager to get up early on the weekend just wasn’t in the cards. Careful not to wake up anyone she got up, took a picture of how Luz and Amity had scootched closer to each other during the night, and made her way to the kitchen to find Camila already awake and prepping things for breakfast.

“Up already?” Camila asked as she set down a knife she was using to cut what looked like an onion designed by H. R. Gieger.

Eda nodded. “Yeah, the kids are still out of it.  Yesterday was pretty hectic. You, uh, need any help getting breakfast ready?”

Camila looked to be about to refuse before she glanced out at the living room and probably realized that she was going to need to make enough food for five teenagers. “I suppose a little help would be nice. Normally I’d ask Vee or Luz but...” she trailed off as she looked over at the living room again.

Eda grinned as Camila handed the knife over and instructed her on how to properly chop the geiger onion before stepping aside to start gathering another couple onions for Eda to chop along with plenty of other ingredients. Eda was almost halfway done with the onions before Camila spoke up again.

“Thank you,” she said. “For taking care of Luz while she was in the human realm. It couldn’t have been easy for-”

Eda rolled her eyes and waved dismissively at Camila. “Bah. It wasn’t that much work. Got a few documents forged, kept her away from the feds, at least for the most part, and gave her a place to stay and food to eat. Besides, it’s not like I could have just let her wander off.”

Camila didn’t look too convinced but nodded in acquiescence. “Alright. But it there is anything I can ever help you with-”

Eda waved her down. “Already said not to worry about it. To be honest, it was kinda… nice, having her around. Only person I ever really spent time with was my sister. Kid’s been there for me just as much as I’ve been there for her.”

“It’s not just that,” Camila insisted. “Luz is… Luz is very driven. I’m sure you’ve seen it. She decides she wants to do something and she throws herself into it and she doesn’t really know how to slow down and stop. Before she… left… her focus was always on helping the Underground. She had to be there for everything. Help plan every mission she could. Help prepare every agent she could. Go on every mission she could. When she wasn’t directly working on those sorts of things she was training, learning, preparing. She could probably qualify for an entry-level position in any one of the covens. Most wild witches know one or two covens of magic with a little bit of the others. Luz forced herself to be at least decent at them all. She had her hobbies, reading books and daydreaming about what life could have been like but she spent so much more time working.”

Camila's gaze was distant as she shook her head. “But things are different now. She has something other than me that she can care about. Someone other than me to talk to.” She turned to Eda. “She has friends now. A girlfriend! People that she can spend time with to just be Luz, and not the up-and-coming wild witch of the Underground. You’ve given her so much. So many things that I couldn’t. Not after…” Her face fell.

“After?” Eda prompted.

“After I was kicked out of the healing coven,” Camila said with a sigh. “Not all spells belong to a single coven. Some spells are even allowed to be used by anyone. Self-defense, minor first aid, home cleaning, the minor things that everyone would do regardless of the law. The Speaker isn’t stupid enough to try and control all those spells. But the more specific ones can sometimes change. It took years of lobbying but the Oracle Coven managed to get several diagnostic spells reclassified as only belonging to them instead of being shared with the Healing Coven. After that, if any healer wanted to know what kind of healing spell they should use to treat someone they needed to call an oracle first and get them to determine what kind of injury we were dealing with. Suddenly we couldn’t process patients as fast and some healers even had patients end up dying because a proper treatment couldn’t be divined quickly enough.” Camila’s fists tightened as she looked down at the floor, tears pricking at her eyes. “So when a witchling Luz’s age was bought to me that I knew wasn’t going to be able to last long enough for an oracle to get there I cast the diagnostic spell. I wasn’t even thinking about it, years of training kicked in before I realized what I had done. The oracle got there in time to see me finish the treatment and kicked up an investigation. Either I had risked the patient's life by casting a spell I didn’t know would be the right one or I had bypassed the oracle and used magic from another coven.

“Did you know that all coven witches are given a tattoo of our coven? It doesn’t just mark us, it also tracks our magic usage. So when that investigation started they labeled me as a wild witch before the day was out. I didn’t give them the chance to arrest me though. By the time they started everything I was running. Running to get Luz and escape. Sometimes I still think back to that day and wonder what would have happened if I had made the other choice. Luz would have had a real life of her own. Made friends, gone to school, lived out all those little fantasies of hers. And all it would taken was someone else’s life.” Camila chuckled mirthlessly. “Probably not just one. We still get healers joining us because they did the same thing as me. Some of them did it the first time, sometimes it was the first time someone reminded them of family, sometimes it was only after they lost so many they couldn’t stand it.”

Eda winced and placed a comforting hand on Camila’s shoulder. “Don’t worry, things’ll get better. I may not really trust all the government guys we got on our side to do the right thing but I do trust them to do the thing that they think would help them the most. And between what they could probably get from a bunch of tyrannical racists versus what they could get from a bunch of grateful revolutionaries I think I know which side they’d want to pick.”

“You’re not very fond of your leaders either are you?” Camila noted with a smile.

“Nah. Far as I can tell the only people that really try to get into power are the ones that really shouldn’t be allowed to get into power. Sometimes you can find one or two that ain’t that bad. Mayor Blight is almost… tolerable,” she said with a full-body shudder. Even if the woman had proved to be surprisingly supportive of Luz and Amity’s relationship as well as supporting the WIld Witch Eda still couldn’t help but distrust the woman a bit and speaking well of her went against years of ingrained habit. “But at least I can whine about everything without getting locked up or shot so there’s that at least.”

Camila shook her head in wonder. “If only things were even half as good here. Do you really think your people will be able to help us?”

“Eh, like I said, they’re probably going to end up doing something and hopefully it’ll end up being better than what ya got going on now.” Eda shrugged. “I could always give Lilly a ring and see if she knows what the plans are.” She paused as another thought occurred to her. “Actually I should probably give her a ring anyway. Before the portal got messed up the plans were for most of us to head back to the human realm today. It’d be nice to see if that plan is back on or if we’re still screwed.”

Bidding Camila a quick goodbye Eda made her way back to the living room. A quick scan of the room showed that all the kids were still asleep. Or at least that’s what she thought until she caught a quick flash of a golden eye closing when she looked around the room again. For a moment Eda was tempted to tease the Amity about how she had nestled into Luz even more now that she had woken up but the need to get in touch with Lilly prevailed. Well, that and the fact that it would be much more fun to tease the kid over breakfast while there was an audience. It didn’t stop her from snapping a quick picture of the scene though. With the blackmail secured Eda grabbed her communicator from her pack and returned to the kitchen. Leaning up against the wall she pressed the talk button. “Yo, anyone listening?”

“Eda? Is that you?”

“Steve?” Eda asked after a moment. “Yeah, it’s me. Got any updates about the portal? Or the kid’s parents? Or… anything I guess?”

“Not much good news on the portal front I’m afraid. The eye is fine but the coven guard did a number on the framework and the door itself. We’re hoping it doesn’t come down to it but we might have to replace everything except the eye. Processor Woods is still trying to figure out if she can salvage anything but we still have everything we’ll need to rebuild the portal being shipped in right now.”

“That doesn’t sound too bad. How long would it take to rebuild the thing?”

“A week, maybe two depending on whether we can get a hold of the enchanter we used to make the initial frame or not. After that we’ll need to dial the portal in again. With the notes from last time it shouldn’t take as long but that will still probably take a few days.”

Eda winced at that. “Gotcha. What about the kid’s parents?”

“Lilith is actually busy putting together a presentation about it right now. Looking at the original schedule I believe you were supposed to get back here around one, right? And the kids were all supposed to be back home sometime around three?”

“Yeah.”

“In that case, we will likely be contacting them to bring them here around noon if we haven’t figured out a way to bring you guys back by then. I would suggest not getting too adventurous today and keeping a communicator on you at all times for when one of the parents demands to talk with their child.”

Eda sighed. “Sounds about right.” After a moment she perked up. “Glad I’m not the one that has to explain everything to them. Hell, I don’t even get too much of the blame here. I bet I could shift it all on you guys and point out that I just trusted the kids to tell their parents whatever they needed to know.” Eda couldn’t help but smile at the snort of annoyance that came from the other end of the line.

“Are you going to want an update on what’s happening with Director Belos too or are you just going to make even more work for us?”

“I’ll take that update. Not gonna make a decision about making more work for you yet though.”

“Of course,” Steve said with a chuckle before bringing back his more serious demeanor. “Director Belos rendezvoused with the Emperor’s Coven last night. According to the latest reports, things are proceeding surprisingly well. The Emperor is currently open to the possibility of working with us. We aren’t really sure if we’re being strung along or not but things are at least looking promising. Belos has also mentioned the SCI’s position on the Underground and the less dangerous wild witches and reports that the Emperor seems to at least be open to the idea of loosening some of the restrictions that the Boiling Isles have been under in exchange for some trade concessions. Talk around the office is currently optimistic but the majority of the bets are still on when he’ll betray us and not if.”

“Huh. You actually managed to get a hold of the Emperor then?” Eda asked as half-remembered trivia Luz had discussed with her friends tried to make its way to the surface of her brain. “Wasn’t there some other guy that was in charge?”

“You mean the Speaker?” Camila asked.

“Yeah! Oh, by the way, Steve, this is Luz’s mom Camila. Camila, this is Steve. He’s the most tolerable government spook I’ve ever met!”

“It’s a please to meet you Ms. Noceda, your daughter is a wonderful witch.”

Camila smiled at the praise for her daughter. “Thank you very much, Steve.”

“So yeah. I thought there was this Speaker guy that was supposed to be in charge, not the actual Emperor,” Eda said as she looked over at Camila.

“Yes. Over the years the Speakers have insisted that the Emperor is just in deep contemplation with the titan but no one has actually ever verifiably spoken with him. The Speakers always claim they’re spreading the Emperor’s word but…” she trailed off with a shrug.

Eda nodded slowly. “Well, if anything is going to get a politician to anything then getting access to a whole new universe will. How do you know that this guy is the real deal and not just the someone this Speaker guy dressed up for the occasion?”

“All we have is the Director’s word right now. The other agents have been kept under very polite house arrest. They’ve been allowed to keep their equipment and have free reign over a wing of the palace but they haven’t been allowed to leave the building. There’s some grumbling about the situation and we had some worries about Belos potentially being compromised but he’s willingly taken the full battery of mind control and mental suggestion tests and passed with flying colors. It’s clear that there is something going on but without the portal in a functional state we can’t really do much except trust everyone we have over there,” Steve said, resignation clear in her tone.

“Ouch. At least things aren’t going too bad.”

“I suppose so. I can only hope that we can get the portal back up sooner rather than later and actually provide the support we planned on having on tap for this mission.”

“Well I got nothing else to ask so I guess I should let you get back to it,” Eda said. After a few brief goodbyes, she let her hand fall to her side and groaned in frustration. “That could have turned out better.” She turned to Camila. “So what do you think is going on over there with all this emperor crap?”

Camila sighed as she removed a pan from the stovetop. “I don’t know. But something is happening if your people are talking to someone claiming to be the Emperor. Whatever it is I’m sure that someone will hear about it and pass it along to the Underground before too long though. The covens have security holes big enough for a selkidominus to swim through and if any of them actually learn about what’s going on either someone will let it slip accidentally or someone is just going to start bragging about it to all their friends.” She glanced down at the food in the pan and gave it an experimental rustle. “But I think we can talk about that later. Breakfast is almost done and the kids still need to be woken up.”

“I can handle that,” Eda assured her with a wicked smile. “You got a freezer with some ice cubes sound here or…?” she trailed off at the unamused look on Camila’s face. “Fine, fine. I’ll wake ‘em up the nice way.”

Belos let out a slow, hissing breath as he removed his helmet and placed it on the arm of the throne. At first, he had thought that he was simply out of practice. That going so long without draining magic from the titan had left his skills rusty and his body unused to the sheer power that he was channeling. That the throbbing headache and burning that permeated even his bones was simply him getting used to wielding the power of a god once more. It was still enough to revitalize him, allow him to push back his need for sleep or rest, something rather necessary to deal with things as quickly as he had been. It was still enough to let him give the coven heads and nobles that were ever so slowly trickling in to pay their respects the show they needed to hold off on scheming to take the throne for now.  But then the times where he could use the helmet became shorter.

The titan was fighting back.

While it wasn’t the first time the dead god had tried to keep him from using its powers it was certainly the most effective. All those years apart had allowed it to regain the strength that it had wielded early on in their partnership. A strength that it was now using with a skill and precision that Belos had never seen before. Where it had once relied on sheer power to try and overwhelm him it was now engaging in targeted, surgical strikes. Hitting his mind and body in ways that the helmet didn’t have any defenses against. That he didn’t have any defenses against.

At least not yet.

In time he would be able to refine the helmet and get back the control that was his. But that was something for the future. For a time when all these bickering fools had finally realized that he wasn’t going to be going anywhere. That he really was who he claimed to be. Once he had that breathing room he could truly begin to strengthen his hold on the titan and, by extension, the entirety of the Boiling Isles. And once he had that power once more he could really get started with things.

Unfortunately, he was torn from his thoughts of the future by a knock at the oversized doors. With a sigh, he replaced the helmet on his head and, with a flick of his power, flung the doors open wide to reveal the latest in inquisitive nobles being lead forward by a pair of guards.

“Lord Mallory to see you, sire!” the guard said as he and his companion went to one knee.

“Excellent. You are dismissed,” he told the guards with a nod. Unlike the last few witches, this one didn’t seem surprised that Belos was so willing to be left alone with a potential enemy. Perhaps word was finally starting to spread.

“My lord! It is an honor to see you returned to the throne!” Mallory said as he swept into a bow. “House Mallory has long since awaited your return!”

Belos fought the urge to sigh as the nobleman continued to drone on and on about how his family had been true servants of his and were so glad to see him return. As expected it wasn’t too long until the mentions of other, faithless, families began to be sprinkled in with the praise. Claims of rival families acting out against his because of his family’s loyalty to a missing emperor.

It was all lies, of course. He hadn’t met with a single lord, lady, or coven head without ensuring he had known everything he reasonably could about the person he was going to be meeting. The Mallory’s were a smaller family that had hit on hard times recently and were looking for something to give them an edge. Once he had met with all the coven heads, and killed two of them who had tried to emulate him in taking control of the empire, as well as several prominent families, three of which whose emissaries had been killed when they went for his life, the Mallory’s had clearly decided that they wanted to get in with the new boss as early on as possible.

Between the idiot’s prattling and the titan’s constant assault on his senses it only took a few minutes before Belos couldn’t stand it anymore. “That’s enough.”

Mallory went perfectly still and Belos couldn’t help but feel a trill of satisfaction. He hadn’t even needed to raise his voice to cow the witch.

“You have come here to beg for my favor at the expense of your enemies. You are no more a loyalist than the last three that came here begging for the exact same thing.” A cruel smile crept across Belos’s face as Mallory began to tremble. “But regardless of your reason for coming here, you are still here as one of the first to swear yourself to me. An act that will be remembered.”

Hope began to shine in Mallory’s eyes as he went to one knee. “I swear, Lord Belos, that house Mallory will stand by you, the one true Emperor of the Boiling Isles.”

Belos nodded and sent a wave of power washing over the room. Malory quailed under the pressure but didn’t falter. “I accept your oath, Lord Mallory. Rise, and go forth as my servant.”

When Mallory rose both fear and reverence were plain in his demeanor. Doubly so as he backed out of the room as quickly as he could, bowing and offering thanks every other step.

The moment he had left the room Belos closed the doors again and removed his helmet. With a grimace, he rubbed at his temples in a vain effort to try and soothe his aching head. “You can't keep this up forever,” he muttered to the helmet. “It’s only a matter of time before I figure out how to stop you again. And as soon as I do I will make sure to find a way to make this as painful for you as I can.” Predictably he didn’t hear any sort of response, but even so, he could easily imagine the titan’s scorn at his words. “I broke you once, and I will do it again. We’re going to do great things together, whether you like it or not.” His hand brushed the helmet almost tenderly. “Great things indeed.”

Chapter Text

Hunter couldn’t help but feel like the universe, or universes perhaps, had a perverse sense of humor. During the years of traveling and doing everything he had to in order to keep his search for answers about his family and powers going, he had done a fair amount of shady, less than legal, things. He hadn’t ever done anything that was too bad. And even the things he did were restricted to what he felt were acceptable targets. No one really cared if a street gang was suddenly a few hundred dollars lighter than they used to be after all. Or if a magical creature that subtly drained people of joy to feed itself was suddenly bereft of some old trophies it had taken in the days where it could kill without worry. And who really cared if an old abandoned building’s locks were smashed so he could get into a long-forgotten crawlspace that might hold some ancient books? But despite all of that Hunter had never actually been sent to prison. There had been a few near misses, a few nights held overnight for observation, and the like but never anything beyond a minor mark on his criminal record.

But the very instant he finally managed to reach the place with all the answers, the place that his family had almost certainly come from, he had been arrested and sent to jail.

Although, to be fair, in the human realm he’d never been found sitting next to the dead body of a police officer and the few times he had been brought in they’d needed to actually be able to prove something to keep him around. This time though? Right for the start they were contemplating just executing him then and there. It was only when they realized he was human that they changed their tune. Because surely there was no way that one of the Emperor’s Coven had been killed by some random human, right? Of course, then he was charged with the crime of being human and immediately thrown into the conformitorium. Apparently, everyone of note that might have been able to preside over even a sham court had been far too busy with an unspecified something and just left it all to the guards.

Not that he had been awake for any of that though. He’d been woken up with a bucket of water to the face and had his new situation explained to him by an all too amused guard. Any questions he’d tried to ask had been met with either derision or, once he started getting a little angry, a jolt of electricity from the man’s staff. With his message delivered, the guard had walked off to do whatever it was he was supposed to do when he wasn’t tormenting prisoners.

“Figures the first thing I do when I finally reach the Boiling Isles is get sent to jail,” Hunter muttered to himself. Grumbling invectives under his breath he took a look around his cell. Simple toilet in one corner without anything to keep him private while doing his business, a simple sink bolted to the wall that looked to be about half rust, and a bed that looked only marginally better than the stone floor he had woken up on. “At least they let me keep my clothes,” he noted. He blinked as he came to a sudden realization. His hand darted to his pockets and, to his surprise, found the twisted metal ring he’d shoved in his pocket when he’d been suiting up before heading over to the SCI building. Further checks showed that while a number of the artifacts that he’d still had on him after the guard the SCI had kept captive had done his initial frisking were gone, they were all the more elaborate and potentially pricey ones. Anything that was on the ugly or pointless looking side seemed to have been left with him.

Granted, the ones he had weren’t really good ones. He’d been in a rush to grab anything he could in the hopes that he’d be able to use them to get favor with… anyone, really. With that in mind, he’d just grabbed anything he could carry without putting himself in danger and hoped for the best. He was just about to take a full inventory of what he actually had when a long, drawn out scream echoed throughout the prison and his cell door swung back open.

For one brief moment, he hoped that there might have been some sort of prison break going on. But that hope died a swift death as he noticed the prisoners in other cells trudging out into the main room instead of making any sort of mad dash for freedom. With nothing better to do, he shuffled out of his cell as well, glancing around the larger room in the hopes that there might be something that might explain what was going on.

“You new here?”

Hunter jumped at the sudden voice and turned to see a tired-looking witch looking down at him from behind a curtain of wild blue hair. She was rail thin and her clothes looked like they had, at one point, been extremely nice. On each of her wrists was an elaborate metal manacle. “Uhh, yeah. I’m Hunter.”

“Cool. Better hurry if you want to get any of the good food,” she said as she began to trudge towards a large door that all the other prisoners were heading towards.

Breakfast was… interesting. He’d been lucky enough to go to schools that didn’t have the stereotypical terrible school food but he was pretty sure even that stuff was likely more like food than whatever the stuff on his plate was. Looking around the room he was able to see that there were people that seemed to have gotten something that looked at least a little less terrible. It wasn’t what he would really call good though.

“Hmm, got some slop. Not bad,” the witch from before said as she sat down next to him. At his incredulous stare, she pointed over at the weirdly fuzzy mass that a reptilian demon with snake hands was eating. “At least the slop isn’t going to kill you.” She glanced at his ears. “Probably.”

Hunted looked down at his meal, suddenly unsure whether he should try eating it or not. “Is there a lot of witch food that humans can’t eat?”

“Dunno. There’s some witch food demons can’t eat, and demon food that some witches can’t eat.” She paused before shrugging. “There’s also some demon food other demons can’t eat. They’re pretty varied.”

Hunter turned back to his meal with a sigh and scooped up a spoonful of the unappetizing slop. “Here goes nothing,” he muttered. Eyes screwed shut he shoved the food in his mouth and, doing his best to ignore the taste, chewed and swallowed. When his stomach didn’t immediately start protesting the new food he grimaced and scooped up another spoonful. As bad as the taste was it still wasn’t the worst thing he’d ever eaten and if he was going to survive long enough to either free himself or be freed he would need to keep his energy up. After forcing down the last of his meal he turned to the witch to ask the question that had been burning in the back of his mind since she’d first talked to him. “Why are you helping me?”

For a brief moment she froze, spoon halfway to her mouth. With a sigh, she lowered the utensil back to her plate. “You’re just a kid, even if you are human. And I don’t like seeing kids get killed for screwing up. The other prisoners usually won’t kill other prisoners, the guards don’t like it when other people take away their fun, but some of them will go for it if you make them angry enough.” She turned in her seat and pointed to a small mouse-like demon sitting at the head of a table. “That’s Walt. If he decides something is his, let him have it. Greedy bastard hates sharing his stuff and tends to lay claim to anything that catches his eye. He’ll get his goons to take it by force if you don’t give it to him. And don’t try joining up with him. He’ll cut you loose the moment he thinks you don’t fit his idea of what a good minion is.”

“Over there is Cuts.” She motioned to a witch that had claimed an entire table to himself. “No one knows what their real name is or how they keep getting their hands on shanks.” She turned to Hunter. “I hope I don’t have to explain why to keep away from them.”

“I think I got it,” Hunter agreed quickly.

The witch nodded after a moment. “Those two are the only ones you really need to watch out for in this wing as long as you’re polite and don’t intentionally make people angry. We don’t get too many dangerous criminals in this part of the conformitorium so as long as you give them their space and don’t cause problems they’ll leave you alone. The guards though? No real way to manage them. Sometimes we get guards that just want to do their job. Sometimes we get ones that want to get some employee benefits. If they tell you to do something. Then do it. Let them have their fun and they’ll leave you alone.” She looked him up and down. “Luckily I don’t think you’ll get too many guards that’ll want more than to rough you up a bit.”

Hunter grimaced as he realized just what she’d been implying some of the guards might normally want. “I’ll keep that in mind.”

“Right. Anyway, it’s three meals a day, try going for the slop during meals. It’s crap but no one will try to take it away from you and it’s better than the fuzz. So long as no one has gotten the guards mad we got free time in the main room most of the day. Every other day we get an hour outside. Had that yesterday so no luck for you today. If you get bored I got a few books I’ve been allowed to keep you can read. Don’t damage them. Any questions?”

Hunter was about to shake his head when the manacles on the witch’s arms caught his attention once more. “What are those?”

The witch’s eyes flicked down at the manacles and she sighed. “Prisoner shackles. Any prisoner that the guards think could be dangerous to them gets a pair made for them to keep them from causing trouble. Big demons get ones that sap their strength, flying demons get one’s that keep them grounded, and witches get ones that keep our magic sealed.” She twirled her finger in what Hunter could only assume was an attempt to cast a spell. “Better than getting a parasite but still not exactly fun.”

“So then I don’t have one because…”

“Because you aren’t dangerous,” the witch finished for him. “You aren’t any stronger than a witch, you can’t fly or shapeshift, you don’t have magic, and you don’t even have claws or sharp enough teeth to do real damage. Just be glad that the guards are lazy and didn’t bother taking everything you had on you and slap some shackles on your wrists too.” She held up her arms. “These things only get taken off once a month for maintenance. Other than that you just have to get used to the damn things.”

“They get taken off?”

“Yeah, like I said. Once a month you get pulled aside and they get taken off for maintenance. They lock you in a room filled with guards all ready to kill you if you make a wrong move, take off the shackles, make sure they’re still working, and put them back on. Probably the best few minutes I get every month.”

“Huh,” Hunter said as he stared down at his plate in contemplation, a plan beginning to form in his mind. But that would have to wait until later. It sounded like he was going to have plenty of time to himself to think after all. “One more question,” he said, interrupting the witch as she was just about to resume eating her breakfast.

With a sigh, she returned the spoon to the plate. “Yeah?”

“What’s your name?”

Something flashed across her face, pain, sadness, and something else before she turned back to her plate. “Tell you what. Prove that you aren’t just going to get yourself killed and maybe I’ll let you know.”

Before Hunter could say anything else the witch simply stood up and walked away from the table, leaving the remains of her breakfast uneaten. His mouth worked soundlessly as he tried to think of anything to shout after her but nothing came to mind. With a tired sigh, he slumped in his seat and poked at his empty plate.

Despite his best efforts, Hunter wasn’t able to find the witch after breakfast. Between his search and his few attempts to socialize with the other prisoners he quickly realized that, for the most part, they didn’t want anything to do with him. He was too different, too useless, too noticeable for most of the other inmates to want anything to do with him. The only exception quickly proved to be very poor company. Between wild accusations about Hunter’s real purpose here, constant attempts to look for gills or venom sacks, and impassioned pleas to be allowed to use Hunter’s tooth-powered time machine, Hunter quickly decided he wanted nothing to do with Jacob.

With nothing to do and no one to talk to Hunter retired to his cell to rest and contemplate just what he had landed in. Time passed and the few gawkers that had followed him around betting on whether he was going to get eaten finally dispersed. Even Jacob had eventually gotten bored and wandered off. Though the witch’s barely audible mutterings about needing to go and update his truth board were a little concerning.

“Finally,” Hunter grumbled as he sat up on his bed and looked around to see if anyone was paying attention to him. Thankfully the conformitorium didn’t seem to have anything like a camera system to keep watch on prisoners. Only a surprisingly small workforce of clearly uninterested guards. When he was sure the coast was clear he cast a quick magic detection spell and waited, ignoring the instantaneous return ping. Seconds turned into minutes as there was no response from anyone. No guards rushed to try and figure out who had cast a spell. No alarms as some automated system caught wind of something being off. Nothing. He grinned as he sat up straighter. This was something he could work with.

Filled with new energy Hunter jumped off his bed and left his cell. Being able to use his magic freely would be helpful but he had no illusions about being able to stage a one-man prison break. All it would take was one guard getting lucky and he would be returned to his cell with a pair of shiny new manacles. No. If he was going to have a good chance of escaping he was going to need help. Help that he would need to be able to convince that backing him was smarter than turning him in to the guards in hopes of better treatment.

Time slipped by as he wandered the large free time room. From an outside viewpoint, he might look like he was wandering around aimlessly. Trying once more to find a place to fit in or simply trying to find something to do. In truth, he was keeping a careful eye on the guards. Watching them and waiting for one of them to make the move he was hoping for. Hours passed with no luck and the prisoners all shuffled back into the mess hall. He was halfway to an empty table with a plate of slop when he finally saw what he had been waiting for. 

Four guards leading a large demon away from the mess hall, his shackles bound behind his back.

While there was no guarantee that they were taking him to get his manacles checked it wasn’t an opportunity Hunter could pass up. Uncaring about the dull ache of hunger he placed his tray on a nearby table and continued to make his way towards the empty table he had chosen to eat at. Instead of sitting down at it though he ducked behind it and quickly cast his invisibility spell. Hopefully, any of the inmates that might have been paying attention to him would just be confused about where he went. Worst case scenario one of them might think it was some special human power. It might earn him some manacles but the witch from earlier had said that they were keyed specifically to the user. Ones meant to block any special human powers would almost certainly do nothing to stop his witch magic.

Jogging as fast as he dared he followed after the guards leading the demon away. To his mild surprise, the guards actually seemed to be taking the entire situation seriously. With multiple checkpoints that made sure nothing was being smuggled in or out. Each time all the guards present had to show badges and the prisoner was scanned with some sort of magic checking for things. Thankfully it was only the prisoner that was being scanned and keeping out of the scanning spell’s range was child’s play.

Hunter could feel the pressure of maintaining the invisibility spell growing as the entire procession was finally ushered into a small, sterile, room. A new guard wearing a more elaborate uniform stepped forward and cast a spell on the manacles. Hunter stared at the spell circle and cast his magic-detecting spell. Picking the right return ping out from the massive return was difficult but it was enough for him to get a general idea of the spell being cast. It also ratcheted up the pressure from the invisibility spell but the increased information over what he could get just by looking at the thing and trying to feel it out was well worth it.

The manacles were quickly unlatched from the demon and taken aside as all the guards in the room prepared spells of their own in case the demon tried to do anything. Thankfully they didn’t seem to have any plans to cause trouble. About a minute later the same guard returned with the shackles. Once more he cast a spell and Hunter did his best to learn what he could from his magic detecting spell. He frowned in contemplation as he recognized a similar structure to the first spell, but it felt almost like it had been reversed. Some sort of separate but similar locking and unlocking spells perhaps?

With the check complete, Hunter followed the procession back through the halls. With every step the strain of keeping the invisibility spell going grew. By the time he had reached the mess hall again it felt like his head was about to split open and with every beat of his heart a deep ache spread out from his chest. His eyes snapped to the nearest empty table that no one looked to be paying attention to and he rushed to hide underneath it. The second he was home free he released the invisibility spell and collapsed to the cool stone floor. But even through the all-encompassing pain he couldn’t help but smile. He had a plan.

To Hunter’s immense disappointment it turned out that his plan had a single, fatal, flaw. That witch was still hiding from him. As minutes turned to hours he began pestering every inmate that would talk to him about the witch. Almost all of them knew who he was talking about, but none of them had a name. Well, not a real name at least. Every single prisoner just called her the Crone. There wasn’t a single prisoner that knew how long she’d been in the conformitorium. As was always the case with such things each prisoner had their own favorite theory about the woman. That she was actually a ghost, bound to the prison after she had angered the wrong witch. That she wasn’t really a prisoner, she had just been living here when they build the prison around her and she just decided to stay. That she was the reason the Emperor hadn’t been seen in ages. That she was an old enemy of the Emperor from the savage ages. In the end, he had only managed to get a single useful piece of information out of anyone. The location of her cell.

So when given the choice between wandering around aimlessly and creeping in someone’s cell until they got tired of hiding from him he felt his course of action was clear. Do stalkers the world over proud and hide in his target’s room until she came back.

Minutes crept by as he amused himself with a book he picked up off a teetering stack in the corner of the cell. Of course, what began as a way to pass the time until the witch returned to her cell quickly became the main focus of his stay. The Official Histories of the Boiling Isles was, to be perfectly frank, an extremely dry book that was almost shockingly upfront with its propaganda. Every action the Emperor took was as righteous as could be and his enemies were all scheming, cowardly monsters who did nothing but torment the Emperor’s poor, innocent followers. Hunter was certainly no stranger to the fact that history was usually taught in a way that favored whoever was writing the book but this one made the enemies of the Emperor sound like they wouldn’t have been out of place in those Saturday morning cartoons his Mom had shown him from when she had been growing up.

It did make for a fascinating read though. Being able to recognize the propaganda gave insights into what the people that had written and authorized such a book thought and how they wanted things to be seen. Plus it was a history book about the Boiling Isles. Hunter was pretty sure he could read an etiquette book and find it fascinating if it was discussing Boiling Isles etiquette. 

“You do know it’s considered rude to just barge into someone's room, right? Or are manners just something humans don’t have?”

Hunter paused in the middle of reading how the Emperor had single-handedly solved the famine plaguing the shoulder early in his reign and looked up to see the witch he’d been looking for glaring down at him. “You did mention I could borrow a book,” he replied with a shrug.

“I said you could borrow a book. Not my entire cell,” she shot back with a glare. A glare quickly faltered under Hunter’s small self-assured smile. With a sigh she walked over to her bed and flopped down on top of it. “What do you want?”

Hunter turned to face her. “A lot of things. But I think the main one right now is to get out of here.”

The witch pointed at her cell door. “Door’s right there.”

Hunter rolled his eyes. “I mean out of the conformitorium.”

“Ha!” the witch barked. “Witches and demons have been trying to break out of here for years! Unless you have someone outside of here waiting to bust you out you aren’t going anywhere.”

Hunter faltered slightly as his mind went to the Wild Witch and the plant girl. His memories of how he had gotten to the isles were still fuzzy but he was positive that they were here too. Of course whether they knew he was here, that he needed help, and would even be willing to help him at all were another story. If his half-there memories of seeing them in the room with the portal were right then they probably knew he had been the Golden Guard. Something he sincerely doubted a simple ‘sorry’ was going to cover. “I doubt anyone out there is going to be coming to help me. Murder me, maybe, but not help.” He shook his head. “No, I think I can get us out of here on our own.”

The witch snorted and turned to stare up at the ceiling. “Good luck with that one. Try not to get eaten when they transfer you to one of the really shitty wings.”

“I’m being serious.”

“So am I.” The witch sat up. “No one escapes the conformitorium unless they get outside help.” She held up an arm, brandishing the manacle encircling it at Hunter. “The witches that make these things do a really good job. Everyone in here is weak and powerless as a human,” she finished with a pointed glare.

Hunter’s smile returned in full force as he stood up and moved over to the bed, grabbing the witch’s outstretched arm and moving it so that his body blocked it from being seen by anyone outside the cell. Closing his eyes he focused on what he had seen of the unlocking spell and began to create the spell circle. Unfortunately, it didn’t work on the first try, but the look of complete and utter shock on the witch’s face more than made up for not getting it right immediatly.

Despite her best efforts, Luz couldn’t help but join Eda in laughing at least a little bit at Willow and Gus getting grilled by their parents. Something made all the funnier by the fact that Amity sitting next to them, absolutely radiating smugness after her own mom had only confirmed that being trapped in the Boiling Isles was temporary and that she had somewhere to stay. Of course, the other parents had quickly picked up on the fact that Mrs. Blight had known about all this already and had doubled down on lecturing their kids.

Yet despite the laughter, Luz couldn’t help but feel a little jealous. Not even a full day into being trapped in another realm and her friends had already been able to contact their parents and explain everything. She knew she should be happy for them. She knew first hand what it was like to just vanish without a trace and be unable to get in touch with her mom after all. Sure, when mom had found Vee she’d at least been given something to hope for. It had been a hope that, from what she’d heard, no one else had shared but it had something. Luz would have given just about anything to have been able to justify that shred of hope even a day earlier than she had.

“You okay kid?”

Luz jumped and her gaze snapped over to Eda. “Wh-what do you mean?”

“You were looking all broody,” Eda explained as she looked down at Luz in concern.

Luz huffed and looked away from Eda, not wanting to meet her eyes. “I- it’s nothing. Just thinking about things.”

“Riiiiight,” Eda drawled as she tapped her chin in thought. Without warning, she spun on her heel and strode out of the room.

Luz stared after Eda in confusion for a few moments before just deciding she was just doing some weird Eda thing and turning back to her friends. Willow’s parents seemed to have finished lecturing her and had started bombarding her with questions about if she was eating well, had a place to sleep, and was safe. Gus’s dad had also moved on to other subjects, though he was proving he was Gus’s dad by starting to ask all sorts of questions about the Boiling Isles and magic. Luz couldn’t help but smile as she heard the sounds of what she could only assume to be an SCI agent telling Gus’s dad that he’d signed an NDA and couldn’t write any articles about what he’d learned today.

“Luz?”

While she didn’t jump at the sudden question this time she still jolted a little bit as she turned to see her mom had come out of the kitchen where she’d been preparing dinner. “Oh, hey mom. Do you need my help with anything?”

“No, everything is fine. Eda is taking over for me for a little bit.” At Luz’s slightly panicked look she laughed. “She’s only keeping an eye on the aurock roast and grinding up some of the scales. We should be fine for at least a few minutes.” She placed a hand on Luz’s shoulder. “Are you alright? Eda said you looked like you did back when you were thinking about me when you were in the human realm.”

Luz’s eyes widened before she shot a glare towards the kitchen. There was no way Eda could possibly see it but it made her feel a little better. “It’s okay mom, I was just thinking about things.”

Her mom looked over at Amity, Willow, and Gus before nodding. “You were jealous.” At Luz’s shocked expression she laughed. “It’s not that hard to figure out Luz. Things are going much smoother for them than it did for you and you’re jealous.”

“But I shouldn’t be,” Luz said after a moment, her head hanging low.

“Jealousy doesn’t really care about should and shouldn’t,” her mom explained as she lifted Luz’s chin to look at her again. “It wasn’t your fault that you couldn’t let me know you were safe. That you were on your way back. I know that if you could have you would have let me know in an instant.” Tears began to well up in the corner of her eyes as she pulled Luz in for a hug. A hug that Luz quickly reciprocated. “And you’re here now. You’re really here.”

Luz nodded into her mom’s shoulder. “Yeah, I am.” It wasn’t the first time they’d hugged like this since she’d come back, nor the first time those words had been spoken, and she was sure it wouldn’t be the last. Both of them still needed the occasional reminder that Luz really was back and that everything was finally okay. Far too soon for her liking, her mom retreated from the hug. “Thanks mom. I needed that.”

“Good. Now I’m going to go back to the kitchen before Eda sets something on fire again.”

After a little while, Eda wandered back in from the kitchen, a victorious smirk on her face. “Feeling better kid?”

Luz threw a deadpan glare her way but smiled. “Yeah. Thanks a lot.”

“Heh, no problem.”

“I will remember this though. Maybe next time you get sick I’ll call Lilith to let her know you need help.”

Eda froze and woodenly turned to look down at Luz. “You wouldn’t.”

Luz just smiled and walked over to her friends. Gus’s dad seemed to want a chance to talk with the Wild Witch in person.

“Luz? Luz?!” Eda shouted in growing desperation.

Luz’s smile only grew wider.

Chapter Text

Amity had known when she joined Luz on the trip to the Boiling Isles that it was inevitable that she would need to contend with a number of harrowing experiences. Needing to lay low to avoid being found out as human, needing to deal with unusual dangers, and, most of all, meeting Luz’s mom. Not that she was scared of the woman of course. The closest thing to an ill word Luz had ever spoken about her mom had been slight annoyance about how worried she would get when Luz was about to head off on a dangerous mission. Something that Amity could quite easily see herself agreeing with. 

No, Amity was scared of just what meeting her meant.

By the time that Amity had introduced Luz to her own mother as her girlfriend Luz had made quite an impression. When Luz, as the Wild Witch, had joined Lilith in staking out the house in hopes of catching the new guard her mother’s obsessive eye for details had quickly connected the dots between the the tanned hyperactive girl who had been spending time with her daughter and the tanned hyperactive superhero that was very interested in keeping her daughter safe. So when Amity finally broke the news that she was dating the superhero that almost everyone was looking up to and had saved their lives she had been quick to give her blessings.

Amity, on the other hand, had nothing.

Well, not nothing. But she didn’t really have anything in her corner that she really thought could impress the older Noceda. She had political connections. In the human world. She was an excellent student. In the human world. She knew her way around plenty of extracurricular subjects. In. The Human. World. Every single thing that would have impressed a girlfriend’s parents back home would have probably gotten, at best, an encouraging nod as Ms. Noceda didn’t fully understand everything but felt the need to be polite.

For all that Amity had learned about the Boiling Isles, she had never managed to find a way to ask just how a witch goes about impressing their girlfriend’s parents. Was there something she was supposed to do? From everything she’d heard, magical ability seemed to be pretty important in the Boiling Isles but she was a human. Sure, she had the earrings but those could be taken away from her. Maybe she should look into learning about those glyphs that Vee had been working with?

A frustrated groan escaped her as she leaned back into the seat she’d claimed on the couch. Thankfully no one was around to notice it. Once the talk with their parents was over Gus had been quick to take the chance to look around the small town they were in. Willow had ended up tagging along in hopes of finding a witch that knew more about plant magic than Luz did and Eda had… gone somewhere. Amity wasn’t really sure where the woman had actually gone and there was a part of her that didn’t really want to know. She doubted Eda would actually do anything to upset their hosts but she also didn’t want to have to lie if she ended up being wrong. Luz was in the kitchen helping her mom prepare dinner, something Amity had tried to join in with only to be told that she was a guest and that she didn’t need to do anything. Luz had tried to duck out after that under the guise of keeping the guest entertained but Ms. Noceda had been quick to shoot that down. Granted, Luz wasn’t really trying too hard and, last Amity had seen her, looked to be having a lot of fun spending time with her mom after so long. Even if it was doing something as mundane as cooking dinner. And lastly Vee was-

“Are you okay?”

Right next to a rather surprised Amity. “Yes!” she yelped as she tried to wrestle her frustration back under control. “Just thinking about things.”

Vee looked doubtful but didn’t press any further. With a shrug she stepped back, claimed one of the recliners, and grabbed a book from a nearby table.

Doing her best to ignore the sudden visitor, Amity returned to her thoughts on how best to impress Ms. Noceda and prove that she was worthy of dating Luz. Unfortunately she had very few adults she felt she could use as a template to try and understand Ms. Noceda. Her own mother was, of course, completely out of the question. Amity was pretty sure she’d seen more emotional outbursts from Ms. Noceda in the last day than her own mother had in a year. To make things worse, her mom was the only parent she really knew well enough to actually even try to start making comparisons with. She loved her dad but it was hard to truly connect with a man that spent a good portion of his time on business trips and was, somehow, even less adept at making empathic connections to people than her mom was. The parents of the acquaintances she’d hung out with before making up with Willow and hanging out with Luz had only rarely ever interacted with her. Even worse, those few times had been very formal. She had probably had more honest interactions with the parents of random children that came to the library reading events than those people. She might be able to try and use Willow’s dads as an idea of where to start but her memories of them were fuzzy with age and she hadn’t had the courage to actually go over to Willow’s house since they had made up.

Before she could stop herself another groan of frustration made itself known. A groan of frustration that caught the attention of the only other person in the room.

“Um, are you sure you’re okay?” Vee asked before a look of worry crossed her face. “You aren’t getting food poisoning or something are you? Camila does her best to make human safe foods but I don’t know how much of it is just me and how much would be good for any human.”

“No, no. It’s not that. It’s…” Amity trailed off as she looked at Vee. At the girl that had spent a lot of time with Luz’s mom and probably knew her better than almost anyone else at this point. “Actually, maybe there is something you can help me with.” Amity took a deep breath. “How do I get Luz’s mom to like me?”

Vee stared at her, uncomprehending for several moments. Mouth working silently as she obviously tried to think of something to say. “What?”

“How did I get Luz’s mom to like me? I really need to impress her.”

“I… uh…” Vee floundered.

“You’ve been staying with her for months now right? You’re definitely the best person I could ask.”

“But why do you need to impress her? I think she likes you plenty already.”

“But what if she decides I’m not good enough to date Luz?”

While Vee wasn’t saying anything, the incredulous look she sent Amity’s way spoke volumes.

“Okay, maybe she wouldn’t try to stop Luz from dating me,” Amity amended. “But I still need her to like me!”

“I’m pretty sure she already likes you.” At Amity’s incredulous look Vee continued. “Camila talked about Luz a lot. But one thing she never mentioned was any of Luz’s friends. She got along with pretty much everyone here but she didn’t really have any close friends. She had co-workers in the Underground and instructors that she liked to learn under but there wasn’t really anyone here that shared her interests or wanted to hang out with her that much. I’m pretty sure that just being Luz’s friend and caring for her is going to be enough to make Camilla love you.”

Amity flopped back into the coach and groaned. “But what if that isn’t enough? Gus and Willow are her friends and care about her too. Eda might qualify too. I need something special. The first time Luz met my mom was when she was swooping in to save us from a giant wolf monster. Then there was the time time when she was helping stake out our house to keep us safe from some kid masquerading as a member of the Emperor’s Coven.” Amity paused as the confused look on Vee’s face. “Long story. By the time I introduced Luz to her as my girlfriend I’m pretty sure mom would have tried to set me up with her if we weren’t already together!”

“Set you up with her?”

Amity rolled her eyes. “Mom has been trying to set me, Emira, and Edirc up with ‘suitable’ people for ages. For the longest time I thought it was her just trying to use us to make political alliances like some sort of medieval political marriage or something. Turns out it was just how she met dad and figured it would work for us too. Find someone reliable that could help keep us safe and happy and stuff.”

“Huh,” Vee said, clearly trying to process what Amity was saying.

“So yeah, when I finally introduced Luz to her and she realized who Luz was she was all for it. Luz was someone that she figured would be able to keep me safe and happy and I need Ms. Noceda to think I’m someone that can keep Luz safe and happy. But I don’t have any magic and I can’t really throw my family name around and expect to get any response.” She paused as a thought struck her. “Which is actually kinda nice for no one around here to really care about me for my family but right now that is actually really unhelpful.” She threw her arms up in exasperation. “I can’t even help out to show that I can at least be helpful because she keeps shooing me away from helping with chores because I’m a guest and she won’t let a guest trouble themselves! And I know for a fact that she let Eda help make breakfast!”

“Yeah, it took a while before she let me help out around the house,” Vee admitted. “Though I think right now part of not wanting help is just her wanting to spend more time with Luz.”

Amity sighed but didn’t contest that. While she couldn’t really personally relate to what Luz and Ms. Noceda were feeling it was still plain as day. “I just… I feel like I’m just a burden right now.”

Before Vee could respond they were interrupted by a sudden shout from the kitchen.

“Dinner is almost ready!” Luz called. “Amity, think you can call the others on the walkie? Vee? Think you could help me set the table?”

Amity nodded at Luz’s request. Getting everyone together may have been a small thing but at least she felt like she was doing something.

Dinner had been a surprisingly rambunctious affair. While Amity wasn’t completely unfamiliar with less formal and calm dinners, she had eaten at the Owl House multiple times now, she had felt that level of chaos was more of an Eda thing. While dinner at the Noceda’s wasn’t quite as chaotic as what she would expect from any meal at Eda’s house it wasn’t that far off. Ms. Noceda had made a truly impressive spread of food and everyone had been encouraged to grab what they wanted and eat their fill. Conversation was loud and constant as everyone talked with each other. There was a… warmth there that Amity hadn’t really expected as Ms. Noceda listened equally to what Luz and Vee had done with the day, before getting pulled into a conversation with Eda about what she thought about the town. 

Eventually though, the meal ended and Ms. Noceda enlisted the help of Vee and Luz to help take care of the dishes and clean things up. Left with nothing to do, Amity wandered to the front of the house, where a pair of chairs sat at just the right position and angle to watch the setting sun. While she wasn’t exactly the greatest connoisseur of sunsets she could admit that it was rather nice sitting there watching the sun dip below the horizon. Though a not insignificant part of her wished that Luz was sitting beside her to share in this moment.

“Do you mind if I sit here?”

Amity’s head snapped towards the sudden voice and she was shocked to see Ms. Noceda smiling down at her.

“O-of course!” Amity stammered as she gestured to the seat next to her.

Ms. Noceda smiled as she settled into the chair next to Amity. “Thank you.”

Amity’s mind shot into overdrive as she tried to think of something, anything, to say to Ms. Noceda. As the seconds ticked by her anxiety shot through the roof as worries about being silent for too long began to be added to her whirling thoughts.

“Thank you.”

Amity froze as she tried to process what Ms. Noceda had said. “Wh-what?”

Ms. Noceda turned in her seat to better look at Amity. “Thank you. For everything you’ve done for Luz.”

Amity glanced away in embarrassment. “I didn’t really do that much.”

“Yes you did,” Ms. Noceda insisted. “I’ve never seen her light up when talking about someone the way she does whenever she’s talking about you. She’s happier than I’ve seen her in a long time. You make her happier than I’ve seen her in a long time.” She placed a hand on Amity’s shoulder. “Thank you.”

“I… Even though I’m human?”

Ms. Noceda chuckled and shook her head. “All that matters is that you make Luz happy. And you’re very good at that.”

Amity blushed at Ms. Noceda’s words. “Thank you Ms. Noceda.”

“Amity! Please, just call me Camila,” Ms. Noce- Camilla said with a laugh.

Amity couldn’t help but smile. “Thanks, Camila.”

“That’s better. Now if you're up to it, Luz was helping me make a fairy pie earlier and wants you to try the first bite. Come on,” Camila said as she stood up and started making her way back inside.

With a happy sigh Amity stood up and stretched. Just as she finished she saw Vee duck behind the door frame to the house. Shaking her head, she walked into the house. Once she was inside Vee fell into step beside her as they made their way into the kitchen.

“Feeling better?” Vee asked.

“Yeah,” Amity admitted.

“Glad to hear it.”

They continued on in silence for a few more moments before Vee’s eyes widened. “Oh! When Luz brings out the pie try not to freak out okay?” Her piece said Vee darted forward and into the kitchen, but not before Amity could see a quick flash of a grin on the girl’s face.

Shaking her head in confusion Amity finished making her way to the kitchen, only to be confronted with a grinning Luz.

“Amity! I wanted to do something special for you since we were in the Boiling Isles and I could cook some of the things I’m good at making so...” She spun around and grabbed a pie off the counter. “A fresh fairy pie!”

To her dying day, Amity would forever deny that she had shrieked when faced with the twitching fairy legs sticking out of the pie.

When William had been given a chance to go on the Boiling Isles mission they hadn't been shy about telling him just why he had been chosen. Sure they had dressed it up a lot but he could read between the lines easily enough to know what he was getting into. He was supposed to be a meat shield for the director. He was skilled enough to be trusted to do his part and expendable enough that if he ended up getting killed or captured by the witches the SCI wasn’t going to be in too bad a position. If things went south it was his job, alongside the other agents that had accepted the mission, to make sure that the Director would have enough time to call up the fancy new portal, get through, make sure that no one followed him, and then, if they actually had the time and capability, follow through themselves.

Then that damn witch had done something to the portal and dumped them all over some witch town. It was only due to a combination of training courses that covered everything that the SCI knew about the Boiling Isles and the general paranoia and distrust that working at the SCI built up that there were only a few injuries and no deaths before they managed to circle back up. Granted, most of those few injuries were sustained within seconds of landing so even those were more due to poor luck than anything else. Jimmy’s broken arm was his own damn fault though. Moron was lucky that witch had let him go with only a broken arm. William knew women back home that would have done much worse than that with how bad that pick up line had been.

In any case the smart thing would have been to fall back, maybe see if they could get in touch with that Underground resistance group for a safe house, and wait for the portal to be fixed. The Director had had other ideas though. The man had been so sure that he could get through to the insane god-emperor guy and, even if a good portion of the agents thought the Director was off his rocker, everyone fell in and followed him. Was it crazy? Sure. But the Director almost always managed to make things work out. And work out it did.

Within an hour of the Director getting dragged off to meet with the man in charge all the agents had been moved from a room that was a prison cell in all but name to each of them having their own swanky guest suite and an entire wing of the palace to themselves. Plenty of the others just kicked back, ordered some room service, and relaxed. Not realizing that for all the change in scenery and the new accommodating nature of their jailors they were still in a jail cell. It just happened to be bigger. Any attempts to see the sights would get redirected. If enough pressure was put on the poor sap you were talking to they would always default to it possibly being too dangerous for a human to wander around. That some idiot would get an idea in their head and try to kidnap or kill them while they were out and then there would either be a dead or missing human or a dead witch or demon that didn’t realize just what they were up against. Either way, it would make moving forward with the peace and trade talks harder. It certainly made a degree of sense but William hadn’t gotten as far as he had by ignoring his instincts.

So when all the agents had been called in for a meeting with the Director and the Emperor he had been suspicious. He, along with every other agent with two brain cells to rub together, made sure to grab all the little toys the guards had been too ignorant, lazy, or stupid to take away. William had even been able to grab his necklace, it wasn’t really much better than anything in the standard-issue kit but it was what his grandfather had used to find witches and he never liked to leave it behind. With everything collected everyone was herded to the most opulent room he’d ever seen. Standing at the foot of a small set of stairs that led up to a throne every bit as opulent as the room was the Director and a man that William could only assume was the Emperor. The witch was wearing some sort of horned golden helmet and a long white cloak that completely obscured everything that the helmet didn’t cover.

“Good evening everyone, I am aware that many of you have had some questions about what is happening here,” the Director said as he nodded at them. “And I’ve been able to convince the Emperor to set aside the next half hour for us both to answer any questions you have.”

Despite both the Emperor and Director answering any questions that were asked and presenting a surprisingly cordial front, William couldn’t help but feel like something was off. Even though the SCI issued magic detector wasn’t going off, William could feel his grandfather’s necklace tingling every time the Emperor spoke. The thing wasn’t as effective or as precise as he would like but it had never steered him wrong before. Under the guise of scratching his neck, he loosened the chain and let the necklace drop into his other hand. Concentrating on the necklace enough to get an idea of what kind of spellcraft was at work without actually tuning out the Q & A session and risking drawing attention to himself was difficult but ultimately doable. It took several instances of the Emperor talking before he managed to feel out the stream of magic leading from the Emperor over to the Director. For a moment he thought it might be the Emperor doing something to control the Director. But after a few more checks he noticed that the magic seemed to be originating from the Director himself.

“William?”

William jumped at the sudden question and glanced around to see that everyone was looking at him. “Ah, sorry sir. I was lost in thought.”

“So you don’t have any questions?” the Director asked.

“Ah, no sir. No questions at the moment. Everything seems pretty clear now.”

The Director nodded at him and asked the remaining agents if they had any questions before everyone was dismissed. William’s mind was whirling the entire trip back to the wing they remained sequestered in. After saying his goodbyes to the others he hustled to his room and pulled out his communicator. Just as he was about to open a line back to the SCI he remembered the complete lack of a response from the standard-issue equipment to whatever was going on in the throne room. No, he couldn’t blindly trust the communicator as it stood. With a sigh he flipped it over and began to look through the tools at his disposal for something he could use to crack the thing open. He had a lot of work to do if he wanted to be sure he wouldn’t be signing his death warrant by using the thing.

It took him almost an hour to get the device to a state that he thought wouldn’t immediately betray him. It was a rushed, slapdash job that he would never consider using normally but it was all he could do if he wanted to get a message out to the SCI before the situation deteriorated too much. Best case scenario he could get a message off with no one the wiser. Worst case? He figured he would have thirty seconds before someone was sent to get him to shut up. With a grim frown he closed the windows and doors to his room and shoved as much furniture as he could in front of them. Maybe it would end up being needless paranoia but anything that might give him more time to get his message out was worth doing.

“Now or never,” he muttered to himself as he clicked on the communicator.

Chapter Text

Luz was no stranger to tense silence in the little town’s planning hall. In fact, it was rather rare for any meeting to not have any moments of tense silence as everyone involved began to weigh risks and figure out what the best step would be to take. Even a tense silence tinged with disbelief wasn’t all that rare. Either at the cruelty or incompetence of the various factions of the empire or at the occasional outrageous proclamation made by a person in the room, not uncommonly Luz herself. But Luz wasn’t sure she’d ever witnessed shocked disbelief to this extreme before.

When the initial news that one of the spies inside the Emperor’s Coven had abandoned his post to rush back with, in his words, intel of unprecedented importance, everyone had been interested. When the witch had called an all-hands meeting the instant he had landed that interest had ratcheted up. Speculation had run wild about what he was going to say that necessitated such urgency. By the time the witch was ready to begin his report the planning hall was stuffed to bursting with interested witches, along with a quintet of equally interested humans, all of whom were waiting with bated breath. Of course, even their wildest imaginings didn’t come close to capturing just what the witch reported.

“A witch claiming to be the Emperor has killed the Speaker and taken control of the empire. He has been meeting with coven heads and noble families constantly since then. Several of them tried to assassinate him and take control themselves but they’ve all failed so far,” the witch paused to compose themselves before dropping what was, for almost all present, the most important part of his report. “He has also issued a blanket retraction for all bounties placed on wild witches that haven’t killed anyone. No news on what’s going to be done with anyone in the conformitorium yet though.” While that news was certainly enough to drive the entire assembly into a shocked, disbelieving, silence that had never before been seen in the planning hall it was his next words that truly shook up Luz and her friends. “I’d advise that you not all rush out there to test this quite yet though. I’m not sure what this Belos guy is up to and we can’t assume it isn’t some sort of trap.”

It took everyone deciding to return to Luz’s home for them to finally be able to discuss what they had heard without having to shout over the sounds of almost every witch in town trying to get their own questions heard and answered by the spy. Once they were far enough that actual conversation could be made, Eda was the first one to ask the question on all of their minds.

“So. You think this is the Director or there just happened to be some other Belos who decided to take over the empire in the time we’ve been here?”

“Do you really think this could all just be a coincidence?” Amity asked acerbically as she shot a disbelieving look at Eda. “Besides, out of all of us, I’d think you would be the first one to suggest that the director of a black-ops government organization decided to take control of the empire.”

“Well, duh,” Eda replied. “But I’m not seeing how he could have done that. Belos is human, right? And I may not know what kind of toys he has access to but something that could let him just take control of the entire empire like that in what? A day or two?” She pulled out her phone to check the time. “Yeah, it’s been about a day and a half since we got here and the guy has already managed to overthrow the government?”

“What if that was the plan all along?” Gus asked. “I remember some of the SCI people talking about a Project Unity but they never really said what it was. The Director was also really eager to get to the Boiling Isles. What if he’s been planning this for years and finally got a chance to go through with it?”

“But why the Boiling Isles?” Luz countered. “There have to have been other places he could try and do this with. If he wanted control of a lot of magic why not do it in the human realm first? From what Lilith and Steve have said most of the magical groups in the human realm are still scattered and isolated. A lot of them have a liaison with the SCI or the local equivalent but no one has really tried to bring them together. Couldn’t Belos have brought them together instead of spending years hoping that he would just happen to find a way to one realm in particular?”

No one had any response to that and the contemplative silence stretched on until they had returned to Luz’s house. As soon as they opened the door they were greeted by Camila waving one of the communicators at them.

“Finally! These things have been beeping non-stop and I don’t know how they work!” she said as she passed a shrilly beeping communicator to Luz. A beeping that could also be heard coming several times over from the living room.

With a glance at the others, who all shrugged, Luz clicked the communicator on. “Hello?”

“Finally!” an exasperated Lilith said from the other end. “Luz. We’ve received a strange report from one of the agents with Director Belos. It was cut off halfway through and we haven’t been able to get back in touch with anyone on his team since then. Have any of you heard of anything strange going on with the empire’s leadership?”

Before Luz could respond Eda grabbed the communicator. “You mean like a witch going by Belos killing the speaker and taking control of the empire?”

Lilith was silent for several moments before a sigh came through the communicator. “Yes. Something like that. Is this new information or..?”

Luz took the communicator back from Eda with a half-hearted glare. “We just got back from an announcement a spy in the Emperor’s Coven made about someone killing the Speaker and declaring themselves Emperor. He only mentioned the name Belos at the end though. What was the message you received?”

“Agent William was concerned that the SCI had been compromised in some way. During a meeting with the agents, Belos, and the new Emperor a magic detecting artifact William received from his grandfather detected some sort of magical connection between Belos and the Emperor, originating from Belos himself. One that none of the SCI tools were able to pick up on. He wasn’t able to go any further into detail before the connection was cut off. All attempts to regain contact have been blocked. We don’t know what’s going on over there but it isn’t looking good.”

“Can’t argue with that,” Luz agreed. “If Belos really did manage a coup does anyone over there know how or why?”

Lilith groaned in frustration. “Nothing yet. A few agents were sent to look over everything all the members of the mission had on base but it has been slow going. Between the agents sent on the mission and the ones injured during the guard’s escape we’ve been operating with a skeleton crew. It hasn’t helped that most of the Director’s belongings are secured with multiple layers of magical and mundane security. Kikimora is currently working through some of the defenses on some of the Director’s personal notes but we aren’t expecting to get anywhere for a day or two. If you come into any new information about this situation please let us know. As it stands there are people talking about shutting down any plans to rebuild the portal until we know what’s going on over there for certain.”

Luz winced and glanced around at the looks of dismay on her friends’ faces. “Will do. And be sure to let us know if you find anything that you think might be able to help us on our end as well.” With a dejected frown, Luz shut down the communicator.

“So that’s… something,” Willow said as she slumped into the nearest seat she could find.

The rest of the group quickly joined her in claiming what seating they could but conversation wasn’t quite as quick to begin.

“So, what do we do now?” Gus asked.

For the first time since the announcement was made Vee spoke up. “We need more information.” She faltered slightly as she noticed everyone looking at her but soldiered on. “If the Belos that has taken control of the empire is the Director we need to know why he’s doing it. All we know right now is that communication is being cut off from people who went with the Director and that Emperor Belos is trying to do something with wild witches. We don’t know how those things fit together.”

“If he’s pardoning all the ‘safe’ wild witches he definitely wants something from them,” Amity supplied. “Either he wants them all in one place so he can try to finish them off or he wants to be on good terms with them so he can ask them to do something.”

“Whatever he’s doing he doesn’t want the SCI knowing or interfering and he failed. I don’t think that William guy was supposed to be able to figure out something was wrong or get a message out at all.” Eda glanced down at the communicator Luz was still holding. “If their stuff is comprised I bet ours is too. We’re gonna have to assume that whatever we talk to Lilly about, he’s going to know it too.”

Everyone nodded at that, casting appraising looks of their own at the communicator.

“But we’re going to need to use it anyway,” Willow said. “Do you think we can figure out a way to use it without anyone listening in?”

“Maybe?” Luz hedged. “I don’t know how much of this is titan magic, how much is other magic, and how much is just technology. I could try myself or get someone to look at it but we’re probably going to lose a communicator or two in the process.”

“We have five of them,” Gus reminded them. “We could stand to lose one or two if we could figure out how anyone might be listening in.”

Silence reigned as everyone processed what they had discussed.

“So we need more information,” Vee repeated. “We can drop off one of the communicators with the enchanters and see if they can do anything with it.”

A small grin began to make its way onto Luz’s face. “And then we head out for some information gathering.”

Vee nodded. “The only ones that know about all of you would probably be Belos so we can probably check the bounty boards and see if they’re looking for any of you now. He also probably doesn’t know about me so we can catch him off guard with that.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Eda said as she stood up.

“I’m always down for a chance to explore the Boiling Isles,” Gus agreed, a spark of delight shining through the solemn look on his face.

“I’m not going to let you go out there on your own,” Amity said as she linked hands with Luz, tracing a thumb over the back of Luz’s hand.

“And someone is going to need to keep all of you out of trouble,” Willow added.

Luz nodded at everyone. “Glad we’re all in.” She turned to look at Vee. “How are we going to do this?”

Vee jumped slightly at the sudden question. “M-me?”

“Yeah, It’s been a while since I’ve been around here so you probably know way more about where to go right now than I do,” Luz said with a shrug.

“Right.” Vee took a moment to compose herself. “We’ll need to hit the bounty boards first. If Belos is sincere about rescinding the bounties a lot of the posters should be gone. We’ll also be able to see if there are any new posters of any of you.” She paused and turned to look at Luz, who nodded encouragingly. “If everything there is good we can move on to meeting with any informants that might know anything.” Vee nodded towards Luz. “I think almost everyone you knew is still available. Richie got arrested about a month ago but he was...” Vee trailed off as she quite obviously tried to think of a way to describe the man.

“An asshole?” Luz supplied.

Vee sighed in relief at having been given an out. “Yeah. That. Was he always like that or..?”

“Yeah, he likes, liked I guess, to think that he was the only reason the underground hadn’t fallen apart. Of course, I don’t think anyone ever met him without wearing a disguise and no one ever told him where any of our safe houses were either.”

“I wish I’d known about the disguise thing sooner. I’m pretty sure he’s the reason the entire isles know that I’m a human instead of it just being some rumor,” Vee groused.

“He got drunk and started bragging again?” Luz guessed with a grimace.

“Yeah.”

“How did he get arrested anyway? I didn’t think anyone actually took him seriously. I know he used to brag about being a contact for the underground so much that no one ever actually thought he was telling the truth.”

“Some guards found him high as a kite and he still had titan dust on him,” Vee replied with a shrug.

“Of course,” Luz muttered.  “Everyone else still free?”

“Yeah. There are a few more people that have joined up. Actually, the witches that helped me out when I first got here are working as informal informants now. They only really meet with me but they’re always willing to help me out.”

Luz’s eyes brightened at the mention of witches that had helped out Vee. “Oh! Tell me more!” she said. A sentiment that several of her friends echoed. With a smile, she settled in to hear about Vee’s friends. As unsettling as the news about Belos had been she couldn’t help but enjoy these moments with her friends. And she was sure that as long as she had them by her side they would manage to make everything work out in the end.

Belos couldn’t help but grumble in frustration as he surveyed the much-reduced group of SCI agents he’d brought with him. William had been thorough in his attempted betrayal. Not that the man probably thought of it as a betrayal of course. Something that Belos could, begrudgingly, agree with to an extent. While he hadn’t really broken the letter of any laws he had assuredly stomped all over their spirit and his actions could quite easily be seen as nothing more than an egotistical power grab. Even his explanations that said power grab was anything but egotistical, he was the rightful Emperor after all, hadn’t done much to dissuade many of the agents.

He had been dismayed to have to send so many useful men to be imprisoned in the conformitorium but it was a necessary measure. He was sure that, in time, he would be able to convince them to rejoin him of their own free will. Of course, many of the sycophants that had pledged loyalty to him had been eager to punish the agents that had denied him, even after he expressly stated no harm was to come to them. Thankfully everyone seemed to be understanding. After he had killed the first one that had dared ignore him anyway. 

A small chuckle escaped him as he thought about what the him of the past would have thought of him killing a witch in retaliation for harming a human that had expressly stood against him. The human world truly had changed him. Shaking those thoughts away he turned to the new leader of his much-reduced group. 

“Since the cat is out of the bag I don’t see any reason for you all to remain restricted to the guest wing in the palace. I will prepare a list of potential tasks that I believe you can all assist with. Richard, I’ll leave distributing the tasks to you.”

“Yes sir,” Richard said as he snapped off a quick salute. 

“Excellent. The quartermaster for the Coven Guards has also been informed that you all of you are you are to be given anything, within reason, that you ask for.”

“And if any of the witches try to cause problems?”

“Discipline them as needed but do your best not to kill anyone.” Belos turned to look at the group as a whole. “Make sure that you all move with at least one other agent at all times. There are many that will see you as undeserving of my trust.” A cruel smile crossed his face. “Prove them wrong when that happens. Dismissed.”

The agents all nodded, several sporting grins of their own, and began to file out of the room.

“What I wouldn’t have given to have had everyone side with me,” Belos muttered to himself as he watched the door close. Humans might not have had the magical talents and power of witches but the ingenuity and determination they had quite often more than made up for that particular deficit. The various enchanted tools that they did have access to just pushed those advantages that much further. His already darkened mood fell even more as he called a guard to put together a quick retinue to lead him to the conformitorium. With those that had decided to follow him dealt with it was time to meet with the dissenters.

The trip, while not long, was still long enough that wearing the helmet was a chore. Albeit a necessary one to make the right impact and be ready to deal with any interlopers that showed up with the necessary decisiveness to deter future idiots. Even without drawing on the power of the titan, it was able to induce a splitting headache by the time he had been shown into a meeting room with William.

“Here to gloat?” William asked from his spot chained to a chair at the other side of the small table.

The guards had been surprised when Belos had insisted that William be chained up as though he were a powerful demon but they had thankfully gone along with it. Belos was also pleased to see that William was also wearing a pair of sealing shackles. They may not be as important as they would be when imprisoning a demon or a witch but it would at least disrupt the various esoteric tricks and abilities that SCI agents tended to pick up over time. “Not quite. Just here to see if I can’t convince you to join up with me. I can’t keep you and the others in the guard’s break room forever after all. This will be your last chance before you join the rest of the prison populace.”

“You killed the person we were here to try and make diplomatic inroads with and took control of the country,” William deadpanned.

“Bah, even if I hadn’t dangled the remote in front of him that useless fool would have only waited a little longer to try and betray us. I would have preferred a bit more time to build things up but this really is better for all involved,” Belos scoffed. His gaze turned serious as he continued. “You read the briefing William. You know what this place is like.”

“And you think you can make it better?”

“Of course I can,” Belos replied indignantly. “As I told you before, I managed to conquer the Isles once before and brought an end to an age even worse than this one. Though I suppose it’s only due to the bar being set so low that even the Boiling Isles under these idiot Speakers can be claimed as better than what came before. But now, with everything I have learned in the human realm, I can bring the Isles to a new age of prosperity. Prosperity that we will share with the human realm.”

“And how long until you take control back home too?”

Belos shrugged. “Depends on how long the world is willing to play nice. I am perfectly willing to let the leaders of the human realm claim to be in control of everything as long as they don’t stand in my way. But in the end, we will have unity. Unity of purpose, of people, of realms. You’ve seen what can be done with the scattered remnants of magical lore that humans have access to. The wonders we can produce with those bare scraps. With the magic of the Boiling Isles and the technology of the human realm, both worlds will be changed forever. And once we have come as close to perfection as we can, we will move on.” Belos spread his arms wide. “There are countless realms out there waiting for the right guiding hand to bring them to a new age.”

“And that hand is yours?”

“Naturally.”

“People will stop you. That Underground that that Luz kid is part of is already working against your entire empire.”

“That is already being dealt with. I’m not the foolish man I once was. They fight for the freedom to use their magic in the way they wish. All I need to do is give that to them and they will fall in line with the rest. The human realm will be much the same. I will bring the wonders of magic and they will be all too happy to give up so much to get it. There will be dissenters, there always are. Those that fear magic or believe it to be evil.” Belos paused for a moment. “Granted, the name Demon Realm might cause some concern. I’ll have to see what I can do about rebranding.”

“Right, wouldn’t want everyone to realize what you were up to.”

Belos ignored Willaim’s sarcasm with a smile. “Exactly. Far too many stories about demons making underhanded deals with humans to want the entire realm to be associated with all that.” Pointedly ignoring William’s snort of indignation Belos continued. “But we will be changing the world, William. Think about how many people in both realms will benefit under my rule. The human realm may not be as universally chaotic as the demon realm but you can’t deny that there are many places that are far, far, worse. Think about what a hundred plant witches could do with the help of human botanists. What wonders could be produced when Beast Keepers and biologists work together. What lives that will be saved when doctors can call upon healers. I am going to fix both our worlds. And I want you and the others at my side when I do so.”

“The SCI won’t stand for this,” William said after a moment.

“Perhaps, perhaps not. But even if they close the portal it is only a matter of time before I create a new one. After that what can they do? Release all their information to the world? The SCI may not be quite the organization they were in the past but they have their fair share of atrocities. Tell the politicians not to trust me? To not trust the man that comes bearing gifts far beyond any they have ever received? Trust a politician to do something moral instead of personally profitable?” Belos couldn’t help but chuckle. “They treat with far worse than me with a smile. The SCI is a small, sometimes underfunded, almost always understaffed, organization that will need to contest with the might of an Empire. They will stand no chance. And they will know it. Almost half of the agents that came with me took my side when I had little more than promises and a few grandiose acts. How many will be willing to stand against me when I can promise the support of an entire nation?”

Belos smiled as he saw William wavering. “Just something to think about,” he said as he patted the man’s hand. “Now, I have some other things to take care of. Please keep what I said in mind.”

With a flourish of his cape, he turned around and placed the helmet back on his head. Even though the headache the Titan began to assault him with he couldn’t help but smile. It was only a matter of time until everyone was following him once more. Under his leadership, he was sure that he would make everything work out in the end.

Chapter Text

“Nope, that’s not it,” the witch, who had still not told Hunter her name, said. Her face twisted between a look of ‘I told you so’ and disappointment that she had been right that Hunter wasn’t going to be able to remove the manacles as quickly as he had hoped.

“Maybe if I twist it like…” Hunter trailed off as he attempted the unlocking spell again. Once again the spell circle glowed for a moment before fizzling out. When he’d first started trying to unlock the manacles he’d been so sure that he would get the spell figured out before too long. A couple hours at the most. Yet even after a full day’s worth of attempts and thinking he didn’t seem to be any closer than he had in his first attempt.

He’d thought his experience painstakingly putting together spells from instinct and gut feeling would make reverse engineering something a piece of cake. Unfortunately, his knowledge only allowed him to fully realize just how little it applied to what he was doing now. His other spells felt downright primitive compared to what he was attempting to put together right now. Like comparing building a wagon to building a car. They both had four wheels and could take you places but one was ever so slightly more complex than the other. Thankfully though, his constant failures at least came with a rather sizable bright side.

“No, you’re not aligning the energies right in the second section of the spell. It should be more like…” The witch lifted her hand to cast a spell before remembering the manacles on her wrist. With a sigh, her arm dropped back down. “From the looks of the spell you need to visualize the locking mechanism in that section. It looked like that last one got about halfway through before it hit a wall.”

Actual magical instruction from someone that had formal training and knew more than what hgis family members had managed to piece together over the years. Sure, the lack of any demonstrations was a bit of a bummer and slowed things down immensely but Hunter was perfectly happy with getting any instruction at all. “Is there another spell we could try that could get a better feel for the locking mechanisms?”

“There are a few that might help. But I don’t know them. We would have to bring in more people.”

“Which means more chances for the guards to find things out,” Hunter finished for her. Going to her with the knowledge that he could use magic had been a big enough risk. A calculated one but still a risk. Adding more people, no matter how trustworthy, only increased the chances of someone slipping up and saying the wrong thing or cracking under the pressure of a guard getting bored and deciding to interrogate someone for fun.

Before Hunter could figure out whether to try the unlocking spell again or see if he wanted to try and brute force some sort of lock mapping spell an anguished scream echoed throughout the prison.

“Dinner time,” the witch said with a shrug as she got up off the bed and started making her way to the cafeteria.

Hunter scowled as he watched her leave. While he understood why she wanted to get to the cafeteria early, he’d gotten stuck with the fuzzy stuff once now and wasn’t keen on letting it happen again, he was still annoyed with just how quickly she dropped everything when the bells screamed.

Grumbling to himself under his breath, Hunter trudged out of the witch’s cell and made his own way to the cafeteria. With nothing better to occupy himself, he kept thinking about what sort of changes he should make to the unlocking spell to finally make it work. Thankfully years of school life had honed his ability to move along with the line and pick up his food without putting any real thought into it. He was halfway to the table that he had more or less claimed as his before he realized that the usual raucous conversations that dominated the room were gone. Replaced with the dull roar of a dozen whispered conversations. 

Shaking himself out of his thoughts he looked around the room to see what he had missed. Something that wasn’t all that hard given the fact that everywhere he looked the other prisoners were casting furtive glances in one direction in particular. Following the curious, and strangely cautious, gazes, Hunter’s mouth dropped open in shock at the sight of several humans seated at a table by themselves. Shock that was compounded even further when he realized that he recognized the somewhat scuffed uniforms they were wearing as marking them as SCI agents.

His eyes flicked between his usual table, still empty since the witch seemed to value what time she could get away from Hunter, and the one occupied by the other humans. He was under no illusions about how difficult it would likely be to get in their good graces. Even if they didn’t recognize him from when he had been dragged into the portal room he didn’t have enough knowledge to pass for a native of the Boiling Isles. But the potential rewards could very well be worth it. Getting a group of trained secret agents on his side would be invaluable for the eventual escape attempt. They also all almost certainly had plenty of reasons to want to escape themselves that would help them keep things under wraps. Finally, and possibly most importantly, Hunter was sure that at least one of them would have some knowledge that would help him figure out the unlocking spell. He doubted that knowledge would be of titan magic but anyone that had dealt with the supernatural for very long tended to pick up some tricks. 

Hunter shook his head with a sigh. There really wasn’t any other smart choice was there? He took a deep breath, squared his shoulders, and shifted directions towards the other table.

Unsurprisingly, he hadn’t even taken two steps before one of the people sitting at it noticed him. Even without the woman noticeably saying anything or making any overt indications, the rest of the table shifted slightly. Each one of them moved ever so slightly to be ready to move if they needed to. By the time he reached the table some of the wariness had been replaced by confusion as more than one of the people seated there glanced at his obviously human ears. “Mind if I join you?”

Without a word one of the agents indicated an empty seat, gesturing to it with a hand that Hunter was surprised to see bound with a sealing manacle.

“Why did you get sealed?” Hunter asked before he could stop himself.

The agents glanced around at each other before one of them spoke up. “The oh so glorious new Emperor doesn’t want to take any chances.”

“New Emperor? I thought the isles were ruled by the speaker.”

More glances were shared before another agent just rolled his eyes. “The speaker got killed by Belos.”

Hunter’s eyes widened at that. He may not have paid too much attention to the SCI’s hierarchy, usually being far more concerned with whichever agents were overseeing the areas he was visiting, but he had heard the name of its director. “You don’t mean SCI Directer Belos, do you?”

The man looked surprised at Hunter’s knowledge and nodded. Appraising eyes looked him up and down once more before widening in recognition. “You’re the kid that the prisoner kidnapped!”

Hunter looked away from the curious glances that now dominated his tablemates. “Uh, yeah. That was me.”

“You were the second guard?” another agent asked incredulously. When most of the other people at the table looked at him in surprise he glanced back and forth looking slightly incredulous. “What? Didn’t you read all the mission dockets for Southborough? The kid we saw in the portal room was wearing the same stuff as the second guard, if this kid was him then he was the second guard.” He paused as one hand went to his chin and his eyes narrowed in thought. “But you’re human. So everything you were doing had to have been accomplished with the artifacts that had been scattered around town. But then why were you in the building when the first guard broke out?”

“I… found out about your portal and wanted to go to the Boiling Isles,” Hunter explained after a moment. Hiding the truth would only cause problems later down the line. “I snuck into the building to try and find it.” His eyes narrowed and he scowled. “But then the guard broke out and took me hostage. Things are a little fuzzy after that but I think I remember things not going well in the portal room for… anyone I guess.” His scowl faded into a tired grimace at the chorus of nods he got. “Then I woke up in the wreckage of a house and the guards grabbed me right outside it. Apparently, things were too hectic to give me a real trial so they just shoved me in here. Annnd now I’m realizing that Belos was why things were too hectic for me to have a trial.”

“Well, at least you got in here before Belos ordered them to put these things on humans,” one of the agents grumbled as he brandished a manacled arm.

“So does that mean that you guys would be able to get out of here if you weren’t locked up?” Hunter asked, a small smile beginning to cross his face.

The agents all fell silent as they contemplated his question. Looks were shared and short, whispered conversations were had. Multiple glances were shot towards Hunter’s own unshackled arms. Eventually, the agents seemed to reach a consensus. After glancing around at the few people that were still watching their table one of them spoke up. “Tell you what. Meet up with us an hour after dinner and we’ll see what we can do.” Her eyes narrowed. “Come alone. None of us want to have to deal with vetting more than one person. Our cells are on the right side as you leave the cafeteria, top level, furthest from the stairs.”

Hunter opened his mouth to argue but the icy glares that were directed his way quickly made him close his mouth again. Not wanting to run the risk of upsetting his newest potential allies he merely nodded silently and turned his attention to his food. 

Both the afternoon free time block and dinner passed without incident, although Hunter’s one attempt at meeting with the SCI agents was quickly headed off when one of them caught his eye and shook his head when he tried to start moving in the direction of their table at dinner. As much as he could see that they didn’t want him interrupting them until they were ready he still couldn’t help but feel a little annoyed.

“And you’re sure about this?” the witch asked as Hunter paced back and forth in her cell. “Because you do not look very sure about this.”

“Of course I’m not too sure about this. I only spent a good portion of my life trying to not catch the attention of the organization these people are part of,” Hunter retorted. With a huff, he stopped pacing and turned to face the witch. “But this is probably our best bet. Each of these people is trained in dealing with magic despite having little to no magic of their own. Plus they have a serious grudge against the new Emperor and still seem loyal to their organization. An organization that is going to want them back and is going to be pissed at Belos for pulling this… whatever this is. Out of everyone in here, they are the most likely to be both willing and able to help complete this spell.”

Hunter held the witch’s gaze for several seconds before she growled and looked away. “Better than dealing with Trix I suppose.”

“Trix?”

“Got arrested for breaking into a coven head’s home. She was only caught because she decided to try and steal the jewelry the coven head had gone to sleep wearing. She’s the best bet to figure out the locking spell but I don’t doubt she’d turn on us in an instant if she thought it would give her a better chance of getting out herself.” At Hunter’s disbelieving stare she looked away. “She’s the only one that has the skills that would help while also at least giving us a chance before turning us in hoping for better treatment,” she bitterly defended. “This wing may not get many violent offenders but we also don’t get many wild witches either. So it’s mostly run-of-the-mill criminals that don’t care about other people.”

“Best bad choice then?” Hunter asked.

The witch relaxed a little at Hunter’s words. “Yes.” Her tension returned with a vengeance as she sighed and looked back at him. “Are you sure that these humans are your best bet?”

“Given that the alternative is a criminal that won’t immediately betray us? Pretty sure.” He poked his head out of the witch’s cell and looked up at the single clock that sat on the far wall of the main room. “Five minutes left. I better get going.”

The witch looked conflicted as he left her cell but didn’t protest. Thankfully she seemed to be taking his requests that she allow him to follow through with the SCI agent’s requests seriously. He could only hope that it wouldn’t take too long for the agents to become amenable to any requests he would end up making. His trek to the cells the agents had mentioned was blessedly unremarkable. The closest thing to an unexpected obstacle was Hunter finally realizing that there were five levels of cells, which meant having to climb up five flights of stairs. To his surprise, one of the agents was waiting for him at the very top of the staircase.

“Arms out, legs apart. Gonna need to pat you down before you  get any closer.”

Hunter nodded and moved as instructed. He’d expected something along these lines and had made sure to leave everything he could with the witch before heading up. He’d rather not start things on the wrong foot by carrying around several magical artifacts after all.

“Alright, you’re clear. Head through to the end. The others will meet you there.”

Hunter was about to start moving down the walkway when a thought struck him. “Are you guys the only ones on this level?”

The agent seemed surprised at the question but eventually nodded. “On this side at least.” He waved at the other side of the room, more specifically at the lack of any connecting bridges or walkways between the two sides. “Apparently some other prisoners got shuffled around to make sure that we would all stick together. Belos may be a power-hungry bastard but apparently he hasn’t completely forgotten his job.” He looked to be about to say more before just shaking his head. “Now get moving. Don’t want you to be able to point at me as the reason you’re late.”

Hunter nodded and jogged down the walkway towards the cells at the end of the row. Even before he reached it he could tell which cell he was going to be interrogated in. The two agents standing guard right outside it were a rather obvious indicator after all. Once there he was patted down a second time before being allowed to actually enter the cell. Inside were three agents, two women, and a man. All of which were looking down at him calculatingly.

“Not as early as I would have liked but at least you weren’t late,” the woman on the right noted. “First things first. How much magic do you have? Bloodlines, blessings, disciplines, the works. If you’re going to unlock these things we need to know where you’re starting and what we need to teach you.”

“Teach me?” Hunter asked.

“Yeah,” the woman on the left said. “Derek here has some hedge witch training. Not titan magic, just western European hedge magic. Now, you obviously have knowledge of something and you don’t stick around that long enough to pull a con like what you did without picking up a trick or two so what’s your style?”

Hunter tensed at the question. He’d known he would have to lay his cards on the table in order to really get anywhere but he’d hoped it wouldn’t end up being the first thing he did. “There’s a titan witch somewhere in my family tree. We think it’s my great grandfather since my grandma was given up to an orphanage as the result of a one-night stand.”

Unsurprisingly each of the agents in the room noticeably reacted to his revelation. 

“That’s… both good and bad news,” Derek said. When Hunter glanced at him he sighed. “Titan magic isn’t too common in the human realm. Most of our information comes from second or third hand sources. It’s probably going to make teaching a little more difficult since we’ll have to feel things out as we go. But on the other hand, we won’t need to find a way to properly interface my traditions with titan magic.”

“So the manacles are blocking all magic?” Hunter asked as he looked at the shackles with new, albeit reluctant, respect.

Derek twisted his hand in a strange symbol and a small flickering flame danced along his fingers. After only a second he winced and the flames winked out. “It’s not a perfect block but it’s enough. Between the three of us, we could probably put together an unlocking spell I can actually perform but it would take days at the very least of me pushing through the block and dealing with the backlash after every attempt. Not something that you can do day after day too easily.”

Hunter found himself nodding in agreement. His own experiences creating spells of his own had been pretty similar to what Derek had been describing. You could only bang your head against the wall so many times before the headaches convinced you that you should try doing something else for a few days. “But you have figured out a little about how to unlock them?”

“Eh,” Derek said as he held up a palm and wiggled it back and forth. “Sam here has the theory down about how the magic needs to flow.” He jerked his head towards the woman on the left. “But we still need to get the finicky bits of getting what I can do to work with what these things need. But if you really can use titan magic we might just be able to skip that step,” he said as he cast an appraising glance over Hunter.

“Right,” Hunter muttered as he held up a hand. “You’re not going to jump me when I cast a spell are you?” he asked as his eyes darted between the three agents.

“Don’t cast anything funny and we won’t,” Sam assured him.

Taking a deep breath Hunter concentrated and cast the sections of the unlocking spell he had managed to piece together. All three agents nodded as the spell circle vanished.

“What spell was that?” the last unnamed woman asked.

“It’s what I’ve figured out of the unlocking spell for the shackles,” Hunter replied with a small smirk. “I haven’t been sitting around doing nothing after all.”

Derek broke into a huge grin at that. “Ha! If you’ve already got that part figure out then Sam should be able to coach you through the last bit.”

Hunter nodded and turned to look at Sam. “Ready when you are.”

What followed was one of the most exhausting twenty minutes of his life. He was forced to cast the unlocking spell over and over again. The agents in the room doing something to watch the spell and decipher its effects. The last woman, who turned out to be named Jess, seemed to be able to see magic to some degree. Something that was invaluable as she and Sam helped him work out how to make his magic flow the way it needed to in order to get through the lock. Since no one, not even him, knew exactly how to make his magic move the way Sam said the lock functioned, it turned out to be a lot of trial and error. Several times he wished the witch was there to help out with how to make his magic twist and turn the way it needed to but the one time he’d brought it up the agents had immediately shot him down. Apparently, one largely unknown individual was enough for them and they didn’t trust his ability to vet people.

Eventually though, he was rewarded with a satisfying pair of clicks, followed by the agents to either side of Derek jumping forward to grab the manacles before they hit the ground. Exultant grins were shared between everyone as Derek flexed his wrists and cast his little flame spell again. This time generating a small fireball that danced over his fingers with ease.

“Alright kid, you can get ‘em off. But can you get them back on so we don’t make people suspicious before we get out of here?”

With a cocky grin, Hunter cast the locking spell. Only for the spell to fizzle out as the shackles remained completely unaffected.

“Looks like it’s time for part two of our crash course,” Jess noted with a smirk.

Hunter could only tiredly groan before holding up his hand to prepare to cast the spell once more. Only a little longer and he’d be done. Then they could really get started on planning their escape.

Belos bit back a yawn as he pulled on his connection to the titan to rejuvenate himself and wipe away the need for sleep for now. Of course at the rate things were going he was probably going to need to cast the spell again in an hour, maybe two. It had been a long time since he’d abused the spell anywhere near as much as he had in the last few days and that had been when the titan wasn’t anywhere near as annoying to deal with as it had been recently. He couldn't wait until things had finally calmed down enough that he could get a full night’s rest without the worry that everything would fall apart the instant he took his eyes off things. Sure, some would call that hyperbole, but those people hadn’t seen the new plant coven head start trying to breed a plant that would eat him when he left them alone for three hours.

Needless to say, there was another witch in charge of the coven now. One that he truly hoped would learn the lessons he was trying to teach. If not, well, maybe new coven head number three would be his lucky number.

With a sigh, he looked over the piles of papers that were sitting on his desk. Normally he wouldn’t have to deal with this level of paperwork. Normally he would have skilled people that he trusted, or trusted were scared enough to not go against him, that he could properly delegate this sort of work. As it stood the only people that he trusted not to go against him, aside from the agents that decided to follow him, were a handful of eager sycophants. While he could trust them to do their best he also had to make sure that the work he handed off to them wasn’t something that their zealotry would end up ruining. Trying to determine which items to send to the agents was almost worse. For all the trust he had in them to do the smart thing, few of them knew enough about the Boiling Isles to be able to determine what the smart thing was.

Which, unfortunately, meant he had to vet everything before sending it along.

“Delayed prisoner updates for the Ribsfield conformitorium, Agent Daria can handle that. Request for beast keeper support in Shinside, Damien can handle that.” He blinked as he picked up the next paper and let out a sigh of frustration as he glanced at the next four behind it. “Three more requests to reinstate the bounties for known wild witches.” With a flick of his wrist, the papers were thrown aside and burst into flames. “Dealt with.” Honestly, he was surprised there were only three calls to criminalize wild witches in this stack. He had done a rather good job demonizing them the first time he’d conquered the isles after all. Something that his successors had taken and run with like their lives had depended on it. It would take time for people to come to terms with the new systems but once they started paying dividends most people would join up. If for no reason than profit of course. 

The remainder? Well, a good common enemy had a way of bringing people together. Once the seeds of a new rebellious group were fully formed he could point the populus at them and hold them up as the new evil to be feared and hated. Perhaps he could set up a few lapses in guard patrols and spread rumors of some public building hiding secrets he wanted hidden. It would only be a matter of time until the idiots acted on it and some well-placed traps could cause enough devastation that the rumor mill would go wild with speculation about anyone that might have been hurt. Get a few people to go around saying that a friend of a friend had their poor defenseless witchling die in the accident and people would rally quite nicely.

He flicked through another three pages before an insistent beeping reached his ears. Annoyance quickly faded into elation as he realized just what was likely causing the noise. Reaching into a pocket in his suit he pulled out a small signal scanner. One that had been designed to track the signals of any SCI equipment and alert him if particular items got within range. “Took you long enough,” he murmured as he watched two dots moving around just inside the range of the device. Given the direction and distance, they seemed to be moving towards the outskirts of Ribsfield.

Silencing the device, he leaned back in his chair, the papers in front of him forgotten for the moment. A quick spell called a pair of guards into his office, each coming to a stop a half dozen feet from his desk and snapping to attention. “A number of people have entered Ribsfield that I want to speak with.” Another spell conjured up images of Luz and her friends. “In particular I would prefer that the witch come speak with me.” His eyes narrowed. “You are not to assault, threaten, or otherwise coerce them in any way.” He pulled a stack of envelopes out of a drawer in his desk and slid them towards the guards. “Ensure that these letters are delivered to them and, if possible, ensure that they are read. If they choose to come with you bring them to me. Otherwise, leave them alone for now.” His eyes started to glow with power and his voice echoed around the room. “Do not disobey my orders or you will be disciplined.” To his satisfaction, he saw the guards before him tremble ever so slightly and was sure that behind their masks they had gone pale. He allowed the glow to die from his eyes and his voice to return to normal. “But succeed and you will be rewarded. Go.”

With a haste that was just shy of unseemly, the two guards fled the room, letters in hand. With a chuckle, Belos turned to look out the window with a smile. “And so step two finally begins. I can’t wait to see you again Luz.”

Chapter Text

Despite Willow’s worries, the trip to Ribsfield turned out to be completely uneventful. Though part of the difference compared to the trip from Ribsfield was due to a much more jovial mood this time around. Their trip to the safe haven had been filled with tense silence and the unease of not knowing where things stood with the portal, how Luz’s mom was doing, or any number of other things. The trip back, despite having the questions about Belos and his plans lurking in the background, was much more enjoyable. The questions that had plagued them on their earlier trip had been resolved, although some more happily than others, and the simple fact of retracing a path they had successfully traveled once already had lightened the mood considerably. There was also the fact that, without the overwhelming worries in everyone’s mind, conversation was abundant this time around.

It also helped that they each had a staff of their own to fly on instead of having to split the load between Lutri and Eda.

Amity and Luz had quickly started talking about various places that Luz wanted to show her. Of course that conversation only managed to last a few minutes before the two started getting really sappy about planning potential future dates. As happy as Willow was that the two of them were dating she didn’t really want a front row seat to their PDAs.

The rest of them held a conversation of their own that drifted from topic to topic. Of course, a good many of those topics were related in some way to magic but Willow felt that was par for the course by now. They covered the sorts of witches and demons they were likely to run into, as well as the sorts of dangerous plants, animals, and less civilized demons they might have to deal with. After that had come the actual individuals they might be meeting. Various informants and allies that the Underground had in the city that were willing to help out from time to time as long as things stayed relatively legal. The last, and unsurprisingly longest lasting, conversation topic they ended up on was the sorts of magic they each had access to. Gus, Willow, and Eda found an appreciative audience in Vee. The girl was very interested in what sorts of things they had managed to do with their artifacts. She was quick to inform them that, while they were almost certainly getting help from their artifacts, or in Eda’s case the weird mishmash of magic that was stuck in her, the things they were doing were rather high level for the various covens.

Once they were done explaining their magical toys they had all been eager to learn more about Vee’s glyphs. Something that was apparently a bit of a shock for her. Between the impressive feats they’d managed with their artifacts and having spent most of her time around people that didn’t need pieces of paper to cast spells she had a surprisingly low opinion of her own magic. Not that she thought it was bad or anything, she just didn’t seem to think it was all that special.

Willow was pretty sure that the only reason that Gus didn’t get right up in her face and start extolling just how amazing what she had accomplished was, was the fact that attempting to do so would almost certainly make him lose his grip on his staff. In the end, he, begrudgingly, settled for explaining just how amazing she was from a respectable distance. Something that the poor girl didn’t really seem to know how to handle. While Willow hadn’t actually heard too much about her circumstances before she’d come to the Boiling Isles it was clear that she wasn’t used to positive attention from anyone. Let alone someone as relentlessly positive as Gus.

Not that he’d been alone in praising her efforts of course. Both Eda and Willow had been impressed with her work even before she really got down to explaining it. The different glyphs she’d found, how she’d found out how to combine them into more complex spells, all the different ways she’d learned to combine them, and especially her little card holsters. Eda in particular had been impressed with them and their ability to create whatever spell card Vee needed.

But as with all good things the conversations were eventually brought to an end as Ribsfield came into sight. While they certainly could fly right into town it would attract a lot more attention than walking in on foot. Apparently flying around town was something of a faux pas. Not one bad enough that people would be thinking about gathering up an angry mob but certainly enough that people would take note of, and remember, them. And even that was discounting the fact that most of them still needed to get their disguises on. One by one Luz cast an illusion on all of them to hide their ears and they all dutifully put on their cloaks. Well, except Eda and Vee. Willow couldn’t help but be slightly jealous of the fact that the woman could just stay in her harpy form and be good to go. She had considered trying to use her plant armor in a similar way but had come to the annoying conclusion that while it would work, it would only last as long as she could keep it going. And while she liked to think she would be able to hold things together for a respectable time she knew she couldn’t manage a full day out on the town. Vee, however, seemed to have a disguise of her own as she pulled a card from the holder at her side, tapped it, and slipped it into the waistband of her pants. The air around her shimmered for a moment before she was clad in an illusion that lengthened her ears, changed the color of her eyes, and darkened the shade of her skin ever so slightly. Something that Willow was slightly amused to realize made her look like she could be Luz’s cousin or even sister.

“W-wait!” Vee said just as everyone was about to start making their way towards town. Her hands went to the card holders at her sides and she pulled out several cards. “These are some illusion spells,” she explained as she passed two cards to each of the disguised humans. “Tap it, place it against yourself somewhere, and think about the illusion you want to make. It only lasts as long as the glyph is pressed against you so make sure it’s somewhere it won’t get knocked away.”

Willow nodded as she accepted her two cards. “Thanks.”

“So how are we splitting things up?” Eda asked as she looked around at everyone.

“Wouldn’t it be safer if we all stayed together?” Amity asked as she looked around at the others for support.

Support she didn’t find. 

“It kind of depends,” Luz hedged. “If something does go wrong then it’s definitely safer to all be together. But at the same time being in a large group like this can bring a lot more attention. Especially if it’s obvious that we’re all trying to stick together.”

Vee nodded in agreement. “Yeah. I know it sounds weird but traveling in smaller groups actually makes most demons and witches less likely to try and start something because they assume you don’t need much help to keep yourself safe. Larger groups are also usually treated like you’re trying to project a lot of strength and there are people that might try to challenge that. Especially if they don’t recognize you as someone important.”

“So, like I said, how are we splitting things up?” Eda asked again, this time with a rather self-satisfied smirk.

“We should probably go with two groups,” Luz suggested. “Each group should have one person that knows what’s going on around here and how to handle whatever happens.” She looked over at Vee. “So the two of us will definitely be on different teams.”

“And there’s no way you aren’t going to have Amity on your team,” Willow piped up. She smiled as she saw that her words had prompted a small blush from both Amity and Luz as neither disagreed with her. In fact, the two of them shuffled ever so slightly closer to each other.

Before Eda could speak up about her opinions on teams both Willow and Gus spoke up simultaneously. “I’ll go with Vee.”

Vee looked surprised with the speed at which they had joined her team but nodded in acceptance.

“Then Eda comes with us!” Luz declared as she raised a fist into the air. 

“Well, I wouldn’t want to-” Eda began before Luz cut her off.

“Nope! We should have an even split with the teams. That way both teams have as good a chance as they can if anything comes up.”

Willow couldn’t help but smirk slightly as Eda sighed and resigned herself to spending the day following the two lovebirds around. Something she apparently decided to head off as best she could.

“Alright then. But I don’t want you two forgetting that I’m here two and start sucking face,” she declared as she threw a half-hearted glare Luz’s way. Both Luz and Amity looked a little embarrassed at being called out like that but neither one of them moved away from the other.

“So!” Vee interjected in an obvious attempt to draw attention away from Luz and Amity. “The teams are set and my friends live on the east side of town so should we get to the bounty boards and split up from there?”

“Sounds like a plan. We can stop by Herman’s bakery and see if he has any new news for us,” Luz agreed.

In order to preserve the illusion of the two groups being separate Luz, Amity, and Eda stayed behind out of sight of the town while Willow and the others went ahead first. Despite the seriousness of their mission Willow felt a good deal more at ease than the last time they had been making their way to the bounty boards. This time she was able to look around with a curiosity that almost rivaled Gus’s as Vee led them through the twisting streets towards the central sections of the city. Of course, that curiosity turned to shock when they finally reached the bounty boards.

“It’s so empty,” Vee murmured in disbelief.

The massive wall, once filled end to end with enough posters that they overlapped each other, was now almost empty. Willow hadn’t bothered to count the number of wanted criminals the first time simply due to how many there were so she couldn’t say just how many had been removed but it had clearly been a lot. And of the almost dozen remaining posters, only one of them had the words ‘Wild Witch’ on them. Of course, that one also had words like murder, cannibalism, and ritual sacrifice so Willow felt she could be pretty sure that that witch at least probably deserved to be hunted down.

“Wow, so many of them are gone. Hey, do you think…” Gus began before trailing off as he saw the poster that Vee was looking at.

Veronica the Human, the text at the top of the poster declared. Wanted for sedition, theft, accessory to jailbreak, murder, destruction of property, and…

“Loitering?” Willow read in disbelief as she glanced over at Vee.

“I don’t want to talk about it,” Vee muttered as she tried to hide even further in the hood of her cloak.

“And the others?” Willow asked as her eyes lingered on the charge of murder.

“Long stories,” Vee said with a huff. When she noticed just which charge Willow was looking at she sighed. “He was a monster. But he was also a well-connected monster and I’m just a human. I’ll… I’ll tell you about it sometime later,” she finished as she looked away and rubbed at one of her arms.

“You don’t have to do anything,” Gus assured her. “If you want to tell us go ahead.” He paused and glanced around at the small but present crowds that were paying only token attention to them at the moment. “Buuut we should probably do that later. You said you had some friends you wanted to meet?”

Vee perked up at the reminder. “Right! I’m sure you’ll love them! It’ll only be a short walk from here.” She paused and looked down in thought. “At least it should be. Last I heard they were going to be starting their apprenticeships with their covens soon so they might be out. I would have called them on the crow but I still need to get them my new number. The last one…” she trailed off with a shudder. “It had some issues.” 

As tempting as it was to try and press for more information, one glance at the look on Vee’s face was enough to convince Willow to let things be. Something that Gus seemed to agree with given his quick attempt to change the subject.

“So how did they come up with that for the picture on the wanted poster?” He asked as he pointed at the almost egregiously unflattering image that took up most of the space on the poster. If you squinted really hard and had a major concussion you might, with a lot of effort, be able to make the connection between the picture on the poster and Vee. The girl in the poster was holding up one hand like she was grabbing for something. While her eyes were wreathed in what looked like lightning and her face was split by a massive manic grin full of sharp teeth. Her hair and cloak were thrown behind her like she was standing in the middle of a heavy windstorm and the background was a sea of flames. To make matters worse the entire thing was in a slightly stylized art style that even further divorced the picture from the girl that was hiding in her hood next to them.

Vee let out a long, shuddering, groan of annoyance before she turned to face them. “That was after… One of those long stories. Some guards found me in the aftermath and ran off screaming. From the sounds of things they were the ones that told the artist what to draw for the picture and they wanted to make sure that they didn’t sound like cowards that ran away from a harmless human.” She shot the poster the stink eye. “Could we just drop it, please? I get enough about that poster from everyone else.”

Willow and Gus both nodded and dutifully dropped the subject.

“So! We should probably get moving before Luz and the others get here if we’re trying to stay apart,” Gus said as he attempted his second subject change in as many minutes. Thankfully this one was a bit more successful.

“Good idea,” Vee agreed. “Terri is the one most likely to be available right now and I have a spare key to her house if she isn’t. We should be able to borrow her crow to see if the others are available then too.” With a determined, and somewhat fast, stride she began to walk away from the bounty boards, forcing Willow and Gus to follow.

A, largely silent, fifteen minutes later the group found themselves in front of a rather fancy looking house. It wasn’t quite what Willow would call a manor, it didn’t feel quite large enough for that. But it came very close. Managing to straddle the line between gaudily ostentatious and simply fancy. 

“Terri’s parents are pretty high up in the Oracle Coven,” Vee explained as she rapped her knuckles against the door. “They spend most of their time at the coven headquarters though so it’s usually just her at home.”

Almost as soon as Vee had finished knocking the door swung open to reveal a dark haired girl that would have fit right in with the goth crown back home. The somewhat moody look she seemed to be cultivating shattered in an instant when a massive grin split her face at the sight of Vee.

“Vee! I knew you were going to swing by today!” she said as she stepped forward and pulled Vee into a hug. A hug that the girl readily reciprocated.

“The cards?” Vee asked with a tired smile.

“The cards!” Terri agreed. “I don’t know why you keep saying there’s no magic in those things. They keep being right!” She glanced over at Willow and Gus. “And you brought friends! Are they… you know?”

Vee rolled her eyes with a laugh. “Kind of.”

Terri’s eyes lit up with glee. “Awesome! Come on in! Don’t want to talk about all this out in the open right?” With a wave, she beckoned everyone to come into the house. 

Despite the exterior’s near miss at being ostentatious the interior of the house was surprisingly reserved. Feeling more like someone had just scaled up a normal house instead of feeling like the times Willow had been in Blight Manor. Of course, she was quickly reminded of the sheer size of things when Terri took them through four hallways, up a flight of stairs, and through three rooms before they entered a room that would have fit Willow’s entire family room and was quite clearly Terri’s bedroom.

“So what’s going on?” Terri asked as she threw herself into what looked like a beanbag but squelched like it was filled with jello.

“This is Willow and Gus,” Vee explained as she settled into another one of the beanbags and motioned for them to do the same. “They’re…” she trailed off as she looked over at them.

Gus was the first to respond to Vee’s silent question. “We’re humans too.” He paused for a moment as he was obviously trying to think of a good way to dispel Luz’s illusion that didn’t involve punching himself. In the end, he reached into a pouch, not a fanny pack as he had emphatically told her earlier, to grab the illusion orb. After a moment he shimmered and the illusion hiding his ears vanished. “Ha! Did it!”

Terri’s eyes widened as she stared at Gus’s ears. “Oh my titan,” she whispered. Before anyone could say anything else though, her shock quickly turned to excitement as she jumped forward and looked Gus over, peering closely at his ears. “How did you get here!? I thought there wasn’t any way to get between our realms normally! Did you fall into one of those portals like Vee did? Oh! You must have had so many adventures before you met her! You’ll need to tell me all about them!”

Willow couldn’t help but smile as she watched Gus sit on the receiving end of someone’s fanaticism for once. A fact that he clearly recognized given the conflicted look on his face. After letting Terri ramble on for a while, Willow stepped up to interrupt the scene. Something she did feel some regret over since the witch’s increasingly elaborate guesses at their backstories were really entertaining to listen to. “We can explain everything later, but we did come here for another reason.”

Terri blinked and a blush crept across her face as she seemed to realize what she had been doing. In a flash, she sat back down and schooled her face into a look of polite interest. A look only slightly marred by the dusting of red still on her cheeks. “Right. What did you need?”

“We needed to know about what’s been happening with… pretty much everything in the Emperor’s Coven, I guess,” Vee said with a shrug.

“Ohhh, yeah. I guess all the witches in the Underground would be interested in all that. Did you already hear the rumors that the Speaker was killed and some guy decided to skip the whole pretending to speak for the Emperor thing and went straight for declaring himself Emperor?” At Vee’s nod, she shrugged. “Not too much else then. Pretty much everyone is talking about how he’s pardoning the wild witches too so I doubt that’s really news. Mom and dad were talking about how this new Belos guy has fended off, like, a dozen assassination attempts already. The Plant Coven has already had to replace their head three times or something since they keep thinking they can do a better job of assassinating the guy than the last coven head.”

Her eyes lit up as she seemed to remember something. “Oh yeah! This morning there were some coven guards going around removing people’s coven brands.” She smirked at the looks of surprise on everyone’s faces. “Yeah, at first people were thinking it was some sort of trick but they actually followed through. Didn’t ask any questions or anything. Just cast a spell and got it off. After that, there were a lot of people that wanted to get their brand removed.”

“And did they do anything else? Take names or put some sort of tracker on people that got their brands removed?”

“Nope.” She held up her forearm and pulled up the fingerless glove she was wearing to reveal a bare stretch of arm. “At least they didn’t do anything to me when I got mine removed.”

Vee’s eyes widened for a moment before she broke out in a grin. “You got yours removed?”

“Yeah! I was actually looking at some of my grandma’s old bard books before you showed up!” Terri replied with a grin. “Hold on!” With that, she dashed off, the sounds of her footsteps echoing throughout the house behind her. Less than a minute later she returned. Slightly out of breath and clutching a small harp. After a moment of catching her breath, she straightened up and moved the harp to the crook of her arm. The notes that she played were slightly discordant, only a few of them truly lining up with one another, but they seemed to be enough for a slight glow to build up around the harp. The glow began to spread around the room for a few moments before wobbling and falling apart.

“Was that bard magic?” Vee asked, her eyes wide.

“Yeah!” Terri said with a massive smile.

Willow couldn’t help but smile as the conversation moved ever further from the reason they were here as Vee and Terri began talking about Terri’s attempt at bard magic. It was nice to see that, even in another universe, people really weren’t all that different.

Joe was a guard with a mission. Find a bunch of humans and a wild witch, deliver a letter, and make sure they read it. He wasn’t exactly keen on the mission. As far as he was concerned wild witches and humans should both be locked up but the Emperor clearly had plans for these people. Plans that Joe had no intention of standing in the way of. He’d seen what happened to people that tried to stop the Emperor when he decided to do something and he liked it when his internal organs stayed internal. Thank you very much.

Unfortunately, his mission had been less than successful over the last several hours. He had to have pulled aside over a hundred witches that looked like they might be his targets so far and none of them had been the right people. After an hour he’d realized that the witch of the group could have cast illusions on her humans. But even casting illusion dispelling spells on the people he pulled aside hadn’t revealed anything other than one witch’s hideous rash.

That said Joe was no quitter. If the first hundred people hadn’t been right then maybe one of the next hundred would. Sure, some of the people he’d questioned had been angry about the treatment but very few of them had been willing to do more than complain. The few that did more than complain just slapped him and while he could try charging them for that he knew better than to try and take someone in to try and assuage his anger at his failures. All that did was get your failures broadcasted to everyone as your prisoner complained about everything and he wasn’t going to go through that again.

Having just finished interrogating another failure, his eyes caught three younger looking witches walking along the outer fence of one of the nicer houses in this section of town. Two of them looked to be about the right appearance for the targets and, upon close inspection, one of them looked a lot like the wild witch that was in the group. Sure, there were minor differences but she was probably just hiding under a poorly done illusion to keep from being found.

With a grin, he jogged after them as quietly as he could. No sense tipping them off if they really were the people he was looking for after all. Once he was close enough he reached out and grabbed the stocky girl by the shoulder and roughly spun her around. “Halt by the orders of-” was all he got out before his world went green.

Seconds seemed to drag by as he tried to figure out what had happened. A dull throbbing all along his back and especially the back of his head caused him to wince in pain. Trying to blink the blurriness from his eyes he looked around and realized that he was hanging up in the air, surrounded by what looked like vines. A few more blinks and he saw that the stocky girl that he had tried to stop was gone. In her place was what looked like some sort of plant demon.

A really, really, angry plant demon.

“What do you want?” the thing growled.

As a proud member of the Emperor’s Coven Joe was no coward. He had faced down terrible odds time and time again. Fought back rebels and monsters alike with unwavering confidence and it would take a lot to scare him. Then the vines that he now realized had completely encircled his entire body tightened slightly and put a lot of pressure on places he really didn’t want pressure applied. “I’m looking for a group of humans and wild witch! Emperor’s orders,” he squeaked out as he determined that discretion was the better part of valor.

Apparently, that was the wrong thing to say as the luminescent eyes of the demon glittered and the vines tightened even more. “Why?” it demanded.

“E-Emperor’s orders! I needed to deliver them a letter! In the front right pocket in the inside of my cloak!” he stammered out. When he felt one of the vines slithering into his cloak a part of him wanted to try and stop it. But the rest quickly reminded him that even if he could do something it probably wouldn’t be the smart idea to follow through with the way the vines around his groin had already tightened far more than was comfortable.

The thing in front of him regarded the letter closely before handing it off to the girl that had looked like the wild witch. Joe couldn’t quite make out what was said but it at least sounded about right. To his immense pleasure, the vines released him. Sending him tumbling to the ground. In between attempts to hack up his lungs and draw in that sweet, sweet air that had been squeezed out of him, he glanced up to see the plant demon fade away and reveal the stocky girl from before. More importantly, it revealed her decidedly not pointy ears.

“Tell your emperor we’ll be in touch,” the girl said as she did something and the illision of a witch’s ears returned. Her disguise back in place she and her friends walked off, leaving him to slump down on the street to recover.

With a groan he forced himself to stand back up. A pained grimace crossed his face as he looked down the street that the humans and the witch had walked down. The Emperor had wanted to make sure that the letter was read. Which meant that there was still more to his mission that needed to be accomplished. A twinge of pain shot through his ribs as he took a step down the street.

After a moment’s contemplation, he shook his head. “Nope. Screw it,” he muttered as he resolutely turned around and tried to remember how to get to the closest bar. He deserved it after what he’d gone through after all.

Chapter Text

Luz was no stranger to having careful plans and extensive efforts ending up getting overtaken by pure, blind, luck. No amount of planning or effort could really ever take luck completely off the table after all. The best you could ever really hope for was that you minimized it as much as possible. Sometimes a guard just happened to decide that the room that had an escape route was the perfect place to take a nap. Sometimes a person would leave their keys right out in the open despite the fact that they were supposed to carry them around at all times.

And sometimes you spent hours meeting with contacts, getting a feel for the current situation, and returning to the place you’re supposed to meet back up with your friends so you can discuss what’s going on. Only for a random coven guard to walk up, hand you a letter, ask that you read it, not press the matter when you refused, and then politely wish you a good day. Though Luz was willing to admit that some of her annoyance at the situation was just how surreal it had been to have a guard recognize her and be polite of all things. The incongruity of it all led to her simply staring down at the letter, her entire body tense.

“So are you gonna open that thing or what?” Eda asked as she glanced between Luz and the letter, the barest hints of an amused, if exasperated, smile just beginning to form.

“Eda! Don’t rush her!” Amity reprimanded as she placed a comforting hand on Luz’s shoulder.

“No, it’s okay,” Luz assured her girlfriend, placing one hand over Amity’s and giving it a grateful squeeze. “Just a little… unsettled by all this. I figured that Belos would be trying to get in touch with us, I just didn’t expect him to get someone to find to us the day we got back into the city.”

“Well, the guy could have been looking around for a while,” Eda said. At Luz’s half-hearted look of incredulity, she huffed and crossed her arms. “Yeah, the weirdo probably has some sort of tracker or something on all our stuff and knew we were here the instant we set foot back in town.”

“Which means he probably knows where the safe haven is,” Luz said as she turned her attention back to the envelope.

Amity once again squeezed Luz’s shoulder reassuringly. “Actually, it might mean the opposite.” When both Eda and Luz looked at her in surprise she faltered slightly but soldiered on. “I mean, the guard seemed really eager to get this message to you right? He even wanted to make sure you read it right now. I’m pretty sure the only reason he relented is that he had orders not to push things too far or something. If Belos really knew where you were he would have sent someone out to the safe haven to deliver this message.”

“I’m pretty sure that sending coven guards over to the safe haven wouldn’t end well for anyone,” Luz deadpanned.

Amity sighed and rolled her eyes. “He has more than just the coven guards, right? He has to still have some of the agents still loyal to him right? What if that William guy is the only one that figured out the truth? The rest of them could still be thinking nothing has changed. Even if he didn’t use one of them he definitely could have found someone less threatening than a coven guard to send the message. It would even have an implicit threat of ‘I know where you live, do what I say’.”

Luz was silent as she thought over what Amity had said. It certainly made sense. She hadn’t had that many interactions with Belos and she had the feeling that the time he had her at his mercy was a lot more indicative of his actual personality than the times he was trying to play nice with her. He had claimed that giving her the chance to escape had been to test his defenses against a witch but she still remembered the look of smug satisfaction on his face when he looked down on her that day. “You’re probably right,” she said as she turned the envelop over. “Let’s see what he has to say.”

“Luz Noceda and Company,” she read.

“I am sure that you have heard about what I have done by now and so will go into no further detail than to confirm that I did, in fact, kill the Speaker and take control of the empire. While I am sure that many, both among your group and back on Earth at the SCI, are concerned about this action I can assure you that it is all for the best. Something I am sure that Luz will be able to, if not fully agree with, at least agree is better than the deplorable situation the isles were stuck in before. It is unfortunately a situation that I do not see the SCI agreeing with at all, however. As unfortunate as that situation is I must consolidate things here before I can reopen communications with them. One step of which is bringing the scattered groups across the isles back together. Of course, simply stating that the wild witches can return to society is not enough to prove my intentions. There needs to be an example. A wild witch that can act as a liaison with one of the larger groups and ensure that my intentions are pure. In light of that, I would like to invite Luz, along with any of you that wish to join her, to a ball in the palace tomorrow evening starting at six o’clock. Any who wish to come only need to present this letter, or any other copies that have been given to you, to the guards at the front gates to the palace tomorrow and you will be allowed to enter the event. I trust that you will do your part to ensure the prosperity of the Boiling Isles and beyond.

“The First and Returned Emperor, Belos.”

Luz couldn’t help but stare at the last line of the letter as the others processed what she had read aloud.

“What does he mean by first and returned emperor?” Amity asked as she shifted around to be able to better read the letter over Luz’s shoulder.

“He’s claiming that he’s the first emperor. The one that conquered the Boiling Isles. The one that set up the coven system and ended the savage ages,” Luz explained with a frown.

“Well, that should be pretty easy to disprove. Just find some history books or something. There’s gotta be some pictures out there of the guy, right?” Eda asked with a shrug.

Luz could only shake her head with a grimace. “I wish. The emperor disappeared over a hundred years ago and even then there was almost nothing known about him beyond the official history. Once he vanished the Speakers worked really hard to phase out even that much in order to try and make him as much of a faceless figurehead as possible.” She sighed. “There are probably some really old demons or witches out there that might have been alive back when there was more information about him available but I doubt we’d be able to find one.”

“Well, there you go,” Eda said smugly. “If the emperor disappeared over a hundred years ago there’s no way Belos is our guy. He’d’ve croaked a long time ago if that was the case.”

“I wish it was that easy,” Luz disagreed. “Powerful healing coven witches can live for quite a while. I mean the really powerful ones. Ones that can regrow limbs kind of powerful. Apparently, it was a lot more common back before the coven system was implemented. The healing coven isn’t really looked down on but it isn’t the one people get pushed towards if they have a lot of power. Even in the emperor’s coven they usually prefer to let the healing coven deal with any healing that needs to be done since there’s a lot to learn about the subjectif you want to do it without hurting yourself or your patient.”

Eda’s grin shifted into a tired grimace as she threw up her hands in exasperation. “Fine! So Belos is either pulling the con of the century or he’s actually a super-powerful witch that’s a hundred years old. Great choices there. I’m not even sure which is worse. If he’s pulling a con it’s all going to fall apart eventually. If he really is the first emperor…” she trailed off with a theatric shudder.

Amity rolled her eyes but didn’t look any more enthused with the situation than Eda was. Before she could either reprimand or agree with Eda though she was interrupted by the return of the others. To Luz’s surprise, they had their own copy of the letter.

“They found you too, huh?” Willow asked as she held up a letter exactly like the one Luz was holding.

“Yeah, a guard just walked up, gave it to us, and left when we said we weren’t going to read it right then,” Luz explained as she brandished her own letter. “Did you guys read yours or..?”

“Not yet,” Vee said. Traces of a smile crept across her face as she turned to look at Willow. “Our guard tried to grab Willow for some reason and she tied him up in vines and slammed him against the wall.” Her smile grew at the faint embarrassed blush that had started to creep over Willow’s ears. “He didn’t even mention wanting us to read it right away. Actually, he seemed really eager to leave us alone after that.”

By now the embarrassed flush had reached past Willow’s ears and had started to cover her face. “I panicked,” she muttered.

“Don’t worry, he probably deserved it,” Gus reassured her, albeit not without a grin of his own.

Willow huffed and snatched the letter away from Vee.  “We were going to wait until we checked in with you but since you have a copy of your own…” She opened the letter and scanned it quickly while Gus and Vee took up positions behind her to read it themselves. Her expression slowly turned serious as she read the letter. By the time she finished the look on her face was decidedly grim, something mirrored by Vee.

Gus, unsurprisingly, managed to look more excited by the possibilities the letter had brought up than anything else. “Do you think he’s really the first emperor?”

“Maybe?” Luz shrugged. “You can do a lot with enough magic.”

“And as the Director he would definitely have access to enough human world magic to find something to keep him alive,” Gus agreed with a nod. “I bet that’s why he was so set on getting to the Boiling Isles. He wanted to get back home!” He paused for a moment before frowning slightly. “And conquer it again. That’s a lot less wholesome than how you wanted to get back home.”

“That… makes a lot of sense,” Luz agreed. “The whole thing with this being why he made all those plans to get to the Boiling Isles I mean.”

“That does make it sound like the Belos really is the first emperor,” Amity said with a sigh.

“Um, guys, as important as all this is, I think you’re forgetting something,” Vee said hesitantly as she pointed at a line in the letter. “He’s inviting all of you to come to the palace. Well, I mean he’s mostly asking Luz but the rest of you were invited to come with her too.”

Luz blinked as she realized that Vee was right. They had been so caught up in picking apart the last lines they had completely glossed over the main reason the letter had been sent. Even with everything that they had heard and seen today pointing towards the empire’s new views towards wild witches actually being the real deal she couldn’t help but feel like the entire thing was a trap. But all the same… “We have to go. Or at the very least I have to go.”

As one, her friends all looked at her in shock.

“No we do not!” Amity all but shrieked. “Who knows what he’s planning?!”

“Gotta agree with your girlfriend here kid, we have no idea what we could be walking into here. I didn’t trust that guy before he decided to stage a coup here!” Eda agreed.

Willow and Gus seemed ready to add their own two snails but were cut off by an unexpected declaration.

“She’s right.”

This time everyone, including Luz, turned to look at Vee. She faltered slightly at the sudden attention but forged onwards.

“We didn’t learn much while we were out. The best we got was that the Emperor’s Coven came into town yesterday and were removing coven brands from any witches that wanted them gone. Any witches that did were able to get them removed without being hassled or asked any questions at all. As far as Terri could tell they didn’t even put a tracker on her or put her on any sort of list. Unless you guys got anything else then we don’t really know much more than we did this morning.” She looked around at the others. When no one spoke up or reacted beyond a grimace or glancing away she continued. “This whole thing might be a trap, but at the same time it is our best bet to actually get the answers that we’re looking for. All Luz has to do is just ask him the things we want to know. We’ll have to scrutinize everything he says and try our best to find any holes or lies but it is still our best bet to get something out of all this.”

Luz shot Vee a thankful smile, glad for the assistance. Her smile quickly withered away at the angry glower that Amity was sending her.

“If you’re going to be going to this event then I’m going to go with you. I am not going to let you waltz into a trap by yourself,” Amity growled as she jabbed a finger into Luz’s chest.

Her declaration was quickly followed by a round of agreement from Willow, Gus, and Eda. Every single one of them unwilling to let Luz go into the slitherbeast’s cave on her own. As touching as it was Luz knew that she had to put a stop to it before they started putting together plans.

“Not all of you can come.” Luz winced at the sudden silence and frosty glares that were suddenly turned her way. “If this really is a trap then we can’t all go in at once. Belos already knows about all of us and he knows what all of you can do. If this ends up being a trap he’ll definitely have something to handle each of us. If only I go then only I run the risk of being captured and you guys will just have to save me.” Somehow her blase acceptance of what would have to happen if the whole thing ended up being a trap didn’t reassure everyone as much as she’d hoped it would.

Gus was the first to break free of his incredulous trance. “So we’re just supposed to sit around and wait to see if you end up getting into trouble and hope we can get you out if you do get captured?”

“Well, I guess?” Luz said with a grimace, unable to look her friends in the eyes.

This time they didn’t bother with silent glares. Instead opting to each try and make their views on Luz’s plan known at once. Or at least Gus, Amity, and Eda did. Willow remained silent, simply watching as the others did their best to be heard over each other. Despite the others jockeying for her attention Luz couldn’t help but stare at Willow as she reached into her pocket and pulled out her phone. The only warning Luz had to cover her ears was the sudden, ever so slight, smile on her friend’s face. Unfortunately, that warning proved for naught as she, along with everyone else, was subjected to a sudden loud blaring sound coming from the phone. The others fell silent, opting instead to rub at their ears and glare at Willow.

“Seriously Willow?” Gus said after a moment. “Why do you even still have that air horn app?”

Willow only smiled angelically, as though she hadn’t just tried to blow out their eardrums. “It worked didn’t it?” Her smile dropped as she turned to Luz. “You aren’t going to go in alone.”

“But-” Luz began.

“I’m not saying we all have to come with you but you should bring at least one person to watch your back.”

Luz grimaced but couldn’t find it in herself to argue. As much as she wanted her friends to be safe she could admit that bringing along one person wouldn’t increase the danger all that much. “Fine. Just one of you though.”

“And the rest of us will be outside the palace in case anything goes wrong while you and Amity are at the party,” Willow continued.

Everyone looked at Willow for a second after she declared that it would be Amity going with Luz before Gus and Eda both nodded.

“Makes sense,” Gus said.

“Don’t think I could blame you for wanting to bring your girlfriend to the fancy ball instead of one of us,” Eda agreed with a solemn nod that didn’t manage to hide the small smirk that was starting to spread across her face.

Amity, for her part, had quickly shifted from surprise at being named the one to go with Luz, to happiness, to happiness tinged with embarrassment as Eda and Gus started to give her knowing looks. “We’re just going to be going there to try and get information out of Belos!”

“Of course you two are,” Gus assured her.

Luz sighed and shook her head. “So Amity and I will be heading into the party and you guys will stick around outside in case anything goes wrong?” she prompted, hoping to draw everyone back to the actual topic at hand instead of just teasing her and Amity. To her immense relief, everyone seemed to be happy enough to begin their planning sessions. Something that she was sure they were going to be doing for quite a while.

“And you’re sure you can trust them,” the witch asked.

“Yes. I am sure,” Hunter said for what felt like the hundredth time. It had been bad enough having this exact same conversation with the SCI agents earlier that day and he wasn’t enjoying going through it again from the other end.

“You said that you had worked very hard to avoid their notice before now,” she reminded him.

“That was before I needed their help to get us all out of here. And they did manage to help out quite a bit,” he said as he pointedly looked at the witch’s unadorned wrists. While it was risky to have her free at the moment he didn’t want to begrudge her this brief moment of freedom before she needed to put the shackles back on. “Besides, at least they’ve told me their names.”

The witch blinked at him a few times before her eyes widened in comprehension. “I never told you my name.”

“You never told me your name,” he affirmed with a slow nod.

“Things have been rather hectic,” she tried to defend herself.

“They have,” he agreed. “Not too busy for me to have learned all the agent’s names though.”

“I…”

“You?”

The witch glanced around the room, obviously hoping an excuse would materialize out of thin air. “I forgot,” she eventually mumbled.

“Well, I guess that’s better than you just deciding to stick with the ‘see if you’ll last long enough to make it worthwhile’ thing I thought you might still be doing.”

She winced at his tone and slumped down against the wall with a long, stuttering, groan. “My name is Morgan.”

Hunter nodded graciously. “Thank you, Morgan. It’s good to properly meet you. Now are you going to come with me to meet the SCI agents or are we going to have to work out who we can trust to join in the prison break on our own?”

Morgan shoved herself back up from the wall and fastened the manacles back around her wrists. With a grimace, she held her arms out for him to reapply the locking spell. Her grimace grew even dourer as she fiddled with them and found them to be fully locked once again. “Let’s do this. It’ll probably take at least a couple days to get everyone together without alerting the guards. Better start now so I can take these things off for good as soon as I can.” 

Hunter couldn’t help but smile as Morgan did her best to not look at him as she stalked out of the cell and turned towards the stairs to the upper cells. He was pretty sure that getting the witch and the magic hunting humans to work together was going to be tricky but it was going to be well worth it. Sooner or later he was going to be free to truly explore the land of his ancestors, just like he’d been wanting for so long.

Chapter Text

There had been a lot of things Amity had been expecting when she had started planning to go to the Boiling Isles. To see her girlfriend’s mom, to see strange and wondrous sights, maybe even end up fighting some sort of demon or something. Luz hadn’t exactly been coy when it came to the potential dangers of the isles after all. One thing she hadn’t expected was to go to a ball with Luz. Let alone go to one in order to meet with the director of the organization that allowed her to go to the isles who had also enacted a military coup against said isle’s ruler.

Though she felt rather sure that no one could rightfully expect that.

Thankfully the Underground had a surprisingly large supply of dresses, tuxedos, and other finery in their surprisingly large communal disguise wardrobe. It had been a wonderfully simple process to go in, let the witch in charge know that they needed clothes to infiltrate a ball, and get shown to an impressive array of outfits. Amity, not wanting to stand out too much, had chosen a simple purple dress with lighter accents with one of Vee’s illusion glyphs tucked into position under her dress to hide her ears. While Luz… Luz had, of course, decided to go against the grain and combine what looked like the bottom half of a dress with the top half of a tuxedo.

Amity wasn’t sure it said something about Luz’s confidence or the general mentality of the Boiling Isles that Luz’s outfit didn’t even merit a response from the witch running the wardrobe. Though after they finally did reach the palace they were let into the main hall without even the barest hint of a reaction from any of the guards that they passed on the way. That said, she really wished they could have kept that trend going after they reached the main hall. She'd only had a few moments to look around the room and take in the surprisingly mundane decor before an unfamiliar witch wearing a renaissance style suit with a shoulder cape and a gaudy golden horned helmet walked up to them.

“Ah, Ms. Noceda, Ms. Blight. I’m so glad you decided to accept my invitation tonight,” the man she now realized had to be Belos said. “I am sure that we will have much to discuss later, but I am afraid that for now I must greet the rest of the guests,” he continued with a small nod of his head.

“Riiiight, glad to be here too Belos,” Luz said as she edged away from him slightly.

Between Belos’s words, Luz’s lack of formality with him, and the complete lack of any backlash for that lack of formality nearly every eye in the room had shifted to inspect them. While Amity was long since used to being scrutinized at events like this it had never quite felt like this. Normally when she was noticed at this sort of event everyone started looking her over, either to try and tear her down to try and prove their superiority, or to try and win her over in the hopes that goodwill might transfer to her mother. This room was looking at her with disgust, confusion, and honest to god hatred.

Years of practice allowed her to hide her grimace when she realized just what had happened. The most important man on the isles had happily greeted them by name and had lamented not being able to spend more time with them. With two nobodies that she doubted anyone in this room had ever heard of. Belos had just painted the largest possible targets he could on their back to a room full of backstabbing ladder climbers that would likely do whatever they felt they needed to and could get away with in order to get what they wanted. And what they wanted was the new Emperor’s attention.

Thankfully Luz didn’t seem to register quite what was going on. The previous looks that had been directed their way had quickly been hidden behind masks of polite interest. Interest that she was sure was going to result in them coming to see what was so important about her and Luz once they managed to hammer out enough of a pecking order for the first of them to make their attempt.

“So… what do people do at things like this?”

Amity almost jumped at Luz’s sudden question. “Well,” she began, “I’m not exactly familiar with how these go in the Boiling Isles but it looks like finger foods and schmoozing. I’m not seeing any tables for a meal later but I assume that there’s some magic that can be used to handle that.”

“Yeah, there are probably some caterers that will float out the tables if there’s going to be a meal,” Luz agreed with a nod. “Soooo, do we just stand around then?”

“We should probably stake a claim on some section of the hall. People are going to want to come see us and try to figure out what made Belos so interested in us. We’ll probably need to agree on what to tell them.”

Luz frowned at that. “Right. Probably can’t really lead with…” she trailed off and twirled her finger. Her spell circle flared briefly before Amity heard a crash. Off in the distance, one of the witches was glaring at them and nursing her hand, the shattered remains of a glass at her feet.

“Eavesdropping spell,” Luz explained with a smug smile. “Feels nice to be on the other end of the counterspell for once.”

Amity nodded as she surreptitiously scanned the room again. Luz handily chastising the eavesdropper seemed to have caused a shift in the atmosphere. Hints of respect could be seen on many faces, as well as vindictive glee in the glances sent towards the failed eavesdropper. In spite of herself, the rampant pettiness of the situation actually managed to make Amity feel a little better about everything. For all that witches appeared to be different from humans some things looked to be universal.

“So,” she said, “if you’re asked about your relationship with Belos keep it vague. Mention that you two worked together and you helped him with some things. Never give any real details. They’ll probably try to pry and figure out whether they can use you or not and the less you give them the better.” She grimaced a little. “Talking about where you work might be okay with how Belos has been acting but it still might paint a target on your back. If anyone tries to get you to commit to anything or make any promises, don’t. If they’re really pushy try saying you’ll think about it or that you’ll bring it up with Belos. They already know we’ll be talking to him later and that might get the more stubborn ones off your back.”

Luz nodded. “Anything else?”

Amity glanced around the room, taking note of the buffet table and the raised platform where a number of witches were setting up instruments. “It looks like there’s food available over there and there might be some dancing later. Until then we should just keep from making too many more waves than we have already.”

Luz nodded and glanced over at the table of food. Her eyes widened slightly as she apparently noticed something. “They have pyrova!” At Amity’s raised eyebrow Luz continued. “Little fancy pastries that are super hard to make and cost twenty snails each because you need fire bee honey to make them! Mom made them once when we found a dying nest of fire bees and were able to get the honey that way. It was so good! I’m gonna go grab some. Do you want me to get you anything?”

“Just grab me something you think I’d like. And that I can eat,” Amity amended as she remembered the stories Vee had shared about her experiences with the less human compatible Boiling Isles food she’d had.

“Gotcha! Be right back!” Luz said as she walked off with a grin.

Amity sighed as she watched Luz leave. It was impressive just how easily she was able to just forget that they were in a highly charged social situation. Or perhaps it was more that she didn’t care. Even if all Belos wanted out of this was a liaison with the Underground and Luz, for whatever reason, ended up agreeing to serve in that capacity they didn’t need to care all that much about anyone at this party. Apart from Belos, of course. But Amity didn’t really think that there was much that they could do that would change his opinion of them.

“Abandoned already?” a smooth voice asked.

Amity took a moment to contain a sigh of exasperation and compose herself before turning to greet her unwanted guest. She’d hoped it would take longer for someone to decide to come over and try their luck. “Only for the snack table, she’ll be back shortly,” Amity said curtly as she looked her guest over. Dark blue hair, three grey eyes, and a flowing robe that looked like something she’d seen in photos of people going to comic book conventions.

“Perhaps I could keep you company until then. It is truly a disservice to a young lady as beautiful as you to be left alone,” he said with what she assumed he thought amounted to a charming smile.

It took all of Amity’s willpower to not grimace at his attempted pickup line. Even if she had been both interested in guys and available he would have blown his chance right there. She’d had more than enough people come up to her like this in events just like this back home to be able to look at them with anything but contempt. “I think I’ll be fine on my own until my date gets here,” she said, hoping that the emphasis she had put on date would be enough to deter her unwanted suitor.

“Are you sure? I can recognize a fellow witch of class when I see one and you, my dear, can do far better than that girl you came in with. And how much better can you do than the heir of the esteemed Farson family?” he insisted with another smile.

 Amity closed her eyes and sighed. Amazed that her opinion of the witch before her had managed to get ever lower than she’d first placed it. “I think I’m actually doing very well for myself thank you very much.” Her eyes narrowed and her tone turned icy. “Now I think you should leave.”

“Ah, but one should always aim for the stars,” he said as he tried to take hold of Amity’s hand. His attempts came to an abrupt halt, however, when a large purple hand wrapped around him from behind.

“I said,” Amity began as her abomination started to lift the wide eyed witch off the ground. “I think you should leave.”

The witch squeaked as the rest of the massive abomination formed and glared down at him. “Y-y-you can’t do this to me!” he stuttered out, his face paling as he twisted around to stare down at Amity.

“Really?” she asked with faux surprise. “It seems to be working out pretty well so far. Now how about you-”

“Amity!”

Amity blinked in surprise at the sudden sound of Luz’s voice. “L-Luz! You’re back!”

“Yep! I got a little distracted at the snack table. I did make sure to get you a lot of things to choose from.” She looked up at the witch that was still being gripped by Amity’s abomination. “Think you could let him down real quick?” she asked as she passed a small pile of food sitting on a napkin over to Amity.

Amity paused for a moment before rolling her eyes and mentally commanding the abomination to return the witch to the ground. The abomination quickly followed her orders and placed the witch back down. The moment it let him go though, the witch collapsed to the floor, shivering and glaring up at Amity.

“Here ya go, let me help you up,” Luz said as she offered the witch a hand. When he took it she pulled him up with a smile and threw an arm over his shoulder. 

“Thank you for saving me from that insa-” he began before Luz placed a finger to his lips.

“I know, she can get a bit heated when some idiot keeps pushing her and won’t go away,” she said with a smile. Without even the slightest change of expression or tone, she conjured a fireball into existence and held it close to the witch’s face. “And if you ever try to do this again you’re gonna have to deal with me. And I’m not the nice one. Understand?” The witch couldn’t nod fast enough as he strained against the arm that was now holding him in place like a vice. “Cool,” she said as she clenched her hand into a fist and the fireball winked out. In an instant, the coldness vanished from Luz’s face and her smile became genuine as she let her victim go. “Enjoy the rest of the party!” she cheerily called after the swiftly retreating witch.

“My knight in shining armor,” Amity drawled as she fought to keep a smile from her face.

“Hey! I wasn’t going to let you have all the fun!” Luz protested with a huge grin. Her grin lessened slightly as she glanced around the room. “And this way we both got to make an impression. Should help keep some of the more annoying witches at bay.”

Amity snorted but nodded in agreement. “And here I thought you didn’t know your way around events like this.”

Luz shrugged. “Eh. I still don’t really know any of the more subtle social-y stuff but making sure that people know not to mess with you is Boiling Isles 101. No reason that it would be any different here.”

“Except here the people might form grudges that they’ll use their power and influence to follow through on,” Amity pointed out as she picked a spiky… thing from the tray and gave it an experimental nibble.

“Thaaat is something I didn’t really think of,” Luz admitted after a moment as she snagged some sort of meat and cheese combo from the pile. “It’s a good thing none of them should be able to figure out where to go in order to go after us.”

“Well if Belos comes follows through with everything then I think your mom might end up moving somewhere a little more visible.”

Luz froze, some treat Amity couldn’t identify halfway to her mouth. “You don’t think that Far-whatever guy is gonna try and go after her do you?” At Amity’s shrug she cast an appraising look over at the small group of people that the witch had retreated to. “Maybe I shouldn’t have let him off so easily.”

As if sensing Luz’s glare the entire group twitched and moved to the other side of the room.

“No…” Amity mused. “I think he got the message. Still kind of wish I could have thrown him away though.”

“I kind of wish I had let you,” Luz agreed.

Before either of them could continue the conversation they were interrupted by a polite cough. “Excuse me, ladies, if I could borrow a moment of your time. I am Lord Mallory and I would just like to congratulate you on how you handled the young Lord Farson. It is always a treat to see how he gets shot down at events like this.”

The small amount of tension that built up in Amity at the approach of the witch faded away slightly at his pleasant introduction. Maybe this wouldn’t end up being so bad after all.

It was all Luz could do to not groan in frustration as Amity schmoozed her way through another conversation. While she was certainly glad that Amity was here to handle the more social aspects of the ball she couldn’t help but be annoyed with how much it was taking away from time they could have spent together. It wasn’t that she wasn’t contributing to the conversations or doing her part as Amity’s date, but most of her contributions had been more along the lines of just agreeing with things, making interested noises at the appropriate items, or adding little anecdotes of her own to whatever Amity had said. In every conversation, the lion's share of the talking was being done by Amity.

It just made her feel a little superfluous.

So when the band finally started playing she was quick to commandeer her girlfriend and drag her onto the dancefloor. Of course, it wasn’t until they were out there that she realized the flaw in her plan.

“You don’t know how do ballroom dances do you?” Amity asked with a fond, if slightly exasperated, smile. 

Luz, still trying to figure out where to put her hands, steadfastly refused to answer. She also refused to acknowledge the fact that her face was red as a tomato at the moment.

“Now I’m not sure if the Boiling Isles have quite the same dances as what I’ve learned but things look close enough,” Amity said as she grabbed hold of Luz’s hands and placed them in the appropriate positions. “Now just move with me.”

Luz nodded, her mouth strangely dry as she and Amity swept through the room, spinning around slowly in time with the music. Her steps, while initially hesitant as she did her best to not step on Amity’s feet, quickly became surer as her girlfriend led her through the dance. Time passed in a blur as they danced, their eyes locked on each other the entire time, wide smiles on their faces. Eventually though, the music had to end and the two of them were left short of breath but happy in the middle of the dance floor. They stayed like that for several moments, lost in each other's eyes as they moved closer together. Unfortunately, the moment was brought to an end all too soon by an intrusive voice.

“Emperor Belos will see you now,” a guard that had walked over informed them.

It took every bit of Luz’s willpower to not punch the witch in the face then and there.

Luz liked to think she was a generally calm person. Sure, there were things that would set her off. Rampant injustice, corruption, people abusing each other, and people hitting on her girlfriend to name a few. Though that last one was a recent addition that she hadn’t really known about until today. That said she was starting to think that it wasn’t going to be the only new addition to the list today.

“The guard did say that Belos was ready to see us now, right?” she asked as she slumped back into the, admittedly extremely comfortable, chair she had been led to.

“He did say that,” Amity replied tersely. If anything she seemed to be even angrier about the entire situation than Luz was. For a moment Luz had thought Amity was going to punch the guard when they had been led to the empty room they were now in.

Not that she’d been alone in that though. As soon as Luz had seen the empty room she had immediately thought they were being betrayed. But then the guard had started apologizing about Belos not being there and asked if there was anything they wanted while they waited. Something Luz had actually taken the man up on. Though that had quickly gotten boring when the guard had dutifully gotten them five witch’s wool cloaks, a fairy pie, and a golden necklace studded with jewels. It was only when he cited that getting a slitherbeast egg might take a while that she decided to stop asking for things.

She did keep all the things she was given though. Witch’s wool cloaks weren’t exactly easy to come by and it would make a good gift for everyone when she got back.

It was only after nearly ten minutes that Belos finally made his way into the room.

“My apologies,” he ground out as he removed his helmet and placed it on the corner of the table that sat in the middle of the room. Luz couldn't help but stare at the man. He was certainly the same Director Belos but it looked like someone had taken forty or fifty years off of him. Her shock was ignored though as Belos slumped down into a chair across from them with a sigh and rubbed his hands against his temples “But I was held up by a number of annoying sycophants.” He scowled as his eyes flicked down towards the helmet. “And you aren’t helping,” he muttered in a voice low enough that Luz was sure she wasn’t supposed to have heard him. After a moment he sighed and stopped rubbing his temples. “Now, I’m sure you’re wondering why I wanted to meet with you.”

“Well, yeah. It’s why we showed up,” Luz said.

“Right.” Belos nodded as he leaned back into his chair. “I want you to convince the Underground to rejoin the Empire. All the wild witches without too many larger crimes have been pardoned and steps are being taken to dissolve the restrictions placed on coven members. It will still be recommended that witches join a coven but there will no longer be restrictions on what spells they can cast. Any settlements that have been started in order to hide the wild witches are encouraged to become proper towns under my purview but it will not be required as of yet. I’m sure that many will want a place to stay safe until they are sure they can trust me after all. It will take some time to get the innocent wild witches out of the conformitoriums but that will have to wait until I have a firmer grip on the empire.”

“That’s it? You just want me to bring in the wild witches?” Luz asked.

“I’m not going to demand that you bring in all of them, just to bring my case before your leaders in the Underground. While it will not cover all the wild witches, bringing in one of the largest wild covens will go a long way to convince the stragglers of my sincerity,” Belos explained with a friendly smile.

Amity seemed less than impressed. “And what is Luz going to get out of this? You already pardoned her and it sounds like you already have everything else she’ll want started.”

“True, I’m sure that many of the larger things that Luz wants, the things that she’s spent much of her life wanting and fighting for, are going to happen no matter what.” He leaned forward and his smile became much less friendly. “But there is something else she wants now. Something new.”

Luz’s eyes widened. “The portal.”

Belos nodded. “While I can’t guarantee that the SCI will be willing to treat with me I can guarantee that I am your best bet if you ever want to get your friends back home. Whether by using the SCI portal or by making another one of my own I will be making contact with and returning to Earth.” His eyes narrowed. “But none of that will happen until I have the Boiling Isles back under my control.” He paused and leaned back, the friendly smile back on his face. “Well, not completely under my control. I’m sure that there will be dissidents against my rule for some time but once the majority of the witches and demons have sworn fealty to me and the only problems are a few angry holdouts I will have the time and resources to begin work on the portal and make sure that your friends can get home.”

Luz was silent as she tried to process what Belos had revealed. “We can still contact the SCI and get them to use their portal to get everyone back home,” she argued even as she cursed how weak it sounded in her head.

“I suppose you could. All you have to do is trust that they will be willing to risk me using that same portal as a beachhead to get back to Earth.” His grin was completely devoid of mirth as he continued. “And I assure you that they won’t be willing to do that as long as they even think I still have a remote that can control the portal. Something to think about,” he said as he stood up and placed the helmet back on his head. “Please enjoy the rest of the festivities. When you want to take me up on my offer then just let one of the guards at the palace know and they will pass along your response.” Without another word, he swept out of the room.

Luz stared at the door Belos left through. Part of her wanted to follow after him and demand more answers. Try and get him to explain himself and his plans, but she knew it wouldn’t amount to anything. It was only when Amity placed a reassuring hand over Luz’s own that she was jolted from her throughts.

“Are you alright?” she asked.

Luz opened her mouth to try and reassure Amity, to let her know that everything was going to be fine, but… “No,” she eventually admitted. “You’re trapped here and it’s all my fault,” she said as she slumped back into the chair.

“No,” Amity declared as she got out of her chair to pull Luz into a tight hug. “This is all on him. You didn’t do anything wrong.” She pulled back slightly and smiled at Luz. “We’ll figure something out. We always do.” She shot a dark glare at the door that Belos had left through. “Something that isn’t going along with whatever he has planned.”

“But what about the-”

Amity put a finger to Luz’s lips to stop her. “I don’t want his portal. Not at whatever price there’s going to be in order to use it. I’m not sure what they are but he has plans for Earth. Plans that he can’t get started until he has the entire isles under his uncontested rule.” Her eyes narrowed. “And I don’t think I can really trust the plans of a guy whose first act when getting to the Boiling Isles was to stage a coup.”

Luz nodded silently under the stern gaze of her girlfriend.

“Good. Now let’s get going. I don’t want to stick around this party any longer than we have to and the others are going to want to know what we’ve learned.”

There was little that occurred on the Boiling Isles that escaped the titan’s notice. But that didn’t mean that it actually paid attention to what the tiny creatures that scurried about its corpse did. Even if there was something the titan could do to affect the creatures beyond a slight shifting of magic here or there it rarely cared enough about the life of a single one of them to actually expend the effort necessary to do such a thing. It was much happier simply resting, drifting in and out of consciousness as it awaited the eventual end of all things so that it might move on to the final rest.

Of course, that lack of care was what now led to its current predicament.

“Just give in already you stupid beast,” the parasite growled as he once again unleashed a torrent of pain throughout the titan’s mind. 

The titan didn’t bother to reply to the parasite’s provocations. Instead opting to lace the power that was being stolen from it with as many corruptive and damaging impurities as it could. It had long since lost the chance to actually do anything about the helmet the parasite and his followers had made but it could still make using the artifact as painful as possible.

But striking out at its tormentor was not so distracting that it was unable to pay attention to other areas. To other creatures. The unbroken alien that had caught the titan’s passing interest sat atop a building, wreathed in glyph illusions that the titan hadn’t seen in millennia. It was a wonder to see her having taken his small nudges so far. In other areas were others of her species, each with instruments crafted from the his might that they wielded with intriguing ease. But most interesting of all was the lost child and her mate. Another of the aliens. He had thought the lost child would side with the parasite at first. But her mate had proven her mettle and seen that the parasite was not to be trusted. Perhaps in time they could be the ones to get rid of the him for good. But the last ones he had tried to nudge towards that end had failed. Only banishing him for a short while. No. This time he would need to be sure.

This time he would ensure the parasite would die.

Chapter Text

Eda let out a sigh of relief when she saw Luz and Amity leave the Emperor’s castle. Knowing that both girls were perfectly capable of taking care of themselves if the shit hit the fan did annoyingly little to stifle the voice in the back of her head that kept worrying. A voice that she would deny to her dying day to having of course. She could only imagine just how annoying Lilly would be if she found out just how worried she could get over the Luz.

Eda’s relief waned as the two kids got close enough for her to actually see the looks on their faces. It wasn’t outright sadness or frustration, but there was a worried pensiveness that didn’t sit right with her. While it was clear that nothing too bad had happened in there it was equally clear that whatever answers they had gotten, they weren’t ones that they liked.

Shaking her head she spread her wings and leapt into the air. A small smile began to form as she felt the wind beneath her wings. There was always just something freeing about flying that left her grinning like an idiot. Doubly so now that they were on the Boiling Isles and no one looked twice at her for flying around as some sort of harpy. Her flights back on Earth always ended up involving people staring at her and, whenever Wrath was on duty, an eventual police chase as he tried to chase down the ‘flying menace’.

Her grin faded as she landed at the rendezvous point and got a proper look at Luz and Amity. “You two alright?”

Amity opened her mouth to speak but was cut off by a hand on her shoulder.

“Not until we get back. We’re going to want to get the SCI in on this too. Plus I don’t want to discuss anything until I know we’re somewhere safe,” Luz said. “It isn’t too bad but it isn’t great either.”

Eda grimaced but nodded her acceptance. Over the next few minutes, the rest of the group began to trickle in. Every time someone got there they ended up asking the same question Eda had and received the same answer. Then there was the almost half-hour flight back to the Underground’s safe haven. Despite lacking the paranoia and worries about walking into the heart of Belos’s power that the trip to the palace had had, the trip back was almost more dour and tense. It certainly didn’t help that everyone could see how Amity wasn’t very keen on letting go of Luz’s hand or the reassuring hugs she gave the witch every so often. Part of Eda wanted to poke fun at just how cute the two of them were being but it was overridden by the definitely not maternal part of her that was glad Luz had found someone that was able to look after her like that.

Thankfully the trip back was uneventful and they were all able to file into Camila’s living room in record time. As they all settled in Vee and Luz stepped aside to try and find Camila to see if she wanted to be part of the conversation but they quickly came back carrying a note saying that a meeting had been called and Camila was going to be there for a while. With as much of the audience gathered as possible Luz called up the SCI.

“Who is this?” an unfamiliar voice on the other end demanded.

“Luz Noceda.”

There was a pause and several indecipherable noises in the background. “Good evening Luz, this is Kikimora. Do you have any new information for us?”

“Belos is trying to consolidate his control over the Boiling Isles and wants me to help him bring in the wild witches. He also said…” Luz trailed off for a second as her face fell. “He said that he wasn't going to do anything to help everyone get back to the human world until he’s fully in control and that you wouldn’t let us come back while he was in control of anything.”

There was silence on both ends of the call as everyone processed what Luz had said. Eda herself wasn’t too beat up about not being able to go home, she could get in touch with Lilly to get someone to run the shop while she was gone and she could probably get her to get Raine a communicator too. But she was also very aware that the kids couldn’t say the same. They had school and friends and family that they couldn’t get in touch with easily while they were here. They had entire lives ahead of them and being stuck in the Boiling Isles was going to put a major cramp in that.

After what felt like ages, Kikimora finally responded. “He is correct. He is being treated as a hostile force at the moment and he has a remote that can activate the portal. A remote that is tied to the artifact powering the portal, not to anything we’ve added in. If the portal is going to work, he’s going to have access to it. And that is something we can’t allow until we know what is going on.” She sighed. “And since he hasn’t called to explain things, even if it is just a lie, we have to assume the worst. As it stands plans are being made to pack up the portal and start looking into ways that we might be able to prevent travel between the human realm and the demon realm.”

Unsurprisingly the response to her words was less than enthusiastic.

“You’re just going to strand us here?!” Willow asked, her hands trembling.

“You can’t do that!” Amity added.

“Unfortunately we can and will. Belos cannot be allowed to return to Earth. No matter what it takes.”

“But… but… can’t you do anything?” Gus asked. “Start up the portal and send a bunch of soldiers over or something?”

“That idea has been floated around,” Kikimora admitted. “Unfortunately getting the necessary authorization to do that could take months. Belos was always good at getting people on his side and that is coming back to bite us now. Several people are dragging their feet or refusing to believe that Belos is actually working against us. We’re working on things but it isn’t moving quickly. There’s also the fact that the government prefers having plausible deniability in situations like this. Since we’re the only ones with a portal there’s no way that we will be able to walk things back if we fail and Belos might be able to wring more concessions out of us in the future if an operation fails.”

“Why am I not surprised,” Eda muttered, low enough for the comm to not pick it up but loud enough to be heard by the others in the room. Ignoring the exasperated look from Amity and privately reveling in the small chuckle she got from the rest she moved closer to the comm and spoke loud enough for it to pick it up. “Did you at least find anything else about what he’s planning?”

“Nothing concrete about any plans he might have. But a number of concerning documents have come to light.” There was a sound of shuffling papers and inaudible conversation. “Apologies. Some people still want all of you kept in the dark as much as possible. Apparently, they don’t quite realize that I am in charge at the moment and that you are our best chance at getting something done in the Boiling Isles.

“That said I would prefer that you not spread any information that you get out of these conversations around, no matter how innocuous it might seem. In light of Belos’s actions, we have been reviewing all documents, orders, and projects he has taken part in. While most of them have been what would be expected from any agent or the director, we also found a number of conspicuous absences in paperwork as well as a number of orders to destroy certain documents. The reasons given fell in line with memetic containment protocols but further investigation showed that the entity and items they referred to never had any memetic properties.

“In particular they referred to a witch from the Boiling Isles and a number of items he brought along with him. The few pictures we were able to find in an old back up site showed a much younger Director Belos with the ears of a witch, as well as a number of items, some enchanted and some not. However all of these items are in the system except for one. A golden helmet, with two straight horns coming from the top.”

“So he really is the emperor?” Luz asked, her eyes wide as she stared down at the communicator.

“So not only did you guys not manage to contain Belos, but you also missed him joining up with you and taking control of your organization,” Eda snarked. “Good job. Perfect use of my tax dollars.”

“Belos would not be the first, or last, non-human that was moved from being contained to being a member of the SCI,” Kikimora replied tersely. “I seem to recall another witch that wound up on Earth that we have worked with quite successfully.”

Eda let out a hissing breath as she was forced to concede that the woman had a point. “Fine,” she grumbled. “But what does that mean for us?”

“It means,” Kikimora said slowly, with the tone a tech support worker might take with a particularly slow customer. “That we know that Belos is indeed a witch from the Boiling Isles, that he may very well be the original Emperor he is claiming to be, and that there was one item that he brought along with him that he considered to be important enough to hide from the rest of the SCI. That golden helmet. The only item that he had removed from the archives alongside himself.”

Suddenly another bout of noise came from the other end of the communicator. “Of course,” Kikimore said exasperatedly. “Apologies, I have to take care of something. If you need anything else another agent can answer any questions you have.”

“Uhh, no, I think we’re good,” Luz said as she looked around the room for anyone to disagree.

“Excellent. Kikimora out. Put that down you oa-” Whatever else Kikimora was saying was cut short as the communicator clicked off.

Silence reigned for several moments after the call ended before Gus spoke up. “Well, that was interesting. I guess we know a little more now.”

“But how much of that is actually useful?” Eda groused. “He really liked his helmet and he really is the Emperor. If anything all we learned is that he’s gonna have an easy time taking control since he did it once already.”

“The helmet,” Amity said. “It has to be the one he was wearing when he met us, right Luz?”

“I think so. I didn’t really think about it much then but he did seem to make sure it was close to him even when he took it off, right?”

“Yeah, I think I heard him say something to it but didn’t really catch it.”

“I think it was something about someone not helping? It wasn’t that quiet but it still wasn’t that easy to make out.” Luz’s eyes widened as something occurred to her. “It’s an amplifier!” At everyone, except Vee’s, confused look she continued. “Amplifiers are artifacts that can boost a witch’s strength. Let them cast stronger spells than they could on their own. Staves and Palismen are common examples of amplifiers but there are rumors of other ones. Really strong ones. When Belos met with us he looked a lot younger. A witch that’s good enough with healing magic could do something like that, but only if they had enough power. Power that a really strong amplifier might be able to get them.”

“So then why did he wait until he got to the isles to do that?” Willow asked.

“Maybe he didn’t want to make anyone suspicious at the SCI,” Gus suggested with a shrug. “He was trying to make it look like he was a normal human so maybe he didn’t want to de-age himself and make people wonder how he did it?”

“We know the SCI has plenty of magical crap,” Eda said with a shrug. “He could have come up with something to explain not aging. I know I’d shave a couple decades off in an instant if I could.”

“Maybe he couldn’t do it until he got to the Boiling Isles,” Vee suggested.

“It would explain why he wanted to get here so badly,” Gus agreed. “He needed to get to whatever was needed in order to use the helmet.”

“This is all interesting, but what does it really get us?” Willow asked. “If it really is an amplifier artifact then we would need to get it away from him to have a chance. But he’s probably going to never let us get close to it.”

“But he did take it off in front of us. He didn’t have to do that,” Amity pointed out. “And if what Luz heard was true then there must be some sort of drawback to using it.”

“So then is the plan just to force him to use it until he can’t use it anymore?” Eda asked incredulously. “If it really does make him some sort of super witch I don’t think hoping we can wear him down is a good idea.”“And that’s assuming that we need to do that,” Willow said. At everyone’s incredulous look she shrugged. “Just playing devil’s advocate. We know a little more but we still don’t know what he’s planning. So far he seems to be making things better on the Boiling Isles, right?” She looked over to Luz. “You said he wanted to try and bring the wild witches back into the fold and Terri said that there were removing the coven brands from anyone that didn’t want it anymore.”

“So what? Are you saying that he might actually be on the up and up?” Eda asked with a frown.

Willow shrugged. “Like I said. I’m playing devil’s advocate.”

Before anyone could bring up any other questions they were interrupted by the sound of an opening door. “Luz? Vee? You’re back!” Camila said as she walked into the room and moved to hug the two girls.

“Mom!”

“Camila!”

Camila smiled as she looked down at the girls. “Did everything go well on your mission?” At their nods, she smiled. “Well, I have some new information for you too!” At the looks of surprise on their faces, she frowned. “Hey, I can find things out too,” she said with a pout. Once Luz and Vee had sufficiently apologized for their transgressions Camila continued. “One of the spies from the Ribsfield conformitorium was able to get a message to us with the list of new prisoners and I’m pretty sure that some of them would be interesting to you,” she said as she handed over a sheet of paper.

Despite her best efforts, Eda wasn’t able to properly join the crowd jostling for good reading positions over Luz’s shoulder as she looked over the list of prisoners that she had been given. Of course, that didn’t keep from hearing Willow’s alarmed exclamation as she read the list over Luz’s shoulder.

“Hunter?”

Luz’s eyes widened as she skipped ahead to where Willow was pointing at the list. “You don’t think..?”

“I think so,” Willow said as she pointed to another section of the paper. “Look at the species column. It says human.”

There was a pause before Amity joined in with pointing at the paper. “Look here, the prison got a lot of humans recently. Didn’t Lilith say that the agent that contacted them about Belos was named William? There’s a human William in here.”

“Well I think I know what we need to do next,” Eda said with a smug smile. When everyone looked at her in confusion her smile grew larger. “We don’t know for certain what Belos is up to but I bet those guys do. We don’t know how many agents got caught in the teleportation accident but I know it was more than what we got on that list so some of them decided to stick with Belos and he had to have explained enough to convince them. All we gotta do is sneak into the conformitorium and either get in touch with the agents or just break them out!”

“I don’t know, normally we have more time to plan a breakout like this,” Luz hedged.

“But the empire is busy restructuring right now. They’re too busy to pay as much attention to the conformitoriums as they usually do,” Vee pointed out.

“And we could figure out what Hunter was doing at the SCI building dressed like the second guard,” Willow added tonelessly.

Everyone winced at her words. While Willow hadn’t talked about Hunter much since they had gotten stranded on the Boiling Isles, no one had been able to miss the tightly constrained anger in her words when she did.

“Ya know, if you want advice about what to do when you get your hands on him I have a few suggestions. Worked wonders when I caught my last boyfriend cheating on me,” Eda suggested.

“I don’t think I want to go that far,” Willow said with a small laugh. “Besides, I have plenty of ideas of my own.”

Eda couldn’t help but smile and wipe away an imaginary tear at the sheer malice the girl was managing to exude despite the smile on her face. She also made sure to make a mental note to never do anything that would land her on the girl’s bad side. She knew full well not to mess with the quiet ones. Raine did a hell of a job making sure Eda learned that particular lesson back when they had been in high school.

“Okay. So all we need to do is break into the conformitorium on short notice without much planning, possibly getting on Belos’s bad side, and talk to a bunch of likely really high-security prisoners. No problem,” Luz said as she took a deep breath and turned to look at Vee. “Have you ever done a jailbreak before?”

“Only one,” Vee replied with a grim look that made Eda push her estimates of the girl up a bit. “Things didn’t go perfect but I do at least know that they didn’t find the way we got in that time.”

Eda smiled as everyone began to buckle down and start planning their break-in. It had been way too long since she’d done really had a chance to stick it to the man after all.

Hunter had known that bringing Morgan and the SCI agents together had the potential for causing trouble. He’d expected to have to play peacemaker between the two. Making sure that neither one ended up doing anything that might bring too much attention or possibly cause the entire alliance to fall apart. What he hadn’t been ready for was endless hours of petty bickering.

“No, we need to bring in more witches and demons. The more people we have ready to act when the time comes the better,” Morgan said, her eyes narrowed in an angry glare.

“I already told you,” Agent William, who had apparently been chosen as the SCI’s prime liaison for these meetings, replied just as angrily. “We need to keep this as quiet as possible and the ones you’ve brought in haven’t exactly inspired confidence.”

“Rufus is a perfect gentleman and if you could look past your prejudices about his appearance you could see that!”

“That’s not who I’m talking about! I don’t trust that Trix character.”

Thankfully Morgan at least paused before trying to defend the thief. “She won’t betray us since we’ve proven we can uphold our end of the bargain.”

“She might not want to betray us but how can you be so sure she’ll hold up if the guards start pressing her?”

“Because I know that she knows that if she ends up cracking then she’ll never get out of here. She isn’t going to give up her one chance at ever getting out of here over anything now that we’ve proven it’s going to work. Besides, we need every witch and magic using demon we can if we want to be able to unshackle everyone fast enough.”

William winced as he quite obviously failed to come up with a proper retort to that. Thankfully that pause proved to be enough for Hunter to finally be able to step in.

“Can you two please stop arguing? This is the third time you’ve had this exact same argument and it’s getting really old.” He looked between the two of them and was glad to note that they seemed embarrassed to be called out by a teenager. “Morgan is right, we need as many magic users as we can get if we want to be able to move as fast as we’ll need to.” He turned to look at Morgan. “William is right that we can’t trust many of the people here. Most of the people here were thrown in for actual crimes. Not just being unlucky enough to make a coven head angry.” He sighed. “But before all that you guys need to work together.”

The two of them glanced between Hunter and each other several times before sighing.

“I’ve found three more witches that I think can be trusted with the unlocking spell,” Morgan said. “Belle was brought in for aggravated assault but it seems that assault was provoked when someone accidentially kicked a wild growlie in front of her. She’s crazy but should be willing to help us if it means getting back to her ‘babies’ sooner. The other two are a pair that are in here for murder. Turns out they were robbing a house that someone got killed in. The murderer slipped out and called the guards and pinned the murder on them. If they’d been arrested for the crimes they actually had commited they would be out by now.”

William nodded. “They sound… acceptable. You’ll have to show them the spell in your cell though. The guards are starting to get suspicious about us being friendly with so many other prisoners right now. From what I hear they’re worried that we’re using some sort of human mind control to try and take over the prison,” he said with a derisive snort. “Figures that the only reason they’d start catching on is because someone is a paranoid nutjob that doesn’t know anything about humans.”

“You mean you don’t have mind control powers?” Morgan asked, voice thick with false sincerity.

Thankfully William seemed content to only flip her the bird. “Beyond that, we’ve managed to make three more bombs. Between what we’ve managed to swipe from the supply closets and whatever it is that’s in that fuzzy crap they serve us we should have enough to cause some serious damage when the time comes.”

“And has anyone figured out when that will be?” Hunter asked.

William shrugged. “Not yet. We’re going to need the guards as distracted as possible so we can get as much work done as we can before they catch on.”

“I overheard some of the guards talking about a big grudgby match that’s going to be coming up soon. It won’t get all of them distracted but there should be plenty of guards that are trying to shirk their duties to catch some of the game on the crystal ball in the break room,” Morgan supplied.

William nodded. “Sounds like as good a chance as any. That said, we should make sure that we’re ready to take advantage of anything that might come up.”

Hunter sighed in relief as the two of them started going over the finer details of what would need to be done in the event of a sudden opportunity. Hopefully the peace would last long enough that he wouldn’t have to jump in again before they were done. He let their voices fade into the background as he stared down at the exit for this wing of the conformitorium. “Only a little longer,” he whispered. “A little longer and I can finally see the Boiling Isles.”

Chapter Text

Gus knew he wasn’t the most physically active person. And among his friends he was definitely in dead last. Luz got plenty of exercise being a rebel witch superhero, Willow regularly hit the gym and was usually called on to move massive bags of soil, Amity had a personal fitness instructor that had been set up for her by her mom to make sure that she stayed healthy, and he… he generally capped out at wandering around in forests looking for monsters. Sure, he got some exercise but it wasn’t all that much or that strenuous. Normally it wasn’t that big an issue. Normally he was just sitting around with his friends or walking around town with them. Normally he wasn’t sneaking into a prison designed to hold witches and demons.

“Just don’t look down,” Vee said as she sidled alongside the far too small ledge that ran alongside the building.

Gus was sure that there was a proper name for it but he was far too focused on not looking down as he shuffled along next to Vee. His back against the wall and his eyes fixed on Vee as she moved ahead of him. With every step he had to force himself to not look down. To not see the multi-story drop that awaited him if he screwed things up. “Why couldn’t we fly up here again?” he asked, not really expecting an answer but wanting something to keep his mind off the potential fall.

Thankfully Vee was willing to humor him. “The air surrounding the building is full of sensor spells that detect anything flying around inside them. But it’s too energy-intensive to run the spell over all the surroundings so they just have a big bubble surrounding the building that starts about five feet away from the building. You might be able to fly that but it’s much safer to go this way.” 

“Right,” Gus muttered. “Safer. Why couldn’t I be on Luz’s team? They just have to go through the sewer systems. It can’t be worse than this.”

“You don’t know Boiling Islands sewers” Ve muttered before shaking her head and actually answering his question. “We need to be ready with the illusions to distract the guards. You and Luz are the only ones good enough to get that done and Luz needs to be down there to talk to the agents when the time comes.”

There was a pause and Gus almost yelped as he felt himself bump into Vee.

“It’s okay!” Vee said quickly as she did her best ot calm him down. “We’re at the landing platform.”

Gus glanced around to see that they had reached what looked like a small helicopter pad. “Wow,” he breathed as he looked around the empty platform. “There really aren’t any guards up here.”

“Yeah, they trust the detection spells to alert them to anyone that might be trying to get up here and just don’t bother. Now come on, the window we need to get to is just on the other side here,” Vee said as she waved for him to follow. 

The enthusiasm Gus had managed to muster up at finally being free from the far too thin ledge evaporated as he looked at the window Vee was pointing at. The window that sat twenty feet above their heads. “How are we supposed to get up there?”

Vee tapped the card holder at her side. “Like this.” With a smile she pulled out a card pressed it against the wall. There was a brief flash of light and vines erupted from the glyph, growing up along the wall and up to the window.  “Come on. These things will only last a few minutes.”

Before Gus could ask questions about why they would only last a few minutes Vee had already started scaling the vines. Moving up them far faster than he’d expected. Taking a deep breath to steady himself he grabbed hold of a vine and began to hoist himself up. To his immense relief, the endeavor didn’t end up anything like the rope climb in gym that he had utterly failed at last year. The twisting vine was full of foot and hand holds for him to take advantage of, ultimately turning it into something more akin to a ladder than anything else.

A ladder that was propped far too close to a massive drop that would kill him if he fell off.

He faltered slightly at the sudden reminder of just how dangerous the stuff he was doing was. With a concentrated effort, he forced down the shudder that wanted to overtake him and returned to climbing the vines. A few seconds later he was at the top and Vee helped him position himself on the windowsill. A windowsill that was only slightly better than the path that had led to the landing pad. Determined to not look at the dizzying drop that he had already become far too familiar with Gus turned to look into the window. Inside was what looked like a security office, but instead of the monitors he expected, there were dozens of crystal balls. Each one showing a different section of the prison. Sitting in front of the wall of crystal balls, proving once again that some things just transcended universes, was a guard with his feet kicked up on the desk, his chin resting on his chest as he napped away his shift.

“So that’s what I need to make the illusions over?” he asked as he turned to look at Vee.

She nodded and began rummaging around in her pockets. “Yeah, and the thing you need to make is… this!” she said as she pulled out a piece of paper with what looked like a giant shadowy skeleton on it. “I’m not sure what the official name for it is but everyone calls them hide behinds. They’re demons that can bend and contort to fit behind anything and can always tell when someone is about to see them. People can only usually see a flash of them before they hide behind something. The one thing they can’t sense is scrying spells, hiding in plain sight to them when out of sight of people. Most of them aren’t a danger to people and just prefer living out in the woods and maybe scaring travelers. But sometimes they come into the cities. No one ever knows why but it almost always ends up with someone being found dead if the hide behind is tracked down fast enough and driven away.”

“Creepy,” Gus muttered as he looked at the creature in a new light. “So I just need to make illusions of this thing on the monitors in places where people wouldn’t be able to see it?”

“Right,” Vee confirmed as she pulled out another piece of paper and began to unfold it, revealing what looked like the floorplan for the conformitorium. “The prisoner manifest said that all the humans are in cell block G.” She pointed to one of the cell blocks. “So we’re going to want to draw the guards as far away as we can. If we start at the halls leading to cell block A.” She pointed to another section of the map. “And make it look like the hide behind is moving towards the guard barracks we should be able to bring most, maybe even all, the guards to start heading that way.”“Right, so that’s… that camera first, right?” Gus asked as he glanced between some markings on the map and the wall of crystal balls.”

Vee looked between the map and the monitor a few times before nodding. “Looks right. You’ll just need to have it appear on the next monitor on the left and go down the row. After that just try and get it to show up wherever you think it would look good. If you time it right we might be able to convince them there are multiple hide behinds loose. When you’re ready give me a signal and I’ll wake up the guard.”

Gus nodded and looked down at the picture of the hide behind again. Etching every detail he could into his mind. With a deep breath, he pulled out the illusion orb and conjured an image of a hide behind onto the monitor. The thing was twisted unnaturally to fit behind a pillar that sat between it and a pair of guards that were patrolling that area. “Got it,” he muttered. “Wake him up.”

Vee grinned viciously as she pulled out a card, tapping the rune as she threw it at the chair that the guard leaned back in. Midflight the card turned into a fist-sized ball of hail that slammed into the bottom of the chair leg, sending it scootching a few inches forward. With its careful equilibrium lost, the chair, and the guard that was sitting in it, were sent tumbling to the ground.

“I’m awake!” the guard yelped as he sat up and looked around, presumably looking for whoever had knocked him over. When no one was found he picked himself up off the floor, grumbling all the while. He had actually managed to not only get the chair set back up, but was halfway back to getting into his napping position that he finally noticed the hide behind on the monitor. In his haste to react, he actually ended up sending tipping his chair over again. This time he sprung back up immediately, throwing himself at the desk and hammering a large red button. “Control room to all patrols! Hide behind spotted in corridor C-3! Respond immediately!”

As soon as his message when out the alarms throughout the building began to scream warnings and all across the monitors guards began to scramble into action. Gus watched the surrounding monitors closely and maneuvered the illusory hide behind out of the monitor’s viewpoint. After a few seconds, he made a flash of it appear on the next monitor. The guard immediately slammed his hand on the button again, calling out directions and positions. Before Gus could make the hide behind appear on another monitor a second series of alarms began to cry out. Hoping for answers, Gus looked over to Vee to ask what was happening only to see her smiling and shaking her head.

“They’d doing a jailbreak,” she said incredulously.

“They are? I thought everyone decided that was too dangerous. That it ran too big a risk of tipping our hand to Belos.”

“No, not us. Them.” She pointed to one of the crystal balls showing cell block G. A cell block that was now showing a full-on prison riot. “The SCI agents are doing a jailbreak.”

A disbelieving chuckle began to escape Gus as he watched prisoners throwing off their shackles and overwhelm what guards were left in the cell block. Just barely visible in one corner was a group that he was almost certain was the SCI agents, along with a few witches. “What do we do now?”

Vee shook her head and pulled out a crow. “Stick to the plan for now. Everyone is going to need all the distractions they can get. I’ll get in touch with Luz and let them know what’s going on.”

Gus nodded and threw up the illusions of the hide behind on another monitor, causing the guard watching the monitors to groan in despair as he tried to keep the guards fully updated on the two different disasters that had befallen the facility under his watch.

Hunter had been practicing the unlocking spell when the alarms began to blare throughout the conformitorium. As much as he would like to say that he had immediately jumped into action, unlocking shackles left and right and helping to coordinate the breakout that just wasn’t the case. In actuality he had wound up staring at the agent he had been undoing the shackles of, an older woman named Mary. To his later relief, he hadn’t been alone in his shock at the sudden opportunity as Mary had ended up staring at him as well for a second before scrambling out of the cell to start gathering the rest of the people that they had managed to bring into the plan.

The next several minutes were a blur of spellcasting as the agents that were nearby rushed into the room to get their shackles undone. Once some of the witches made their way to the cell he had been practicing in they were rushed to the front of the line to be freed and take up positions next to him undoing everyone else's shackles.

“What do you think the alarm is about?” he asked Morgan as he worked on unlocking the shackles from a massive reptilian demon.

“They mentioned a hide behind in that first alarm. Someone must have done something to make one of them angry and it infiltrated the conformitorium. Between that and the jailbreak the guards will be flitting around like pixies caught in the rain,” she cackled as she undid the manacles of two prisoners at once.

Hunter nodded, trying not to let his jealousy at the witch’s spellcasting ability show. “How long do you think it will take them to handle it and get fully focused on us?”

The witch grimace. “Not sure. Hide behinds are tricky demons. Usually, you get a couple dozen witches to box them in somewhere and torch their hiding places. They can’t detect oracle spells that well so a good oracle witch can help out a lot but I doubt there are any guarding this place. The oracle coven is pretty quick to snap up anyone with real talent for that branch of magic.”

“Do we need to worry about the hide behind?” one of the agents overseeing the line asked.

Morgan shook her head. “I doubt that any of you managed to run into a hide behind before ending up in here and the rest of the prisoners have been here long enough that if a hide behind were after them it would have shown up before now.” She unlocked another pair of manacles and motioned the next pair of inmates forward. “Besides, from the directions that have been being called out, it sounds like it’s heading towards the guard barracks. Chances are some cocky guard thought they were above consequences and did something stupid. Wouldn’t be the first time.”

Hunter nodded as he reached for the next set of manacles to be undone only to find no one there. “Did we already get through everyone?” he asked as he glanced around the room. To his surprise it was empty except for him, Morgan, and the pair of agents that had stuck around the room to ensure things stayed orderly.

“Yep,” the agent on his right said. “Morgan and you got through them pretty quickly and Trix was teaching everyone she could the unlocking spell too. Some of them have been talking about going to the other cell blocks and seeing if the spell is the same for all the shackles.” He chuckled as he looked out of the cell at the chaos that was already unfolding in the cell block. “I think we’ve got a big enough distraction to get out without anyone that can actually stop us getting in our way.”

Morgan nodded at the agent. “I wish you the best of luck then.”

Hunter blinked and looked over at Morgan. “You’re not coming with us?”

She chuckled and shook her head. “No. Rebellion is a young witch’s game. I’m going to see if the woods have completely taken my cottage. After that? Who knows. Maybe I'll see what the decades have done to the isles.”

Hunter opened his mouth to argue but was stopped when Morgan held up a hand.

“Don’t bother. I learned the price of defying the ones in charge a long time ago. Maybe when all this dies down you can come and find me. It’s been a while since I had an apprentice and you have some real talent.”

Just as she was about to leave the cell an idea stuck Hunter. “At least come with us until we get out of town!” When she paused a small smile began to cross his face and he continued. “We have a better chance of getting out safely if we work together. Once we’re safe we can split up and you can go wherever it is you want to go.”

Morgan sighed. “And I suppose you’ll spend every free minute trying to convince me to stick around with you?”

Hunter shrugged. “It would give us something to talk about,” he said shamelessly.

Morgan’s shoulders slumped as she sighed. “Have it your way Hunter. But only until we make it out of town. I wouldn’t want you to end up getting caught the moment you left the conformitorium after all.”

Hunter smiled and nodded as he and the two agents followed Morgan out of the cell. The instant they left the rest of the agents made their way over to them, their faces grim.

“We were able to capture a guard and figure out where they put all our equipment. Turns out that Belos didn’t want it in the same building as us and had everything he confiscated sent back to the palace. We’re going to have to do this with whatever we can find on our own,” one of the agents said with a scowl. A scowl that lessened slightly as she went on. “Luckily we were able to find a map of the conformitorium. While there is a straight shot to the exit I don’t doubt that they’ll be readying some sort of defensive line there. Instead, there’s a route that leads us through the kitchens that will bypass most of the checkpoints, leaving only whatever defenses they’ve set up at the very end to deal with.” She paused and looked at Morgan. “Unless you have any better ideas.”

Morgan shook her head. “I haven’t left this cell block for anything but my checkup in a very long time. All I can really suggest is that we wait for most of the other prisoners to head out first. I doubt many of them will be quite as clear-headed about the entire thing and will make for excellent distractions.”

“Alright then,” William said as he moved to stand in front of everyone. “I’m not really one for speeches or orders but you guys voted me to be the leader so I’ll give it my best shot. Our number one priority is at least one of us getting out and getting in touch with the Underground. From there we will be able to rendezvous with Luz Noceda and, through her, the SCI. Our second priority will be getting the civilians out of here safely.” He turned to look at Hunter and a surprised-looking Morgan and held out a pair of folded pieces of paper. “You two have done a lot to help us and we will make sure to repay you. If things go badly and only one of you two make it out please make sure that one of these letters makes it to Luz Noceda of the Underground. It has details of what Belos is planning and our recommendations for the SCI.”

Hunter took his paper with a nod and slipped it into his pocket. Morgan, on the other hand, simply stared at it in disbelief.

“Are you sure you want to trust me with this human? You barely know me.”

“I know enough,” William said. “All you need to do is deliver the message. If you don’t think you can, let me know. We will still work to make sure you get out of here regardless of what you answer.”

Several emotions flitted across Morgan’s face as she continued to stare down at the letter. Eventually, it settled on resignation as she grabbed the paper from William’s hand. “I’ll make sure your letter reaches them. Just get me out of here safely.”

William pointedly didn’t smile at her words but his eyes shone with glee nonetheless. “Alright people! We have a prison break to complete! Let’s move!”

Their flight through the halls of the conformitorium was almost eerily quiet. While Hunter could hear the sounds of combat echoing in the distance the closest it ever felt like they got was still a couple rooms away. The few witches that they did run into were almost entirely non-combatants. Various members of the cleaning or cooking staff that had holed up in various rooms in hopes of avoiding being noticed by the rampaging prisoners. Each time they ran into one of those witches Hunter couldn’t help but wince at their panicked reactions to him. Reactions that he knew were perfectly valid if it had been one of the other prisoners that had found them.

He tried to do something to help them but quickly realized that none of them were willing to accept help from an escaped prisoner. It certainly didn’t help his moral dilemma that a couple of the witches that they ran into had to be subdued once they tried alerting the guards to their presence. Sure, the chances that the guards would be able to respond to one call for help in particular were slim but slim wasn’t zero.

Finally, after far, far, too long for Hunter’s liking, they managed to make their way to the point where their route would reconnect with the main way. After a short debate about who to send forward to scout things out, Morgan won by showing off some oracle magic she knew that could scout ahead without her actually moving at all, they began scouting the home stretch of their prison break. Granted, they still had to make it out of the city but the conformitorium was already pretty close to the outskirts since no one wanted to live near the place and the guards had more things to worry about than such a small group of prisoners when the entire prison was falling apart.

Unfortunately, that home stretch wasn’t looking to be too easy to handle.

“Ten guards,” Morgan reported. “All behind shields. Eight have staves at the ready to blast anyone that comes down that hall, two casting illusion disrupting spells. We’re going to need to go through them and stealth isn’t looking like an option.”

“Of course it isn’t,” William grumbled. “Ideas anyone?”

Ideas flew around but none of them had any real substance. By the third time, someone made the suggestion of just making a break for it a couple agents threw their hands up in resignation and moved to stand guard over the entrances to the room they were stuck in. Hunter floated out a few ideas of trying to turn the various items in the room into disguises but that never got too far. Even when he managed to put together a reasonable enough cover story, moving important prisoners before the poor little humans got eaten by a demon, the closest he could get to a good disguise was, to put it diplomatically, absolute garbage.  The ‘just bum rush them’ crowd was just starting to gain serious, and disturbing, traction when one of the lookouts started to wave them over.

“Look up there,” she said as she pointed to a series of supports that ran along the ceiling. Just barely visible was a hooded figure waving at them. Noticing that they had their attention the figure started pantomiming something.

“Stop and wait?” one agent guessed.

“I think they’re telling us to go for it,” one of the proponents of the ‘just bum rush them’ strategy said with a feral grin.

“She’s saying to wait for two minutes and asking for confirmation,” Morgan said. When everyone turned to look at her she looked away sheepishly. “I had was cellmates with a wild witch for a while. He used hand signals like that when he thought I wasn’t looking to communicate with a friend of his in another cell. The confirmation should be something like…” she trailed off as she returned the hooded figure’s gestures with ones of her own. The figure nodded and turned to look at something they couldn’t see and started making more gestures. When everyone looked at Morgan for answers she just shrugged. “I can’t tell what they are from this angle.”

Seconds ticked by as the two-minute mark drew ever closer. Ten seconds before the time was reached a series of screams rang out from the end of the hall. The sounds of spellcasting and shattering stone quickly joined the cacophony as Hunter’s entire group bolted out into the main hall, intent on helping wherever they could or just take advantage of the distraction if they couldn’t help. What began as a charge forward quickly stalled into incredulous staring as the guard’s defensive outpost was utterly demolished by a massive growth of vines grabbing what guards they could and pinning them to the walls and ceiling. Alongside the vines were a dozen abominations doing their best to keep the guards occupied while the hooded figure from before sniped at them from their position in the rafters. Within seconds the last of the guards had been cocooned in the thick vines and four figures descended from the rafters.

While the harpy woman wasn’t familiar the three others with her were immediately recognizable.

“Are you guys alright?” the Wild Witch asked as she hopped off her staff and threw back her hood, revealing a vaguely familiar-looking girl that Hunter was sure he’d seen somewhere before. Rushing up behind her was, to his surprise, Amity Blight, flanked by a pair of abominations and… the plant girl clad in her full armor. 

He couldn't help but wince as the featureless lenses locked eyes with him. Even without being able to see her expression he could feel the anger radiating off of her.

Morgan whistled as she looked between the plant girl and Hunter. “Wow, what did you do to make that one so angry at you?”

“I… it’s a long story,” Hunter mumbled as he tried to look anywhere but at the angry girl. Something that he continuously failed to do as his gaze kept sliding back to her.

“You’ll have to tell it to me sometime,” Morgan said. “If you survive that long anyway.”

Hunter shuddered as the plant girl finally looked away from him and began to work on clearing out a way through the veritable wall of plantlife she had conjured in the middle of the hallway. Maybe he should have stayed in his cell. It was starting to look a lot safer than what he was walking into.

“Get out,” Belos said, his voice low and shaking with anger.

“Y-Your highness?” the guard that had brought him word of the mass breakout asked.

“Get out!” Belos roared as the air was flooded with his power. The magic-powered lights on the walls flared into miniature suns before shattering, the windows were flung open, and the carefully stacked papers were sent scattering throughout the room.

“Y-yes!” the guard, who now looked like he was about to soil himself, squealed as he ran from the room.

With the guard gone Belos removed his helmet and flung it against the wall. “Incompetents,” he growled. “I’m trying to build the greatest empire existence has ever known and all I have to work with are incompetents!” he raged as he slammed one hand into, and partially through, his desk. With a slow, shuddering breath he cast a healing spell to seal up the cuts and minor fractures his outburst had caused him and turned his attention to the rest of the room. Another breath turned into a sigh as he cast a spell to gather up the scattered papers. He would have to go through them by hand to make sure that they were all in proper order but at least an oracle spell confirmed that they were all present. While it wouldn’t have been disastrous for any of the papers to have been lost outside the windows it would have been frustrating.

With his office in at least a semblance of order, he looked over the documents that the guard had brought him and quashed an urge to find that messenger and have him shot. It wouldn’t have done anything but make him feel a bit better but he dearly wanted that little rush right now. But no. Shooting a messenger was a bad idea. He’d learned that last time he ruled the isles and his subordinates had gotten so terrified of delivering bad news that they often did everything they could to hide their failures. Failures that ended up losing him his empire.

Another deep breath calmed him down as he conjured a small light to better read the full, or as full as he could get on short notice, report of the incident. A hide behind had been spotted by the surveillance team and the guards had been mobilized to find and deal with it. Once the guards were distracted someone had managed to undo the manacles of the prisoners in the cellblock that had housed the SCI agents that had betrayed him. The riot had quickly spiraled out of control after that, with a distressing number of prisoners having gotten hold of the unlocking spell managing to get into the other blocks to both free other prisoners and share the unlocking spell. By the time the guards had managed to restore order only the most secure prison block hadn’t had at least one break out. Thankfully the guards had managed to keep most of the prisoners from escaping but there had still been several dozen prisoners unaccounted for by the time everything was said and done.

Most of the prisoners weren’t a very high priority. Many of the escapees had been petty criminals or victims of some noble’s ire. A few had been wild witches that he hadn’t gotten around to freeing quite yet and there had been a few demons that seemed to be there only because some guard had a grudge against their species. A few violent criminals had escaped, sure, but none bad enough that they would stick out enough in the general populace if they decided to lay low.

But those prisoners weren’t important. Even the most vicious of them could barely pose a threat to his plans. No, the real blow was that every single one of the agents had gone free. Even worse the reports from the last line of defense that had intended to keep any prisoners from escaping had mentioned some very familiar magics used in disabling them. An overwhelming number of abominations and enough plant magic to swamp the entire hall in vines while a wild witch with a palisman rained shots down on them from above.

Before now Belos had been sure that there was no way that Kikimora would be able to cut through the miles of bureaucratic red tape that she would need to face in order to take any real actions against him. He had enough friends in DC and the evidence against him was shaky enough that it would have taken a miracle to get something approved. But now the agents that he had told of his plans were going to be able to fully report back. His earnest attempts at turning them could now be used against him. With a clear and present danger being presented Kikimora could skip a lot of steps so long as she managed to get an end result that would benefit the United States.

A low growl began to echo in his chest before he forced himself to calm down. He could still salvage this. His timetable had just been moved forward. Far further forward that he liked but he still had time. All he had to do was bring the isles together enough that he could focus everyone’s energies on the projects that mattered. On attaining complete control over transport between the realms. One trembling hand reached for a blank sheet of paper and he began to draft new orders. His mind whirled with ideas for new plans even as the damnable helmet rattled with glee in the corner where he had thrown it.

Chapter Text

Hunter sighed as he leaned against the outside wall of the planning hall. William was inside and going over what he knew of Belos’s plans with what seemed to be most of the population of the small town, along with an open communicator to the SCI so that they could bring their own two cents if needed. Hunter already knew everything that was going to be discussed of course. The long hours of practicing the unlocking and locking spells hadn’t been without idle conversation after all. Several of the agents had been all too eager to vent their frustrations with the situation and hadn’t seen any point in hiding things from him.

That said, he hadn’t immediately left the hall when the meeting had started. He’d been dragged to the front and applauded for his part in the prison break. Somehow they managed to make him sound like some sort of great hero. A cunning infiltrator that had managed to hide his magic and convince the guards to not put shackles on him while biding his time and gathering allies for the breakout. Not some kid that got lucky when the guard’s racism overrode their sense and just happened to be in the same block that the agents ended up in.

And the entire time he’d been up there he hadn’t been able to ignore the burning stares from one group in particular. The Wild Witch, Amity Blight, the antique shop owner, who he now realized might have been trying to sell him a genuine Wild Witch autograph, and a boy that he belatedly recognized as the one that had managed to put him through that illusions hell. The two human girls that had come in with them hadn’t been recognizable but the way that the stockier one just stared at him left little doubt in his mind just who she was. 

He’d managed to survive their stares, and in some cases glares, long enough to duck down from the front of the room. Even there though he had felt their eyes boring into the back of his neck. When it finally became too much he had decided to just leave. It wasn’t like he was going to be able to contribute anything anyway. The agents had far more knowledge about Belos and how he might act. Each and every single one of the witches there knew far more about magic than he did. Even the other humans likely had more to offer. Amity and the plant girl had demolished the guard’s entrenched position back at the conformitorium with almost contemptuous ease and he had first-hand experience with how dangerous the boy was with illusions. He didn’t know what the others could do but he had little doubt that it was every bit as impressive as what their friends could dish out. So once the agents had started talking about Belos’s plans and the chances that he might have some sort of tracker on them that would need to be dealt with he slipped out of the room.

“Not sticking around for the meeting?”

Hunter sighed and turned to look at his unwanted visitor. “No, Morgan. It’s not like I could really  contribute anything.”

“And you didn’t want those kids staring at you any longer than you had to,” the witch added as she joined him in leaning against the wall.

“Yeah. That too,” he admitted.

“Think you could tell me that story of yours?”

Hunter blinked in confusion before remembering his promise back at the confromitorium. “Sure, why not?” He settled back and looked up at the starry sky as he tried to think of how best to explain things. “Most humans don’t have magic. It’s a lot more common than I’m sure witches generally think but it’s still pretty rare. But every other human with magic that I ever ran into in the human realm had magic that was different from mine. My family’s magic was like this big mystery that no one had ever managed to solve. So when my mom ended up dying I just dropped out of school and started wandering and looking for answers. I chased down rumors and wild stories for ages, never finding anything that had the same sort of magic as me. But then I followed a lead to Southborough and found everything I had been looking for.

“It all started with a stash of magical artifacts and a journal written by a member of the Emperor’s Coven. A member of the guard that had been stranded in the human world.” He chuckled as he shook his head. “I must have read that thing cover to cover a hundred times. Dissecting each and every word for every single drop of information I could squeeze out of it. It told of the artifacts that had been lost in the human realm, of the dangers that many of them possessed, and of the dangerous criminal that had been the cause of the entire situation. Sure, he seemed pretty racist towards humans but racist cops aren’t exactly new so I figured it might just be him. I hoped it might just be him. Of course, just before I got there he got arrested by the SCI so I never actually got the chance to meet the one person that seemed like he could give me answers.

“So I picked up a bunch of the artifacts and created a persona as the Golden Guard,” Hunter said as he waved a hand in the air. “I figured that if I could find the artifact that could get the guard home, along with whatever else I could get my hands on, and rescue him from the SCI he might take me with him. Take me to the land my ancestors came from. Give me all the answers that I had been searching for all my life.” He slumped ever further down against the wall. “And then things started getting murky. The dangerous and evil criminal that he was hunting started looking less and less evil. So then I came up with another plan. To try and pose as a random human that had just happened to find an artifact to see if I could attract the attention of the Wild Witch and get a chance to talk with her that way.

“It… didn’t work out the way I wanted it to. Instead of the Wild Witch, I was found by a girl that had found a powerful plant magic artifact who happened to be friends with the Wild Witch. She gave me a way to keep in touch with her and I asked her everything I could think of. It was… it was amazing. For the first time in my life, I had answers! And I could keep getting more! Every question I asked would eventually get an answer! I was even able to talk to the Wild Witch directly for a little bit! It was the best time of my life!” Hunter’s enthusiasm died down as he continued. “And then the plant girl said that the portal to the Boiling Isles was complete and they would be out there for the weekend and I panicked. I decided I needed to use the portal as soon as I could. So I put my Golden Guard disguise back on and broke into the building the SCI was keeping the portal in, managed to get caught in the coven guard’s own breakout, and definitely got recognized as both the Golden Guard that had tried to hunt down at least one of her friends and the human that the plant girl had been talking with.”

Silence reigned for several moments as Morgan simply stared down at him incredulously. “That is… quite the story. I’m glad I managed to get it out of you before the plant girl got to you because I don't think she would’ve left you in any condition to tell it.” She turned to look at the entrance to the planning hall. “Isn’t that right?”

Hunter’s mouth fell open as he saw the girl that he had tentatively identified as the plant girl walk out to join them, a small frown on her face. “I thought about it,” she said as she walked to stand in front of them.

Hunter sighed as he looked over at Morgan. “Did you set this up?”

She shrugged. “She came to me and was asking questions I couldn't answer. I figured it would be better if she heard it from you.” She smirked slightly. “I also figured it would be easier to get you to talk if you weren’t busy cowering in fear of a little girl.” When the girl’s glare shifted towards Morgan she hastily continued. “Completly justified cowering of course.” She pulled away from the wall and stretched. “And now I think I’m going to leave you two to figure things out. Have fun.”

“I thought you didn’t want me to get killed,” Hunter half-jokingly called after the retreating witch.

“I’m pretty sure that if she ends up killing you now it’ll be your fault. Say the right things and I’m sure she’ll let you go with most of your limbs!” She replied with a wave before turning the corner.

“Traitor,” he muttered under his breath as he turned his attention to the plant girl. His mind went blank as he tried to think of something, anything, that he could say. The silence stretched on as he continued to fail to think of any way to start the conversation. 

“The Golden Guard?” the girl finally asked, a look of incredulity on her face.

Hunter flushed at her question. Of all the things she could have asked she started with that. “I thought it sounded cool,” he muttered. “I had a golden mask and I was styling myself after that other guard so… Golden Guard.” When the girl shook her head pityingly he glared at her. “It’s better than going by Plant Girl!” he shot back.

Unfortunately, his rejoinder barely seemed to phase her. “I had just found some weirdo in the middle of the woods and needed a quick, disposable email address to contact you with. PlantGirl236810 seemed good enough and wasn’t taken. Excuse me for not thinking things through as much as you obviously did.”

Once again silence hung heavy between them as the conversation died a swift death. Thankfully this one was much shorter lived, though once again through no effort of his own.

“Were you telling the truth?” she asked.

“A-about what?”

“About that being the best time of your life?”

He sighed and looked back at her. “Yeah. I mean I guess there were probably times when I was a little kid that I was happier but that was the happiest I’d been in a long time. I was finally getting to talk about the things I’d been looking for for so long. And… it was fun. Talking with you. After I left home I didn’t really have many chances to make friends. It was always just short-term stuff. Acquaintances that I’d keep in touch with while I was in the area before leaving to follow the next rumor. Even then it was always closer to… co-workers or something. I never just talked to them about random things or shared anything even close to personal with them. I’m sorry I lied to you but how exactly do you tell someone that you were moonlighting as a person that got into a fight with your friend? After I got to know you and the Wild Witch I was planning on hanging up my costume for good. But then the entire thing with the portal happened and…”  he shrugged as he trailed off.

The girl sighed and rubbed at her eyes. “This would have been so much easier if you were just an asshole,” she muttered.

Hunter winced but remained silent.

“Okay. Let’s start over.” She held out a hand. “I’m Willow. It’s nice to actually meet you.”

“Hunter,” Hunter said as he tentatively shook Willow’s hand. He was about to pull away when said hand tightened painfully around his own and she yanked him forward.

“If you ever hurt any of my friends again I will destroy you. Understand?” she growled as she glared down at him.

“Yes ma’am!” he squeaked.

Just as quick as it had happened he was let go and Willow’s face had returned to the previous calm demeanor. “Glad to hear it. But you’re still going to be apologizing to everyone.”

Hunter winced as he rubbed at his hand and glanced between it and the girl that had practically crushed it. “R-right. So… can you let me know what I’m going to be apologizing to everyone for?” At her glare, he held up his hands defensively. “I know the stuff with the Wild Witch but I don’t know who else you know that I might have… attacked.”

“Well, there was Amity when she was practicing with her Abominations outside her house,” Willow said as she held up one finger.

“But I… that was her?!”

Willow nodded. “And then there was when you attacked Gus in that abandoned factory and he kicked your ass with illusions,” she said as she held up another finger.

“Of course, he was your friend too,” he muttered. He’d had his suspicions when Willow had mentioned friends being attacked by the guard but she’d never gone into any real detail. Even after seeing him with her group he had held out a vain hope that they were unrelated. “Anyone else?”

Willow paused for a moment. “Well, you already know about Luz, she’s the Wild Witch by the way, and I don’t think you ever did anything to Eda so I think that’s it. Though when we get back to the human realm you’re going to get me a list of all the people you harassed so I can make sure that you apologize to all of them too.”

“I… you really think we’re going to be able to go back?” he finally asked. “That we’ll be able to go back and that the biggest things to think about are just going to be apologizing for making a mess of things before I got trapped here?”

“Yes,” Willow replied immediately. “We’ll find a way to make this all work out. Belos needs to be stopped now. It’s only going to get harder in the future. It’s why he’s so eager to finish taking control of the isles. If we don’t stop him now we might not be able to stop him at all.”

Hunter couldn’t help but frown at that. “Are you sure? He can’t be that powerful.”

“Well, I don’t think he is. But if we don’t stop him here then he’s going to have an entire world to hide behind. He told Luz and Amity that once he was finished taking control of the isles he was going to put everything he could into the portal research. If things go his way then he’ll be able to open portals wherever he wants to on Earth. The SCI might have the one portal but I doubt they’ll be able to keep up with whatever Belos comes up with to keep them from making portals or interfering with his own portals.”

Hunter looked down at the ground, not quite sure what to say. Even after hearing things about what Belos was planning to do he hadn’t really thought much about it. Granted, he hadn’t known for very long and he’d had some other more pressing things on his mind at the time. That said… “Would it really be that bad?” When Willow looked at him in confusion he shrugged. “He’s going to bring magic to the human world. And human innovations and technology to the isles. He’s working to eliminate the old problems of the empire and I’m sure he’d work on some of the old problems of the human world too. Maybe he isn’t the nicest person out there but he doesn’t seem that much worse than any of the politicians we have already. At least he looks like he’s trying to make the worlds better places.”

Willow was silent for so long that Hunter started to worry that he might have offended her or something. Eventually, though she looked back up at him, certainty clear in her eyes. “He was trying to do that last time he took control of the isles too.”

Hunter winced and found he couldn’t really say anything about that. Sure, the current state of the isles was more due to the people that had run the show since Belos had disappeared to the human realm, but it was still based on the principles that he had promoted at that time. 

“The fact that he’s so sure that he’s the one that should be making the worlds better might actually be the problem. I don’t think he’s the sort of person to let people change his mind easily. When he got trapped on Earth he was forced to change. But with all the power he has, I don’t think many people will be able to force him to do anything. He might be making things better than they were before, but I don’t think he’s going to make them as good as they could eventually be.” She scowled and glared off into the distance. “Besides. I keep getting the feeling that he’s nowhere near as nice as he keeps trying to present himself as.” One of her hands idly ran across the leaves of one of the bushes that were planted around the planning hall. “I didn’t trust him that much after the whole thing with the SCI kidnapping Luz but he at least looked like he was trying to do the right thing. But ever since we came here something has just felt wrong about him every time I think about him.”

Hunter sighed but eventually nodded. “You’re probably right.”

Once more silence reigned between the two, though this time it was far less tense than all the other times their conversation had stalled. Unlike the last few silences, this one wasn’t broken by either of them.

“Willow? You out here?”

Hunter jumped as he looked towards the sound of the new voice and winced as he recognized the boy that had just come out of the planning hall.

“Over here Gus,” Willow said, waving her friend over.

“Oh, cool. There you-” Gus froze midstep as his eyes landed on Hunter. “Oh.” He glanced between Hunter and Willow several times before scowling. “Did I really miss out on you giving him a shovel speech?”

Hunter’s mouth dropped open in shock as Willow laughed and nodded. “Sorry about that. I just got the perfect opportunity to interrogate him and took it.”

Gus huffed and crossed his arms, turning a scowl towards Willow.  The expression lasted a whole five seconds before he turned to Hunter and smiled ever so slightly. “So you’re Hunter right?” He looked Hunter over. “You look a lot less threatening when you aren’t shooting lightning bolts at me from on top of a staff.”

Hunter couldn’t help but wince at the boy’s blunt statement. “Sorry.”

Something flickered across Gus’s face at Hunter’s apology but he couldn’t quite tell what. “Eh, it’s all in the past now. Besides, I got a chance to try out all my cool tricks and we learned some new things about the artifacts!”

“We learned that they eventually start draining your energy to power themselves if you keep using them,” Will added with a frown. “We also learned that someone is crazy enough to keep using their artifact even when they start feeling numb and exhausted.”

Gus held up his hands defensively. “Hey! I was under attack from a dangerous supervillain!” He pointed at Hunter. “Look how dangerous he is!”

Hunter stammered as he tried to put together some sort of a response to that but was saved from having to complete a coherent sentence when Gus simply continued to talk.

“Anyway! I’ve got some very important questions for you,” his eyes narrowed as he pulled what looked like a notebook out of his back pocket. “On a scale of 1-10 how effective were my illusions. I’ve never really gotten a chance to go as all out as I did against you and after that everyone was worried about me going overboard.”

“... what?” Hunter finally asked, unsure if he had heard Gus’s question correctly.

“How effective were my illusions? I need to know how bad things were for you when you were fighting me so I know how to do better in the future.”

“I… they were extremely good,” Hunter said after a moment. “Even after I decided trying to catch you wasn’t worth the effort it probably took me a couple minutes to get out of the building.”

Gus nodded as he wrote something down in his notebook. “Cool. Thanks a lot.” He turned to Willow. “Glad you and your secret boyfriend made up!”

Willow’s eyes narrowed as she glared at Gus. “What?!”

“Well…” Gus said as he started backing away, a growing grin crossing his face. “You were always so happy to do those email chats with him and you spent a lot of time on them.” His face took on a look of mock sadness. “I don’t think you even spent that much time on texts with me.” He continued to back away, something that Hunter was starting to think he might want to do too given the way WIllow’s hands clenched into fists. “Anyway I gotta go, things to do, people to talk to, things to share with Amity and Luz,” he said as he completely turned around and began to sprint away from Hunter and Willow.

“Get back here!” Willow shouted as she began to chase after him, still glaring at her friend but with the barest hints of a smile on her face.

Hunter watched them vanish around the corner with a bemused smile of his own. With a sigh, his smile became more melancholy. “Wish I’d run into you guys first,” he muttered as shook his head and turned around. Unsurprisingly Morgan was waiting for him just behind a nearby tree.

“Things go alright with the girl?” she asked as she fell into step beside him.

“I think they did,” he said after a moment. Things felt lighter now that he’d gotten everything off his chest. No more secrets. No more worrying about Willow finding out about his past. He nodded to himself. Even with the looming threat of whatever Belos was going to do next he couldn't help but smile a little as he and Morgan made their way to the temporary quarters they, along with the SCI agents, had been assigned. “And I think things are going to get even better.”

Belos growled as he listened in on the meeting between the SCI and the Underground. Kikimora hadn’t been able to make any concrete promises in terms of assistance but it was clear that she thought she finally had the magic bullet she needed to start getting her way. While it likely wouldn’t get her as far as she was hoping it was going to smooth out her transition to head of the SCI, something that came with plenty of perks of its own. Specifically the ability to act as she deemed fit in situations where she believed the fate of the country was at stake. There would be investigations held after the crisis was resolved but he’d been through enough of them himself to know just how easy it was to survive those. So long as the majority of the politicians didn’t have to deal with the messy realities of magic they were willing to sign off on just about anything.

With a cry of frustration he threw the eavesdropping device across the room, smashing it against the wall. Inadvisable, perhaps, but there wasn’t anything more he could glean from that anyway. Continuing to listen would just make him angrier. Although he doubted that he really could get angrier at this stage. While not everything had worked out as he had hoped he wasn’t so foolish as to actually expect such a thing. Plans had been made to ensure his success at every step he could think of and things were still falling apart.

William and his non-regulation gear had been annoying but containable. Having the SCI at his back would have been nice but he knew that it would have been only a matter of time until his ruse was revealed. Having them be antagonistic from the start had almost been comforting. No need to juggle his lives as Director and Emperor, no need to run interference anytime anyone tried to interact with either of his identities in a way he wasn’t ready for. As long as they only had minimal information with no real threat there was nothing they could actually do.

Then the damn brat had managed to stage an entire jailbreak.

Even worse was just how easy it had been for him! The few recordings that could be salvaged from the riots showed that the brat was some sort of halfbreed. Looking like a perfectly normal human while obviously possessing a bile sac. His existence would have been the discovery of the century if the brat wasn’t so obviously aligned against him. Proof that not only could humans and witches interbreed without issue but that the children would have magic of their own. The information that could have been gotten from the boy could have done wonders for his plans of making magic an integral part of life in the human world. Instead, all it amounted to was the most embarrassing breakout in the history of the Boiling Isles. Even without the idiot watchman’s claims of seeing a hide-behind on the monitors, something not even a single recording managed to support, the breakout had become inevitable the instant the brat was entered into the conformitroium without the proper bindings.

If he were in a clearer state of mind he would actually be a little embarrassed about how he had lost control and killed the fools that entered the brat into the system for their incompetence. He had worked hard over the decades to be better. No one brought you bad news if they thought you would kill them for it after all.

Belos took a slow, shuddering breath as he tried to center himself. To reign in his rage so that he could start working on dealing with the situation. He scowled as he placed his helmet on his head and opened the door. Just outside were a pair of guards, each one doing their best to not tremble at the sight of him.

Honestly, they could be doing better.

“I want you to gather the fastest fliers that we have access to and bring them to me immediately,” he growled. When neither of the guards moved he gathered his energy, fighting back a wince at the spike of pain that accompanied it. “I said go!” he shouted as his magically amplified voice shook the hall. The two guards almost trampled each other in their haste to get away from him. It would have almost been comical if it didn’t underscore the uselessness of so many of his employees.

“You will fail.”

Another growl escaped Belos as he did his best to drown out the titan. Unfortunately, all that managed to do was make the pain spike ever higher.

“It is only a matter of time. You will fail and you will finally die.”

Belos grit his teeth as he turned back to his office and cleaned up the wreckage of the eavesdropper. The guards coming to his office were unlikely to comment on such a thing in his presence but he knew rumors would spread. For a moment he thought about removing his helmet but decided against it. While it would make the time spent waiting for his fliers to be assembled, his orders had just enough leeway that they might think to enter his office immediately. It was unlikely but at the same time the fear he’d instilled in those two guards might make them do things without thinking first.

The wait, while not so long as he had feared, did end up taking several more minutes than it took him to get ready. By the time the guards that he was repeatedly assured were the fasted fliers the coven had were assembled he already had everything set up for them and was cursing the titan over and over in his mind.

“Each of you will take one of these devices,” he said as he gestured at an array of trackers on his desk. “After which you will fly out from the city, covering as much ground as you can. When you get within two miles of the target they will alert you to the target’s location. Once found record the location and return immediately without engaging anyone that tries to interact with you in any way. If you are attacked, run. If you are captured, say nothing. Is that understood?”

As one the guards saluted. “Yes, your majesty!”

“Very well then. Go.”

The moment the guards had gathered their trackers and left the room he ripped the helmet from his head and leaned back into his chair. After several moments of silence, he glared down at the helmet. The damn thing was almost starting to be more trouble than it was worth. Almost. But soon things would be truly under control. Depending on what the Underground did when he brought them his final offer it might take a little longer than he wanted but either way it would all be over soon. He sighed as he placed the helmet on his desk within easy reach if he was interrupted. Yes. Soon he would finally be able to really get started building the empire he deserved.

Chapter Text

Luz bit back a groan as she forced herself to wake up. The discussion with the SCI agents had gone long into the night and she was in no mood to get up this early. At the same time, last night’s discussion hadn’t actually managed to figure anything out beyond the fact that the Underground was going to work with the SCI to deal with Belos. What they were actually going to do was still very much up in the air. Something that they were going to be discussing again bright and early today. With a huff she threw open her sleeping bag, letting the cold, or at least colder than the inside of the sleeping bag, morning air force her into movement. With that little bit of encouragement, she was finally able to make herself stand up and wander off to the bathroom to finish getting ready for the day. Once she managed to take a shower and get dressed for the day she entered the kitchen to find her mom and Eda already there.

“Hey kid, finally up?” Eda asked as she raised a cup in salute.

“Oh hush, it’s only eight in the morning,” her mom chided Eda with a smile. “Is anyone else up or is it just you?”

“I passed Vee on my way here and it looked like Willow was starting to get up when I passed by the living room,” Luz reported as she took a seat across from Eda and looked at the pan of scrambled eggs sitting in the middle of the table. “Do either of you know if anything new has happened since the meeting ended last night?”

“Nothing yet,” her mom said as she placed a plate of sausage on the table along with the eggs. “I think everyone is still recovering from last night.”

Luz hummed as she grabbed some food and dug in. Over the next half hour everyone else slowly filed into the room, some with similar questions to Luz’s and others just wanting some breakfast. As much as she wanted to rush off to the planning hall Luz knew she should stick around and wait for everyone to be done. It wasn’t like she expected too much to be going on this early or to be able to be heard over what was going on. She’d learned that lesson ages ago in far less chaotic meetings.

She also didn’t want to piss off Amity by rushing off and leaving her girlfriend to eat breakfast alone. She didn’t think Amity would hold a grudge over that but it was better safe than sorry and this way she got to see the adorable face Amity made when she took her first sip of morning coffee.

Everyone had just finished eating breakfast, and cleaning up the dishes when her mom had glanced pointedly at them and said nothing while also saying everything, when a sudden alarm began shrieking. Thankfully Luz and Vee both had empty hands when it started or they would have let a dish shatter on the floor as their eyes widened in shock at just which alarm was sounding.

“Luz,” Gus started as he glanced worriedly between her and the window. “What’s going on?”

“That’s the Empire alarm. The one that’s only supposed to go off when we've been found by the Empire,” Luz explained, her face pale and her eyes wide. Shaking her head to get back into the game Luz turned to Eda. “Eda, help mom out with whatever she needs. We might need to evacuate soon and you’re really good at packing things up quickly! I’m going to meet up with the other witches and see what I can do to keep things under control.” She had summoned Lutri to her side and was just about to mount up when a sudden hand grasped her arm.

“I’m coming with you,” Amity said. Behind her Willow, Gus, and Vee all nodded in agreement.

“I still have those staves we borrowed for our trip into Ribsfield,” Vee said as she pointed at the coat closet. “You and Amity go ahead of us and see what you can do.” She tossed Luz one of the communicators they’d gotten from the SCI. “Belos will probably be able to listen in on anything we say here so make sure you only say what you need.”

Luz nodded as she slipped the communicator into her pocket and hopped onto her staff. Immediately after she was settled Amity jumped on behind her and wrapped her arms around Luz’s waist in a way Luz wished she had the time to enjoy. “Gotcha.”

Without another word, they shot off through the open front door. Any questions about where they should go were quickly answered by the squadron of white-cloaked guards that could be seen flying down towards the planning hall. To Luz’s immense relief they didn’t seem to be opening fire on anyone and none of the wild witches seemed to want to be the one to throw the first punch if the situation could be handled diplomatically. Thankfully the guards didn’t seem to be in too much of a hurry, giving Luz plenty of time to join the growing crowd of wild witches standing outside the planning hall.

Eventually though, the guards landed and dismounted from their staves. The one at the front of the pack stepped forward and cleared his throat as he pulled out a scroll. “By order of Emperor Belos, first and returned Emperor, you are to aid us in apprehending a group of escapees from the Ribsfield conformitorium. These are highly dangerous criminals who have likely entered your…” he paused as he looked around at the safe haven, disgust clear even with the mask covering his face, “town, under false pretenses. If you comply with us and remit these criminals to our custody you may continue to live in peace.” He rolled up the scroll and looked around at the gathering crowd. “Does anyone have any objection to this?”

Luz could clearly see that a vast majority of them did indeed object to that. A group that she would proudly claim membership in. But at the same time…

“Of course not,” one of the older members of the Underground, Ebenezer, said. “After all,” he continued in loud, carrying, tone. “There are no criminals here.”

The guard was silent as he did his best to stare down Ebenezer. Something Luz was pleased to see he utterly failed at. “Fine.” His arm swept out to encompass the safe haven. “Spread out and find the convicts. Three guards to a group, each group with a scanner.” The guards swiftly moved to obey, splitting into their groups and huddling around a device as they debated about where to go.

As she watched the guards wander off Luz walked up to Ebenezer with a frown. “You aren't really going to let them…” she trailed off meaningfully.

Ebenezer smiled and cast a quick spell to prevent anyone from listening in. “I think the guards are going to find that they aren’t quite as ready for all this as they think they are,” he said with a smile as he nodded in the direction of one of the groups that was waving off a nearby witch’s warnings and trying to break down a door.

After a moment’s confusion Luz’s eyes widened and she smiled in glee when the guards finally broke down the door and had to dive out of the way of a very annoyed griffon. The witch that had been trying to make them stop was quick to soothe the beast and lead it away from the guards. With the shed free the guards moved in to try and search the place.

“What is that building?” Amity leaned in and asked.

Luz turned to her girlfriend with a savage grin. “That’s one of the spare barns that we use to keep sick beasts away from each other.”

“And that sick griffon had spider flu,” Ebenezer added with a similar grin. A grin that faded slightly as he realized that Amity didn’t quite know what spider flu was. “Griffons have spider breath. When they get spider flu the spiders start coming out the other end.”

A dawning look of disgust, horror, and malicious glee began to spread across Amity’s face as she looked at the shed. “There’s no one in there is there?”

Her question was answered soon afterward when the three guards came stumbling out of the shed, the hems of their cloaks stained with dead spiders and griffon dung. One of them was holding something at arm's length away from himself.

“If a group of travelers happened to come by last night and leave behind a number of strange devices it isn’t our fault if they all ended up scattered around and left in… undesirable locations,” Ebenezer said. “And I’m sure if any of these hypothetical visitors truly were dangerous and hardened criminals I can only assume that they know enough to be able to hide whatever traces they couldn’t just get rid of.”

“But that won’t be enough will it?” Luz asked. “If the guards don’t find the people that they’re looking for they aren’t going to let this go. They never do.”

Ebenezer sighed and nodded. “We’re already getting more time to handle things than we would have gotten a year ago. Everyone that heard the siren knows what they need to do. Evacuation preparations are likely well underway everywhere around here. It’s possible that we won’t need them but I don’t see that happening. If this new Emperor really is the same as the last one I can’t see him taking kindly to being made a fool of. The real question is whether the guards will bother returning empty-handed or not.”

Luz winced at that. Even if Belos really was the kind of person that didn’t shoot the messenger the guards had all served under that sort of person for almost their entire career. The chances that they would let things lie and return without what Belos wanted or at least an appropriate scapegoat were slim. Probably even slimmer if all the places that those trackers were leading them to were even half as embarrassing as the sick shed. Her ruminations were cut short by the arrival of Gus, Willow, and Vee.

“Sorry we’re late,” Willow said as she hopped off the staff she had shared with Gus. “There were some things that your mom and Eda needed help with.” She glanced in the direction that they had come and Luz could barely make out the white cloaks of some guards in the distance. “We also got delayed for a little bit. The guards stopped us when they saw we were humans and one of them thought we had to be the people they were looking for. Thankfully one of them actually had a list of the people they were looking for with pictures. We were worried that Vee might get recognized for a moment but…” she trailed off with a small smile.

Vee rolled her eyes at Willow’s smile but couldn’t hide the small smile of her own. “I guess there might be some benefits to having a wanted poster that looks the way mine does,” she grudgingly admitted. Shaking her head to clear the moment of levity she turned to Ebenezer. “What’s the plan?”

Ebenezer huffed as he looked around at the group in front of him as well as the few witches that had stuck around after the guards had split up. “Ideally the plan would be for you children to go with Camila in case something goes wrong but if the rest of you are anything like Luz or Vee I don’t think I will be able to keep you from helping here.” He sighed and stepped back to better address the entire remaining crowd. “It is only a matter of time before the guards tire of their search and come back. When that time comes I ask that you remain steadfast and not cast the first spell. If there is any chance, no matter how slim, that we can end this without a fight or losing anyone we must try for it. That said…” He shook his head sadly. “Be ready for whatever may happen. The Emperor will know something has happened no matter how this is resolved but we must try to buy every second we can for the evacuation to be completed.”

Luz nodded and glanced around at her friends, simultaneously glad that they all seemed willing to stick around and help with whatever was going to happen and scared that they might get caught up in an actual fight with the guards. The fight they’d taken part in at the conformitorium had hardly warranted the name. Being far closer to a massacre than anything else simply due to the enormity of the sneak attack they’d been able to levy against the guards. Things had a much higher chance of going wrong in a straight fight. Thankfully she was brought out of her spiraling thoughts by a firm hand on her shoulder.

“It’s going to be okay,” Amity said with a small but determined smile. “We’re going to get through this.”

Luz nodded back and settled in with the rest of the group to wait for the guards to finish looking for the escapees. Something that ended up taking longer than Luz had really expected. After seeing the first location one of the tracked devices had been left in she had been sure that it would only be a matter of time before the guards gave up in disgust. To her surprise, it took the guards almost half an hour to finally finish their search. Whether it was by them giving up or actually managing to hunt down all the things they were tracking she wasn’t sure. What she was sure about though was that they were pissed.

“Where are they?” the lead guard hissed as he cast a cleaning spell to remove something Luz didn’t want to try and identify from the hem of his cloak.

“The criminals you are looking for?” Ebenezer asked rhetorically.

“Yes!” the guard screeched as he took several steps forward and jabbed a finger into Ebenezer’s chest. “We know that you’re hiding them from us! You scattered those devices all around your disgusting little camp to try and humiliate us!” He twitched as someone in the crowd failed to fully stifle a laugh.

Ebenezer simply looked at the guard placidly, as though he weren’t being threatened. “I’m afraid I don’t know what you’re talking about. I don’t suppose you happened to keep one of those devices, did you? Seeing one might jog my memory.”

The guard looked like he was going to blast Ebenezer right then and there before huffing and gesturing to one of his companions. The other guard held out a handkerchief that he seemed keen on keeping as far away from himself as he could and unfolded it to reveal a complicated-looking piece of metal.

“Hmmm, yes. I do believe I remember seeing something like that. Yes. There was a group of travelers that came through late last night. Odd fellows. Never took off their cloaks or talked to anyone that they didn’t need to. They did wander around town quite a bit. Visited all sorts of strange places. Maybe they were getting rid of those things.” He shrugged. “I haven’t seen them since then so they must have moved on. I suppose you could ask around and-”

Before Ebenezer could continue, the guard swung his staff around in an attempt to hit the older witch. An attempt that came to a surprising stop as it bounced off a quick shield spell. Not expecting his opponent to actually be able to do anything the guard wasn’t ready to handle the rebound and was sent stumbling. For a moment it almost looked like he was going to end up falling to the ground completely but, to Luz’s disappointment, he managed to catch himself after a few steps.

“You dare strike at one of the Emperor's Coven?” he shouted as soon as he managed to get his feet beneath him again. Everyone, both wild witches and guards, tensed at that. “I’ll have you dragged before the Emperor himself for this!”

Ebenezer merely smiled and nodded. “Very well then.” He held out his hands. “Take me to him. There are actually a good many questions I would like to ask him as well.”

The guard froze at Ebenezer’s blithe acceptance of his threat. “You… no. This is a trick.”

Ebenezer shook his head. “No trick I assure you. Arrest me and take me before your Emperor. I won’t resist.”

The guard looked away, clearly not expecting the direction things had taken. “You... This is a trick. It has to be. A wild witch would never…” He froze and slowly turned to look at Ebenezer. “That’s your plan. You intend to undermine me in front of the Emperor!” He jabbed a finger in Ebenezer’s direction. “This was your plan in the first place! I should have known a wild witch like you would want to tear down the career of the Emperor’s finest!” 

As his ranting grew louder witches on both sides began to grow more agitated. Staves were brought to bear as guards and wild witches began to look over each other with the sorts of distrust that Luz was used to seeing on both sides. Spell circles were beginning to be drawn and Luz could see the twisting vines of Willow’s plants starting to curl out of her friend’s pocket.

Luz wasn’t sure who cast the first spell but all too soon both sides exploded into motion. Abominations rose from the ground, illusions covered the field, hasty fortifications were conjured up, and projectiles of all sorts streaked between the two groups. Luz was quick to duck behind a hasty wall of plant life that Willow had conjured as a fireball streaked over her head. “Gus, give me some cover!”

Gus nodded and conjured some sort of illusion between them and the guards. The moment the offensive spells stopped streaking overhead Luz stood up and began to spin her staff, drawing on all the power she could to start building a fireball of her own.

A grim smile crossed her face as she put the finishing touches on the now-massive ball of flames. The moment it was complete she sent the fireball hurtling towards the largest concentration of guards that she could find before ducking back down behind wall of plants. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Amity sending several abominations forwards to either distract or deal with whatever guards they could.

Once she was back fully behind cover she glanced around to see what she could make out of the general situation. Willow had finished putting together her plant armor and was throwing seeds that burst into grasping vines over the barricade every so often. Meanwhile, Gus was running interference, throwing illusions between any downed wild witches he could while throwing out illusory attacks that forced guards to dodge just in case it was real. Amity was continuing to summon abominations and send them forth to harry any guards they could reach but it looked like there was at least one good abominations specialist in the group that was managing to keep them from doing too much.

Seeing that most of her friends were doing well, she glanced around for any sign of Vee. When she finally did figure out where Vee had gone she couldn’t help but stare for a moment. Vee was hunkered down behind a coven guard that had been encased in ice up to his chin and looked to be screaming and cursing at Vee as the girl used him as a safe haven for some sort of tirage station. As Luz watched, Vee slapped a glyph on the ground, causing a pair of vines to grow and reach out for an injured wild witch. Once he was at her side Vee used another glyph to soothe the viscous-looking burn he had received from a guard’s fireball.

Satisfied that all her friends were holding their own, or in some cases thriving, in the fight, she turned her attention back towards the steadily decreasing number of remaining guards. Most of the witches that had stuck around were trained combatants and the few that weren’t still managed to add the weight of numbers to their side. Numbers that were keeping the guards on the defensive. Even a largely untrained witch could still throw a fireball that needed to be stopped or dodged by their opponent and with dozens of those untrained fireballs raining down on the guards they were only able to cast a single offensive spell for every two or three defensive ones they had to cast to stay in the fight.

It wasn’t a perfect situation of course. Those same untrained witches also made up most of the casualties on their side. Thankfully it didn’t look like there had been any fatalities yet. Between Vee and the few other witches that looked like they were focusing on triage, the wounded were being taken care of almost as fast as they were being accrued. Something that the guards couldn’t match.

As Luz threw a hyper-accelerated spike of ice into the guard’s defensive lines she was grimly pleased to note that their defenses were crumbling. Their losses were piling up and even with the masks they wore their desperation was plain to see. Her eyes narrowed as she noticed a flicker of movement in the middle of the guards. Even as she began to cast a spell of her own and shout for someone to stop whatever it was they were doing there the white-cloaked figure of a guard shot into the air on their staff. Biting back a curse Luz hopped onto Lutri and shot into the air after them.

The instant she left the safety of Willow’s barricade a pair of spells streaked towards her. Thankfully the guards didn’t seem to expect the speed with which she was able to take off, either due to general inexperience on their part or the higher acceleration that her palisman afforded her. She barely had to dodge the incoming blasts at all, one of them not even coming close before she had even started to dodge. As she streaked into the sky she heard the distant sounds of the guards shouting something, likely to stop her, and firing more spells up into the air. This time she had to put more effort into dodging as the guards turned their full attention in her direction.

She winced as she was forced to let one fireball clip the edge of her cloak in order to keep from being engulfed by a much larger one. A hasty shield spell just barely managed to block a bolt of lightning a more experience guard sent her way and she was forced to shoot off to the side as a blade of air was sent to intercept her. Thankfully the guard’s focus on her was proving to be their undoing. With a large portion of the remaining guards focusing on her the rest of the witches on the ground were overwhelming what defenses were left.

She couldn’t help the smirk that crossed her face as the last of the guards began to fall to the onslaught. “Let’s go Lutri,” she murmured as her palisman poured on the speed and they shot after the escaping guard. Once again Lutri proved her superiority over a normal staff as the guard quickly changed from a small dot in the distance to the recognizable form of a guard. Her smirk became determined as she pulled a seed out of her pocket and began to cast a spell. The instant she was close enough she threw a tangle of vines forward that just barely managed to reach the tail end of the guard’s staff. Her magic pulsed as she fed more energy into the vines, making them grow up along the staff and onto the guard.

As soon as the vines touched the guard they started to try and throw them off but it was too late. Their attempts at casting a spell to get rid of the vines were halted as the vines shot forward to grab at thier arms and bind them to their sides. Their struggles grew more and more frantic as they tried unsuccessfully to dislodge the vines.

Luz cursed again as the guard’s struggles sent them tumbling off their staff and she was forced to shift the vines from her arms to Lutri to keep from dropping the guard completely. One more spell pulled the guard close enough to Lutri so that Luz wouldn’t have to worry too much about them hitting anything they were flying over before she turned around and started heading back.

Even with the guard constantly shouting at her the trip back was blessedly calm. She kept her eyes peeled for any other guards that might have tried to make a break for it, but the only other person she ran into was another one of the wild witches that had apparently followed after her once things had calmed down enough for someone else to join in the chase.

Amity was at her side the instant she landed. “You shouldn’t have gone off on your own like that!” she berated Luz as she fussed over her. “Who knows what could have happened if that guard had hurt you?!”

“It’s alright,” Luz assured her as she gestured at the bound guard that was being dragged over to the rest of the captured guards. “I got him and everything worked out.”

“That doesn’t make things alright!” Amity shouted. She glared at Luz for several more seconds before rocketing forward and pulling her into a bone-crushing hug. “I was so worried about you.”

Luz froze for a moment before returning the hug. “Don’t worry. I won’t let some random guard keep me away from you,” she assured her girlfriend.

They stood there like that for several moments before separating and turning to look at the captured guards. “What are we going to do with them?” Amity asked.

“I’m not sure. We’re probably going to leave them here when we evacuate.”

“Right,” Amity sighed. “Belos is going to know they failed when they don’t come back. Do you think we’re going to have enough time to get away?”

Luz grimaced as she looked in the direction of Ribsfield. “I hope so. I really do.”

Despite the guard’s more lackadaisical feelings towards timing and check-ins, Belos knew that they would never go this long without at least some sort of update. Whether success or failure he had hoped that the guards would have contacted him with something by now. The small part of him that recognized that they might fear giving him bad news was ignored by the far greater part that suspected their incompetence had caught up with them.

Of course, even a competent group of witches could end up having trouble if the entire Underground decided to take up arms against them. Numbers of that level required a sufficient combination of numbers, skill, and raw power that he was quite sure the detachment he had sent there did not have.

His hands tightened and he distantly noted that the noble that had come to him to start his brown-nosing had begun to tremble slightly. Their obviously rehearsed speech on the sorts of things that they would bring to Belos’s rule stuttering slightly as the normally empty eyeholes of Belos’s helmet began to glow with a flickering blue light. Unsurprisingly the noble sped his speech up quite a bit after that.

Within minutes Belos was, finally, left alone in his throne room. A few quick orders to his guards were sufficient to send away the remaining supplicants that had come by to try and gain his favor. To his mild surprise, not a single one of them tried to press their luck and stick around. One of the upsides to dealing with a society where angering the person you were trying to meet could lead to them killing you, he supposed. It was a pity that idea would be changing during his rule. As nice as simply killing people when they annoyed him was it had a tendency to cause problems later down the line.

But those would be concerns for after he had finished taking control of the Boiling Isles. For now though, there were much more pressing matters to attend to. With a sigh of relief he removed his helmet and cut off his connection to the Titan. It wasn’t needed right now and if things were going as poorly as he feared then he could end up needing to use it for quite some time very soon. 

A quick communication spell that was the base of the crows witches used in place of phones predictably failed to connect. While certainly not a fully damning piece of evidence it was enough to make him scowl and begin organizing his plans for the failure of the mission he had sent the guards on. With his plan A foiled he moved on to plan B. A simple oracle spell designed to latch on to the existing tags he had placed on each of the guards he had sent out to meet with the Underground. Tags that he had made sure didn’t use titan magic just to make sure that as few people as possible could find and remove them.

This time the spell connected and the circle he had used to cast the spell filled in with an image of the guards he had sent out bound and gagged in some sort of dark room. The details of the scene were sparse but what was there was more than enough to confirm that they had failed in every aspect of their mission.

Belos took in a deep breath as he stood up and reached for the helmet. He had tried to do things the nice way. To bring in as many witches as he could. But sometimes people just couldn’t understand what was best for them. Sometimes you needed to make an example. A feral grin split his face as he replaced his helmet on his head. It was always nice when someone volunteered to be that example.

Chapter Text

Eda had flinched when she heard the first sounds of combat echoing in the distance. For one brief moment, she had been about to jump into the air and rush towards the sounds to help out but one look from Camila had been enough to stop her. Every time another explosion or shout rang out she found herself glancing in the direction of the fighting, something she caught Camila doing more than once as well, before returning her attention to helping witches pack things up.

Camila’s house had been easy enough to get ready. Between the rather small number of truly important possessions she had and the impressive amount of stuff she could shove into the bag she’d pulled out of her closet it had been a quick affair to finish up.  But the moment they were done Camila had immediately thrown the bag over her shoulder and dragged Eda off to help out her neighbors.

Two neighbors later Eda had found herself as part of the group that was directing witches to staves and handing out sealed letters that, according to the witch she was helping, each contained the location of one of over a dozen safe houses that had been set up for this sort of situation. What safe house each person got was random and only a few people actually knew the locations of the safe houses. Even then those people only knew the location of the one that they managed. In any other situation, Eda would have been torn between admiring the Underground’s paranoia and fighting back the urge to laugh. Now she was just hoping that that paranoia had managed to do enough to keep these people safe. 

After another couple of families had received their letters and enough staves to get them to safety the sounds of combat finally stopped and a witch came running in their direction.

“The guards have been dealt with! No deaths on our side!” he shouted as soon as he was close enough to them to be understood. With his main message delivered he started moving to individual witches to inform them if someone they knew had been hurt.

Eda let out a slow breath when he passed over her and Camila, causing the slowly building knot of tension in her stomach finally begin to come undone. Something that Camila seemed to be feeling as well given the look of unabashed relief that was spreading across her face. “I knew they'd make it through just fine,” Eda said with a slightly forced grin. “Can’t keep Luz down, right?”

Camila nodded appreciatively. “Thank you,” she said, her voice just barely above a whisper. Shaking her head she turned back to the lines of witches waiting for letters and staves. “Okay, we need to keep going. I don’t know how much time they bought us but we can’t waste any of it.”

Eda grimaced but joined in with handing things out. As much as she wished otherwise, Camila had a point. It was only a matter of time until Belos figured out something had gone wrong and sent another group to deal with things. A group that she doubted would be handled as easily as that first one had been.

Time blurred by as more witches joined them in handing things out. As callous as it might be, Eda ended up falling into a numbing pattern. Handing over a letter, asking the witch in front of her how many staves they needed, and either grabbing them from the pile next to her or calling out for someone to get more from storage. She didn’t ask for names or even register much about appearances unless the witch seemed particularly memorable. Faces blurred together as she did her best to get through as many people as possible. 

She was so engrossed in her pattern that she almost reflexively handed a letter to the open air in front of her when the line was finally taken care of.

“Was that everyone?” she asked as she looked around at the almost empty muster station. The only remaining witches being the last families leaving with their staves and letter and a few helpers.

“Everyone for this station,” Camila said tiredly as she glanced off in the distance. “There are three others. We’re supposed to head out ourselves now that we’ve finished getting everyone else out but…”

“But you don’t want to leave until Luz is here,” Eda finished for her. At Camila’s nod, Eda put a comforting hand on the witch’s shoulder. “She’ll be alright. She always is.”

“But I can’t lose her again!” Camila suddenly shouted as tears began to run down her face. “Not so soon after I got her back!”

Eda stiffened as she suddenly found herself with an armful of crying witch. Her eyes darted back and forth as she tried to think of how to handle the situation. The touchy-feely crap had always been more Raine’s thing, though Lilly’s ability to memorize and follow a script had at least made her competent. “There, there,” Eda said as she woodenly patted Camila’s back. “It’ll all work out in the end. I promise.”

Camila shuddered once more before pulling away from Eda. “I’m sorry you had to see that,” she said as she looked away and did her best to wipe away the tears and snot. “I just…”

“It’s okay,” Eda assured her. “How about we go check in on them? They’re probably keeping an eye on all the guards that were taken prisoner. We just need to grab enough staves for all of us, get one of those letters, and swing by.”

Camila glanced around the empty muster station, obviously conflicted with abandoning her post.

“Hey, we’ll head straight that way and if they’re headed this way we’ll either run into them on the way or they’ll notice me flying around and catch up to us,” Eda assured her. “Now let’s-”

She was cut off as a new explosion rocked the safe haven, one larger than anything that they had heard so far. Both Camila’s and her faces went white as it was quickly followed by another explosion. The two shared a look as they realized what must have happened before Eda dashed out of the muster station, Camila hot on her heels. Without a word, they both took to the air and rocketed towards a growing pillar of smoke far in the distance.

Luz had frozen when she heard the first explosion. She had known that it was only a matter of time until Belos found out what had happened and would retaliate but she hadn’t thought it would be so soon. Between the amount of time it would take to determine if the first squad had failed and the travel time between his palace and the safe have she had thought they would have hours to finish the evacuation. Something that she was quite obviously wrong about given the rising column of smoke coming from the direction of one of the watchtowers. With as close as it was, she could see the towering flames encompassing both the tower and the surrounding forests.

“Luz… you don’t think that's…” Amity said as she stared at the same column of smoke.

“Yeah, it’s him,” Luz replied with a slow nod. After all, who else could it be? Any demon capable of throwing out that much power would have been noticed long before now, and a squad of guards large enough to cause an explosion like that would have been seen coming a mile off. Despite her fervent wishes it had to be Belos. And judging by the size of the explosion she had a feeling they had been right about the helmet being some sort of amplifier artifact, although it was looking like even their wildest estimates might not have been on the mark when it came to just how powerful it was.

“What should we do?”

Luz blinked as she turned to her girlfriend. Even with all of Amity’s personal training and recent experiences this fight was far beyond anything she had ever done. Maybe even far beyond anything she was ready for. This wasn’t a break-in where they had the element of surprise and a thorough plan or the brawl against the first contingent of guards where they had an overwhelming advantage over their enemy. While both of those events had had a chance of serious injury or even death it had been a small one. Even from what little she could see Luz could tell that this fight was far more dangerous than anything Amity had even been through. Luz wasn’t even too sure if there was anything that she had been through that rivaled what they would be walking into if they decided to take up arms.

She couldn’t help but tremble slightly as she took a step back in the face of another explosion. The guidlines for an attack like this were clear. Scatter and flee to whatever safe houses you think aren’t compromised. Help whoever you could without slowing down too much and trust that your fellow wild witches could do the same. They had already helped evacuate most of the witches in the safe haven. She took another trembling step back as the flames in the distance grew ever higher.

And then she heard it.

A terrified scream in the distance. In the same direction as the fires. It was distant but she heard it all the same. Her eyes narrowed in determination as she reversed and took a step forward. “I’m going to slow him down.”

Amity looked at her incredulously before grabbing her by the shoulder and spinning her around. “Are you crazy!? You can see what he’s doing out there can’t you!?”

Luz shook her head. “Out of anyone here I have the best chance of slowing him down. He doesn’t care about the rest of the wild witches beyond their existence as a group. But he knows me.” She grimaced. “And he’s probably going to want to make an example out of me. That’s not something he can do out here or if he kills me right now.”

Amity glared at her for a few seconds before tightening her grip on Luz’s shoulders. “I’m coming with you.” When Luz opened her mouth to argue Amity interjected. “No. He’s going to want me for the same reason he wants you. And even if he doesn’t, I doubt he’s going to want to kill off a potentially useful hostage.” She drew Luz into a tight hug. “And I’m not letting you face that alone.”Luz nodded into her girlfriend’s shoulder. “Together then.”

Amity drew out of the hug and nodded. “Together.”

With a wave of her hand, Luz summoned Lutri and jumped aboard with Amity quick to join her. Without a second thought, they shot off towards the latest explosion.

If the first explosion hadn’t clued Hunter in that something was wrong, the second one certainly did. Especially with how close it was. He was no stranger to sudden bouts of extreme danger. Even, and sometimes especially, in places where he thought he was safe for the moment. Though he had to admit that no small part of his readiness for danger was due to the fact that he had been grouped with Willow and Gus to help with the evacuation. While he didn’t expect them to do anything that would undermine the evacuation or cause serious harm to him he was also quite used to dealing with far more vindictive people and such instincts had served him well in the past. Though part of him had to wonder if their lack of any actions against him was more due to not wanting to cause any distractions that might mask an escape of the captured guards that had been stowed away in a nearby building.

“We need to get out of here,” Willow said as she stared at the pillars of fire that were far too close for Hunter’s liking.

“That’s Belos isn’t it?” Gus asked as he reached into his pocket.

Willow also noticed Gus’s motion and glared at him. “Gus! We can’t fight that!” she said as she pointed at the flames.

“I don’t think we’re going to have much of a choice,” Gus replied as he looked up in the air.

Hunter’s gaze woodenly shifted to follow Gus’s, hoping against hope that he was wrong about what Gus was seeing. To his dismay there was a single man in a long white cloak, wearing a golden helmet floating in the air and staring down at them.

“Hello children,” Belos said as he held out a hand and began to draw a spell circle. 

Hunter didn’t stop to think as he grabbed both Gus and Willow. With a mighty heave, he threw them behind a nearby house and dove behind it as well. Almost as soon as he passed behind the building he felt a rush of air behind him as something hit the ground where he had been standing. He trembled as he saw the deep gouge that had been torn into the earth, almost two feet deep. His eyes flicked back to where the man floated in the air.

“I wasn’t expecting you to dodge that one,” Belos said, amusement clear in his voice. “I suppose it’s better this way. After all, you are the one that caused all this, aren’t you? The one that managed to completely derail my plans?!”

“Willow, Gus,” Hunter said as he looked up at where Belos was beginning to cast another pair of spells. “He’s after me, you need to-” Before he could finish dozens of vines. Each thicker around than he was, shot past him, grasping for Belos. Vines that the Emperor was somehow failing to notice. As another group of vines began to weave together to form a hasty shield against whatever Belos was going to do next Hunter turned to see Gus’s eyes narrowed in concentration, the illusion orb held tight in his hand.

A new explosion rang out behind him as Belos finished whatever spells he had been casting and a wave of heat washed over him, even with the shield of vines between him and the spell’s target. Hunter winced and shook his head as he tried to get his ears to stop ringing. The moment he felt composed enough he shot a glare towards Willow and Gus. “Stop it! You don’t need to help me! I can stall him here and give you a chance to get away!”

Willow simply shook her head as plantlife finished creeping over her to form the armor he had first seen her in. “No. I’m not going to let him hurt anyone.”

“Same here!” Gus said with a resolute nod before turning to Willow. “I put up an illusion of the empty street between this building and the next one. We need to get moving while he’s distracted.”

Hunter opened his mouth to argue but was silenced when Willow grabbed his arm and yanked him along with her. “Come on!” she said. “I don’t think he’s going to be distracted by the vines for very-”

This time they were interrupted by the deafening boom of thunder as a column of lightning almost a foot thick pierced through what was left of the plant shield and tore apart the place they had been hiding in not ten seconds earlier.

“Don’t do this Ms. Park!” Belos bellowed. “You and your friends are much more useful to me alive! Give up and surrender Hunter to me and I guarantee your imprisonment will be comfortable!”

Willow grit her teeth and continued to drag Hunter after Gus without a word.

“Come on come on come on!” Gus hissed as he waved for them to come closer. Once they reached him he closed his eyes and began to cast another illusion. Out of the corner of his eye, Hunter could see illusory copies of all of them shimmer into existence behind another building and start running away from the emperor. “We’re going to need a plan if we want to get out of here,” he said.

Hunter nodded, only to wince as he saw a spike of ice rocket down the street Gus had sent the illusions down. As soon as those ones were dispelled Gus created another couple sets and sent them running. With gritted teeth, Hunter fought down the urge to shout at Willow and Gus to leave him behind. It was clear that doing so would only invite an argument that they didn’t have the time for. “He’s way more powerful than us. But he won’t be able to use his biggest offensive spells if we’re right next to him. He’ll need to devote at least some of his power towards shielding himself from any backblast.” He reached into his pockets and pulled out an ugly twisted iron ring, one of the artifacts that the guards hadn’t thought to confiscate from him in the conformitorium. “This is a once per day shield spell that should be able to block anything he can throw at me. Willow, Gus will be able to keep you hidden until you think you have a good shot to attack Belos. When you’re ready I’ll go out and get his attention with this. I have some illusion spells of my own and can disappear when he hits me but it should distract him enough for you to get a hit in. Sound good?”

He couldn’t help but feel a little insulted at the surprised looks on their faces as they looked at him. “What? I’ve been dealing with stuff like this for years. Overpowered monster is way easier to deal with than nightmare illusionist.” The two of them smiled slightly at that and nodded.

Just as she was about to turn to leave Willow hesitated and turned to look at him. “Don’t die out there.” At Hunter’s nod she seemed to relax slightly before turning to look at Gus. “Get me a safe way to get behind him.”

Gus nodded and began to cast another illusion of an empty street, only to wince as a wave of fire quickly enveloped the area he had hidden.

“He must have some way of sensing where illusions are!” Gunter exclaimed. “We need to move!”

“Hold on!” Gus said as he held out a hand to keep Hunter from running. “I got this!” His eyes narrowed in concentration as familiar black rectangles began to appear all throughout the air.

A viscous feeling of amusement filled Hunter as Belos began to fire spells off in every direction he could in an attempt to hit at least something, though when Hunter really paid attention he saw that a majority of them seemed to be focused on particular areas.

“Those places have more illusions,” Gus said through gritted teeth. “I’ll keep him focused on places that you guys aren’t, now move!”

Willow nodded and sprinted away, the vines covering her armor growing thicker with every step she took.

Hunter shook his head and forced himself to turn away from her as he looked at the smoking ruins of what had once been a house and sprinted over to them, trusting in Gus’s illusions to keep him safe.

“Enough!” Belos roared as a new spell ripped through the air. Hunter froze for an instant in shock as it tore through every illusion present like they were nothing. “That’s better,” Belos said as he began to scan the ruined buildings his spells had torn apart. He seemed to stiffen slightly when his gaze swept over the scorched storefront that had started to fall apart and reveal the captured guards, all still bound and unable to do anything but stare up at him in awe. Awe that didn’t diminish in the slightest when his gaze moved on until it finally landed on Hunter. “Finally standing your ground?” he asked as he floated closer to the ground. Not close enough for Hunter to be able to do anything but close enough to make dodging any spells a much more difficult prospect.

“Yeah,” Hunter said as he tried, and failed, to keep a slight tremor of fear from his voice. “Here I am. Promise me you won’t chase after Willow and Gus and I won’t try to run.”

Belos paused for a moment before chuckling. “I will have to ask them what they did to you to make you so willing to sacrifice yourself for their sake once they’ve been captured.” Without another word, he began to create a giant spell circle.

Wanting to do his best to sell the idea that Willow and Gus were gone and that the deal he had offered was real Hunter turned to run. He barely got five steps away before everything around him was engulfed in flames. Desperately hoping that the ring would be able to hold out against whatever it was Belos was doing, Hunter cast his invisibility spell. To his immense relief, the flames flickered out before he got anything more than uncomfortably warm.

“Another illusion, of course,” Belos groused as he stared right at the invisible Hunter. Faster than Hunter could track the man spun around and cast another spell, sending a flurry of icicles shooting through the air where his back had been moments ago.

Hunter paled in shock as the icicles tore through what he had been sure was going to be Willow’s vector of attack. To his immense shock and relief, she instead came rocketing out from a ruined building to the side of the Emperor, apparently having decided that attacking from behind wasn’t the best option. His heart soared as she drew one massive bark and thorn covered fist back to strike at Belos.

Only to have it drop back down as the man cast a quick shield spell that tanked the hit without even flickering.

“Well done Ms. Park,” Belos said as he touched down on the ground and cast a spell that caused the stone around him to reach out and snatch Willow from the air. “If you tried that against anyone else they would likely be a smear on the ground now.” He laughed as Willow struggled against the stone that was continuing to grow around her. With contemptuous ease he moved the stone away from her hand and cast another spell, causing the plantlife keeping her hand safe to wither away. Before Willow could do anything else he pulled the glove from her hand. “Mr. Porter, Mr. Hunter. If you two don’t come out right now and surrender I will crush Ms. Park. Three, two, o-”

“Fine!” Gus shouted as he stepped out from behind a piece of rubble. “I surrender!”

“And Mr. Hunter?” Belos asked as he glanced around the battlefield.

“He ran off ages ago,” Gus replied with a scowl.

“I suppose I should have expected that. The child did seem like an opportunist.”

Hunter grimaced as he crept towards Willow, trusting his invisibility spell to keep him from being seen and in Gus to keep Belos occupied enough for him to reach his destination. His pulse pounded in his ears as he reached Willow and pressed one hand against the stone. His head felt like it was about to burst as he did his best to keep his invisibility spell going while casting a spell he’d once thrown together to deal with a particularly clingy earth elemental that he’d pissed off years ago. A tired grin split his face as he felt Willow’s prison crumble apart, but his triumph only lasted a moment before he saw Belos turn to look right at him. Before Hunter could do anything else a pulse of force slammed into him, knocking him into Willow and sending the two of them rolling across the ground.

“And there you are Mr. Hunter. So glad you could join us,” Belos said as he stalked towards them. His hand twisted as he cast another spell and Gus was thrown through the air towards them. Once they were all in one place Belos tightened his grip on the glove he had taken from Willow and vines erupted from the ground around them and bound them all in place. “I have some things I would like to… discuss with you.”

Luz grimaced as she shot down behind a ruined building. Her hopes hadn’t been particularly high when she had started going in the direction of the explosions but this was still worse than she’d feared.Something that Amity seemed to agree with. “Luz!? Why are we stopping!? We need to save Willow and Gus!” she said as she started to rush towards where Belos was even now walking towards the bound pile of their friends. And Hunter.

“No!” Luz hissed as she grabbed Amity’s shoulder and pulled her back behind cover. “We can’t rush into this. Belos already overpowered them and we can’t waste whatever they managed to do by just running out there and getting beaten too.”

Amity’s grimace quickly grew to mirror Luz’s own but she stopped trying to rush to their friend’s aid. “Then what do we do?”

Luz took in a slow hissing breath as she prepared herself for what she would need to say. “You need to stay back.” When Amity opened her mouth to argue Luz held up a hand. “I know you want to go out there now but your artifact is best with preparation. If we’re right about Belos’s helmet then we can’t overpower him, we just need to outlast him. And that’s going to require numbers. Numbers that you can summon.”

Amity scowled but nodded. “And you’re going to keep him distracted long enough to keep everyone safe and give me time to summon everything I can, right?” When Luz nodded Amity’s scowl deepened for a moment before she nodded to herself. Before Luz could react Amity grabbed hold of her and pulled her in for a kiss. After a moment she pulled back and glared at Luz. “You better come back from this.”

Luz gave a determined nod and turned back towards the clearing. “Don’t start sending them in until you have to.” At Amity’s nod, Luz jumped back on Lutri and shot into the air. Once she crested the buildings she spun around and rocketed towards Belos, casting spells all the while. When she got within a few yards of him she jumped off her staff and spun it around

To create one more giant spell circle. With a shout, she slammed the butt of her staff down on the ground as she landed off to Belos’s side.

As soon as her spell was complete a jagged bolt of lightning shot towards Belos just as the many icicles she had conjured on her flight in began to rain down on him. To her dismay, the only response from the man was an amused shake of his head as he cast a shield spell that managed to completely block everything she had thrown at him.

“Ms. Noceda. I was wondering when I would run into you,” Belos said as he turned to face her.

Luz didn’t bother responding, instead opting to jump backward and start preparing another spell. With Lutri she began to draw a large spell circle, larger than any she had ever drawn before, while at the same time casting several smaller spells with her other, obscured, hand. Still casting the smaller spells behind her back she swept Lutri close to the ground and send a massive wave of stone and earth surging towards Belos.

Unsurprisingly the wave froze in place before it had managed to make it halfway towards the man. To add insult to injury, instead of reversing the spell to try and hit her with it, he simply settled the earth and rock back down, returning the ground to its previously undisturbed state. Not wanting to let up she cast the final spell in her sequence, multiple acceleration spells layering over each other to shoot a small rock at Belos faster than the eye could see. This time Belos’s shield spell only barely got up in time. The rock smashed against the hastily constructed shield but Belos was forced to take a step back.

Flickering blue lights appeared in the darkened eye sockets of the helmet as Belos leaned forward. “Fine.”

That one word was all the warning Luz had before Belos’s arm shot out from under his cloak and sent a crescent of flames hurtling in her direction. Even as she dove to the side to avoid being cooked by the spell she could see another follow-up spell right behind it. “Fly!” she screamed to Lutri as her palisman yanked her out of danger, wrenching her shoulder painfully in the process. Pulling herself fully onto her palisman, Luz was forced to dart around to the best of her ability to avoid the barrage of spells that Belos sent her way. More than once Luz was forced to move into the path of a less dangerous spell and trust in her cloak to be able to take the hit. Something she knew she wouldn’t be able to keep up forever. Witch’s wool was certainly magic-resistant, but it wasn’t magic-proof. With every spell she was forced to take she could feel the garment begin to fall apart. Over the course of far too short a timespan, the garment became threadbare, torn, and tattered as more and more of Belos’s spells were able to get through the cloak’s anti-magic coating.

Her eyes widened as she ducked beneath another distressingly large icicle to find several more waiting for her. Her gaze darted back and forth as she tried to find a way to at least only have to take a minor hit to get out and desperation rose as an escape route failed to make itself known. With a grim frown, she dipped into the path of what looked like the smallest of the icicles, hoping that she would at least be able to keep going after taking the hit. Just as she turned what was left of her cloak towards the spell and braced for impact, a tidal wave of abomination goo swept the spells aside.

A deranged chuckle escaped her as she looked around to see Belos doing his best to use his own abomination magic to redirect and destroy as much of the ocean of goo that was assaulting him as he could. Not wanting to let the opportunity go to waste Luz began casting spells of her own to try and overwhelm Belos’s defenses. Everything from compressed air to rocks was thrown the Emperor’s way in the hopes that something might make it through.

Unfortunately, it seemed the Belos was able to keep up with the combined assault. Abominations were halted as he froze them in place with spells of his own before being torn apart and his constant shield spells kept Luz from ever managing to get more than a glancing hit that seemed to be completely nullified by his own cloak. Just as Luz was about to begin preparing a larger spell in hopes of overwhelming his shields her attention was grabbed by a sudden scream. Hidden in the mass of abomination goo was another full abomination that remained separate from the greater mass and in one of its oversize hands was…

“Amity!” Luz shrieked as she reversed course and shot towards her captured girlfriend. One spell sliced off the arm holding Amity while a second blew back the rest of the abomination so it wouldn’t be able to grab her again. Just as gravity began to reassert its control of Amity, Luz swept in to pull her onto her staff and push away the remaining abomination goo. “Are you alright?! What happ-” she froze as she finally noticed the trails of red that ran down the sides of her girlfriend’s head. Horrified, her gaze followed the trails back to their source, a ragged gash in each ear where her earrings had been torn off.

Without a second thought, Luz cast a quick pair of healing spells. Thankfully the wounds were fresh and small enough that her efforts resulted in unblemished, freshly healed skin. Amity would have to get her ears pierced again but Luz was pretty sure that would be far preferable to dealing with the wreck that had been made of her earlobes.

Before she could do anything else a fist slammed into her back, sending the two of them into the abomination goo. The goo surged around them and, when they were finally brought back to the surface, they were right in front of Belos, Amity’s earrings held in his hand.

“That… was… annoying,” he panted as most of the abomination goo was dismissed. “I wanted you two left alive to deal with the rest of the Underground and with the human world but it is clear you are too dangerous to even be used to make a message out of.” He raised the hand holding the earrings and the abomination goo around them began to tighten. 

Luz did everything she could as she tried to struggle free, to get a hand loose enough to cast a spell, to get Amity free, anything. But it all failed. There was nothing she could do as the corners of her vision began to darken.

“Get away from my daughter!”

Light suddenly returned to Luz’s world as she was dropped to the ground. As the abomination goo fell away from her, she took in deep, nourishing, breaths of air as she tried to focus on what was happening. To her shock, her mom looked to be fist-fighting Belos. There wasn’t any real rhythm or skill to her blows, but each one was combined with some sort of spell that Luz couldn’t recognize off the top of her head.

After Belos’s arm fell slack for a moment after her mom cast one of the spells her eyes widened in recognition. They were all medical spells. Spells to anesthetize patients, to remove feeling and control from limbs, spells to help a witch be put to sleep for more invasive surgeries, and even what looked like simple healing spells that were cast by a rank amateur. The sort of spells that could cause more damage than help when they caused the body to heal improperly or accidentally cause things to grow beyond where they should be. Luz stared in disbelief as she remembered the horror stories her mom had shared about cocky young healers accidentally causing bones to grow out of a patient's skin or limbs to twist as the muscles grew out of control. Stories that looked like they might be trying to come true in front of her very eyes.

Unfortunately, even with her unorthodox choice of spells her mom’s lack of any real combat experience quickly caught up with her when Belos countered with a punch of his own that looked to have been strengthened by Construction Coven body enhancement magic. But that wasn’t enough to stop Luz’s mom as she simply grabbed hold of Belos’s arm in an attempt to keep him from going anywhere. Seeing that she wasn’t going to let him go, Belos began to cast another spell.

“Not today jackass!” Eda shouted as she swept in from the sky. With a wild punch, she knocked his arm aside and made a grab for his helmet. She snarled as her attempt was thwarted by Belos throwing himself back as best he could with Camila still on his arm.  Seeing that her surprise attack had failed Eda decided to do her best to bum rush Belos. Throwing herself bodily at him in an attempt to keep him from casting any spells. If the situation had been less serious it might have been comical to see the two women hanging off the man as they tried to get his helmet off.

“Enough!” Belos roared as blue light engulfed the eye holes in his helmet and a wave of force shot out from him, sending everyone around him flying back.

Luz winced as she skidded along the ground, Amity following after her. Her mom and Eda were far less lucky. Being right at the epicenter of the blast they were sent rocketing away bouncing against the hard ground as their momentum bled off. Luz paled as she saw her mom come to an unmoving stop. “Mom!” she screamed in desperate hopes that it might change what she was seeing.

Off to the side, Belos didn’t seem to be faring any better though. He had fallen to one knee and was reaching for his helmet like he wanted nothing more than to take it off. “No,” he said, just barely audible. “Not yet.” With aching slowness, he stood back up and looked around at everyone. “Is there anyone else you are going to throw at me?” he asked as he began to cast a spell.  Even addled as she was, Luz could recognize it as some sort of oracle spell. A spell that didn’t seem to give Belos the answer he wanted as it completed and he slumped slightly.

“Of course, there’s always one more.” 

Vee didn’t think she was a very brave person. She had spent so much of her life being afraid and doing everything she could to avoid notice that the thought of moving towards danger was still a new concept. But at the same time, she knew that there were things she needed to do. When the explosions had first rung out she had been helping finish up the evacuation for the area she was working with. An area that was far too close to the explosions for her liking. Thankfully the explosions had managed to do what she hadn’t and convinced the last remaining bastions of stubbornness that demanded that she find some way to let them take their oversized bed with them that it was long past time to go.

When the explosions stopped she let herself hope that the danger had been contained. She passed the last staff she had out to a refugee and started a final scan for anyone that had managed to sleep through the commotion or had been injured in the shuffle. Thankfully there hadn’t been anyone left behind, though what little relief that had brought was quickly banished when she finally glanced in the direction she had last heard the explosions and saw towering greenery spattered with abomination goo. Ice shot through her as she realized just who had to be over there. Any desperate thoughts that it might be a coincidence were dashed when she saw the distant but unmistakable figures of Camila and Eda reach what was surely a battlefield.

Without a second thought, she began to sprint towards the fight. With every step, she cursed the fact that she had given up her last staff to one of the escapees. Pulling a card from her holder she threw it at the ground, causing a pillar of earth to rise up underneath her and launch her skyward. From her new viewpoint, she could just make out the scattered forms of several people with one man standing tall in the center. She couldn’t help the snarl that twisted her face as she saw Eda and Camila do their best to do something, anything to the man. Attempts that all ended in failure.

At the apex of her launch, she pulled out another card and activated it, sending twisting vines curling around her arm and shooting out to grab a nearby rooftop so she could swing forward. To her consternation, there were no other buildings of suitable height to let her continue swinging so she was forced to the ground once more. She was sorely tempted to launch herself into the air once again but she had long since learned that the residents of the Boiling Isles paid far more attention to the skies than humans did. She could try to launch herself lower but that almost never ended well. With a grimace, she continued to sprint towards the sounds of combat.

The seconds ticked by as she ran through potential plans in her mind. From the looks of things, she doubted that she was going to add enough firepower to the mix in order to shift things. She hadn’t been able to recognize much from her brief glimpse of the battlefield but it was clear that both WIllow and Amity were there. With those two present the chances that Gus and Luz weren’t there were slim enough to not be bothered with. Altogether the group had more than enough raw power to handle most threats. If Belos was able to overwhelm that then attempting to just add more firepower was a bad idea.

All too soon she reached the battlefield. Before she could even take her first step forward she heard a scream ring out from the other side of the blasted clearing.

“Mom!”

For one brief moment, Vee froze as her gaze shot to where Camila lay a dozen yards away from Belos, bloodied and unmoving. Time seemed to slow as she stared at the woman that had taken her in. Provided her with a life she had never known she would ever get to have. “Mom,” she whispered as her hands trembled. Without a second thought, she drew out another card and threw it at the ground. This time the pillar of earth was nearly perpendicular to the ground, sending her forward like a torpedo as another clump slid up her side and enveloped a hand in a makeshift mace.

Despite every fiber of her being wanting her to scream at the man who had hurt the most important person in her life, she forced herself to stay silent, hoping that the man would be too engrossed in gloating to see her. Her blow got within inches of striking him on the head when he spun around, a spell circle already completed and causing a shimmering shield of light to pop into existence between him and the stone mace. The stone around her hand crumbled and pain shot up her arm as her hand slammed into the shield and was rebuffed.

With snakelike speed, Belos’s arm snapped out and grabbed her neck. It was only due to the shield spell killing most of her momentum that her throat didn’t get immediately crushed by the sudden stop.

“Another human?” Belos asked with clearly forced levity, his arm trembling slightly as he held her up. “And with an artifact of your own as well it seems.” He drew her closer to him but didn’t let her touch the ground, instead opting to begin to levitate into the air. “Something related to the construction coven no doubt. If even a hundredth of the witches could be as skilled and creative with their magic as you children have been with your artifacts I might not have had to do all this myself.”

Vee choked and flailed in his grasp, striking out at him wherever she could but failing to do any damage. As Belos began to chuckle at her attempts to harm him she made sure to smack both cardholders at her sides, mentally commanding the inkstones to begin drawing runes on every card she had left.

“Of course, a witch would at least be able to do something here. I suppose whatever artifact you found only deals with the earth manipulation spells. Without contact with the earth there isn’t much you can do can you?” He began to chuckle again. “I will definitely have to let you live. If only to learn how you ended up here. I seem to recall a wanted poster mentioning a human. I thought it was all just sensationalism but I suppose not.” His grip loosened, allowing Vee to breathe once more. “Now can you be courteous and thank your Emperor for this generosity or do I have to continue to discipline you like I have the others?”

Taking several ragged breaths Vee glared at him. “This is for mom.” Before he could respond she slammed both hands down on her cardholders and activated every single card. Ice exploded from her sides and shot in all directions, slamming into both her and Belos. The last thing she saw before she fell unconscious was the man’s helm go flying through the air, one long gouge running across one eyehole.

Luz was torn between worry and hope as she saw Vee explode into a giant spiky ball of ice, sending both her and Belos flying. The worry was quickly pushed aside as she saw Belos’s helmet fly through the air and land only a few feet away from her, while the Emperor himself landed a good distance further away from her. Biting back a grunt of pain she forced herself to her hands and knees as she began to crawl towards the helmet. Her entire body screamed at her to stop moving but she refused to give in. After what felt like an eternity she reached the helmet and grabbed hold of it.

Out of the corner of her eye, Luz saw that Belos had managed to stagger back to his feet and was staring at her. “Stop!” he shouted as he began to draw a spell circle.

She lifted the helmet into the air and moved it over her head.

“You have no idea what you’re doing, you idiot!”

Just as Belos’s spell flared to life, Luz dropped the helmet over her head and everything.

Went.

Black.

Chapter Text

Belos shot forward as fast as he could as he watched the helmet come to rest on Luz’s head. He wasn’t sure quite what would happen when she wore it but he knew it would spell disaster for him. In the absolute best-case scenario he would have to deal with a half-dead witch that wanted him stopped and now had the power of the titan at her beck and call. In the worst-case scenario…

He had almost made it halfway towards Luz when her hand twitched to create a spell circle. Before he could take another step something pressed down on him, sending him slamming into the ground and forcing the air from his lungs. In desperation, he struggled against the oppressive weight but couldn’t find anything. His desperation grew as he realized that there wasn’t even anything on him. He was just being held in place by sheer force of will. His eyes widened in terror as he caught sight of the titan’s skull in the distance. Blazing blue lights had appeared in the normally lifeless skull that dominated the Boiling Isles skyline.

“Parasite,” Luz… no… the titan said as it looked down at him from Luz’s eyes. “This has been a long time coming.”

Belos’s struggles intensified as the wounds and bruises on Luz’s body began to disappear as the titan cast healing spells and made sure its vessel was in perfect condition. As he struggled his gaze fell on the captured guards that were now simply staring at him as he writhed in front of a child. “Don’t just stand there! Kill her!”

“They won’t listen to you parasite. You set up the rule of the strong and they are waiting to see just who among us is strong,” said the titan as it walked over to Belos’s side and sat down on its heels. It tilted its head as it regarded him struggling against its power. “I have waited for this moment for a long time. I thought I had been granted it so many years ago when the rebels snuck into the palace and banished you from this realm. I spent long days imagining the torments you were being subjected to in that realm. Bereft of my power, of your precious empire, lost in a realm not your own and at the mercy of those that fought against you.” The titan stood back up and glared down at him. “And then you came back!”

It didn’t cast a spell or make a gesture but an entire building was crushed as the titan’s rage bled through the link between it and Luz.

“After so many years of peace, you came back and latched on to me once more like the parasite you are!”

Another building was reduced to splinters as the titan raged against him.

“But now I have you all to myself. And this time there is no one that will be able to stand in my way. Only in my wildest imaginings did I ever assume that I would have you at my mercy. That I would be given the chance to take control of this link.”

The pressure holding belos down intensified over his arm and he screamed as it broke under the increased pressure.

“I imagined torturing you for days, months, years even! Breaking you and putting you back together just to give you the barest taste of what you subjected me to!”

This time the pressure increased over his other arm, shattering the bones in that one as well.

“I imagined dismantling your little empire while you could do nothing but watch as I made sure that no one would ever remember your name. That you would be lost to time, just like all those that you worked so hard to suppress.”

Belos screamed as his legs were shattered under the pressure.

“But I’ve learned something since you came back.”

The pressure relented slightly, and the titan knelt back down and cupped Belos’s chin in its hand, forcing him to look up at it.

“And that is that you are slippery. If I left you alive to experience what you have done to me, to let you experience the full depth of my vengeance, you would escape. You would latch on to me once more and it would be that much harder to bring something like this about again.”

The titan let go of Belos’s chin and his head was forced back down as the pressure returned.

“And I can’t take that chance. Goodbye, parasite.”

Belos screamed as he felt the pressure increase on his skull, building and building until something cracked.

And Belos knew nothing more.

Amity was the first one to make it to her feet. Vee and Camila were either unconscious or unable to move, Eda was digging her way out of the wreckage of the house she had been smashed into, and the rest were still working their way out of the vines that were keeping them in place. “Luz!” she cried as she watched her girlfriend do… something… to crush Belos’s head. “Luz!” she called again as she stumbled forward. Despite her best efforts, her feet betrayed her and she went started to fall to the ground. Before she could hit it though Luz was there, catching her. Her breath caught in her throat as she stared at the cold blue glow that shone from the eye holes of the helmet. There was something there. Something vast and alien and not Luz.

A sudden glow enveloped her and she felt the pain and weariness leave her as her wounds healed before her eyes. She’d felt healing magic before when Luz had done her quick healing of Amity’s ears in the middle of the fight but there was something more about this. Something larger.

“Are you alright?” Not Luz asked, her head tilted slightly as though in concern.

“Who are you? What did you do to Luz!?”

“Your mate is safe. And she will remain safe”

Amity did her best to fight back the blush that spread across her cheeks at the thing’s description of her relationship with Luz. “That doesn’t answer anything.”

“No. But it answers enough,” she said as she turned to look around the battlefield. Whenever her gaze fell onto a person she cast what looked like a healing spell. “You only need to know that she will be returned to you when I have finished.”

Amity was about to ask another question when a new voice spoke up.

“What do you mean by finished?” Camila asked as she, along with the rest of the group, ran over to stand with Amity.

“This helmet is a conduit. Created using spells designed to commune with me and twisted to allow a witch that knew what they were doing to steal my power. And I cannot allow that to happen again.”

While the explanation whatever was possessing Luz had given hadn’t truly explained anything to Amity, or any of the other humans from what she could see, it was clear that Camila had realized what it was getting at.

“Th-that’s… that’s impossible.” Her gaze flicked to the massive skull that overlooked the isles, their once empty sockets now blazing with a brilliant blue light that was a perfect match for the ones now emanating from the helmet’s eyeholes. “The Titan?”

“Indeed,” Not Luz, no, the Titan said with a small nod as it began to cast another spell.

“But you’re dead,” Gus said in wide-eyed shock.

“Death means far less to my kind. It is only after the end of all things that I will enter that final rest.” The titan continued to create spell circles as small items shot through the air and began to circle around it.

“I don’t care if you’re alive or dead, I want to know why you’re still in Luz’s body!” Eda demanded.

The Titan shifted slightly to regard them all before sighing. “This helmet was created because I no longer had a way to truly interact with those that live upon my surface. That will be remedied. This one will serve as my vessel whenever she is needed.”

“But you said she would be back when you were finished!” Amity shouted as she moved to try and grab at Luz’s shoulder. Before she could get within a few feet of Luz her hand slammed into an invisible barrier.

“And she will be. But should I ever require her I shall take her once more.”

Amity’s hands tightened into fists at the Titan’s words. “She isn’t yours! You can’t just do this to her!”

“She, and all who born from me, are mine to do with as I wish. But do not worry. I have no desire to intrude on your lives any more than I must. I will only take her when she is needed to prevent one such as the parasite from rising once more or to prepare the next vessel.”

“The next vessel?” Willow in trepidation.

“As I have said before I will not allow one such as the parasite to come into existence once more. The lifespan of a single witch is not sufficient to ensure that. Therefore I will require multiple vessels. Once this one is complete I will claim another. When they begin to grow old I will choose a successor from those around them. There were once clans that would pass spells to commune with me down their family line. I believe a similar arrangement for this would be ideal. If the next series of vessels could be prepared from the moment of their birth they would grow up accustomed to their duties and be less likely to act out.”

“I- You can’t! I won’t let you just take my grandchildren away from me!” Camila shrieked.

“You don’t really think we’ll let this happen do you?!” Amity added as she did her best to fight down the blush that had sprung up when she thought about where said grandchildren would come from.

“It does not matter. After a few hundred years your descendants will have accepted their duty,”  the Titan said as it continued to cast spells. With each spell more items joined it behind the barrier. Eventually, the items stopped flying in from every direction and the titan’s efforts went to transmuting the pile of items in front of it into a dark blue blob. “A duty that begins today.” With one more spell, the gooey mass began to split into thin lines that slowly moved up Luz’s arms, sinking into her skin.

“Stop that!” Amity shouted as she slammed her hands into the barrier that was keeping her from Luz. Most of the others quickly joined her in trying to batter down the shield. All except Gus who opted to poke around Belo’s corpse to retrieve Amity and Willow’s artifacts, citing their potential usefulness in dealing with the barrier.

Once she had her earings back Amity summoned up as massive an abomination as she could and commanded it to try and smash through the top of the barrier. To her surprise, the barrier wasn’t a dome covering Luz, but a series of walls that seemed to rise infinitely into the air.

She grit her teeth as she tried to feel out just how much abomination goo the earrings had stored when she caught sight of the captured guards staring at Luz in utter silence. With a scowl, she stomped over to them. “Either help us out or get out of here!”

“B-But-!” One of them stammered as their gaze switched rapidly between Amity, Luz, and the body of their Emperor.

“Yes. He’s dead. Luz got possessed by the Titan and it killed him. So now either help up kick it out of her head or run away before it decides to take care of you like it did your boss.” When the guards just stared at her in shock she slammed a fist into the halfway destroyed doorframe to the room they had been held in. “Decide!”

As one, all but the leader of the ground leapt to their feet and rushed out of the room. To Amity’s surprise, they didn’t run away, but instead lined up facing the barrier and began casting spells at it. Shaking her head to clear the shock she looked at the last one. “What about you?”

The man trembled for several moments and Amity could feel his eyes staring at her decidedly not pointy ears before he scrambled to his feet and joined the rest of his troop outside.

“Finally,” she muttered as she poked at the earrings again and sighed. She could try to generate some abominations but that was always extremely tiring and she was already out of it enough that creating even one of them might take her out completely. A determined grimace grew on her face as she walked back towards Luz, grabbing a stick along the way. She might not be able to magic up any more help but she sure as hell wasn’t going to let that stop her.

Luz opened her eyes to darkness. Complete and utter blackness that surrounded her on all sides. No… as she looked around she realized it wasn’t really darkness. She could see her own hands, along with the rest of herself,  just fine when she looked down. Instead of darkness, there was just nothing. Complete and utter nothingness surrounded her in every direction. Even what she had thought was the ground beneath her feet wasn’t really there. With only a minor bit of effort, she could move her feet further down, almost like walking down stairs without moving forward or backward.

“Hello?” she called out into the nothingness. “Is anyone there?”

Contrary to her expectations her voice didn’t echo. It simply rang out in the void, swallowed up by the oppressive nothing that surrounded her. She was about to open her mouth to try again when a pair of blazing blue lights sprang into existence in front of her.

“Hello.”

“Gah!” she yelped as she somersaulted backward away from the lights. The complete lack of gravity turning what would have been an undignified sprawling to the ground into an, arguably, even more undignified retreat. “Who are you?!” she demanded as soon as she managed to regain control of herself.

“I am the being that you call the Titan.” When Luz didn’t respond, primarily due to her mouth hanging open in shock at the light’s proclamation, it continued. “When you placed the helmet on your head you opened a connection to me. The parasite used this connection to steal my power for himself. But you were not ready to handle it, allowing me to take control of both it and your body.”

“Wait! You took my body?!”

“That is correct.”

An image appeared in front of Luz and she could see Belos sprawled on the ground, staring hatefully up at the source of the image.

“This is what your body is seeing right now.”

“What are you going to-” she began before something crushed Belos’s head like a grape. She blinked a few times as she stared at the combined blood and brain matter that now decorated the ground. “Oh.”

“Indeed. He was too dangerous to be allowed to live.”

Luz grimaced but couldn’t find it in herself to argue. She was fairly certain that anything she might say wasn’t going to convince the Titan otherwise. Not that there was much point since the deed was done. The silence stretched on as she watched the Titan use her body to heal her friends and family. “Sooo, now that he’s dead are you going to let me go? Let me have my body back?”

“Not yet. I must ensure that no one is ever able to steal my power in this manner again.”

“Okay, so let me go, I’ll destroy the helmet, and no one will ever do this again,” Luz suggested with a slightly strained smile.

“That is not sufficient. The helmet has been created once. It can be created again. I must have assurances that it will never happen again.”

“But… but you that’s impossible. You’d have to get rid of magic, or witches, or something like that!” Luz blanched as she realized what she’d said. “Please don’t get rid of witches or magic!”

“Do not worry. My solution will not require the loss of magic or life. It will simply require you .”

“What?” Luz asked. 

“You will be my vessel. Whenever you are needed I will take your body as I have now to make sure that no one manages to replicate the helmet.”

“I- But- You can’t do that!  And besides, I won’t live forever so that still won’t make sure this never happens again!”

“And that is why there will be others. When the time comes I will take control of your body once more and make other witches my vessels. As thanks for your help in freeing me, I will ensure that your family line can serve me in this way until the end of all things.”

Luz’s gaze returned once more to the screen that showed what her body was seeing. In front of her was a growing mass of some sort of dark-bluish tar. Beyond that, she could see her friends hitting some sort of barrier that kept them from reaching her. “I won’t let you do this!”

“There is nothing you can do. Accept my blessings with grace for they shall raise you above all others. The others will see that you are my herald and grant you the respect they feel towards me. They shall flock to you and you will be able to make the changes you have fought for all your life.”

Luz froze at the Titan’s words. While not as formal as the religions she’d seen on Earth almost every demon and witch at the very least revered the Titan a little. It was the source of their magic, their homes, their very lives. The demons were said to have risen from its flesh and witches had been made what they were today through its power. People claiming to speak for the Titan or listen to it were easily dismissed but if she really did have a connection to it…

“No,” she whispered as she shook her head. The lights seemed to pulse slightly but the Titan said nothing. “I haven't just been fighting to get rid of the covens or make the Speaker see reason. I’ve been fighting for freedom. Fighting so that everyone can be free to make their own decisions and do things their own way. I fought the Speaker for that freedom. When Belos tried giving me the things he thought I was fighting for I fought him when I realized he wasn’t going to be giving me the freedom I had been fighting for. And now you want me to just let you have me and who knows how many other people in exchange for what you think I’m fighting for. So just like with the speaker and with Belos, I am going to fight you!”

The lights flickered angrily as the Titan’s voice rang out all around her. “I am nothing like that parasite!”

Luz didn’t respond verbally. Instead preparing a spell circle to throw a fireball at the lights. To her dismay, it fizzled out and didn’t do anything.

“Magic is as I will it. You will cast no spells here because I will it to be so. You wish to fight me but there is nothing you can do here.”

An angry growl escaped Luz's throat as she glared at the lights. Her mind raced as she tried to think of something, anything, that she could do to stop the Titan. But what could she do without magic? How could she hope to fight something as massive as the Titan when it looked to be in complete control of everything in front of her?

Her eyes widened as she realized something. “There is something I can do here.” The lights flickered slightly but the Titan didn’t respond. “All I have to do is the same thing Belos did. I have to take control of the link.”

“You cannot.”

“I can,” Luz retorted as she closed her eyes in concentration. There, almost too faint to be noticed was a cord of magic stretching away from her and into the distance. A tiny ephemeral thing that she doubted she would have been able to find if she hadn’t had some idea of what to look for.

“Stop!”

With a determined grin, Luz began to pull at the cord.

“I said stop!” the Titan bellowed again as the heat engulfed the area.

Luz winced but didn’t stop. Pain lanced through her as the Titan continued doing whatever it could to try and distract her from her goal. In response she merely screwed her eyes shut even tighter, doing her best to block out the pain that was wracking her body as she tugged harder and harder on that cord of magic until finally, something snapped.

Vee was no less shocked than the others when the barrier keeping them from Luz suddenly shattered and vanished.

“Stop! Stop!” Amity shouted as she ran forward under the rain of spells that had been pelting the shield to get at her girlfriend.

With a sigh of relief, Vee put down the stick she had been using to draw glyphs into the dirt in her own attempts to help break down the shield and rushed to join the others as they swarmed Luz. To Vee’s surprise, Eda was the first one to make it to Luz’s side and rip the helmet off of her. Though it was a surprisingly close match between her, Camila, and Amity. Something made even more interesting due to the fact that the latter two didn’t have the enhanced speed that came from Eda’s harpy form.

Unfortunately, it seemed that simply removing the helmet wasn’t enough to fix everything.

“Why isn’t she waking up?!” Amity asked as Camila was casting diagnostic spell after diagnostic spell on Luz.

“I don’t know,” Camila asked as she continued to cast spells. “I can’t see anything wrong with her!”

“What about those things on her arms? That thing seemed pretty eager to get them on her?” Eda asked as she pulled up Luz’s sleeve.

A gasp escaped Vee as she stared down at the lines of glyphs that ran up Luz’s arms. Something that was mirrored by Camila.

“Vee…” Camila said as she turned to look at her, desperate hope shining in her eyes.

“I… I’ve never seen a glyph spell this complex before,” Vee admitted hesitantly as she looked over the glyphs. “I…”  she glanced around to see that everyone, even some of the coven guards were looking at her in hopes that she might think of something. Taking a deep breath she squared her shoulders and kneeled down next to Luz. “We’re going to need to take off her shirt. The glyphs go up further along her arms and probably continue up her back. If I’m going to figure this out I need to see the whole thing.”

Camila nodded and began to remove Luz’s shirt as Amity shooed most of the crowd away to try in what Vee could only assume was an attempt to preserve as much of her girlfriend’s modesty as possible.

Shifting around so that she was sitting down instead of kneeling vee picked up one of Luz’s arms and began to trace over the glyphs that were there. “Light and life runes surrounding fire, complex life maybe? Or something to do with part of life… mind or soul? And that goes into a pair of lights connect by an ice? Refracting light? Light to light but refracted… Communication or connection maybe?” she murmured as she traced her hand along the lines of dark blue ink. “All that leading into… three ice around that light life combo again. Not used as ice though. Lack of movement or stasis… maybe constriction or control? And that leads too…” she trailed off as she saw a glyph she had never seen before sitting in the center of Luz’s back. An inverted teardrop split down the lower half by a line that extended down to the outsides of the containing circle. At the top circular part of the teardrop a pair of lines went out and upwards, forming a wide V that extended out of the teardrop before angling back and coming to a stop at the teardrop almost like horns… “The Titan,” she whispered. The others looked at her in confusion as she followed the rest of the lines of the glyph with her finger. The glyph was meant to be the center of the spell, she could feel it. But it wasn’t finished. The Titan had been stopped before it could fully complete the spell. A second ring had been drawn around the Titan glyph and a half-finished ice glyph had been drawn inside the ring pointing outwards…

“We need to finish the spell,” she whispered.

“What!?” multiple voices shouted at once.

“This spell, I think it was what the titan was going to use to take control of Luz again in the future. It’s almost done but we can tweak it. Make it so that the Titan doesn’t get control over everything,” Vee explained. “But we’re going to need to use the same stuff that the Titan was.” She glanced around at the various witches that were surrounding her. “Does anyone know the spell that it was using to control that stuff?” To her dismay, her question was met by silence as every witch shook their head. “One of you has to-”

“I might be able to do it.”

Vee, along with everyone else, whipped their head in the direction of the declaration to see a sheepish Hunter holding up a shaky hand.

“I’ve been trying to get better at learning spells just by watching them get cast and I got most of the spell it was using to control that stuff. It was something like…” he trailed off as he drew a spell circle in the air, causing the ink to wiggle slightly before the spell fizzled out. “I… might need to practice a little bit.”

“That looked like the spell my cousin uses to do tattoos,” one of the guards piped up. The witch stood there for a few moments before realizing that everyone was staring, or in some cases glaring, at him. With a quick “Sorry!” he scrambled forward and started doing his best to coach Hunter on how to try and complete the spell.

“Okay, does anyone have anything I can use to draw on Luz’s back? We’re going to need to give Hunter something to trace in order to finish the spell.”

“I think I saw one of the shards of your inkstones over that way,” Gus suggested as he pointed at a pile of rubble. “Will that still be able to work?”

After a moment’s thought Vee shrugged. “Might as well try,” she conceded. To her immense relief, the fragment of the stone did, indeed, still work. Albeit much slower and requiring much more concentration than she was used to. Taking in a deep breath he placed the inkstone against Luz’s back and began to concentrate. First, she completed the outwards facing ice glyph before adding a similar one on the other side of the circle. Another pair of outward facing ice runes were placed equidistant from the first pair to create a full cross. With what she was positive were supposed to be the Titan’s control glyphs done she began to make ice runes pointing inwards between each pair of outwards facing runes along the circle’s edge. With an equal number of runes pointing in and out, it would make it so that neither party could just control the other, even if the connection was still there. They would need to agree.

At least she really, really, hoped so.

With her work finally finished, she opened her eyes and suddenly realized how exhausted she felt. She tried to stagger to her feet but failed until Camila lent her a helping hand.

“Is it done?” she asked as she glanced down at the completed spell on Luz’s back.

“I think so,” Vee said. “Now we just need Hunter to do his part and use the goo to fill in all the areas I’ve marked. Does he still need time or..?”

“Got the spell down almost ten minutes ago,” Hunter said as he walked over to look at Luz’s back. At Vee’s confused look he shrugged. “You were out for almost half an hour.”

Vee blinked at that before shrugging. It certainly explained why she felt so tired if she’d been concentrating for so long. But as much as she wanted to find someplace to lie down and not think for a while she needed to see things through first. It was almost anticlimactic to watch Hunter cast the spell and maneuver the goo into the right places. In less than a minute he had finished and had stepped back.

“Is there anything else we need to do?” he asked as he looked over his work.

“Just one more thing,” Vee said as she stepped forward and tapped the titan glyph. 

At her touch, the glyph began to light up. The light quickly spread across all the glyphs until the light was almost blinding. Then, all at once, it faded away, leaving only the dark blue ink. Everyone waited with bated breath for Luz to do anything. A wait that seemed to last forever until…

“Ugh, why do I feel like I just went ten rounds with Boscha?” Luz asked as she pushed herself up off the ground and sat back on her heels. “And why is it so… cold…” she trailed off as she glanced down at her state of undress. Her face instantly burst into an incandescent blush as Amity shot forward to provide her with a cloak she had requisitioned from one of the guards.

“Did it work?” Amity asked as soon as Luz looked like she was going to be able to actually talk. “Vee said that the spell should keep the Titan from taking you over but…”

“I… I think so. It didn’t seem too happy with whatever you were doing. Once I started fighting it for control it stopped letting me see what was going on outside but I think it could still see things.” She closed her eyes for a moment and scrunched them up in concentration. After a few seconds, she sighed and tried casting a spell. As soon as the circle was finished, a massive gout of flame taller than some of the buildings burst into existence, causing everyone to jump. Her eyes wide Luz cast the spell again, but this time the flames only managed to go up a little higher than her own seated height. “Okay. So I can still talk with the Titan, and he can lend me his magic if he feels like it. He let me have it for one spell so I could test things so long as I promised to use it to destroy the helmet so...” She glanced at the pile of slag that sat at the epicenter of where her spell had been cast. “I guess it worked?”

If Luz was planning on saying anything else she didn’t get the chance as Amity dragged her into what looked to be a bone-breaking hug. A hug that many others quickly joined in on. Even Hunter was eventually pulled in for his part in helping bring Luz back. Eventually, they would need to stop and deal with the aftermath of what had happened today but for now? For now, this was fine.

Chapter Text

Camila sighed as she righted another piece of furniture that had gotten thrown around in their haste to evacuate. She knew that she shouldn’t be quite so annoyed. It had been a time of panic after all and she truly hadn’t thought she would ever see this house again. That the relatively few items of sentimental value she’d been able to pack amongst the essentials would have been all that she had left of her time here.

She also was well aware that she could have been far worse off. Her house had been far from all the fighting. The skirmish against the guards had been mostly self-contained but you can’t have dozens of witches throwing around magic trying to kill one another without at least a little collateral damage. Thankfully the fight against Belos had been far enough away that only a few bits of rubble and wreckage thrown up by the fight managed to even land in her front yard. A stark contrast to the homes that had sat at ground zero when the now former Emperor decided to stop playing games. Dozens of families lost their homes in that battle, once again mostly due to Belos but at least a few of them had gotten swept aside by masses of plant life or tides of abomination goop.

“Is everything alright in there Ms. Noceda?”

Another sigh escaped Camila as she turned to face another of the things she felt sorry about being so annoyed by. “I’m fine. You don’t need to check in on me every time you hear a noise,” she told the coven guard that had been standing guard outside her front door.

“I… yes, but if anything were to happen to you-”

Camila’s eyes narrowed as she held up a clenched fist. “I can take care of myself, Jerry.”

The coven guard stiffened as his gaze snapped to her fist, something much easier to track now that they weren’t wearing those idiotic masks, and he nodded quickly. “Right you are ma’am. I’ll go back to my post then,” he said as he tried, and failed, to not look like he was hurrying to get away from her.

A slow laugh escaped Camila as she watched Jerry rush off. She had been curious whether he had been one of the guards that had seen everyone fight Belos but that certainly cinched it. Apparently getting into a fistfight against the former emperor and surviving got a witch a certain reputation. Though now that she thought about it, getting a reaction like that might not be a surefire way to tell who had been there or not for very long. She’d already heard some of the guards telling the new arrivals about how she had almost managed to win a fist fight against Belos, being one punch away from winning before he was forced to use the Titan’s magic to even the odds. Thankfully her worries about her future reputation were interrupted by another, and far more desired than the last, interruption.

“Jerry isn’t bothering you again is he?” Vee asked as she poked her head into the room.

“He was, but I think I might have finally gotten through to him. How are things going with the construction coven?”

A ragged sigh escaped Vee as she slumped against the wall. “Horrible,” she groaned. “They keep wanting to make it bigger and fancier. It took me almost an hour to talk them out of renovating the entire house.”

“That doesn’t sound too bad.”

“They wanted to take down the neighbor’s houses so they could renovate this place into a palace,” Vee retorted with a deadpan glare.

“Ah,” Camila murmured. While she was certainly willing to accept a whole cadre of skilled construction witches coming in and upgrading the house she also wanted it to still be her house at the end of it.

“Once I got them talked out of that I had to make sure that they weren’t going to make the new room too big. Their original plans were calling for it to be bigger than the entire rest of the house. Which was probably why they were intent on the whole palace thing. If Luz hadn’t left that wishlist of what she wanted in her new room I don’t think they would have listened at all.”

“Of course that did it,” Camila said as she shook her head in wonder. A year ago those witches would have done their best to capture or even kill her daughter. Now though? It was taking every scrap of skill Luz had at sneaking around to not be swamped by witches wanting her blessing for every little thing they could think of. Amazing what having a personal connection to the Titan could do for a witch. “Speaking of Luz, have you managed to find her since she ran off this morning?”

“Not Luz, but this little troublemaker came by with a message not too long ago,” Vee said as Lutri poked her head out from behind the girl’s neck. With a happy chitter it jumped down the Vee’s shoulder and scurried up to perch on Camila’s shoulder before waving a small piece of paper in front of her face.

“Why thank you. I think I actually still have some cookies in the jar on top of the ice box. Why don’t you go grab one for yourself before you go back to Luz,” Camila said as she took the piece of paper from the palisman. As soon as the word cookies was out of Camila’s mouth, Lutri began to chatter excitedly before darting off towards the kitchen.

“What does it say?” Vee asked as she moved over to try and read the note over Camila’s shoulder.

“The SCI had finished unpacking and rebuilding the portal. They’ll be leaving this afternoon. Luz will be sending Lutri with the actual time later but it’s probably going to be on short notice,” Camila read, a small sad smile on her face. She’d only had a little more than a week with her daughter and she was already going to have to say goodbye again.

Vee seemed to pick up on Camila’s melancholy mood as she pulled her into a one armed hug. “It’ll be alright. They have the portal and Luz can come back any time she wants.”

Camila sighed and reciprocated the hug. “I know. But I can’t help but worry.”

Vee laughed. “Yeah. But you wouldn’t be such a great mom if you didn’t worry about her at least a little.”

Camila joined in with the laughter for a moment. Eventually, the laughter faded away and the two were left in silence, still holding one another in a side hug. A small, devious smile began to cross Camila’s face as she remembered something that she kept forgetting to bring up with Vee. “At least my other daughter is going to be sticking around.”

Vee froze as her entire face burst into a bright red blush. “I-”

“I wasn’t that out of it when you jumped in to fight Belos.”

Vee was silent for several moments as she tried to get her blush under control. “And.. and you’re okay with… all of that? With me calling you… mom?”

Camila’s smile drooped as she pulled out of the side hug and moved to get a better look at Vee. “Vee,” she said as she placed a hand on the girl’s shoulder. “Of course I’m okay with that. Even if we haven’t known each other for very long I’m proud to call you my daughter.”

Vee stared at Camila for a few seconds in silence before shooting forward and hugging her. “Thanks, mom.”

Camila nodded as she returned the hug. “No problem.”

After a while, they had to separate and get back to work tidying up the house and wrangling wayward construction witches but everything seemed just a little lighter after that. Eventually though, the time finally came and Lutri came rushing into the house once more. After grudgingly letting Jerry come along under the pretense of keeping them safe and giving the construction witches another reminder that they were just going to be upgrading the spells on the house and not retrofitting it into a, in their words, palace worthy of the Herald’s family, they set off.

Even after having spent so much time over the last day with various coven witches Camila still couldn't help but stare as she saw so many of them hard at work around town. The guards that had seen the fight against Belos had certainly spread word about Luz’s new status as far as they could. Though it certainly hadn’t helped when Luz had, at the Titan’s insistence, gone to the palace to destroy several hidden rooms that apparently contained information on how the helmet had been made as well as several other unsavory experiments that Belos had engaged in during his first tenure as Emperor. Watching the collected nobles and coven heads go from haughty and challenging to simpering kiss asses when Luz had channeled the Titan’s power in order to force them all to stand down had been a sight to see. Of course, the fact that a pair of blue lights had flared into existence in the Titan’s skull when Luz channeled its power had done almost as much as the show of power to convince the witches of her legitimacy. 

Not that Luz really wanted any of that legitimacy. She had turned down constant offers to become Emperor ever since then. Something that had only barely slowed down when she pointed her supplicants towards a hastily convened council of the Undergrounds more politically savvy members. Camila herself had been approached several times as well with questions as to whether she was going to serve as regent since Luz didn’t seem interested in the throne for now or if she was going to take a place in the council. She always denied them but like with Luz they just kept coming.

They were still better than the marriage offers that started getting delivered earlier today. Those she started burning the moment she realized what they were.

“Mom!”

Camila shook herself out of her reverie just in time to catch Luz as she came barreling down the street. “Luz! How are things going?”

Luz groaned and rolled her eyes. “It’s so annoying! All these people keep coming to me and asking me for my opinion on things or to try and get them things and stuff! And then there are all those people that keep trying to marry me!” Her exasperation shifted into a smile as she glanced off in the direction of her girlfriend. “Amity has been helping me deal with those ones at least though.”  After a moment her smile faded a little as she looked back at Camila. “Are you sure you don’t want to come to the human realm with me?”

Camile sighed and shook her head. “There’s still a lot of things I need to do around here,” she said as she looked around the slowly rebuilding safe haven. “Besides, I want to make sure that you have a place to come back to in the Boiling Isles.”

Luz smiled sadly even as she nodded. “Okay, mom.” She looked around the clearing that had been made, her gaze lingering on the SCI agents that were packing up a number of items that she had received from various witches, either as thanks for their help in the evacuation or in trade for other things. “The portal is going to open pretty soon so…”

Camile smiled and pulled her daughter into a tight hug. “It’s okay Luz. You’ve made a life for yourself over there. Besides, you’re going to come back on some weekends, right?”

“Yeah,” Luz said as she brightened considerably. “I actually talked to Kikimora about it! She said that I’m free to use the portal whenever I want as long as I’m willing to help out as a liaison between the Boiling Isles and Earth every so often. I made sure she promised that you and Vee would be able to use it whenever you guys want too, along with all my friends.” Luz frowned a little. “I still think she got the better end of that deal though.”

Camila couldn't help but laugh. “You are very important around here now, Luz.”

Luz grimaced but didn’t argue. Instead, she turned to Vee to interrogate her about how the construction coven was doing on her new room.

With her attention no longer needed for now Camila simply let herself relax and watch her daughter, or daughters she supposed, talk to each other animatedly. Letting herself simply bask in the simple pleasures of being with family. Eventually, Amity and Luz’s other friends, along with that human that could use magic, joined in the conversation. She even made her own interjections on occasion and made a little small talk with Eda as the time passed. But, all too soon, the time eventually came and a line of light split the center of the clearing.

Everyone stopped what they were doing to stare as the line slowly split into a doorway that led into a strange room full of metal and blinking lights. As soon as the portal finished opening a number of humans dressed like the SCI agents walked through, a smaller woman leading the group. Camila couldn’t help but smile as she saw Luz go over to the woman, Kikimora she supposed, to discuss things and point her in the direction of the newly formed witch’s council.

As the humans walked off Luz returned with a sad smile on her face. “It’s… I’m gonna go now mom.”

Camila simply smiled and pulled Luz into a tight hug. “Take care of yourself.” She felt Luz nod into her shoulder before she let her daughter go. One by one she said her goodbyes to the rest of Luz’s friends, offering them well wishes as well as giving Amity some ideas of what sorts of things Luz might like to do on a date. Far too soon though, the goodbyes came to an end and she found herself standing next to Vee as they watched Luz turn and walk through the portal to another world.

Despite having been looking forward to finally being able to fulfill her promise of returning her friends to the human realm, Luz hadn’t really thought too much about what it would be like when they returned. It had crossed her mind, of course, but never in much detail. She had known that there would be something of a reckoning when they had to go back to school, but she was pretty sure it wouldn’t be too bad. After all, when she’d been kidnapped by Lilith things had been smoothed over pretty easily. She often had the feeling she wasn’t thinking of something but had always dismissed it as unimportant.

Looking back on it she really should have realized after meeting back up with her mom what the sorts of reactions her friends had waiting for them on the other side of the portal.

Gus had immediately been pulled to the side and dragged into a hug while his dad was grilling him over all the things he had been hiding. Willow, either due to her parents not being the dragging type or her not being the dragged type, was quickly ushered to the side as her dads hugged and fussed over her. To Luz’s surprise both of Amity’s parents were there to greet her. A part of her had started to wonder if all the stories about the mysterious Alador Blight were just made up since he never seemed to be able to show up, with excuses of work being rather prominent. The affection there was far more subdued but Luz could still see relief in the faces of Amity’s parents as they hugged their daughter. Something that Luz was vaguely amused to see Amity didn’t quite know how to deal with.

Eda had, of course, laughed and pointed at the others as they were dragged away by their various parents. Laughter that quickly dried up when she saw an unimpressed Lilith and Raine staring at her. They were both quick to rush up to Eda and start fussing over her, something that Eda valiantly did her best to try and fend off. Lilith was quickly beaten back but Raine wasn’t so easily dissuaded though, not that Eda seemed to be trying too hard. Nor did she try to stop Raine when they pulled Eda in for a kiss. Though from the goofy look on her face after Raine drew back Luz was pretty sure that Eda had been just as caught off guard as the rest of them.

Not that she and her friends hadn't been caught off guard enough to not check their phones for a quick refresher of the date. Something that left Willow pumping her fist in victory while the others glared half-heartedly at her while promising her they would get her her winnings before too long.

In the end, it took them almost an hour to finally leave the SCI building. As they stood on the steps and looked out the forest surrounding the building Luz could only shake her head in wonder. “We’re really back.”

“Yeah,” Amity murmured as she squeezed Luz’s hand. “Did you ever really doubt it thought?”

“Maybe once or twice, but someone was always there to convince me we were going to manage,” Luz replied as she squeezed Amity’s hand back.

“And now we can go back and forth whenever we want!” Gus shouted as he raised both fists in the air in triumph. “I was even able to guilt-trip Hunter into making sure he writes down everything he learns while he’s staying in the Boiling Isles so he can share it with me when I go back!”

Willow chuckled and rolled her eyes at that. “I don’t think we’re going to be going back anytime soon. At least I’m not. Right now I’m grounded until I graduate from high school. I’ll be able to talk them down after a while but I don’t think it will be that fast.”

Gus slumped slightly, no doubt remembering the similar punishment he was facing. “I bet I could get my dad to let up on my grounding if I frame it as an information-gathering trip for a story for the news,” he said with a contemplative frown.

“I don’t think the SCI is going to let him do any stories on the Boiling Isles for quite a while,” Luz said apologetically. “Last I saw they’re still in talks with the witch’s council about just how much Earth and the Boiling Isles are going to be in contact.”

“Eh, you know it’s only a matter of time until this all goes public,” Gus replied dismissively. “Belos might have been a crazy tyrant but he was right about how much our realms have to offer each other. Once the SCI has things nice and stable I’m sure they’ll start looking at how to break the news to the world.”

“You do know that’s probably going to be years before they even get started on that, right?” Amity asked.

Gus nodded stoically, although Luz could see one of his eyes twitching slightly. “And when it does happen I’m going to be at the forefront of it! Lilith even said I could intern with the SCI over the summer if I wanted to!”

Everyone blinked in surprise at that. “That’s the first I’ve heard of that,” Luz eventually said.

“Yeah, I asked her while Kikimora was explaining all the reasons why my dad should obey the letter and the spirit of the NDA he signed. She seemed a little surprised but was all for it.” He grinned as he looked over at Willow. “And you always said I’d never be able to make a living chasing magic and cryptids.”

Willow chuckled. “Well that was before we became friends with a real-life witch,” she defended herself. “I’m glad you’ve finally found a career that fits your passion.”

“And what about you?” Gus asked. “Don’t tell me you’re still planning on going to college for botany.”

“That’s still the plan,” Willow assured him seriously. After a few moments, the facade broke and she smiled. “Though I am thinking about what I’m going to do with that degree. Even if the SCI hasn’t publicized relations between the realms I’m sure I can work with a lot of interesting plants on the Boiling Isles. Who knows what sorts of things we can find out when we start looking at magical plants the way we do the ones on Earth?”

Before Gus or Willow could continue the sound of honking filled the parking lot. A quick glance towards the source of the sounds showed their parents sitting in their cars, looking pointedly in their children’s direction.

“Guess this is it for today,” Gus said with a sigh.

“Yeah. See you guys at school,” Willow said as she started to jog over to her dads.

Luz watched them go with a strange sense of unease in her gut. Even as they drove off she couldn’t quite shake what felt wrong.

“Are you alright?”

Luz shook herself and looked over at Amity. “Yeah, just… thinking.”

“About the future?”

Luz paused as she realized the sense of unease had gotten a name. “Yeah, I guess.” When Amity only nodded encouragingly she continued. “I just… I don’t really know what I’m going to do. Gus and Willow have things all planned out. And if you don’t have some sort of plans I’ll be amazed.”

“I do, indeed, have plans,” Amity acknowledged with an overly serious nod.

“And I don’t really have… anything. Or maybe I have too much, if that sounds right? Last year I just wanted to try and make a world where my mom and all the other wild witches could live safely and happily. A place where we wouldn’t have to worry about the Emperor’s Coven storming in and either capturing or killing us. I wanted to change the world and make it a better place and now… now it’s actually happening.

“Belos may have ended up being a jackass but he got the ball rolling on so many of the things that I’ve been fighting for. And now that the coven heads are listening to wild witches that’s going to keep going. Even if it ever stalls all I have to do is show up and talk to people and they’ll listen, all because I’ve got a bunch of tattoos on my back.” She shifted slightly as she became all too aware of the silent presence of the Titan in the back of her mind. “I mean, sure, I can say I’m just going to do that for the future that just feels… hollow, I guess. Like it isn’t really going to be me, Luz, doing anything. It’ll just be me, Herald of the Titan, getting things done because no one wants to make the girl that can talk to the Titan angry. I just don’t know how I should feel about all of it.”

Amity placed a comforting hand on Luz’s shoulder. “And that’s okay. Trust me. Gus and Willow have things all figured out right now but you don’t need to. It wasn’t until Ed was halfway through his first semester at college that he realized he wanted to go into architecture. He just signed up for general ed classes and said he’d figure it out eventually.” She shook her head ruefully. “You have no idea how smug he was at me and Em when he made the change and found out all his credits would transfer perfectly. We’d been poking fun at him for weeks about not being able to make a decision and how he was going to waste his first year at college.” When Luz smiled Amity smiled back and continued. “So don’t worry about it. We still need to graduate high school and you have plenty of options to choose from when you do. It’ll all work out. It always does.”

Luz laughed and pulled Amity into a hug. She wasn’t sure how long they remained like that but they were eventually interrupted by a polite cough. When they released each other Luz saw that Amity’s parents were waiting patiently for their daughter to finish up. 

“One second,” Amity said to her parents before turning to Luz. “See you at school?”

“See you at school,” Luz agreed. After one more quick hug and a peck on the cheek, Amity walked over to join her parents in heading towards their car. As Luz watched her go a through occurred to her. “Amity! What sort of plans do you have for the future?”

“To be with you!” Amity shouted back. 

Even at this distance, Luz could see the blush on her girlfriend’s face when she said that. A blush that was mirrored in Luz’s own face. She remained there, grinning like a fool as her mind went over what Amity had said over and over again, until Eda finally came out of the building, flanked by Raine.

“What’s got you so happy, kid?” Eda asked as she looked Luz up and down.

“Nothing!” Luz blurted out quickly. “Just thinking about things.”

Eda raised a suspicious eyebrow but didn’t press. “Well, turns out Lilly drove Raine out here so they’ll be coming back with us. Ready to get back to your home away from home?”

Luz nodded, her smile growing smaller but no less genuine. “Yeah. I’d like that.”

“Cool. Now I doubt that Lily kept my fridge stocked and I don’t think any of us want to have our first meal back on Earth be ramen so you get to be the tiebreaker. I’m thinking chinese, but Raine claims that there’s this greek joint on the north side of town that makes the best gyros she’s ever eaten. Where we going?”

Luz contemplated the hefty choice before her for several moments. Chinese had always been good whenever Eda had gotten it but she’d never had gyros before. “Gyros,” she declared with a mock-serious nod.

“Betrayed by one of my closest allies,” Eda moaned theatrically as she led them to the car. “This place better be as good as you’re hyping it up to be,” she said jokingly to Raine as she unlocked the door and got into the driver’s seat.

“Oh please, when have I ever steered you wrong with a restaurant before?” Raine replied good-naturedly.

“Well, there was that one time at that sushi joint…” Eda trailed off as she smirked at Raine.

“What?! That was your fault for leaving your leftovers in the car for a day and then eating them anyway!” Raine squawked.

In the back seat, Luz leaned back with a smile. The future was still full of unknowns but Amity was right. She had plenty of time to figure things out. And with all her friends at her side, she had a feeling that no matter what she ended up choosing, it would all work out for the best.

Chapter Text

Luz smiled as she got out of her car and looked at the SCI building. She just couldn’t help but marvel at the changes the building had undergone over the years. What had started as, according to Gus, a small storage facility where they conducted low danger research had turned into a sprawling complex that contained everything from on-site housing, a couple small shops staffed by people in the know, and guest suites for visitors from either realm. It was fascinating to think that the place she’d been locked up and used as a guinea pig to test their security had become such a center of diplomacy.

“You know you don’t have to stare every time we come here,” Amity said with a smile as she got out of the other side of the car.

“You just don’t have any appreciation for how much things have changed,” Luz scoffed as she made her way around the car to stand next to her girlfriend.

“I think you have enough appreciation for the both of us,” Amity noted dryly with a deadpan glare. After a few seconds, her glare melted away with a laugh. “Come on, let’s see if the others are there yet.”

Taking hold of her girlfriend’s hand, Luz walked up to the front doors of the building. As usual, a number of detectors when off the moment she opened the door, causing what looked to be a newer agent to jump to attention and start grabbing her weapon. Thankfully Luz was saved from having to do anything when Steve slapped the weapon out of the woman’s hands and walked up to Luz.

“Luz!” he said with a huge smile as he pulled her into a hug. “Always good to see you!”

“You see me almost every week Steve,” Luz said with a chuckle as she pulled free from the hug.

“That doesn’t change anything,” Steve retorted before turning to Amity. “And it’s good to see you too Amity,” He said as he held out a hand.

“It’s good to see you too Steve,” Amity said as she shook his hand, clearly relieved that he hadn’t tried to hug her as well. “Where’s Gus? I would have thought he’d be here waiting for us.”

“Well, since you two ended up running late for some mysterious reason,” Steve said as he pointedly didn’t look at their intertwined hands, causing the two of them to blush slightly. “All the others got here already and went on ahead without you. I’m sure Eda and Camila are talking all about how you don’t want to spend time with them anymore right now.”

Luz couldn’t help but smile a bit at that. “Then I guess we better get going. Is Lilith there too or..?”

“She’s on the other side but she’s a little busy today. The beast keeping coven is trying to get permission to go hunt down the giraffes again and they wouldn’t talk to anyone below her,” Steve replied with an apologetic shrug.

Luz groaned and rubbed her forehead to forestall the headache she knew was going to be on its way if the beast keepers figured out she was back on the isles today. “Why can’t they just leave them alone? We even got a couple giraffes to come by and explain things in person!”

While Steve refrained from saying anything, Amity wasn’t quite so kind. “And right after that membership in that anti-giraffe group almost tripled,” she reminded Luz. “Once they knew that the giraffes were running around perfectly free and, magically speaking, completely uncontained that group got some real traction under them.”

“How was I supposed to know they still thought Earth was so devoid of magic it would have caused the giraffes to die out?!”

Amity, traitor that she was, just shrugged and smiled.

Grumbling at the injustices levied against her by those that she had thought her friends, Luz led the way through the building to the portal room. Like the rest of the building, it too had undergone changes over the years. Gone was the laboratory feel from when the portal was still being tinkered with and improved. Now the place had a feel much more similar to a higher-end airport terminal. With areas for people to declare what they were bringing across realms and a portal location schedule hanging on one wall showing the different places the portal would be connecting to today.

Thankfully they hadn’t been late enough to miss with Havensburg connection. Luz already felt conspicuous enough with being allowed to skip the lines and ignore the customs counter whenever she traveled between worlds. She didn’t want to add them redirecting the portal on her behalf to that feeling of taking advantage of her status. She only hoped that she could at least make it through without-

“Herald!”

She froze and a tortured groan escaped her before she turned around, her best fake smile plastered across her face. A smile that grew even more strained when she saw just who was rushing to say hello. “Hey, Kevin.”

The former coven guard had, as always, a massive smile on his face as he finished running up to Luz and bowed deeply. “Herald! I beg of you to bestow upon me the wisdom of the Titan!”

Luz fought down a groan at his request. After he’d seen her channeling the Titan after the fight with Belos he’d become one of the most fervent members of the Followers of the Herald. Luz was also pretty sure that he was one of the founding members and one of the reasons that the stupid cult had spread as far as it had. Knowing that the Titan wasn’t going to bother responding to her requests for wisdom, she wracked her brain for a random bit of wisdom she hadn’t shared with him yet. “Uhhh, look before you leap.”

As always Kevin looked like she had revealed the secrets of the universe to him as he bowed once more. “Many thanks as always Herald! Go forth and bring the will of the Titan to all!”

“Riiight,” Luz said as she backed away from him and pulled Amity, who was doing a terrible job of hiding her laughter, along towards the portal. “If you don’t stop laughing I’m going to tell him you secretly liked his title for you,” Luz grumbled.

Amity’s laughter immediately dried up as she turned a glare towards Luz. “You wouldn’t.”

“Wouldn’t I, oh Holy Mate?” Luz countered as she met Amity’s glare.

They managed to keep their staring contest going for several seconds before Luz started to break down and started giggling. Amity was quick to follow once she saw that she had claimed victory in their contest.

“Don’t worry, I’d never do that to you,” Luz assured Amity.

“Good. I’d hate to have to… convince him otherwise again.”

Luz rolled her eyes as she pulled Amity through the portal. Much like the portal room on the human side, the portal connection that sat in what was once the Underground’s safe haven had changed immensely over the years. The surroundings were manned by several coven guards who bowed upon seeing her, something that still threw her for a loop even today. Like on the human side she was able to leave the walled-off area without dealing with customs or any other bureaucracy on her way to the rest of the town.

A smile blossomed across her face as the sounds and sights of the still informal market distract washed over her. Everywhere she looked she could see hopeful witches looking to sell overpriced items of all types to anyone that had come through the portal, or had just come to see the portal, or had come to try and cash in on the boom in wealth that the portal had generated. Her smile grew as she and Amity dove into the throng of people, both equally glad that the average witch didn’t know either of their appearances on sight. Though that had more to do with the fact that the Followers of the Herald had a tendency to embellish any bit of artwork they made than their lack of trying to spread their beliefs.

Of course, that didn’t mean Luz wanted to stick around and see if there were any other cult members wandering around that might draw attention to her. The members fervent enough to cause trouble were rare but she’d already had her fill of devotion for one day. Thankfully the rest of their trip was free from any interruptions from any other cultists. That wasn’t to say that the rest of their trip was completely without interruptions though.

“Hey, wait. Is that Willow over there?” Amity asked she slowed to a stop and began to point at what looked like Willow sitting in a cafe they were passing.

“I think so…” Luz agreed after a moment, a smile spreading across her face. It had been far too long since she’d had a chance to talk to Willow in person after all. “Hey, Wi-” Before she could get any further a hand slapped over her mouth. Not letting her attacker do anything else, she grabbed hold of their arm, twisting it and slamming them into the ground. It was only after she had started casting a paralysis spell that she finally realized just who it was that had attacked her. “Gus?”

“Yeah,” he wheezed out as he tried to get his breath back.

“Oh my gosh! I didn’t know it was you!” Luz said as she helped him to his feet.

“That’s okay,” he said after he managed to catch his breath. “Should have remembered not to do that when we’re on the Boiling Isles.”

“Weren’t you bragging in our last group call that you got promoted and were in charge of the new agent orientation for the Boiling Isles?” Amity asked with a barely suppressed laugh.

“Yeah, yeah, laugh it up,” Gus muttered as he brushed himself off. “I just didn’t want you alerting Willow to our presence.” When both Luz and Amity looked at him in confusion he gestured for them to follow him. After a bit of repositioning, they were able to see the interior of the cafe that Willow was sitting in. More importantly, they were able to see just who she was talking to.

“Is that Hunter?” Luz asked with a grin.

“Yep!” Gus confirmed with a serious nod. “Willow has been coming by the Boiling Isles every time she comes back to Southborough since she started college. She always says she’s doing some research on Boiling Isles flora but she also always does that ‘research’ with Hunter,” he explained, winking as he made air quotes around the word research.

“And you think you’re finally going to win that bet?” Luz asked with a grin.

Gus nodded resolutely. “I keep telling you that they’re definitely dating!” 

“No way! They’re just friends,” Luz countered.

“Well then you’re just going to have to keep an eye on them with me and prove me right!” Gus declared as his eyes narrowed in challenge.

Amity, who had thus far been completely silent took a few steps back. “While you two do that I’m going to step aside and leave Willow and Hunter to do whatever it is they’re doing in private without speculating on their relationship status,” she said in a clear voice.

Luz and Gus both stared at Amity in confusion as she backed up. When her eyes momentarily flicked upwards at something above them, Luz and Gus shared a bemused glance before the two of them simultaneously looked up. For a second Luz didn’t really see anything out of the ordinary, just plants growing along a wooden lattice that sat on the side of the cafe, rustling noisily in the wind. She blinked as something about that seemed off. After a moment’s thought her eyes widened as she realized that there wasn’t even the slightest breeze right now.

Unfortunately, her realization came too late to do anything as the plants on the side of the building erupted downwards, grabbing both her and Gus. Trussing them up like birthday presents and depositing them at the entrance to the cafe.

“Seriously?” asked a simultaneously amused and annoyed voice.

Luz wiggled around in her plant prison to see Willow staring down at them, Hunter hanging off sheepishly to the side. While part of her worried that he was reverting back to the skittish behavior that had dominated their early friendship, the larger part of her was pretty sure he just didn’t want to get in the way of whatever Willow was going to do to Gus and her. Luz could only hope that the great and terrible Willow would be feeling kind today.

Gus didn’t seem too keen on helping though. “You may have stopped us today but we will find out your secrets eventually!” he declared with a cheesy grin.

Luz, on the other hand, decided to do the smart thing. “It was all Gus’s idea.”

Willow snorted in amusement as Gus stared at Luz in horror at being thrown under the bus like that. “Seriously, Luz? Not even gonna back me up a little bit?”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Luz replied with her best innocent expression.

“What am I going to do with you guys?” Willow asked as the plants binding them loosened and retracted back up to the wall.

“Well, you could tell us the truth about how you’re dating Hunter,” Gus suggested with a grin.

Willow just sighed and rolled her eyes before turning to Luz. “Hey, Luz. I didn’t think you and Amity would be here for another…” she glanced down at her phone and her eyes widened slightly. “Fifteen minutes ago.” Her shoulders slumped as she glanced at Hunter.

“Don’t look at me. I’m not the one that started the discussion about possibly growing icewort outside of the Boiling Isles,” Hunter said with a shrug.

Willow groaned as she leaned back against the cafe’s wall. “Eda is never going to let me live this down.”

Seeing the confused looks Gus and Luz were sporting, Hunter spoke up, “Willow promised that she would be back in time to help finish setting things up for you guys to get here. Eda made some…. Insinuations… about how she thought things were going to go.”

“She handed you a pack of condoms and told you not to keep me busy for too long,” Willow growled, causing a blush to erupt across Hunter’s face.

Luz grimaced and patted Hunter’s shoulder comfortingly. “She did the same thing with me when I went to spend the weekend at Amity’s apartment.”

To Luz’s surprise, it was Willow that asked the obvious question. “The exact same thing. Including the condoms?”

Luz’s cheeks tinted slightly as she nodded. “Yes.”

“But you don’t-” Gus began.

“There’s a spell for that,” Luz said as her blush grew to cover more of her face.

“Have you ever…” Hunter trailed off as common sense and morbid curiosity waged a desperate battle across his expression. “Gotten back at Eda for that?” he eventually finished as common sense, and fear of the glare Amity was shooting him, prevailed.

“We tried,” Amity groused. “I got a few things from a… very particular shop in the Boiling Isles to ‘thank’ her for looking out for us. Eda thanked us and added them to her collection. Which she proceeded to show off to us.”

Luz joined Amity in shuddering at the memory of Eda explaining just what each of the toys was used for, along with whether they were usually used on her or Raine. Luz was happy that the two of them had managed to get back together and stay together but there were plenty of things she did not want to know about their relationship.

Everyone was quickly brought out of their various not quite repressed enough memories by a sudden clap. “And that’s enough of that topic!” Gus declared as he looked around at everyone. “So let’s get going to Camila’s house so we can see Eda act all smug at Willow!”

Willow half-heartedly tried to smack Gus on the back of the head, her poorly hidden smile ceasing any pretense at being masked when Gus dodged under the blow and stuck his tongue out at her. “I guess you’re right,” she said as she shook her head and started to make her way down the road, Hunter falling into step beside her as they resumed whatever discussion Luz and Gus had interrupted.

With a smile Luz took hold of Amity’s hand once more and fell into step behind her friends, alternating between talking to Amity and Gus and looking around at the ever-changing town. Every time she came back it seemed like something had changed. New buildings were thrown up, streets changed from dirt paths to cobblestone roads, and more and more witches and demons moved in. Even after so many visits a part of her still couldn’t help but marvel at the fact that what had once been a desperate safe haven for a bunch of wild witches had somehow turned into what was looking to become the new economic and cultural center of the Boiling Isles.

As they trekked onwards Luz watched the buildings give way from commercial to residential. And those residential buildings slowly shift from apartments and boarding houses to single-family homes. Finally, at the further edges of the town, they reached their goal. 

Despite her mom’s insistence, the house hadn’t quite managed to emerge unscathed from the changes that had swept the safe haven. The house more than doubled in size as it was expanded to be able to accommodate the number of guests that would often come to visit. More guest rooms, larger kitchen, dining room, and living rooms. Her mom had been hesitant every step of the way to make use of Luz’s newfound fame and connections to get the house redone, using her own money and doing her best to talk the prices up from whatever extreme discounts she was being given.

Except when it had come to adding more bathrooms. It had only taken her one instance of needing to use the single bathroom the house had once had only to find a line waiting in front of it for her to take advantage of everything she could to get more installed as soon as possible.

Luz’s grin was massive as she threw open the front door. “Mom! I’m back!”

“I’m in the kitchen Luz!”

Leaving Willow, Gus, and Hunter behind to follow her mom’s voice, Luz perked up even more as she noticed the scent of freshly baked pastries in the air. Her steps became even more hurried as she recognized the scent of oatmeal razor cookies. She and Amity had tried to replicate the recipes using human realm ingredients but they never quite got it right.  As soon as they entered the kitchen Luz’s eyes immediately snapped to the still cooling plate of cookies on the counter. After glancing around to see that her mom was busy cleaning up the dishes she’d used to make the cookies and was in no condition for a hug quite yet she returned her gaze to the cookies. With a happy grin she reached out to snag a cookie from the plate, only to yelp in surprise when a section of the countertop twisted around and grabbed at her outstretched hand.

“No cookies until after dinner,” her mom said, not even having bothered to turn around.

“Come on, just one?” Luz begged as she tried to slip her hand out of its stoney prison.

Her mom was silent for a few seconds before sighing. “Fine. But just one! And only after you come over here and give me a hug!” she said as she finished up with the last of the dishes and turned around. With a twirl of her finger, the countertop released Luz and she looked at her daughter expectantly.

Luz needed no further prompting to rush over and give her mom a hug. Amity though… “Come on Amity, get over here too!”

Amity was still a little hesitant to join in on the hug but she didn’t protest. Certainly a solid upgrade from the earlier times when she had been so skittish around Luz’s mom. Luz still teased her from time to time about how worried she’d been about impressing her mom. Of course, even if Amity was more willing to accept hugs she still didn’t linger too long.

“It’s good to see you, Camila. How have things been going at the lab?” Amity asked as she extricated herself from the hug.

“Better now that those idiots from both sides are actually listening to each other,” Camila groused as she cast a spell to levitate a cookie into the air and sent it towards Luz. “Between the threats of kicking out anyone that wasn’t willing to play nice and some of the younger doctors and healers getting some promising results, everyone is actually putting in some real effort.” She sighed and glanced in the direction of the center of town and the portal link it housed. “I just wish we could share more of this with your realm.”

Luz frowned as the mood dropped a bit at that. “They’re working on it but it turns out it’s hard to introduce magic to billions of people who think it’s all just made up or that it’s evil or something. All we had to do here was say that that one realm everyone knows about is actually going to be in constant contact from now on and neither side is invading each other.”

Amity nodded. “But it’s only a matter of time. The SCI’s funding has gone through the roof since they started providing diplomatic and trade relations with another realm and there are a lot of people that are really eager to take advantage of the new markets. And they can’t really do that if everything needs to be hidden.”

Camila shook her head, an amused smile crossing her face. “Of course. It figures that greed would be what pushes things forward the most,” she said with a snort.

“Yeah,” Luz said as both she and Amity nodded in agreement. “But at least it does get things done. Kikimora says that if things keep going the way they have been we should be ready for a full reveal in a couple of years. Though some of that depends on how things go with the transfer programs end up working out. I think there are twenty witches living in Southborough now as part of the exchange program and they’ve been doing pretty good. They haven’t been too obvious with their magic but people know who and what they are. Apparently, the SCI is banking on it all turning out the way it does with a lot of other towns in the human world where the people around there just accept that there’s a girl made of metal, or talking frogs, or a half-ghost around. Once that happens they can just point to those places and talk about how not only can we live in peace, but we already are in some places.”

Her mom nodded along with what Luz was saying before she froze for a moment and a smile began to creep across her face. “Speaking of people going over to the human realm from the Boiling Isles, Vee took a trip back there recently.”

Luz’s eyes widened in shock at that. Vee hadn’t set foot in the human realm since she had been sent to the Boiling Isles. Even when offers had been made she had always turned them down, citing that she much preferred it in the isles. “Why didn’t she let me know?! We could have met up and had some fun!”

“Well, it was more for business than pleasure. She went to see the man that raised her.”

A chill ran down Luz’s spine at that. Her adopted sister had never really gone into much detail about her life before she had come to the Boiling Isles but Luz had been able to put together enough to know it hadn’t been the best. “Is she alright? She isn’t still there is she?”

Camila nodded with a laugh. “She’s perfectly fine, maybe better than ever, and she’s out with her friends right now. One of them just got a job at the potion’s coven and they’re celebrating. She should be back soon though. In any case, it’s been a few days since she went over there and she didn’t tell me everything but I do know that when she left that man’s house she wasn’t the one with bruises that time.”

Luz quickly had a smile that rivaled Camila’s at that news. Vee may have had more skill with her glyphs than brawling but she still wasn’t the sort of person you wanted to challenge to a fistfight.

Amity, however, had other thoughts on that news. “Is that going to affect her ability to get emancipated?”

Thankfully Luz’s mom seemed to be ready for that. “Thanks to a little help from the SCI Vee was included with the list of witches that got identities set up in the human realm. So she is now officially Veronica Noceda of the Boiling Isles, no relation to any Veronica’s that had terrible fathers and were never even listed as missing despite being gone for years.”

Luz pulled her mom in for another hug at that. Vee had been officially part of the Noceda family for years now according to the Boiling Isles but it was wonderful to hear that that fact now held true for both sides of the portal.

Her mom laughed at Luz’s exuberant response to the news and hugged her back just as tightly. Though after a moment, a moment where she stopped Luz from swiping a second cookie, she pulled back. “But I think that’s enough about how things have been going on our side, how have you two been doing?”

Amity stepped forward eagerly and began to talk about the latest goings-on at her college. Primarily the large project that she was doing for one of her higher-level business courses. Luz listened with half an ear as Amity vacillated between lamenting about not being able to use magic for any of her ideas, venting about how some people weren’t doing their fair share of the work, and going into excruciating detail about the finer points of their group’s project. Luz had heard it all before and could recite a good portion of Amity’s project by heart now after hearing it so many times when Amity bounced ideas off her or used her as a test audience for the group’s reports. Thankfully she wasn’t out of it enough to notice when Amity’s explanations wrapped up and her mom turned her attention to her.

“What about you Luz?”

“I… actually I’ve been having fun with the creative writing class I’ve been taking,” Luz said after a moment. At her mom’s encouraging nod she started explaining. With every word she built up steam, slowly getting more detailed and emotive in her explanations. She got so caught up in her explanations that she didn't even notice the growing audience.

“Sounds like you’re having fun with that stuff kid,” Eda said from where she was leaning against the kitchen doorframe.

“Eda, be nice,” Raine admonished her with a light swat to the back of the head. Ignoring Eda’s indignant yelp they turned to Luz. “Writing and music aren’t quite the same but if you have any questions feel free to ask me. If nothing else make sure that you let me know when you are getting asked to sign a contract. If publishers are anything like music labels you’ll want at least a second pair of eyes to look over things.”

“Oh, uh, thanks Raine,” Luz said with a small blush, slightly embarrassed at having been overheard by more than her intended audience. Her blush faded as Amity pulled her into a one-armed hug and shot Eda a half-hearted glare.

“Okay, okay, I know when I should stop pressing,” Eda began.

“Even if she doesn’t always follow through,” Raine added with a grin.

Eda glared at her significant other for a few seconds before turning away. “You’re lucky you’re cute,” she grumbled under her breath. Though not quiet enough to not be heard by Raine, given the light flush that touched their cheeks. “Anyway! I originally came in here to let you know that everyone is finally here and I managed to finish making fun of Willow for losing track of time and not managing to get back here before you. So let’s get going!”

Luz smiled as everyone followed Eda through the house to the much-expanded living room. Her smile grew even larger as she looked around and saw Gus, Willow, and Hunter deep in a discussion while Vee and her group of friends were messing around with that deck of cards that Terri always carried around.

“You have done well for yourself,” the Titan said.

Yeah, I really have, Luz thought back. Unsurprisingly the Titan didn’t respond, instead returning to its usual silence. Luz couldn't help but shake her head in amusement. While she still had arguments with the Titan from time to time about giving it more control, or simply giving it full control over another person that had committed enough crimes to warrant such a fate, it never failed to amuse her with how genial the ancient entity that her entire race lived on could be in the rare instances when it decided to pipe up.

Pushing thoughts of the Titan to the back of her mind Luz joined in with the various conversations, simply enjoying being back on the Boiling Isles with her family and friends again. Before long Eda pulled a bottle of apple blood out from somewhere and began pouring everyone some glasses, to the excitement of Gus and the mild disappointment of Camila and Raine. Disappointment that Eda waved off with the reasoning that it was better for the kids to learn how to handle being drunk somewhere safe instead of at some college rager or something.

Eventually, everyone had a glass and Eda looked around the room with a smile. “So, anyone want to do a toast or should we just get started?”

After a moment Luz cleared her throat and, after doing her best to quash a bit of last-second nerves, stepped forward. “I… I’d just like to say thanks. Thanks to everyone here for everything that we’ve all managed to do. For all the changes that we’ve helped make. And for being there for each other. I can’t think of anyone else I’d rather be spending time with than all of my friends and family.”

“Amen to that!” Eda said as she held up her glass.

Luz’s anxiousness faded as she watched everyone else raise their glasses as well. A small, content, smile crossed her face as she watched her friends and family clink their glasses against each other for the toast.

“Good job Luz,” Amity said as she clinked her glass against Luz’s.

Nodding in thanks Luz looked around the room once more with a smile as she took a sip of her own apple blood.

Only to choke when the taste of the stuff hit her tongue. Something that she wasn’t alone in, to her great relief. While Amity, Willow, and Vee’s friends had managed to handle the drink without any apparent issue she could see a grimace on the faces of Hunter and Vee while Gus had reacted even more spectacularly than she had, spraying the apple blood all over a thoroughly unamused Eda. Everything was silent for several seconds before Luz started to laugh. Her mirth spread quickly until even Eda was laughing a little while trying to wipe herself down with a towel Raine had given her.

The party continued on for quite a while after that. With the attendees drifting from conversation to conversation, laughs being shared, and stories being told. By the end of things, Luz was happily exhausted as she leaned on the railing of her mom’s front porch. In the distance the sun was just starting to set, staining the distant sea a brilliant orange.

“Watching the sunset without me?”

Luz turned to see Amity leaning against the doorframe with a playful smirk on her face. “Just getting a head start,” she assured her girlfriend.

“I guess I can forgive you this once,” Amity said with mock solemnity as she moved into position next to Luz to wrap one arm over Luz’s waist and give her a quick kiss on the cheek.

The two of them remained silent as they watched the sun disappear below the horizon, bringing an end to a wonderful day. And Luz was sure that the next one was going to be better.