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It is late afternoon in the Noceda household and 13 year old Azura is nearly bolting out the door, ready to go camping with her older cousin and some friends.
“Ok! I’m off to see Eileen!” Azura yells from the entrance entryway of the house.
“Not until you properly say goodbye to us, mija!” Luz shouts from the living room.
“But mooooom I’m gonna be late,” Azura complains.
“Should have thought of that before you spent all day playing video games instead of packing,” Amity responds.
Begrudgingly, Azura sets her backpack down and makes her way over to the living room. Her moms, Luz and Amity, are lounging on the couch watching anime. Luz on the further side of the couch, and Amity resting on top of Luz, a blanket covering the two. Azura approaches Amity, leans down, and pecks her mom on the cheek.
“I love you mom,” Azura says after the kiss.
Amity raises herself a bit to kiss Azura’s forehead. “I love you too sweetie,” she softly states.
Azura lifts herself up to kiss Luz on the cheek. “I love you mamí.”
Luz kisses Azura’s forehead as well. “Love you too mija. All right, you can go.”
In a flash, Azura is out the door. Racing to meet up with her cousin, Eileen.
As soon as the door slams shut, Amity turns to her wife and smirks. She slowly starts reaching for the TV remote on the coffee table. Luz playfully slaps the sneaking hand, making Amity retreat it back under the blanket.
“After this episode,” Luz sarcastically scolds Amity.
“But after this episode you’re gonna wanna watch the next one,” Amity pouts.
“That is the point of binge watching, yes,” Luz jests. She kisses Amity on the top of her head. “I love you babe.”
“I love you too.”
Azura dashes through Bonesborough, towards the forest. Her destination is a rundown, former shell of a house demon a little ways in. Her moms have taken Azura there before on family walks and such. Luz would tell Azura about her adventures with the inhabitants of the house, back when she first arrived at The Boiling Isles. Nowadays, all the residents had moved out, or passed on. Even the house demon itself left when his work was no longer needed. Tonight however, it was going to be a campground for Azura and her friends.
Azura is the second one to arrive at the house, Eileen already waiting at the door, browsing her scroll. Eileen was the daughter of Viney and Emira, Amity’s elder sister. She was four years older than Azura, about a foot taller, pale as both her mothers, and had long, mostly brown hair with a streak of naturally green bangs that she brushed to the left side of her face.
“Eileen!” Azura shouts out of breath as she approaches the house. “Sorry I couldn’t get here sooner, my moms held me up.”
“Uh huh,” Eileen doubts. “I can see you logged out of your Smoke account 45 minutes ago.”
“Uuuuuuuhhhhhh…” Azura tries and fails to come up with an excuse.
“It’s no matter,” Eileen dismisses. “I was able to get everything cleaned up easily enough, check it.” She opens the door to reveal a recently cleaned, but still dilapidated living room. Her sleeping bag rests on the far side of the room near the kitchen. A crystal ball sits on the old coffee table, next to a peculiar electronic.
Instead of a wand or staff, Eileen used a piece of electronic hardware as her magic focus. Fingerless gloves for her hands, with tubes coming out the back of the glove and connecting to a vest that would cover the shoulders and chest of the wearer. This vest had wires connecting from the back of the collar to two separate pieces of a light headpiece that would be worn over the ears and lined the face of the wearer. The integration of human technology with the witches magic brought with it some new ideas, this being one of them. Electronic magic telepathy, or electromagipathy as it had been dubbed by Jacob, a human working beside Luz, Amity, and Prime Minister Lilith. Their work safely introduced the human and witch realms to each other. Electromagipathy uses electronic technology and a little magic to enhance the slight telepathic nature of witches bile. Knowing your enemy’s moves before they happen, what kind of magic they intend to use, seeing through illusions, and even hijacking creatures created with magic: such as plant monsters, oracle projections, and abominations. The downside was that the technology was still in its infancy, and the future didn’t look bright for advancement due to more important matters between the realms. The electronic focus would heat up quickly, making sustained usage uncomfortable, and bile needed to be recharged quickly. Not only was bile being used by the witch by casting spells, but the apparatus would take blood from the back of the wearer’s hands through miniscule needles in the gloves to enhance the telepathic effects of witches bile, and then renter into the spell. The needles felt no more painful than a mosquito bite. Eileen asked to be one of the progenitors of this new magic, and with approval from her parents, was given her own electronic magic focus, or EMAF, since EMF was already taken.
“Sorry I couldn’t help you clean up,” Azura apologizes.
“Really, it’s fine,” Eileen assures Azura. “Just set your sleeping bag next to mine. Opal and Ludwig texted, said that they were running a little late as well.”
After Azura sets up her sleeping arrangement, she joins Eileen outside as they wait for the other two campers. However, something is pulling at her thoughts. “How are your parents?” Azura asks Eileen as she takes a seat next to her on the ground.
“They’re fine,” Eileen answers. “Why do you ask?”
“Well… I know they’re getting a divorce and I just wanted to make sure everything was ok. I know I was too young to remember, but I heard that Grandma and Grandpa’s divorce was a mess.”
Eileen pats Azura on the head. “Everything is fine, there’s no need to worry. They just decided that marrying right after high school was not the best choice for them.”
“How do you feel about it?”
There’s a pause as Eileen thinks. “I’m a bit sad to be honest, but I get it. And who knows, maybe somewhere down the line they’ll hook back up again, take things more steady.”
Out of the darkness of the forest appear two bright orbs of magical light, and under them walks the friends of Azura and Eileen, Ludwig and Opal.
Ludwig was a humanoid lizard witch and adopted son of Boscha and Skara. He was about a year older than Azura, taller than Azura but shorter than Eileen, and had fiery red scales. Also, he was born deaf. His deafness was hardly an issue in his household because Boscha was mute thanks to an accident she suffered as a teenager, which caused her and Skara to learn sign language before Ludwig’s adoption. He was also taught how to read lips, and became very apt at it, able to keep up with conversations even when others around him didn’t know about his deafness or didn’t know sign language. Azura, Eileen and Opal learned sign language to properly communicate with Ludwig anyways, but when they were all together Ludwig was fine with just reading their lips.
Opal was actually a daughter of a former classmate of Amity’s, that being Selene. Very similar head and skin tone to her mother, maybe a bit darker, the main difference being Opal’s eye was on the left side of her face. She and Azura were in the same class, and due to the ease of access to human media in recent years, Opal fell in love with anime, to which she and Azura bonded over. She even specialized in oracle magic, like her mother, however for a more humorous reason.
As the two friends approach the campsite, Azura shoots to her feet and starts waving them down. “Hey!” she shouts from across the yard.
Opal and Ludwig politely wave as the two parties begin to meet in the middle of the clearing. Azura runs up to them, nearly tackling her friends as she encompasses them in a hug, which they return.
Opal is the first to speak up. “Hey, sorry we’re late. Ludwig’s parents would just not let go of him.”
“Sorry,” Ludwig signs.
“Oh, it’s fine,” Eileen responds, “as long as you guys made it.”
“So what’s planned tonight?” Ludwig asks.
“First we do some training,” Eileen starts. “Free for all. I want to see how y’all have advanced since last time. Next, I got stuff for an open fire cook out. And we’ll end the night watching movies on my crystal ball, you know if Azura’s still awake.”
“I can keep up with you guys!” Azura defends.
“I’m just teasing,” Eileen smirks. “Anyways, I’ll go grab my focus.”
Eileen runs into the house, affixes her electronic focus, and comes back outside to see the other three already in their starting positions. Azura directly in front of Eileen a few meters out, Opal to Azura’s right, and Ludwig directly to Eileen’s left.
“Looking sharp Eileen!” Opal calls.
As Eileen looks over she spots Ludwig giving two, nearly sarcastic thumbs up at his side.
Eileen just smirks in response. “Alright! Are we all ready?”
“Ready!” shouts Azura.
“Ready!” shouts Opal as well.
Eileen shoots a thumbs up at Ludwig, who returns the favor, confirming his readiness. With a nod of recognition Eileen raises three fingers and starts counting down. “Three, two, one!” she shouts. After Eileen signals the beginning of the match she starts analysing her opponents.
Azura can hear Opal imitating an anime opening theme to her right. Immediately she starts preparing a spell. Time suddenly slows to a crawl around Azura. The leaves blowing in the wind nearly stop in midair, however Azura can move just fine. She makes her way behind Eileen and starts preparing another spell, breaking her time slowing spell.
“Ludwig needs a moment to prepare his magic,” Eileen thinks to herself. “Opal is not much of a threat since I can hijack her projection. Which means that-,” her thoughts are interrupted by Azura shouting, from behind her.
“Lightn-!” Azura manages to shout before getting hit in the side by a giant fist made of earth.
Eileen looks over to see Ludwig, eyes closed, punching through a giant spell circle.
The magic that Ludwig specialized in was one that the former tyrant of The Boiling Isles appeared to have known, and was later found out to be true. Belos was right in the fact that the dead titan that made up the isles could communicate with the witches of the world, just not in the way he portrayed. The whole island vibrated so subtlety that no one or thing could ever feel it. It’s believed that these vibrations are remnants of the first magic ever used by the titans and then by their giant descendants, and was thought to have disappeared when the ancient giants used the last of the primordial ooze to create the witches. However, the power of this magic can still be felt centuries later but only on The Boiling Isles. It was found that a witch could put themselves in a meditative state so sensitive they would be able to feel these vibrations, and with the help of their bile, feel the world in a completely different way. In the meditative state they would notice any differences in the vibrations of the isles. Noticing shifts in the air, movement on the ground even from long distances, negligible ripples in water, and could even harness the land to an extent. More morbidly however, it was found out that the former tyrant’s statues were also tapping into this magic.
Even though it was swift, Ludwig could feel where Azura was going, and prepared for when she would strike. Suddenly, Ludwig feels the air around him shift. Opal has summoned her projection, and it's approaching him rapidly. He immediately makes another spell circle using both his hands, which becomes two spell circles, with one projected in front of the other. One circle falls to the ground, while the other stays in front of him. Ludwig punches through the circle in front of him, and a chunk of earth is launched from the ground and at Opal’s projection.
Opal’s projection easily punches through the projectile. Ludwig punches again and another missile is thrown in her direction, which is easily smashed through again. Then another, and another, and another, faster and faster that the chunks of earth and the fist of the projection became blurs. Opal imitates one of her favorite anime lines as she commands her projection. Ludwig starts to lose timing on his breathing, his spell circles start to fade and flicker. Opal winds up her projection for a final punch. When all of a sudden the projection whips around and slams Opal in the chest, sending her flying back a few steps and making her drop her crystal focus. Opal looks over toward Eileen, standing in the middle of the field, smirking, both of her wrist in two small spell circles, and Opal’s former projection copying Eileen’s every move.
“Should have seen that coming,” Opal mumbles to herself while getting up. “No matter, I preferred using these anyways.” Out of her back pocket she pulls out a deck of 22 cards, and starts shuffling. After a few seconds Opal takes the top card from the deck. “Chariot,” she reads. Opal instantly phases from her location, and reappears at Eileen’s side. She draws a small spell circle in the air, which a small arcane bolt flies from, and disappears again. Opal repeats this process numerous times.
Eileen tries to predict where Opal will next appear from, trying to grab her with her own projection and dodge the arcane bolts. But Opal’s newfound speed is too much for Eileen, and Ludwig is now preoccupied with Azura.
As Opal is dashing around time seems to move slower for her. She knows this is just the effect of her speed, but suddenly, she seems to be moving at the same speed as the rest of the world again. “Wait,” she thinks to herself, “the effect of the card can’t be over just yet.” She can see Azura, now casually trotting infront of her.
“You know technically, I can move faster,” Azura brags. She draws another spell circle directly in front of Opal. “I hope you paid attention in physics, ‘cause at the speed you're moving at, this is gonna hurt.” It’s smaller than the one Azura tried to use on Eileen, meaning she doesn’t have to break concentration on her time slowing magic. A small, inconsequential, arcane bolt starts moving towards Opal.
Opal can process everything at the same pace as Azura due to her increased speed, but can’t dodge Azura’s spell because of the time magic. The bolt splatters against Opal, and time speeds up back to normal as she flies backwards again, into a tree.
“Not again…” Opal mumbles to herself.
“Sup kid,” a voice to Opal’s right states.
Opal recognizes the voice, and immediately turns towards it to see Azura’s private mentor. A tall pale woman with jet black hair and eyes, wearing a plate battle dress, decorated with raven feathers along the skirt, sleeves, and breastplate. “Eve!” Opal shouts. “What are you doing here?”
“Um…” Eve would rather have everyone together when she answers that so she doesn’t have to repeat herself. “Let’s say, reconnaissance, for now anyways.”
Opal is confused by the answer.
“You’re a fan of anime, right?” Eve asks to quickly change the subject.
“Yeah?” Opal is now more confused.
“Then you’ll get a kick out of this.” Eve starts making her way over to the fight happening between the other three friends. “ZA WAR-!”
Instantly all four teens are sitting on the old couch in the house, Eve standing across the room from them. Azura sitting closest to the door, Eileen to her right, Opal after her, and Ludwig on the other end.
“Geez,” Eve starts. “That was the one of the messiest fights I’ve ever seen. Azura! You’re first on the chopping block. You still didn’t use any big spells without breaking time dilation.”
“It's hard to do,” Azura complains.
“Won’t get anywhere without practice.” Eve turns to Eileen. “Eileen, your focus was so hot when I touched it, I’m surprised you’re not well done.”
“I could have held out longer,” Eileen scoffs.
Eve moves down the line to Opal. “Opal, why just one card? Stack those enhancements!”
“The tower…” Opal mutters.
Eve sucks her lips in. “Fair point.” She shifts over to Ludwig. “And you…” Eve suddenly reaches out her right hand. “Don’t believe we’ve met. Good to meet you! I’m Eve, Azura’s mentor.”
Ludwig reaches out his hand to return the shake. “Ludwig,” he says to the best of his ability.
Eve is taken aback slightly. “Oh, uh…” she draws a small spell circle, and glowing words start magically appearing in front of her. “I’m sorry,” they read. “That was awfully rude of me.”
Opal taps Ludwig on the shoulder. “Just sign to me, I’ll interpret,” she signs.
“It’s ok,” Ludwigh signs. “You had no way of knowing.”
Opal turns back to Eve. “He says it's fine, you have know way of knowing. He can also read lips very well,” she adds.
“Thank you,” Eve states and her subtitles read.
Eileen speaks up. “Can I ask why you’re here Eve?”
“Yeah you said, reconnaissance earlier?” Opal inserts.
“Yes, about that,” Eve states. “My father put some magic detectors around this area recently, ‘just in case someone comes back from the dead,’ as he put it. But there were too many magic sources in the area setting off the detectors, so he asked me to investigate. What are you kids doing out here anyways?”
“Camping trip!” Azura shouts happily.
“All by yourselves?” Eve questions.
“Our parents trust us,” Eileen answers.
“That’s good. Anyways what else do you guys have planned for tonight?”
“I brought campfire and grill supplies in my bottomless bag, planning on doing a grill top dinner. Burgers, hotdogs, corn.”
Eve perks at the mention of a grill. “Oh I freaking love to grill! You know what, let me do the cooking, and in return, I get some food.”
“Sure,” Eileen agrees. “I should have brought enough for extras anyways.”
“Aces! Get ready to have the best burgers of your life. Gas or coal?”
“Coal, easier to transport. Even in a bottomless bag.”
“Aww, I was hoping to do some Hank impressions,” Eve laments.
“Thank the titan,” Opal quips.
Later that night after the fire had been put out and the movies watched, Azura wakes up for a late night water. Eve, leaning in the open door frame of the house. She makes her way to her. “Eve?” Azura calls in a low voice to not wake anyone else up.
“Hm?” Eve acknowledges.
“You look… stressed.”
Eve sighs. “Well the thing is Azura, there were six magic sources here on the detectors…”
Azura is shocked by this information. “But there were only four of us,” she finishes for Eve.
“Yeah… I don’t know. Could have just been a faulty detector. Hopefully nothing to worry about. Now what are you doing up?”
“Water…” Azura whispers in with exaggerated dryness.
“You see my daughter, they do not fear death, and their abilities far out match the average human. They could conquer our world at any moment!”
“Yes father.”
“But you, with your gifts you will show them that we are capable of standing up to them, that we are on equal ground, even if they don’t consider us. Isn’t that right, Hecate?”
“Yes father.”