Work Text:
Lilith wasn’t sure why she’d spotted Amity trudging through the snow up the small path to the Raven’s Perch. Amity would come in for lessons most days, but it was a weekend. Even the Blight family knew the importance of one day off from study! Not to mention it was barely noon. But this had happened before. Amity was obsessed with learning, being the best she could be at every track she could study. This would sometimes result in the poor girl passing out on the bus before she even got to the tower...
“Pye, come.” She held out her hand, and the raven flew to it, hopping up onto her shoulder and letting out a croak. Lilith had done this before; get Amity at the door, tell her she needed rest, and send her on her way. Or maybe send her on a very simple errand. Getting an herb from the garden out back, delivering something to the Owl House, that sort of thing. Lilith pulled her black cloak tight around her, finding the chill in the air harder to agree with in her cursed form.
Just as Lilith got down the steps, the large wooden door creeeeeeeeeaked open, letting the light shine onto Lilith’s typical ‘all black’ ensemble. The dark cloth with the white of the Clawthorne seal apparent in the center of the room. Lilith smiled gently as the door opened, a djusting her glasses.
Amity was in typical winter wear, nothing spectacular there, other than the hood obscuring her face. Looks like she didn’t want to be seen today. Which was odd , but not rare. Lilith was a criminal after all. But when Amity removed her hood, and revealed the forlorn look resting on her face, Lilith knew this was no mistake in scheduling or thirst for knowledge.
“Amity,” Lilith snapped her fingers, and Pyewacket flew back up the stairs. Amity was clearly not in the mood for the bird’s japes, “What’s the matter? You should be out enjoying your day off, if I’m not mistaken.”
As Lilith closed the door behind Amity, the young girl heaved a heavy sigh into the room, as if it had been building up for miles. “I have a problem,” she said, “And I don’t know how to solve it.” Amity handed Lilith a black piece of cardstock, with bright red writing on it.
“A dueling test sheet? But you aren’t a duelist, Amity, you shouldn’t have had to do-”
Amity sighed, “Mom made all of us do it because some weird duelist from another...dimension or whatever showed up, and just-...just read the paper!” Amity seemed more upset than usual. And Lilith could see why when she got to a particular line.
‘Subject shows signs of nearsightedness in both eyes. Subject should NOT be admitted to dueling class, club, or tournament without the use of corrective lenses.’
For almost anyone else, ‘You need glasses’ wouldn’t be a huge deal. But for Amity Blight, to whom perfection was everything? Whose family treated any fault not as a thing to be lived with, but as a disease to cure? Lilith knew that this would probably be dyslexia all over again. The girl had barely made it through that diagnosis without doing something rash.
Amity moved to a small chair in the room and sat down, “I had to buy the frames on the way here, I didn’t know they could be so expensive.”
Lilith looked up from the page, “You had to buy frames? Your parents wouldn’t do that for you?” Lilith asked. Even her tightwad of a mother had bought Lilith’s frames.
“They told me it was my problem.” Amity said, leaning back in the chair and staring at the ceiling. “But they were totally fine telling me what NOT to do.”
Lilith rolled her eyes, “Let me guess.”
“No Round Rims.” Both said, at the same time.
Amity groaned, “I don’t get it! Round rims are fine! They’re cheap, they’re easy to get, they even had them in different designs!”
“I think that might be why they didn’t want you to have them.” Lilith said, sighing gently. “Round rims are quite ‘common’ on the Isles.”
Amity caught the double meaning in that word. Common. Her parents could be so awful. “Well, it d oesn’t matter. I don’t know anyone who would enchant something for free,” A m ity said, “So I guess I just have to wait until I get 300 snails.”
Lilith thought for a moment. Lilith had never been a keen enchanter. Potions, dueling, curses, and divination. Those, along with pedagogy, were her skills. But she had never known more than basic enchantment spells. She knew how to teach it, the terminology, but not the actual method.
But there was one enchantress she knew. Quite close by, actually.
Lilith went to a coat rack in the room. “Do you have the frames on you?”
“I bought them on the way, I have them.” Amity said, rising fro the chair, “Are we going somewhere?”
Lilith nodded, throwing on a red wool coat. “Yes. But not far.”
Eda groaned as she finished with her morning routine, drying off her hair and folding up her towel. She scratched her back as she threw on a thick gray sweater. How was she supposed to know they were gonna get snow in July? As Eda made her way slowly down the steps, she spotted Luz, asleep and still sitting up on the couch, with King in her lap.
Eda smiled softly and ran a hand through Luz’ hair, which gained a smile from the sleeping human. She also gave King a soft little thump. “Little cuties…” Eda smiled gently, just sort of letting her motherly side exist out in the open for a while as she got herself a cup of apple blood from the kitchen. Looking out into the living room. Enjoying the quiet.”
SLAM! CRASH! BOMF!
“COMPANY!”
H
ooty bellowed, snaking his way inside and lifting the sleeping pair off of the couch, “Move all the tables! We can’t let people know we EAT! AAAAAAAAAAGH-UCK!”
Eda whacked Hooty’s side with a broom, “Hooty, scram!” She said, whacking him once or twice, but careful avoid his face as he slowly slinked back.
“Okay! Fine! Everyone was asleep, I needed to wake you up! See if I ever scream warnings at you again! Just kidding, I will. Hoot hoot!”
Luz, still delirious and now sporting a bruise on her side, rubbed her eyes, “Hooty, why did you do that?” She asked, her eyes heavy and her voice raspy.
King was a little more animated in his response, “Aw, man, I was having the DREAM again! I was a crotchety old homeless man in the human world, with a long beard and a knobbly nose! I had the secrets to inter-dimensional travel, but they were ripped away from me by my former business-” King blinked when he looked at the door, “Oh, Luz, look! It’s yer faaaaaavoriiiiite!” he said, clasping his hands.
Luz, who’s eyes were still bleary, and who wasn’t even looking at the door, scratched her head, “Wuh, Amity?” Luz turned around, and faced the door.
Amity, now in Luz’s eyeline, blushed.
“...I’m your favorite?”
“AMITY!” Luz laughed awkwardly, “Aaaaamiiiityyyyyyyyy, let me get some...some real clothes, and I’ll casually explain myself without sounding like a creep, heheh, be right back!” Luz bolted up the stairs, nearly slipping as her socks hit the hard wood.
“Lilith,” Eda looked over, “What ever happened to writing a girl before you barged into her house demon?” She asked, pouring herself another cup and sipping from it.
Lilith stepped into the house, Amity in tow. She removed her jacket, “Apologies, Eda, I didn’t know you were all asleep.”
“We can’t all be spry and limber in our old age, Lily.” Eda said, bending backwards until a loud POP sounded out from her back. “...eugh…”
“I need some enchanting done. Specifically some glasses. Would you be willing to?” Lilith asked, presenting a small bag from her dress pocket, “I think that’s everything we’d need.”
Eda smacked her lips and took the bag in her hands, getting some magic to wash out her glass. She inspected the contents of the bag, “all seems legit...did you get new frames or something?”
“Amity did. She couldn’t afford an enchanter.” Lilith said, looking around the house. Admittedly, she preferred the warmth here to the cold stone of the tower.
Eda looked over to Amity, “Ohhhh, new glasses, eh? I remember how ‘excited’ Lily here was when she got her first pair.”
Amity looked up at Eda, a gentle smile now resting on her face, “Really? What was that like?”
Lilith now wore a blush of embarrassment, “ W-We don’t need to get into all of that, do we, Eda?”
Eda smirked, and began mocking Lilith, “Oh, but mother,” she practically cooed, her eyes expression exaggerated beyond belief, “I don’t want to wear these curs-ed things! All of the girls at school shall disown me as some horrible beast! ”
Amity couldn’t help but giggle as she saw the impression. Lilith, though, didn’t seem nearly as impressed.
“Go sit in that chair over there, and we’ll get things going.”
With Amity sat down in the chair, Eda began. “Enchanting glasses is a bit of an involved process.” She said. Eda looked over to Lilith, winking. Lilith usually hated when Eda taught, but more recently, Lilith had been taking to Eda’s more ‘experience’ based method. All Eda got in response to her wink was a light nod and a gentle smile.
Eda continued, “Near or far sighted?”
Amity answered, “Um, things look blurry the further they get fro me.”
“How bad?”
“I can’t see that poster on the wall. I can’t read what it says. At all.”
Amity was maybe 9 feet from the poster. This was bad.
“ Right. Eda said, “We can fix that. Do you have the frames?”
Amity reached into her pocket and produced the sleek, black case. She flipped the top open and took the frames into her hand. They were half moon lenses with silver frames. Similar to Lilith’s, though, these seemed a little bit thinner.
Eda let one of her hands stay with the bag Lilith had b rought, and w alked over to get the glasses. She took the in her hand, unfolded them, and placed the on Amity’s face. “Here we are! Silver?”
Amity recoiled reflexively as she saw that boney nub getting close to her, “heh, yep! Indeed!”
The three heard Luz and King walking back down the stairs. “Amity! Sorry about earlier, I didn’t need you to see m e in my pajamaaaaaaaaaah what’s going on here?”
Eda smiled, “Luz! Good. She moved the chair amity was in, facing her toward the long end of the room. “You stand there, and King, you stand by the wall.”
Luz shrugged and nodded, getting into place, and King stood on an end table by the far wall, cli m bing up on top of it.
Eda walked back to the bag and took her hand back. In her hand she now held two stones, one a fiery opal, the other an opaque white quartz. She placed a hand over Amity’s left eye.
“Like I said, enchantment is involved.” Eda placed one of the stones to a rim on Amity’s glasses. Amity started to see King better, but Luz was more obscured.
“It takes the right amount of power from these stones. Element stones are pretty expensive, and you can deplete them.” Eda said, “So you want to be careful not to use too much power too quickly.”
Amity looked over to Eda, “Is it supposed to be getting harder to see Luz?””
Eda nodded, “Yep. The fire opal expands the metal and adds power to the lens. But the Ice quartz…” Eda took that stone in her hand, and pressed it to the sa m e lens, “will cool the rim off, and set that power in place.” She mentioned. Amity could feel the cold of the stone on her cheek, it was a little bit unconformable.
“ How are you not feeling any of that?” Amity asked, clutching the chair.
“The dim end isn’t active,” She said, showing Amity the part she was holding, “But f you get into enchanting I’d recommend a good set of gloves. Let’s just say I can take myself apart for a reason.”
Amity blinked her eye as the stone was pulled away. She could now see both Luz, AND King. Rather clearly, as well. “It worked!” Amity exclaimed. “I can see them both!”
Eda smiled, and used her nail to draw a s m all magic circle in the lens of the frame. “Now it’s bound. Nothing can removed that enchantment.” Eda said.
Th next lens, now knowing what the exact measurements were for Amity’s eyes, went much quicker. Eda had Lilith stand with a piece of paper.
“Can you read that, kid?” Eda asked, looking over to the paper.
Amity strained, but adjusted her glasses, “Your senses guide your path. Right?”
Lilith nodded. ‘Wonderful.” She s m iled, “Thank you, Eda.”
Eda stretched and put the rocks back into the bag, “Ahhh, well, anything to piss off Odalia.”
“You didn’t piss off Odalia. You helped A m ity. ” Lilith said, s m iling, “And for that, I’m thankful.”
Eda smiled, “Oh, come on, that’s what sisters do.” Eda hugged Lilith gently, and patted her back. Lilith returned both gestures, and pulled away, walking towards the door. “I’ll leave you all to your day, then.
Amity, meanwhile, got herself up from the chair and collected her things. “WOAH!” She fell back in the chair as she saw how close Luz got to her.
“Amity, your glasses are beautiful! You look really good in them, everyone at school’s gonna love it!”
Amity huffed and got up, dusting herself off, “I-I can’t be sure of that , L uz. You’ve seen how the students at Hexside get. But,” Amity blushed gently, looking At Luz and nervously placing some hair behind her ear, “Thank you. It helps to hear nice things about it, I guess.”
Luz smiled, “Hey,” She placed a hand onto Amity’s shoulder, ‘That’s what friends do, right?”
Amity giggled, “Yep,” She hugged Luz gently. “That’s what friends do.”
A nother day on (unplanned) lessons, c ompleted.