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Luz really just wants to go to sleep if she’s being honest.
It was a long day to begin with. Before she got involved in a demonstration, before she had gotten beat up. She really was trying to avoid thinking about the fact Amity’s mother didn’t want to call the guard off.
It’s too much to process for her at the moment.
She can deal with all of the implications in the morning.
Patching up bruises isn’t necessarily fun. But it's not something she’s unfamiliar with, unfortunately.
Sometimes the bullies back home got a bit physical. And if her Mami was away at work, then she knew where the first aid kit was.
Admittedly, she had never been beaten up by a giant muk monster before either. Though, some of the bigger kids could definitely pack a punch of their own.
With the dangers of the Boiling Isles, she had learned pretty quickly where Eda’s kit was kept as well, since it was easy to get into a scrape or two around these parts.
Especially when Eda was more prone to transforming into a giant Owl Beast.
Admittedly, probably neither of them had taught her that for this reason. It was more a ‘just in case’ situation. However, the same principle of back on Earth applied. She could handle it herself. No reason to worry them, no need to get anyone else involved.
Sure, money was no longer an issue thanks to the Silkey Grets but it wasn’t like it was the only issue. She’s not entirely ignorant to Eda’s worries concerning the coven despite her assurances that they’re all fine.
Or should be since Belos supposedly pardoned them.
It doesn’t take long to get things wrapped up that she can. Some stuff she’ll address in the morning. Other things she can’t.
Ice packs would just melt overnight. Too bad they didn’t have any of those reusable ice packs like they did back home.
She would have to check on some of it in the morning. And address the questions that she knew would be coming from Eda at breakfast.
Hopefully, Eda wouldn’t be too mad about all of this.
For now she just wants to sleep.
At least, she would be back at Hexside tomorrow, she reasons as she drifts off to sleep. Having forgotten entirely to put the med kit back where she got it from.
“Lily, did you move the med kit?”
It’s the next morning and things are moving slowly. Eda had woken up with a pounding headache and had gone looking for her emergency stash of potions for these kinds of days.
Only to find someone had moved the med kit.
“No, I haven’t touched it since the fire bee honey incident. Why? Is it missing?”
“Yeah, someone moved it.”
“Well, I haven’t needed it. Maybe Luz did? She did look a bit beat up coming back from Hexside last night.”
Yeah... Eda hadn’t missed that entirely. And now was kicking herself for not checking Luz sooner. She should have checked on the kid then and there. But it wasn’t the first time had come back from Hexside looking busted up.
She had assumed that the kid would come to her if it was worse than normal.
However, she might have underestimated the kids ability to bury things again. After all, the Selkidomus incident had only been a couple of days ago.
Now she was questioning that decision.
Part of her logically says if it involved the school, Bump would have let her know if it's more than bumps and bruises. As much as he liked to deny it, the principal did seem to have a soft spot for Luz’s friend group from what she had seen.
After all, he had let Luz multi-track.
However, just because Bump likes her...doesn’t necessarily mean everyone else does. She realizes in hindsight that was a big oversight. However, there was a possibility that this had happened away from the school. And whoever it was just simply hadn’t called it in.
Or... Luz was again hiding things out of self inflicted guilt.
Regardless, she needed to check Luz out before she left for Hexside. After she downed a pain reliever potion, preferably.
“Thanks, Lily.”
“Hey, kid, can I come in for a second? I just wanted to check on something real quick.”
Despite her concerns, Eda is trying to respect the kid’s boundaries. Though if she doesn’t open the door soon, boundaries might go out the window.
She needs to know if the kid was hurt. And not whatever hiding she might be doing again.
They really did need to talk about this guilt issue Luz had. However, Eda wasn’t entirely sure how to handle it at times, other than try to not get the kid to engage in the behavior.
Something that had not worked well so far.
And something she was being reminded about with the longer it takes for Luz to answer the door. Or say anything really. She is liking less and less the possibilities that this might be pointing towards.
“I’m coming in, kid.”
One look at the kid though and all of a sudden, her headache is the least concern in her head.
There’s the scuffles and scrapes that she had noticed briefly the night before. Though, that’s only one of the concerns considering she’s seeing a nasty bruise on the kids cheek. And not the only one since she was pretty sure she spotted the edge of a bruise under the girl’s tank top?
“Kid, what the hell happened?” Eda begins before catching herself. What happened is really the least of her concerns at the moment. “Never mind, we can address that later. Where else are you hurt? I already can see a bruise from under your tank top along with the one on your face.”
Titan dammit why hadn’t she questioned the kid the night before?
“It’s okay, it's just some bruises…”
Of course the kid was going to try and downplay it.
“Don’t care if it's just ‘bruises’.” Eda said with a shake of the head. “Even if it is, I still want to look you over.”
She was not making the same mistake twice. Besides experience said it was rarely just ‘bruises’.
“So I’ll ask again, where else are you hurt?”
“It feels more sore than anything-”
“Kid-”
“My chest and my left ankle hurt the worst at the moment.”
Finally getting somewhere. Though if the chest hurts, that might mean a rib problem. Which is never fun.
“One second, kid I’ll be right back.” Eda asks, yelling down the hallway. “Lily, do we have any extra sleeping draughts?”
There’s a pause and some noticeable hesitation from Lilith when the call comes back. “No, I used the last of it a couple of days ago.”
That was more than a bit annoying, Eda had to admit, though it wasn’t exactly her fault that they needed one right now. Anyway Lilith's use of it really didn’t matter. The fact they were out of it was tough. “Okay, can you brew another one?”
“Of course, but why?” Lilith asked, walking up to join her and closing the distance with a frown.
“Kid took a whalloping from some mystery monster from what I can tell, and I want her asleep if possible when bandaging or splinting anything.”
The kid was already in enough pain from the bruises that had popped up overnight. No reason to make it worse.
Lilith frowned slightly. “What in the world did she challenge this time?”
“Don’t know, do kind of care but it’s not my first priority at the moment. I need to take care of the kid first. And then go after whoever or whatever hurt her second.”
“Right, I'll go take care of the potion.”
“Thanks, Lily.”
“Does it really seem that bad?” Luz asks when she rejoins the kid.
“Not anything I can’t take care of, kid. But it will be easier to get you patched up that way. You trust me, right?”
Luz slowly nods at that.
“Then let me just do that.”
She was pretty sure she was going to already lose her temper. She didn’t need Luz’s reactions to whatever scrapes and bruises adding to that fuel.
Not when the fire involving this was already burning very hot.
An hour later and one potion down, and Luz was back to sleep.
And as soon as she was sure Luz was asleep again, Eda got to work.
Though getting Luz’s tank top off made her stop in her tracks again.
She had expected it to be bad. Yet, the sheer amount of bruises still managed to catch her off guard. And some of those looked particularly painful.
Yeah, it was probably a good call she had given the kid a sleeping potion.
And she had based that on a smaller bruise.
Titan, what had happened to the kid?
Why hadn’t anyone told her the kid had gotten into the fight? Why hadn’t she paid more attention last night? Why-
Eda forces herself to cut that train of thought off. She can’t afford to feel guilty about what she had done. Not at the moment, anyway. Once they have Luz patched up, she can beat herself up all over this all she wants.
“What happened?” King asks, staring at Luz for a moment.
“I don’t know but I will find out and pay them back for their ‘kindness’. Right now though, Lily , I need your extra pair of hands and eyes!” Eda yells loud enough that she is sure her sister should hear from downstairs.
Extra potions could wait for a moment.
“Coming-”
Eda hears Lilith’s footsteps and turns her attention back to Luz. The particularly nasty bruise catching her eye on the girl’s midsection. She’s almost positive at the very least, the kid had bruised ribs if not more.
It was partly why she had given her the sleep potion. If she had to set those, it was going to hurt like a bitch . Might as well let the kid sleep through that and anything else they might find.
What had happened to even cause it? It almost looked like she had gotten on the wrong side of a fight with an Abomination. However, most recreational activities involving them had been banned at Hexside since before even Eda's enrollment.
So that couldn’t be it, right?
Besides, why would the kid have been fighting an Abomination? Any reason she can think of should have involved Bump calling her first.
She’s at a total loss.
“By Titan’s eyes. What happened?” Lilith’s exclamation is what alerts her to her sister’s arrival.
“Yeah, that’s what I’m trying to figure out. I would have asked the kid but, of course, that didn’t seem like the first priority at the moment. I’m going to be making some pissed off calls but first, the kid.”
“Right.”
Thankfully, for the most part, it's worse than it looks. Luz has quite a few bruises and scrapes but that’s the extent of it. The worst injury that can be found is a badly sprained ankle and a few bruised ribs.
The next couple of days aren’t going to be fun. But it shouldn’t be too horrible, though, she is going to keep a close eye on the cuts.
She still doesn’t fully understand human anatomy. But she can’t risk the kid getting sick. Not with the portal door gone.
Eda’s not sure what to expect as the day goes on. She still doesn’t know how Luz got injured in the first place.
Bump can only give her half an answer as to what could have happened. He said the Blights had come by and had forced him to expel Luz and her friends due to some concerns. Everything after that is a blank before Odalia had, apparently, retracted said concerns.
He had tried to call her, but of course she had been dealing with that stupid giant ice monster at the time.
Titan, what a time to miss something like this.
The entire expulsion that still pissed her off, even if apparently the kid had been readmitted since. Though, she’s not sure if she’s angry at herself for missing whatever caused Luz’s injuries in actuality or if she’s angry at the grounds for the expulsion.
Probably both.
She would argue that Odalia was on shaky ground to begin with. Considering what happened on a normal day at Hexside to begin with. However, knowing Odalia had most likely targeted Luz and her friends just for being friends with Amity, made her more angry.
However, it doesn’t explain how the kid got like this in the first place.
Luz’s group of friends showing up does give some much needed clarity, however.
“I’m not mad at you three. I just want to know what happened.” Eda says after she gets the three settled onto the couch.
It takes a bit to piece together the rest of the story. No one apparently was there for the whole thing. So she might have to bug Luz. However, from what she is told, Luz had decided to volunteer for a tech demo to try to get them back into Hexside.
Again with blaming herself where it wasn’t her fault.
Titan, it felt like it was starting to become more and more of a problem. They had just talked a few days ago about how she didn’t need to face her problems alone. And here they were with the issue rearing its head again.
Amity looks like a kicked puppy demon during most of it. She won’t make eye contact with Eda and is purposely avoiding looking over at Lilith. For good reason, Eda supposess, considering her mother’s the one that caused this mess.
Not that she blames Amity. Shitty parents will be shitty parents no matter what their kids try to do.
She knew that too well.
“Sprained ankle and some bruised ribs but other than that, she's fine. Though if you want to see her, you’ll have to come back tomorrow. She’s sleeping off a potion.”
“Are we in trouble?”
“With me? Nah.”
“That’s a relief. We thought you might be angry with us.” Willow adds.
“Oh, don’t get me wrong I am mad. Just not at you three.” Eda says with a shake of the head. “And yes, that includes you too Baby Blight.” She adds when spotting the skeptical look on Amity’s face. “Sure you were involved, but you did more than the actual adults it sounds like. Since you tried to stop it instead of just standing around, apparently.”
That might be the part that upset her the most. What kind of customers were the Blights keeping?
Better yet, what kind of parents were the Blights?
Something to ponder at another time, Eda guesses. Though, she can’t imagine they are very good ones.
“Anyways, if you want to talk to the kid, come by after class tomorrow if she's not up to attending. It’s going to be a bit before the potion wears off. And I don’t want to wake the kid up.”
“Thank you.”
It’s late evening and Luz’s friends have dispersed by the time the potion starts wearing off.
“How are you feeling, kid?”
“Sore. It hurts some but it's not as bad as this morning.”
Yeah, being bruised to the Titan’s Skull and back again would make it feel like that, Eda supposed. Outwardly she said, “Yeah, we bandaged you up, but you did take quite the beating from what I heard kiddo.”
“You found out about what happened?” Luz asks, looking a bit worried, adjusting herself slightly and trying not to wince as her muscles protested the movement.
“Called Bump. He filled me part of the way in. Then your friends filled in the rest of the story when they came by after classes let out.”
Luz blinked once in surprise. She hadn’t expected anyone to actually come by with her absence. Let alone three people. That was nice.
Though, if Eda had the full story now she had other worries.
“Oh, please don’t be mad at Amity. It’s not her fault what happened.”
Eda quirks an eyebrow at that, wondering if Luz picked up on her singling out Amity. Despite it all, it was adorable how protective Luz was of Amity at the moment.“Don’t worry, she’s not in trouble with me. I know it's her parents fault.”
Crappy parenting and wrongly placed anger growing up, made her try to be careful where she placed her anger when it came to kids.
“Good.”
“I gotta say I am proud of not getting mad at her, kiddo, since it was her parents that caused the mess in the first place..”
“She’s scared of her Mom, or was I guess. And I can’t exactly ask her not to be.”
“Sometimes not everyone realizes that.”
“Yeah, well, Mami taught me how to recognize signs when something might not be right with other kids' homes.” Huh, Eda hadn’t expected that. “Unfortunately, I can’t really do anything. But I guess I want to try and be supportive?”
“Good for you, kiddo. I’m sure Amity will appreciate it at some point.” If not now.
Titan knew they could have used a friend like that growing up. She’s glad at least one kid isn’t being put through that same misery as her and Lilith had to endure.
Rayne, for the most part, had been pretty good. But not all of their classmates had been so kind as them. Or as Luz for that matter.
Yeah, some part of her is wishing that they had a friend like Luz growing up. Maybe things would have turned out differently between her and Lilith in the intervening years.
“I just want to be a good friend.”
Yeah, the light flush on Luz’s cheeks makes Eda think it's more than that. But for now, she doesn’t push it. Enough happened in the past day without dragging out the mess that is a teenager’s feelings.
“And I’m sure she realizes that.”
“I hope so.”
“Kid, you literally fought an abomination to help your friends. On top of all the other crazy stuff you’ve gotten into, anyone who you call their friend is lucky. Trust me on this.”
“Thanks, Eda.”
“Also speaking of fighting giant abominations, I really hope this never happens again in the future. But if it does, tell me you're hurt rather than making me find out the hard way please, kiddo.”
“I really don’t plan to get any more fights like that.”
“Still, I want you to tell me, kiddo, please. Can you promise me that?”
“Yeah, I’ll tell you next time.”
Eda has a feeling that she’s going to have to still keep a close eye on Luz. However, the reassurance is nice at least.
When Lilith pokes her head in later to see if either wants dinner, Luz and Eda have fallen asleep. The younger girl had moved to using Eda’s lap as a pillow at some point.
Lilith briefly debates waking the two, since Luz hasn’t eaten since the previous night, before deciding to leave them be. It's a cute sight and they’re sleeping peacefully.
Something that they didn’t always get every night with the events of the previous weeks.
So she quickly snaps the photo for a moment before leaving the two sleeping without another word.
“Where are you going?”
Far later in the evening, Eda had woken up. This was after most reasonable witches and demons had gone to bed.
She had gotten her cloak, grabbed Owlbert with one single intention in her mind. “To not prank the Blight Manor.”
Eda’s fully expecting to have to defend her choice on this to Lilith. Kid Lilith would have been in on this. Or, at least, she would have been once they were sure they wouldn’t get in trouble with their mother.
Adult Lilith after everything that had happened...she’s not so sure about it.
Sure, now that she was out of the coven, more aspects that she associated with the sister she had grown up with and not the coven leader she had become were starting to show themselves. The entire thing with Lilith learning the glyphs was more like the sister she had known as a child. And less like the coven leader. So the signs were there.
But this might be asking too much too soon.
After all, she had asked Lilith about coming along on robbing the ship. And Lilith had decided not to come. So she isn’t entirely sure what to expect.
Though, maybe she hadn’t been direct enough on that.
“Would you like some help not pranking the Manor?”
Eda grins, there’s the Lilith she remembers. “Why, Lily, I thought you would never ask.”
“Honestly, I gave you a scrying potion and told you you could use it to prank the Emperor. Is this really that surprising?”
“Okay, when you put it that way, no.”
“So what are we going to do? TP the house?”
“Nah, that would be letting them off too lightly. I’ve got a couple of other ideas.”
“I am almost too scared to ask.”
“And yet, you’re coming along anyway!”
“I am really glad you didn’t try pulling this when I moved in.” Lilith noted as the last of the traps was set.
After all, Odalia wasn’t the only person to threaten to nearly kill Luz in the past month.
“Eh, would have been counterproductive.”
Too much clean up work really.
Besides, with her sister’s friendship with Hooty developing, it probably wouldn’t have lasted long term anyways.
And this wasn’t going away overnight.
No, she was going to be annoying the elder Blights for weeks to come if she did this right.
“Too bad the kid missed enacting some payback on Odalia.”
The Blight parents would be complaining about this for weeks to come.
As might be the Blight children, it had been Lilith’s idea to lay some minor pranks on the children if only because otherwise there was a concern Odalia might lash out at the wrong person.
Their mother certainly would have in that kind of situation.
Luz had certainly earned it after the last day.
“Well, we could set up a scrying potion temporarily.”
Eda blinked for a second, surprised she hadn’t thought of it herself. It would work brilliantly. Not only could Luz get some of her own payback if she wanted. But she could continue pranking the Blights without having to leave the Owl House even once if she wanted.
“Lily, I love the way you think.”
A loud screech from Odalia was what awoke the rest of Blight Manor the following morning.
Walking downstairs, it's quick to see why their mother is upset and now yelling around some of the abomination staff.
Someone had gone to town pranking the manor overnight.
And Amity is pretty sure she knows who.
It’s not that hard to figure out what had happened. Eda may not have been angry at her. The older witch had made that very clear during the visit the night before. But that didn’t mean she wasn’t going to be angry, period.
And she couldn’t really blame her after hurting Luz, if Amity is being honest.
“Do either of you know who is behind all of this mess?” Her mother was just two volume levels away from yelling.
Obviously, this had really set her off.
Probably a good thing Odalia didn’t know about her visit the night before. Or else the blame game would be quickly turning to her.
“No mother. We haven’t the faintest idea.” Emira says first managing to keep a straight face, even though all three Blight siblings had a good guess as to who was behind this mess.
“We certainly didn’t hear or see anything last night.” Edric said, matching his sister with the innocent face.
Well, at least it was being put to a good cause, Amity supposes.
“Amity?”
Amity snaps to attention at the unasked question. She might not have the necklace anymore. However, she doesn’t need it in this case. “No, Mother. Maybe it's one of your sales associates or a customer who got angry over the cancelled sale?”
Admittedly, most of them wouldn’t do something quite this childish. But if they threw their mother off of the actual tracks of the Clawthornes, then it worked.
And their parents wouldn’t tell them why the sales had been mysteriously cancelled. Only that something had happened and all private sales were on hold.
Of course, Amity wondered why. But neither of her parents were talking.
“Maybe...this does feel like something Karina would do.”
Amity has a feeling judging by her mother’s tone she doesn’t really believe any of them. And probably has suspicions forming on who is behind it. But she doubts her mother will actually do something.
Or, at least, she hopes she doesn’t.
“I should never have let them enroll back into Hexside.” Odalia is still going off after the rest of her children have long left.
"Do you doubt my judgement?"
“No, but-”
“I told you two nights ago, her being friends with them is more beneficial. A couple of annoyances here and there in the long run. Will be worth their weight in gold if it helps Amity become coven leader.”
"All of this over a human child!"
“Who also managed to keep pace with it far longer than someone with no magic should. I’m not saying respect them or her if you don't want to." Alador says with a small shrug, "I’m saying that it's better to give them distance. And possibly not threaten the human. If we keep our distance I doubt this will continue.”
“They’re powerless and besides that’s a human child I don't see how much damage-.”
“-And if half the rumors about what caused her to lose her magic. Then maybe we should be grateful that this isn’t worse than it is.”
Though he isn’t a fool enough to think this will be the last bit of trouble they get from the Clawthornes. Eda may have been the one to actively retribute when they were growing up. However, Lilith could be just as spiteful when she wanted to be.
And now that Lilith was no longer in the coven, both are just as likely to be equal opportunists.
“I just don’t see the point in all of this.”
“Like always the ends justify the means.”
“You're not the one dealing with the damage, Alador.”
No, but that might only be because he kept the lab locked when he wasn’t working down there. And only household members were allowed in unsupervised.
Otherwise, he would probably be making some repairs of his own, he suspects.
“We wouldn’t be in this situation if you had called off the Abomination to begin with.”
Well, maybe they would have. But the Abomotron had been set on the human girl with the intent of killing.
Things would have been scaled back a bit arguably at least.
“I certainly didn’t see you trying to stop it.”
“I am no fool, Odalia. I wasn’t getting in the way of that thing.”
Probably should have set up an emergency button maybe, in hindsight. But it hadn’t seemed needed when he was making it.
Maybe something to remember in the future.
Though, hopefully, they wouldn’t be getting into any more family feuds that lead to the manor being pranked.
“What exactly did you do two do to Blight manor?” Luz asked as she hobbled down the steps on a pair of crutches Eda had managed to find.
“Heard about our late night escapade?”
Honestly, Eda was surprised that word had gotten out that fast.
“Yeah, Amity messaged me on the ball about it before she left for class.”
Ah, that would explain it.
“We may have set out some tricks for Odalia and Alador to find it in the morning.”
“Well, I guess I won’t be hanging out at the manor again.”
“Worth it, and besides, kid, after the last time, do you think going there would be a good idea?”
She got Luz wanted to hang out with her rapidly developing crush. And wanting to hang out with Amity and her friends. However, she was reluctant to let the kid near Blight manor.
Whether it was part of a deal that had led to yesterday’s mess or not.
“I guess you're right but I’m still worried about them and Amity…”
“Don’t worry, we set it up so it's clear we were behind it. Your girlfriend won’t get blamed by proxy for us.”
Luz flushed at that. “She’s not my girlfriend.”
“Not yet anyway with the way you two just keep looking at each other.”
“EDA!”
That only got a loud cackle out of the other witch.
“What you’ve got going anyway in the cauldron?”
“Scrying potion. Lily suggested actually in case you wanted to toss something in.”
Luz blinked in surprise. She hadn’t been expecting that.
Though, hadn’t Lilith mentioned that you could use these to prank before with the Emperor’s Coven? That brought up another question.
“...How does that even work?”
“Right, forget you’ve never used a potion that way.” Eda noted belatedly.
“Oh, there’s a few different ways. But with Odalia being Oracle we could probably mess things around a lot for her personally.”
“Yeah, this might end up being more fun than last night.” Eda said with a small snicker.
“Okay, getting slightly curious, I’ll admit.” Luz said, starting to crack a grin of her own.
"Let's get you some food and I can show you how to get this thing to work." Eda says standing up and heading to the kitchen.
"Shouldn't I be going to class?" Luz says frowning slightly.
"You slept through first period."
"Shoot."
"Don't worry to much. I'm sure one of your buddies will come by with your missing classwork."
"I just don't want to get into too much trouble with the professors," Luz admitted slowly.
"Eh Bump will deny it to the end of time but he has soft spot for you three. I doubt you'll be in that much trouble."
Plus Eda suspected he was feeling guilty for his own hand in the mess.
"It's so weird at times."
Having school teachers and administrators who didn't dread her name on sight was something she definitely still getting used to.
"What's weird?"
"Oh just thinking about how different Earth and the Boiling Isles are. Don't worry."
"If you say so kid."