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“Luz! Wait!” Amity’s words might as well have fallen on deaf ears. The girl she was following bounded around the corner, completely ignoring all the dangers around her. That trash can could have been filled with four-eyed ravenous squirrels. That pigeon might spontaneously grow two extra-buff arms and knock her lights out. And, Titan help her, did she just sprint past a mailbox without bowing first? Even little kids know not to do that!
This girl has a death wish, she thought to herself. But Amity couldn’t fight the warm smile that came to her face as the human girl disappeared from her sight. And somehow her obliviousness makes her all the more—“Aren’t you coming, Amity? We’re almost there!” Luz interrupted her thoughts by popping her head back around the corner. Her sudden reappearance didn’t give the witch a chance to collect herself from the captivated pose she’d paused to fall into.
Hand on her hip, head cocked to one side, endearing smile on her face. A look Amity was wearing more and more often as she spent more time with Luz. Now that Luz had caught her in it, she could add bright red cheeks to the ensemble. Not that that was new , technically. Although Luz somehow hadn’t caught on to the fact that it only happened when she was around. “Oh, uh, yeah, haha, I’m, um, on my way!” Her speech accelerated as she went on—just like Luz as she ran back to pull Amity forward. “Do I get to know where this ‘amazing human world adventure’ is taking us, Luz?”
“Rather than tell you,” Luz set herself up dramatically as they finally turned left onto the street Luz had come from. She spun around and threw her arms in the air. “How about I show you?”
Past Luz’s outstretched arms, Amity saw a large, green clearing across the roads. Or, at least, it would have been green if it were less crowded. Right now it was, along with green, full of reds, oranges, yellows, blues, and purples. Almost entirely in that order, with green sandwiched in between.
This curious set of colors echoed across the park in varying sizes, but always in that same order. People wore it on their clothes. It appeared on small stickers and large signs. More than a handful of people had completely painted their skin with the six shades.
In the Boiling Isles, anything with all of these dazzling colors was just trying to lure you in and eat you. Here in the human world, Amity felt a strange pull to this radiant collective. “Luz, what is this place?”
Luz smiled even harder at her friend’s reaction. “Amity, allow me to be the first to say,” “ Bienvenido to Pride!”
When Luz had told her that she was bringing her to one of her favorite human world celebrations, Amity had assumed it would be an Azura fan meetup or something. Whatever this was, it wasn’t what she’d expected. It was like Covention, but so full of color. Colorvention? Would Luz think that’s funny? No. Get it together, Amity . She opted to go for a safer response. “I haven’t seen a crowd this big since Covention.”
“I know! But this one is a bit more cheerful than the one we went to.” They both took a moment to remember the time when they were something closer to rivals than friends, and quickly shook away the memory. “Plus it’s a lot more colorful. Maybe we could call it Colorvention , huh?” Luz grinned and nudged Amity with her elbow before starting to walk towards the festival again. Amity slapped her palm into her own face and followed after the human.
Even the brief delay to facepalm would soon prove disastrous. As Luz strutted into the crowded park, Amity tried to follow. It was difficult not to get distracted by the eclectic party that took up the entire area. Loud music, countless voices, and over-the-top outfits surrounded them in no time at all. Immediately, Luz began to pull ahead of her. On the bright side, Amity didn’t feel so out of place in her witch’s robes here.
A shirtless man on stilts wearing an oversized rainbow top hat nearly ran her over, and she couldn’t very well not stare at that, right? That would have looked out of place even back home. After a moment, she tore her gaze away and tried to refocus on her guide. But before she knew it, the familiar cat hoodie she’d been following was gone. Luz had disappeared into a sea of rainbows.
—
The crowd finally spat Amity out after about twenty minutes of aimless, anxious wandering. She’d handled life-threatening monsters, perilous magic duels, and more pranks from Edric and Emira than she would have picked. But just a brief foray into the human world had turned her into a dejected ball of stress. How can I ever spend more time with Luz when I feel so out of place in her world?
“There you are, Amity!” The witch looked up from the ground to see her human companion wearing her usual bright smile. Luz crouched down and pushed a large, fluffy, rainbow ( ugh ) clump on a stick in her face. Her other hand held a similar clump on a similar stick, although for some reason there was a large bite taken out of it.
Seeing her friend did immediately lighten the weight on Amity’s shoulders, if only slightly. It usually did more, but the weight of the thought she’d just admitted was pretty heavy. All Amity could reply with was a weak, “Hey.”
“I was getting us a snack and then before I knew it you had disappeared. Hope you like cotton—” Luz then noticed the panicked look that Amity was desperately trying to hide now that they’d found each other. “Are you okay?”
“What? Me? O-o-of course I’m okay! Fine! How are you?” She forced a smile—usually she didn’t have to when Luz was around.
Luz wore her concern on her face just openly as she usually wore joy. “You don’t have to fake it, you know. I know firsthand how hard it can be to get lost in a different world.”
“Okay, it was a little weird. A bunch of people asked me if I ‘listen to girl in red?’ Is that a Bard Coven thing?” She picked at the purple-colored sleeve of the Abomination Coven uniform. Luz stifled a laugh—both at the image of people asking Amity the classic coded question and at the idea of her being Bard Coven. The red Coven color would make her an actual “girl in red.” But of course, that wasn’t quite what the people she’d seen had been asking.
“No, it’s more like—they were asking if you, um—” it was Luz’s turn to blush now. Her secret ulterior motive for bringing Amity here almost revealed itself, and she hadn’t actually prepared how she was going to figure out whether Amity actually “ listened to girl in red .” “They were wondering if you, er, belong here, you know? At a place like this .” She turned in a slow circle, gesturing at all the rainbows, booths, and throngs of people around them.
But when she finished her turn with a wide grin, she was met with a downcast Amity staring at the ground again. One hand holding her other arm tight against her body, she said, “I’m not really sure that I do, Luz.” Luz’s heartstrings practically ripped at the tug this look gave her. She’d only seen Amity look so small and sad when they’d had run-ins with her mother—and she did not want something as awesome as Pride turning out the way that usually did.
“Come on, Amity, everyone belongs here! That’s the whole point!”
“Every human belongs here, Luz. I’m not supposed to be here. Or even in this world, really.”
Luz pondered that for a moment—another adorable quirk of hers, that you could always see the gears turning in her head. Don’t you dare blush again, Amity . Luckily Luz snapped her fingers and replied before she could go full tomato. “Well, do I not belong in your world?”
Gah, even behind the ridiculousness she’s so damn insightful. And pretty. AHH! Focus. “Well, honestly,” Amity thought about all the times Luz had nearly gotten herself (and others) killed on the Boiling Isles. Her human naiveté was the catalyst for most of their misadventures; it was a miracle she’d survived as long as she had. But then again, she had become quite the accomplished witch even with her magical limitations. And Amity would be lying if she said the terrifying parts outweighed the fun ones. “Yes, you do belong on the Isles.”
“Exactly! And that’s because you made me feel like I belong there.” Amity’s heart swelled as Luz placed her hands over her own and stared into her golden eyes. Uh-oh , she thought as her pulse quickened in turn and she felt the familiar warmth returning to her cheeks. Luz chomped the remains of her cotton candy in one giant bite and spoke before she could chew and swallow. “Sho now I’m goi’ to do da shame fo’ you !”
With that, Luz grabbed Amity’s hand and yanked her forward once again at her regular way-too-fast pace. Amity began a protest, crying out, “Wait, Luz—,” but never got to finish as she swung behind Luz. The human girl wove through the crowd expertly. The witch couldn’t help but get distracted once more by all the foreign things happening around her.
People dressed in admittedly-awesome looking leather, wearing nothing but strings of feathers, and even a person walking around wearing a barrel. Just a barrel. Granted, that stuff would have been par for the course on the Boiling Isles. But even Amity’s brief time in the human world told her that this was a more...flamboyant side.
She didn’t have time to analyze all of these people and their outfits as they sprinted through the sea of people. “Can we—just stop—for a second—to— breathe ?” At least they hadn’t gotten separated again now that they’d plunged even further into the park.
“Perfect timing, Amity. This is a perfect spot to help you feel like you belong.” Luz gestured behind Amity’s doubled-over form. The green-haired girl took a deep breath and picked herself up enough to follow where Luz was pointing.
The human girl’s finger led to a booth along the paved path that wound through the park. At first glance it looked like the other dozens of booths that framed the walkway on either side. The same rainbow decorations that this entire strange event seemed to be dedicated to, lined up neatly in rows. But upon closer inspection, Amity saw that these weren’t all the same color sequence she’d been practically drowning in. Some of these stripes were light blue, pink, even gray. The unique colors were a welcome sight, but there were so many that it was overwhelming to take them all in.
Amity watched Luz walk to the display. She stopped and gestured at it for Amity, as if she was selling human artifacts on the Boiling Isles for The Owl Lady again. “So, what do you think?”
What was she supposed to think? Amity made the only connection in her head that made sense. “Are these...the banners for human covens?”
Luz stared at the display of multi-colored rectangles and nodded. “Sort of. But instead of saying what kind of magic you do, they let you say, ‘this is who I am and I’m proud of it!”
“What do they all mean?”
“Well, you’ve seen the rainbows. That one kind of fits anyone who is here. But if you wanted to get more specific, this one means that you’re a boy who likes other boys. That one is for girls who like other girls. And this one—,” Luz continued to run down the list of options. Channeling her top student skills, Amity took careful mental notes. If there was going to be a test, she was going to ace it. “And this one is called asexual, or ace for short. That’s a little different from aromantic, but they can go together too!”
“Okay, I think I’ve got it.” Human covens are very different from the normal kind .
“So, which one do you want?”
“What?!” She’d spent her whole life pushed towards the Abomination track. The idea of choosing something like this was completely foreign to her.
“I said I was going to help you feel like you belong. So, where do you belong?” Amity stared at the row of flags. She’d memorized each of their colors and functions, but hadn’t given any thought to what to do with that information.
She thought about the options in front of her. All the boy ones were ruled out instantly. That was easy. Then there were some others that she reasoned out in her head. She was definitely a girl. She definitely found certain people—she glanced at Luz’s waiting grin and instantly snapped back to the display— attractive . And those people were all girls, so that left that one new word Luz had called it. Less-bee-in.
Amity tentatively reached out and pointed at the orange and purple striped flag. “Maybe this one?”
“That’s a great one!” The human girl beamed.
Luz’s approval made Amity even more sure that she made the right choice. “Is it the same one you’re in?”
“No, I’m over here.” She pointed to one with less stripes that were bigger, in pink, purple, and blue. Amity must have worn her disappointment on her face. “Don’t worry though! Our, um, covens are very, you know,” Luz took a deep gulp before finishing, “compatible.” Both girls did their best to look anywhere but into each others’ eyes at that. “So, shall we show off our coven colors, then?”
The person behind the counter smiled at the two young girls, clearly having enjoyed watching this entire exchange. “I, um, didn’t bring any snails.” The vendor cocked their head at her, clearly confused.
“Ha, Amity, you’re so funny!” Luz made a big show of patting Amity on the back—this time it was hard to tell if the blush was due to being embarrassed at the awkward transaction, or for, you know, the other reason . “It’s my treat. We’ll take one lesbian flag and one bi flag, please.” The vendor gladly accepted the strange green paper that Luz handed forward and gave Amity a wink as the other girl grabbed their purchases.
In one swift motion, Luz tossed Amity’s flag into her hands. Without stopping, she spun around and tied the corners of her own around her neck. The perfectly-timed breeze that followed made it look like she was wearing a multi-colored cape. “That looks pretty great on you, Noceda.”
Luz replied with a huge grin. “Just don’t tell Mamá that I bought another one, okay?”
“Your secret’s safe with me.” In her head, Amity tried to find a subtle way to segue into discussing how exactly two different covens could be “compatible.”
Before she could do so, Luz loudly exclaimed while pointing away, “ Mira , Amity! It’s the best part!” Mentally preparing herself for more lessons and the chance of being separated again, Amity turned to face the direction Luz was indicating. On the road nearest them, some sort of gigantic beast with round feet carrying even more huge rainbows on it’s back slowly rolled forward. Amity immediately began planning what sort of magic she’d need to use to get her and Luz out of another dangerous situation.
But then the beast came to a stop and Luz ran toward it immediately. The witch groaned and ran forward to save her friend. But when she got to Luz’s side, Amity realized that the beast wasn’t trying to eat her. And the people joining her were all smiling and laughing. Luz especially gave her an extra large grin. The green-haired girl couldn’t help but observe the other denizens of Pride in a new light, one that made her smile along with all of them.
While she looked around with wonder, she felt something rub up against her hand. Temporarily distracted from her surroundings, Amity glanced down. Luz’s hand had found hers once more. Not with the haphazard hurry from when she dragged her across the park. No, this time it was a tentative brush, a question, wondering what Amity wanted.
It didn’t take a Coven Leader to know the answer to that question. This time, Amity was the one who grabbed Luz’s hand and pulled her forward. Just in time, too, as an upbeat song started to play from the nearest float and the parade began to process down the street. Luz fell into step quickly and they half-danced, half-walked along with the rest of the covens. The human turned to her and shouted just loud enough to be heard over the crowd and the song. “Happy Pride, Amity!”
Amity replied with a more subdued, but equally happy smile. “Happy Pride, Luz.” When she took her first steps into the human world, she wondered if she belonged here. After a few minutes of attending Pride, she was sure she didn’t. Finding her own coven in the human world started to change that. And now, hand in hand with Luz as they marched in time with the parade’s music, Amity was sure that she belonged here, too.