Chapter Text
Tío Francisco has to be OK, right?
“Hola! This is Francisco Noceda. I’m sorry I couldn’t answer your call, but leave a message and I’ll call back as soon as I can!”
Yes, Belos just attacked the human world, and tío is in danger - but Luz has been in plenty of danger! And nothing really bad has ever happened to her. Nothing permanent.
“Hola! This is Francisco Noceda. I’m sorry I couldn’t answer your call, but leave a message and I’ll call back as soon as I can!”
Even when Eda was captured, Luz cried for only a moment before she stiffened her upper lip, pulled herself up by her own bootstraps, and saved the day.
“Hola! This is Francisco Noceda. I’m sorry I couldn’t answer your call, but leave a message and I’ll call back as soon as I can!”
Again and again, she opens her contacts, finds tío, presses the call button, holds the phone against her ear, listens to it ring, hangs up after it goes to voicemail, and opens her contacts. She opens her contacts, finds-
Finds the word Mamá in big block letters, just above red and green captioned buttons.
On instinct, she presses the green button ( “Accept Call” ) and holds the phone against her ear.
“Mom?”
“Cariño, is that you? Oh thank the lord, you’re safe! Where are you?”
Luz realizes she craves her mother’s protective embrace, craves her mother’s warmth and love. Craves feeling safe.
“I’m at the Owl House.”
“It’ll have to do. Stay there mija, I’m going to call your tío, stay there until-”
“Mom, tío was- he’s- come home mamá , I need you...”
She is desperate to be held. To be reassured. To be told that things are going to be OK.
“I’m sorry Luz, I have to go, they need me too-”
“Mamá, please, come home, I need you!"
“I am so sorry bebé , they need me here! So many people were hurt in the blast, and they’re rallying all the nurses and doctors they can. You did just fine without me over the summer, you’ll do fine now. Just wait, I’ll be at the Owl House as soon as I can.”
“NO, NO, MAMÁ PLEASE- ”
And the call drops.
There’s an emptiness deep inside her, like part of her very soul has been ripped away. She stares blankly at her phone, vaguely aware that several pairs of eyes are staring at her, and suddenly she’s being embraced - those familiar slender arms wrapped around her, that teenaged head resting against her shoulder, that shock of hair that smells of lemon brushing against her cheek - but it’s not the same, it’s not the same .
She can’t take how wrong it feels, to be held like this but to want something else - so she pushes Amity away, and she runs outside.
The sun is shining, and the birds are singing, and Luz Noceda collapses against a tree and sobs .
It isn’t supposed to be this way. Luz is supposed to be one in danger, so she can use her wits and her glyphs to escape. She’s been in all sorts of scrapes, but she always finds a way to wiggle her way out before anything bad happens. But now… now she feels just like she did in that week after Eda was rescued, when Eda didn’t have her magic and the five of them didn’t have any money and it was all Luz’s fault, and it's all her fault again, and-
“Hey, kid?”
She looks up. Mr. Cyrus is there, kneeling next to her and offering her a little bottle of water. Luz meets his gaze and sees him for the first time. His sad eyes and the wrinkles on his face seem to say “I know your pain. I know what it’s like to feel this way, and I can help.”
So Luz impulsively buries her head in his soft belly and hugs his broad chest. After a moment, he hugs her back, his big strong arms wrapping all the way around her, and she desperately drinks in the comfort and protection of his embrace.
Soon enough a third person joins the hug, someone with familiar slender arms and hair that smells of lemon, and this time it feels right. Like Luz still has a family, and together they all are going to be OK.
Luz, Amity, and Mr. Cyrus do their best to support each other. Extending and receiving love and strength in the wake of such a disaster.
But it’s all ruined the moment Luz hears her. “Mittens!”, Odalia Blight calls out, relief in her voice.
Luz feels Mr. Cyrus turn to look, just before she feels Amity being ripped away, and suddenly she’s alone with the three of them. She looks at Odalia, and is shocked to see in the old woman’s eyes something she has seen in Gus’s, and in Amity’s, and in Willow’s, and sometimes even in Eda’s - but never in Odalia’s.
She sees fear.
Odalia Blight is hugging her youngest daughter with fierce protectiveness, because she is afraid. Amity squirms to get away as her mother says “Oh Mittens, I’m so glad you’re safe! You know about what happened, yes?”
“Yes mom, now let go!” Amity says, trying to wriggle free.
“Mittens, that was a magical explosion. I was three miles away, and I still felt the magic emanating out. Do you know what that means?” she says, ignoring Mr. Cyrus.
Amity continues to struggle. “Mom, let go-”
Odalia releases Amity from her embrace, but only so she can look her daughter in the eyes, Amity’s hands clamped in hers. “If the humans don’t already know, they’ll realize it soon. And they’ll want revenge, Mittens. Revenge on us. There’s going to be a war, make no mistake, but your siblings…” Odalia Blight, looking more scared than Luz could ever imagine, takes a deep, shaky breath.
“Lillith took your siblings into the city.”
Luz’s breath catches, just as Amity stumbles back in shock. “Are they OK? Were they hurt in the explosion, has anyone attacked them?”
“I don’t know, Mittens. I don’t know. My magic tells me that Ed is somewhere in the city, and it told me that you were in that human dwelling- I feared the worst, Mittens, when my magic told me you were in a small house in a run-down neighborhood.”
“Where’s Em?”
“I’ll find her. Don’t worry.” Odalia straightens up. She casts a spell, and a purple oracle spirit flies off in the direction of Blight Manor. “Your siblings are in danger, but I’ll find them. Let your mother worry about them, alright? I’ll make sure they’re safe. Stay here for now, it isn’t quite safe but Hooty can defend the house against a human mob and your father will pick you up soon, to take you to the Manor, to our place of power, where it’s safe.” Odalia lets her daughter go, and walks up to Luz, and says “Luz Noceda, I know we’ve had our differences, but keep my daughter safe, OK? Can you promise me you’ll keep Amity safe?”
Luz hates the idea of doing as Odalia commands - but what can she do, say no? Defiantly, she declares “Amity is my friend. I’m not going to do anything just because you tell me, but I’m not going to abandon my friend either.”
Odalia nods, and walks towards the house before turning back to look at her daughter one last time. “I love you, Amity. Things have been difficult recently, but I love you. You are the most important thing in my world. I’ll be right back, OK? I’ll just pick up your siblings and come back right away. I love you.” And before Luz or Amity can react, she summons her palisman and flies back towards the portal.
There’s quiet for a moment.
The three of them process what Odalia has told them.
Mr. Cyrus coughs nervously. “So, um, a witch like you did that to Marthasville?”
Luz is quick to intervene, saying “no, the Emperor did it. He’s an evil tyrant, he rules with an iron fist and I knew I had to stop him but I always thought that I’d have more time, but it’s not too late. It’s not too late to fix this.”
He looks nervously towards the house. “We should head back to where Catleia and Steve live. We don’t want to get stranded here.”
“No, no, you don’t understand Mr. Cyrus, this place is home to me just as much as Marthasville is, we don’t have to worry, nothing bad can happen to us here.”
“Kid, if Odalia is right then there’s going to be a war. You don’t want to be on the wrong side of the portal when it starts. I don’t want to just leave you here, but we should really head out now.” Luz stares him down, and he says “the portal will still be there, y’know? We just need to be on the right side of it.”
Luz is about to retort that Mr. Cyrus is being paranoid, when she notices that Amity has collapsed against the tree, staring blankly at her scroll. “Hold on,” Luz tells Mr. Cyrus before walking over to her girlfriend.
Amity’s scroll is opened to a group chat with her siblings. Amity’s sent them a message, telling them that she’s at the Owl House, asking where they are-
-just as Luz’s phone bings with an incoming text-
-and Mr. Cyrus is walking over-
-Amity’s scroll displays the warning “Message Could Not Be Delivered To All Recipients, Retrying”-
-Catleia is running towards them, shouting something about some kind of plane scrambling over the city-
-Luz’s phone starts ringing-
-Amity suddenly hugs Luz, trying to blot out her fear and-
-Mr. Cyrus looks to Catleia and swears-
-Luz awkwardly fumbles for her cell phone-
-Luz’s scroll chimes-
-Mr. Cyrus is yelling-
-Luz gets her phone out, she’s got a text from Mom and-
-she feels tears dripping onto her shoulder-
-Mr. Cyrus shouts “we gotta go kids, we gotta go now !”-
-the call is from an unknown number-
-Amity squeezes her tighter-
-Luz answers the call, holds the phone to her ear-
-Catleia says something about military helicopters-
-Luz hears Gus ’s voice in her ear, sounding tinny, his voice echoing in the background, saying he’s calling from-
-Amity shifts her head, asks the humans a question-
-Luz finally processes the text, it was from Mom, she couldn’t get in touch with tío -
-”I’m calling from a human phone Eda just bought, OK? Eda and Edric are with me, but-
-Luz should probably check her scroll-
-Amity disengages from Luz, demands to know what Mr. Cyrus is talking about-
-and Mom is being transferred to-
-”Edric’s hurt, we’re holed up in a human bathroom right now, there’s an illusion over the door-”
-with her free hand, Luz get her scroll, she has a message from-
-”where are you? Is Willow OK? Amity?”-
-a temporary triage center being set up on the campus of a nearby university-
-Amity is arguing with the humans-
-Luz’s phone chimes with another text-
-”Amity’s fine, Gus, I don’t know about Willow, where is she?”-
-she fires off a quick scroll message to Willow-
-Mom wants her to stay at the Owl House, because she’ll probably be working through the night-
-she sees a group running towards them through the woods-
-”I don’t know! That’s why I’m asking you!”-
-she still needs to read the scroll message-
-”She wouldn’t go into the city alone, if she’s not with you then”-
-out of the woods comes-
“Emira?!?”
And some older Hexside students. They look confused, but she looks worried.
“Amity, I got your message. What’s going on, where’s Ed?”
Wait wait wait, wasn’t Emira in the city with Edric? And Lillith?
And now Amity’s hugging her sister, and Emira’s friends look away, a bit embarrassed, and Mr. Cyrus is shouting “Don’t you see? President Zelenskyy gave the order! We have to leave the Boiling Isles STAT!” Luz ignores the humans and walks over to the Blight sisters, asking “I thought you were in Marthasville?”
One of the kids pipes up, saying “Uh, Emira was with us in Bonesborough, where even is Marthasville?”
“Sounds like a quaint little village on one of the hands,” says another.
And Gus’s voice is still coming from her cell phone, so Luz says “Emira just showed up, I’ll call you right back” into it before hanging up.
“What’s going on?”, Emira asks again.
Amity begins describing the last twenty minutes to the four older teens as Luz ponders Emira’s question.
What is going on? Eight of them are standing just outside the Owl House: Catleia and Mr. Cyrus, Luz and Amity, Emira, and three of Emira’s friends. Eda, Gus, and Edric are in Marthasville, hiding in a bathroom, and Edric’s hurt somehow; Odalia ran off to rescue the twins; Emira was never in Marthasville; Alador was summoned to the Owl House, so he could arrive at any moment. King and Hooty are inside, and Lillith could be anywhere. No one knows where Willow is, but that usually means she’s doing something with her parents.
Luz decides to check her scroll messages. She has one from Emira, and- yep, Willow has already responded to Luz’s frantic message, saying “I’m at the Hexside greenhouse, is everything okay?”
Luz ponders how to respond when her attention is drawn to movement in the sky. She looks up and sees a witch on their palisman. Mr. Cyrus swears again, as he and Catleia run into the house.
The witch draws near, and Luz recognizes him - Alador Blight. She flares with defensiveness as he touches down near his daughters, saying “hop on girls, we need to go now.”
Emira complies, Luz gets ready for a fight, and Amity insists “I’m not going anywhere without Luz!”
“Fine, fine, Luz can come too, but we need to go now.”
“I’m not leaving without my mom!”, Luz protests.
“Fine, she can come too! But we need to go now .”
“She’s not here! She’s saving all those people Belos hurt in Marthasville!”
“I don’t have time for this.” Alador casts a quick spell, and before Luz can react a purple arm shoots up from the ground, grabs Amity, and deposits her on her father’s palisman. Alador takes off, his youngest kicking and screaming but firmly secured to the magical staff.
“No, no, no! ” Luz shouts, as she reaches into her cloak for some rune to keep Alador from taking her girlfriend. She has so many ways to attack Alador, but she can’t risk hurting Amity, and before Luz can decide what to do he’s disappeared behind the treetops.
And Emira’s friends have wandered off.
And the humans are long gone.
And Luz is alone.
Humankind is grappling with the attack on Marthasville, witchkind is either ignorant, hiding, or panicking, and Luz, who has for so long straddled the two worlds - two worlds about to go to war - stands alone.
The sun is shining, and the birds are singing, and Luz Noceda collapses against a tree and sobs .