Chapter Text
Even in a fantasy world, the bills still needed paying.
This sad fact of life had driven Luz into the heart of Bonesborough, where the local job board would hopefully have more work for her. The Selkidomus’s gift had gotten Eda plenty of snails, but the funds from it were running dry. Everyone else in the Owl House had started up gigs to pay for food and other expenses – and Luz refused to be a burden, no matter how much Eda insisted she already wasn’t.
Besides, work was great! It kept her mind off little distractions, like how her mami was worried sick about her, or how Amity had been avoiding her for weeks, or how tingly she felt tending to Hunter’s wounds, or how Eda’s curse was still a problem to deal with-
-Right, it was good for avoiding distractions. Luz forced herself to smile and block out those pesky thoughts. No time to mope when there was work to be done!
The trip through town was relatively peaceful, with not much foot traffic to worry about and clear skies showing that boiling rain wouldn’t be a problem. She passed by a fountain statue of Emperor Belos, one that some Emperor’s Coven members were vigorously cleaning. A larger coven member stood by with a baton in hand, watching every passerby with suspicion.
Clearly, something had happened in this part of Bonesborough. Posters announcing the ban of all bat masks had been posted on nearby buildings. Hints of graffiti and other vandalism lingered on the statue of Belos. Witches and demons hurried past the Coven, exchanging fearful glances and concerned whispers. To top it off, a sign in front of the maintenance work declared “NO PUBLIC MEETINGS IN PARK UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE.”
In any other case, Luz might’ve poked her nose in their business and started asking questions. However, she was a girl on a mission, and her curiosity would just have to be sated some other time. She kept her nose to the ground and hurried along to the marketplace.
The job board stood where Eda had once managed her human relics shop. With that out of the picture, the space was used to advertise bounties, odd jobs, and other requests that would be rewarded. Its neighboring stands came and went; today, a colorful but closed-up tent hung around beside it.
“Right, let’s see what you’ve got for me today…”
Luz skimmed through the advertisements, looking for anything up her alley. Eda had gotten a job smuggling Smile Dip, some potent snack that had been declared illegal in two different realms, from Latissa to Bonesborough. King had inexplicably been hired to follow a large, toad-like demon around town and play the tuba wherever he walked. He didn’t understand it, but the snails per hour were worth not asking questions.
Now, it was her turn to chip in.
“A hundred snail bounty on Boris the Blade, wanted dead?” Luz shook her head. “Not into that whole ‘murder-for-hire’ deal. Request for fresh unicorn tears by next week? I dunno, I had heard unicorns were real jerks when you got to know them.” She flipped through more postings, desperate for something she could handle. “Come on, where’s the good stuff…”
A bright blue leaflet came loose from the board, one that she hadn’t seen in her initial search. She grabbed it for herself once it had landed. Big, bold letters advertised another job on its cheap paper.
“‘Are YOU a down-and-out adventurer looking for some honest work?’” Grinning, Luz happily answered, “Yes, I am, piece of paper! Thank you for asking!” She got back to reading the notice. “‘Tibblet-Tibblie Grimm Hammer the Third is searching for curios and relics across the Boiling Isles! Snails up front and after completion, no need for a background check, and absolutely no questions asked! Stop by his tent for more job details!’”
A job hunting down ancient treasures on the Isles? That sounded perfect! Heck, she had accidentally stumbled into those sorts of adventures several times since she had met Eda! This time, she’d actually get paid for putting her life at risk!
“Yeah, this is what I’m talking about! ‘Luz Noceda, fortune hunter and archeologist with a dark side!’ I bet I’ll bring home so many snails for Eda…”
She hugged the leaflet to her chest. Only one question remained.
“Who’s this Tibblet Grimm Hammer guy, though?”
“Ah, that would be me!”
The tent beside her unrolled itself, revealing an assortment of odd weapons and staffs, a jar of fresh eyeballs, and one bespectacled pig she had the displeasure of crossing paths with before.
“Tibbles? What kinda scam are you trying to pull this time?”
Tibbles made a slight effort to appear offended. “Scam? Me? How insulting! I am a legitimate businessman who had only made a couple of mistakes in the past! I’m on the straight and narrow now, see?”
He raised his stubby arms toward the goods on display behind him. It was a collection of strange and eclectic items, from foam swords to deadly compound bows. The mix of human junk and genuine weapons reminded her of Eda’s former shop.
“All of these were obtained through legitimate contracts with other treasure hunters!” Tibbles explained. “I’m setting up a museum on rare and powerful weapons used throughout history. All that’s missing is a single item: the masterpiece that will tie my collection together!”
Having been shrunken down and nearly eaten by his pets before, Luz knew better than to trust the scheming pig conman. Blowing a raspberry at him, she said, “I’m not falling for this phony baloney! The answer’s no – I’m not helping you!”
Just as Luz turned and prepared to stomp away from him, the sound of a coin bag hitting the counter grabbed her attention. She looked over her shoulder and found Tibbles standing beside a sizeable container of snails. His grin twisted from “cheeky” to “smug” in an instant.
“Oh? But the money’s good, and there’s no trap this time.” His voice was buttery and slick, threatening to slide Luz into a move she might regret. “Eda the Owl Lady has been humiliated enough by the Emperor already. Revenge isn’t my mission – profit is! My museum will make enough to cover the price of hiring people like you, so I can afford to eat this cost!”
On one hand, Luz had no reason to trust Tibbles. He had caused problems for her friends and newfound family twice in the past. He was the sleaziest con artist on the Isles other than…well, Eda herself. The wise move would be to move on and try her luck with the other jobs on the board.
On the other hand…money. Lots of money for the taking, and some would be given to her as soon as she agreed to the job. She would have enough to cover the Owl House’s expenses for months. All she had to do was get some dusty old artifact, bring it back to the pint-sized pig man, and receive the rest of her reward.
She couldn’t help but groan at her predicament. Why couldn’t she be the one playing the tuba for wealthy toad demons?
Ever so reluctantly, Luz turned back around to face Tibbles. She walked up him and rest her hands on his counter, placing the leaflet beside him. In turn, he foisted an employment contract into her open hands.
“What do you need me to look for?”
“Aha, I knew you would come around!” he declared, winking at her. “It’s an old, powerful weapon called the ‘Staff of Oblivion.’ My sources place it somewhere along the bottom of the Titan’s Right Arm. It seems to have surfaced after decades of inactivity.”
The name didn’t ring a bell to Luz. “‘Staff of Oblivion?’”
“It’s a legendary staff forged during the Savage Ages. Legends say its destructive power was unmatched, and that it was used by a wild witch-king to destroy the castle of a rival ruler!”
It sounded dangerous. Luz wasn’t sure if giving such a deadly weapon to such an untrustworthy person was a good idea. That was, of course, assuming the staff even existed anymore.
“How am I supposed to know where to look?”
“If you agree to track it down and bring it to me, I’ll give you a map to where I think it washed up. Emphasis on think. Anything that falls into the Boiling Sea has a 50/50 chance of survival.”
Her options were limited. Either kill a guy with a mean-sounding name, try to make some stuck-up horses with horns cry, or give an insanely powerful staff to someone who thought “trust” only applied to bank accounts.
She couldn’t be a burden to Eda. Luz refused to make Eda or King work harder for her own sake. That meant taking on Tibbles’s job, whether she was pleased about it or not.
Curse her knack for being drawn into wonky, dangerous, and often 22-minute-long adventures!
Luz carefully read through the contract, making sure the terms didn’t result in her kidney belonging to the pig man. One annoyed name-signing later, she handed over the form to an ecstatic Tibbles. In return, she got a folded map and a small bag of snails.
“Oh, you won’t regret this, human!” Tibbles rubbed his hands together in a totally-not-suspicious manner. “I’m sure you’ll have no problems retrieving the staff for me! Who knows, you might learn some lessons about family or whatever along the way!”
Emperor Belos’s castle was scurrying with activity. Servants frantically carted around maps, artificial staffs, and other supplies from room to room. Coven members plotted out raids on wild witches and other undesirables in whatever open space they could find. Abomatons patrolled the halls with pikes, swords, and Blight Industries sticky launchers.
Belos had warned his loyalists that the Day of Unity wasn’t just fast approaching – it would be on their doorstep in mere days. That meant everyone had to do their part to ensure its success.
To Hunter, the end felt pretty friggin’ nigh. The high energy around the castle was infectious, and even he grew restless as he ascended it to reach his uncle. Darius, the Abomination Coven leader, had told him that Belos needed to see him immediately. After his last failure to secure more palismen for his uncle, he was desperate to avoid further punishment.
…Even if that punishment had led him into the arms of a certain human wild witch, who had patched him up and muddied the waters between them with a kiss to the forehead. Thinking about their last meeting made his heart race and his face grow warm, so he tried to not think about it. He could dwell on what she meant to him, and vice-versa, after preparations for the Day of Unity were complete.
He occasionally had to reach into his coat and pet Flapjack, who was kept hidden in a small compartment within his uniform. As strange as it felt to have the cardinal palisman close to his chest, he was more comfortable always having Flapjack with him instead of leaving him in his room. There was less chance of his palisman getting discovered this way.
The stone corridors of Belos’s palace were packed, and Hunter often had to push through groups of Coven members or government officials to move ahead. Every inch of space was used for some purpose or another.
He passed by a guest bedroom that had been turned into an interrogation room. Peering inside, he found Kikimora questioning a dull-eyed Raine Whispers. An Abomaton stood behind the little red demon and guarded her.
“How long have you been the leader of BATT?”
“Since I started working to become the leader of the Bard Coven,” they lifelessly replied.
Hunter couldn’t help but notice a red aura surrounding Raine, one that fluctuated whenever Kikimora spoke. Flapjack nearly popped out of his cloak to take a closer look.
“How many members were part of your group?” Kikimora jotted down more notes expectantly.
“Just the four of us, along with Eda the Owl Lady.”
“Was her recruitment always your goal?”
“No, we met by coincidence. She volunteered to join us.”
Kikimora turned a sheet of paper around to face Raine. The Abomaton handed the disgraced coven leader a fresh quill.
“If you would be so kind, mark down every hideout your group had used while active.”
Like a puppet on strings, Raine started circling points on the map without any hint of resistance or opposition. It was…unnerving, to put it lightly. Hunter shuddered and quietly left the group to their work. He didn’t want to know how they had gotten the treasonous bard to cooperate so easily.
Before long, Hunter had reached the carpeted entrance to Belos’s throne room. He made sure to knock on its towering metal doors before entering. Surprising his uncle could end up being a recipe for punishment, and the scarred stab wound on his side served as a reminder to its potential lethality.
Inside, Belos’s throne was unoccupied, and the room was empty. Well, seemingly empty. A familiar portal swirled around behind the golden chair his uncle reclined in. “The Void,” he had called it – a magical doorway used to commune directly with the Titan. According to Belos, only the worthy could enter it and hear the Titan’s Word.
It went without saying that Hunter had tried to get inside it before, never succeeding once. His interest in wild magic and willingness to trust Luz, a known wild witch, had clearly rendered him unworthy of such an honor.
“You deserve better than this,” Luz had reassured him. “There’s more good in you than you think.”
Block it out, he told himself. Don’t dwell on those matters here. Save it for when he was alone and could afford to show weakness.
Belos emerged from The Void after a few minutes of waiting. He remained masked and still wore his light, regal outfit. Immediately noticing Hunter, he closed the portal behind him and descended the stairs to the throne.
“Everything is proceeding as the Titan has willed it,” Belos proudly said. “All that remains are a few tasks to complete before the Day of Unity can commence.”
“Is that why you called me up here?” Hunter asked him.
“Indeed, it is.”
Belos placed both his gloved hands onto Hunter’s shoulders. He involuntarily flinched at his uncle’s touch. Silently, he thanked whoever had designed his uniform for including a mask – he didn’t want Belos to see the fearful cringe he had gotten out of him.
“I have an important task for you. Since you have proven to be inadequate in matters relating to palismen, I will be assigning you another mission. This is no less important than bolstering our supply of palismen, I assure you.”
Alright, no slaps or constricting spells so far. Belos was showing remarkable restraint toward someone who had fouled up twice and had run away from his responsibilities. He would have to thank his uncle for showing such kindness.
“Do you honestly think that someone who loves you would do this?” Luz’s eyes had nearly glistened with fresh tears. “He could have killed you! Why are you acting like he cares about you when he’s just using you as a punching bag?”
Shut up, he mentally growled. This wasn’t the time to be doubting his last living family member. Belos loved him – he had to, or else everything Hunter had done would be for nothing. He wouldn’t be able to live with himself if that were the case. So, until proven otherwise, Belos just loved him in a way that a human couldn’t understand.
“Though my coven is powerful, I want to be sure it is equipped to handle any threat should the Day of Unity be threatened. Your task will be to retrieve a long-lost weapon for me, one that could topple even the most powerful wild witch.”
Hunter’s interest was undoubtedly piqued. More importantly, a mission like that would distract from the problems he had been dwelling on. Stupid, lovely Luz and her niceness, her cute face, and her way of getting him to question his life choices…
“Just tell me what it is and where it is, uncle. I’ll start looking for it right away.”
Belos retrieved two scrolls from his cloak and gave them to Hunter. He opened them and studied the most important bits he could gleam.
The first scroll was a map of the Titan’s Right Arm with a marked path leading to its distant shores. The other scroll was a lengthy document entitled “Emperor’s Dossier – The Staff of Oblivion.”
“Do not fail me again,” Belos told him, his calm tone doing nothing to hide his disappointment. “This is not a time for weakness. The Boiling Isles will be changing, and I want you by my side when the world is made whole again.”