Chapter Text
“Eda!” Luz was screaming at the top of her lungs. “Eda stop! You’ll run out of magic!” Fear was gripping at her from all sides. The only thing keeping her from plummeting into the spikes of the Emperor's Castle, was quickly running out.
Eda cried out as her magic called for more and more energy her body didn’t have. The wild witch took a sharp exhale before speaking.
“It's my power kid,” Eda was just barely audible over the howling wind. “And before you showed up,” There was a pause for Eda to steady herself. “I spent my whole life wasting it.” Despite all the witch's efforts to maintain her composure, it was quickly slipping away.
Lilith carved a spell circle into the air, a blue glow enveloping her hand, casting a projection onto the human, forcing her closer to the spikes. Eda strained more against the curse, her gemstone bubbling over with a dark cloud.
“Eda! Eda no No NO!” Luz was struggling against both holds on her, she needed to get to Eda, she needed to stop Lilith.
Eda took a shaky breath as her eyes were being covered by the curse. “Alright kid,” she shook with every word. “I’m going away… And I don’t know if I can bounce back this time.” Lilith walked closer to Eda. “Look after King, remember to feed Hooty.”
“No please!” Luz could feel her voice become hoarse from all the yelling.
“And Luz…”
“Thank you for being in my life…”
Eda fell to her knees, a quiet I love you, lost to the wind.
There was a flash of light as Eda let out one last burst of magic, freeing her apprentice from Lilith’s magic and boosting her to safety.
Owlbert caught Luz mid air and dragged her back to the cliffs. The two fell into the bushes surrounding the chasm before the light dissipated.
There was a roar that pierced through the wind, howling just as loud.
Luz was frozen in shock, this could be happening, this had to be a dream. She must have fallen asleep on the field trip. But everything felt so real, it was all overwhelming.
Lilith almost killed her.
Eda was captured and in her cursed form.
All because Luz tried to steal a hat.
This was ALL her fault.
She ran away.
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Luz ran back to the Owl House in disbelief. The image of Eda being dragged away in glowing blue chains, snarling and growling burned fresh into her memory. Eda’s last few words echoing in Luz’s mind with her every step.
Did Lilith think she was dead? Luz never saw her look over the edge of the bridge. Would Lilith try to kill her again if she knew Luz was alive?
Luz slowed her pace and shuddered at the thought of what might have happened if Eda’s magic had run out when Lilith was pushing her into the spikes. It dawned on Luz that if Lilith wanted her alive, she would have kept her in the bubble or even made some attempt to put her back into it. Lilith just tried to kill her, just to get to Eda.
She was the one who went to the Emperor’s castle.
She was the one who tried to take the hat.
She was the reason Eda went in the first place.
It was all her fault.
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Luz neared the owl house, her pace finally slowing to a walking pace. Owlbert left his staff and flew over to distract Hooty. The door swung open and Luz staggered inside.
There was a squeaky breath as King burst out from under layers of frosting, before he shouted “The cake was me!” In a high pitched tone.
The demon took a breath and looked towards his audience. The sudden appearance of the king of demons didn’t seem to faze her.
King glanced around.
Owlbert flew over to land on Luz’s shoulder. He let out small hoots and gently bumped into her.
“Where’s Eda?”
Luz fell to her knees, tears streaming down her face.
They burned hotter than the boiling rain as they ran down her cheeks.
Because Luz knew it was her fault.
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“Amity, are you sure you should be walking all the way to the owl house?” Emira was hovering over Amity’s shoulder, Edric following close behind.
Amity stumbled and Edric stepped forward to help, Amity simply waved him off. “Em has a point Amity, you just got the cast off, what would mom and dad say?”
Amity looked at Edric, “Mom would scold me for not doing my work and dad wouldn’t care, neither of them cared enough to even take me to get it off.” It was a deadpan reply, Amity kept walking through the woods to the owl house.
Edric and Emira shot each other a quick glance, Edric spoke up. “Okay, while I’ll admit that was pretty bad they didn’t show, they have been pretty busy…” Edric paused and Emira continued for him.
“We went to a private doctor, our parents probably paid them off to not care whether or not they showed, but you should still be taking it easy.”
Amity kicked at a stone in a ‘I’m fine stop worrying kind of way’ but the twins had nothing but concern for their sister.
“Why do you guys care so much, no one else does.” The green haired witch picked up her pace.
Emira matched her pace with ease. “Amity, we care because you’re our sister and we love you, and you can’t say it’s just us,” Emira cut Amity off and put her hands on her sister’s shoulders, “you were messaged by two of your friends who care,” Emira motioned in the direction of the owl house. “We’re even going to check up on the person who cares about you most,”
Amity looked down and hid her face, Emira could still see her ears turning a light rose color.
“Amity, we understand why you need to go there, but you still need to make sure you don’t injure yourself again.”
Amity took a deep breath and looked at her sister. “Yeah, you’re right, I’ll be careful,” Amity pulled a few sticker sized patches out of her pocket. “I have some healing sigils if it gets worse.”
Emira pulled Amity into a tight hug.
“Oh, are we doing a sibling hug?”
Edric also jumped into the hug.
The twins pulled away and Amity took her place back in the lead.
“Okay, let’s go see Luz!”
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Luz was furiously scribbling away at a sketch pad, drawing glyph after glyph, running pencils down to a nub and pens out of ink. King scrounged around the room, looking for anything Luz could use to write.
“Luz,” King didn’t look very confident. “Are you sure about this? I’m all for crazy plans, but breaking into the Emperor’s castle alone?” King handed her another pen.
“I’m sure King, it’s my fault Eda is there in the first place, I need to rescue her and I can’t let anyone else get caught up in this…” Luz barely slowed down as she spoke.
She knew it needed to be her to fix it.
It was her fau-
Before Luz could finish her thought, Hooty poked through the open window.
“Hey Luz hoot hoot, Amity and siblings are here, should I let them in, hoot?” Hooty had a very similar expression to King.
Concern.
Luz’s own expression shifted, relief that Amity was here, the realization that she could get hurt spread across her face. She stopped writing.
“Don’t let them in.”
It wasn’t just a reply,
It was an order.
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Hooty retracted back into the door, he paused to give a glance to Luz’s room before speaking. “Sorry, Luz isn’t taking any visitors right now.”
Amity had concern written all over her.
Before Amity could say anything to Hooty, the twins were dragging her back to the forest.
“Thanks Hooty!”
“We’ll try again tomorrow!”
Both twins chimed their false farewells to the house demon before ducking behind a tree. Amity gave the twins a questioning look.
“I know those looks, what are you guys planning?” Amity crossed her arms and watched her siblings closely.
“Well mittens.”
“We’ll distract the house demon.”
“And you... Are going to make quite an entrance.”