Chapter Text
“Now, the biggest thing to remember and practice with glyphs is accuracy.” Luz spoke as she drew on the board, “Messing up the circle or symbol will mess up the spell or stop it from working entirely.”
The human supported her words with a wavy circle, tapping the glyph to make an ice spike only for it to turn to a puddle a moment later. Eda raised her hand with hesitation, Luz giving a smiling nod in approval.
“How did you get so good at drawing circles, kid?”
“Not having many friends gives you a lot of time for creative things.”
“Eh, people are overrated for the most part.” Shade rolled his eyes as he emerged.
“You wouldn’t say that around Dot, would you?” Firefly snickered.
“Thus why I said ‘for the most part,’ Sparky.”
Slim and the others laughed as his parts briefly bickered before bringing their attention back to the lesson.
“And the circle also helps to regulate a spell’s flow, along with intention. Without it, magic runs rampant.”
Slim demonstrated by looking away with an ignorant face as he summoned a small group of vines. The plants quickly scrambled around the floor, approaching Eda and Lilith’s feet. The sisters matched each other’s tense unease as they brought their feet up to the couch before Slim recalled the vines with a smirk. Slim cast plant magic again with a focused breath, making the new vines bloom into a small blue flower.
“Actually, that piece about intention can also change how glyphs come out! Check this out, I just found it last night.”
Luz quickly drew a light glyph before tapping it with determined eyes, pulling her hand away like she was handling a string as multiple balls of light emerged. The demonstration drew applause from the others, letting the witchling take a shy bow.
Eda, Lilith, and Slim nodded as they watched Luz’s demonstration with light magic, King sleeping on Eda’s lap. The Owl Lady had taken some notes as the lesson went on, but now mostly twirled her pencil around and watched Luz with hints of pride in her eyes along with amusement. Lilith on the other hand was a dutiful student, taking notes constantly via drawings and scribbles next to arrows. It was tense seeing the former Coven Leader among them, but Slim had to admit, he at least liked her studying style.
“However,” he spoke, “You also have to subtly change your focus depending on what kind of magic you want, like changing potion ingredients.”
The Night Walker demonstrated by summoning a flame in one hand and an icicle in the other, swirling them around him for an emphasis in his words.
“Magic truly flows through you and your conduit. The spell circle, from my understanding, uses one’s bile sac more than the air itself, though the bile sac is still helpful with glyphs.”
“Well that explains why my circles turn to dust,” Eda remarked.
“Still, you have to wonder, isn’t there a way to draw upon our bile to help with spells?”
Lilith’s question brought intrigue to the others. Slim knew from sneaking into the hidden parts of the library that bile sacs had to be evolved into the witches of old when glyph magic was more common. The thought quickly got his gears turning, and his eyes followed suit as an idea popped into his head upon remembering the night they escaped Belos’ castle.
“Eda, can I see something with you quickly?”
“Why me, and what do you need?”
“I wanna see if I can figure out what’s going on with you more closely. The curse is mostly gone, but it’s still clearly present.”
Eda looked to the others who had the same curiosity before turning back to Slim, “Eh, why not. Go for it, Teach.”
Slim rolled his eyes before changing to Shadow, taking care to not hit anything with their newly appeared wings. The change still brought a surprising burst of energy to the Witch and his parts as their eyes and senses adjusted, putting two fingers to the Owl Lady’s coal-black gem and focusing with closed eyes.
A small light emanated from their fingertips, seeming to flow into Eda and feeding the angel what it found inside. The magic eventually flowed to Eda’s heart, making the problem immediately clear.
“We got it.”
“What, what’s wrong?” Luz spoke worriedly.
“Her bile sac’s not pumping-“
“What!? What does that mean? Will she-“
“Whoa, whoa, it’s okay, mostly.” Shadow eased Luz with a hand on her shoulder. “While it is a part of the heart, the bile sac is really only there to supply constant, fresh magic to the rest of the body. Eda still has magic in her system, it’s just that her bile can’t reach the heart, and is sitting in the sac.”
“See kid, there’s nothing to-“
“N…Not exactly.”
The others looked to Shadow’s unsure face as they swallowed.
“While she still has some bile, its reserves are extremely low and drying up. As for what happens when it runs out…We can’t say for sure, but our best guess is that Eda would have to use glyph magic forever, if she even can as time goes on, even if she was entirely cured of her curse.” Shadow briefly looked over to Lilith, who quickly turned her gaze away, “And we’re assuming the same thing will happen to you, in time.”
The room’s attendants looked to the floor and each other, all unsure of what to do with the information.
“Hey, i-it’s okay.” Luz slightly stepped forward and gave Eda a small side hug, “Just another thing we’ll figure out, right?”
Eda briefly hesitated before conceding to the witchling’s optimism, “Sure, Luz.”
The lesson continued as normal, though Eda’s mischief with doodling and rushing with her magic certainly got on Slim’s nerves. On the flipside, Lilith was extremely studious, almost to a fault.
“What you guys really need to work on is balance,” Slim spoke as he summoned balls of light and darkness. “Both your energy” he pointed to Eda “and your knowledge,” pointing to Lilith, “are essential in glyph magic. You need to both know the magic and feel it.”
The sisters looked to each other as Luz and Slim did the same, taking the moment to let the message settle in.
“Alrighty, good job guys!” Luz clapped with a smile, “make sure to keep practicing your glyphs, and you’ll be able to draw them perfectly in no time!”
The sisters nodded gratefully before going to the kitchen, Slim helping Luz put away the supplies.
“Gotta say, you’re a pretty good teacher!”
Slim blushed under the compliment, “Thanks, but you really took charge with this whole thing, especially considering you only recently started magic training.”
“T-thanks, Slim.”
“Hoot! Slim’s second-bestie is coming!”
The house occupants looked to the door as Hooty opened it with a smile. Dot walked in looking subtly shy before getting a good-hearted eye roll from Eda.
“If the Glyph Guys are here, why shouldn’t their girlfriend be? I’m sure she’ll wanna hear about their sage wisdom.”
Slim and Dot’s blushes drew laughter across the House, the girl in question grabbing pieces of paper off the floor to help.
“Sage wisdom? If it’s anything like our training, I’m sure it’s good.”
“W-well, it’s nothing revolutionary.”
“Slim’s a huge help. It’s kinda fun teaching something, actually!”
“You could even say it’s...‘magical’?”
Groans and chuckles emerged out of Shade’s pun, bringing a sense of calm to the house. Slim took in a breath of peace, looking around as Luz and Dot talked about their lessons at Hexside, and Lilith and Hooty made tea together. It was…nice. Being in a warm home with friends.
“I know that face. Whatcha thinking about?”
The Night Walker looked to his best friend with a small smile. “Just thinking about this. Having friends that I can trust and have fun with in a safe space.”
“Certainly beats the dinky treehouse, huh?”
Slim’s eyes widened at Shade’s remark, whose face turned curious at his host’s eyes.
“What?”
Slim looked over to Luz with great excitement.
“I think I know what the next assignment will be.”
Dot and Luz smiled at the Night Walker’s enthusiasm, “I’m listening.”