Chapter Text
Everything important to Luz fit in one knapsack. Her leather-bound sketchbook, a photograph of her and her mother, two of her favorite books, a day’s worth of food, a change of clothes with hygiene rags, pencils, and a compass. She loved that little compass...bronze, with a little red arrow. A gift on her 9th birthday, one she knew her mother had saved up and saved up to buy, from the way her face shown in pride when Little Luz unwrapped it.
Luz had spent hours playing with it as a child, walking in circles around their tiny house, pretending the winds and rain beating against her face was the spray of the sea, taking it on adventures around their tiny village on the tiny island of Dominicasa. The compass stayed at the bottom of the knapsack for now, swung on Luz’s back. She would use it, probably, but she didn’t need a compass to point her towards the ocean.
As quiet as she wanted to be, Luz wasn’t exactly graceful. She stepped on the cracking bamboo floor the wrong way, cringing as her mother shifted awake. “Mija? It’s so early , what are you doing up?”
Luz cringed. She was hoping to do this without facing her. She’d written a note and everything! “I...I wanted to watch the sunrise on the dock while I waited for the ship.”
“You don’t want to wait for breakfast?” Luz’s mother sat up in bed, rubbing her bleary eyes. “Espera cariño., I’ll make you some chocolate.”
“Mamá, you don’t have to,” Luz promised with a tight throat. “I really don’t want to miss-”
Her mother tutted, quieting Luz. She was already standing up and lighting two lamps, giving them enough light to see. “This is the last time I’ll see you for at least a year, Lucecita.. Give this to your pobre madre, por favor..” She stepped to Luz, kissed the top of her head, and started towards the kitchen, looking for their melting chocolate. It was their favorite luxury. The only one their little family splurged on. “If you’re in such a rush, put your luggage by the door so you don’t forget it. You can’t bring just a knapsack to finishing school. Dios mio., Luz, you’re crossing the ocean.”
“Mami, it’s not like I’m going to the Continents,” Luz rolled her eyes, grabbing the two trunks anyway. She looked out the window; still no light on the horizon. But she had to move fast. “It’s only-”
“950 miles!” Her mother interrupted, boiling the drink. “And you were trying to sneak out without saying goodbye to your mother. Ay, que malvada..”
“I told you last night I thought I might leave before breakfast,” Luz said, itching towards the door.
“And I told you that was crazy . Sit down, Luz.”
“I just don’t want to be...late…”
Camila smiled as she spun the molinillo and frothed the chocolate. “I’m glad you’re so excited, cariño. Last week you were in tears about this, but…” she looked up at their thatched roof and sighed. “It really is for the best. You’re going to come back as an upstanding lady. Or maybe stay there on Bahía Tumbas, marry a man of high-class, maybe find your own position in the Empire? You have so much aptitude, mija, but you’re just...not…”
“Normal enough?” Luz grumbled, playing with the fringe on her tunic.
Pausing before she answered, Camila finally said, “The people on our island just don’t understand you. This school will help you learn so much more than I can teach you! And you can learn how to be the kind of person that...well...people besides only your mother will love. We are muy bendecidas. that Tia Concha is such good friends with the Headmaster; we couldn’t afford the tuition otherwise. This is a wonderful opportunity!”
“Yeah, that’s why I want to get on the boat right away,” Luz said, avoiding her mother’s eyes. Her mother placed the hot, steaming chocolate in front of them both, bringing out a tiny bowl, filled one third of the way with tan, sparkling grains of sugar. “Sugar? Mamá , where did you even…”
Camila waved her hand to silence Luz. “It’s a special day, cariño. Don’t you see why I would have been so mad if you had slipped out before me?” She winked. They took turns putting the sugar into their hot drinks and Luz let herself inhale the sweet drink. Its scent was nothing if not her mother’s love, supporting them alone for the entire 14 years of Luz’s life. They drank in silence, hearing frogs chirp outside as birds rustled awake.
“Te voy a extrañar, mamá.,” Luz confessed, trying not to cry.
Camila stood up and hugged Luz tight. She kissed her head three times and then let go. “I’m going to miss you, too. But I am so proud of you. Now, you go on. Watch that sunrise, Lucecita. I have that appointment with one of the Emperor’s Guards first light, so I must have this house in perfect condition before he gets here. Can you carry your things by yourself?”
Knapsack on her back, Luz bent to pick up her trunk. She strained out “uh-huh” through her teeth.
“Okay. Write every week, if you can! Draw me some beautiful pictures so I can see what the city really looks like. Tia will be waiting for you with a hot bowl of sancocho, okay?”
“Okay, mamá,”
“Te amo mucho, cariño. Ponle tu mejor es fuerzo y hazme sentir orgullosa..” Camila held open the door, eyes glittering with tears as she looked down at her daughter.
“Don’t be too lonely without me, mami.”
“No, no. The mother worries about the daughter. You can take care of me when you’re the adult, pequeña!.”
“Yo te amo también,” Luz laughed. “Te veo luego.”.
Camila choked out a sob, squeezing Luz one last time. She kissed her daughter’s head five times, leaving the last one with a loud kissing smack. “Cuídate mucho, mija,.” she said at last.
Luz carried her trunk as well as her weak arms could handle it, walking her well-worn path to Luz’s favorite place on the islands. She passed under the tall waving fronds of palm trees, brushed along fanning bushes, and watched lizards scurry on her path. She passed bigger houses, better buildings, and even the local Emperor’s Guard office, taller and fancier than all the rest. A poster hung on the outside, Always Watching, with a stern black-haired woman on display, just under a large Empire flag. Her ears had long ago been graffitied and covered up, but no one dared touch the rest of the poster. Luz stepped over the empty Blight Industries box that everyone knew brought the Guard fresh, new guns. But the lights were off and those gray-masked officers wouldn’t care about one lone human girl anyway.
The farther she got from her mother’s very rural part of the village, the more excitement filled Luz’s body. Her feet got faster, her trunk seemed to get lighter, and she started to scan the horizon. Over colonial buildings in the town, around the one Empire flag left flying overnight, looking for a different flag all together.
The dock was in sight, and Luz veered to the left. The dock into the village ran along the beach, which stopped abruptly at a giant gray rock. Luz knew there was a smaller beach on the other side of that rock, a hide-away where the teenagers that never accepted her would often play, run, makeout, or cause problems. She headed right there, knowing that someone else often used that beach...and the path to the caves nearby.
Her bare feet sunk into the sand and Luz struggled a little more with the trunk. She stared out to the east, finally seeing a line of brightness shimmer over the ocean. She inwardly cursed; would she be too late? And this stupid trunk! She didn’t want to bring it, but if anyone saw it laying on the island, or in the harbor, or anywhere at all, her mother would know that Luz wasn’t at school. But if everyone thought she boarded the ship to Whittebane Academy, it would be at least a week if not more before Tia Concha realized Luz wasn’t on board, then another week before word got back to Luz’s mother. By then, Luz would have a brand new life.
Well, unless Whittebane Academy had any witches on staff who could communicate magically. Witches could do that, right? She’d heard they could do anything they imagined. But the only witches on the entire island of Dominque were on the Emperor’s Guard. And they didn’t associate with any of the humans willingly; they probably wouldn’t even relay a message. Dominicasa was a decidedly human island, and the guards there weren’t as... helpful as they were punitive. Luz stuck her tongue out, just thinking about it.
No, surely Whittebane Academy would never hire a witch. They made it very clear in the pamphlets that Tia Concha sent that they would never enroll one. So yeah, Luz probably had at least two weeks, maybe three before her mom knew a thing.
By now, Luz had splashed into the water, dragging her stupid trunk with her as it filled with more and more saltwater. She sloshed around, waist-deep, grateful for the low tide and calm waves this time of morning. It didn’t go past her waist the entire time around the rock, meaning she was standing comfortably when she saw it. And yes, Luz had seen it seven times before, but never with a plan .
The Vile Owl . Scourge of the seas! The only pirate ship that ever docked on Dominicasa. They were too poor to attract any pillaging pirates, they were too small to encourage any slave-kidnappers, and they didn’t have enough resources for almost anything else, including illicit trade. But they did have caves. And that was why the Owl Lady and her crew docked there.
When The Vile Owl came to Dominicasa, they only ever stayed one night. They rolled in past sunset, rolled back out with the tide in the morning, and almost never came to the village. Luz had watched them carefully every time.
The crew’s ages ranged from two teenages scarcely older than Luz to pirates older than her own mother. They were mostly witches with a handful of creatures who walked like humans but looked like sea monsters or creatures. Demons, she was pretty sure. There was even a dog-like creature with a skull on its head, currently carrying crates back and forth between the ship and the caves on their trips.
The dog-creature was the face that appeared on their black and white flag. The flag Luz had drawn a dozen times or more in her sketchbook, heart aching for everything it represented. Adventure. Magic. Standing against the Empire. Making their own choices! She swore she’d stand under that flag one day.
As Luz got closer, she could see the ship better, including the warped-looking tube of wood with an owl’s face carved into the front. The Vile Owl had two masts of sails and was captained by the legendary Owl Lady. Now she, Luz had never seen outside of illustrations in newspapers. Once, Luz thought she saw her on the deck of the ship, but in the dark of the night it was impossible to tell. Luz hoisted her knapsack higher. Well, she’d meet her now .
Luz put her plan into motion. Relying on the darkness still mostly around her, she sloshed directly towards The Vile Owl. She pulled a rag from her knapsack and tied her trunk to the anchor’s chain, then wrapped her own body around it and started to climb. And climb. And regret her life choices. And climb. Until finally, she reached a porthole.
Luz tumbled into the ship, delighted to see that her timing was true. She could hear pirates above her on the deck, moving around and getting ready to shove off. She heard voices barking at one another, thudding feet (and one thud of wood), and it looked like Luz...she looked like she was in the galley? That’s the pirate kitchen, right? Right. Yeah, that’s what the books all said. Anyway, she was definitely in the galley. Perfect. Luz looked between the stove, the barrels ( lots of barrels), the rags, the hanging kitchen tools, and finally found a crate that was almost completely empty. A few apples rolled around on the bottom, an orange, and a durian. Luz grinned and added herself to the crate of fruits.
“Now, we wait,” she whispered to herself, tucking in her knees.
And sure, she might just die for doing this, but at least she would die trying to live her best life. And not, like, die in the middle of a darn finishing school.
As Luz waited, she heard more commotion. Loud, rattling chains as the anchor lifted past the galley window. Laughter, discussion, and shouts; they must have found her trunk. The laughter was interrupted by a stern female voice, and Luz swore she felt shivers. That must be the Owl Lady! She yelled some more, leading to more commotion as pirates got back into positions. Soon, the shouting seemed coordinated before ultimately, Luz heard shouts of delight and a loud popping explosion. She recognized this ceremony from watching The Vile Owl shove off of Dominicasa’s shore. One of the fishy-looking pirates and the teenage boy witch would have released small explosions.
More commotion as the tide washed the ship into the ocean. And soon, they were sailing. A thrill wrapped itself around Luz’s stomach. She had done it! She was sailing! And not just to the island over, not on a week’s journey to a horrid human school, but going out to the open ocean. To anyone’s guess where.
Luz was just beginning to wonder what her next move was when the galley door swung open. She heard little grunting noises and the padding of paws, peeking through her crate to see him again. Flag dog! She couldn’t hold in her gasp; he was so cute in person.
But the gasp was definitely the wrong move. “Weh?” He said, looking around. The little dog checked behind two barrels and into one other crate before his claws grabbed Luz’s. He grunted, pulling himself up to see inside, squinting. Then, his yellow eyes went wide. “Weh!” He dropped down and ran the other way, screeching up as he ran, “EDAAA! There’s something down theeeere! In my galley! Kill it! Burn it! Slash it! Get rid of it!!”
“Oh, he talks,” Luz noted. “He talks and he’s getting someone, so, um...Okay,” Luz said to herself, “Do I…get out now? I’ve been found. Maybe it’s better if I look authoritative. No, willing! Cool. Okay, so I’m…” Luz stood up, hitting her head soundly on a counter, and tripping to knock the entire crate onto the floor. “Ow,” she whined, crawling out and nursing her head, an apple rolling past her. Luz watched the apple continue rolling until it hit a ruby red boot.
Luz’s eyes rolled up the red boots to navy trousers, wrapped in a maroon coat, a flowy tunic, golden necklaces with sparkly gems, a wild mane of gray hair under her captain’s hat, and the palest face Luz had ever seen. “The Owl Lady,” she exhaled in awe. The Owl Lady’s painted lips sneered around her gold fang, gold matching eyes glaring.
“Random Stowaway,” The Owl Lady hissed back. Drawing her sword, she walked quickly to Luz, who just as quickly and in a panic stood up, and, at a loss, slapped the side of her hand to her forehead in a salute. The Owl Lady rolled her eyes. “Oh, put that down, kid.” She used her sword to flick at Luz’s hand, nicking it. But Luz was more entranced by the sword itself than the cut. Long, silver, with the most beautiful hilt. Gold, with an owl soaring, its wing wrapping around the Owl Lady’s hand and its head at the butt of the sword. Or was that the head of the sword? She hadn’t really read a lot of books on swords, she just knew it looked cool. Oh, but the Owl Lady was talking again. “What the hell are you doing on my ship?”
“I- I want to join your crew, Miss Owl Lady Ma’am!”
The Owl Lady looked unimpressed, then scoffed and gesticulated wildly with her sword. “Join the crew? I ought to throw you overboard, kid! In fact, let’s go upstairs and do that. The crew hasn’t watched anyone go over the plank in too long. They’re getting way too comfortable.”
“No! Please, no!” Luz cried out.
“Look, kid, you either get thrown overboard now or later, so I’d rather not waste sunlight. If we go now, you can still swim back to your happy little human island.”
“Miss Owl Lady, Captain, Please! I don’t want to go back to my happy little human island.”
The captain crossed her arms, fang sticking out as she looked over Luz. “Well, you can’t stay here, but you’ll be treading water for a long time if you don’t swim back. How long can you humans float, anyway?
“Let me stay!”
“No!”
“Please, I can be helpful!”
She laughed again, longer this time, wiping a tear dramatically. “Helpful? You? A human child ?”
“You have teenagers on your crew,” Luz argued back, noticing a flash of...maybe surprise? In the captain’s eyes. “And I can be helpful! My mom’s a medic; she taught me everything she knows!”
“We have a medic. A magic one, too, so that’s a big ney-ope.”
“I’m great at climbing. I can climb up the mast and do the sail thingy!”
“Do the sail thingy? Yeah, 'cause I’ll trust our ship worth a million snails in the hands of a baby who calls it a ‘sail thingy’.”
“Well..I’m a great swimmer and I know a lot of human things, I can help with...swimming and identifying things!”
“Now you’re just saying stupid shit, kid. The answer is still no , and the longer we stand here and argue, the farther you’re getting from your home.”
And Luz figured, she was dead either way, might as well get rid of any pride she had left. So she sunk to the floor and wrapped herself around this total stranger’s legs, pleading out, “Pleeeease, Captain Owl Lady!”
“Hey, get off me!” She replied, pulling one leg out of Luz’s grip and kicking her forehead.
Worth the pain , Luz thought through the throb, pulling herself right back to the grip around The Owl Lady’s boot. “That place isn’t my home. It’s never felt like home! No one understands me there. I don’t fit in with anyone on the island and my mom was going to send me to finishing school a thousand miles away anyway and-”
“...Finishing school?” The Owl Lady asked.
And Luz definitely heard the tiny tinge of something in her voice. “Yeah, finishing school. To become a ‘lady’ because I’m too weird for polite society. So I can grow up normal and marry a rich man in the Empire...I don’t want any of that! Any of it!!”
“God, I hated finishing school,” she grumbled. “I jumped on the first passing pirate ship to get out of there at my first chance.” Luz risked looking up at her, noticing a faint smile as she seemed to remember her past. But the smile was gone the moment the captain made eye contact back. “Okay, I get not wanting to enter the Hell on Earth that is Finishing School . Maybe I can tote you along and drop you off at the other nearest human island.”
“I don’t want to get dropped off on a human island!”
“...An integrated one, then?”
“No!”
The Owl Lady scoffed. “Well, I’m sure as hell not dropping you off at a demon island. You’d get eaten alive! Probably literally, come to think of it.”
“I don’t want to get dropped off at all. I want to join your crew.”
The Owl Lady groaned, throwing her head back. She wiggled her other foot out of Luz’s grip and pulled up a barrel, sitting herself on top. “Yeah, you said that earlier, kid. Get off the floor.” Luz did as she was told and stood up, now eye-to-eye with the gray haired captain, but feeling just as small as she was a second earlier. “Being a pirate is probably one of the hardest gigs out there. I know we look glamorous, I know I especially make it look easy, but that’s because I’m the greatest pirate on the boiling seas. Not because it’s child’s play, you see? It isn’t something you can just...decide to do one morning while running away from Mommy.”
“I didn’t just decide ,” Luz begged. “I’ve wanted to do this ever since the first time you pulled in on Dominicasa. I’ve read every book on piracy my Tia Concha would send me. I’ve read every newspaper we get.”
Raising an eyebrow, the captain replied, “That probably still doesn’t even scratch the surface. You don’t exactly live in Bonesborough, kid.”
“...In where?”
“See? That’s what I mean. You don’t know what you’re doing. You probably don’t even know why you want to be a pirate.”
“Yes, I do,” Luz said back, feeling confident for the first time since the Owl Lady started talking. This answer she knew. “I don’t fit in with my village. I don’t fit in with anyone I’ve met. I want adventure, excitement, and trouble...and they just want fish in their nets and crops growing tall. They want pretty ladies who know how to walk and stand and cook and clean and pay the servants. I want magic, I want the wind in my hair, a new adventure every day, I want to learn what the sail thingy actually is, I want this . I don’t...feel comfortable on land.”
Suddenly, the little skull-faced dog popped out of the Owl Lady’s mane of hair. “Hey!" He said, knocking on the side of The Owl Lady’s Head. “Sounds like you two have that in common,” he sang, snickering.
“Yeah, yeah, I get the joke. Shut up, King.”
“Wait, he was in your…. hair ?”
“Yeah, pretty much all the time,” she answered, pushing the dog (King?) back into her hair. “Don’t worry about him. He came down here to nap and steal my fruit.”
The dog popped back out to complain, “Wrong! As Cook, the galley is my territory and my rightful domain! It’s not stealing if it’s in my space .”
“Ohhh,” Luz began to coo, “He’s cuuute in person.”
“I am not cute!” he squeaked, pounding his tiny fists on the Owl Lady’s fluffy hair. “I am the King of Demons and you shall respect my rule!”
With a roll of her eyes, the Owl Lady said, “Yeah, yeah, we know. Now get back in there and take your nap. Let me talk to the stowaway, mmkay pipsqueak?” King complained again, but disappeared and made some sleepy-sounding smacking noises. Then, the Owl Lady turned back to Luz. “Okay, I hear you and all your longing reasons. But why not just become a legitimate sailor? Or even a privateer, if you’re in it for the sweet, sweet gold?”
Now Luz was the one to scoff. “And work for Emperor Belos? I’d rather become an upstanding Lady .”
The Owl Lady smiled, eyebrows lifted. “Oh yeah? And what does a ten year old possibly know about Belos?”
“I’m fourteen, first of all, and I know plenty. Every day, we get broken bodies dumped on our kitchen table so my mom can try to even just sort of heal them. They tortured by the Emperor’s guards and overworked to pay off his taxes. Nobody can afford the medicine from his islands. And when my mom can save them, half of her pay gets taken and called ‘taxes’.
“And then,” Luz laughed darkly, “that’s not even mentioning what happens outside the house. The way the ships with supplies from the Titan’s Corpse just happen to forget to come by nearly every season? That’s no accident. I think Belos wants us isolated, weak, and depending on him and his witches as much as possible. If there was even one family of witches with plant-magic...that’s a thing, right?...If there was even one plant-magic family on Dominicasa, our lives would be totally different. I mean, our village-”
“Alright kid, alright. Slow your roll.” The Owl Lady interrupted, chuckling, “You got spunk.”
“Wait, I do? I got spunk??”
“You do. And...ugh, I’m so going to regret this...but spunk is what pirates need. Especially on my crew.”
“They do?!”
“You gotta eat, drink, and breathe hating Belos to live our life. I can teach ‘the sail thingy’, I can make a chump like you actually useful, I can keep your little butt out of Finishing School, but I can’t teach someone to have the passion you need to be a pirate. I’ll make you a deal, kiddo. Our next stop is a jail on a cliff. Mama has some talking to do with the warden there about his, hmm, confiscated items . If you can help us on the heist and get your hands on something shiny, you can stay. At least until I change my mind.”
“I can ?!” Luz asked, jumping to be inches away from the Owl Lady’s face. And soon found a long-taloned hand in her own face, pushing it away.
“Yeesh, personal space, kid. No crewmate of mine gets to be that close to the merchandise.”
“I’ll do it! Thank you thank you thank you thank you Owl Lady Captain Ma’am! I won’t let you down!”
“Oh, I’m absolutely positive you will. But for some stupid reason, I’m letting you stay anyway. King? Get this cabin girl a mop so she can start getting useful. At least until we get to the jail and see if she’s got what it takes. Oh, and cabin girl, was that your water-logged trunk of junk tied to our anchor?”
“Uh, yes, but I-”
“Very clever of you! Also really stupid! All your trash that was inside is pretty much ruined. Barcus is being a good boy and trying to dry it out, so get it from him and off of my deck, got it?”
“Yes, Captain Owl Lady!”
The Owl Lady turned around, opened the swinging galley door and shouted up the stairs, ignoring Luz behind her. “Jerbo! Viney! Barcus! Salty! You got more cheap child-labor to help you out. Viney, she’s bunking with you!”
“Oh, and Captain?” Luz asked, buzzing in delight. It worked! It worked!!! The Owl Lady was her captain !!
“What, cabin girl?”
“My name is Luz. Luz Noceda.”
The Owl Lady blinked, then finally said, “Yeah, I don’t care. Get swabbing.”