Chapter Text
Luz Noceda sat comfortably at her desk, casually spinning a pencil between her fingers whilst looking through her window. It's the warm, summer nights like these where she likes staring up at the moon and just.. thinking. It's comforting yet quite depressing at times too, where she belongs in this world and what's going on around her - sure, it may seem stupid but it brings her peacefulness in a world of chaos.
That's why she loves her fantasy styled media so much, a new world, new people with interesting concepts such as basic humans wielding magical abilities including interesting plot lines. One book that stands out above other fantasy novels is The Good Witch Azura, a book Luz remembers falling in love with at a young age which assisted in giving her such a creative and happy attitude towards life. She continues to read spin-off's and generally engulfing her life with fantasy, movies, anime, books, even fan-fiction of all things which depending on who she is talking to may or may not admit to writing piles, upon piles of fan-fiction.
Some people however still expect me to grow up, one day I'll probably just grow up out of my fantasies.
Luz sighed at those thoughts, growing up is something she isn't ready for - She'd prefer living in a fantasy world where she can be herself without fear of other people judging her. For now though, she just has to act like another ordinary and unoriginal human. Luz put away her art to stand up out of her chair to finally stretch her arms shortly after her vision started to blur, grabbing onto her desk just incase she fell over again.
"Damn I should stand up more often for breaks" Luz thought to herself
Giving herself some time to ensure she won't fall over, she promptly held her hand out and went through the motions to create a spell circle with the intentions of telekinesis before pulling her hand from the circle to get her Good Witch Azura book five. Luz has already finished reading it multiple times over, yet its still comforting returning to a familiar world where she is openly welcomed and appreciated for what she does. A hero of sorts, using her magical abilities to save those who need saving.
In a world with The Good Witch Azura, Luz might be able to be herself without having to hide her magic. Maybe she could be more than that one girl who daydreams too much and lives in her own worlds but as someone whose helpful to others, to just be considered someone in the world where she's seen as no-one.
Whenever Luz uses magic she can almost hear her mom telling her off because 'someone could see her' or 'don't be that lazy mija!' She does know the risks of doing magic but she lives in a small town, everyone here knows magic exists, some lucky few can actually use magic to an extent. Luz knows she is one of the lucky ones, yet others believe she wastes herself away with fantasy worlds, where that could potentially be true she still can't just abandon those worlds!
School isn't any better of course, maybe she could've entered an all magic school! But those don't exist, only 'normal' schools outside of our town that we have to go to instead and the only other kids who can do magic are actually adults who only use their magic if necessary or younger children.. Being seventeen and having magical abilities has been a dream come true yet it's so lonely at times, no-one else I know my age knows magic and if they ever did they wouldn't be that interested!
Stopping herself from going further down that rabbit hole of problematic thinking and taking control of her breathing so she didn't get any more irritated at her own thoughts before sighing yet again, maybe I won't read the book again tonight.. plus the Library would definitely be closed by now, I can however go for a snack..
Luz walked downstairs for once, apparently floating downstairs is 'unprofessional' and 'somebody could see you Luz!' is very problematic, in a way I suppose it could be but I could be able to alter memories or just make it look like I jumped down the stairs. Luz stopped to think about that for a second
"Yeah, I can see why mom gets embarrassed about me sometimes." She had thought to herself, shrugging she continued downstairs to see her mom sitting down watching TV
"Evening Mom!" Luz called out, "Oh! Hello Mija, I didn't hear you - Did you not walk downstairs this time? You know humans might be here!" Her mother added, "I know Mom I did walk downstairs this time! And we're human too, just with some witch thrown into the mix!" Luz stated whilst doing jazz hands and watching on as her Mother sighed placing a hand to her face, "Yes, but you know what I mean Luz you can't be so careless" She continued speaking
"It's okay Mom, I'm always careful!" Luz joked, sure she had those accidents with making a realistic death scene in her middle school play, bringing in some live snakes for her book report alongside many other issues her mother forbids to bring up again but they were all honest mistakes a younger teenager like herself would make, she was seventeen now and has matured.. somewhat.
Luz practically chuckled at that thought, she is older now and is also thankful her mom didn't actually send her to that camp - those things are incredibly limiting.
Luz walked through the kitchen looking for anything to snack on, whether it be leftovers or anything from the store, "Mami, when are we going shopping next? We're running out of food!" Luz called out to hear a sigh, "Luz we are not running out of food, there's still plenty left in the kitchen!"
Where yes, there was alot left in the cabinets, there wasn't anything there to snack on, the fridge is practically empty!
Luz just got bored of alternating between checking the Fridge every few minutes and returning to see if anything interesting was playing on the TV, maybe something in her room has changed or a portal to a new dimension where I'm a hero in a mysterious new world has appeared and I could go on a quest!
Luz calmed herself down to 'walk' upstairs before psyching herself up again, opening the door to her room to see nothing new.
"Ugh... There's nothing to do!" Luz begun complaining to herself, maybe she could just practice more with magic and spells for a while. Sitting back down at her desk once again she pulled a few interesting books out from her bookshelf, ones that she has gone through hundreds of times over, she knows all of the spells and how to use them, how to mix some spells together, brewing guides and general knowledge on magic. With all of the books floating around her room, she decided to close her curtains just incase anyone walked past her house and happened to look up.
. . .
Luz finally put all of her books away, cleaned her room and decided why not move some stuff around her room which may or may not have included her Mother walking past her room to say goodnight to just seem confused by what was going on, she might ask about that tomorrow.
Out of boredom, Luz finally checked her laptop, nothing new on the fanfiction pages that seem to jump out at me, YouTube seems empty and there's no new emails.
"Ughhhhhhhh.... There's still nothing to do.." Luz groaned out, she both loves and hates school at the same time, she actually has stuff to do and gets to do so many.. somewhat interesting.. things and has schedules there! But now she just has to wait a few more weeks for school to come back again, her homework is already completed and she doesn't have many actual friends to hang out with.
All that's left is just reading, browsing the internet and playing with magic.
"Why not check out some fan-fiction again, there might be something interesting now.." Luz had thought to herself, why not.
. . .
Finally shutting her laptop as quietly as possible, Luz realised how late it truly was and decided it would be best to finish reading the fanfiction sometime later instead. Finally falling into the comfort of her bed she decided to let her imagination run wild, making up stories and just thinking before eventually dozing off to sleep.
During the creation of the second story for the night, Luz stopped for a moment to think, more specifically about an anime she had watched. Monster Slayer Academia, some cool guy could teleport there. What if she could also teleport.. Luz quickly grabbed her phone, accidentally blinding herself in the process whilst typing her idea. She could be such a badass if she figured out how to teleport or if it was possible. All the possibilities! I could prank people so easily...
Smiling to herself, Luz was excited for tomorrow, maybe fanfiction can just.. wait a little bit.. longer..
"Luz! Are you going to sleep in all day?" Opening her eyes slowly, realising what time it was, "Oh! Sorry Mami! I slept in!" Falling out of bed, getting properly dressed for the day and grabbing a few of her books she finally got downstairs, "You stayed up late last night didn't you Luz?" Her Mom asked, "Whaaat? No I wouldn't do that I'm a responsible almost adult Mom!" Luz responded.
"I don't buy that one bit Luz, you need to go to bed earlier okay?"
"I know Mom, I'll get to bed earlier tonight.. Oh! Is it okay if I practice some magic out in the forest today? I have a really cool idea and I will be careful and make sure to check that nobody is nearby and I'll be super duper careful Mom!" Her Mom looked at her for a moment, sighing, "Alright, just please be careful alright? And make sure to get something to eat today in town okay Luz? You can't run on nothing all day!" Her Mom reminded her.
Luz took off out of the house with her bag carrying a few snacks she had smuggled from inside, her phone and a few books to help with some inspiration. It didn't take her long to get to a shop and buy some take-out breakfast before leaving into the forest for the morning.
It didn't take Luz long to reach the outskirts of town, almost entering into Gravesfield, the town across and one where magic here began to originate from. The forest outside there leads to a quiet and empty beach, out there might be a nice place to practice. Luz opened her phone up to message her mother first
Luz<3 - Hey Mom! I had breakfast, I'm outside of Gravesfield and will
be going near that one beach to practice some magic! Talk to
you soon!
Mom - Glad to hear that, stay safe and don't exhaust yourself!
I love you :)
Putting her phone away to remove any distractions, she felt ready to begin trying out some magic.
Luz plugged some earphones into her phone, something.. Fast paced, action packed and full of emotion was somewhat necessary to help with this, it didn't take long to find some music to listen to which mainly was just soundtracks from one old Indie game she played, the internet was amazing with some skilled people.
One thing about listening to music whilst practicing magic was that she would aim to be on beat with practicing, ensuring that she wouldn't destroy anything by accident when both her and the music reaches the higher points. Overall, it's just comforting and fun to do.
Luz continued to dance to the music whilst using magic, pretending as if some powerful enemies were fighting her and she was by herself fighting. This was somewhat calming and she felt more in-tune with her attacks, even going beyond her capabilities, emotions can be tied to someones energy.. Either that or it's simply a placebo, Luz didn't mind and continued on with her fights.
The playlist of course had eventually finished, feeling exhausted already Luz snacked on some food to help with her energy and made sure to stay hydrated. This break was much needed, sitting down to check her phone she remembered the main reason she had wanted to come out here in the first place, to discover if the ability to teleport is more than just a concept or a simple thought. Perhaps it is possible, I should teleport objects first.. How would I even do it?
Opening her books, plus some from the library, she felt eager to learn more.
"Ughh there's nothing here that even mentions teleporting! Seriously?!" Luz was getting more tired as time went on, she couldn't figure much out about this, the most that she could go off of was a single sentence. One sentence in a book was all she could find and it wasn't even about teleporting, just telekinesis with moving objects!
Getting tired she created yet another spell circle and lifted up a stick on the ground, imagining that it would appear within a certain point then would will it to happen.. "Nothing again!?" Luz practically shouted out in anger and confusion, the only things that happen is the object either moves to the point at a faster speed or it just breaks apart from the stress of magic!
Luz continued experimenting before she had gotten close to an answer, whilst creating a spell circle she formed another with her other hand. Focusing on a specific point near a tree she had tried to do something, anything to atleast show that the ability to warp or teleport things could work. She was only working off of a sentence here, "Universe, can you give me some more tips or something? Anything at all?" Luz called out, "Ugh.." She went back to reading again..
This time around, Luz felt less enthusiastic, she formed two spell circles with a single hand, well more specifically she had split the spell and was able to reform it without any dangerous consequences thus far, from there she grabbed a stick with one half of the spell before releasing it.
Luz stared in shock as she noticed the stick was split perfectly in half, the other half is lying where the other spell circle was aimed at. "It worked.. IT WORKED!" She had screamed out in excitement, looking at the sticks separated though, "Huh, I'm glad I didn't try it on a living thing first.." But she had actually somewhat teleported an object!
Multiple tests later with similar ideas, she finally teleported a single stick! She created another slightly larger spell location and teleported there in a single second. She had done it, she continued creating points to teleport to and was moving around and between the points she had made. She's done something truly amazing! Maybe this isn't too bad of an idea after all?
In her excitement she decided to create one larger teleport spell to test what would happen. She finally finished creating the spell circle.. And...
Luz watched on in confusion, she did the spell correctly but nothing is happening..? She threw a stick into the desired location yet nothing happened, well, it simply vanished. The point where you could teleport, there's simply nothing. It's as if she summoned a barrier of sorts, did I do the incorrect spell? Luz stood confused and silent, nothing like this has happened before, it looks like the base of a teleportation spell..?
"It probably just doesn't work when its larger.." Luz thought to herself, cancelling the spell before she walked away to grab her books. But something different happened. The spell refused to disassemble.
Luz watched on in confusion, "Why isn't it vanishing..?" She thought to herself, she attempted to create another spell circle but that got absorbed by the attempted teleportation spell. It began growing in size now. Luz started panicking, she was running out of energy already and it had begun warping reality around it. In a panic, Luz created a different spell circle, she began forcing this expanding mass of.. teleportation.. spell matter? To decrease in size. Truthfully, she wasn't sure what was happening but wanted to hide this mistake, nobody could see this. She tried to hide it but felt the mass attempting to expand, the pressure is overwhelming, running through the forest she had arrived at the beach that connects to the ocean. Something was seriously wrong with this spell, Luz could feel it. The barrier spells began to crack due to the immense forces placed upon them.
Luz is running out of energy, her heartrate is speeding up yet she feels as if she can no longer breathe, in her last efforts she forces all of her energy output into destroying whatever spell that was. In that moment, nothing happened. Luz watched on as the world around her was silent, the world around her frozen as if nothing had happened.
.
. .
. . .
She was foolish if she thought that was the end of it.
The sky began warping out of place before it erupted into an explosion of sorts, no sound was heard but it blinded Luz, she could feel herself being pulled towards the light and couldn't do anything to stop what was happening. Maybe she shouldn't have tried teleportation after all... I'm sorry Mom, I wish I could've been better.. She felt herself falling in immense pain before she fell unconscious.
. . .
Luz felt painful, that's all there was. She opened her eyes and found herself on a strange beach, the water looked hot. She was beyond exhausted, hungry and thirsty. "Ugh.." She groaned out, she attempted to perform magic but her hands began burning up as she attempted anything, she gave herself what felt like multiple hours before finally pulling herself off of the sand. It was difficult to stand up, let alone walk but she pushed herself to atleast find somewhere to shelter for now, the sky is dark. How long has it been since that mistake?
She had found a thick grouping of trees and a ditch in the ground, she could sit there for now and wait until morning. Mom must be worried. Luz felt for her phone or anything but nothing was on her, she left them somewhere in the forest. She'll deal with that tomorrow, but for now she just needs some sleep...
"Mami! Can you read me a bedtime story!"
"Of course I can Luz, but first what's the magic word?"
A bright smile grew on the childs face, "Pleaasseee mom!"
The older woman loved her child, "Alright Mija, what story tonight?"
"Magic!" What else is there to read anyways, she loves magic
"How about Azura Luz?"
"Mmmh not that, like how did we get magic? Is there scary witches?"
Camila laughed at that, "No, many witches are quite pretty Luz"
"Alright, how about I tell you the story of The Two Kings?"
"But Mom I've already read that, I didn't like the First King, he was mean and selfish!"
"Alright, well.. What about..."
_____
Eda's life on the Boiling Isles was quite interesting to say the least, between opening up the door to the human realm to scavenge for some items to sell to some customers to running from the law she had seen pretty much everything.
"Ugh, what the hell have the Emperor found us again?" Eda thought, outside of the house there happened to be a bright light, Eda almost thought it was morning, "Hey Hooty! Is anyone out there?" Eda called out, no response, "Hooty?"
Opening the door outside she saw Hooty staring at the light that appeared in the sky before it promptly vanished "Huh, the hell was that about.?" She thought to herself, whatever it was it she could feel a minor shockwave throughout the ground. She wondered if anyone else would've noticed it, the bright light appearing in the night sky to the shockwave.
It worried Eda, just slightly - Enough to warrant her placing a barrier spell over the house for the night. It's probably not important.
Eda simply decided to sleep on it and in the morning if she couldn't find anything interesting in the human realm she might check it out.