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She isn’t sure why she says it.
Maybe out of pure curiosity - because it’s just the first name that pops into her head, for some reason.
But a name pierces the eerie quiet of the strange in-between dimension, a place that looks like a Demon Realm-style funhouse on steroids. Dark liquid lapping against the wildly-twisting, greenish walls is the only sound here other than a human girl’s breathing.
“Philip Wittebane.”
The moment the name leaves her tongue Luz Noceda realizes she should probably check on her mother. Wasn’t that the whole point of this in the first place? But before she gets a chance to correct herself, a cube slowly floats out of the dark liquid around her, as though simply appearing for her is a difficult task. For a few moments, it merely hovers there, its sides dripping black goo.
Then the side closest to her turns shiny and gold. Her heart rate increases, and the girl moves forward to take it - and then stops. What if it’s just his coffin or something? Surely, Philip Wittebane would be long dead by now if he’d written his journal back in the 1600s.
But curiosity once again triumphs over doubt, and Luz takes the cube in her hands. The worst that could happen is I see a skeleton, she thinks. —big deal. I’ve seen skeletons before.
Unlike the cube that showed her King, Eda, and Hooty, it takes a moment of her holding it for the thing to flash white and transfer her into a reflection. She finds herself holding her breath, and when the cube finally responds to her touch, the girl is caught off-guard and nearly drops it, severing the connection.
Luz does hold on, however, and she blinks as things come into focus around her. She is in the reflection of a glass picture frame. It’s holding up some painting of a black spider and a little red bird, she thinks, but her face is so close to the parchment she can’t tell for sure.
She turns her attention to the room around her and chokes back a gasp at the most notable feature - a large, circular ring with white-and-gold wings splayed at its sides. It vaguely resembles Hunter’s staff, but that isn’t the most worrying part - it’s being constructed around the portal door, which was supposed to be destroyed. Worst of all, it looks nearly completed.
Luz covers her mouth and ducks to the bottom of the reflection as something moves in the dark - an old man with dirty blonde hair, dull blue eyes, and a dark green scar on his face. He’s wearing robes typical of the Emperor’s Coven, but she doesn’t recognize him-
Wait.
Is that Emperor Belos? Without his mask? Luz never thought she’d see him like this. He looks... like a sad old man. The girl frowns, but then the impact of what this means hits her full force, and her eyes widen in pure shock. She had said Philip’s name.
“NO,” she says aloud. “NO WAY.”
Belos stiffens and spins around, his eyes narrowing. They dart to his mask, lying next to a closed book a few feet away from him. “Who’s there?” he demands. “Spying on the emperor is an offense punishable by death.”
Luz drops the cube out of pure reflex, severing her connection to the castle. It begins to sink back into the goo, but she lets out a yelp and grabs it again.
“No, bad cube,” she scolds. “I still need your help.” Luz loosens her hold on it, but it doesn’t light up again. “Hey, come on, go back to the castle,” she says. “Please?”
The cube doesn’t respond. Luz shakes it—still nothing. “Let me see Emperor Belos again! Come on, cube!” But the cube doesn’t listen. Luz grunts in frustration.
“You’re on a mission, Luz. Focus.” Taking a deep breath and closing her eyes, the girl does just that.
“Show me Philip Wittebane.”
It still kind of shocks her that it works, but it does, and Luz finds herself in the reflection of the eye on the door. She is staring straight at Emperor Belos.
Both sides let out similar exclamations of surprise, and for the fourth time in the past half an hour, Luz almost drops the godforsaken cube. She hisses “mierda” under her breath before she can stop herself and is surprised to hear Belos use profanity of his own that she easily recognizes as from the Human Realm.
The two stare at each other for a moment, and Luz takes another few moments to look at Belos’s face. He really does seem like a sad, old man, even more so up close. His blue eyes have no shine in them, and his hair is in desperate need of a good combing through. She can only see one of his ears, but it’s noticeably smaller than any other witches’ she’s seen so far and has a nick in it, and a disturbing thought occurs to her that she quickly pushes aside.
Heavy bags under his eyes - even more noticeable than the Golden Guard’s - are also present, but the scariest part of his face is the strange green scar. Luz doesn’t know what it’s from, but it doesn’t look like anything from the Human Realm.
“Surprised?” she asks, summoning up every ounce of strength that she can. Belos can’t hurt her where she is right now, she’s pretty sure. Even if he destroyed the reflection, it would be destroying the door, and she’s reasonably sure that that would only sever the connection again, not actually kill her. He takes a step back with a grimace.
“The Owl Lady’s human pet,” the emperor practically snarls, and Luz flinches. “Guess it was only a matter of time before you tapped into this as well.”
Luz has no idea what he means, but she holds her ground. “Yeah, well, it’s a lot easier when your notes are helping me with it,” she replies. “You are Philip Wittebane, aren’t you?” Her voice trembles for some reason. Now is not the time to get excited about a potentially very dramatic backstory, she mentally tells herself.
Even if you really, really, really want to hear everything about it and take notes.
It’s Belos’ turn to wince, and he reaches for his mask. “You got ahold of my journal?” he asks in a voice that sounds more surprised than resentful.
“It was in the library for a reason,” Luz neglects to mention the paper dragon and the Forbidden Stacks and Amity-
No, Luz. Focus. “But, um, yes.”
A dry laugh escapes the emperor’s throat. “I assumed no one was going to let a human into the Forbidden Stacks.”
Luz blinks, the puzzle pieces in her mind still not quite fitting together. “But if you’re Philip Wittebane, then doesn’t that make you human, too?” She is pretty sure that was right, but with her brain still kind of frazzled by the fact that Philip and Belos were the same person, she might’ve forgotten how the laws of nature worked.
Belos chuckles again, this more sharp and harsh. Luz backs up, but holding the cube in her hands, she doesn’t get further away from him. He puts the mask on and turns away. “I’m hardly human anymore.”
This is an exciting development. “Ooh, is this like from the Henry Pottery books? If you drink unicorn blood, you’re immortal, but also-”
“This is nothing like that.”
“Oh.” Luz frowns. “Could you tell me what it actually is, then?”
Belos whirls around, uncomfortably close to the door’s reflection. “No.”
Luz lets out a yelp, and the cube shatters in her hands. “Crap,” she says, trying to take the pieces and put them back together. Apparently, he did get mad enough to break the door. With a deep inhale, the girl tries to steady herself.
Remember, Luz, she tells herself mentally. You’re on a mission to contact your mom. Worry about what just happened once you tell her what’s going on. She’s still freaking out a little, but the girl breathes a few times and promises herself she’ll look into the Philip-Belos mystery once this is over and taken care of. She opens her eyes again.
“Camila Noceda.”