Archive of Our Own

Amity Blight wasn’t strong enough.

The sounds of her footsteps echoed around her as she stomped through the abomination caverns beneath Blight Manor. Darkness crept in from every side, barely kept at bay by the feeble light of her magic.

Every step squelched a little as she delved deeper and deeper into the earth. The cloying scent of abomination filled every tunnel, the air heavy and moist with it. It would cling to her for days after this, filling her head and making her dizzy.

This was where the Blight Family mined. They pulled special muck and ores from the earth to make their abominations strong enough to crush the competition, fast enough to get ahead of market trends, and last just long enough to make customers feel they got their money’s worth.

Being only eight years old, Amity shouldn’t have had to care about it. 

Though she was far from the manor, the shouts from that morning's argument seemed to follow her, no matter how fast she tried to run from the future her mother had laid out.

This was an empty place, most of the time. A place to be alone.

She stopped at a crossroads and sat down, leaning against the wall. Her dress caught on a jagged bit of rock and ripped. It didn’t matter. The cool stone felt good against her neck. She wasn’t entirely sure where she was at this point. Maybe she’d be lost down here forever. That would certainly ruin her mother’s plans.

A sharp, bitter laugh escaped her, then echoed back, timed differently for each tunnel it went down. That almost made her smile. Three tunnels stretched before her. Each could go anywhere, contain anything, at least in her imagination. She let the light fade from her fingertips and let the darkness consume her.

Silence. Nothing but the sound of her own breathing and her heartbeat.

Amity took a deep breath and screamed as loud as she could.

Normally, her voice felt small, weak. Unheard. Ignored.

Here, it was powerful. Magnificent. Able to travel to far off distant places, slither through unknown nooks and crannies, and explore the unexplored.

As the sound slowly faded down the tunnels, Amity rubbed at her throat. Maybe she’d gone a little overboard there. Whatever. She sighed. She felt a little better, at least.

Something caught her attention from the corner of her eye.

Down the tunnel furthest to the left, she could see a light, incredibly faint, almost imperceptible. 

She let out a soft gasp, then made her way down the tunnel, stumbling on loose rocks as she went. By the time she made it, all that was left of the light was a fading afterimage of a strange symbol etched on the rock.

Amity reached out to touch it, and—

Her hand passed straight through the rock, which vanished before her eyes.

A soft blue light came flooding out to meet her, and the world changed.

Amity floated in darkness, surrounded by distorted walls. A strange cube bubbled up in front of her, glistening with untold possibilities.

Was all of this a dream?

She reached out to the cube, and could just make out the soft, blurry image of a person. It resolved into… a girl?

“Hello? Is someone there?”

Luz Noceda wasn’t strong enough.

Her mother’s voice echoed in her mind. “ Be strong, mija. We will get through this together. I promise. ”

But how exactly was she supposed to do that? Her entire life was crumbling around her. Nothing would ever be the same again.

Her shoes splashed through the mud as she made her way through the forest near her house. The sky spat an incessant drizzle down on her, making her wet and miserable, but she hardly cared. She wanted to move, to be away from her house. From her parents.

After what felt like an eternity of wandering through the woods the path finally opened up into a clearing, an old rundown house in the center of it. She’d seen this house during past explorations, but Mom had always told her to stay away.

Its broken windows, dirty siding, and half caved in roof meant it was probably dangerous. There was probably glass everywhere, and rats and snakes and spiders.

She didn’t mind those last parts so much, but she’d still never gotten up the courage to break in.

Today, the door was hanging ajar.

Despite it being as clear of an invitation as she’d ever get, Luz found herself hesitating at the entrance. She was already going to be in trouble for running off. Would a little more really matter?

Luz took a deep breath and stepped into the house. Her wet shoes squeaked against the dusty wooden floors. 

At first glance, the house wasn’t anything special: just as run down on the inside as it was on the outside. She felt a sneeze coming on from everything she’d kicked up, but pinched her nose in an attempt to stop it.

Something moved out of the corner of her eye and Luz spun, her breath catching in her throat.

“Hello? Is someone there?” she called out, her voice feeble in these strange confines.

Nothing jumped out of the shadows to devour her, and Luz held still for several deep breaths. There was a mirror hanging on the wall in the corner of the room. It was incredibly dirty, dripping with the remnants of nicotine, and impossible to see a clear picture through. It reminded her of Abuela’s house—familiar yet disgusting.

Luz made a face at that thought, but let some of the tension bleed out of her. It had only been her reflection. She made her way over to the mirror to find a blurry face staring back at her.

Luz stuck her tongue out.

The face in the mirror didn’t.

Amity Blight was strong enough.

Eda’s voice from earlier that morning echoed in her mind. “Keep an eye on Luz for me, will ya?”

As they walked through the forest hand in hand, Amity did just that. Keeping an eye on Luz was one of her favorite pastimes, but today it meant more than that. She was strong, and she could protect Luz. Keep her out of trouble.

To the extent that was possible.

Luz broke the silence. “Hey, Amity, guess what?”

“Hmm?”

“I like you.” She turned to Amity and broke out one of her absolutely heart melting smiles.

Oh sweet titan were those effective. Amity couldn’t help but smile back. “I like you, too.”

Luz closed her eyes, then leaned towards Amity as she walked. Their shoulders collided, and Amity was knocked off the path a step.

“Hey!” She was unable to keep the laughter out of her objection, and she wound up to slam her own shoulder back into Luz.

Luz was ready for it though and let go of Amity’s hand, stepping forward a bit so Amity found herself off balance and stumbled.

Amity laughed even harder. “That’s not fair. We probably shouldn’t be horsing around so much. These woods are supposed to be dangerous.”

“Is there any danger we can’t handle?” Luz shot her a look, her eyes sparkling, then rushed to a nearby log and lifted one leg on top of it, extending one arm to the sky. “Together we are a knight and her princess, bound together by destiny, and by our powers combined the Boiling Isles will tremble before our might!”

“Destiny, huh?” Amity crossed her arms over her chest. Luz was doing the voice she always did when she was talking about Azura, or anything fictional, really. Amity appreciated the sentiment.

An eye opened up on the log Luz was standing on.

“Luz, watch o—”

The log sprang into the air with a powerful leap, throwing Luz to the ground.

“Gah!” Luz flailed on the ground, pulling glyphs out by reflex.

The log hopped deeper into the trees, letting out a hearty ribbit.

Her heart pounding, Amity took a deep breath, then helped Luz back up. “It was just a tree frog. Are you okay?” 

Luz rolled her eyes. “Of course that’s what it was. Thanks.”

They let their hands linger together for long enough to become noticeable, but then again, they were girlfriends now. Really, this was one of the best parts. Amity tightened her grip, then resumed their trek through the woods.

Fractured sunlight filtered through the thick canopy of trees above them. All of the grasping branches made palisman flight treacherous, but the undergrowth here was light. It made for a pleasant hike.

Had they not been on a dangerous mission in order to uncover more secrets of the Boiling Isles, it would have been an ideal date.

Luz leaned into Amity again, this time linking their arms and snuggling close as they walked. “So what’s the deal with this ‘Keeper of Fragments’ guy, anyway?”

Amity pursed her lips. “It’s an old legend. Supposedly there’s an ancient spirit who lives in these woods, collecting fragments from people.”

“Fragments? What do you mean?”

“It’s like…” Amity gestured vaguely with her right hand. “Do you remember when we learned how to put memories into photos? The uh, ‘Willow incident’?” She cringed internally at the thought of that, but managed to keep it off of her face.

Luz disentangled herself, switching back to merely holding hands. “Does he steal people’s memories?”

Amity shook her head. “Not quite. He collects the memories that are forgotten, when they drift away from us.”

“You know I’d normally assume that’s a metaphor, but you never really know here.” Luz grinned. “Well, Phillip Whittebane seems to think this guy is important, so that’s good enough for me.”

The smooth forest floor gave way to a steep ravine, and the pair slowly made their way down, hand in hand. The deeper they got, the more the shadows closed in around them.

The nice part of their adventure-date was probably over. Amity had to put her game face on, and remain alert. “Remember, Luz. Knowledge is power. There’s no telling what kind of secrets a repository of everything forgotten could hold. All of the legends say it’s guarded fiercely, and few survive to find it.”

“They’ve never had to contend with the combined might of Amity and Luz before, either.” Luz pulled out a light glyph and banished the shadows.

Ahead, a stone pillar stuck out of the hillside, covered in symbols of some sort.

Luz stepped closer, holding up her light. “What do you think? A clue?”

Amity shrugged. “I’m not sure. I don’t recognize this language.”

She reached up to brush some dirt off of the pillar.

The ground shook beneath them.

Luz Noceda was strong enough.

For a while now, Amity had been bailing Luz out of trouble. And it made sense. Luz often bit off more than she could chew. Amity was strong, and cool, and talented, and really pretty, and cool, and Luz really did have the best girlfriend, didn’t she?

But she couldn’t depend on that forever. She needed to be able to handle herself. Maybe even protect Amity for a change.

The ground underneath the pillar erupted, something massive tearing itself out of the earth. 

Dirt pouring down its sides, trees and roots firmly affixed to its shell, a massive tortoise stared down at them. It had beady eyes the size of basketballs that glowed a fierce yellow.

“Woah.” Luz took a step back. “Big momma.”

The tortoise opened its beak and let out a deafening bellow that scared every bird out of its tree for a mile, and caused Luz’s organs to tie themselves into uncomfortable knots.

When its exhalation faded, one titanic leg raised into the air, ready to squash two teenage girls into a puddle of mush.

Luz could already see her opening. She grinned, pulled out her glyphs, and threw her cloak to the side, letting it billow dramatically. “Stand back, Amity, I’ve got this!”

Then she charged forward, straight under the beast.

“What? Oh no, Luz, you—”

Whatever else she said was lost as the foot came down just behind Luz, causing tremors that disrupted her balance. Luz turned her stumble into a slide, slapping down an ice glyph at the dead center under the beast, then quickly scrambled clear.

A large pillar of ice shot forth, catching the tortoise directly in its underbelly. In her mind’s eye, Luz pictured the tortoise suspended in the air by the ice, its legs flopping about uselessly as it slowly spun about.

Unfortunately, ice met rock and rock won. Her pillar shattered, not having enough force to lift it off the ground.

“Aw, nuggets,” Luz swore. The tortoise raised another leg as if to start slowly turning around. She needed another plan. She scanned the area around them and—

Something came flying at her from the side, and Luz screamed and threw herself to the ground. The tail passed over her head by inches, leaving a rush of whistling air in its wake.

“Double nuggets!” Luz scrambled backwards like a crab, then flipped and started running properly. The ground over here was steeper. If she could get this giant in the right position, then with the right amount of leverage…

Luz took a deep breath. “Hey, big momma, over here!” She jumped up and waved her arms.

It let out another bellow, but then… it wasn’t turning towards her? She caught movement out of the corner of her eye, then looked up. Amity had summoned her palisman and was flying above it, controlling an abomination on the ground to pester it from both above and below. 

Well, that wasn’t going to work. “Amity!” Luz called out. “Bring it over—”

The tortoise’s neck extended out like Hooty and snapped its beak down on Amity.

Before Luz could even begin to scream in horror, she saw that Amity had caught the beak open with her staff. Wasting absolutely no time, she swung outside of its jaws then shot fire down its throat, causing it to drop the staff and retract its neck back to more reasonable proportions.

Amity fell to the ground, rolled, then came up running just as its long neck slammed into the ground behind her.

Her heart pounding, Luz charged forward again. “Hey, you, big dumb and ugly! Over here!” She scooped up a nearby rock, slapped a light glyph on it, then threw it directly towards its head, the light exploding in a blinding flash.

Both the tortoise and Amity staggered, blinking several times, but it had the desired effect. The tortoise turned towards Luz and charged, remarkably swift.

Luckily for her, the angle was right. The neck was a complication, but she hardly had to adjust her plan at all. It was a good one. Vines around the neck. More vines on the right side to tug in down the slope slightly. Then dodge to the left and hit it with an angled barrage of ice, toppling it over onto its back. “Come on. Just a little bit closer…” She took a few steps back, her whole body tensed and ready to move.  The tortoise reached her, its neck looming up, ready to devour her whole. “And, now—”

Amity slammed into her from the side at full speed, grabbing her by the arm and yanking her out of the way of its snapping jaws.

“Luz, you idiot! Are you trying to get yourself killed!?”

The plant glyph Luz had been about to use went off as they brushed low to the ground. Vines wrapped around Luz’s arm and the palisman, pulling them both down into a painful crash. 

Luz groaned, her limbs entangled with Amity’s, and not in the cuddly way. “What did you do that for? I had it right where I wanted it!”

Amity growled, trying to pull herself back to her feet. “What, about to get swallowed? Don’t tell me you were going to try and blow it up from the inside out?”

“What, no! I was…”

The earth shook with mighty footsteps, and a shadow loomed over them.

Luz swallowed, staring up into featureless yellow eyes. “Uh, hey there, big momma. Um… sorry if we woke you up, and then all the fighting and stuff? I don’t suppose we could just talk instead of you eating us?”

The tortoise stared down at them for what felt like an eternity, then blinked once.

Amity glanced over at Luz, shrugged, and looked back up. “Oh great guardian of the forest. We come here searching for the Keeper of Fragments. We seek lost knowledge that can help us on our quest to get Luz home, and to protect our friends.”

With ponderous grace, the tortoise lowered its neck until it was at eye level, its breath hot from its nostrils.

Luz felt her cheeks color. “Hey, uh, sorry for what I said earlier. I don’t think you’re ugly at all, turtles are super cute.”

The tortoise opened its mouth and coughed. Phlegm showered them both, its stickiness rivaled only by its stench. Then it raised its neck again and started walking towards the far end of the clearing.

“Guess we had that one coming,” Luz muttered, doing her best to force down her gag reflex.

“Are you alright?”

Luz rubbed at her shoulder. Definitely some bruises and scrapes that she’d be feeling in the morning. “Nothing’s broken.”

Amity took a deep shuddering breath, then looked away. “Please, Luz, don’t ever do that again.”

“Huh?” Luz felt the hair on the back of her neck rise. “What are you talking about? I was just—”

A loud scraping sound filled the ravine and they turned to see a huge furrow of earth being dug out by the tortoise. It revealed a smooth, circular hole leading deep into the earth. The tortoise let out a weird chirping sound that echoed all around them, then looked at the two of them expectantly.

“I think we’re supposed to go in the hole,” Luz said with a shrug.

Amity looked down at Ghost, who had suffered numerous cracks in the fight. She winced. “Sorry about that.” She scritched the carving behind the ears, then shrunk the staff. Ghost mewed sadly, then curled up into her pack. “Yeah, let's get this over with.”

The hole extended deep into the darkness, and was small enough that Luz would have to crouch slightly to walk.

Amity shuddered. “I am unfortunately reminded of the time Hooty brought me to your house.”

Luz grimaced. “That is definitely an image I wanted bouncing around in my head before entering this tube.”

The tortoise above them snorted, its expression implacable.

With a sigh, Luz summoned a light glyph and led the way down.

The cave was cramped, damp, and supremely disturbing, as it stretched on and on with no end in sight.

As did the uncomfortable silence.

Luz spent her time trying to figure out what to say exactly, trying to put her feelings into words. After about five minutes of squishy walking, she finally spoke.

“We were really out of sync back there.”

Amity stiffened, then quickened her pace slightly so she was ahead of Luz. “Of course we were out of sync. It’s hard to stay in sync if I have to keep pulling you out of danger every ten seconds.”

Luz bit her lip. Something about that hurt, deep. She opened her mouth, then closed it again. This was still Amity she was talking to. She needed to choose her words carefully, and not say something angry and hurtful. “I thought… At the beginning, I told you to stay back. That I had this. I had a good plan, Amity. I’m supposed to be your knight, and you’re the princess I protect.”

“What?” Amity stopped dead in her tracks.

“Uh…” Luz frowned, rubbing at one arm. “I’m your knight. I mean, I know I was kind of joking earlier, but I meant it when—”

“Luz,” Amity said, spinning around. Her face was full of absolute astonishment. “In what possible world am I the princess, and you the knight in this scenario?”

What on earth? Luz matched Amity’s befuddlement with her own, then started counting on her fingers. “Uh, I don’t know. You’re super pretty, smart, talented, classy, elegant, commanding, and even rich to boot. Those are all pretty ‘princessly’ qualities to me.”

Amity raised an eyebrow. “What could being rich possibly have to do with being a princess? Princesses are good hearted, noble heroes who always try their best to do the right thing, and inspire everyone around them to be better people. That fits you perfectly, Luz.”

Luz’s cheeks colored a bit, but she couldn’t help keep from grinning. “I think there might be uh, a bit of a cultural misunderstanding going on here.”

“Oh. Uh, really?” Amity blinked a few times, then looked away, sheepish. “Look, Luz, I—”

“Hold on a sec,” Luz said, raising a hand. “I think I see something up ahead.” A few steps forward revealed something smooth and round embedded in the wall, then another, and then one in the ceiling, and then the whole way forward was covered with them.

Luz let out a long groan. “Of course it’s an egg tube.”

Amity giggled, then let out a breath, her posture relaxing. “Well, if it was something not gross, we’d probably be on the wrong path.”

They carefully made their way forward, doing their best to avoid crushing any of the eggs.

Ahead, two eggs stood out from the rest, glowing faintly with a soft golden light.

Luz stopped in front of it, her eyes wide. “Do you think this is what we're looking for?”

Amity shrugged. “I dunno. We came here searching for ancient knowledge and instead climbed into an egg hole at the behest of a murder-turtle. I’d say ‘how could this possibly be related’ but that just makes me even more certain that it is.”

“You know it.” Luz flashed her a grin, then placed her hand on one of the glowing eggs. “It’s warm.”

The egg split open, and a tiny, ink black turtle poked its head out of the shell.

Luz squealed with delight. “Ohmygosh look at its tiny little legs!”

The other egg cracked, a similar turtle crawling forth.

“Hey there, little guy,” Luz cooed. She brought her face close, her eyes as wide as dinner plates. “You’re gonna be my new best friend, okay?”

The turtle made a soft “meep” sound, craned its neck around, then fixated on Luz’s face.

“Aww, I think it likes—”

The turtle leapt directly into her mouth.

Luz fell backwards, sputtering and choking as the turtle in her mouth wriggled downwards, then melted, a nasty goo filling her throat.

As her vision started to blur, Luz could make out the exact same thing happening to Amity.

And then, she remembered.

Luz screamed and fell back from the mirror.

The girl in the mirror giggled, then waved. “Hi.”

“Whaaat.” Luz stared up at the mirror, eyes wide and mouth hanging open. “Are you real?”

“I think so. Are you?”

Luz blinked. “Um.” She pinched her cheek. “Ow. Um, no, I’m pretty sure I’m real. And this isn’t a dream.”

The girl shrugged. It was hard to make out, but she seemed to have brown hair. “I’m not really sure if I’m dreaming either.”

“This is so cool!” Luz stood up, then ran closer to the mirror. “A talking mirror! I’ve read books about stuff like this! Wait until I tell Mom and… Dad.” The mention of why she’d run off in the first place took the wind out of her sails.

“Are you okay?”

Luz sighed, and sat down in front of the mirror. “I dunno, I just…” she sniffed, and rubbed at her nose. “My mom and dad are splitting up. And Dad’s not going to live with us anymore, and…”

The mirror girl watched her silently, though her distorted features seemed to express sympathy.

“I don’t know what I’m supposed to do.” It was getting harder and harder to hold back her tears. This was stupid. She shouldn’t be crying, there was literally a magical mirror person in front of her!

“I’m so sorry,” the mirror said. “That sounds really hard to deal with.”

Luz took a deep breath. “What about you? You’re clearly magical. Your life is cool, right? And full of adventure, and wonder?”

Amity scoffed at the question. “I don’t know about that.”

The girl in the cube frowned. “What do you mean?”

“My life is… I don’t really get a say in it.” Amity grimaced, and wrapped her arms around herself. Whatever weird dimension she’d found herself in was chilly. “I don’t get to pick who I get to be friends with. And now that Mom has given up entirely on Ed and Em, it’s all up to me.”

She still remembered the argument from earlier that night. Hours of vicious screaming and shouting. None of it directed at her. But the quiet words in the hallway afterwards…

“ The future of this household rests on you now, Amity. You won’t fail us. ”

She sniffed, and rubbed at her eyes. She didn’t know why she was telling all this to a girl in a cube. “What if I’m not strong enough?”

Amity woke up in darkness, her mouth tasting of ash and oil.

“Luz?” she croaked. Her head was pounding. Had she… swallowed a turtle?

Luz groaned weakly, muttering something in Spanish. Paper rustled in the darkness, then light bloomed, revealing once more the egg tube they had crawled into.

Amity grimaced, and scraped her tongue with her teeth before spitting. The spit was black. It was hardly dignified, but nothing about this situation was. “Are you okay?”

“I dunno. I think so.” Luz fumbled with her pack until she pulled out her water bottle, which she took a long swig from before passing it to Amity. 

“Thanks.” Amity drank greedily, draining the rest of the bottle. She wiped at her lips, then sighed. “Well, we’re not dead. I guess that’s a plus. All I got out of it was a weird dream, though.”

Luz frowned. “A weird dream? I had one too. What was yours about?”

Amity pursed her lips. “It was… more of a memory, honestly.” Something she hadn’t thought of much in a long time, and had more or less forgotten. “I got lost in the Abomination mines when I was little. It was after my parents gave up on the twins, and decided to push absolutely everything onto me. I found some weird chamber and… talked to someone there. I don’t know. She gave me some advice, and it made me feel a bit better. I could never find that place again. Convinced myself it all must’ve been a dream but… why am I remembering it now?”

“Amity…” Luz’s eyes were wide and sparkling in the magical light. “When I was little, I remember finding a girl in a mirror who talked to me. I was kind of broken up about my dad leaving at the time, and what she said was really comforting. I told my Mom and Dad and everyone I knew about it, but they all just laughed and made jokes about imaginary friends. I remember getting really angry. And I went back every day to talk to her again, but she never showed up.”

“Hold on a second.” Amity’s heart started pounding as she worked through the implications in her head. Even after… whatever that turtle had done to her, the memory was distant, and it was hard to remember specific details. “Luz… was I talking to you ?”

“I… I think so.” Luz ran a hand through her hair, her face bright red. An amazed smile was slowly blooming on her face. “Amity, you were… my imaginary friend. We had a connection even before we really met each other! It’s like destiny, right?”

Amity reached out and took Luz’s hand in her own. Everything felt overwhelming, but in a good way. A short laugh escaped her, and she leaned in close, resting their foreheads together. “I’m sorry I didn’t recognize you.”

Luz grinned. “Eh, I had long hair back then, I can’t blame you. Besides, I remember everything being kind of blurry in the mirror.” She sucked in a breath, then pulled back and met Amity’s gaze, “Wait, the mirror. I was seeing you in a mirror, Amity!”

“Oh. Uh. Okay?”

“What was it like on your side?”

Amity frowned. “I remember being in darkness, and there being a lot of lights around me, and then there was this cube…”

The glee in Luz’s eyes sparked recognition in Amity. Luz had told her about a place like that recently. At the time, she’d felt a vague sense of deja vu at Luz’s story, but hadn’t been able to pin anything concrete to it. “That in-between universe. Where you got to talk to your mom again.”

“You must have stumbled onto a portal.” Luz stood up, stretched, then helped Amity to her feet. She glanced around them, at all of the eggs still lining the walls. “Alright, so, theory time. That big tortoise is actually the keeper of the fragments, and these eggs are the memories it's collected. But we were only shown some of our own memories that we’ve lost.”

Amity rubbed at her chin. “I think you may be right. Not exactly the repository of powerful knowledge we hoped for, but…” She glanced at Luz, and felt her cheeks burn. It’d really been her, so long ago. “Maybe we found something else worth it instead.”

Luz smiled her big dopey smile, and squeezed Amity’s hand. “And maybe there’s a part two to this adventure. You up for some more spelunking?”

“Am I up for it?” Amity glanced down at herself. She was tired, and sore, and still covered in turtle spit and whatever slime coated this tunnel, and could really use a hot bath and a nap. 

She released Luz’s hand and fell to one knee. “My sword is yours, Princess.”

“Hey!”

Luz groaned, pinching her nose. “How does this place smell worse than a freaking egg tube?”

Amity glanced back at her and raised an eyebrow. “Is it really that bad? It smells like abominations to me. Maybe I’m more used to it.”

“Blech.” Luz made a face, then fell into step behind Amity as she led the way through the mines.

The flight to Blight Manor had provided a welcome respite of fresh air, but unfortunately it was short lived, as it was back into dark and twisty tunnels once they arrived. At least the eggs had only been a straight line.

Amity stopped at an intersection and closed her eyes. “I was never actually supposed to come down here, and don’t know it all that well, in truth. I couldn’t find that portal again the few times I looked, but…” She turned left and nodded. “The memories are fresh. I’m pretty sure I went this way.”

Luz pursed her lips. “Pretty sure?”

“Pretty sure.”

“Good enough for me.” Luz sped up a bit and grabbed Amity’s hand. “If we get stuck down here and lost forever, at least I’ll have good company.”

The blush and smile she drew from Amity with her words was a rush all on its own. Her own mind was racing, still trying to pick through the fragments of her memories. She’d really just… met Amity , what, six years ago? The thought still made her giddy.

Amity glanced at her, her eyes curious. “What did we actually talk about, back then?”

Luz scratched her head. “It’s fuzzy and I don’t know about specific words, but I remember, well, being really excited about talking to something magical. I remember talking about my Dad leaving, and how much that hurt. We talked about that for a while, really. It made me feel a lot better.”

“Is that so…” Amity frowned, and withdrew her hand from Luz’s, crossing her arms over her chest.

“Amity? What’s wrong?”

Amity shook her head. “I don’t know. I remember being… very wrapped up in my own problems at the time. I can’t imagine anything I said being super helpful.”

Luz placed her hand on Amity’s shoulder. “Well, it worked anyway. Besides, it's not like we just talked about serious stuff. I remember talking about fun stuff, too!”

“We… did?”

“Yeah! I kept going on and on about—” Luz broke off, drawing in a sharp gasp, her eyes going wide. “No way…”

Amity tilted her head to the side.

“It’s my fault you’re a big Azura fan!” Luz squealed. “I had just read the first book at the time, and I gushed about it to you, probably explaining the whole plot badly in the process. But that must have led you to discover it!”

“Luz…” Amity stared at her blankly.

Luz ran her hand through her hair. “Oh wow, this is wild. Like, Azura is a big reason we became friends in the first place, right? Past me was really setting us up for success, huh?”

Luz!” Amity grabbed her by the shoulders, meeting her gaze. Amity’s expression was pained. “That’s… not true.”

“What?”

Amity closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “I read the first Azura book two years before this whole incident. Back when I was still friends with Willow. She pointed it out to me in a shop—probably Eda’s, now that I think about it—and I dismissed it, but snuck back and bought it later.”

Luz blinked. “Wait, that doesn’t make any sense. I definitely talked about it to you for hours.”

“No”. Amity shook her head, then squeezed Luz’s shoulders a little harder. “I’m sorry, Luz. I know my memory is fuzzy, but I would have remembered that. Whoever you were talking to in that mirror about Azura… it wasn’t me.”

“Oh.” 

Well, that was a shame. It had been a really nice idea, but maybe it was too good to be true. At the end of the day, it wasn’t that big of a deal, and things would still be the same as they were before this misconception.

Luz felt tears welling up in her eyes. No. That was dumb. It wasn’t something worth getting upset over. She needed to focus. “W-who—” Her voice wavered. She took a deep breath, hoping Amity couldn’t hear the little catch of a sniffle. “Who was it, then?”

Amity reached out a hand and cupped Luz’s cheek, her face a mask of sympathy and shared anguish. “I don’t know.” She pulled back, her expression darkening, and promising imminent future destruction. “But I intend to find out.”

Amity let her memories guide her through the tunnels. Left. Right. Left. Left again. A third left, but this one was a dead end. But that was fine, she remembered hitting that dead end as a child, doubling back, then going straight.

It took nearly an hour, and probably wasn’t the most direct route to get there, but she finally found it. That junction of three tunnels she’d stopped at as a child.

“We’re close.” Amity pointed to the leftmost tunnel. “I remember it being right down there.”

Luz held up her light and peered into the darkness. “You said you saw a symbol on the wall, right? Do you think it was…?”

“A glyph? Yeah, probably.”  Amity strode down the tunnel, her boots crunching against loose stone. “This should be it.”

Luz poked the bare stone wall. Nothing happened. “You sure?”

Amity pursed her lips. “I’m positive.” She poked the wall a few more times, trying different spots, and then flipped around and started poking the opposite wall as well. “It has to be here.”

“Maybe it’s gone, just like the one in Eclipse Lake.” Luz’s face fell, and she stared down at her shoes.

No. Luz was already feeling bad enough with the dissolution of their shared past. Amity couldn’t let this end in failure too. She’d protect Luz’s happiness, whatever it took.

It seemed silly, but maybe there was something else they could try.

Amity took Luz’s hand, and dragged her back to the intersection. “Dispel your light.”

Luz blinked, then shrugged and popped the bubble of light, casting them into darkness. “If you say so.”

Wild magic operated in weird and mysterious ways. She didn’t pretend to understand it, but maybe she could at least try to play along. She carefully guided Luz down to the floor, and together they leaned against the cold stone wall, arms intertwined.

They sat there in silence for a time, as their eyes adjusted to the lack of light. The last time Amity had sat here, she’d reveled in the solitude she’d found herself in, feeling almost weightless in the emptiness.

But it wasn’t empty anymore. The silence was broken with Luz’s every breath, and every heartbeat.

Amity knew which she preferred.

“I’m sorry I’m not…” Amity winced. Her voice felt way too loud for this, and she lowered it to barely a whisper. “I’m sorry we weren’t destined to be together.”

Luz squeezed her arm. “It’s not like that. I get caught up in stories sometimes, you know? You’re really special to me.”

“It was a nice story.” Amity rubbed her thumb against the back of Luz’s hand. “But I think at the end of the day, I like the story we already have.”

“Yeah, me too.”

They sat like that for a while longer, simply enjoying each other's presence.

Finally, Amity broke the silence. “Alright. Take whatever you’re feeling right now, and then I want you to scream as loud as you can on the count of three. One.”

“Wait, seriously?”

“Two.”

Luz took a deep breath.

“Three.”

They screamed together, their voices high pitched, raw, and powerful. They cast their sound back into the tunnels, and it came back with force, a sheer cacophony of noise.

Their scream continued, and they found harmony with each other, matching pitch, and the echoes did the same.

A bright flash of blue light lit up in the leftmost tunnel as their final echoes faded.

Amity grinned, pulled Luz to her feet, then ran after the light.

Rather than the faint afterimage she’d seen as a child, a glyph lit up the wall burning with blue fire. It resembled Luz’s light glyph, though with some variations.

“Woah. Hold on a second, let me write this down real quick.” Luz pulled out a blank piece of paper and quickly scribbled the glyph variant down.

Amity pushed her hand into the glyph, and the wall in front of them vanished.

Blue light shone from within. Amity stepped inside, and found a waterfall flowing down the wall of a small canyon into a pool, all of the water a luminescent blue.

Luz took hold of Amity’s hand. “This is what you saw back then, huh?”

Amity shrugged. “It was a little different, but it has been six years. Maybe things changed, maybe I was too overwhelmed to pay attention.”

“Shall we?”

Together, they stepped into the water.

Luz broke forth into a familiar liquid darkness, Amity at her side.

“Yes! This is it, we did it!”

Amity stared, her eyes wide. “It’s just like I remember.”

There were no cubes floating nearby, though she could see their twinkling lights in the distance. “We should be able to talk into anyone from here by saying their name. Camila Noceda!”

Was she really ready to have this conversation again? Well, too late now.

Except, no cubes appeared.

Luz frowned. “Edalyn Clawthorne?”

Still nothing.

“Is it broken?” Amity glanced around, her lips pursed. “But then who did we actually talk to six years ago?”

Two cubes bubbled up from the darkness.

Luz reached out, placing her hand on the cube.

In it, she saw a young girl, sad and alone, feeling like her world was crumbling around her.

Herself.

Luz glanced backwards, and saw that Amity had her own cube. Their eyes met, and they nodded.

Maybe there was a destiny here after all.

“You could be strong enough.”

Amity blinked, and stared at the girl in the cube. “What, because I’m a Blight? Because Blights are strong?”

The girl in the cube paused for a moment, then shook her head. “No. You’re not strong because you’re a Blight. No matter what your parents say, there’s nothing special about being a Blight. You’re strong because you’re you, Amity.”

What? How did this girl know her name? “Yeah right.”

“I mean it. The things o—your parents have done to you are cruel. Unjust. You shouldn’t have to bear their burdens. It’s not fair.”

Amity clenched her fists. “I know that! But what am I supposed to do? ”

“You can be strong, Amity.” The girl reached out, pressing her hand against the image on the cube like she was pressing it against glass. “Not because your parents require you to be, for their legacy . But in spite of that. Hold on to whatever scrap of strength you can find within yourself, even if it’s just the tiniest spark of defiance. Do it for yourself.”

There was a pause, and the girl's voice wavered, almost as if she was holding back tears. “If you can do that, I promise you— promise you —that it will all be worth it. That you’ll be happy. That you’ll look forward to every single day with excitement, because you’ve found a place for yourself.”

Amity stared, tears running down her cheeks. “I… who are you?”

The girl sniffed, and even through the blurry image, the smile on her face was clear. “I’m someone who loves you, very very much. I wish I could do more, but right now this advice is all I can offer. I know it probably doesn’t make much sense right now, but whenever you feel alone, think of me. Remember who you have to be strong for.”

She was right. This didn’t make any sense. Amity’s chest ached with a deep pain at the unfairness of it all. She shouldn’t have to deal with this. She took a deep breath.

“Do you really mean it? Things will get better?”

“I do.”

Amity nodded. “Okay. I’ll try then.”

The girl in the cube beamed. “I knew you had it in you.” Her image fuzzed even further, and her voice grew distant. “I think I have to go now, but Amity Blight, know that you are loved. And thank you, so, so much, for being amazing.”

The cube faded, along with the liquid darkness that surrounded her.

“I guess I do, yeah.”

“Woah…” Luz leaned even closer, her heart pounding. “What are you then? A magical girl? A witch?”

“Kinda! I can do magic, and I do go to a school for witches. Close enough, right?”

Luz squealed, jumping up and down, “That is sooo cool! You’ll be my best friend, right? Wait, no. You’ll teach me to be a witch, right? Pleasepleasepleaseplease…”

The girl in the mirror laughed, then nodded. “I guess, from a certain point of view, yeah I will. It will have to wait until you’re older, though.”

“Awww. Come on!” Luz stomped a foot and pouted. But she couldn’t really keep it up. Even if she had to wait, the promise that she could be a witch in the future opened an entire world of possibilities she’d only ever dreamed of. “Do you really mean it? You promise you’ll teach me to be a witch when I’m older?”

“I will, I promise. Though you’ll have to figure out a lot of it yourself.”

“Ahhh! This is the best day of my life!”

Except… it wasn’t, was it?

Luz stilled herself, then sat back down, pulling her knees in close to her chest. “It’s not fair. Why does the best day of my life also have to be the worst?”

“I...  I’m sorry. You’re right. It’s not fair.”

Hold on a second. She was talking to a witch, wasn’t she? Luz leaned closer, her forehead nearly brushing the mirror. Her voice came out surprisingly timid. “Can you use your magic to make dad stay?”

There was a long silence before the girl spoke again, her voice full of pain. “Oh, sweetie… I can’t. I’m sorry.”

Luz bit her lip, her eyes brimming with tears. “Why not? The Good Witch Azura could do it!”

The girl took a deep breath. “She could, yes. But she wouldn’t. Dad—Your dad has made his choice. Even if you don’t like that choice, even if it's a choice that hurts a lot. Using magic to change it would be wrong. But there is something that you can change.”

“What’s that?”

“Yourself. You can change Luz Noceda. You can’t change how your dad thinks, what he says, or how he acts. But you can choose how you react to him.”

Luz frowned. “I can change… myself? By choosing?” But what did that actually mean? She thought it through, sitting in silence for a full minute. “I can do something special for dad, show how much I love him even if mom and him yell a lot. Then he’ll know how much family means.”

“I…” The girl in the mirror looked away. “Yeah, you can definitely try that.”

“Okay!” She already had a few ideas in mind that would work for sure. “Who are you, anyway? How do you know so much about me?”

“I, well. I’m a witch, right? I know lots of things. Maaagic.” She wiggled her fingers.

Luz giggled, and wiggled her fingers back. Then it hit her. “Hang on a second! It’s you, you're her, aren’t you! You’re Azura! ”

Azura muttered something in Spanish Luz couldn’t quite make out, then cleared her throat. “Well, actually—”

“This is so amazing!” Luz squealed. “I’m your biggest fan, ohmygosh. I have read your book like, a million times!”

“... You have, have you? What’s your favorite part?”

Luz took a deep breath, and then began to tell Azura every detail.

Amity watched the cube disappear into the darkness, then did her best to dry her tears on her sleeve. It would have to be enough.

She turned to see Luz still talking to her younger self. The bubbly young Noceda was rambling on and on about Azura, as predicted.

Luz for her part, kept up with style, asking pointed questions, talking about her own favorite parts, and making cryptic allusions to books yet to come.

It was downright adorable. Amity settled in and got comfortable, a smile on her face as she watched the pair interact.

Well, as comfortable as she could get sitting in a puddle of liquid darkness anyway, Did this stuff stain?

Eventually, Luz said her goodbyes, and watched her cube drift back into the darkness. She took a deep breath, then turned to face Amity. “Hey,” she muttered, her smile draining away.

Amity reached out and wordlessly squeezed Luz’s hand. She knew exactly how she was feeling.

Luz squeezed back. “Did I do the right thing?”

“I don’t know. The fact that this happened at all is so crazy that trying to determine what’s ‘right’ or not seems impossible.”

“Sure, but…” Luz sighed, and looked away. “I told little-me that she had the power to change how she reacts to Dad, and she took that to mean she should try really hard to let him know how much she cares. But it doesn’t work. I tried so hard, year after year, but it never worked. He never... I finally stopped after my twelfth birthday.”

“I’m sorry.”

Luz shook her head. “Except, trying like that gave me something to focus on, gave me hope. By the time I accepted it was worthless, I was older and could actually deal with it. Maybe it’s good after all. Or maybe there’s something more I could have done, better advice I could have given that would have fixed everything.”

Amity stayed silent for a moment, then nodded. “My advice may have given me something to hold onto but, there is still so much more pain in between then and now.” Cubes in the distance grew a little closer, and she could see more images of herself as a child, at different times in her life. Few of them were good.

“We can’t protect them from that, can we?”

“No, I don’t think we can.”

They pulled closer to each other, resting their heads together as they watched the swirling lights that formed their past, and possibly their future as well.

Amity caught the faintest glimpse in a cube of what looked like herself with yet another new hair color. “I think there’s still more pain yet to come.”

Luz met her gaze. “I’ll protect you.”

The casual certainty of the statement drew a smile and a blush from Amity, but when she thought about it more closely she bit her lip. “No.”

“Huh?” Luz frowned, pulled back, and looked Amity up and down. Something in her seemed to click, and she mouthed “Oh.”

Amity reached out and ruffled Luz’s hair. “I don’t think you can protect me, Luz. And I don’t think I can protect you. Not from everything. But I can be there to support you, and we can deal with whatever the future holds together.”

Luz closed her eyes, smiling softly, then leaned forward and planted a kiss on Amity’s forehead. “Together.”

Luz shrieked with delight as she saw the light at the end of the tunnel, and sprinted ahead, bursting forth from the tunnel into the radiance of the setting sun. “Freedom!” she called, her voice no longer bouncing around a cave wall.

Amity stepped up behind her and leaned against the wall, grinning. “Was it really so bad?”

“I wasn’t claustrophobic before, but I’m having second thoughts.”

“Shame. I was already planning our next date to be a picnic down here.”

Luz raised an eyebrow. “Maybe. We’ll see. In the meantime, come on, isn’t this gorgeous?

Amity moved over and wrapped Luz’s arm in her own. “Yeah, it is. I’m sorry we didn’t get closer to getting you home.”

“Eh. We found out a bunch of other cool stuff. Seems like for whatever reason, that dimension only reflects the self.” Luz shrugged. “Maybe it’ll be useful later.”

“Maybe. You’ve got that glyph variant too. Any idea what it does?”

“Oh right!” Luz fished around in her pack, then pulled out the new glyph she’d drawn. She slapped it down on a rock, and stepped back.

Light flashed, and then there were two rocks.

Luz knelt down and poked the new one and it puffed away. “Illusions. Neat.”

“Well, there you go. Knowledge and power.” Amity grinned, then resumed her embrace

The fresh air was actually kind of chilly, and Amity was warm. Luz pulled in even closer. “Hey, Amity?”

“Hmm?”

Luz took a deep breath, and rubbed at the back of the head. “So that whole princess/knight dynamic. Maybe it’s bundled up with some ideas about servitude and protection that aren’t great. But also like... “ She coughed, looking away, her face heating up. “Some of the aesthetics are still really cool?”

Amity turned to look at her, smiled, then leaned in and planted a kiss on Luz’s cheek. “They are. Maybe we could take turns?”

“I’d like that.”