Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

As far as jobs went in the Boiling Isles, Amity was pretty set with hers. Mostly. Even if she'd only acquired it about a month ago, it was already proving to be quite the relief from staying with her mother at Blight Manor... Especially so since her siblings had left home, Amity's mother had become extra overbearing and not at all someone you'd want to be stuck with for any length of time. If she'd been bad before, she was a nightmare now.

But this new post that Amity had accepted had a certain few... advantages. Officially, at least on paper anyway, it was an Emperor's Coven job, meaning she had both her mother's approval and an excuse to be 'busy with work'. In reality, she was by her own choice little more than an intern. But that just stacked her third and final advantage onto the list: no sigils. She could leave her options open to keep running with this coven or possibly follow in her dad's footsteps and become a member of the Abomination Coven. The illusion of choice was nice. 

Other than all that, it was pretty dull, actually. Amity technically worked as an Inspector for the coven security division (Also allowing her to stay out of scout uniform due to the home security ties her mother's company had, fortunately), but she was yet to do much more than just paperwork. Once or twice she'd been sent as an officer on duty, but not for any major cases, and just to make matters worse, as of two weeks ago, she'd been assigned to shadow the Golden Guard.

For Titan's knows what reason, Emperor Belos had instructed his right-hand man to work part-time as an assistant to Amity's department, and their base head had thought it best to stick her with the supposedly most qualified. Why being the Golden Guard made Hunter, as she'd soon found out the guy's name was, a decent detective, she would never know, but there was little she could do about it.

So far, working with the Golden Guard hadn't actually been all that bad, though. Sure, he was an absolute brat and infuriated the life out of her with sassy remarks left, right, and centre, but somewhere behind that mask, he was somewhat a sweet guy. She did mean that. Once you'd seen the guy flopped down on his desk at three am, with a bad case of a bedhead, probably actually caused by wearing a mask and hood all day, it was hard to judge him too harshly. It had also been her first time seeing his actual face, though, so there was that. 

Her colleague had been called out of their shared (Ugh.) office some matter of minutes ago to discuss some kind of assignment. Part of Amity was hopeful that this would finally be her chance for some fieldwork, but the other part knew this could just as easily be something for Hunter's regular Golden Guard duties. In that case, she was prepared to just hang around filing reports again all day. To be honest, that wasn't even as bad as she made it out to be; every now and again, she would come across an interesting story in some case notes and that would make a good read. Don't get her wrong, it was no 'Good Witch Azura', but it was entertaining enough.

Whilst there was no one in the room to check up on her, and maybe also because she'd finished her current set of assignments already and had nothing better to do, Amity summoned her scroll and began to open Penstagram. Immediately, she grimaced at noticing the slew of messages on her group chat with her siblings. With this amount of texting, there was either some kind of family gathering that they all had to attend, or Ed and Em were having some kind of meme prank war on the group chat again. She'd love to say both were equally bad, but at least one wouldn't result in Amity having to visit her mother...

And... She should have just said both would have been as bad as one another. 

Because she was now reading that mom wanted them all over for dinner next month and was feeling sorely disappointed. The twins' near-spam turned out to just be them discussing the monster of a list of things that the three of them would have to do to meet current expectations for the meal. Amity made a face and turned the scroll straight back off. She'd rather just stare off at completed work, thanks.

Either by some stroke of Titan-gifted luck or just some strangely fortunate coincidence, this was the time that Hunter chose to burst through the door, sounding as if he had just bolted the length of the building to get here. Amity glanced up at him and immediately noticed him shaking slightly as he breathed heavily. Huh, maybe she hadn't been that far off after all. 

"Blight!" he called authoritatively. 

She grimaced slightly at the use of her surname. But, hey, her official title was 'Inspector Blight', so what was she to do? It would be unprofessional to have everyone call her Amity, anyway.

"Inspector," nodding at him and attempting to sound more composed than she actually was, so basically as if she wasn't secretly buzzing at Hunter's own enthusiasm in hopes that this was something big, she returned.

It probably sounded a little weird to be calling the Golden Guard simply by a different title that Amity herself shared, but judging as Hunter wasn't strictly speaking the Golden Guard right now, there wasn't really another option. Compounding the issue, Amity also couldn't just call her colleague by his surname, because she hadn't the faintest clue what it was. His ID just still listed him as the Golden Guard, and he'd only given her the name 'Hunter'. With the distaste she harboured for her own surname, she'd just decided not to push it.

"The Emperor himself has assigned us a case of the utmost importance! We are to leave at once!" in possibly the most grandiose tone Amity had ever heard him use, Hunter announced.

Ah hah! So it was a piece of fieldwork! A small grin escaped from the corner of her lips as she stood up to brush herself off and otherwise prepare to leave. There wasn't even much she had to do to be mission-ready, anyway! As long as she had her tool belt and badge, of which one she kept out neatly on her desk and the other clipped inside her jacket pocket at all times, she was set! 

When she nearly immediately strode for the exit to the office, Hunter startled. Where before his form had been leaning against the door frame confidently, now he was straightened, hands raised as if in protest. He swished his cape around (That he for some reason insisted on keeping wearing despite the impracticality of it for their job.) and stumbled after her, one of those hands still in the air.

"H-hold on! Where are you going!?" huffily, he stormed up to match her pace and demanded.

"Out of the building," she raised an eyebrow at him, "Isn't that obvious?"

Hunter clasped both of his hands somewhere behind his back and stood up a little taller, more regally. Amity said nothing about this strange display. Her colleague then proceeded to stride around to face her at her front, making sure his heels clacked noisily against the tiles on the floor with each step. He did this kind of a lot, actually... Someone had evidently taught him that it made him seem more intimidating or something. Subtly, or she hoped it was subtly, Amity rolled her eyes.

"I haven't debriefed you yet, Blight," cooly, he informed her.

Oh, Titan, so that was the problem? If it was so urgent of a task, couldn't he just debrief her on the flight over!?

"I thought you said it was of utmost importance to the Emperor!" she countered, already beginning to slide past Hunter. 

If there was one thing everyone (Or, at least, nearly everyone.) on the Boiling Isles knew, it was that if the Emperor asked something of you, of you personally, then you wanted to comply. There was no better way of moving up through the ranks and, even if Amity was maybe slightly wary of it herself, Belos did seem to literally be able to speak to the Titan, so there was a reason he was in charge.

"It is! That's why we can't afford to-" Amity got fed up with his speel halfway through and committed to just shoving past him.

She rolled her eyes at him, this time not at all subtly, as she passed. He muttered something that she didn't quite catch due to the mask and followed after her at a brisk jog. Fortunately, the main doors to the station were not too far from Amity and Hunter's office, unlike wherever her colleague had gotten informed of the case himself, then.

Once they reached the open patio, both went for their staffs. Amity summoned Ghost (Yet another reason as to why staying legally covenless was a good idea for now; you did not keep palismen in the Emperor's Coven.) with a quick spell and was ready to ride in a matter of seconds. Hunter must have been hiding his Golden Guard staff under his cloak the whole time, because he too had it out and ready when Amity looked over. 

Actually, that was a funny story. See, Amity knew Hunter had a palisman of his own somehow, a small red cardinal, but he never used it on duty. It was probably some strange rule implemented by Belos, if she had to guess, but it had always struck here as wholly bizarre. From the fleeting moments she'd seen her colleague and the bird, they seemed remarkably close, easily as so as Amity and Ghost if not, dare she say it, somehow more! Hunter treated this bird like they were his best friend or something, but she'd never once seen them with him whilst at work.

This really wasn't the time to be pondering the complexities of Hunter's odd habits, though. Both inspectors were off the ground and racing through the sky, with the superior officer flying just slightly ahead to control direction, only a few short moments after being ready for take-off. 

"We need to head to the West side of Bonesborough," a little louder than usual as to combat the rush of the wind, Hunter explained.

"What's the story?" she shot back, eager for more details.

Amity caught Hunter, or she should probably say 'the Golden Guard' since they were on duty and everything now, hesitate before responding. That was a little unlike him. Weren't snappy comebacks and annoying responses to nearly everything she said supposed to be this guy's thing?

"Robbery. We've received reports that Luzura is going to be there tonight,"

And then it was Amity's turn to hesitate. She flinched in place and nearly ended up sliding off of the side of her staff. No... Her first proper proper assignment and it was this? Huh, maybe partnering with the Golden Guard did have its perks after all.

"Luzura? As in... Luzura Clawthorne?" she affirmed.

Her colleague clinked his fingers at the metal of his mask with a small, almost inaudible clink, despite the customary gloves he always wore, "That'd be the one... If our intel is correct, then we should be able to corner her tonight and take her in for good,"

You really would have to have been living under a rock to be working for the Emperor's Coven's Security department and not have heard of Luzura. It sounded kind of cliche, but she really was just that much of an urban legend around Amity's office. A new, young super thief who seemed to have taken on her name in honour of the last major thorn in the Emperor's side, Edalyn Clawthorne, and had succeeded in stealing from people from all over the Isles, was kind of a big deal. Currently, as Amity understood it, the majority of the rest of her department had an active bet going as to whether Luzura was actually related to Edalyn or not. If she participated in such juvenile activities herself, perhaps she would have been excited to uncover such a truth.

For his part, the Golden Guard actually seemed to be doing a remarkably good job at keeping a cool head at this kind of news then. A little hesitation and rush was nothing in the face of finally getting a chance to catch one of the Boiling Isles' most notorious criminals. Perhaps they could even track down what had happened to Edalyn and take her in too once they caught Luzura!

Amity smirked at the thrill of such a hunt and ushered Ghost to speed up just a little bit. She was not letting this opportunity go to waste...

When they eventually arrived at a suitable landing point in the right section of Bonesborough, she had little choice but to turn to the Golden Guard for guidance. As the commanding officer on this mission, he had seniority and had to be the one to make decisions. Or something like that, anyway. If it came down to it, Amity would be more than happy to make the plan herself.

"Okay, Blight, I'm going to go track down the building she should be escaping from, and you're going to wait here. If she comes this way, do not hesitate, even if I'm behind her. Block the exit, fire off spells, do whatever you need to catch her," her colleague expounded.

She agreed easily, expression spread solemnly with most of her features in a taut line. If this was her chance, she was going to take it. Everything was an opportunity, even acting as an exit blocker for someone else. 

"Understood, Inspector. Keep in touch?" she found herself following up on his plan and raising the walkie talkie that had been previously clipped to her tool belt.

The Golden Guard was already part of the way running down the street at this point, but he found the time and space to shuffle sideways slightly and agree with her. He pointed to walkie talkie strapped to his own belt, if she was reading his motions correctly, and nodded harshly.

"Radio in if you see anything!" he shouted back to her.

After that, her colleague must have decided running was inefficient, and opted to use his staff to teleport straight out of sight, leaving a laser-like trail in his wake. There was the Golden Guard's signature move, then. Maybe someday Amity could get him to teach her a speel like that. Teleportation was quite powerful magic and it would be very useful... She also had heard that the Head Witch of the Abomination Coven used such spells, so it was certainly possible for her to learn. 

And then the stakeout began. Waiting ready became the game Amity had to be playing. It really wasn't any tougher than waiting around in Blight Manor whilst grounded, though. At least she knew something was going to come of this. That had never been there left in an empty room as a child. She sighed and tried to stay focused.

After a good ten minutes had elapsed, including times where a few locals had approached Amity to see what was going on (She'd had to politely tell them that it was classified, of course.), something caught Ghost's eye. The tip of her ear twitched and then the cat was leaning around to examine a nearby rooftop from atop Amity's staff. Jumping to attention, this prompted the inspector to examine that area herself. And then she saw it.

A flash of purple, surely the same shade as that seen on Luzura's cloak in the few photos they actually had of her, was skimming across the skyline. She was trying to use the rooftops as means of escape, then? The Golden Guard had told Amity to hold down the fort in this alley here, but then he had also said to make sure she caught Luzura no matter what... This was under her jurisdiction, right?

In the end, she opted to just get onto the line she had with her colleague over walkie talkie whilst amidst the process of climbing swiftly and also quietly (As to not alert Luzura of her presence.) up to the rooftop. She probably could have just flown up, but Amity really didn't want to take any chances of startling Luzura, so using magic to scale the outer wall of a building it was! Thank Titan she was an abomination witch primarily and not say, an illusionist!

"Inspector, come in!" she hissed into the device Ghost was holding out for her from where they were hanging off of her shoulder.

"Blight! Any updates?" came the tinny voice back through it.

She pulled herself up and over a window before responding.

"Yes, I have Luzura in my sights now - she's on the rooftops. Permission to engage?"

Amity just about managed to make out the fact that her colleague had just muttered something on his end, but not quite what. If that had been her, it would have been a string of curses. But whatever, that wasn't exactly important right now.

"I'm still pursuing her myself, but yes, permission granted. I was going to steer her down to your station, but this works too. I'll signal you when you're in sight and we can corner her," evenly, so doing pretty well under the pressure, then, the Golden Guard ordered.

"Understood," Amity confirmed before swinging herself up and over the final leg to the rooftop.

She spotted Luzura, still running, almost immediately after. Strangely enough though, she couldn't see the Golden Guard. Maybe... Was he tailing Luzura stealthily? It seemed weird judging as he'd said he'd signal Amity, but maybe the signal would be her finally noticing him. Whatever, it was irrelevant anyway! She had a thief to catch!

Carefully, Amity bolted towards the blur of purple she could see on the rooftop ahead. One wrong step and she could be sent tumbling down to street level, but one step too slow and Luzura would be gone. Fortunately enough, she had a plan for this; she just needed to get within range of her target... Hopefully this wasn't going against what the Golden Guard had told her too much...

That particular opportunity came in the form of Luzura skidding against the concrete slightly, to slow herself in preparation from a vault between buildings. Without sparing any time, Amity began to draw a spell circle and summon some material to restrain the thief. She'd just about managed to catch one of Luzura's boots using this method when a second idea struck her. She changed the spell to start moving a very special type of abomination goo from the jar of it she always carried and wrapped it neatly around the middle of her foe.

Once Amity was sure that Luzura was properly constrained, she approached. She made sure to also have her staff out to seem more threatening, of course. Not that the thief was watching her, for whatever reason... No, Luzura was still bending and pulling against the mass of abomination goo tied around her waist and bubbling in a puddle around her feet for that. Amity scowled. She'd been sort of hoping for at least a little appreciation. Even a short grunt of acknowledgement her way would have been nice...

Up close like this, one could begin to notice a lot more about this super thief, though. For one, she was maybe not as impressive as Amity had thought. Maybe it had been farfetched, but she'd always pictured someone intimidating, but this woman? She was perhaps actually shorter than Amity, and a good chunk of her bulk seemed to come from a puffy jacket and set of trousers underneath the cloak. It made her seem a little more real, though.

Luzura's hands were contradictory to expectations in a completely different fashion, of course. Amity thought an accomplished thief would have those kind of long, spindly fingers that you saw on entertainment programmes. The kind of fingers that could elegantly swipe a treasure from out of your grasp, not some clenched mass concealed beneath a pair of woollen gloves. These seemed a lot more... friendly, if that made sense. She thought they seemed like the kind of hands that you'd want to have tightly hold your own, not rob your most prized possessions.

But enough about hands! Amity had some kind of stolen valuable to locate on Luzura's person! Craftily, she cast a quick beast-keeping spell that Edric had taught her recently to try and scan through the cloak. Funny though, it wasn't working. Luzura was still straining against her restraints, steadfastly refusing to give Amity the time of day, and she was certain she'd cast the spell correctly... But that could only mean? Amity narrowed her eyes. Did Luzura have a witches' wool cloak!?

She faltered for a moment and bent down to examine it. The look of the fibres and the way they almost seemed to sparkle was in line with witches' wool, but how could Luzura possible have gotten it? And before you ask why couldn't she just have stolen it, that was not an option; this stuff was valued too highly to not be reported if it had been robbed. There hadn't been any reports of stolen witches' wool back at the station... Then who would sell it to someone like Luzura? It was common knowledge that you could back a good few snails by selling it directly to the Emperor! Night Market sales couldn't possibly be better than that!

Unfortunately, Luzura noticed Amity's distraction and took this time to twist her body upwards, hitting Amity in the jaw with her shoulder. The inspector hissed in pain and retreated.

"Watch it!" she snarled.

She was expecting the thief to scoff at her, or maybe just cackle. She was a wild witch after all... And Amity had just literally told the person she had tied up to not hit her... But it was the strangest thing! Luzura did none of that. She just looked over with these big, brown eyes and winced at Amity's expression.

"Oh, gosh, I am so sorry, Miss, uh..." she briefly tried scanning Amity's suit for any sign of a name, "Inspector! I didn't mean to hit you that hard," Luzura hurriedly apologised.

Really, Amity should have been worried about the whole trying to find out her name thing, but there was something oddly endearing about the way this thief had just hit her and then profusely proclaimed that she was sorry for it. It was most likely all just some kind of act, and one that Amity wasn't going to fall for at that, but that didn't stop her from being intrigued all the same.

Amity put on her best steely glare, "Yeah, well, just don't try it again,"

A funny expression crossed Luzura's face. It looked like some kind of mix between disappointment and indignation, though, then again, the thief was wearing some kind of grey bandana over the lower half of her face, so it was a tad hard to tell. Instead of pondering that, Amity elected to just cross her arms and continue to glare.

"Sheesh, okay... I was just trying to be nice..." Luzura tipped her head away and mumbled.

"I'm literally holding you captive right now. We're going to take you to prison, probably the Conformatorium, once my associate gets here!" more confused than ever now, asserted Amity.

The thief sighed and leaned backwards, letting the abomination goo at her feet keep her standing. She didn't look particularly annoyed by Amity's declaration or anything, though. A little contemplative (Always a dangerous expression...) and maybe, if Amity were to really search the depths of the warmth in this... criminal's eyes, hurt, but not angry. Weren't people supposed to get angry when you threatened to lock them up?

"Nah, I get it. But I have nothing better to do than make conversation, then... I'm probably not getting out of this... uh, stuff any time soon, it would seem," Luzura shrugged her shoulders and admitted.

Amity laughed haughtily, "That 'stuff', as you put it, is magic restricting abomination fluid. Of course you're not getting out of it!"

"Neat! That actually makes a lot of sense!" she winked, "Thanks for the tip!"

Amity's face burned red when she realised she'd technically just told her entire plan to the enemy. Well! It would be fine! There was still no practical way for Luzura to escape, anyway! Not on a rooftop like this! And not when the Golden Guard was presumably on his way over right as they spoke! Actually, saying that... She should probably check in with her colleague, just to see where he'd gotten to.

She grabbed the walkie talkie off of her belt and turned and walked a short distance away to get some privacy. It was alright though; she left Ghost on guard duty. She was still covering all grounds, just on the off chance Luzura lived up to her reputation and pulled off some kind of miracle to escape.

"Golden Guard," she activated the device and whispered into it, "Come in, it's Inspector Blight,"

There was some crackling of static, and for a moment Amity feared the worst had happened to him. But this was the Emperor's right-hand man she was talking about; he hadn't earnt his position for nothing! As she came to realise, that annoying noise was just the wind blowing past him as he ran. She scanned the horizon once again for any sign of him whilst she waited for him to start talking.

"I should hope so! What's the update, Blight? I don't see you," he eventually grunted, sounding pretty out of breath.

"I don't see you either," she quirked an eyebrow (Even though she knew he couldn't see that...) and retorted, "But good news! I have Luzura - she's contained in some abomination goo right now,"

Another pause and rush of static.

"No... You can't have her. I- I'm chasing her right now! I can see her, Blight!" he bit back at her through what sounded like gritted teeth.

Amity frowned into the walkie talkie. The Golden Guard had to be mistaken, right? Was he just watching from a really odd angle? Or... Was he...?

"The Luzura in front of me right now is definitely real," she insisted, "She spoke to me and everything. Are you sure you're not chasing an-" she began only to be cut off.

"Illusion? I didn't think so, but-"

Ghost started mewling loudly. Amity slammed her walkie talkie back into her tool belt and whipped around just in time to see Luzura somehow manage to set the abomination goo that should have completely stopped her from any magic at all on fire in a bright and very definitely magical burst of light. 

She could only watch in horror as the whole thing melted right off of the thief. She was running right towards her, but there wasn't particularly much she could do to actually stop Luzura right about then - sending over more abomination goo would just end up in an even larger pile of half-melted... stuff.

"Wait! Don't take a step further!" furiously, she called out.

Luzura vaulted across the gap to the next roof using another burst of fire. Amity cursed under her breath.

"That doesn't count, right? 'Cause it's not a step?" the thief laughed cheekily and waved as she darted off again.

Clenching her fists, Amity stormed off towards the gap and drifted swiftly across it herself using Ghost's staff. In fact, once she'd gotten across, she saw no reason to stop using the staff, and just chose to chase Luzura like that. It was much quicker than running and Amity wasn't running the risk of running out of energy. She smirked proudly as she began to quite clearly gain on Luzura, but her foe just put her head down and pushed herself to run faster.

They were quickly approaching another crevice between two buildings again. Any second now, Luzura would have to slow down and then she'd be right back under Amity's thumb! And rest assured, there was no way she was going to take her eyes off of her enemy for even a single second, this time. No more trickery! Whatever she'd somehow managed to do last time to break the enchantment of the abomination goo was not something Amity particularly cared for a repeat of. 

Just like last time, Luzura skidded to a halt just before reaching the end of her runway except, this time, she was standing right on the edge of the roof, back facing the open air and fall right behind her. Amity almost hesitated. Was this... some kind of sympathy tactic? Was Luzura relying on her to not be willing to constrict her again, lest the thief be sent tumbling down into an abyss of alleyway? Well, it wasn't going to work! Amity knew how to be careful!

"What, is the poor little thief scared? You know you can't make that jump without me catching you," smugly, Amity taunted. 

Watching Luzura like this, towering over her from a staff, Amity began to understand the feeling Ghost liked so much of toying with prey. Because Amity was going to be the one to bring in the great super thief, now. It was happening. Luzura was all at her mercy.

"Scared?" Luzura giggled, "Nah. And who said I was going to jump?"

Amity scarcely had time to dig out any response at all before the thief let herself go off the edge of the building. 

She just... leaned backwards and... fell. 

Yes, backwards. No, not with any kind of visible protection spell. It was just Luzura and those stupid confident eyes falling directly downwards, cloak fluttering daintily out in all directions. Despite the danger, Luzura looked somewhat... pleased. Or, at least, she did until she completely vanished from view. No spell circle cast, no magical artefact visibly used. The thief's hands had been tangled in the edge of her cloak! There wasn't room to have even cast a spell or used an artefact!

It took Ghost's insistent meowing to shake Amity out of her stupor and back to a mode ready to investigate. She swooped down to the alley floor, but there wasn't a single sign that Luzura had ever even been there to begin with. It didn't make sense! You couldn't cast some kind of flying or invisibility spell without a potion or a circle! And Luzura had clearly used neither! The same thing with her escaping Amity's abomination goo too, if she had to guess! 

Amity narrowed her gaze and scanned the floor again, just to be sure. There was no more a bag of stolen goods conveniently left behind than there was even a footprint. She was completely and utterly stumped. Which for someone like Amity, was a rarity. Was the point of all those extra classes her mother had made her take at Hexside if she still couldn't figure something like this out then, huh!?

"Blight!" a familiarly annoying voice grated at her ears from above.

Sure enough, the Golden Guard was up on the edge of the rooftop now. Little too late there, buddy... She scowled and flew back up to confer with him about what their next move should be.

"Is it possible to do magic with no visible signs?" she demanded as soon as both feet had touched down on the stone.

Her colleague averted his eyesight (Yes, it was still easy to tell despite his mask when the guy had literally shifted his entire head in a different direction.) and flinched.

"Not... really? Not with any modern techniques, anyway," perplexed and perhaps a tad cautious, he answered, slowly.

"Well, maybe we need to update our modern ways, then," she looked dead at him, " Because I just saw Ms Super Thief Luzura Clawthorne dive off of this roof and vanish without any sign of a spell circle or potion,"

As it turned out, today was really not going to be a good day for Hunter. When he'd first received that message from his uncle detailing the exact incident that Luzura had instigated, he'd been excited, hopeful even, that today was going to be his shot at proving himself finally to Belos, but no. Apparently, Luzura had jumped off of a rooftop and disappeared into thin air along with Hunter's best chance of not becoming the laughing stock of the Emperor's Coven.

He'd transferred to working in security part-time to prove himself capable, not to only have the situation from before compounded! 

Hunter buried his face into the main pillow on his bed and ripped off his cloak. Stupid thing... What was the point of being the Golden Guard if he couldn't actually do anything to protect the citizens of the Boiling Isles from such a dangerous threat as Luzura Clawthorne! She was a Clawthorne! After Lilith's... leave a few years back they (Yes, him too) really should have been expecting this! But no! No one had thought to check up on her and now it was Hunter's full responsibility to clean up the mess...

He'd also sort of been hoping that things would be looking up again by the time he'd gotten back to the Castle, but nope! That'd still definitely been an illusion that had tricked him, and the Luzura that Blight had lost track of had definitely been carrying the Emperor's stolen belongings. Oh, yeah, he hadn't mentioned that before, had he? The reason he, and by proxy Blight, had been given the mission of stopping Luzura was because she had just been making her way out of the Castle after raiding the place and taking something (Belos hadn't specified to him what.) from it. 

He was due for an audience with the Emperor shortly, now. Kikimora had gleefully promised him that much.

Struggling to breathe, Hunter straightened himself up on the bed and tried to clear his head. On the plus side, it hadn't been all his fault? But he couldn't just cast all the blame onto Blight... For all of what he'd seen so far, she was a diligent worker and did show plenty of promise! Throwing everything all on her would be unfair... She still deserved her chance, right? 

Nervously, he ran his hand through his hair. That was when Flapjack decided would be best to make their entrance. Hopping sorrowfully up to him, they tried to stubbornly assure him that there had to be a way to convince Belos to keep him going through a series of urgent chirps and whistles.

"I don't think so, buddy... Not this time. You," he paused, "Don't know him like I do..."

A distant expression fell over his bird's face. It was one that they always wore when they would clam up and refuse to speak about their past beyond when they'd just decided to follow Hunter back to the castle one day. He knew they had a history in this world, a long and detailed one at that, but they always refused to tell him anything. They had never even actually told him why they'd decided that him, a solider for the Emperor who literally destroyed any of their kind that he came into contact with, was someone to stay with. They'd just seen him one day whilst he was patrolling the outskirts of Bonesborough and decided to stick with him. 

Weird that they would act like that now, though.

"I just... We need a clue! Something to go off of! Then Uncle wouldn't be so mad, right!?"

Flapjack chirped softly at him.

"No, I know I can't make something up... I don't suppose you think I missed anything out there, right?" he sighed.

Technically, Flapjack had been out there with him the whole time today. Sure, they'd been hiding in the compartment on his belt all day, and sure, he wasn't entirely sure how conscious they were when they hung out in a state like that, but they had been there!

They still shook their little bird head from side to side in the negative though... Hunter gave them a pained look. Something about his sad face must have really been on point in that moment, (Or maybe Flapjack had been about to do this anyway...) because his palisman then decided to flutter over to his desk and start making a ruckus about something on it.

Cautiously, he approached whatever they were squawking at. Something about the fact that Flapjack was still a bird made it a little hard to understand sometimes, but this was not one such occasion. When his palisman began dancing in front of the tucked away copy of 'From Bones to Earth: A Study of Wild Magic', he got the message loud and clear, though.

"Good idea, bird!" giving them a little side smile, he complimented.

He took the book off the desk and returned to his bed to flip through to the relevant pages.

"I think we have wild magic to pin on this Luzura..."

Chapter Text

When Amity came into the office the next day, Hunter was already there, scrounging over a file. His palisman was out for once, and they tried chirping loudly at him to signal Amity's entrance. Unfortunately for the bird, Hunter didn't so much as glance her way. She grimaced and tried to ascertain the seriousness of the situation from his posture. Judging from the way he was slumped, Hunter had pulled an all-nighter.

Amity slid into the chair opposite him and waited pensively. With any luck, he'd just explain away the situation naturally. But that probably wasn't going to happen if she was being realistic, so she turned to see if she could gauge any answers from the bird instead. They tweeted apologetically at her once they noticed her staring, but then immediately went back to bothering Hunter. So that was a dead-end, in other words. Ugh, the hard way it was...

"Inspector. Is there... an assignment?" firmly, she asked.

Hunter craned his neck upwards and swivelled it to look at her with the mannerisms of someone who'd been in that position for hours.

"We failed a mission for the Emperor, Blight. He is not happy," Hunter laughed, almost hysterically.

Amity bristled in her chair. She wasn't sure if she was more uncomfortable from knowing that she'd disappointed yet another person, or the implication that Hunter had received this news himself. It was probably fine, the Emperor was a kind man, but if he was anything to Hunter like Amity's mother was to her... Suffice to say, she wouldn't want to be in that position.

"So why're you here? Don't you usually have patrol? Or, if you want to research, why not try the Castle library - surely it's more comprehensive," she breached the obvious question tentatively.

Hunter laughed again, "Oh, it's simple really," he stared at her, mask and all, "The only way to stop Luzura is to figure out her tactics. Unfortunately for us, I'm ninety-nine percent sure that you saw her using some form of archaic wild magic, which you may note is super banned from the Castle! I'm not allowed to research it there!"

The bird returned to crooning at Hunter gently and brushing up against the crook in his neck. He by no means made any attempt to stop them, but he also never gave them any attention either. Maybe he'd stopped even noticing that they were there...

"But here's okay?" questioned Amity, dubiously.

Her colleague squished his mask against the desk, making him a little hard to understand, "As long as I'm not caught... But Un- Belos is pretty mad right now, so we have to get ahead of this. By whatever means necessary,"

"Can I help, then? I used to work at the Bonesborough library, so I could probably get access to some of the restricted section and search there too," she offered.

Dramatically (Even if it was maybe a little warranted...), Hunter shrugged his shoulders, still face down on the desk, and groaned. That could either be from frustration or exhaustion.

Before Amity could get a chance to affirm though, someone new entered. Well, she was a new presence in the room at that moment, but hardly an unfamiliar one. When Amity heard the voice, she flinched at shrunk in on herself slightly.

"Hey, Hunter! I heard you had kind of a rough night, so I came to check up on you. Everything alright?" a warm voice announced.

If this were anyone else, Amity would welcome the chance to stop her colleague's borderline panic-attack mope fest, but funnily enough, this wasn't anyone else. because who else on this Titan-forsaken site would check up on Hunter but their site manager Willow Park? 

It probably seemed weird that Amity would be cowering like this at the sight of possibly the nicest person who worked here, but it wasn't really on Willow herself. Or at all, actually. Because Amity was kind of the bane of Willow's existence. And she had been for a long time.

Recalling now, it really had started back when they were little kids. Amity's parents told her to stop being WIllow's friend, and to stop associating with her, and Amity... just did. But more than that, the only way she'd known how to cope, and how to fit in with Boscha and the other kids her mother had told her to befriend, was to lash out. Willow hadn't deserved it, obviously, but that hadn't stopped Amity or anyone in that group from mercilessly picking on her. Amity only stopped when her mother pulled her from school due to 'lacking grades' to homeschool her. 

She'd tried to apologise when she'd first seen Willow at this office. The hurt in Willow's eyes at just bringing up the memories stopped her from breaking out the full story, from giving Willow the time she deserved. She had been a coward. Again.

Secondly, and whilst less angsty, definitely more dramatic, Hunter was insufferable with Willow. Amity had no idea what his deal was, but whenever this one specific person was near him, her colleague turned from a melodramatic brat to a right suck-up. 

This time, Hunter jerked upright from his crashed position and immediately removed his mask. His posture wasn't usually bad by any means, but right now it was about as perfect as you'd want as if you were in front of the Emperor himself. Amity had to stop herself from rolling her eyes and making a scene.

"C-Captain!" oh, right, the nickname.

For an unknown reason, Hunter had a habit of calling Willow by some strange title that made no sense to Amity, but never failed to make the other laugh. Hunter's rank was technically leagues above Willow's; why did he treat her like it was the other way around?

"Were you asleep just then?" sounding almost amused, Willow asked.

Hunter huffed indignantly and immediately tried to rectify her guess, "No! I was working!"

Willow sighed and approached him slowly, "All night? Hunter... You gotta take a break, man..." she frowned sympathetically at the way he seemed to wilt at her disappointment, "Tell you what, I'm having lunch out with some friend's today - would you like to join us?"

It was obvious that Hunter wanted to from the moment he heard the suggestion from the way his eyes lit up, yet, for some reason, his gaze ended up drifting over to Amity. She tried in small gestures to turn his attention away from her, but it failed miserably miserable and now Willow visibly was visibly stilling, eyes locked on Amity.

"That would be great!" Hunter blurted awkwardly, "But, uh, could Blight come too? She's in just as much trouble as me..."

Why, Hunter, just why!? He'd been the one in office all night, but now Amity was being dragged along as well!? And here she'd thought he couldn't care less if she was there or not, after all, she'd only served to humiliate him yesterday when they figure out that he'd just been chasing an illusion all along... Unless he was just trying to divert attention off of himself... There was no way Willow would agree to this, right?

"Fine," Willow conceded slowly, "If she needs a place too, she can come,"

Amity stared at the floor, just waiting for it to swallow her whole.

"Thanks, Captain! You're the best!" Hunter cheered, for whatever reason, and then continued as if he hadn't started to liven up at all, "What time do you want to meet, though? I need to plan our schedule around it,"

Careful as to not miss anything important, Amity remained staring downwards, but kept an ear out for details.

"Just after Twelve? I'll meet you out front," Willow suggested with a slight fond intone to her voice. Amity wasn't sure how she noticed that.

"Sure!" eagerly, Hunter agreed. 

With that, Amity could hear the tell-tale sounds of footsteps growing progressively quieter. She sighed and gradually peeled herself back up. Hunter had a silly grin on his face when he came into sight. Well, good for him then, she thought bitterly.

"Did you get all of that, Blight? Lunch at-" her colleague began cheerily, an obvious sign that he was about to start rambling.

"Yes, thanks," she paused, "I... Just need to get some files, though. I'll be right back," 

Quietly, she excused herself before fleeing the room. That had been a lie, and an obvious one at that for anyone who'd paid even a slight bit of attention to her: Amity Blight didn't turn up to work without being fully prepared. With any luck though, Hunter wouldn't have realised that yet. With any luck, he wouldn't even have the foggiest idea what her true intentions were.

With some current luck, Amity could still hear the sound of Willow's shoes padding against tiles just ahead.

She began to stride neatly, but hurriedly, along to where she could hear the sound coming from. As long as she didn't suddenly have a terrible sense of perception, this would lead her straight to Willow. For better or worse, she was going to need a conversation before any kind of lunch outing. Willow deserved it.

"Can we... talk?" once she came into close enough range, Amity called out.

Willow froze and then inched backwards whilst she turned to face Amity. Her face wore a carefully guarded expression, but she didn't look mad or upset yet. Yet... But her fists were also clenched at her sides and she looked ready to run at any moment.

"What do you want, Amity?" tiredly, Willow sighed.

Evenly, Amity took another step closer and waited to see how the other would react. When Willow didn't move, she stopped in place.

"I don't... want anything, Willow," conscientiously, she began, "Just, please, hear me out,"

Willow stared for a moment before nodding plainly, "Okay,"

And then the tiles on the floor suddenly seemed a lot more interesting to look at. Amity had to work to keep her gaze raised and her eyes in a line with Willow's. She swallowed dryly and wriggled her toes inside her boots where no one could see.

"I didn't mean to come off as cold last time we spoke. I was- am genuine about everything that happened," she confessed.

"I don't need another half-baked apology, Amity," dryly, the other witch cut in.

"No, I know..." Amity frowned, "You have a right to be mad at me. I get it. I just... I think Hunter may have been trying to divert attention off of himself inviting me, and you weren't at all wrong - I think he is struggling,"

Willow snorted out loud and shook her head. A small smile had returned to her face.

"Well, I knew he was obviously going to try and cover his tracks. There's a reason I invited him out rather than just talking right then. I just... Didn't expect him to bring you into it," 

"Neither did I,"

Hunter's deflection had at least been obvious all around, then. The more she thought about it, the more it really did just seem like the ideal solution. Had she been in Hunter's shoes, maybe she would have done the same thing. 

A prolonged moment of silence.

"Is that all, Amity?" evidently put off by Amity's lack of meaningful response, Willow asked flatly.

Amity startled and looked back at her former friend's calculated stare, "No, no quite, I-" she hesitated despite her best efforts, "I know this is all for Hunter, but for what it's worth, I'm... glad we get the chance to talk again. I know it's not probably at all what you want, but-"

"It's a start," Willow smiled lightly at her, not quite warmly like she would at Hunter, but also clearly without malice, "I don't know what happened to you, either time, but I'm not going to complain if you're trying to improve. For the record, I am glad I ran into you again,"

Amity bobbed her head gratefully, "Thanks, Willow..."

There was a second there where she'd thought Willow had managed to leave silently, but no, she was still standing there when Amity stilled, just as before.

"I do actually have things to do right now, but we can talk more later, I guess. See you around, Amity," Willow gave a small wave as she turned to leave.

"Yeah... Speak to you later..."

Amity hung around for another few instants before walking away too. She grabbed a random file from the records room on her way back though, just to seem less suspicious to Hunter. He probably wouldn't take knowing that his decision to invite Amity had caused tension well. 

Especially, she realised, because Hunter was already back to brooding on top of the desk. His mask was still off, and his palisman had taken to pulling at a loose strand of his hair that was trailing over the surface. Amity almost huffed in laughter, because it was kind of pitifully amusing, but held her tongue for fear of pushing him over the edge. Instead, she opted to slip quietly back over to her chair and just get on with her own private research. 

Hunter groaned belatedly when he noticed what she was doing and slid his face up just enough to look her in the eye. His palisman finally stopped fussing at that and nestled up against his cheek.

"Find what you needed, Blight?" he mumbled.

She raised an eyebrow at him and he ran a hand through his hair.

"Hopefully," she shrugged, "...Did you figure anything out whilst I was gone?"

She decided to properly call it a day on that when Hunter snapped to attention and shuffled a new set of papers. Apparently, he had literally just been sitting there whilst she was gone. Yeah, Amity was just going to label this as a mental health break for him. Titan knew he looked like he needed it...

To literally no one's surprise, Belos had been beyond mad last night. The marks on Hunter's shoulder spoke for themselves in that regard. But perhaps the worst extent of it was how it had somehow landed him with only telling Blight half of the truth about why he'd rocked up at the office at something like One Am this morning. Sure, he'd needed somewhere to research some stuff he probably shouldn't in the Castle, but that had never stopped him before. If he was to be honest with himself, which it felt like he was doing less and less of recently, he'd run off because he was scared.

Uncle was a busy man. Uncle wouldn't waste his precious time looking for Hunter all the way out at the Security HQ.

Or, uh, it was at the local restaurant that Willow had guided him and Blight to now, wasn't it? Yes, there was no way that Belos would think to look for him here. Also to his favour was the fact that barely half of the scouts even knew his face, so it was unlikely that he'd manage to be recognised either. That brought a ghost of a smile to his face. For a fleeting moment until he remembered what he was hiding from exactly.

Uncle's curse had been acting out last night. Whatever Luzura had stolen from him, it had to have something to do with his curse management. Because Uncle didn't mean to hurt Hunter like he had last night; he couldn't control it! And even then, it was just all the more motivation for Hunter to find and stop this fiend, right? He would be a rather cruel nephew to just ignore his own uncle in a time of need like this.

He'd have to get straight back to work after this, then. Especially after the complete lack of productivity from earlier... Hunter winced at the memory. He'd wanted to be getting on with research like he could see Blight doing, but his brain had just refused! It was nonsensical! He was the Golden Guard for crying out loud! Wasn't he supposed to enjoy this?

Uncle would never have appointed him if he'd seen Hunter get so distracted so easily. That was for certain.

But all the same... Hunter's brain just hadn't been with it earlier, no matter how much his heart had been. His mind had been full of drowsy thoughts of playing with Flapjack or reading that book that Darius had bought him last month after finding out everyone else had skipped his birthday. (Well, not everyone... Hunter had had his own mini celebration with Flapjack in private...) Since when did the Golden Guard want to sleep or play on the job, though!? That would be ridiculous!

Uncle wouldn't want a nephew as unproductive as that.

"Hunter? Are you ready to order?" the sweet tones of Willow Park shook him out of his stupor, and he looked up, only now taking in the fact that, yeah, he was at a restaurant - he was supposed to be picking something.

"Sure," he played it off lightly as if he wasn't lying through his teeth (And gap in them.), "I can just have whatever you have,"

"You sure? What if you can't have what she's having?" someone different, someone unfamiliar, asserted.

Right... This wasn't just him, Captain and Blight, was it? Willow had asked Hunter to come as an extra, after her other friends. Speaking of, he did at least already know one of them.

To cut a long story short, Hunter knew Willow from the Flyer Derby team he'd somehow managed to find the time to play for. (Once again, it was a long story, but the gist of it was that Darius had insisted that he find something to do out of his job duties and Willow had been looking for someone with a skill set like his.) That was where he knew Willow's first friend, Gus, from. Though he'd only really say that he was particularly close with the Captain, he would still call himself Gus's acquaintance. But Gus hadn't been the one to speak.

That would be... the human. Luz, he was pretty sure she'd said her name was during the walk over. So of course she'd be the one to try and lecture him on dietary habits... She'd probably just been hoping she had someone to sympathise with about her poor, weak, human digestive system that couldn't take the Boiling Isles food. 

Well, unfortunately for her, Hunter wouldn't be giving her that pleasure! Because, sure, there actually were a few fairly common things that Hunter couldn't eat himself, but Belos had assured him that it must be due to his lack of magic. That was a fact that this human decidedly did not need to know. Did she think that he was going to give her special treatment just for being a human or something? It wasn't that novel! Though it was rare for a human to stay, junk from the Human Realm washed up on their shores all the time! It had only been a matter of time before that would be a human!

"I'm sure that won't be an issue," he retorted cooly.

The Captain gave him a funny look (He must have let something slip to her about this...), "Maybe just check anyway? Just in case," she suggested.

Hunter relented.

His eyes went down to skimming the menu to see what seemed the most similar to the regular food he would be served at the Castle. If any of them thought his choice was weird when he eventually gave an answer, they didn't show it, so he was probably in the clear. Well, they all looked pretty neutral save for Blight. But judging as her line of sight had been stuck on the human for the past however long, Hunter really didn't think that was as a consequence of his actions.

The waiter coming and asking for his colleague's order seemed to be the only thing to snap her out of her trance, actually. Titan, he didn't even want to know what she'd been so caught up on... All he was to know for now was that her expression had been very much a combination of confusion and suspicion for the entire time she'd had her gaze trained on Luz.

"So, how'd your mission go yesterday, Hunter?" politely, Willow tried to fend off the awkwardness that had been her idly chatting with her other two friends whilst him and Blight stared off into space, "I heard it was a big one,"

His eye twitched, "Yep! It went just great! A-okay! So, uh, great that we're getting a follow-up, right, Blight?" he rambled frantically. 

His colleague shot him a pleading look before realising she had to answer. So, clearly forcing her best businesswoman smile, Amity turned back to the rest of the table.

"Oh, yes, absolutely," she nodded sagely, "It's been keeping us quite busy in preparation,"

Wow. Hunter was almost jealous of how much better of a liar she was. But only almost! What reason would Hunter ever need to lie!? The Titan knew all anyway, right? The only lie he had ever continued for any meaningful length of time was about Flapjack. And they were... different. Belos clearly just didn't understand palismen, so it was better for both Flapjack and him that they were kept separate.

"Sounds like a lot," Luz commented, bemused, "What do you do?"

Hunter puffed up his chest proudly, more to impress Willow than the human though, and prepared to advertise just exactly what he, and sort of Blight, did. Well, maybe she could tell the inspection part of their job, but the Golden Guard side of his job did kind of have to be him. 

"Security for Emperor. Specifically inspection," almost boredly, his colleague beat him to the chase, "Oh, and Hunter has his Golden Guard stuff too,"

He scowled at her.

"Firstly, Blight, my Golden Guard duties are first priority, secondly, that is classified," he sniffed.

Okay, it wasn't at all. After a few incidents when he was younger wherein various scouts didn't recognise him without his mask thus hindering his mission progress, his face was available to find on some more obscure Emperor's Coven promotional materials. But still! It was his thing to announce! 

Admittedly, the only person at this table who might not have known was the human, but judging from the lack of surprise on her face, she had already been informed. He would have to assume that Willow or Gus had told her about his occupation. They both most certainly knew. His on the nose advertising at practice probably tipped them off. And then with seeing Willow whilst he was on duty now... Yeah, it was inevitable. Strange that they would have talked to Luz about it without telling him, though... He hadn't even known who Luz was earlier that day!

"Oh. Sorry," Blight shrugged, "I, uh, didn't realise it was private..."

Well, now he felt a little bad.

"It's not exactly private - it's just... maybe a little better possibly to keep it on the down-low," he stumbled his way through a response.

"Oh, don't worry, man! I totally get it!" the human laughed, "My mentor's the same way,"

Mentor, eh? What were they training the human in? Surely Luz would be no more inherently able to do magic than Hunter! Perhaps then, like Hunter, this mentor was training the human using a staff. Palismen had their own natural magic, so channelling that for a human should be no different than for a powerless witch like him! Maybe he could ask her about that later.

"Really? What does your mentor do?" Blight questioned incredulously.

Luz glanced over at Gus with wide eyes. Hunter couldn't possibly fathom why she'd do that, unless her mentor was some kind of criminal! Oh... Hunter groaned internally. Her mentor was some kind of criminal, weren't they?

"Well..." Luz winced, "She's a street vendor, really, but she sells some pretty questionable stuff sometimes,"

Oh, great, a scammer, then. Well, as long as Hunter didn't find out anymore, he could just pretend he didn't know, and then it wouldn't be his problem to go deal with a major trickster like most of the most prolific Boiling Isles scammers were. He wasn't in the mood for dealing with someone who tried to haggle prison time, thank you very much! He wasn't in the mood for that ever after last time!

"I'm going to stop you there, human. Just leave me some plausible deniability about this, okay?" he sighed.

Willow giggled lightly before cutting in, "How about we just stop talking about serious stuff like work, then. Anyone seen any good shows lately?"

Hunter didn't know how to tell her that he didn't have time to watch Crystal Balls. He didn't actually even own one... Any time it was necessary to use one, he had always just borrowed Darius's... He had a scroll! So supposedly he could watch streams on Penstagram and whatnot, but, uh, that was still reliant on him having the free time between his two jobs to do much more than play with Flapjack and occasionally sleep.

So he just sat there, blankly and waited for someone else to answer.

"Well, it's not exactly a show... And it's really not new... But-" Luz began mischievously.

"Oh my Titan, Luz, if this is what I think it is-" Willow rolled her eyes playfully and interrupted.

"I was rereading the Good Witch Azura recently in preparation for the re-release of the old movies and I was just reminded of how good it is, y'know!" Luz babbled.

Was that something Hunter was supposed to have heard of? In society about witches, that seemed like kind of a generic name... Though, Luz had said that it wasn't that new, so maybe it was a Human Realm thing. That didn't explain how Willow knew it, but he could probably just put that down to the human having a bigger problem about rambling than even Hunter...

But something else caught him off guard. Blight was now staring very intensely and analytically at Luz, as if trying to search for something. She'd seemed to be trying to search for familiarity or trust or something earlier, but now there was some kind of kindled flame of excitement alight in his colleague's eyes. He braced himself for the worse.

"You've... read those? Huh. Well, I concur - they are very good," evenly, she put in.

Luz's eyes seem to sparkle at that...

"When did you get time to read them, Amity?" carefully, Willow asked.

"Oh, my... mom bought them for me after I... transferred. To help me settle in better," Blight stammered out.

She was lying. That much was obvious. Even though Hunter was hyper-aware that probably seemed very hypocritical saying this, she seemed like an absolutely terrible liar at that moment. Strangely different to earlier, then... There was no way anyone was falling for this, right? Hunter may not know 'The Good Witch Azura', but he did know that no one who had a mom who would buy them books as presents would give an evasive statement full of hesitations about receiving those books. If anyone actually bothered to ask Hunter about the book Darius bought for him, he'd tell them! But apparently, Blight wouldn't... Where had her smooth facade from earlier gone, if she wanted to lie!?

"Sounds like a pretty great gift, if you ask me," Luz nodded sagely, "So! Who's your favourite character!?"

Blight hesitated for a moment before answering and then Hunter couldn't be asked to deal with this anymore. He shuffled closer to Captain on his left and began their own private conversation aside from whatever nonsense his colleague and the human were spouting.

"Have the games been good this season?" he nudged her side before asking.

"Flyer Derby?" he nodded at her question, "Pretty good, yeah! I wish you had time to come too - I think there's some really cool stuff we could pick up for the team there,"

He stared guiltily at her wistful expression. He wished he could come too, honest. But that just wasn't something he had the luxury of doing as the Golden Guard. Especially now that he worked in Security as well. And especially now that he was on the Luzura case. Even taking this break was probably slightly risky, actually... But Captain had asked! 

"Sorry..." he mumbled shyly.

"Not your fault, Hunter. And besides, if it was that big of a deal, you probably wouldn't have been on the team in the first place. I can take notes for us all myself," she assured him.

"Still. Sorry for not being able to prioritise you more," he pushed the issue before realising what he said and staring, mortified, "I meant the team! L-like the plural you!"

Willow laughed playfully at him and shook her head. Hunter was torn between wanting to just disappear for this incident and cheering because he'd just made Captain laugh! Instead, he opted for a mix of both and whined quietly into his arm. It was moments like these that he didn't really feel like the Golden Guard anymore. Who knew, maybe that was a good thing! Sometimes it was nice just being Hunter, no pressure, no expectations. 

Uncle viewed Hunter as the Golden Guard, though. Always.

"You not planning on taking me to the next game, Willow?" Gus chimed in with a spirited lilt to his voice.

"Isn't that the one you're busy for? With, uh..." the Captain paused before indicating her head slightly at Luz, "All that?"

How... cryptic. This human just kept making things weirder and weirder... Whatever, this was going on Hunter's list of things to ignore for the day. If Gus had to help Luz's mentor out with their shady business or something, well, as long as it wasn't going to directly harm the Emperor, then he could turn a blind eye. For Willow. Because it'd be a hassle for her to have to find a replacement teammate. And, uh, friend, in Luz's case.

Gus's mouth formed an 'O' shape, "Is that next week? I'd totally forgotten!"

"Yeah, that's next week. It can't really wait too much longer," vaguely, Willow shrugged.

Hunter blinked and tried to interpret what was going on. Was this some kind of verbal version of this 'Vague Posting' thing that he'd heard from Willow that people frequently did on Penstagram? Or did they just not trust Hunter? His ears drooped slightly despite his best efforts at the thought that he might be the problem.

"The, uh, wh-what's going on?" he struggled.

"A big business sale for Luz's mentor. I offered to help out, but I'd kind of forgotten until now," Gus explained with an easy smile.

Almost too easy... Okay, yes, Hunter was naturally an individual who gained suspicion for others very easily, but that didn't mean he couldn't often be right with that suspicion. Though, then again, he really could just be reading too much into things. Luz's mentor, whoever they may be, had left a bit of a strange impression on him, even just from description.

"What's this about Ee-" Luz looked at Blight and then at Hunter and grimaced, "Uh, Marilyn?"

"The big sale thing next week. It's over the top of a Flyer Derby game that Willow's going to. She's going to have to go alone," smoothly, Gus expounded.

Luz clapped a hand to the area below her strange shirt where her heart was probably located. If human hearts were in the same place as witch hearts, that was.

"Oh, you guys didn't tell me! Maybe... I could talk to Marilyn about it?"

Frowning, Hunter shifted uncomfortably in his seat at this suggestion. He wasn't quite sure why he was so invested in the going-ons of some random human's mentor, but it did involve Willow, so it was surely his civic duty to step in!

"Or I could go with the Captain! I could probably take the time off if I just blocked it out in advance!"

That was probably true. He was technically owed time off, he just hadn't really wanted to use it before. After all, what would he even do on a day off? Sit around? Hunter hated feeling unproductive. that just wouldn't satisfy him. But this? If it was a favour then he was still keeping up with his responsibilities as the Golden Guard as well as getting to be just Hunter! It was kind of perfect, actually!

"Huh, really!?" Willow stared into space blankly for a few moments before swivelling to face him. Her expression was drifting somewhere between shock and 'Are you serious right now?'

"I, uh, yes?" Hunter blinked.

"You don't sound too sure!" half-amused, half-disbelievingly, she declared.

"W-Well! I am! I can organise things with Belos tonight, even! I'll text you the details later?"

The rest of the group was staring at them now, too. Gus nodded smugly at Willow and winked whilst Blight pinched her forehead after catching Hunter's eye, looking like she was ready to give up on him completely. Well, that was a little harsh... Luz, though... Luz was grinning smugly with wide, excited eyes. She pulled Blight aside for a moment and whispered something into her ear. Whatever the human said, it had made Hunter's colleague smirk. He didn't want to know.

"Yeah! You do that! I can send you the ticket then too! It's just kind of a sudden turn from there being no way before, you know?"

"Oh..." Hunter winced. He hadn't really thought about her noticing that... How to explain it, how to explain it... "I didn't realise you were properly going alone, before. It's my duty as Golden Guard to look after citizens, so I realised I could probably bend the rules a bit this once. Plus, I, uh, forgot a little bit that I had some holiday time, technically,"

Willow's expression softened, "Well, I appreciate it regardless, Hunter. I hope you enjoy yourself,"

"Me too!" he blurted awkwardly.

She huffed fondly, "Then we're in agreement,"

The food arrived after that. It was kind of disappointing, really. He'd rather keep talking to Willow than eat... uh, hold on, what had he ordered again? Griffin eggs? Yeah, he'd rather talk to Willow than eat griffin eggs anyway! But someone was going to nag at him if he tried, so...

Somewhere along the way of the relative silence (Compared to whatever noise fest had been happening before with Blight and the human nattering on about some book in the background...), Hunter sort of came to realise something. Or maybe realise was the wrong word. 

He hadn't been doing anything earlier, despite his best wishes. Blight had probably even noticed that and Titan, Flapjack certainly had. In which case, surely he should be trying to do something that would actually land him with results, right? Well, he hadn't patrolled yesterday on account of the Luzura hunt, so maybe he could make up for that now? 

Hastily, he swallowed his current mouthful before turning to Blight and tapping her lightly on the shoulder. She froze. 

"Hey, Blight, about later..." he began, almost (But obviously not quite... He was the Golden Guard! He could do this easily!) nervously.

She visibly relaxed and then angled herself to face him a little better. Should he straighten up too? He'd been slouching slightly to reach the table easier. Hunter rolled his shoulders backwards and fixed the curve of his upper spine.

"Yes? Later?" she prompted.

"I think I'm going to do some Golden Guard business. I can help you again tomorrow if you want, but for now I think I just-" he rambled.

"That's fine," simply, she shrugged, "I'll go through what's left in the office for the afternoon and then maybe check out the library tomorrow,"

She was being surprisingly chill about this. He'd expected at least a disappointed stare. Or one of Blight's infamous not-so-secret eye rolls! 

"Oh, cool? I guess? I appreciate it. And I, uh, mean that," he nodded narrowly at her.

"No problem," she dismissed before returning to her food.

But that just left Hunter to contemplate. Admittedly, he probably didn't know Blight that well - they had only been partnered for two weeks, after all - but it was still a little odd to see her quite so unreactive to something Hunter knew would probably set him right off. He had plans, usually! Plans that were annoying to change if someone dropped out last minute!

"Why don't you... care?" he mumbled, sort of to himself, but still just loud enough for Blight to hear.

"That you have other duties to attend to?" she frowned, "Firstly, Inspector-"

"It's just Hunter, right now," he sighed, "Or at least Golden Guard,"

That at least got her to finally roll her eyes at him. At least he knew that the world hadn't gone completely insane, now... There was that one scrap of normalcy between the cracks of insanity that had been his life pretty much since the Luzura mission began, actually.

"Fine, then, firstly, GG-"

"What did I literally just say?" he folded his arms and reprimanded.

"Hey, I did what you said! 'Hunter' sounds a bit informal, but 'Golden Guard is too much of a mouthful right now, though," she sniffed haughtily, "Can I just get on with what I'm saying or do you have any other objections?"

Hunter shuffled in place. He probably was just being a bit petty, wasn't he? To be fair, he'd never really had to deal with anything even close to this before... The scouts all called him by his title and even the little drama with Willow about him claiming his name was Caleb at first got resolved pretty quickly!

"You can continue," he concluded.

"Great..." she shook her head lightly before starting back up, "Well, as I was saying, firstly, you're my superior - I can't exactly tell you no... but secondly..." she waited out just the briefest of pauses, "I know what it's like to have expectations piled onto you and it's not fun. I'm not going to add to whatever pile you probably already have going on,"

That was surprisingly mature of her! Not that Hunter had ever thought that she was immature, but she also hadn't heard her particularly say anything profound like that, before. Interesting... Maybe she would make a great partner for Hunter at the office yet! Though, he hadn't really had to work with anyone like this before either, so it was probably still anyone's guess as to how it was going to turn out.

"Thanks. If you ever need anything like this, just, uh, ask then, Blight. I'll see what I can do," he acknowledged.

She returned his gesture with a small nod of her own, "Yeah, I think I'll end up taking you up on that one day, GG. But for now..." she stifled what seemed to be a laugh, "You should probably just get back to eating. Wi- Uh, Willow had been glaring at you for the past thirty seconds,"

Hunter whipped his head around, loose strand of hair flying right around with him and ending up smacking him in the face (Flapjack would be so amused...), and did indeed see the Captain staring disappointedly at him. Swiftly, he made a show of picking back up his fork and facing his plate.

He actually ended up finding himself smiling gratefully at the food now! Maybe one day, when he'd finally found a way to help him with his curse, he could spend time with his Uncle like this! Yeah, that was the dream...

Chapter Text

Comparatively speaking, yes, Luz was up later than usual. It certainly smelt like Eda had already cooked breakfast, and it was pretty sunny already... But in her defence, she had to be up all night for a mission!  She needed to get her sleep in at some point! Besides, the Owl House had never particularly been known for being a place of morning people, and King was probably still asleep, even now, anyway!

The kitchen showed a rather usual scene when she swung herself around the corner into it. Eda was hunched over the table in her night clothes, nursing a mug of apple blood and King was napping on the table itself. Distantly, Luz wondered where Lilith had gotten to, but she was still somewhat half-asleep herself, so she didn't give it too much thought.

"There's a plate of griffin eggs on the counter over there, if you want 'em. They should still be warm," grunted Eda.

Luz took the dish gratefully and sat down next to her mentor. Nothing like a good, hearty breakfast to kick off the day! Especially on a big day like today! Oh, speaking of, she probably needed to check that everyone else was going to be ready... After all, they only had until nightfall to prepare, if not...

"Say then, Eda, you feeling ready for tonight?" through a series of thoughtful chews, Luz asked.

Twisting her head owlishly at Luz, Eda blinked and stared. To be honest, Luz was kind of just waiting for that moment where everything would just click on her mentor's face, but it never did. She just kept staring like she thought she was Hooty or something...

"Tonight?" the witch scratched her head, "What's tonight again?"

"Eda!" Luz whined, "I bet Lilith would know if I asked..."

As if calling her name summoned her or something (The more likely explanation being that Hooty heard bickering and dragged Lilith along to spectate with him...), Eda's sister appeared in the doorway to the kitchen, already dressed and ready for the day. As if anyone had expected any less, though...

"You bet I would know what, Luz?" Lilith pursed her lips and questioned.

Ugh, it was too early for all this nonsense... Wait! No! She was beginning to sound really like Eda! Luz stuck her head right up and gave her pseudo-aunt her best manic grin.

"The plan for later..." vaguely, she handwaved the issue.

Lilith rushed over to the table, intrigued. Surprising exactly nobody, Hooty slunk in after her, quiet for once whilst he thought Lilith was going to be talking. If she and Eda weren't so, uh, out of it, Luz might have even considered calling Gus over at that moment, just to have a full tactics mission early!

"I got the schematics of the Bonesborough Library like you asked, by the way, Luz! I think it should be an easy break-in compared to your last one," she winked and started to rummage through a backpack that she must have been carrying but Luz didn't notice.

Heh, yeah, anything this simple-sounding probably would be easy compared to literally breaking into the Emperor's Castle... It still seemed a little unreal that she and the rest of this little crew had pulled that off, actually! Even if she hadn't quite managed to find what she was looking for, the text she'd gotten her hands on from Belos's study would surely be worth something in the long run!

"Thank you! How's it going with Mr Emperor's diary also?" she accepted a set of blueprints that Lilith was now handing her.

Eda snorted, "Like that old a-"

Lilith raised her eyebrow and pointed at Luz. In turn, Luz raised one of her eyebrows and pointed at Hooty, because, hey, she wasn't a kid! If anything, they just needed to stop Hooty from repeating anything too foul to passersby!

"Ugh..." the Owl Lady groaned, "Fine. I doubt that our dear and prized Emperor has anything that valuable in a piece of junk like that! It's probably full of lies anyway!"

Lilith, ever a connoisseur of books and history, ignored her sister's remark and instead turned back to Luz to narrate her findings. To quantify said findings, she even placed the diary they were speaking of onto the kitchen table and flipped to one of the first few pages.

"I haven't had a chance to read all of it quite yet, but I thought this opening section seemed... interesting. Some of his drabbles beforehand were a tad, ah, wrong, so perhaps Edalyn is a bit right - he is an unreliable narrator at least, but just, look at this!" expounded Lilith in excited rambles.

Luz shuffled her form around the table to stand beside her aunt and stared at the words on the page. Huh. Belos had strangely loopy handwriting. She'd kind of been expecting it to be some kind of evil-looking scrawl, like the kind of illegible nonsense you'd be scared of as a kid on a doctor's clipboard, but it was clean and neat. 

The contents itself was even more interesting, though... Belos described plans to attempt to keep some kind of strange being under control whilst he tried to work on portals. 

Luz frowned. This confirmed a couple of things, actually. One, the Emperor was trying to use the broken bits of her portal that he'd so kindly demanded from her in their duel last month (She'd sooner destroy it than let him have it, so that was exactly what she'd done. It should have blown to bits, but apparently the evil Emperor couldn't play by normal rules...) to build a new one. And two, he wasn't working alone. Besides his coven system and all that, there was a third player. A third entity for Belos to manipulate and lie to and craft his little game around. She scowled at the page.

"The Collector?" she read aloud, "What's that supposed to be?"

Lilith clapped her hands together excitedly, "That's part of what held me up! I had no idea myself, so I consulted my history texts and, get this, Luz, there's been no mention of any such being in the last four hundred years!"

A true enigma then, too, huh? Well, if she was going to a library tonight anyway...

"Any chance that they're older? If I'm dropping by the Library tonight anyway, I could take King and he could search the Forbidden Stacks for extra info whilst I grab the spell book!"

Lilith hummed thoughtfully and stared at King as he continued to sleep on the table. Whilst all this had been going down, Eda must have been really chugging her apple blood, because now she was taking her final swig.

The Owl Lady stood up, stretched (Yes, she detached her limbs and yes that was still as weird to watch as it sounded...) and strode over to Luz and Lilith. "Alright, what exactly is going on tonight? And how about you ask King before plotting to use him?" dryly, she suggested.

"Hey! I was going to do that! Just after we decided if it was a good idea or not!" indignantly, Luz huffed.

All Eda did was just ruffle her hair fondly and laugh, "Sure, kid. Just making sure. But you didn't answer my first question, anyway,"

"Not a kid..." she rolled her eyes and grumbled as she stalked out of the room to go fetch the notebook she'd detailed her original plan in.

When she got back, the Clawthorne sisters were exchanging amused glances that Luz was pretty sure were at her expense. Something about her complaining about Eda calling her a kid (Which, FYI, she wasn't; she was eighteen...) was endlessly humorous to those two and Luz had never quite clocked why. King thought it was funny too until Eda turned it back around on him, He actually was technically a child, though...

"Anyway!" she announced cheerily, commanding the attention back to her, "The plan, Eda, is all in here!" she slid the notebook over the table to her mentor, "The short version is that we're breaking into the library to steal a book!"

"What else would we be stealing?" pointedly, Lilith asked.

"Hush! That is unimportant as of right now!" Luz put her hands on her hips and smirked at her aunt.

Lilith made a face at Hooty (And she was still surprised he hadn't butted in yet... Since when had Hooty learnt respect?), but was chuckling all the same. Hooty glared at Luz, so she stuck her tongue out at him. 

"Where was I when you planned this again, Luz? Because why aren't we just, y'know, borrowing the book?" exasperatedly, Eda sighed.

Well, Luz had thought that Eda had been with her and Lilith when they'd devised the whole thing, but judging as she seemed to have no memory of that, she's probably been asleep. Come to think of it, it had been quite late when the planning had occurred...

"First, dear sister, you were sleeping all through our meeting about the issue, so it's hardly surprising that your input into it was minimal, and second-" Lilith started to elucidate.

"None of us have a library card!" Luz interjected explosively, "Both of you are actively wanted criminals!"

Eda gave her a funny look, "Why can't you just get one?"

Why couldn't she just get one... Why indeed! Even just besides the fact that it could get her recognised and outed as one of the Bling Isles' most wanted criminals herself, there were a plethora of reasons why a break-in was just a better idea.

"I'm not technically registered as a citizen here, remember? I'm not eligible unless I do a bunch of paperwork, and then they'd know I just stay here with you!" she bemoaned dramatically, "And also, tonight's the night of the Wailing Star! I've heard there are some really cool things that happen with it at the Library! Wouldn't you want to know what too?"

"Sure!" Eda cackled, "If I was a nerd!"

Either that laugh, or just the fact that their voices had been getting louder in general, began to make King on the table stir. He shook out his head and then blinked his eyes blearily open. Of course, Eda had basically just declared war on Luz and Lilith, so maybe they weren't paying the most attention to him.

"Hey, I'll have you know that-" Luz started, somewhat furiously, somewhat teasingly.

"An insult of this degree? Hootrageous!" screeched Hooty, now no longer able to keep himself from the conversation, "I will defend your honour, Lulu!"

Eda stared at him, supremely unimpressed. Luz cringed and perhaps acted as though she didn't know Hooty. King's freshly awoken eyes twitched. Even Lilith looked mildly perturbed.

"Playing favourites again, Hooty? And after all these years of me caring for you!" slyly, Eda bemoaned with a dramatic sigh.

"Well, we are very insulted, Eda," Luz nodded solemnly.

King curled back up on the table, "What did I wake up to..."

She winced and rubbed his back, just on the off chance that he could get back to sleep now. Though, this was King that she was talking about, so maybe it wasn't exactly on the off chance... Put it this way, he was going to get back to sleep one way or another...

"I appreciate the effort, Hootsifer, but I can defend my own honour. I can school Edalyn with clean logic on my own," smoothly, Lilith cut in, responding to Hooty.

"Oh! Is that what you think? Just because I dropped out-" Eda gasped in mock outrage before smirking at her sister.

Okay, it was probably time to call it quits now before they actually started all fighting... They still did supposedly have a purpose, here...

"Eda, how about we stop setting bad education standards for King and get back on focus!" she interjected.

"King's asleep," Eda deadpanned.

King snored quietly.

"Anyway! Point is, should I look for stuff on this 'Collector', tonight? Or, more to the point, should someone come with me to help look? I don't know how long we'll have before someone comes in - the Wailing Star might attract attention," ignoring that last remark, Luz demanded.

"I for one think that anything we can find on them will be helpful. If Belos deems them important enough to mention in his journal... They must be integral to his plans," firmly, Lilith declared.

God, she was far from wrong, wasn't she? It was just sort of hitting Luz now that Belos had an ally. And not one of his pawns like the scouts, or Kikimora, or the Golden Guard (Or even once Lilith, from what she'd heard...). The way Belos wrote about the Collector was unnerving; they were as much part of his game as he seemed to be part of theirs. But then, what or who exactly was the Collector, anyway? And what did they stand to gain from helping someone like the Emperor? 

They needed to find out more.

"Then we have to find out all we can!" she affirmed steelily.

"Why are we making a library trip sound so serious?" wryly, Eda remarked.

"Because libraries are actually very cool and serious, Eda! And this is a very serious goal!" Luz huffed.

If King didn't want to come with her for whatever reason tonight, she could always try and grab Gus... But she could also probably get both the spell book they were aiming for and have time for a quick skim of the Forbidden Stacks anyway! There wasn't a reason that she could think of for King not to come, but it might be unfair to wake Gus up for this. But it was a very serious goal and they were going to aim for it one way or another!

Her mentor sighed, "Sure, kid. What do you want me doing, then?"

"Can you be ready to get me out of there? I don't know how much of a rush me, or me and King, will be in trying to get out of there, so we could really use you and Owlbert's help," sheepishly, Luz asked.

"An excuse to break the speed limit? Oh, absolutely!" delightedly, Eda agreed to her section of the plan.

They had speed limits on the Boiling Isles? A sensible idea, here? Huh, well, miracles might exist, then. That probably meant that Luz had accidentally broken these supposed speed limits countless times, but whatever; she was already a wanted criminal, so a few speeding in the, uh, sky fines weren't going to impact her too much. 

"And Lilith? Could you keep-"

"Already on it, Luz," Lilith, head stuck back into Belos's journal, cut her off proudly, "And I presume you'll want me on the line tonight?"

Luz made finger-gun gestures at her aunt, "You got it!"

She surveyed the room. Yup, even if this was hardly going to be their most taxing mission (Especially coming off the back of robbing the Emperor's Castle...), it was really shaping up to be an exciting one, in Luz's opinion. It was going to be cool on principle to just see what libraries were like on the Boiling Isles! And with the Wailing Star there too... She was going to have fun with this heist, that was for sure.

"Alright then, team! I'm going to go do something other than hanging around in my pyjamas all day!" grinning, Luz proclaimed.

"Who taught you to be responsible?" her mentor laughed after her.

She smirked at the wall just down the corridor she was traversing, "Certainly not you!"

"Damn straight, kid! And don't you forget it!"

Luz snorted. She loved this job.

 Visiting the Library just after Ten PM when it was very definitely closed was maybe not one of Amity's best ideas, but hey, she had a staff card and she might as well use it, right? And she had work during the day! It was perfectly logical, if you squinted. 

She padded softly through the front door, not being quiet because she thought she'd get caught or anything, but you know, because it was polite to the... neighbours. Ghost was resting around her neck as she entered, staring dubiously at her strange idea of a night trip. Well, at least she wasn't doing anything illegal like going to the Night Market, Ghost!

There was something strange in the longing she felt in walking past the entrance to her old study room, though. Perhaps it was nostalgia; perhaps it was simply just associated with calmer memories. Whatever it was, it made her tempted to check back inside, just to see what it looked like since she'd stopped working here officially. (She still stopped by on some weekends, though, hence the staff card.) 

Ghost shook out her head and pricked her ears, suddenly alert. That was never a good sign... Though, they did get a lot of echo mice here, so it could be related to that. She'd never known her palisman to particularly be interested in any kind of hunting, but there could be a first time for everything? Still, Amity slowed her steps and glanced around, cautiously.

And then she heard it too.

A light, swift footstep, clearly not that of an Echo Mouse, was dancing across the floor, possibly from only a few shelves over. She froze. Unless there was another member of staff here, Amity should be alone. But if this person was a member of staff, why were they moving so quietly? You could say that was hypocritical of her, but she'd say there was a difference between the kind of calm silence she was going for and the rush the other person, the intruder, was clearly in.

Amity let Ghost slide down her arm and then the cat was in staff form, in her grip. She may not technically have been on duty, but that wasn't going to stop her from stopping someone from robbing or doing even worse to her favourite library...  

Attentively, she narrowed her eyes on where she was pretty certain the noises were coming from and then slowly, very slowly, drew a spell ring to bring an Abomination to life. Its gaze followed hers to where she knew the intruder had to be before it trudged off, set on its path now. Mutely, Amity followed behind it. She was sidling along the edge of bookcases though, so it wasn't exactly like she was mirroring her creation. 

She paused in place and smirked when she heard someone screech, likely at the sight of her Abomination. And there was her cue! She strode impassively out from behind her hiding spot and then nearly stumbled straight over. Because one, the intruder was right there, and two, this random intruder was actually more of a not-so-random Super Thief. Yeah, Luzura was here. Amity blinked. Luzura was here!? This was her chance!

Her last encounter two days ago with this criminal obviously hadn't gone so well, but this time was going to be different! It had to! Hunter had been right; they had to do something. And do something Amity was about to...

"Luzura..." she hissed scornfully.

"Oh, hey, Inspector. Fancy seeing you here, right?" Luzura chuckled nervously, eyes flitting between looking at the Abomination blocking her in and Amity shooting her a predator's grin.

Amity watched her target confidently, "Unlike you, I actually have permission to be here. So I suggest you start picking your mission spots so that you don't end up running into security, next time," she laughed condescendingly then feigned shock with a dramatic hand to her chest, "Oops, did I say next time? Silly me, there won't be a 'next time', Luzura. You're coming with me, now,"

With a snap of her fingers, her Abomination was restraining the thief tightly in a bear hug. But Amity had learnt from last time that Luzura was one slippery fish, so she was on guard and ready. She was watching Luzura's hands carefully this time, too. She had to have made some kind of mistake in what she'd seen, right? Even if Hunter was right and she had been using some old kind of wild magic, there had been some kind of trick to the madness; she had to have done something with her hands.

"Okay, hold on, hold on! What if I told you I wasn't here to steal?" Luzura protested.

Amity raised an eyebrow, "You're in your whole thief get-up. What else would you be here for?"

"Well, I did break in... I still need some kind of disguise!" the thief insisted, "And I'm only here to borrow a book, honest!"

She... broke into a library to borrow a book? She broke into a library to borrow a book!? That had to be a lie, right? Though, what else exactly would she be stealing? Was Luzura that stupid? She still wasn't going to get away with any theft, obviously, but still! This was her big mistake.

"Then why didn't you just use the library services like literally anybody else? Or do you really just love the thrill of stealing that much?" primly, Amity scoffed.

The Abomination pulled Luzura in a little tighter and now the Inspector thought she could perhaps see just a bit of fear in the thief's eyes. Good. This was her big mistake that would lead to her downfall!

"I, er, can't get a library card! Honest!" Luzura yelled wildly, "I wouldn't just steal for the fun of it! Everything I do-"

Amity stepped closer and stared coldly at the struggling figure in her Abomination's grasp, "Everything you do is for your own benefit. I was trying to figure you out when we first met, actually,"

Luzura stared wordlessly, eyebrows furrowed and expression hurt.

"To crack the mind of the Isles' most infamous criminal, I suppose. But there's nothing to crack, is there? Because you're a hedonist, Luzura,"

The thief tried to recoil, but only got herself more tangled in the arms of Amity's creation.

"I- What? No, if you'd let me explain-"

Amity jabbed a finger in Luzura's direction, "You just do what you want! Well, if you're here for the thrill of the hunt, then it'll be your undoing. It's narcissists like you, thinking that they can do whatever they want, that ruin this world..."

It was narcissists like her mother too. She was not letting Luzura roam free if she was anything like Amity's mother. And here she was, trapped by Amity's hand. It was kind of cathartic, actually. Amity couldn't do anything to her mother, but she could take down someone just like her! She could do the right thing for once!

The thief's expression was uninterpretable, now. It was a little dark, maybe bleakened, but from what Amity could tell, it wasn't a sign that Luzura had given up. That was only emphasised when a piece of paper was thrust right into Amity's face by one of Luzura's feisty hands. She seemed to have wriggled the upper half of her left arm free and decided to use it. Or, that was what Amity was guessing, anyway. She couldn't say for certain because the piece of paper exploded into light, blinding her, only moments after she'd first seen it.

Amity screeched slightly and instinctively moved to cover her face. This sudden change in motion, this sudden lapse in focus, was all Luzura needed to best the Abomination that had been holding her and begin to sprint off. 

"I told you," Luzura called down, for she appeared to have scrambled up a bookcase in the time that Amity was recovering, "I have a reason for all this! But you're, y'know, with the Emperor! I'm not gonna just leak all my plans!"

Amity squinted at the blurry, purple shape she could see up there, and muttered some profanities under her breath. Uh, yep, she'd gotten a little too headstrong there... Luzura had probably just been baiting her... She probably found it funny...

 She attempted to scale the bookcase to reach the thief, after that, but it didn't exactly go so well. Her vision was still recovering, causing lilac splodges to burst into her sight after every blink and everything was just a little fuzzy in general. One thing led to another and then Amity was being sent crashing down to the floor again. If you couldn't describe her vision as 'swimming' before, then you definitely could now!

Groaning, she flipped her head around, trying to locate where Luzura was now. Ghost had climbed back onto her shoulder, after the fall, and was butting her head into Amity's gently and mewling. The gesture was sweet, but she had bigger things to worry about!

Or, uh, she thought she did until the whole room went blue and some strange sounds became audible. They were only quiet, but it was almost like someone was... crying? At first, Amity thought she was hallucinating and just seeing (And evidently hearing) things thanks to whatever wild magic Luzura had used on her, but that quickly became not an option when she realised she wasn't the only one noticing it.

A plonk on the floor next to her, "Is this the Wailing Star? Huh, it's almost kind of annoying,"

Then strange lighting and sounds stopped almost as soon as they began. Although, in their place, the books were now glowing green. Amity rubbed her eyes one more time, waited for the bright splotches to fade and, yep, the books were still glowing. She looked to her right this time to now see Luzura just standing there. What kind of game was she playing!?

"What it is doesn't matter!" Amity stood up and growled.

"Eeep!" Luzura startled and grinned (Or, it looked like a grin from the shape of her eyes...) sheepishly, "Sorry about all that... I didn't actually mean to do any real damage... You okay?"

Oh, so now she was pretending to be all nice? Yeah, Amity wasn't falling for such a cheap act. Not like last time.

"Why would you care if I wasn't? Now just, do me a favour and don't try anything funny, okay? You're still under arrest here,"

Luzura sighed apologetically, "No can do, A- Inspector! I still have a job to do here, and I'd be lying if I wasn't curious about the Wailing Star!"

And then she was off again around the corner. Amity skidded after her, only realising after she nearly slid off-balance rounding a corner that this could just be done using some abomination goo to make it a lot easier. With that in mind, she disassembled her current abomination and brought a surge of its material forward to carry her towards Luzura. 

Just when she thought she'd gained enough traction on the thief to try and round her up again though, Luzura took a gamble. She grabbed a book off the nearest shelf, surely not having any time to actually read the title or blurb and threw it in Amity's direction (Fortunately, not directly at her...). The magical effect that she had been counting on somehow did come into play and now Amity was being pelted by gale-force winds. A shelf behind her wobbled dangerously. What kind of book was that!?

"Cool! It brings the books to life!" excitedly, Luzura gasped.

Okay then, what kind of a book was just about a storm!? They were still in the Fiction section, weren't they!?

"You won't be saying that when I-" Amity paused to grunt in concentration, "Do this!"

She dragged several random books off of the shelves around her using mismatched appendages rising from the wave of goo that she was rising on. The books all tore open with a horrid crunching sound that would have had a younger version of herself cringing at the mistreatment of library property. But this Amity had a job to do. A job she could not and was not going to fail.

A slew of random objects ranging from pirate costumes to snowballs were slung at the thief in this enslaught, but she somehow only seemed minorly phased by it. At least, Amity thought it was to enough of a degree that she had got one over on Luzura until the thief just once again vanished from sight. This time, Amity had seen her use a slip of paper again, so that at least further added to the evidence she could compile for Hunter. If nothing else, this was surely better than any book Amity could find about wild magic in the Forbidden Stacks, in that regard!

Eyes alight with the thrill of the hunt, Amity stroked gently behind Ghost's ear, prompting them to prick their ears from the end of her staff. And then the rest of her head was moving, using those feline senses to try and detect where Luzura had gone for Amity. Ghost meowed smugly and stuck a paw out in the direction that Amity was pretty sure she could now see some tell-tale signs of motion from the environment. Unless that was just some weird side effect of her vision being blasted or the Wailing Star.

Intent clear and fiery, Amity drew a small spell circle in the air and smirked as a brilliant pink flame burnt into existence using the very magical essence about in the crisp air as fuel just above her finger. Serenely, though still pulling it off as a somewhat fluid and flippant gesture, she flung that bright ball of magic right at where Ghost was pointing. A book set on fire on the shelf, alight in brilliant fuchsia and magenta, but more crucially, a certain thief gasped and panted, responding to the assault on her by shuffling back to a different wall, just nearby.

Luzura appeared to be writing something down now, hastily, into some kind of book. There wasn't any kind of title or other writing on its binding or either of its covers though, so it had to be some kind of journal. Amity was about to set that on fire too when the thief finished her scrawlings and let the green magic of the Wailing Star envelope her. Fearing more ocular damage, Amity was forced to avert her eyes.

Upon looking back over, the Inspector realised that Luzura was now adorned quite clearly with the clothing of the Good Witch Azura, albeit slightly adapted to suit her disguise, and was posing dramatically with the Good Witch herself's iconic staff.

Finding a second Good Witch Azura fan within the space of only two days should have been a dream come true for Amity, but having her beloved franchise in the hands of a fiend like Luzura just made her feel a little sick, honestly. Talking with Luz, the human, about the franchise yesterday had felt thrilling and fresh; she'd felt a genuine connection to the other woman. For possibly the first time since her mother had pulled her from Hexside, Amity had felt truly included.  But here was Luzura to tear that sense of security down. 

A harsh reminder that it was always people like her mother who were in control. 

She longed to be back in that restaurant talking to someone who actually felt sort of like Amity, someone similar enough to relate to whilst not just being some walking trauma fountain like Hunter, and feeling that inclusion. But she was all alone out in the Library late at night, now. That meant it was up to her and her alone to rip whatever Luzura had drawn or written onto those journal pages out and singe even the ashes of them until they were just dying embers in the wind.

"Did I do the costume alright? I took some liberties with the description, but-" cheerily, the thief inquired.

How did Luzura even guess that Amity would like the Good Witch Azura!? Or was she just banking on some mindless confusion and conversation coming from this? Amity snapped to attention firmly and this time just cast a ray of fire down at the thief. Artfully, and by that Amity meant that she scrambled to her feet and darted away, Luzura evaded this blast. She then proceeded to wink at the Inspector before pointing her staff to the right and using that paper trick to cast a plant spell.

Amity cursed when she realised where the vines the thief had summoned were leading to. Because just off to the right there was one of the outer walls of the building. And on that outer wall of the building, there was a window. A window that had oh-so-conveniently been left open, blowing tranquilly in the night's breeze. Luzura must have entered through there... With this in mind, she drew the abomination goo from out beneath her feet and sent it flying towards that window to seal it shut with one smooth flick of the wrist.

And she'd been rather proud of herself for that one as well! It met the primary goal of shutting off Luzura's primary exit as well as looking commanding and intimidating! But no, everything that Amity liked had to come crashing down when Luzura was involved, because of course it did...

The thief didn't falter in her trajectory, likely already planning a countermeasure (Obviously not aware that Amity was ready this time to reinforce this particular spell should she try and bust through it with any more strange fires...), until a new voice entered the mix. She must have... gotten distracted only watching Luzura! She should've known better to watch out for additional members of the thief's team as well, after Hunter's experience with an illusionist!

"I've got the stuff, Luzura - let's go!" an oddly resonate sound despite its scratchy undertones rang from the vocal cords of quite possibly the least threatening demon that Amity had ever seen. 

This little guy just really didn't seem to be all that compared to Luzura. Even Luz would probably look intimidating compared to this joke of a demon and she was a powerless human. Now that was really saying something... He wore a mini version of Luzura's cloak, but the way it trailed for seemingly miles after him really failed in giving him the same oomph with it that his (presumably) boss cultivated around her. The way the collar he wore glinted at any and all light, like, for example, the glow of books empowered by the Wailing Star, didn't do him any favours if he was trying to be sneaky, either. It was kind of an embarrassment that Amity hadn't seen him sooner, to be honest.

"Hey! Neither of you are going anywhere!" Amity commanded, furiously.

The demon-thing snickered and looked at Luzura as he scampered over, "Is she the one you were talking about? The one that-"

"Not the time, Demon King!" sounding almost embarrassed, Luzura interrupted.

What a terrible codename... Seriously? Demon King? It was very on the nose and, well, also somewhat unfitting considering this so-called 'King's' small stature and unthreatening physique. What exactly was he supposed to be the ruler of? All demons? Don't make Amity laugh...

"Ah, alright, sorry! I'll just get to that thing," he shrugged whilst pointing one clawed digit at the window Amity was keeping sealed. 

Did they have a plan now? Any kind of wild magic Luzura cast really shouldn't be able to blast through such a thick layer of abomination goo whilst Amity was holding it in place, so perhaps they were going to use another book? Whatever happened, both the thief and her pet were within leaping distance of the window now, so the worst was surely just to come.

And come it did when the tiny demon sucked in a deep breath and returned with a screech that tore right through the very fabric of Amity's spell, sending abomination chunks flying all over the library. Then it got somehow yet worse when she noticed him escape out of the now open window with a pair of books. Meaning, of course, that Luzura herself had never been here to steal anything all along; she was the decoy.

Amity began to sprint towards the exit now, herself. She had enough adrenaline-fueled speed to even match Luzura's pace and reach it at roughly the same time as the thief. She grabbed a fistful of that Witches' Wool cloak and steadfastly refused to let go.

"You tricked me," low, her voice snarled.

"Well, not really!" cheekily, Luzura defended herself, "I did tell you I wasn't here to steal, didn't I?"

Burning off whatever energy she somehow had left, Amity attempted to pull the thief down to the floor with the scruff of her cloak. This failed miserably, a fact that Amity only realised was the case when she noticed the vines cuffing Luzura's wrist to the window's hinge. Because of course she had found time to cast another stupid spell and outwit Amity again. Because stupid Super Thief Luzura Clawthorne just had to trample over everything Amity had been working for with her life with these mischievous gestures, right?

"Anyway, it's been fun, Inspector, but I really have to-" Amity struck silently whilst Luzura spoke, using her staff to nick the edge of the hood on the cloak and pull it down.

The thief stopped speaking almost immediately when she must have felt the weight of her hood leave her head. Fair enough, Amity didn't particularly feel like talking at that moment, either...

The back of Luzura's head was decorated with a mess of starkly familiar brown hair, tied back in a short and once cute ponytail, all untidily hiding a pair of round, human ears. And there was only one human with hair like that on the Boiling Isles. If there was even another human on the isles at all, that was. Luz Noceda. Luzura Clawthorne. The wool this time had quite literally been pulled out from over Amity's eyes.

Because that woman she'd idly and happily chatted with yesterday was one in the same as the one who'd decided to try and make her life a living nightmare.

Amity staggered back and just stared, unable to form a coherent sentence. Meanwhile, Luzura reacted slowly, bringing her hood back up and not once turning to meet Amity's broken stare.

"I tried to tell you to listen..." were the last words Luz hoarsely mumbled before she hurdled out of the window after her demon accomplice. 

Amity shut the window mutely and turned to the insides of the library, still alight with the now fading glow of the Wailing Star's magic. She walked back down the paths she had cleared in her pursuit. 

She had some cleaning up to do, now.

Chapter Text

After last night, Amity had just gone home. She'd cleaned the library, sure, but that was it. No searching the Forbidden Stacks or anything like what she'd planned. Though, honestly, after that revelation, did she even need to anymore? She knew who Luzura was; she could just get the situation dealt with! So why hadn't she told anyone what had happened?

She was inevitably going to tell Hunter, obviously, but she should have just reported the whole incident to her superiors already. It was the next day and all Amity had was a vague plan to tell her colleague about how much worse the situation had just gotten. And that was saying something. Was she holding back for Luz's sake? That was stupid! That human had betrayed her! She'd purposefully deceived and befriended Amity whilst knowing exactly who she was! She'd been a trickster, even if she had perhaps seemed somewhat genuine.

Honestly though, if she felt this betrayed over a woman she'd met once fooling her like this, how would Hunter feel knowing his proclaimed 'Captain' was working with the criminal they were hunting? Because Willow had to be working with Luz. She seemed exceptionally close with the human and with those glances between her and the other guy (Gus?) that had to have been surreptitious... It was safe to conclude that Willow at least knew of Luz's profession. 

Maybe that was part of the reason she'd put any of this off. She didn't want to hurt Willow anymore, really, even if she was working with a criminal. And for as little as she actually knew Hunter, it seemed unfair to pile pressure up on him like that. 

At this point, she was almost tempted to contact her siblings for help. But that had to be a last resort. This was top-secret information, and Amity wasn't entirely sure she could trust them with this kind of situation, anyway. Unfortunately, that didn't stop her from caving anyway, and a minute later she was on call over Penstagram to the twins. It was Six AM, so Titan knew what they were doing up, but Emira answered for the both of them...

"Mittens! Great to hear from you! How's the new job?" dramatically, Amity's sister greeted her.

"It's fine. How're Mom and Dad?" she sighed and gracefully evaded talking about the bigger issue in favour of everyone on this call's favourite topic - their wonderful guardians...

"Mom's yelling about your hair again 'cause of the dinner next month," airily, Emira groaned.

"And we haven't seen anymore of Dad than we've seen of you," Edric finished.

Ugh. In one word. A few months back, just before moving out and going low-contact (As low-contact as possible, anyway...), Amity had changed her hair from the customary green her mother loved to a more fitting lilac. it matched her uniform and preferred magic track, so she didn't really get the problem personally, but Odalia had gone off at her for ruining the family image with it. Evidently, she now expected Amity to change it for dinner in a few weeks. No. In one word.

The stuff about her dad was usual, too. It had been easy to forget he even lived in the same house as them at times, when she and the twins were kids. And of course she'd lost her one chance of bonding with him when her mom had shipped her off to Emperor's Coven tryouts instead of letting her go to th Bonesborough Brawl... And, wow, that had gotten her so far now. Working as an intern...

"But you didn't call about them, right?" Emira interrupted Amity's thinking.

"No," she bit her lip, "It's just that I met this girl the other day, and-" she started arduously.

Edric gasped teasingly, "Mittens met a girl?"

"Saw someone you liked? Too gorgeous for you and now you came to us for tips?" lavishly, Emira fawned.

They always did this! Jumping to conclusions! For as nice as it was to have someone in her Titan-forsaken family that was on her side, sometimes her siblings seemed to forget that she didn't share their twin telepathy bond, or whatever. They just came blazoning in, guessing everything about her life and being nosy... They never seemed to understand that that wasn't really what Amity wanted, usually.

"No! She's a criminal! But I think she knows some people that my colleague and I know, and I don't really know how to bring it up," scowling now, she lamented.

There was uncharacteristic silence over the line.

"How... bad a criminal?" lightly, Edric tried.

"Major. Very renown. But I just found out yesterday and... I don't know, she seemed almost cool when I first met her. And her friends are my colleague's friends..." bitterly, Amity recounted.

Luz was fun to talk to. Luzura was a threat.

"Who exactly is your colleague, Amity?" carefully, her sister asked, "You never actually told us,"

She couldn't very well tell them that she worked with the Golden Guard, could she? Surely that would distract from the actual issue at hand!

"A guy called Hunter. You wouldn't know him," dismissively, she lied, "But like I said, the problem is that he knows this criminal's friends! But there's no way he knows who the criminal is - he's practically married to this job,"

"Just tell 'im, Mittens," Edric shrugged.

Emira must have elbowed him or something, because her brother was swiftly groaning in pain after that. "Ed!" her sister hissed. 

Yeah, thanks for nothing, Edric... Maybe she was giving too hard a time, but she already knew that she had to tell Hunter one way or another! It was just a matter of finding the best way without throwing Willow completely under the bus... If she was being optimistic, Amity would even hope that Willow wasn't at all actively involved!

"I just meant that it would be better to keep him in the know. Tell it to him straight. But if he needs it, and you're willing, give him support. If it is a distant friend of a friend is a criminal kind of thing, it might not even be that big of a deal!" her brother corrected.

"Yeah, I hope so... I'll try that," she sighed, "Thanks, I guess,"

"Hope it goes well, then, Mittens," warmly, Emira praised, "But whilst you're here, about-"

Amity had kind of been hoping to avoid this conversation. She had enough on her plate without her parents being brought into this... One manipulator was enough, thanks; how about they not add her mom to that collection right about now.

"The dinner? Save it, Emira. I'm not in the mood," bluntly, Amity halted her sister's efforts. 

"I appreciate that, but we do need to sort this out at some point. Mom's been calling us up about it 'cause she doesn't know if you'll listen, and I'd really rather not-"

"Just stop! It's not my fault she's bothering you over me," she growled, a little annoyed now.

Why couldn't they just drop it? If Odalia didn't trust Amity to listen or something and thought using her siblings was going to work, then she wasn't giving anyone the satisfaction of letting that work. And honestly, she really didn't want to listen to Emira's little spiel where she'd end up guilt-tripping Amity into calling up their mother. Like she thought she and Ed had it the worse with Odalia. Amusing. Those two could get away with nearly anything that wasn't physically sabotaging the family business. 

"Mittens-" hesitantly, Edric put in.

"I told you, no! I don't care what Mom's been saying to you, I have my own issues! I'll deal with what she wants when it's actually about time!" disheartened, Amity snapped.

"Procrastinating? Doesn't sound like you, Mittens. Never thought I'd see that day," coldly, the tension clearly affecting her too, Emira taunted.

Amity hung up before things could get any worse and debated throwing her scroll against the wall. Or maybe setting it on fire. That probably wasn't the most productive solution, though. She did use her scroll for more than just letting her siblings bother her, after all...

The twins had already started messaging her now, on that stupid group chat they had. Annoyed, Amity made certain her scroll was off and on silent before going to find her suit jacket. She might as well just go to work early, now... If she was going to get this conversation with Hunter out of the way, the sooner the better, and she had a slight inclination to believe that her colleague was probably already in the office. Maybe that was because he nearly always was there before her.

Hey, on the bright side, telling Hunter about Luz would probably get her turned in. Then at least she'd only have one raging psycho to deal with...

"Inspector," solemnly, Amity announced her presence in the office.

Her colleague's head shot up at her and stared friskily, blinking only rarely. His palisman wasn't around this time, so it was up to Hunter to figure this social interaction out himself. Great. That was just great for Amity...

"Blight!" he waved with mock cheer and a strained grin, "Please tell me you have good news. I had to hide here all night after Kiki followed me around the Castle yesterday to laugh at us failing at capturing Luzura," he finished with a maniacal flourish.

Well, Amity didn't know who 'Kiki' was, but it sounded like she should be glad that she didn't. Sometimes it felt like every sentence out of Hunter's mouth just made it all the more likely that Amity was definitely not going to end up in the Emperor's Coven. Not in a high position, anyway. That sounded pretty traumatic!

Luckily, for Hunter at least, she did have news. Whether this remained a luckily kind of situation, they'd have to see, but maybe this could still end up as an overall good thing. Arresting criminals was good, right? Even if you were friendly with them? It was just moral, right?

"I know who Luzura is," she blurted, unable to really think up a put-together prelude.

Hunter's pupils constricted and his right eye twitched, "You know what?"

His grin was stretched even wider and thinner now, seeming very forced. That and the small fits of shaking shoulders from slight insane laughter really put Hunter's mental stability to question. 

"Luzura. I-" Amity shrunk inwards and hesitated, "I found out information that allows us to almost certainly ascertain her identity,"

Hunter pressed his hands together and spun around on his chair to face Amity, so that he was no longer craning his neck like some kind of demonic owl to stare at her. Despite how on-edge he still clearly was, there was a glint of excitement in his expression. A glint of excitement on the face of a man as if this was his first time tasting victory. If Amity actually liked guys like that, maybe she'd have found it cute, but as is, she was a tad busy thinking up ways to explain this mess. 

"How credible?" clearly trying his hardest to sound calm, Hunter asked.

"It's primary data. I saw it myself," she averted her gaze and reported.

Her colleague was dead silent now. It took Amity a moment of this silence to realise that it was by Hunter's choosing; he was waiting for her to continue. Ah. There went her thinking time.

"Blight!" he called impatiently.

"Yeah, yeah, got it... I... Ran into her last night whilst attempting to research and managed to get her hood down during a fight. She had some easily identifiable features," Amity expounded, fidgeting with the fabric on her trousers the entire time she was speaking.

"Such as...?" her colleague prompted.

"You remember the restaurant we went to a couple of days back? With Willow?" hesitantly, she affirmed.

Hunter smiled. Genuinely this time. Ugh, maybe she shouldn't have mentioned Willow... Was he going to get distracted now? No, Hunter was the Golden Guard! He'd been at his job for years now! He had to be more professional than that!

"Uh-huh..." he mumbled.

"Then you remember the human," Amity stated, preparing for it to click with Hunter where she was going with this.

Hunter's dopey grin dropped, "The human's..?"

Yep. There it was. The sweet woman who'd talked about Amity's favourite franchise with her had been a lying sneak all along. She was half-anticipating a lecture for being tricked. She had just about enough faith in her colleague to hope for that to not happen, though. He would understand, right? With Willow and all that...

"Yeah. I saw ears. It had to have been her. The mentor she was telling us about? Probably Edalyn," Amity scowled and recounted.

"Hold on, then!" Hunter held up both hands and paused Amity in her tracks with wide eyes, realisation having clearly struck, "The magic we saw her do, it's definitely wild magic?"

"Oh!" Amity's eyes brightened in realisation, "Yeah, I caught her doing it properly, this time! She used some kind of glyph on some paper to cast spells - she activates them by pressing the symbol,"

Her colleague's expression turned pensive, "I think I've heard of something like that before... It sounds somewhat similar to wild magic practised in the Savage Ages, but I couldn't say for certain... It's... difficult to find information about this stuff because there's always the risk of someone keeping the practice alive if we allow it to be written down,"

Vaguely, Amity wondered how Luz had found out how to perform such magic, then. Not allowing any record of wild magic to remain must mean that Belos had disposed of any that did manage to be created. Or, mostly, anyway... That book, what was it called again? From Bones to Earth? That was still around in limited supply. She'd never read it herself, of course, but she'd heard that it didn't actually cite how to do wild magic, and more just acted as a historical record of its existence, anyway. 

"That's something concrete we can pin on her after we track her down, then," Amity nodded before feeling her stomach twist uncomfortably at the thought that Hunter hadn't noticed the obvious yet, "But, uh, listen..."

"I was already... But, if this is about not capturing Luzura yourself, Blight, don't worry - we both know she's a tough adversary," sympathetically, he tried to soothe her.

"No, Inspector, the thing is... If we know that Luz is Luzura, we also know her friends are probably somehow involved," she took a short breath as she watched the hurt dawn in Hunter's eyes in the form of slight pinpricks of tears gathering along the rim of his lower eyelid, "That means Willow has to know something,"

His ears were drooping now. The rest of his countenance was no less grim and despondent as that. Hunter's eyebrows were down and furrowed, his eyes scanning Amity for any semblance that this might have been a joke and his mouth was set in a taut line quirking downwards slightly at the ends. She kind of wished she could tell him what he wanted to hear, in this situation. But maybe that was because it was what she wanted to hear too.

Amity didn't want to have to get Willow in trouble just after they'd started to patch things up! And before meeting Luzura at the library, she certainly hadn't wanted Luz, the excitable but sweet girl she'd met at the restaurant, to be involved either. After what had happened at the library, Amity wasn't so sure anymore... Luz had been nice, but Luzura...? Thinking of the thief left a bad taste in her mouth.

"She-" Hunter faltered, "Maybe she's just friends with the human without knowing?"

"Yeah, possibly..." Amity trailed off, "I think we obviously need to deal with Luz first anyway, but you should probably speak to Willow afterwards. If I'm right and the mentor is Edalyn, we might be dealing with a full network of criminals, here,"

Hunter gave her a forlorn look, "I'll deal with it... You wait here and do some profiling and I'll go report Luz,"

With that, he turned sharply on heel to leave, cloak swishing authoritatively behind him, and made towards the office door. That didn't stop him from traipsing back only a few moments later, before Amity had even had the chance to gather herself, though.

"Do you, uh, know the human's surname, Blight? It'll make tracking her down easier," he winced and inquired. 

Hunter seemed to be holding up a smoother facade, now. If Amity hadn't just seen him almost break down a few moments ago, she might have not suspected anything was up with him at all. That was a dangerous skill to have. She knew from experience that it couldn't just come from nowhere...

Amity hated more than anything the fact that Luz's surname was easily on the tip of her tongue, though.

"Noceda. It's Luz Noceda," evenly, she told him.

There. She'd done it now. She'd given in all the necessary details to get that stupid human who'd toyed with her feelings out of here. What was she going to do if the entire Emperor's Coven came knocking on her door, right?

Absently, Hunter nodded before fleeing the room. That left Amity alone with her thoughts. She... didn't particularly want to contemplate everything that was happening, though. The focus should be on bringing in Luzura, anyway, and if profiling, or whatever her colleague had told her to do, was going to help, then that was what she was going to do.

She got up and fished a clean notebook out of a file placed along with one of the edges of her desk and started to work on sketching out Luz. It didn't really have to be a work of art so long as it captured Luz's image. Good. She didn't want to make anything too good of someone who didn't deserve it.

Luz Noceda was not someone registered as a citizen of the Boiling Isles. In other words, the best they could do was put up wanted posters from the drawings Blight had made for them. 

That meant that Hunter was back to going to his Golden Guard duties and was supposed to just be pretending nothing was going on. He had to be pretending that Blight hadn't only earlier in that very day told him that his only real friend might be involved in the criminal network of a super thief. A super thief so good that the whole Emperor's Coven was currently failing at tracking her down... Such a story only lent credence to the idea that perhaps she had allies in important places, unfortunately. 

He liked Willow, though! She was talented and kind and an excellent flyer! Hunter was sure she could even get into the Emperor's Coven if she so desired! Why would she throw all that away to go help some petty thief? It just didn't make any logical sense! 

And would she do all of that whilst knowing exactly who Hunter was!? Did she have that little faith in him? Or did she simply not care? No, no, there had to be a rational explanation for this. He was probably right earlier in guessing that Willow just didn't know who Luz really was. Hopefully. It didn't stop that anxious nag at the back of his brain, but it was a nicer thought to tide him over until after his shift.

Honestly though, cargo delivery for Belos was really not what it felt like he needed to be doing right now... But, hey, if the Emperor himself told Hunter to go pick up a crate from just outside Latissa and fly it back to the Castle, he was going to do it... And there was something calming enough about flying a blimp in the early night like this that perhaps he could learn to appreciate this job. Eh, maybe, anyway.

So there Hunter was, flying his ship in peace, whistling small tunes that came to his head when he felt like it, and most importantly, attempting to relax whilst doing all of this. Of course, nothing even remotely good could ever last, and after a short while, short enough that he had only just managed to cross from one side of Latissa to the other, he felt a slight rush of air breeze behind him. He had checked to see what it was, but when there was nothing there, he had simply written it off as a strange breeze. Now that had been a big mistake.

Another blade of air was sent hurtling about, and this time there was someone there to have caused it. A young woman in a purple cloak and grey mask, holding a bit of paper. Oh no. Hunter steadied the wheel, watching the thief out of the corner of his eye and waited to see what she was about to do. She approached him directly, because of course she did.

Handily, he sidestepped her swift lunge towards him, the paper in her hand, as Blight had said, now teeming with magic and sparking. Yeah, he wouldn't want that attacking him: it actually looked kind of dangerous... Fortunately, Luzura also seemed to have just enough control of her movements mid-lunge to also not set fire to his steering wheel. Good, yeah, that was a bit of a miracle... Crashing his ship was not on Hunter's agenda for that night.

He warped smoothly to a position higher up on deck, staff in both hands held protectively in front of his face. Luzura whipped around to face him again, looking like she was almost smirking for whatever reason. Hunter huffed.

"Luzura..." he announced ominously.

The thief made no move to attack him again. She just stuck her hands on her hips and shook her head reprovingly. Uh, who did she think she was sneaking aboard the Golden Guard's ship to reprimand him. And- Was she tutting now!?

"Hey, man, did you have to dodge that? she sighed, definitely a tad melodramatically.

His guard dropped ever so slightly as he stared at her, "Uhm," he managed.

"See, I had this whole plan to launch you out of here with that glyph!" disappointedly, Luzura expounded with big gestures to demonstrate her point (As in, she mimed him being rocketed off of the blimp with her hand.), "But that isn't going to happen now..."

He squinted at her for a moment to see if she was being serious. Well, the thief hadn't made any move to try and gain the upper hand against him... He couldn't see any more paper in her grip either. Huh, what exactly was her plan now? Or had that launching thing really been all that she had before attempting to defeat him?

He flicked the tip of his staff, glowing red with artificial magic, towards her and drew a round motion. A rope materialised around Luzura's middle. After the incident with Blight and her, Hunter wasn't stupid enough to think that this would be enough, though. He dashed down to stand menacingly in front of her, tapping his staff very lightly, only just loud enough to make a sound, on his right hand.

"Uh-huh," unimpressed, he nodded, "Hold out your hands?"

She tilted her head up towards him and raised an eyebrow with an amused expression, "No,"

Okay, he hadn't really expected that to work, but still! It meant he had to do stuff the hard way!

"I want you to know that I just stuck my tongue out at you," sounding very self-satisfied and proud, Luzura declared.

Hunter rolled his eyes as he grabbed both of her wrists from just underneath the edges of her cloak. She protested loudly, very much in his ear, but he just drowned her out as much as possible. In his defence, he had asked her to comply first... Swiftly, he bound both hands together with another thick coil of rope, making sure to cover both wrists and fingers to limit her movement as much as possible. Hah, he'd like to see her try and escape now without access to using her precious wild magic.

"You made a mistake choosing this ship to rob, Clawthorne. What do you even want from it!?" exasperated, Hunter taunted.

He walked back to the helm of the ship and reclaimed the wheel.

"Uh, do you even know what you're transporting?" dubiously, she questioned.

"Of course I do! It's cargo for the Emperor, so I'd keep your grubby little hands off of it, Luzura," he scoffed.

From the fading lights coming from down below now, Hunter could deduce that they were probably just over the outskirts of Latissa, about to be out of city bounds any minute now. Good. Not too much further until he had both Belos's goods and a super thief to turn in at the Castle.

"Well, okay, then. I can see you're not really up for negotiation, so we're going to have to do this the hard way," the thief sighed, almost boredly.

Hunter never got the chance to ask her what she meant before two sharp icicles were promptly sent piercing out in different directions. Like some kind of ingenious little rat, Luzura had managed to paint glyphs on the floor of the ship using only her foot and the grime already present. Those were now firing off at him. The first ice spear targeted his staff, knocking it cleanly from his grasp and overboard. The second?

The second went straight through the blimp's sails, deflating them and sending the whole ship crashing downwards towards the Latissa outskirts Hunter had just been admiring.

Panic only quite managed to settle in after he lost his balance and was sent tumbling overboard. Because Hunter had just lost his staff and was now falling thousands of feet through the air. He couldn't even see his staff anywhere remotely close either. Titan, he was really in for it now...

Frantically, he tried to manoeuvre around the falling wreckage to see if he could find anything to use as a parachute, or better yet, just straight up find his staff. No such luck, unfortunately. But somewhere between this messy search, Hunter remembered that he didn't really need his main staff or a parachute. He, uh, only realised this when he saw Flapjack revitalise themself and then come barreling out of his cloak. Right! They'd insisted on coming with him today instead of staying in his room as was often the case!

They chittered just by the tips of his hands as some sort of countdown before shifting to staff form. Hunter stretched out his hand and just about managed to grip the staff's hilt before swinging himself over it. From there, Flapjack was able to slow their acceleration enough to lower the duo gently to the ground. That didn't mean Hunter wasn't still breathing heavily and wildly when they reached said ground. 

The bird settled comfortingly on his shoulder from there, ready to chirp words of encouragement and sympathy to him. This was one of the times Hunter was grateful to have a palisman, even if it was forbidden by his uncle to do so. But Belos wasn't here on this mission to help Hunter (Not that the Emperor should have to waste his time on such things anyway...), was he? Flapjack was though, and so it was their job to look after him now. He stroked the top of their head fondly.

And then he noticed the thief just standing there, completely unharmed, arms and torso free of restraints and holding his other staff. Hunter's eye twitched and his hands shook.

"Oh, you okay, dude?" she cringed before asking, "Had me worried for a second there when I didn't see you do any like, levitation spells or something!"

After that little display, he also happened to notice that she had gotten away with his crate of cargo for Belos and was standing casually in front of it. How...?

"Well," stiffly, he started, "That's none of your business. I'm fine,"

"Just checking in... I thought it seemed odd is all. I thought it'd be easier for the great Golden Guard to escape a measly fall, is all," she narrowed her eyes at him and stated.

Her words implied that she was being judgemental, but that didn't really seem to be the case. She genuinely did seem maybe a bit concerned. What a strange person...

Flapjack didn't seem to think so, though! They excitedly took off and landed on her shoulder, chittering away. He glared furiously at them, but they only stuck their little bird tongue out at him and nestled more on Luzura's shoulder. In turn, he mimed a cut-throat gesture at them. They only chortled. What game were you playing, bird!? Don't side with the enemy!

"Flapjack!" he hissed at them, to which they just stared curiously, and then he tried again, softer, "Buddy..."

His palisman gave a sympathetic chirp before siddling off Luzura's shoulder, instead opting to flitter just by her. The thief watched their mini exchange carefully, obviously trying to read into it. Hunter almost scoffed at that. She could try what she liked, but he'd been training for years at this job; she wasn't getting a lick of information out of his mannerisms! 

"Okay, man, how about we not fight on this one? I think crashing your ride is enough," Luzura interjected steadily.

He just stared.

"You, as you admitted, crashed my ship, robbed me, and conspired with my palisman and now you expect me to just give up!? Seriously!?" Hunter huffed, bending his knees into a fighting stance.

The thief raised an eyebrow and pointed lazily at Flapjack. Urgently, the bird was shaking their little head and had opened both eyes just to stare at him cutely. He avoided their gaze in favour of death glaring Luzura some more. This was not the time to fall victim to the allure of wild magic! Flapjack was supposed to be the exception... They weren't supposed to tempt him away from his uncle...

"I mean, your bird seems to agree with me," amused, Luzura stated.

It was at this time that Hunter realised that neither Luzura nor Flapjack could see any of the expressions he was making at them through his mask. Ah. Maybe that was why neither were responding to them. He jabbed a finger pointedly at Flapjack and beckoned them. There. Now that was a signal they couldn't misinterpret!

"If you'll give us a moment, then..." he strained to sound polite.

When his bird flew over, Hunter sighed almost in relief. Then he cupped his hand around them to give the two of them their own little bubble to talk in. Luzura, uh, wouldn't hear them if she didn't eavesdrop. But he hardly expected her not to, so maybe he should still keep any too personal or confidential details on the down-low... He didn't need any nosy humans bursting into his business, thanks.

Flapjack even approaching was a good sign, though. They'd obviously gone to Luzura as a sign of peace; they didn't want to fight her like she didn't want to fight Hunter. Admittedly, without the palisman's cooperation, he could do very little beyond physically fighting (Not that he wasn't trained well enough to do so...) Luzura, but it was a symbolic thing. Hunter didn't like in general going against Flapjack too much, just as they didn't like going against him.

"Listen, bird, I know you and I don't tend to agree on matters pertaining to the Emperor, but please! I can't fail now-" hushed and frantic, he began to whisper.

They ruffled their head before tugging at something on the edge of his chin. He realised at that point that his hood had been pulled down whilst he was falling. Ah. That meant the bird had gotten a grip on the edge of his mask and was now pulling it off of him, not exactly harshly, but still forcefully enough that it was a quick motion that he was ill-equipped to prevent.

"H-hey!" he let out a strangled huff.

Flapjack discarded the mask carelessly and nuzzled up against Hunter's now exposed cheek. His expression softened and his hand went instinctively to petting them. They preened at this, of course.

Hunter sighed, "Okay. Fine, we'll go with the human's plan for a bit. I'll listen to her, happy?"

Cheerfully, the bird danced their way back down to his shoulder and twittered in the positive. Great. He was stuck with this now. On the bright side, maybe he could use this negotiation time with Luzura to think up a suitable excuse to tell Belos.

Having noticed that he was done talking, the thief waved him back over, "So, I was thinking, how about we just talk about this!" she flipped a hand around him, "You basically already admitted you don't know what you're transporting, so let's start there,"

It wasn't any of his business what the Emperor had ordered! Really! But... Still, the way Luzura phrased that to emphasise its importance did make him a tad curious... Could it hurt to entertain her question?

"And I suppose you know, human?" he crossed his arms and questioned flatly.

One of Luzura's hands remained fiddling with Hunter's staff (Ugh, she clearly didn't know how to handle it correctly...), whilst the other shot up and gripped the edge of her hood. Sheepishly, she let out a deep breath of air and pulled it down, allowing Hunter to indeed see her very human ears. It was a good thing Blight had such a good eye for these sorts of things, actually: he wouldn't have known it was Luz from anything but the ears, but she had seemed to fully recognise the thief's appearance, from her story.

Also, would now be the time to address the fact that Luz's code name was just a lengthening of her actual name? How utterly foolish!

Luzura chuckled, almost nervously, "Oops, I guess Amity told you about that, then,"

And now Hunter's patience was wearing thin. He didn't have time to play games with a wanted criminal! They could play it her way and she could answer his questions swiftly, or he could just forcefully try to apprehend her. If she didn't want it to be the latter, then she should hurry up.

"Answer the question," cooly, he demanded.

Mutely, Luzura turned to the crate behind her and pried it open using Hunter's staff. He would maybe be annoyed at the improper use of his staff again, but in that moment, he was too busy worrying over how the lock had been broken so easily. These were Coven-grade materials! They shouldn't just fall apart like sand! Unless she'd already tampered with them whilst Hunter was busy falling... That was always a possibility.

He made his way cautiously over to that crate to see its contents. A huddle of scared palismen stared innocently back at up of him from inside.

Defensively, he drew Flapjack into their staff form and stumbled backwards, holding the staff in front of his chest. He felt a little sick now. Had Belos been having him transport palismen for long!? Why... Why the secretive nature of this operation!? Did he suspect Hunter's fondness for them!? Did he think Hunter was growing disloyal!? There would be nothing worse than having lost his precious uncle's trust! 

And then... Were all these creatures being taken to the Castle to die? Were these all the offerings for Belos? Hunter's hand closed tighter around Flapjack's staff.

"You've got to know what the Emperor does with them," carefully, but a tad coldly, Luzura stated before bursting out, "Come on, Golden Guard, you have your own palisman! Think how everyone else feels having theirs robbed like this!"

Hunter crumpled under her words. What did she expect him to do? His uncle needed these to be able to deal with his curse! No matter how horrific it was, it was a necessity! And... Hunter couldn't afford to fail a mission, anyway. No matter how much he didn't want to complete it. This wouldn't be the first horrible thing he did anyway, right? A solemn thought, sure, but it was true. A bad action for a good cause was still justified though, he told himself.

"I-" he paused and pulled his free hand into a tight fist, "Surely you know what he's capable of then too, hmm?"

If the human claimed to know so much about Belos, then surely she'd understand what he meant there.

"If you believe in a cause, fight for it, Golden Guard. Otherwise, you're basically just saying that you think it's okay for you to have a palisman, or for Belos to have them all, but not for anyone else to have one. What makes you so special?" the thief lectured. 

She looked supremely unimpressed. She didn't understand.

"First of all, I think you already know this, but it's Hunter," he informed her.

Watchfully, she waited for him to continue. That meant she made no attempt to lash out at him again. Hunter twiddled his thumb and first finger along the hilt of Flapjacks's staff.

"And second, I'm not supposed to have Flapjack! I'm not special, human. I don't get special treatment from the Emperor," quietly, he admitted.

He was the nephew of the great Emperor Belos, and yet often times he wondered what the familial affection the scouts talked about receiving from their families was like. He was devoted to his uncle, and yet that had never been acknowledged. Despite what Luzura seemed to think, he was still just the Golden Guard to Emperor Belos.

The thief sighed sadly at him and approached with a much kinder countenance. At the very least, she held none of that past anger that he'd seen flaring at his supposed hypocrisy.

"Okay," she said simply, "So why are you still helping him so desperately, then?"

"The Emperor needs me! It's my civic duty to help," gruffly, he countered.

"No, no," she corrected, "Why do you, Hunter, help him?"

He hesitated. He was under no obligation to share anything with this thief, his enemy, and yet he'd already started down that path! He'd told Luzura more about himself in this short conversation than he'd even admitted to Blight in two weeks! What the heck, he might as well go all in, right? He was probably doomed at this point, anyway,

He stood at her side and looked up, very deliberately not meeting her gaze, "My staff," he indicated his head in her direction, "I'm powerless without it. But Belos gave me a future by gifting it to me. I owe him everything I have for allowing me to live so privileged despite all that,"

She nudged him gently, "Hey, you don't have to owe him. You shouldn't have to sell your life to someone just because they helped you out once," 

And she called him hypocritical...

"Then what are you doing for Edalyn Clawthorne? If you're so happy to stand here and chat idly to me whilst on duty, I can only assume you're even doing this out of obligation to her,"

Luzura shot him a funny look. That was when Hunter realised he had ended up turning to look at her again anyway, despite his best efforts. Perhaps he had just really wanted to gloat. Flapjack chirped from the end of his staff that he was being curious and that it was a good thing. He rolled his eyes at their sweet sentiment.

"I don't do this for Eda," firmly, she assured him, "My mission is separate from her conquest, but I took her name in spirit. I want to continue her legacy, but nothing's forcing me to do so - definitely not obligation,"

He was silent for a few fleeting moments before speaking up again, "Why are you here tonight, then?" quietly.

"For the palismen, duh. I saw what he does with them and I am not allowing innocent creatures to be hurt like that," steelily, Luzura responded.

Hunter frowned grimly. There was no way out of this one. 

"Then take them, the palismen. I'll tell Emperor Belos that they were lost in the crash. I never even saw you here," croakily, he promised.

He didn't want anymore palismen blood on his hands either. He- They, the coven, could find more for Belos elsewhere. Palismen that hadn't come from loving homes. With Luzura proving that wild magic was so freely possible, maybe this was even the time that he'd manage to figure out another cure for his uncle! He could turn this into an opportunity!

The thief hesitated, "You sure?"

"Just take them. Before I change my mind," he grimaced.

Luzura nodded and threw his staff back at him. He hardly caught it, so thanks, human... What if it had gotten scratched!? That would have been horrible...

"Thanks, Hunter. Good luck with Belos,"

She then turned and began to secure the crate of palismen back up. It seemed that she was using a plant glyph as a way of hoisting it up, not a bad solution considering the crate's not too inconsiderable size. The way she completely had her back turned to him now also indicated that she was expecting him to leave now. And Hunter would be doing so... But there was just... one more thing.

"Wait, human, one last thing," he called out.

"Huh, yeah?" inquisitively, she cocked her head, cloak hood now back up and covering it, to the side.

"Your friends, they, uh, do they know about all of this too? Do they... help you?" desperately, he questioned, obviously thinking of Willow.

She shook her head slightly and didn't meet his eye, "That's their business. It's not my information to share," firmly, she asserted.

Okay. He understood, then. That was supposed to be his question to ask Willow himself, not sneak information about out of Luzura. That was fair, to be honest. If Hunter was aiding and abetting a criminal, he'd want them to keep his involvement quiet as well. 

Silently, he nodded at the thief before settling on top of his artificial staff, allowing Flapjack to nestle themself in the crick of his neck. He made no move to try and recollect his mask; he'd rather it be left as 'evidence' of the damage his crash had caused.

Because, just this once, Hunter could see the viewpoint that Super Thief Luzura Clawthorne was coming from.
 

Chapter Text

This was a stupid idea. Amity should have known better than to listen to her siblings. Well, it was too late now... 

You see, after the depressing failure of the mission to capture Luzura using Amity's information (Because apparently all it took to not be able to track someone down was not having their name on some list in the Emperor's Castle...), Edric and Emira had become convinced they needed to step in. Amity was almost certain that they had an ulterior motive, but judging as she hadn't actually found them yet, she couldn't exactly speak on the accuracy of that. The reason she had yet to locate them was even more egregious, though.

Her darling siblings had decided that the best place for them to have a family fun day was at a recently set-up carnival that was visiting Bonesborough. A weird idea on paper because since when had carnivals ever really meant anything to any of them, but an even worse idea in practice: everyone else in town had obviously decided that this carnival was the place to be, so it was busy, crowded and Amity hadn't the foggiest idea where her siblings had wandered off to. They, for once, weren't texting her back, either. 

The day itself looked thoroughly miserable too. If Amity and everyone else here didn't have to run inside by the end of the day due to Boiling Rains, she would be highly surprised. At the very least, there was going to be rain by the end of the weekend. She was sure. The air smelt of rain! And she felt extremely on edge about something, so that something was surely just the terrible incoming weather! 

As it was, her plan was just to sit tight and wait around. She was almost tempted to go get a snack for the wait, but knowing her recent luck, Edric and Emira would show up as soon as she'd turned her back to go to the food stand just opposite. So, it was just Amity and her thoughts... Wow, was it just her, or was she being really awkward just standing there?

Alas, for as much as Amity wanted this day to be free of the nonsense she'd come to know as of recently, we can't all get what we want.

A young woman in some kind of strange hoodie containing cat ears came barreling through at frankly dangerous speeds (Though still making sure to cry out, "Sorry!" to anyone she bashed into), yelling loudly. Amity narrowed her eyes. That outfit may be new, but she would recognise Luz's insidious (But still somewhat warm and sweet) tones anywhere! 

She creased her hands into her skirt and stared. Had her main enemy just shown up at the same carnival as her in an extremely poor disguise? Well! There was no time for milling around anymore, then! 

Swiftly, Amity summoned her staff and used it to glide over in front of the Luzura, sliding gracefully off of it as soon as she could effectively block the thief's path. And it was even more obvious that this girl was Luz, Luzura, up close. After seeing them repeated on both someone she'd thought her friend and the face of the one who'd been getting her and Hunter into all this trouble, Amity definitely recognised those eyes. And, uh, that cat mask wasn't doing Luzura any favours in the disguise department. Seriously, did she just go and pick up the first new mask she could find at the market? That was a medical mask, Luz!

Amity grimaced internally, but held a firm expression towards the thief as she whiled around to hold her in a firm headlock, using her staff as the lock. Luz blinked and just stared at her. There was clearly recognition in that expression, so Amity hadn't found the wrong person, but Luz also wasn't exactly responding quite as she'd have thought. Where had that, well, quippiness and snark gone from their last two encounters? Wasn't this the part where Luz said something vaguely nice-sounding and then tricked Amity like the little manipulator she was?

"Amity!" the thief chuckled nervously, "Uh, h-hey!"

Not wasting a breath, Amity retorted with a demand, "What are you doing here?"

Luz stuffed her hands into her jacket pocket because, oh, yeah, evidently she'd managed to steal a grudgby jacket from somewhere... It looked kind of silly, to be honest, on account of it definitely being a little small for the thief, but Amity would probably note that she was pulling it off. Just about. 

More importantly, though, Luz's hands being out of sight and somewhere where she could potentially be grabbing fistfuls of glyphs was like her holding up a big sign that said 'Danger! You're about to be tricked again and attacked by my hazardous and illegal wild magic!. Amity didn't particularly feel like duelling Luzura and getting deceived again by her weird tricks, thanks. Going up against wild magic was clearly a risky move, as she had had to come to learn...

"Well," Luz began thoughtfully, sticking her hands lazily deeper into her pockets, "I was just here with my little brother for the day, but, uh, he's missing now. I was looking for him,"

Amity rolled her eyes, "How convenient,"

So, Luz claimed to have a younger brother, huh? Assuming even he was real, was this guy human like her? Was he a potential lead? Or was he someone just affiliated with Edalyn CLawthorne... Well, to be fair, he could just also technically be someone completely random and uninvolved with Luzura's mission. It just seemed unlikely. But, like Amity said, that was all assuming that this wasn't just some cover story that the thief made up to try and easily escape capture.

"I'm sensing that you're a bit sceptical, which, fair, I guess, but I'm being serious! I'm not here to cause trouble, Amity, so could you please let me go?" Luz tried to beg.

"But you're still a wanted criminal, human. It's my job to take you in!" Amity huffed.

Yeah, sorry, Edric. Sorry, Emira. Amity had a more important job than waiting around for you right about now.

"Aw, man, and I really wanted to not end up brawling with more police today..." the thief sighed quietly.

At first, it honestly did seem as though Luz had no more tricks up her sleeve! Her hands looked empty when she brought them out of her pocket in an exasperated manner, but no, of course she couldn't be that lucky... 

Luz's palms burst literally alive as fresh vines flowed from what Amity could now make out as freshly crumpled paper. They curled around Amity's staff, wedging its way between her fingers and her staff; upon feeling the sort of slimy and living sensation of plants sneak beneath her hands, she almost reflexively dropped the staff. Then the plants actually attacked her and bloomed into a large flower, drooping lazily towards her face. 

She stumbled backwards, only managing to save her staff from stumbling away, not her dignity. Yes, she was able to cushion the fall with abomination goo, but that wasn't the point! How was she, a well-trained witch, consistently getting outdone by a human!? A wild magic-using heathen at that! Was there seriously nothing that could hold Luz!? Ugh!

Amity scowled and rushed off in the direction that the thief was currently trying to bolt in. No games today, Luzura. Confidently, she pulled up barriers comprised of pink, crisscrossing patterns around the thief, not caring this time if she was disrupting civilians. They could just go to the carnival tomorrow! And, although her streak would seem to say otherwise, Amity couldn't just run into the Luzura Clawthorne any day of the week! It took some luck! (Even if that luck was then frequently counteracted by the daring escapes concocted by Luz...)

Unfortunately, Luz decided that now was once again the time for a daring escape and worked her way hastily around her cage of sorts, drawing something into the ground. When Amity realised what was happening, she skidded to a halt and tried to cover the only exit to her barrier, that being that it had no ceiling, but apparently the speed of Luz's drawing skills was unparalleled. She had already launched herself out with a block of ice by the time the thought had come to try and stop her. 

Amity then tried to pin Luz back to the ground with a spindle of abomination goo, but it, uh, didn't actually quite reach. How utterly embarrassing... Frustrated, she resorted to the basics: just hurling fireballs.

"What do you think you're playing at!?" angrily, she yelled.

Luz grimaced and then shrugged apologetically, "Not getting captured!" she called back down, "And also not dying!"

"I'm not going to kill you! Who do you think I am!? Besides, we still need you alive!" appalled, Amity corrected.

Admittedly, she was still attacking with fireballs, but that was beside the point! It wasn't like Luz didn't have the skills to dodge them! As much as it pained Amity to admit, Luz was actually pretty competent in combat, particularly in escapes. Ugh, how had they consistently been bested by a human, again? It was infuriating! Especially when it was all coming from a girl literally wearing a cat hoodie...

"Well, it sure doesn't seem that way!" the thief yelled and then, when Amity growled and chucked a particularly large and nasty wad of flames at her, "Eep!"

Amity rolled her eyes and swung herself closer to Luz, slinging herself over on a rail of, you guessed it, abomination goo. She smirked and summoned a much larger and more powerful fist to smack the thief around with. This worked surprisingly well, and Luz went flying into a nearby stand. Huh, maybe that worked a little too well... Whoops... This was Luzura they were talking about, though, so she was probably fine.

Then Amity realised she had a whole other problem. See, it turned out that smacking Luz into some rando's stand caused a whole different issue...

A furious-looking biped demon with a snout emerged from the wreckage and promptly huffed loudly. His ears twitched in irritation as he looked between Amity and Luz. The look of horror on his face, probably caused by the destruction of his stand, made Amity cringe, and she was ready to go and apologise. She never really got the chance, though.

The demon snapped his fingers and drew a small circle, ending up with Amity chained to Luz, both on the ground now. She strained against the restraints, but, just her luck, they seemed to be cursed and all her movement just made them constrict tighter. She was just about ready to blast this guy into oblivion when Luz tried to negotiate.

"Sorry, man! I didn't mean to come crashing in like that! I'll even help you clean up, if you'd like!" the thief apologised profusely.

"Oh, ho-ho! Funny, it thinks it can bargain with me!" the demon laughed, "Well, I'll have you know that you just crashed the stand of Tibblet Tibblie Grimhammer the third! Shake in fear of what you have brought upon yourselves!"

Luz snorted.

Amity sighed, "Listen, sir, if you let me out now, I'll consider compensating you and your stand for the damages. But it is urgent that-"

There was a marked change in Grimhammer's posture in the middle of her sentence. He stopped angrily pacing and stared at her with beady, expectant eyes. It made her want to squirm, honestly, but Blights didn't squirm; if she hadn't learnt not to fidget whilst under someone's watch years ago, she'd have never survived family dinner with her mother.

"And then who might you be, miss?" carefully, the demon interrupted.

"Inspector Amity Blight, sir. And I'm on a case right now, so I'd appreciate you making this brief,"

Grimhammer nodded, "Of course, Inspector," he then tilted his head slightly and hummed, "That makes her...?"

Amity narrowed her eyes and didn't answer. That was irrelevant information for a random vendor to know. He should just be doing his civic duty and helping out the Emperor's security team, not asking questions! This was an opportunity to be useful, why would he waste it talking?

"So, could you please untie us?" dryly, she asked.

"Of course, I'll just need to use a key from my backrooms - the chains won't unlock otherwise," smoothly, the demon replied.

Ah-hah! She was right! The chains were cursed!

"Hold on," Luz watched him sceptically, "Take us too. So we can formally thank you without being in everyone's way again," 

"Oh, of course," Grimhammer grinned.

Honestly, it was hard to tell who was being more suspicious now. What exactly was Luz planning, and why was the demon allowing it!? After being tricked by the thief some many times, Amity liked to think she'd grown wise to such tricks. But, then again, Grimhammer had the air of a scam artist about him, so perhaps she would prefer to accompany him anyway, just in case he turned out to be the trickster.

Amity stood up and limped over to follow the demon, dragging Luz along behind her. It was a rather comical sight, and a satisfying one too. Ha, that's how it feels, human! 

Grimhammer's backroom (Thankfully undamaged) was mostly just a storage closet. Amity tried to scan it for any sign of the key that they needed, but nothing immediately caught her eye. Well, that wasn't all that odd, right? Maybe it was just in a drawer somewhere? Still, it put her on a slightly higher alert. Luz also began to mumble something into the ground behind her, but the thief's face was buried in the demon's weird carpet, so, fortunately, there was nothing to be heard there.

Eventually, Amity caught Grimhammer swipe something off of his shelves out of her peripherals. She smiled, self-satisfied, but readied her hand in a defensive position, anyway. Someone was surely going to attack her once she was free, right? Though that was most likely Luzura, she would be a fool to completely discount Grimhammer.

And a fool she would have been, because the demon turned around, giggling slightly, holding a spray bottle containing some kind of strange pink liquid that Amity immediately identified as a potion of some kind. That... wasn't a key. She stared dubiously and prepared to duck and roll out the way.

"Now, I hope you'll forgive me, Inspector, but you'll both earn me a lot more like," he took aim and clicked the trigger on the bottle, "This!"

Amity attempted to pull her weight to the side and tip her and Luz to their left, where the spray could not reach them. Unfortunately for them both, the thief had the same idea, but opted to pull to their right. The force of both of them straining caused the chains to momentarily tighten in on all sides before they were caught by the spray, on account of not being able to move anywhere.

The chains tightening really weren't such a big problem when Amity and Luz began to shrink right down to the size of small dolls. Yep, a whole different issue indeed...

Wow, how had absolutely none of Luz's day gone to plan!? You see, she was supposed to be back at the Owl House, finalising plans for tomorrow's heist, but she had already ended up taking King to the Carnival at his request! Whatever, Lilith could finish up for her, and she had a line to connect to her with, so that shouldn't be a problem. Everything was not once again fine, though, because then King had run off! Where and why!? Luz didn't know! And for as much fun as it was to mess around or talk with Amity, the inspector, being chased and then eventually shrunk down (even if it was kind of Luz's fault for insisting on following to the back rooms) with her was not something that she needed whilst on the lookout for a very small-sized demon!

So there she was, freshly shrunk by Tibbles's (Ugh, him again?) stupid spray, waiting around with Amity. Thankfully, Luz had been through weirder stuff (Body swap, anyone?) to not be feeling the effects of spray too much, but Amity didn't seem to be fairing as well. She was hunched over the ground, attempting to steady herself, and breathing sporadically. Thing was, though, Luz couldn't tell if the inspector was feeling ill because of the changes or just in general panicking. That made it rather hard to help.

Eh, well, Tibbles was here to ruin things further anyway, now... He smirked down at them (Jeez, had his eyes always looked this disturbing, or was she only just noticing now due to her reduced size?) and chuckled, "Oh, excellent! You two just have to wait right here,"

He then proceeded to lift them both with a small (Heh.) levitation spell and drop them in a cage. Amity began to shudder even more. Luz cracked her knuckles and drew out a glyph from her pocket. 

Oh, so Tibbles wanted to play with fire? Well, Amity had taught her a valuable lesson in the hazards of fire earlier! She launched a volley of fireballs from some glyphs at the demon and smiled as she did it. It was a smile for a short while, anyway. Tibbles just brushed off her attack because, oh, yeah, the glyphs had shrunk too, so her fireballs were more just like sparks to him. She scanned the strange cage (It looked to almost be a sort of terrarium, but not for plants) for anything to draw a bigger glyph on, but it was barren. Tibbles even kept it too clean to draw anything in the dust! Ugh! That gave him the chance to escape before Luz could effectively counter, meaning it was just her and Amity now.

Hesitantly, Luz approached the inspector with an outstretched hand. Amity didn't flinch at their proximity, but she didn't actually seem to react to it at all. She had moved since earlier, though, so maybe all hope wasn't lost. Maybe she was just planning?

"You doing okay, Amity?" uncertainly, Luz attempted to communicate with her.

Amity looked up slowly, breathing heavily, "What do you think, human? I'm trapped in a cage with a wanted and dangerous criminal, yeah, I'm sure I feel really safe..."

"You're really gonna make me say it again?" Luz sighed, almost amused, "I'm not here for crime today - I came with my little brother. So why would I attack you? Scratch that! Why would I attack you for anything other than self-defence anyway?"

Admittedly, she knew she had a bit of reputation, surely especially amongst Amity's department now, but, seriously, she wasn't some wild animal! Although, was that what they thought wild witches were? The illustrations Belos had displayed of the savage ages had shown reckless and feral people doing unspeakable horrors, but that wasn't true! She'd asked Lilith, who'd said that had to be an exaggeration! And Lilith was a major history nerd! Okay, so maybe her reputation was letting her down a little, here.

"I don't know! To take me back to your base and dissect me? To kidnap me for ransom!?" Amity bit out.

Dissect!? Ransom!? After nearly being a victim of both, Luz would really rather not, thanks! (Seriously, though, how exactly had she managed to nearly get dissected by the head of the Abomination Coven last week!? Couldn't he have thought of a more efficient method of trying to sneakily help her than to pretend to dissect her!?)

"I think we're already technically being held for ransom right now," thoughtfully, Luz remarked.

Amity's eye twitched, "Thanks, that helps so much..."

"Okay, well, listen, there's no reason we can't just try and bust out of here, right? You have your staff with you still, I assume, and I have all my glyphs! Don't worry about it!"

The inspector shrank back to the other side of the cage, summoning her staff to her hand and raising it defensively. It was very similar to how Luz observed Hunter to have behaved when she'd last seen him, actually. Had, uh, had Hunter not told her anything about that? Actually, that was probably a reasonable decision on his part... If Luz was one of the Emperor's agents and she'd just found out that one of her co-workers had consorted with a criminal, she'd be pretty concerned. She'd probably even try and turn that co-worker in! Unless they were best friends, or something. But Hunter and Amity didn't seem that close.

"It's more to my benefit to let us both waste away in here," Amity snarled, "Then you'll at least finally be taken down!"

"Seems like a bit of a big sacrifice on your part," evenly, Luz scrutinized.

"It's worth it. I was taught to see everything as an opportunity, and this, human, is a big opportunity!"

Okay... That was some real dedication, there. Admirable dedication, definitely, but it didn't seem to be paired with too healthy a mindset. And, yeah, Luz liked Amity! She was fun to mess around with (And maybe wind up) when out and about as Luzura and finding someone who gave her, Luz Noceda, Queen of the Good WItch Azura series, competition for her title of biggest Azura fan, was a major benefit! So, yeah, she didn't want to see Amity wait around in a cage like this! That would just be cruel!

"I mean, wouldn't you rather be able to go and get the collector's edition set of Azura movies than rot away in here? I know I would..." slyly, Luz remarked, trying to make it seem off-hand.

That just seemed to set off something in Amity though. The inspector growled lightly and then strode back towards Luz, finger pointing accusatorily towards her.

"Don't play any more of your stupid games with me!" she stabbed that finger at Luz's chest, shaking her head wildly. It was at this point that Luz remembered that Amity seemed to think she was some kind of psychotic narcissist just due to her profession. "I have worked my whole life to get to where I am right now, and I'm not just going to give it up on your whim! You lost this time, Luzura! Say it, admit that this is it for you! Admit it!"

Luz frowned and looked at Amity. The inspector's pupils were blown wide and furious and her little bun was bobbing violently with her shaky breathing. 

"Sure, I lost this round. But... You said everything is an opportunity, right? Then I think I have the opportunity to win the next one! I think we can still get out of here rather than fighting like this. I mean, Tibbles clearly doesn't have good plans for you either!" she declared.

"He's calling Security on you," vaguely, Amity huffed.

"And you trust him so much that you're just assuming he's going to do the job right? He's a con-man! I wouldn't trust him! Seriously, this one time-" Luz started to rant, preparing to tell the story of the time Tibbles had scammed Eda at the Night Market, but she was stopped. Aw, that story was a fun one...

"Your mentor is a scammer too! Edalyn Clawthorne is renowned for her thefts and scams! So, yeah, I'll trust him for now. At least then I'm not bothering people..." pointedly, Amity interrupted Luz and glared.

Was Amity seriously about to value not bothering her colleagues over her own safety!? Tibbles was dangerous! Who knew what exactly his plan for the inspector was! Luz had heard of self-sabotage, but this was ridiculous... (Also, was she calling Luz bothersome!?)

"You know it wouldn't be a problem to call in your partner for this, right? Amity, you're not being a bother if you just want to do your job, promise!" she burst out.

"Funny that, coming from you. Isn't the point of your job to bother people?" wryly, the inspector remarked.

Hey! It was for the greater good! If Luz could have it her way, she'd be stopping Belos without disrupting the public, but that would be easier said than done... This was the simplest and most effective way of ensuring that the Emperor was dealt with!

"I don't really think so," Luz shrugged, "But then, still, we have very different jobs. Even if, hypothetically speaking, I am a bit of a bother, that doesn't mean anything for you!" she smiled gently, hoping Amity could see it through the mask.

"I don't get you. Why are you trying to be nice to me?" analytically, the inspector scrutinised.

"Because I'm a nice person! And also, I know we didn't really talk for long off-job, but you seemed great, Amity! I don't actually want anything bad to happen to you!"

The inspector didn't respond for a moment after. Her eyes narrowed, and she seemed to be searching right through Luz, but she made no move to say anything. Luz also took that time to note that Amity's hands were firmly clenched on the hem of her skirt, clutching it tightly. She still looked anxious, then. Dammit, now Luz just wanted to go and hug her or something, but that probably wouldn't be appreciated... Amity was still kind of close, though, so if it really came down to it...

"A... nice person wouldn't steal for fun," eventually, Amity let out.

Luz raised an eyebrow, "Good thing I don't steal for fun, then, right?"

"The library incident?" Amity crossed her arms.

"I told you! I had to steal! If you think about it, I actually can't get a library card... I'm guessing your department figured that I'm not actually registered here, right? It was a bookshop or robbing the library and, between you and me, I don't think they sell the kind of thing I was looking for at the local book nook..." she rambled.

"You wild witches and your wild magic..." Amity sighed, but she didn't sound particularly upset anymore, "I guess I believe you, though. Maybe you aren't... What did I call you? A hedonist, Luz. Just a regular lunatic..."

"Aw, thanks, Ams! Means a lot coming from you!" she winked playfully.

Amity's eye twitched and the rest of her expression turned murderous. Whoops? She looked about a second away from impaling Luz on the end of her staff or something. Ah, well, peace was fun whilst it lasted.

"Don't call me that!" the inspector hissed.

"Sorry, sorry, I just really like nicknames... It's a human thing..." she apologised.

It wasn't really a human thing; it was a Luz thing, but Amity didn't have to know that.

"And weird cat masks too, apparently. Seriously, where did you find that!?" snorted Amity.

This was a refined product that Eda pickpocketed off of some market stand, thank you very much! And besides Luz's mask she wore as Luzura, this was her best one! It was also hopefully silly enough to act as a distraction away from her identity because, well, there were wanted posters up for her now. (Eda and King had been so proud...)

Luz pulled it down and curled her lip into a smirk, "That's classified,"

Apparently she must have been pretty caught up talking to Amity, because Tibbles had returned and neither of them had noticed. He was looming over them now, so it was rather hard to miss. Luz snaked her hands into her jacket pockets and watched the inspector draw her staff warily from her peripherals.

"What's classified, little thief?" Tibbles practically sang.

"Don't tell him anything, Luz!" a new, very familiar, voice screeched. Uh oh. Had Tibbles got him too!?

King then ended up being dumped rather unceremoniously into the cage as soon as he spoke. He was shrunk too, of course, for whatever reason. Luz scrambled and dived to catch him, just about managing to do so, but scraping her knees a bit in the effort. Ugh, why put such a rough floor on a cage anyway!? Get better architecture for your traps, Tibbles!

She ended up just sticking her tongue out and making a rather crude gesture at the demon. Whether it be that he had better things to do, or he was just so offended by this, Tibbles ended up leaving, still primly, but clearly muttering something under his breath. King ended up chuckling at her, and she had to fight the urge to just join him. Amity was already looking at her weirdly enough, though. 

"Uhm, who's that?" the inspector pointed at King and questioned. 

She looked half bemused and half utterly confused and this random demon that'd just been thrown at them. Yeah, Luz would be confused too, if she had no context. 

"Oh, you know I told you that I was looking for my little brother earlier? That's him! she grinned and squished King's face up against her own. He bapped at her with a whine, but didn't really try to fight back.

"Right...," then Amity's eyes lit up in realisation, "Wait, I remember now! You brought him to the library!" she accused.

That had been a fun one to pull over on Amity, to be fair. She'd been so distracted trying to fight Luz, that she hadn't even thought to check for accomplices! And after Gus had tricked Hunter the first time Luz had run into Amity, it could easily be assumed that that should be the first thing the inspector would check for! King had probably had fun being a little thief too. 

"Eda raised him to use those cute little paws of his for stealing," angelically, Luz grinned and booped King's paws.

He snickered, "Oh, yeah, is this the Inspector we dunked on then, Luz? The one you kept talking about because she's an Azura fan?"

Oh, whoops, she had kind of rambled about Amity after their first proper meeting at the restaurant, hadn't she? Fine, maybe she deserved the incoming storm...

Amity's face turned bright red and her fists clenched almost immediately. Honestly, Luz couldn't tell if it was from anger or embarrassment. Or maybe both. She could see it being both. After a few moments of this... tomato mode, the inspector's face then paled again and she took a deep exhale. That was an almost charming display! Charming in that it was kind of cute.

"You told him about that!? Let me guess, did you tell your whole criminal gang about it too!? Maybe I should call the Golden Guard on you!" Amity fumed.

"Eh... He'd probably pretend he's too cool to help," Luz made a so-so gesture. So maybe Lilith and Eda and King and, oh, Hooty knew about it... But there was no way Hunter would give up on whatever he was doing over something so petty. Only maybe because Luz was there. She grimaced and shrugged.

"Oh my Titan..." the inspector groaned, "Did you actually tell all of them?"

The Owl House was kind of a communal place... It wasn't really a big deal, though, probably. At the very least, Amity seemed less upset over this than the nickname thing, in terms of her facial expression.

"Well, once you tell Lilith something, Hooty knows, so yeah! He blabbed to pretty much everyone!" King laughed, making a petty smirk at Amity.

The inspector didn't respond to the taunt quite as expected, though. She paused and stared at them for a moment. It was almost creepy how she went from feigning annoyance to being contemplative.

"Lilith? Like... As in Lilith Clawthorne? Former head of the Emperor's Coven?" thoughtfully, she asked.

"Oh, yeah! That's her!" Luz confirmed. 

"You're reminding me of the times she used to find us at the market and try and recruit Eda," King piped up with a sort of half scowl. He still seemed amused, though.

Of course, Luz had known that Lilith used to try and convince Eda to enlist for the Emperor's Coven with her, but she hadn't quite realised that was a drop by unannounced during shopping trips kinda deal! Well, she was kinda glad she hadn't been around for that, now...

"She helps you?" seemingly baffled, Amity prodded, "Why?"

"I dunno - she just does. Probably for Eda, though, if I had to guess..." Luz theorised, before pausing, "Okay, though, speaking of her, you wanna bust out of here, Amity?"

"Tibbles isn't going to let me out, is he," the inspector winced.

"Nope!" King cheered.

Amity ran her hands down her cheeks dramatically. Hey, at least she was realising the obvious. Honestly, an escape attempt might even be easier with Amity helping! She did seem like a pretty powerful witch. Though, then again, mini magic from her wasn't all that beneficial. But when they upsized her... This was going to be great!

"Fine, I call a truce until we're out of here. Though, why do you bring up Lilith for this?"Amity conceded.

Luz had such a strong urge to try and trick the inspector into going for a handshake before pulling away, but that probably wasn't the best idea if she wanted to earn Amity's trust. Or favour. Or even just be tolerated by her. Ah, well, someday, in some universe, she'd do that to some Emperor's Coven agent.

"Well... You ever wondered how I navigate so easily as Luzura?" Luz did her best enticing grin.

"I just assumed you actually knew what you were doing, like any competent super thief," Amity shrugged, unimpressed.

Ouch.

"Not quite! I actually have this little one to help me out!" Luz brushed back her bangs and hood and tapped the small device in her ear.

That tap activated the device and it whirred to life. Great, she could get a signal out to Lilith now, if she wanted. Or, more accurately, if Amity let her. Which she was going to! Because they'd just called a truce and Luz wasn't exactly sure how else she was supposed to free them other than maybe asking King to chew through the bars.

"A weird earring?" Amity deadpanned.

"No! It's a communication device from the human realm! I can call for help with it!" excitedly, Luz fixed.

The inspector crossed her arms, "I could do that with my scroll," 

"But not so stylishly and discreetly you couldn't! Besides, people here can figure out how to block scroll signals, but not human tech signals! They don't even know how they work!" she winced, "I mean, I don't really either... But Lilith only figured it out after studying them for a while!"

"Do you think Tibbles knows how to do that? Or does it just not matter because we're using your backup anyway? And weren't you the one urging me to call for help earlier!?" Amity rambled furiously.

She was ignored when a click on the line signalled that Lilith had picked up the signal and was listening. Luz motioned for Amity and King to be silent and paced around to the edge of the cage. Man, it was just like taking a phone call in the Human Realm! The Boiling Isles wasn't really all different.

"Hi, Lulu!" cheerfully, she greeted.

"Luz..." Lilith reprimanded.

"Right, just messing with you... Anyway, can you or Eda come to the Carnival? Me and King, uh, ran into some trouble..."

Amity started making cutthroat gestures at her as soon as she heard the name Eda be mentioned, but Luz tactfully ignored that. If Amity agreed to Luz's help, then she was getting Luz's full help! Besides, with all their weird artefacts and whatnot, Eda and Lilith were still some of the most powerful witches Luz knew! And Eda's harpy form was nothing to scoff at!

"Why? What happened?" Lilith questioned, slightly frantically.

"Well, we kinda sorta maybe got shrunk by Tibbles and are now stuck in a cage," sheepishly, Luz admitted.

Even more frantically, "What!? How!?" 

"I was fighting Amity and got tied up and King... Uh..." how exactly did King get caught?

"He promised to show me Luz! He said he had friendship bracelets too!" King scowled and shouted into the small microphone of her earpiece.

There was some distant yelling on the other side of the line, probably Lilith yelling at Eda, if Luz had to guess from past experience. That actually happened more than you'd think for a team of criminals that the Emperor's security division seemed to think were so competent. Or, at least, Amity had thought that before Luz had stomped on that with the reveal of their crazy inner workings.

"Alright, Luz, sit tight - Edalyn's on her way over," Lilith instructed.

"You got it!" Luz confirmed before clicking the line off, "Back-up's on the way!" she announced.

"Ugh, they're not sending Hooty, right, Luz?" King grimaced and asked.

Luz shuddered. That would be a hazard to everyone involved.

"God, I hope not..." she winced.

Amity just looked really confused now. Such was the nature of Hooty, Luz supposed; he was incomprehensible to all of them. She was pretty sure even Eda didn't really know what he was. Or what he did when they weren't there. Or why he was usually so annoying.

"What's happening, human?" the inspector demanded.

"You're gonna see the best of the Bad Girl Coven!" Luz winked, "Hope you're excited!"

Eda took that timely moment to come crashing through the door, holding Tibbles by the scruff of his shirt. One could question how the Owl Lady both got here so fast and defeated Tibbles so easily, but, remember, this was harpy Eda that they were talking about! She probably just flew here! And seriously, if they hadn't all been tricked or distracted, Tibbles would hardly have posed a threat to any of them!

She scowled when she saw the cage and glided over, sticking her face against the bars to get a good look at Luz and King. Luz waved as cheerfully as she could manage. King mimed bloody execution or something. Either way, it seemed to fill Eda in on the situation sufficiently to the standard where she knew what literally had happened to her kids.

"What's the deal, Luz? Who do I need to beat up for this?" she slung Tibbles over her shoulder (He squealed like a little baby in terror) and asked with a grin. 

"I think you have it covered with Tibbles," Luz responded with a small chuckle.

But, oh, right, she was too small for Eda to actually hear her. Her mentor just stared cluelessly at her small mouth moving, clearly not being able to interpret her words, even despite her enhanced senses due to the owl Beast.

Amity rolled her eyes and grabbed Luz's wrist, "Try this," she drew a circle right next to the two of them and shoved the thief towards it, "I still think you're a lunatic, for the record. This only made things worse,"

Amity could think what she wanted, but there was no denying that this was going to work! Even if it was a little silly in principle. It wasn't every day you got saved by a woman half-owl, half-witch! Especially not the infamous Edalyn Clawthorne.

"Just Tibbles, Eda! He's the one who cursed us!" she tried again.

"Got it, kid!" the Owl Lady cackled before booting Tibbles right into the air, "Now, how to you counter this, you little gremlin? Tell me, or I'll leave you right to Miss Inspector Bossy Boots over there," she pointed at Amity who crossed her arms authoritatively. 

The demon cringed and whispered something to Eda. 

"Ugh, right, you ready to blow this joint, kids?" she turned back to the cage and affirmed.

King laughed in joy whilst Luz, still into Amity's volume enhancement spell (Or whatever it was), cringed, "Figuratively, right?"

Eda only answered with a smirk.

Then, she delightedly brought both of Tibbles's hands up under her claws and slapped them onto his cheeks. Fortunately, she also remembered to slice the cage open so that Luz and co could escape into a bigger space before regaining their actual size.

Regrowing was a weird process, actually. Maybe slightly less nauseating than shrinking, but still not a particularly nice sensation. Bleh, her mouth tasted kind of funny...

Besides her, Amity sat up shakily whilst King scampered around, chasing his tail to regain his footing. Assuming that her brother was basically fine, Luz turned to offer the inspector a hand up. She... looked like she could use it. By some miracle, Amity didn't bat Luz's hand away and actually accepted the help! Shock, horror, was this even the same Amity from earlier!?

"It would be unethical and impolite of me to try and arrest you guys now, right?" she sighed dejectedly.

"Yup!" cheerfully, Luz nodded.

"Definitely, Boots," Eda agreed. 

"Oh, yeah... All the way evil," King chortled.

The inspector groaned and just adjusted herself to only face Luz. Honestly, she looked slightly embarrassed at this point, That was probably fair judging as she'd just been rescued from a rather compromising and embarrassing position by a bunch of criminals. That and the fact that she'd had to admit that she'd been wrong about Luz.

"In that case, I was either off duty and didn't see you, or you were never here, understand?" gruffly, she mandated.

"You got it, Inspector Blight! We'll just be on our merry way then!" she chuckled and began to whistle obnoxiously.

Eda had already got King settled in her mop of hair and was currently waiting for Luz to either settle in her arms or on her back. Luz was about to turn to leave with her, but...

"Wait, human," Amity called.

"Huh?" lamely, Luz responded.

"This isn't over, you hear me? I'll get you next time," cockily, the inspector declared.

Luz let herself go backwards onto Eda's back. Her mentor took off as soon as she felt Luz settle there. From up in the sky, the thief waved down at Amity.

"You can try!" Luz yelled.

And there was almost something happy in Amity's disappointed expression, there.

Chapter Text

If anyone ever asked, at least Hunter would genuinely be able to say he tried. In regards to his outfit, that was. He was set to go the game with Willow today, so he could hardly just go in his Golden Guard uniform. Problem was, he also couldn't really just turn up to another team's game in his uniform, so, uh, he'd been kind of stuck for a while. As it was, he was wearing the base layer from his Golden Guard attire with a plain gold shirt stuck over the top. Hunter didn't exactly know what teams they were going to watch, so all he could really do was just hope that one of them wore gold. And that it was the team that Willow supported.

Speaking of Willow... Since his meeting with Luzura last week, Hunter had been cautiously optimistic about her. Sure, if she wasn't helping the thief at all, Luz probably would have just said so, but nothing particularly big had happened with Luzura all week! And Willow hadn't attacked him or something for figuring out the big secret! Surely that was a good omen that, even if Willow was somewhat conspiring with Luz, they weren't doing some active spy mission. Hopefully anyway.

That was really the only reason Hunter had still shown up today. If he'd suspected Willow of too much, he would not be waiting here for a leisure activity with her. Gosh, he was actually pretty excited for this now! And nervous. But mostly excited. Hey, it was finally a break from the chaos that had been dealing with Luz, so he deserved this!

Anyhow, he could hear Willow's (At least, those were probably Willow's) footsteps approaching now, so it was time to stand up a little straighter and not look like he'd been milling around outside the cafe they'd agreed to meet at for way longer than was probably reasonable because he'd arrived ridiculously early. He brushed his shoulder and stood perfectly poised in wait.

"You know how usually people usually say to stop looking like you waiting for a bus? Well, I could probably say the opposite to you right now, Hunter," amused, Willow greeted.

"Huh? What's a bus?" he blinked, obviously missing her joke.

 Willow stared impassively, "Oh, right. That, uh, I think that's a human saying,"

So Luz had told her this saying and now she was avoiding admitting that directly because it was going to make things awkward. Right. Did she forget who she was with?

"Maybe you could tell me what a bus is, then...?" tentatively, Hunter tried to alleviate the tension.

"Right!" Willow unfroze and reached over to grab his wrist, then began to drag him off in the other direction. They weren't far from the Flyer Derby pitch, so they had already decided to walk. "A bus is a human method of transportation, I'm pretty sure. I was just joking that you looked way too serious to have only been waiting for me,"

Willow actually seemed a little nervous now herself. It must have been because of the human saying thing... Hm... Hunter needed a good way to cheer her up! Think, he had to think...

"See any neat... plants this week?" he attempted.

She gave him a curious look, "I- That's a weird question," she still answered it anyway, though, "I suppose so? I think all plants are pretty 'neat', to be honest. But I haven't seen any particularly weird ones, if that's what you mean," 

Well, he'd given it a shot! Unfortunately, it seemed that conversation really wasn't his forte. Perhaps he could have told you that before, but Hunter also liked to believe that he wasn't completely socially inept, so he was going to keep trying at this. Even if he just ended up digging his grave even deeper.

"I saw a rather strange carnivorous plant in the forest whilst on patrol this week. It tried to eat me," proudly, he explained.

"Did you make it out okay? Titan, don't just say you nearly got eaten and then stop!" horrified, Willow turned to face him.

"I mean, I'm here right now, aren't I, Captain?" cheekily, he shrugged.

He'd dealt with children more vicious than that plant before, to be honest. At least the plant knew when to call it quits... 

"Sometimes I wonder how you're still alive..." Willow sighed, wearily.

"Scout training," Hunter blinked, confused by the question, "It prepared me for anything and trained me in the art of com-"

"It was, ah, a rhetorical question. I know you can fight pretty well, Hunter. Except in that fight where we first met, apparently," she began with a wince, but slowly descended into chuckling at the memory. 

His cheeks (And probably ears) burned at the memory. Willow had managed to easily and swiftly incapacitate him when she first caught him snooping around the Flyer Derby Field, scouting out the club. With one attack. The Emperor's right-hand man had gone down to a simple swooping set of vines from Willow Park. Highly embarrassing, and not a story he ever planned to share with his colleagues at either job. But, of course, Willow knew all about it because, yeah, she'd been there. 

"I was caught off guard," defensively, he huffed, "And technically also off-duty!"

She hummed weightily, "By that logic, so was I,"

"Do we have to keep talking about this?" Hunter buried his face in his hands.

Willow chuckled again and gently patted his shoulder, "Nah, but only because we're basically there!"

He scanned his surroundings and, yep, sure enough, there was a big sign pointing to a stadium that really didn't look too far away. He could also make out tall poles sticking out above it, a dead giveaway that this was a Flyer Derby Ground for someone as well-versed in this sport as him or Willow. He could feel his ears twitching, mostly from excitement, as both their paces quickened. Who could blame him, though? This was the first Flyer Derby game he was live-spectating, and he was here with his best friend! 

Willow picked up her pace as they approached, so Hunter copied her. They were actually here quite early, but, from the sounds of things, the challenge was beating the crowds rather than being late. He had heard many a time from Willow, and probably Gus too, that it was a real pain to get into the game if you got there too close to the door's opening time. That was a concept not too dissimilar to the scout training rings, so it was one he understood pretty well.

"There's a food stall inside, so we can go grab something once we've got in, if you'd like," still power-walking towards the entrance, Willow informed him.

"Will that make getting seats a problem?" he affirmed.

"Nah, I've booked seats. But if you're worried about it, I could just go for the both of us or something," she suggested. 

A snack wouldn't hurt really, but then he'd have to check the menu in advance, else he'd risk the embarrassment of telling Willow he couldn't have whatever she'd bought. The safe option here probably was to just deny the offer, but then again, if Willow was offering, that was implying that she herself did want to visit the food stall. Would she still go on her own? Ah, it was probably worth the risk.

"Well, I'm not particularly bothered. You go if you want something though, Captain, and I'll save the seats," he announced.

She gave him one of those curious looks, "Did you have lunch before coming? I know I definitely didn't have time to,"

Hunter frowned. What was this supposed to be about? Was it some kind of test!? In that case, he didn't know the correct answer that Willow was after, so the best choice was to just tell the truth.

"No, I didn't have time either. Why-"

"It's settled then, mister! We're both getting lunch in there!" confidently, she decided, "Why don't we just forget about the seats thing and go together,"

That at least solved the menu problem. He didn't have to search up menus on his scroll, he didn't have to bore Willow with his odd dietary habits, and it would seem that peace would be restored if he just went along with this. He didn't really know what the big deal about it all was, but if it made his Captain happier, it didn't matter that much to Hunter anyway.

"Okay," he agreed easily.

"Oh, and, Hunter..." slightly cautiously, Willow began, "That isn't like... a habit of yours, is it? I mean, as in, you don't skip meals because of time constraints regularly, do you?"

What scout didn't!?

"Huh? I wouldn't call it a habit, but if I'm supposed to be on duty or something, it doesn't matter that much, right?" blandly, he admitted.

"I'm taking you off for lunch more often..." Willow sighed and pinched her forehead.

Okay...? That was an odd thing to bring up. Not that Hunter was complaining about the chance o hang out with Willow more, but he was a tad concerned over why she suddenly seemed so worried about him. Was it not a normal thing to value your job? If citizens needed help, that was his responsibility! He couldn't skip patrol or a mission for a lunch break!

"If you insist," he shrugged, nonchalantly.

And then they were basically at the opening doors. Hunter shuffled behind Willow and watched her pull out the two tickets she'd bought. Knowing that second one was, for once, for him rather than Gus gave him a giddy feeling, even though it really shouldn't have. He was here in Gus's place because he'd finally taken time off, not really because Gus wasn't able to be here. It was his fault that he'd never seen a live game before, not his teammate's. But still. The ticket was for him!

A bored-looking witch punched a hole in the side of the tickets as they passed, using one of those contraptions that Hunter always forgot the name of and usually just ended up calling the 'reverse stapler thingies' (Hole-punchers, maybe?). Willow smiled and thanked them afterwards.

The food stall, as it turned out, was actually easier to reach before finding their seats anyway, so the two of them just headed straight there. Thinking about it, Willow must have already known it would be here, and that was why she was so... not worried about protecting their space in the actual stadium. Smart! And she'd tried to spare his feelings by not immediately telling him that he was wrong to worry over nothing. That was sweet. Willow was sweet.

"You wanna look over the menu, or just order quickly? I'm just going to get my usual, so..." Willow trailed off and smiled cheerfully.

"I'll check the menu. But! I'll be quick, promise!" Hunter vowed.

His Captain giggled, "Yeah, don't worry too much about it, though. We're here early, so you can take your time,"

Ignoring that piece of advice in favour of being as efficient as possible, Hunter skimmed the menu, eliminated the obvious things he knew he couldn't really have, and then chose the first thing that seemed alright. He pointed it out to Willow as soon as he got the chance. She seemed exasperated, but not surprised, at his speed.

She also didn't let him pay, just proclaiming, "It'd save even more time if I just cover for both of us, right?" teasingly.

And, well, Hunter wasn't going to complain. Most of his pay went to research materials these days, and Belos didn't actually need to pay him that much, anyway. He was working there willingly, and with the room and board provided, it hardly seemed fair to compensate him too heavily. For all intents and purposes, Willow was right, too; it was quicker to let one person handle everything. Besides, he could just pay her back next time! Easy! Oh, and doubly efficient. 

"Suit yourself," he conceded when she dug out a handful of snails to pay the cashier with.

He was just following again, after that. Funnily enough, he didn't know where their seats were by virtue of not having the tickets, so there would be no point to him leading. And, y'know, Willow was the Captain... This was her job! Sort of.

Not that it was particularly surprising, but when they got there, Hunter immediately noticed that Willow had picked out a highly opportune spot. There weren't going to be quite as many people cramped around them because they were along one of the shorter edges, and because they were just off the corner, their view of the game wasn't going to be blocked by the flag post either. Huh. In all honesty, he probably wouldn't have even thought to check for stuff like this if he'd been the one buying the tickets.

He leant against the railing and absorbed the look of the pitch. Seeing a proper Flyer Derby ground, for real games, not neighbourhood ones he played in (Even if Willow was definitely good enough to be in the big leagues up here), was enthralling. The flag poles looked shinier, the court cleaner, and the sky clearer! Though... That last one was a weather-based thing, wasn't it? And also quite possibly because the sky had only just been clearing from the recent storm of boiling rain when Hunter had last gone to practice earlier in the week. 

"So this is a real pitch then, huh," he mumbled, mostly to himself, but also sort of to Flapjack who was currently situated in his pocket.

A muffled chirp was returned to him and he grinned. 

"Yeah, I'm sure you've flown over one before, buddy. But not all of us are, what, four-hundred years old!" he rolled his eyes.

He was expecting an indignant little bird huff or perhaps a sharp tug on his loose strand of hair for that one, but Flapjack just went deathly silent. Maybe he'd pushed that one too far. Well, Hunter knew his palisman didn't like talking about their past, but they'd never reacted that badly to anyone mentioning that they were quite an old being before.

"Oh, uh, sorry. Didn't mean to dig in too much there," he whispered.

Flapjack sighed lightly and fluttered from his pocket to his shoulder. They didn't say anything, but the message was clear. It wasn't Hunter's fault and he was forgiven. Peculiar then, what exactly had happened, but it would probably be better to figure that out when he was alone with the bird. As it was right now, his Captain had seen them and was currently cooing over them.

"Aw, was Flapjack feeling lonely?" Willow questioned fondly.

"Something like that..." he dismissed, vaguely.

It could be loneliness, actually. If Flapjack's bad reaction was because reminding them of their age reminded them of their old witch, then maybe they were feeling lonely because they missed that old witch. But Hunter couldn't help but get the impression that there was more to it than that. Not that he really expected to find out why, though; Flapjack was usually extremely quiet on the matter of their past.

"Well, we have some time to kill before the game - I could get Clover out and they could play?" she suggested.

Hunter twisted his head to look at the bird on his shoulder. Flapjack ruffled their feathers and nodded.

"Yeah, sounds like a plan!" to Willow, before turning back to his palisman, "Just, uh, don't fly off too far, alright? I garner that it'd be easy to get lost amongst all these people,"

The stadium didn't look full per se, but there were already quite a lot of people here. Now, Hunter was used to large gatherings of people thanks to his time as a scout attending briefings, but this was on a whole other level. He'd hate to see what would happen to a small bird like Flapjack once the stands filled. Oh, and also, if Flyer Derby games got this busy, remind him to never go see a Grudgby game.

Willow agreed easily and summoned her palisman on a staff. Clover buzzed cheerfully before flying off with Flapjack, leaving Hunter good and proper alone with Willow. Instinctively, he shuffled a little closer inwards on his seat towards her. She didn't seem to notice. 

"Not that I expect you to be, but is there anything you're particularly looking out for in today's game?" unobtrusively, she asked.

"Uh, just anything that looks challenging, I suppose. I'd like to learn something from this," he nodded resolutely, "You know, to make it worth me coming and all that,"

Willow punched him lightly, "I feel like I have to point something like this out every time I hang out with you, man, but you really don't have to see this as some kind of goal-based thing. You decided to come because you heard I was going to be alone otherwise, right? Well, if it'll make you feel better, think about it this way - I'm already appreciating your company, so you've achieved your 'goal' just fine!"

"I guess..." Hunter smiled weakly, "Thanks,"

Titan, was he annoying Willow with this constant talk of goals and missions, then!? She seemed exasperated and maybe a little disappointed when she'd been commenting on the frequency of having such a conversation with him! Not good, not good! He surely needed to change the subject then, pronto!

But, ah, he'd just spoken, hadn't he! If he suddenly butted in again when it was really Willow's turn to input into the conversation, would it seem rude!? Argh, why did it always have o be so hard to keep even just one person pleased... Belos would surely have already sent him out of the room in disgrace if Hunter had upset him like this, by this point.

"No problem," his Captain smiled, "Just looking out for one of my players! And this is supposed to be your day off and all, so I figured you should probably be actually relaxing rather than stressing over if you're being productive enough with your time,"

Hunter frowned, "I don't like it when I'm being unproductive, though,"

"Not to worry, then," Willow tapped the frame on her glasses, "That's what I was saying about appreciating your company. I think you're doing good for me, so you're really not being unproductive, if you think about it,"

There, at least he was worth something. And if he was doing a good job, then he was impressing Willow! And if he was impressing Willow, he was solidifying his place on the team! Productive and impressive! And, well, it was nice to have a bit of a reprieve. Everything he did for Belos had to be perfect, because Hunter didn't want to be replaced. He didn't want Belos to ever have to see his faults and find someone better for the job. This was his thing! Without the Golden Guard, who was he? Willow's friend, he supposed, but that was a small title in comparison. (Not that it wasn't also a title he was proud to have.)

"Thanks again. It's nice to be trusted,"

His stomach twisted uncomfortably at his own words. Because did he really trust Willow? He knew he was always going to put his duties for the coven first and that made Willow a suspect, first and foremost. Nothing had happened in retaliation for the discovery of Luzura's identity with her, but equally, nothing had been said or done to actually deny her involvement in any of the thief's schemes. If... If his Captain truly was just innocuously friends with Luz the human, then why did Luz not clarify that? She could have told him if Willow was not involved. She would only have a reason to keep silent.... if she had something to hide.

"Agreed," distantly, from Willow.

The players from both teams began to fill the edges of the pitch, now. The game must have been about to start. Flapjack and Clover fluttered back over, returning to their respective witches. Hunter just ended up anxiously stroking his palisman's feathers, staring down at the soon-to-start game probably rather too intensely.

"See that guy on the purple team on the far right?" Willow interrupted his panic with a nudge and a point, "He and the girl next to him are known for this really incredible tag-team move. It's like, half-sling and half-trust fall,"

"Hm?" he shook himself out of his funk and questioned.

"Right, I might need to be a little clearer... Basically, one of them will either stop or reverse all of a sudden so that they end up sidled up right against the other. At that point, the second of them will use the edge of their staff to propel them around towards the flag pole. Works both defensively if they're being chased and offensively, as well. Hopefully we'll get to see it!" his Captain expounded cheerfully.

"You want us to try it or something?" somewhat alarmed, he queried. 

If Willow thought they could pull it off, he'd be happy to try, but...

She laughed, "Maybe one day. But it would take a lot of faith in your partner, y'know? I mean, they're literally handling the staff you're on! Imagine that, not being in control of what's keeping you in the air in an already dangerous place like the Flyer Derby grounds..."

Hunter gripped his seat a bit tighter with his free hand.

"I would say it sounds extra dangerous, but isn't Flyer Derby all about the danger?" weakly, he joked.

"It's not a sport for the faint of heart," she returned, grinning.

That had been the initial draw of it for him. A sport known for being exciting and only for those with skill in the sky? What better for someone trained like him!? He'd been right, of course, but the most militaristic part of him wondered if it had been for the best that he'd found Flyer Derby. He wouldn't have this horrible nagging feeling of distrust about Willow if he'd never started playing and hadn't met her. But that was stupid, right? He was glad he'd met Willow. Honestly.

A shrill whistle marked the game as beginning and crowds abruptly quietened slightly. Or, at the very least, the rambunctious chatter died down. It wasn't exactly quiet as people commented on opening moves and, most prominently, chanted for individual players or whole teams. Willow herself was joining in with that. She had a nice voice, in Hunter's opinion, but more importantly, she seemed to be cheering for the team in yellow. That was a good sign for him! His outfit could get away with being at least vaguely matching, then!

And then it started. The pair on the purple team that Willow had pointed out to him earlier converged together and dropped out of the formation the rest of their team was in. The one of them further to the left, the male player that had originally been pointed out to Hunter, spread both his hands out to the right and steadied them in a secure grip. They both then halted in midair to make it easier to build up new momentum. Then, that gripping player, the base of the trick, if you will, slotted the staff of the other player into his grip and began to swing. The other player trusted him entirely, her face the picture of confidence. 

That changed comically when the swing turned out to be just a bit too forceful and she toppled out of the base's grip, hurtling towards the ground.

She was caught on the staff of another member of her team, so there were thankfully no injuries, but the matching wince on both her and the base's expression told a different story. Her staff was awkwardly returned to her and they got back into the game. 

"That's gonna really dampen team morale," Willow commented with a wince of her own.

"Aren't you rooting for the other team?" not taking his eyes off the game, Hunter responded.

"Doesn't mean I can't feel for them still," she shrugged.

Hunter got what she meant, watching the rest of the game. Objectively, he was supposed to be supporting the yellow team, the one that Willow had clearly chosen as superior, but whenever the purple team snagged a flag or pulled off some kind of impressive manoeuvre, he was still impressed. And that meant, just like his Captain, he still felt a little bad when they failed dismally. Like when it proved to really not be their day and one of them managed to land herself in a solo battle with one of the yellow players. When the field was still mostly full like this, that was always dangerous for both players involved.

Looking a little closer, it also became clear that the player for the purple team was that same player who's been flung off of her staff in the swing move earlier. Huh, she really had some guts, then. 

At first, it seemed that it had been the yellow player who had lured the purple out into this chase (Which most of the crowd and even some of the other players seemed to be paying attention to, now...), but watching until the end gave a whole new perspective. Th purple player seemed confident in being chased, a fact that made a lot more sense when the yellow team's distraction watching this duel caused a couple of their flags to be stolen by more focused purple players. Formation rejoined for both sides after that, as the yellow player gave up on his hunt.

It was almost scary how well that had worked out for the purple team. Once again, Hunter was impressed. It wasn't that the purple team was extremely unlucky; it had just been that that one purple player had been able to fool everyone else, including the other involved in the chase, into thinking that she was in a bit of a bad spot. But she'd had it under control the whole time, hadn't she?

Hunter's communicator buzzed in his pocket.

He frowned. That was... strange. If he wasn't so concerned with being the best soldier for Belos, he probably would have just left it at home, but that didn't mean he'd been at all expecting to use it. Cautiously, he retrieved the device and brought it to his ear, to see what exactly was going down. He wasn't entirely sure who would be trying to bother him, though. (Well, he didn't know who, but he was still hoping that it wasn't Kiki all the same.)

"Hello...?" hesitantly, he greeted the static on the line, "Golden Guard here,"

Blight's voice was clipped and panicked when it came through, "Inspector! Emergency! I think... I think we've been played,"

Played!? He sat up, suddenly very alert. He couldn't be at a sports game just... watching if some kind of breach had been made at the security division. Had someone broken in? Found out when exactly he was taking a break and used that as an opportunity? That information shouldn't be available to the public, but...

"Blight, what happened? Do I need to leave, or is it just guidance you need, or-" uneasily, he questioned.

His fellow inspector didn't answer for a moment.

"You're at the Flyer Derby Game with Willow, right?" carefully, Blight confirmed.

"Huh? Yes. But about-" he was cut off by his colleague cursing loudly over the line.

"I think it might have all been a distraction," her voice dropping in both volume and pitch, becoming gravelly and abruptly deadly serious, Blight grit out, "Luzura's breached the castle again. She might have- She knows you're off-duty right now - it has to be intentional,"

Hunter froze. Then did Willow...?

"A-Alright, Blight. I'll be there shortly. Meet me there," he managed to get out before shoving the communicator back into his pocket.

He'd let his guard down after dealing with Luzura last time. This was unacceptable. His Uncle would never allow it, so Hunter wasn't going to allow it. He must have said this just about every time he'd seen Luzura, but this was the time he was really gunning for it to be true; today, Luzura was going down.

"Did something come up for work?" innocently enough, Willow asked.

He rounded on her, closing off his expression, "You could say that," he spoke evenly, "But then again, you knew this was going to happen, didn't you?"

Something in the recesses of Hunter's memory (Yeah, it had only been a week, but it had been a long week, okay?) stirred with all this talk of a big Luzura mission. This wasn't the first time he'd heard of Luz doing something big today, was it? Back at the restaurant, the reason Gus wasn't here was because he was 'helping Luz's mentor with a big sale'. But if Luz's mentor was Edalyn and Gus was helping her and Luz with something... That could only mean that Gus was at the Castle right now. Which also meant that he and Blight had messed up big time in not realising that connection sooner.

Willow's smile fell, "Hunter, I-"

"No, save it. You knew about that... sale thing with Luz, so knew that something big was going down today. You let me come along to keep me out of the way," frostily, he accused.

"I know what Luz wanted to do, yes," slowly, she responded, "And I knew she planned to try it today. But I'm not involved with it. It's not my job to get involved like that,"

"Then what is your job?" retorted Hunter, scathingly.

All that worry about trust? Yeah, nevermind, apparently he'd been completely correct to hav his doubts about Willow. Even if she seemed sweet, and nice, and like a good captain, she was not someone he should have placed his faith in. That'd teach him... He'd arrest her right here if he didn't have more pressing matters to attend to.

"I'll back Luz up when she needs it - I'm her friend. I support her and..." Willow faltered, "I'm sorry, Hunter, but I support her cause. And I know that you truly believe in the Emperor, and I respect you for that, but I don't and can't," she gave a funny sort of smile, "I can feel for you when it comes crashing down like this, but I'm not going to go against Luz, or tell her to stop,"

"Then you realise this criminalises you, right?"

"I do. But I also realise that that probably hurts you more than it hurts me, right?" Willow offered wryly.

Hunter refused to answer that one. Maybe it was true.

"Listen, I'm still going to consider you a friend. You're free to do the same for me, but if you'd rather prioritise your job..." she sighed, "I can't say I'd be surprised. If you want to leave, go. I just want you to remember the game so far for the good, and not what's happening right now, I guess,"

It felt unfair to leave her behind like this, but, seriously, he was the Golden Guard; he couldn't just wait around with a criminal when the Emperor, his uncle, could be in danger. That wasn't who he was. So, sorry, Willow, but you aren't the person he thought you were, but maybe he isn't entirely the one you thought he was either.

"You can message me if you need me for any Flyer Derby business," impassively, he announced, "Goodbye, Willow,"

And then he ran off through the crowds, ignoring their protests at him blocking their view, and made for the exit. He had a castle to get to.

Suffice to say, things were really not going too great for Amity. She lets Luzura go free as thanks for her help and then, what, the next thing she goes and does is break into the freaking Emperor's Castle!? That was on Amity. That was her fault... The only thing she could really do now was do absolutely everything in her power to make sure Luz didn't succeed at her mission, whatever it was.

She was currently in the process of flying over to the Castle, thankfully seeming quite near it by this point. Hunter was yet nowhere to be seen, but was coming from further away than her, and did have something to actually get out of. Maybe it wasn't that surprising. It was still spiking her anxiety levels regardless, though. She, quite reasonably so, just didn't want to be on a mission of this importance on her own. She was still technically an intern for Titan's sake!

Ghost mewled comfortingly, but it didn't really help much. The Castle's tower was in plain view now. Amity shifted uneasily in place as she slowed down to safely approach. 

A short, furious-looking demon was stood at the entrance, flanked by a legion of scouts. Her one visible eye twitched when she saw Amity and she approached with a certain... theatrical movement.

"Who are you?" she questioned, snootily, "And what is your business here?"

"Inspector Amity Blight, ma'am, here to deal with the break-in," 

The demon rolled her eye and sighed, seeming very unimpressed with the whole situation. Feeling a little uncomfortable, Amity pulled out her ID, just to prove she wasn't some kind of shifty Luzura-supporter. (Even though you could maybe say she was after what happened with the thief last time...)

"Kikimora, ma'am?" a scout captain spoke up.

Kikimora? That wouldn't happen to be the full version of the infamous 'Kiki' that Hunter spoke of, would it? If so, Amity instantly didn't like her. Not that she seemed particularly likeable anyway...

The demon rounded on her, "Yes, Captain?"

"That's the Golden Guard's partner. They were both summoned,"

"Should have known that snivelling brat would have needed help to do his job..." Kikimora muttered, just a tad too loudly to not be heard, "Fine then, scouts, let her through," she finished, boredly.

Amity narrowed her eyes and glared at the demon as she passed through. Don't get her wrong, Hunter wasn't her best friend or anything, but it was hard to feel at least a little bad for him whenever he brought up 'Kiki', so she was allowed to be a bit petty right now. But not that petty, because she was kind of in a rush here.

A scout offered some words of advice just as she was going by them, "The break-in's on the top floor, near the Emperor's private quarters, I hear. The Golden Guard could probably show you, but he's-"

"Right here," tiredly, Hunter announced. 

Titan, did he need to turn this into a stealth mission? He was supposed to be sneaking up on Luzura, not Amity! He looked as though he'd just teleported here, though. Red sparks were still flying off of him, his staff (the artificial one) was in hand, and his posture looked somewhat drained. Fair enough, if he had just jumped across the Isles with magic, that would be pretty impressive.

"Oh, Golden Guard, how lovely of you to grace us with your presence," sweetly, but also forcefully (So definitely a little too sweetly...) Kikimora greeted.

"Save it, Kiki. We've got bigger problems," sharply, he barked at her.

The demon rolled her eyes and ground her foot downwards, but Amity could tell that she probably agreed. Maybe bullying Hunter was some kind of mechanism for her, then. She probably needed to see a therapist rather than the Emperor then, but then again, you could maybe say the same thing for Amity, so she was just going to keep her mouth shut. Plus, you know, more pressing matters and all that...

"You need to show me around the top floor," she stated.

"Excuse me?" Hunter seemed a tad taken aback. 

Ah, right, his room was probably on that floor too, thinking about it. Presumably, the Emperor would keep his precious nephew's quarters close, so Amity really wouldn't be all that surprised to learn that Hunter was just embarrassed about his lodgings right about then.

"Luzura? The break-in?" she raised an eyebrow, "It's all happening on that floor, apparently," she started to sprint towards and through the entrance, "And we don't have time to kill dawdling, so hurry up!"

Hunter was wearing his full uniform, but as he began to approach her, she could hear him gritting his teeth together through the slight echo of his mask. 

"Fine," he relented, "Just... don't mess anything up, okay? The Emperor's equipment is expensive,"

They rounded a corner.

"Who do you think I am!? Please, I'd be just as dead if I broke something back at my mom's house, and I grew up there!" Amity retorted.

As proven by the time Edric and Emira had broken a vase and blamed it on her... That hadn't been a fun week.

"I guarantee that upsetting the Emperor would be much, much worse..." her colleague promised.

"Okay, but-"

Someone who was very defiantly neither Amity nor Hunter laughed. They both froze.

"You going to keep bickering, or ar we gonna fight or what?" Luzura chuckled, waiting, perched upside down in a vent in the ceiling.

Amity retreated to stand straight at Hunter's side.

"Gus said he was involved in this big operation today, right?" Hunter prompted, at little more than a whisper.

"So is this an illusion or the real deal?" she finished.

The thief rolled out of the vent and assumed a fighting stance. Amity complied with the clear request by summoning an abomination whilst Hunter held his staff out protectively in front of him.

"Only one way to find out..."

Chapter Text

Well, it certainly didn't seem like an illusion! That was what Amity immediately noted when she had to roll out of the way of a rather large fireball being shot down the corridor toward her and Hunter. It could be revenge for the other day, as well, where Amity had maybe gone a little crazy shooting fireballs at Luz... But this could also be a coincidence. She couldn't take everything at face value. 

Instead, she left Hunter to deal with the immediate threat (Hopefully his amour was fireproof...) and went to seal up the exits. Her abomination stayed with Hunter, acting as defence for him, if she'd commanded it correctly. Using her remaining abomination goo though, Amity created thin, but elastic and strong, barriers from floor to ceiling, trapping them in. Effectively, she'd just created a space where the only way out was through the ceiling vent Luz had come through. Not that any of them could reach it...

"Duck!" she yelled out to Hunter in warning before taking a page out of her parents' book and making her next move summoning some more abomination goo and then flinging it as a shot at Luzura. 

Fortunately, her colleague got what she meant quick enough for him to perform some kind of dodge roll to get out fo the way. He ended up as a bit of a crumpled heap on the floor, though. Maybe Amity could just... tag him out and take over as the main combatant. 

She approached him as he rose back up, "I'll take the focus off of you. Just get in a good hit for me, okay?" 

Hunter nodded.

It was a tad strange, Amity noted, that Luzura didn't seem to have anything on her, but then again, they also didn't know what she'd come to steal or why, so it was possible that she'd come for something small that could be hidden beneath her cloak in a pocket or the likes, or she'd come for something non-physical. This could perhaps be a reconnaissance mission. 

Luzura jabbed at her with her leg, aiming for the knees. Amity dodged this with a well-timed counterstrike from her abomination. And by that, she meant she got her abomination to thrust its fist against Luzura's foot, sending the thief flying backwards as she stumbled off balance.

It was quite odd, though. Observing Luzura fight today, she was a lot more physical than usual. It might have been because the exits were all sealed, so unlike basically every other encounter she'd had with Luz, the thief wasn't running. That could force her to have to act more violent to survive. This time, she couldn't just mack a piece of paper in Amity's face and make a break for it; she'd have to be more tactical, and more brutish. Unless, of course, all this speculation was entirely wrong and this was just someone pretending to be Luzura with an illusion. 

"Hey!" she called over to Hunter, "You know any spells to reveal illusions?"

"No!" he shouted back, sounding baffled, "Do you!?"

She blocked an uppercut from Luzura with a wad of abomination goo, "No, I'm an abomination witch! Why would I know about illusions!? You're the one with the Emperor's Coven!"

Hunter fell silent for a moment. There wasn't really time to dwell on that, though. Because, you know, Amity was actively being attacked. Luzura stamped a glyph into the ground, causing a sheet of ice to envelope Amity's boots, limiting movement greatly. Despite what she'd told Hunter about being an abomination itch, she would say she had one other speciality, actually. Amity smirked. Fire.

"I couldn't do anything complex like that with this staff, Blight!" he eventually spoke, as he appeared behind Luzura to spar with her whilst Amity freed herself.

"Then just, don't use the staff!" she countered.

It probably wasn't the best idea to be yelling out her plans whilst the enemy was in earshot. But, to be honest, she had little other choice here. She could hardly just pull Hunter aside and whisper a plan to him whilst being attacked.

"I can't!" he grit his teeth and replied.

Could Hunter not...? Well, Amity had only ever seen him do magic with a staff... Funny though, she hadn't known if it was possible to use palismen staffs without magic. It seemed to be, though, if her current working theory about Hunter was correct. And that theory did explain not only why her colleague had two staff, but also why he had the privilege of one of them being artificial. 

"Okay, then... Do you know the spell still or not?" she improvised.

"Well..." Hunter hesitated, "In theory? I've read about it, if that would help,"

They swung back at Luzura in tandem, with Amity aiming high with her abomination and Hunter performing a sweep at the thief's knees. She crumpled on the floor and paused to catch her breath.

"Teach me! Quickly, just tell me how to do it whilst she'd down, and-" Amity burst out.

"Hold on, I don't know if I can-" Hunter rambled nervously.

"Both of you hold on!" Luzura shouted, "If you think I'm an illusion, why don't you just try and feel through it? It would only be an illusion, y'know," 

Oh. An eminently reasonable point. But why was Luzura telling them this?

"You're... saying that to trick us," uncertainly, Hunter spoke up, "Or to distract us!"

"Hey!" Luz held up her hands, "I'm just giving you a tip! You're the ones deadset on figuring out my identity, not me!"

Cautiously, Amity stepped forward and lifted the fabric of the cuff of Luzura's sleeves. It was real, alright. And it was in the same shape it appeared as, so that heavily implied it was real. That in itself heavily implied that this was Luzura. The real one.

"It's her," she nodded at Hunter.

"Oh," he brightened up, "Cool! So, uh, do we just arrest her now, or...?"

"Wait! Wait, wait, wait!" Luz pulled a face and pleaded.

Interesting. Luz had never pleaded before, either. But, then again, she'd never really been truly cornered. She'd just been playing with Amity whenever it seemed like she'd been stuck. It would be tiresome to list off all the examples, but a certain incident with magic-restricting abomination goo came to mind.

"As you can probably tell, I haven't actually gotten to the Emperor's Chambers yet, so there's not really a need to take me in," she bargained.

Amity raised an eyebrow, "You're a wanted criminal,"

Luzura stared at her, "But you let me go last time! And I was still a wanted criminal then, wasn't I?" slyly, she put in.

Stricken, Amity froze and side-eyed Hunter. He seemed somewhat shocked if his posture was anything to go by. Fair enough... She would be surprised if someone were to tell her she was going to do something like that too. She wouldn't actually even go as far as to say she regretted (Luz had been... surprisingly agreeable that day. It had been kinda nice.)

"That was different. It was a matter of mutual interest..." Amity fervently denied it being just maybe a little because she hadn't wanted to take Luzura in, that time.

Luz pouted, "Okay, fine... But what about you, Hunter? You did the same thing! What's stopping you now?"

"You helped Luzura!?" Amity burst out, before he could get a chance to reply.

Hunter dug his boot into the ground, "So did you!"

"That was different! She helped free me, so I owed her one!" 

"My time was different too!" he argued, "I was- She told me what I wanted to hear! And..." then Hunter mumbled something.

Stonily, Amity approached him, hand on hip. 

"What was that?" she demanded.

"Flapjack told me to let her go... She was just trying to help out some palismen, so I just let it slide..." he sighed, miserably.

Luzura seemed to be remarkably good at getting what she wanted. She'd beaten both Amity and Hunter in fights before, and it seemed she'd defeated both of them with her way of words too. But she always seemed so genuine... Contrary to what Hunter seemed to believe, Amity didn't think Luz was just saying all the right things; the thief seemed truthful and just purely kind whenever she lowered herself to talking, in Amity's opinion. Maybe in some weird way, she trusted Luz.

Not right now, obviously. Right now Luz was on her way to rob the Emperor.

"If that's what you think, then how about we stop bickering and get back to our jobs?" she offered, "You thought she was tricking you before? Well, she's definitely tricking you now,"

Luz didn't necessarily seem to be trying to manipulate them as such, but that didn't mean she wasn't scrambling to escape her current situation with words. 

"Deal," Hunter lowered himself back into a combat staff and stole the first hit.

Amity moved in sync with her abomination to simultaneously block Luzura's easiest dodge route from Hunter's assault and land a solid hit.

"If she's the real deal, we might have caught her early enough to stop the attack," Amity suggested.

"The scouts can keep guard upstairs, in case her allies are here," Hunter agreed, "We can stay fighting here,"

Luz jumped to her feet and swerved left, swinging herself around Amity (and the abomination) using a set of vines. With a flick of her wrist though, the abomination was now after the thief, melting and then reforming right in front of her. That classic fireball trick was used again to give Luz space to literally dive through it, but Hunter appeared to stop her with a teleport as the abomination had already begun to stitch itself back together. 

Nodding slightly to Hunter to signal her presence, Amity dove into the fray, striking Luzura from behind. To her credit, the thief was just as good as ever, but it wasn't going to be good enough once the abomination was back in commission. In other words, they were basically just stalling until they could properly contain Luz.

Unfortunately, Amity had actually forgotten a very much signature Luzura move that, yes, she had seen before... The thief winked before literally vanishing. That invisibility spell again! If Luzura made for the vents now, they wouldn't even be able to tell...

She reappeared over the other side of the corridor and winked before disappearing again. Amity narrowed her eyes. Luz was having fun with this...

"Jump!" she commanded to Hunter.

Thankfully, he complied easily and swiftly enough, so when she slammed her fist to the floor and her abomination disassembled into a sea of goo on the floor, the only one caught in it was Luz, making her position rather obvious. A set of footprints also started to appear in the purple pattern on the floor. And just like that, they had an easy way of tracking her.

Amity glided over to where Luzura's tracks were headed on her staff and grabbed a fistful of what only appeared to be thin air. But ti wasn't. Obviously. Fabric was rubbing and straining against the palm of her hand in a last-ditch effort attempt to get free. Luzura gasped out a breath of air and continued trying to get free, ending her spell and revealing herself in the process. 

Something wasn't right.

Amity almost dropped the cloak when she noticed it, but just about managed to hang on despite her shock. She stopped and examined the seams stretched across her hand. They were still well-made, but they didn't sparkle with magic, and they weren't thick and buzzing to the touch. This was no witches' wool cloak and thus this was no Luzura either...

"Inspector!" she grimaced at the effort of holding the Luzura-impostor down and yelled, "The spell!"

"The illusion one? I thought you said that we didn't need it!" he contended.

"Yeah, well, I was wrong! This is not Luzura!" she declared, almost proudly. 

The impostor froze and stopped struggling. They looked at Amity almost wearily and sighed. Hunter approached cautiously, looking between the two of them.

Still speaking in Luzura's voice, the impostor asserted, "Okay, okay, you caught me. I'm not the real Luzura.." 

"Then reveal yourself," Amity mandated.

The impostor made a so-so gesture and winked, perhaps apologetically if you were to squint. Just to be safe, Amity bound their feet using the abomination goo from the floor. It could be broken if the impostor really tried, but they didn't seem to be up for that right now.

"I think I'd rather not," amused, the illusionist proclaimed.

Hunter sidled up to her, "Why do you care so much? We can arrest them either way for trespassing, and aren't we nearly sure that it's Gus anyway?"

She stared harshly at the impostor.

"Because this is one of Luzura's friends... You know how many times we've had her and she's gotten away? We need a backup plan for securing this illusionist if they get away," she whispered, hoping the impostor wouldn't pick up on anything she'd just said. Depends on how advanced they were with their magic, really.

Amity tightened the abomination goo shackles around the illusionist's ankles, just for good measure. Beside her, Hunter craned his neck, likely getting a good reading of the situation for himself. She just tried to wait patiently for him to get on about teaching her this spell.

Strangely enough, he made no move to speak. Instead, her colleague took off his cloak and warped behind the impostor. Amity only realised what exactly he was trying to do when he tied the fabric around the illusionist's waist and arms. He also kept his stance light and prepared. Okay, he had just been making sure he was ready for the worst, then.

"Just in case you lose concentration on the, uh, abomination stuff," he noted lightly.

"Jut get on with this spell you read about..." she sighed.

She even had Ghost out ready whilst she waited for him! Having a palismen should make things much easier for her, even if Ghost didn't exactly know anything about this particular spell either, on account of her only ever having been Amity's palisman. 

"Right!" Hunter jumped to attention and began to exposit, "Do you know any other basic illusion spells? The book said it was conceptually really similar. Like... the breaking down of an abomination versus forming,"

Amity rolled her eyes, "My brother and sister both studied illusions - yes, I do know the basics,"

All the while this was going on, the impostor was watching, seemingly intrigued. Or maybe they just liked seeing people bicker.

"Great! Then just, make like you're going to do something like that and rewind it," he nodded, "It's like I said too - just think about it as doing something like how you changed your abomination into this," he pointed a gloved hand at the floor dramatically, "Earlier,"

Amity let out a deep breath and drew a spell circle with her staff. It was wobbly, and not quite a perfect circle yet, signalling that the spell wasn't quite complete either. She reached out her free hand and tried to shape it. It was like rewinding a basic spell, Hunter had said... She pictured the image of Luz blowing off of the impostor and respun the circle. It wobbled and wavered a few times, but eventually complied and fixed into place, glowing a brilliant pink.

A breeze blew out from just in front of Amity, rushing forward and then congregating around the impostor. It ripped the seams of their illusion off, leaving, sure enough, one Augustus Porter remaining, just as Hunter had predicted. 

"Hi?" he offered.

Amity pulled her head up in triumph, "I think we're done here. Inspector, you go find the real Luzura, and I'll make sure this one doesn't pull anything funny,"

Hunter rose slowly. He seemed a little unsure at first, but did still end up dashing off after Amity lowered her corridor blockers. She could only hope that he would reach the thief in time... She grimaced at the thought and turned to face the illusionist.

"Augustus," she acknowledged.

"Amity..." Gus pulled a face, "I prefer Gus,"

"Then it's 'Inspector Blight' to you," coldly, she asserted.

Gus clutched his head wearily and shot her a look. Despite being the criminal here (And the one currently tied up - yes, still with Hunter's cloak), he looked supremely unimpressed. Perhaps that made sense. Perhaps he was just salty that he'd lost.

"Right, whatever... I see you're with the Emperor now, Blight," impassively, he stared her down.

"You already knew that," she rebuked.

"Couldn't exactly ask about it before, though, could I?" he winked, "Couldn't risk compromising Luz's identity,"

For context, Amity had also unfortunately known Gus before she'd been pulled from Hexside too. She hadn't known much about him as a kid, other than that he was Willow's best friend and a prodigy. Half the kind of kid her mom had wanted her to be... She was pretty sure it was obvious which half that was. Oh, and she'd forgotten one to mention one other thing; Gus had absolutely hated her guts. Probably for good reason, but she was much too prideful to ever admit that out loud.

"No, but there's hardly anything to add about it. I'm on the right side of the law, not about to be arrested and, well... I can't quite say that about you," smugly, she shrugged.

"Or... You could phrase it as I'm the one not working for a tyrant and you? Well, I can't quite say that about you..." smirking, he mirrored.

"Save it," Amity held up her hand as means to silence him, "The Emperor's got some ideas that I don't agree with, but I still think he's a good man, looking out for the good of the Isles,"

She didn't agree with the coven system principally, but she also couldn't deny that it worked. Maybe seeing her dad toil away until his coven took over his life added to that. She just also didn't like the idea of sealing away her potential for doing magic outside of her main branch. 

"I wasn't really talking bout the Emperor himself. I more meant how you could be so close with Luz despite your allegiance to him," Gus clarified impassively.

"I am not close to Luz," Amity spat.

"I heard about the Carnival incident, though. And you just let her go free there, right?" he leaned in and hummed, feigning disinterest.

But Amity could see the vindictive pleasure he was getting from pushing her like this. He was either stalling, messing with her, or both. And, yeah, surprise, surprise, she wasn't really up for either.

"I'll tell you what I told the Golden Guard - it was a matter of moral obligation. I owed her, nothing more," curtly, she stated.

"Sure. It's just that I heard something a little different from Luz... She was talking as if you two had made significant progress together. I assumed you must have been some kind of sleeper agent amongst the scout ranks, then,"

"Well, I'm not, so you can just stop talking now," Amity hissed.

"Many souls much braver than you and I have tried that one. Here's a tip, it doesn't work," Gus grinned, happily.

Amity groaned and stalked off to pace just in front of Gus. The best move would probably just to call in for some scouts to be dispatched to escort Gus to the Conformatorium. She actually wasn't sure why she'd put that off until now. Maybe she had actually been a little intrigued by what the illusionist was saying.

"How about you just talk to yourself or something, then, rather than me," frustrated, she suggested.

"If you insist," modestly, Gus nodded before conjuring up an illusion version of himself.

"Looking good today, Gus!" the illusion complimented.

"Why, thank you! You too!" the illusionist returned.

Her fist tightened at her side as she made the necessary notice to scout divisions for assistance in the arrest. This was going to be really annoying. At least it wouldn't be her problem soon. 

It was a blessing when a small legion of scouts showed up a few minutes later. She pointed at Gus with gritted teeth and loosened the grip her goo had on his ankles just enough for him to be moved. (The scouts also untied Hunte's cloak and chucked it to her when they handcuffed him. Great.) He didn't say anything as he was carted off, which was suspicious in itself, but what worried Amity was his nonchalance. The exact same Luzura usually carried herself with. She'd have to ask for extra care to be taken to guarding his cell or something.

But in the meantime, it was time to stop worrying about the future and pondering what Gus had been on about in regards to Luz and just actually go do her job. After all, she could hardly just leave Hunter to deal with someone as slippery as Luz alone, right? This was a mission calling for her, and she was definitely up for that.

(She'd deny being excited to see Luz again, even if it was only for the thrill of the challenge of facing her, anyway, though.)

It was certainly possible that letting Eda and King free to go loot the rest of the Castle hadn't been that good of an idea, in hindsight, because now Luz had to go find them. And they all had to escape. Before Amity and Hunter and whoever else were here caught them. Gus had definitely reported at least those two were here, but with some luck, he was still detaining them. She hadn't the foggiest where her other two companions could have gotten to, though.

Would now be a good time to mention that she had at least been successful? That's right, she'd done it again! 'Luzura Clawthorne' had just pulled off another heist against the Emperor! Assuming she didn't get caught on the way out... She'd stuffed her prize in a small grey sack, which she could easily swing around to keep safe. (It would also make a pretty good weapon too, come to think of it...)

Right now, her plan was to reach the outside of the Castle and use the outer walls as her paths in meeting up with Eda and King. It would also be a heck of a lot easier to radio in Eda and King (Or Lilith, if necessary) from outside, where she could safely stop and would be less likely to be heard. 

So there she was, madly dashing for the nearest window, wherever in this stupid tower that may be (She'd gotten a tad lost...), clutching a rather ordinary-looking, but crucially important sack, whilst also trying to listen out for scouts. That last one was pretty hard when you considered the air rushing by her and the fact that she had to keep her hood up. Fluttering fabric was obstructive when it needed to be. Or, more accurately, when Luz didn't need it to be...

To make matters worse, as soon as she rounded a corner and saw a weary shaft of daylight pushing through, she got a call from Gus. Not a good one either.

"Luz," he whispered into his earpiece, "We've got a bit of a code red,"

Already!? She nearly froze in alarm.

"They got away?" she winced at the sharp edge to her tone.

"Yeah, sorry... They got the best of me... Bunch of scouts are taking me to the conformatorium, now," he paused for a moment, "Good news is, I kept at it for a while, so Hunter only left about five minutes ago, and I literally just saw Amity leave,"

"No worries, I think I can see the exit. Just, think you can radio Eda and King for me? And tell them to rendezvous on the western tower's wall," she instructed, trying to keep a cool head at this major disruption.

Gus had gotten arrested!? It felt like they had had such a good streak recently that actually getting caught was out of the question. And, well, Gus was one of the most powerful witches she knew... It was a little hard to imagine him being beaten. Even if he was being severely handicapped by the fact that he had to maintain her image up the entire time... 

"Can do. Good luck, Luz," Gus agreed.

"Wait, wait, Gus?" she jabbed at the window latch, "We'll get you out, I promise,"

"Not if I get myself out first," he joked, "But, yeah, thanks. Appreciate- Shoot,"

"What happened?" she grimaced and questioned as she swung one leg out fo the window.

"Well, we're moving now. I'll try and get hold of Eda and King, still, don't worry, but-" Gus cut himself off by ending the connection.

He'd been barely even whispering back then. That was a bad sign. Was he alright? Dammit, dammit! This was her fault! She'd dragged Gus along on this mission, made him miss the Flyer Derby game with Willow, and she'd gotten him caught! She'd make it up to him when this was all over. She had to. 

There was a small ledge that made its way around the tower (Hopefully the west one) just under the windowsill. Luz slid down onto it and leaned up to shut the window. Somethign grabbed at her sleeve.

She tried to pull away, as would be the sensible move, but it was a firm hold. She grunted and wrangled a glyph out of her cloak with her teeth. She had to slam her cheek against it whilst holding it on her shoulder to activate it... Vines shot out and back through the window, snaking around the wrist of her assailant and pulling them out with her. They yelped as they moved and, yep, that was Hunter.

So, now she had the Golden Guard dangling out the window with her. It was quite a miserable scene, actually. She was holding onto the windowsill for dear life, Hunter only hadn't fallen to his certain death thanks to vine tangled around the both of them, and even the sky had managed to cloud over morosely. Jeez, was it gonna rain again? She couldn't take another day cooped up in the Owl House!

"Human!" Hunter let out a strangled cry.

"If I, uh, let you go, are you going to fall and die?" casually, she asked.

"Quite possibly," he snorted, "I can't reach my staff,"

"Oh, okay," she stared at him, somewhat amused, perhaps taking pleasure out of teasing the guy who had just arrested Gus, "So I should just drop you?"

"Luz Noceda, if you let me go right now-" he started, sounding almost threatening for once.

She was definitely being a little too mean. It wasn't like she was even considering actually hurting Hunter, but she did kind of need to lose him here, and she did kind of want revenge... He probably deserved a good scare, anyway. 

Wordlessly, she lowered herself onto the ledge she'd been aiming for before, allowing her hands some freedom. This was used to pull out a certain glyph and strap it to Hunter before she untangled the vines off of him. She activated the glyph before shoving him lightly off of the ledge. It was fine. She'd just given him a safety hover glyph!

She then began to sidle around the tower swiftly, keeping an eye out for Eda and/or King. Okay, so, it probably did seem a little strange that she hadn't just left by herself at this point, but there was a reason for that. Or two. See, one, she was Luz Noceda; she wasn't just going to leave her family behind! Eda and King were not going to end up being yet more people she inadvertently got arrested today. And two? Eda was kinda, sorta, maybe her lift out of here.

Now that she was in a vaguely safe position, she felt secure enough to try something. Luz reached up and activated her earpiece, connecting it to Eda's frequency with a push of the top button. 

"Eda?" she hissed into it.

"Now's really not the time, kiddo! Boots is on our tail here!" Eda dismissed.

That gave her pause. Amity already, huh? But she kinda liked Amity! She didn't want to have to fight her in such a high-stakes situation! Ever since they'd talked about Azura together at the restaurant, she'd only ever been in small conflicts (Relatively) with the inspector, and she'd really prefer to keep it that way. But if Eda and King were in trouble... Luz was left with little choice.

"Well, then, where are you?" she demanded.

"By the Golden Guard's room! Save us, Luz!" King whined into Eda's earpiece.

"No, she is not coming," firmly, Eda commanded, "We're not actually in a fight yet, Luz, so there's no point in you showing up. You can't risk compromising the mission like this. If worst comes to the worst, I'll just send Owlbert to come pick you up,"

"Don't worry, buddy," ignoring Eda, Luz assured King, "I'm on my way,"

She pulled out the map Lilith had made of the Castle and marked down where Eda was, hoping she could also approximate her own location correctly. It hadn't really mattered before to know exactly where she was, but now? Now she was going to have to rely on her Noceda luck.

"Luz-" Eda tried to intervene.

"Love you two!" she signed off before cutting the connection.

She hurried along the ledge as fast as possible, but that wasn't exactly as speedy as she would have hoped on the account of, you know, the fact that it was quite shallow and falling to certain doom wasn't going to help anyone, here. It didn't help that she still had to keep a slight eye out for Hunter, in case he'd managed to gather himself enough to try arresting her for the whatever-number-it-was-now's time already.

Her surroundings seemed to suggest that she wasn't too far from Eda and King, actually. If she just took a right here... Luz hopped over to a different section of the tower using some vines and grappled onto a ledge there. Relying on the Noceda luck seemed to be working, because she could see a window that she recognised from mapping the place out the first time as Hunter's. Luz smirked.

So, if she just carried on around slightly further than Hunter's window (Hey, she wasn't going to completely invade his privacy by breaking into his room.) and swing herself through that! Doing exactly that was the easy part.

It was immediately obvious once she got inside that Amity had indeed been here. Drops of abomination goo were splattered all down the corridor, some with feathers stuck in them, a sure-fire sign of Eda's presence too. She ran madly down this corridor, following th trail of carnage. When she came to close enough to who she was hoping were Eda, King and Amity, he slapped an invisibility glyph on for good measure. And then she approached.

The scene she saw was... Well, it was something alright. And not something she particularly liked.

Eda had shifted into her harpy form and was locked into combat with Amity. Well, combat made it sound like they were actively fighting at that moment. Really, Eda had her wings and feet tied down with abomination goo whilst Amity struggled to free herself from a grip of talons. King was stuck upside down in the corner. Luz rushed to deal with him first.

"Luz?" he whispered excitedly when he felt her start to try and tug him free.

"Shush!" she silenced, but that was good a giveaway as ever. Her glyph wore off with her words, but she was able to quickly slap another one on, thankfully.

Stopping the other two was going to be harder. To be honest, she didn't really want to hurt either of them, but especially not Eda. She could talk Eda down just by revealing herself, but Amity? Amity would need to be stopped. Shame really. Luz thought the inspector looked pretty cool as was. Part of her hair had fallen out and was drooping in front of her ear. You could see where it went from Amity's natural colour to dyed too. So, yeah, kind of a cool look, in Luz's opinion.

Well, uh, Eda looked cool too, but Eda always looked cool. She'd spent years training how to be cool, or something. 

Ah, screw it! She was just going to go all in!

Luz let her invisibility glyph fade by exhaling deeply and signalled her presence, "Hi! You looking for this?" she waved her bag of stolen goods in front of Amity.

The inspector's eyes widened and she dropped her hold on Eda, in turn causing Luz's mentor to let go of her too. 

"You're surrendering?" quizzically, she affirmed.

"Nope!" Luz popped her p and smirked, "Just distracting!"

She threw the bag to Eda and moved King from her other arm to on her shoulder. It was go time!

"I don't get you," frustrated, Amity huffed as she attempted to attack Luz with something or other (Probably abomination goo, but Luz was too busy dodging it to notice.), "You go from nice guy last week to robbing the Emperor again,"

Eda spread her wings wide and spun down the corridor like a corkscrew, gaining speed and momentum easily. She was most likely going to make it to the window. Amity made a last-minute dive towards her, extending an arm beyond its normal length with abomination goo, but Luz intercepted. She just sorta put her face between Amity and Eda.

"You wanna know something, Amity?" muffled, she spoke into the inspector's palm. 

Amity retracted her hand in disgust and wiped it on her suit jacket.

"If it'll keep you here, sure," a hand went to the inspector's hip as she eyed Luz suspiciously.

"I think-" she paused to consider her words a little more carefully. She trusted Amity just enough to not do anything stupid with this kind of knowledge, and, well, she was also kind of hoping to say something that would resonate with the other woman. "I think you'll get something out of this, yes," she took a deep breath, "I'm guessing you have no idea why I do any of this, really,"

"I used to think it was for fun, but you pretty handily shut down that assumption last week," unimpressed, Amity retorted.

Sensing that was some kind of more private matter, King noped the heck out of there and hastily scampered after Eda. That was probably a good thing, to be honest. At least she knew he was going to be safe.

"The Emperor's planning something big, Ams, and I don't think it's going to be very friendly to anyone living here, coven or thief," she exposited solemnly.

"I told you not to call me that," tiredly, Amity corrected.

"That's what you're focusing on!?" Luz burst out and approached the inspector curiously, "I just told you your ruler is doing some pretty evil stuff and you care about the nickname!?"

It was like she'd completely tuned out the important stuff! Did she just not believe Luz, or did she not want to listen?

"I mean, you could pretty easily be lying," Amity leant against her staff and raised an eyebrow.

"Sure! Fine! Maybe I could be lying! But do you," she jabbed a finger at Amity, "Really want to take that chance? Because I'm not letting people get hurt,"

"Are people not getting hurt when you break into their leader's base!?" raising her voice as Luz had, Amity responded somewhat wryly.

Today? Today was for equipment. Equipment for a spell that was going to reveal the truth! Luz was going to find out exactly what was going down and she was going to figure out how to stop that! Of course, if Amity thought she was lying, there was no way to effectively communicate that to her, but still! Argh, it kind of made her blood boil. She hated most of all that she could kind of see where Amity was coming from, though. She had kinda thrown Hunter out the window...

"Not- Maybe? But not as much I think they will in the long run if I don't do this," she argued fiercely, "I- I know about it, so it's my responsibility to try and stop it,"

Amity took a commanding step forward, "Why?" she stared at Luz analytically, "You're not even from here,"

"Because I still think it's my job to help people. Besides," she grinned offhandedly behind her mask, "That's what Azura would do, right?"

"Don't bring-" the inspector huffed again.

Then Hunter came trudging in through the window and down the corridor, traipsing mud onto the carpet. He looked kinda like a zombie. It would be pretty funny if it wasn't definitely her cue to get out of there.

"Okay, well, it's been fun, but I gotta run, Ams!" nervously she chuckled before starting to leg it, "Bye!"

Amity reached out and grabbed the corner of her cloak, tugging it slightly. The witches' wool it was made from held tight though, and the inspector's grip upon it fell apart faster than the eams. 

That meant Luz managed to get free of one of the pair and only had Hunter left to dodge. He seemed to be the easier of the two to outwit right now, though, because he seemed to more be blindly charging in than anything. He also seemed to want to be literally anywhere but here, so there's that.

She artfully flipped over him, using his knees as stepping stones and swing off some vines that she attached to the overhead lights. This landed her neatly on the other side of both inspectors, meaning she had a free path to just dash out of the window. So that's what she did. Huh, it sounded kind of boring like that. It felt really cool, though. 10/10 would recommend.

Eda was waiting for her outside. The escape was even easier from there, because there was literally nothing anyone could do to stop Eda from just flying the three of them out of there. Her fingers twinged. Yeah, only three...

She stared absently back at the Castle as Eda soared away from it at top speeds. They'd come in with four. But she'd got Gus in trouble. So they'd come out with three. They'd got what they'd come for, they'd got the item that was actually going to help them save the most people, but at what cost? 

From this perspective, she could definitely see Amity's point of view. 

Chapter Text

Hunter didn't even know why he was doing this. Maybe he was trying to feel a little better about contributing so little to the last Luzura encounter as to be thrown out of the window. It was extra insulting that it had been one very close to his own window, too. If he'd had time, he could have just crawled into his room and cried about it to Flapjack or something. Though, this could also just as easily be about Willow. Flapjack bashed their face into his cheek. Hunter sighed. Yeah, it probably was about Willow...

The Conformatorium guards were more than happy to let him through when they recognised him as the Golden Guard. Great, the uniform finally did something other than make him look like even more of an idiot when he continually screwed up. Flapjack was hidden by this point, as was probably obvious, so they had a hard time berating him for muttering self-deprecatingly. Hunter never said they didn't manage it, though. Silly bird.

The cell he was looking for was easily the most well-guarded in the entire prison. Extra scouts were patrolling the area around it, the bars were thicker and tougher than the ones Hunter had seen before and the system in place to suppress the prisoner's magic hung thick and stifling in the air to the point where it could easily be felt before the cell itself even came into sight. As much as he really didn't want to, it made it much easier to sympathise.

Augustus Porter looked rather glum sat on the bench at the back of the cell. The bright colours of his outfits that Hunter had seen at Flyer Derby practice or group outings had been replaced with muted greys and his eyes seemed sunken, no longer twinkling with mischief like they had the night Hunter and Blight had caught him. Now that was a transformation from one day to the next...

"Golden Guard," Gus greeted dryly, "Come to gloat?"

"No," responded Hunter, impassively.

"Then, what, come for information? I'd rather die trying to resist all of you than actually-" passionately, the prisoner began to declare.

The Emperor's Coven wasn't immoral! They wouldn't kill or torture people! But Gus seemed perhaps a little intimidated as is, so Hunter decided to not relay that information, for now.

"Nobody's dying!" defensively Hunter raised his hands in the air.

"You came to talk or something? Shove off, then - I don't talk to traitors," Gus huffed.

"Traitor? Gus, I never worked for Luzura. I just did my job. So did Blight. If anything, you're the traitor for working against the Emperor!" Hunter retorted, finding this bizarre logic very blase and perhaps almost amusing. 

"What about the team, Hunter? Our team! The Flyer Derby team!" the prisoner sat up a little straighter and argued vehemently.

Well, technically Hunter had betrayed Gus, then, by arresting him and stopping him from playing. But Gus had betrayed him first by playing by his side but then also working against the Emperor! One of these was an actual reason. The other was... justified. Yes, in Hunter's eyes, what happened to Gus was justified. It had to be! That whole team had betrayed him! (Well, only really Willow and Gus, but they seemed like the only two relevant members at that point.)

"So what!? if we're going down that route, Belos is my uncle. Willow is- was? Is? My friend, sure, but what about you, Gus? You're a friend of a friend. I don't owe it to you to betray my own family for you,"

Coldly, "Family's about more than blood, Hunter," 

Hunter narrowed his eyes, "I didn't come here for debates and whatnot,"

"I mean, you never told me what you did come for," Gus shrugged, still closed-off and harsh.

Hunter hesitated. Maybe he wasn't entirely sure why he'd come. He'd just sort of felt compelled to come see Gus. For information maybe? But not about Luzura. It could also just be a reassurance thing. You know, check he and Blight actually had caught Gus and that the illusionist wasn't pulling any more of his tricks. 

"Why do you support Luzura?" he found himself asking.

Gus raised an eyebrow, "Well, I know you're not looking to enlist to help us, so I don't see why I should answer that,"

"Not in an information way," Hunter grunted, frustratedly, "On a personal level, why? Willow said something about believing the cause, but I... I just don't get it. You're easiest to get an audience with,"

The prisoner's eyes twinkled familiarly for a moment. He didn't immediately respond, though. He was clearly contemplating what Hunter said. Whether that was to decide what to respond with or whether or not to respond at all, Hunter didn't know.

"Something Willow said, huh?" he grinned smugly, then, at little more than a mutter, "From Hunter? Couldn't be... Nope... Not at all..."

"That's not the important part," gruffly, Hunter retorted.

"Maybe not for you," wryly, Gus laughed, "But, fine. If you really want to get into the mentality of such a clear fiend as myself, I'll let you in. Hope it doesn't convert you or something,"

"Don't play games with me," Hunter demanded.

There was definitely something intentional about Gus's last words. He was trying to get under Hunter's skin, obviously. Well, it wasn't going to work! Anything he said could and would be ignored, so long as it wasn't relevant to Hunter's original question! 

"Wouldn't dream of it," Gus snickered.

"Then stop laughing and get on with it!" harshly, Hunter warned.

"Alright, alright! I was just thinking!" Gus paused for a moment before actually beginning, "If I had to say, I'd guess it's similar to why you support Belos. On the surface, he's your family. He's someone who guides you,"

Family again? Seemed to be a recurring theme, today.

"Luz is somewhat similar for me. She's actually nice to me and treats me like a person rather than a tool for what I can do. I don't know if you really get much of it, being head of Emperor's Coven and all that, but down here with the common folk, if you stand out too much, you're either wanted for what you can do, or quite literally wanted when you refuse," another pause, "Like Eda,"

"So you fight for your own freedom over the unity of the Isles? Selfish, but almost understandable, I suppose," proudly, Hunter remarked.

"No! What? Did you even listen to what I actually said? I explained why I valued Luz as a person, not why I follow her cause," Gus crossed his arms and bit out before reigning himself in, "But go on, if you're going to decide what is and isn't a good reason to follow someone, why do you follow Belos? I'm sure I'm not the first one to ask you, but..."

Why were people always so curious about his motivation? He was the one doing what anyone would dream of! He was head of the Emperor's Coven! Wasn't that any law-abiding citizen's dream? Well, Luz and Gus were hardly law-abiding, he supposed. That must be the distinction. But still, it was odd. He was living the dream, right? Right? (Why was that even in question?)

"No, you're not. I'll tell you basically what I told Luzura - I owe the Emperor. He gave me a chance when no one else would. And he's family!"

Gus coughed lightly, "Two things, buddy. One, does that not sound familiar to something also just said? And two, that doesn't really answer the question. I thought we were talking about causes, not people,"

Familiar? Well, yes, it did sound kind of like Gus's story about Luz now that he thought about it, but that meant nothing! Gus was the villain of this story. And he was, what, giving him the 'We're not so different, you and I' speech? Just, uh, not in those exact words. But, alas, Gus was also right. This wasn't about the people who they followed - Hunter's original question had been about why someone would follow Luzura's cause. Why would they fight against the beloved Emperor? Ergo, he needed to be answering the seemingly obvious of why someone would be supporting the beloved Emperor.

"Fine," he began, curtly, "I'm head of the Emperor's Coven because I believe that we are doing good work to protect the people of the Isles,"

"That's vague," Gus cut in, when he realised Hunter wasn't going to immediately elaborate.

"That's a summary," Hunter shrugged, "To expound on it... A world without the Covens would be a world of chaos. If magic, people, aren't tamed, they run out of control. A world without restrictions on magic is a lawless land. I know wild magic is dangerous - I've seen it. Fascinating? Yes. But it's deadly. I know it's tempting. That's why I have to work to keep others from being tempted!"

"And stop those who are?" Gus added.

"Of course. They're the embodiment of what I stand against,"

"Okay, imagine that, but the complete opposite. That's what I believe," casually, Gus stated.

Hunter squinted at the prisoner. Forgive him for his ignorance, but that was kind of a hard thing to imagine. You couldn't just think wild magic is not dangerous. That was unfathomable! He'd seen what it did, time and time again! So then, was it really him who was ignorant?

There, Hunter saw a chance. If he could get through to Gus about this, maybe he could do the same for Willow! Then that basically handily solved all of his problems! And he could definitely teach people. Darius was always laughing at him for having his head in some book in any free time he had, so knowledge was certainly not something he was skimping on!

"I'm going to guess that you've never actually seen what wild magic can do," gravely, Hunter put in.

The prisoner raised an eyebrow, "Well, I've definitely seen it in action,"

"But you've never seen it go wrong," confidently, he continued.

Gus just stared at him. Taking this as confirmation of his suspicions, Hunter blazed back on, "Well, I have. You say Luzura is your family because she's symbolically one of few you have left. One of few who accept you. I have Belos as my family because he is literally my only family left. Every single other member of my family was wiped out due to wild magic, and I probably would have been too if Belos hadn't found me in time,"

"You actually remember this yourself?" Gus interjected.

Hunter faltered. His memories of his youth had always been a little hazy, admittedly. He could remember that he hadn't always been with Belos from memories of feeling lost, and hopeless, and that he wouldn't be able to amount to anything without magic. But Belos was the one who helped him through that. He at least knew that for certainty. The rest? Well, technically, no...

"I remember very little of my childhood in general. But Belos would have no reason to lie to me," he argued.

"Therefore it's not firsthand evidence and I can't accept it," almost smugly, Gus announced, "If you were trying to keep a population in check through fear, wouldn't you tell their figurehead that the thing they feared was the reason for something very personal and understandable, like lost family?"

"Fine!" Hunter snapped, "You want more? Tell me, Gus, have you ever beheld the true face of the Emperor?" 

He had to be careful not to leak too many family secrets here. Belos's curse and its uncontrollable nature were not something he should be telling a prisoner. Pointing out something that the prisoner should already know, though? That could work.

"I mean, hasn't everybody? He did start doing announcements without his mask a few years back," carefully, Gus responded.

"Then you've seen his scar," Hunter fortified his expression and glared, "That is no ordinary wound! It is, in fact, the mark left on him due to wild magic... He personally experienced the toll of wild magic, and is thus qualified to preach against the dangers of it,"

"Hate to point out the obvious here, but you also don't know if that's true, do you?" 

But... His Uncle wouldn't lie to him... right?

"You... You're just messing with me," uncertainly, Hunter tried.

"Only part of my last statement that was a lie was the part where I said I hate to point out the obvious - I actually think it's quite satisfying," Gus snarked.

"Let's talk about something else," abruptly, Hunter demanded.

It was a really obvious deflection, very possibly his worst one yet, but it wasn't like Gus really had a choice but to obey. If he was having fun talking to Hunter, even if just because he knew he was getting under the famed Golden Guard's skin, then he would have to go along with this, or else he could just as easily be left alone. 

"If you want," passively, the prisoner agreed, "What about, then?"

"So..." awkwardly, Hunter began, "How's Willow doing?"

Gus snorted, "You've seen her more recently than I have, dummy,"

"I- Uh, I guess, yeah. I just sorta- It's easier to talk about her than to her?" he rambled.

That didn't quite come out right.

 "That doesn't sound weird at all..." dryly, Gus remarked.

"I just meant that I thought trying to understand you and your perspective would help me figure out where I stand with her. And then I just sorta wanted to bring her up? So she was relevant? And you're easier to talk to than her right now because you're, you know, in a prison cell, and I don't know what's she's up to, or if I can trust her, or-"

"Woah, woah, slow down there, Mr Golden Guard!"

Hunter cringed at the wording. Was it just him who felt slightly uncomfortable at being addressed so formally with 'Mister' and everything? He already had a title... And no one at the Castle would address him as such - he was lower rank than anyone he would perhaps expect to, and the scouts had to call him by his coven rank, anyway. It was just... odd. Or maybe he was focusing on small things to keep his mind off of the mess he was currently creating for himself.

"Sorry, I shouldn't be unloading on you," he sighed, "Especially since you're literally my enemy,"

"Nah, man, I get it. But, yeah, just slow down a second. Your problem is that you don't know what Willow, we talking about Willow Park, yeah? Your problem is that you're worried about what Willow may be up to. Yeah, Hunter, even if she was a schemer type, she wouldn't plot against you, promise," Gus half-laughed, half-assured.

"No, I don't think you get it. I just feel... wrong to be friends with the enemy. Am I betraying the Emperor by even talking to her?" he questioned grimly.

"I wouldn't say so, if that's what you want to hear," Gus said thoughtfully, "I don't think Willow's betraying us by being friends with you, never have done, even if I never thought particularly highly of you or your position myself. Besides," he made a wavey hand gesture, "Couldn't begrudge you and Willow when Luz and Amity have their whole thing going on,"

Hunter stared, dumbfounded, "Blight's what?"

"You seen the way Luz is with Amity? And vise versa? Dude, I literally thought they were dating or something for like, a week," Gus chuckled, as if this was actually funny.

"What do you mean?" pointedly, he asked.

"I knew Amity at school, and she was way uptight. But then I hear from Luz that she just let her go. Like, I know she owed Luz and everything, but that doesn't sound like the Amity I knew," he paused for breath, "And Luz is in no way better! She talked about Amity a lot after they met just because they both liked Azura... And she always playing with Amity! I know she messes with everyone, but it's like, a step up with Amity," the prisoner ranted.

"I... I'll have to have a word with Blight about this," Hunter frowned.

He hadn't noticed any of what Gus was saying himself, so, yes, this could be an attempt at manipulation, but it did seem plausible... A very dangerous notion indeed... He couldn't lose Blight. She had been working with him for long enough now that he was used to her, and he didn't particularly fancy a change. Also, she seemed to understand him well enough, so it would be annoying to get rid of that. 

"Aw, come on, don't get in between them! It's gonna be really cute if it does happen!" Gus complained.

"But... Blight would be consorting with a criminal!" confused, Hunter questioned.

"I think we've already been over why I don't care about that," the prisoner hummed, nonchalantly.

"I also don't see what this has to do with me or Willow," firmly, he continued.

"Oh, Willow... What do you see in this silly boy?" Gus muttered, probably to himself. 

What kind of a statement was that!?

"Huh?" Hunter affirmed.

"So, tell me, Mr Golden Guard," smoothly, Gus inserted himself back into the conversation, "What do you think of Miss Willow Park?"

Back to formalities, huh? Hunter resisted the urge to groan.

"Well, she's obviously a very skilled witch, and an incredible Flyer Derby player. She's got a good strategic mind, and her plant magic skills are very impressive. Her knowledge of Flyer Derby and plants is also very admirable, and as a bit of an academic myself, I aspire to her level of expertise in her fields. Her athletic ability and strength are also incredibly remarkable. I myself have been told that I look surprisingly scrawny for the Golden Guard, but I believe no one would say such a thing to Willow Park in any circumstance," he listed off. 

Gus whistled, "Lot of stuff you have to say there,"

"Yes? Willow is a person that there is a lot to say about," shyly, he agreed.

"I mean, I don't disagree, but most people wouldn't bother to go into that much detail, y'know," aside, Gus remarked.

"What's that supposed to mean!?" clueless, he demanded.

"Do I really have to spell everything out? Curse you for inflicting the shipper's curse on me, Luz!" this first statement confused Hunter further, but he didn't comment on it, "Listen, man, I'm just saying, you might want to consider just how much you like Willow, yeah?"

It was kind of embarrassing to be given social advice by a prisoner, so Hunter flushed. He then decided he didn't need to be subjected to this anymore, because he still wasn't even really sure why he'd come down to the Conformatorium in the first place. 

"If you say so," evenly, he dismissed, before walking curtly off. 

He could still hear Gus laughing as he fled down the corridor. The patrolling scouts gave him weird looks as he passed, probably on the account of the prisoner cackling after him, but he just pulled up his uniform mask and ignored them. He had better things to do than listen to prisoners or scouts! Probably...

He did at least have to talk to Blight about her supposed illicit relationship with Luzura, though. That was an easy starting point. Hunter sighed. Well, off for another awkward conversation, then... Yay...

Some things in this world didn't make sense to Amity. Like, for instance, why did she feel instantly worse about having to go make preparations for visiting her mother than having failed to capture Luzura again? Last night, despite the technical failure of her mission, Amity had left feeling exhilarated. It felt like they actually had Luzura cornered for once, even if only temporarily. And, hey, they had captured an accomplice...

But Luz had gotten away with whatever it was that she'd stolen. So, they'd failed, right? It didn't make logical sense, then, that she felt sort of content with that. The feeling she got from the memory of the last night was excitement, when it very definitely should have been disappointment. 

And despite the fact that Amity didn't need to be working right now, (She'd taken the morning off to allow her department to settle back down after they'd caught Gus.) she was still very much on edge. She'd just walked into Bonesborough. That was it. Why was this all worse than last night!?

She probably knew the answer to that. Unfortunately.

Nowadays, Luzura had gone from a crazy to fiend to someone sort of noble, if you squinted, in Amity's mind. There, however, was basically nothing that anyone could do to change Amity's perception of her mother. So, yeah, sure, maybe letting Luz get away did feel way better than giving in and complying with her mother's wishes. It was actually almost amusing to remember that she had compared Odalia and Luz at first, because they were certainly nothing alike. The incident with Tibbles had handily proven that.

She needed to stop mentally ranting to herself as she went down the streets and get on with literally anything on her list. Ed and Em had sent her a handy little list of ideas to not get into trouble with their mom, and Amity did unfortunately intend to go along with them. Even if she delayed some of them a little because she really didn't want to.

Ed and Em's (But probably just Emira's, if she was being serious) glorious list consisted of telling Amity to: get a new dress, preferably in pink or black as to go along with the colour scheme their mom had been picking for her since childhood; pick up a card and gift to arrive with, flowers being the best choice for the latter; going to print some photos, because Odalia was definitely going to demand to see pictures of her at work (Pre-lilac hair, of course), and, arguably worst of all re-dye her hair. To green, obviously. In the eyes of Amity's mother, lilac hair would never be acceptable, no matter how on brand it was to her daughter. No... Amity needed to have the same obnoxious mint colour she'd been donning since her teenage years... Family theming and all that...

She'd opted to just get the worst out of the way first, actually, and thus was currently heading off to go buy dye. Maybe once she got on a roll with this and started to reverse all the efforts she'd made to distance herself from her mom, it would be less torturous. She both kind of hoped it would and would definitely not at the same time. It was... complicated. 

The relative quietness of the store she eventually arrived at did little to help matters. Felt like the Titan itself was just laughing at the fact that she was the only one here for such a stupid reason. Suppressing a groan (Or maybe a sigh, who knew), Amity dragged herself over to where they were selling dye potions in the corner. She admired some of the nicer shades of lilac they had in this time before begrudgingly letting her vision drift to the greens. She checked the colour name of the exact one her mother wanted from Emira's text and lifted it off the shelf. It somehow managed to look even more repulsive now than usual.

Then someone loudly dropped a glass bottle of something on the floor behind her. 

Amity raised an eyebrow and turned around. She was expecting to maybe see a bored employee, but, nope, there was Luz Noceda, in all her glory, wearing a guilty expression and standing over a puddle of grisly-looking powder. A small smile formed on the corner of Amity's lips at the sight.

Luz, of course, was wearing disguise, namely that cat mask again as well as a hood and sunglasses, but it was obviously her. And Amity could still see her wide-eyed look through her lenses, so maybe that was because it wasn't a particularly good disguise. Why Luz was out at the potion store buying all kinds of wacky ingredients from the look of the stuff hastily shoved against her chest with one of her arms, was also not clear. But, then again, Amity couldn't really tell you why Luzura had done any of her recent heists. Like, once again, seriously? Robbing a library?

"Shall we add property damage to your list of charges, then?" wryly, Amity remarked.

Luz's eyes darted around, probably looking for an exit, "Pretty sure that one's already on there,"

She sighed and cleaned up the thief's mess with a small abomination spell. Don't get her wrong, she was still telling the cashier and making sure Luz paid for that, but, uh, it was dangerous to leave broken glass lying around. Or something. 

"What are you doing here, then?" half-amused (Just because this was more interesting than doing stuff to please her mom, okay?), Amity questioned.

"Uh," Luz faltered without her usual wit, "What are you doing here?"

"One, what I'm doing here is basically guaranteed to be legal, so is it really relevant? And two, I think it's rather obvious," she held up the bottle of dye she was holding so that Luz could clearly see it. 

Luz shoved the stuff she was holding into a shopping bag just so she could stare, shocked, at Amity. It was almost endearing. Almost. 

"You're dying your hair!? But why!?" the thief gasped.

"It's... a long story," evasively, she shrugged, "And not one I feel I should be telling to a great thief, particularly,"

"I'm not stealing your backstory if you're giving it to me," Luz winked.

Fine... But only because Amity could use a good ven. There wasn't really anyone else she could just let it all out to like this. Ed and Em always carried the risk of relaying anything she said back to their mom, Hunter was only really around for work, Willow might see it as excuses for what happened between them before and... She didn't really know anyone else, to be honest. Her dad? Ha, don't make her laugh. Besides, telling him was just as precarious as telling Ed or Em. 

"I suppose not," she agreed, concisely, "Very well. Any reason you care, though?"

"Well, I mean, I kinda like your hair as is, Ams! The colour suits you," off-handedly, Luz complimented.

Amity turned away to blush. And to place the dye back on the shelf. Definitely mainly that second one.

"That's still not my name," she said, coolly.

"Just get to the story already! I love this kind of stuff way too much to wait too long!" Luz whined, ignoring her handily.

Maybe it should have been disconcerting to hear Luz referring to her horrible relationship with her mother so excitedly, but the thief couldn't know what exactly was going on. She had no reason to know that this was an unpleasant tale. Amity wasn't sure how that made it any better, but it just did for her. 

"It used to be green, anyway," she began, "Before I left home and joined Security, anyway. I dyed it like this as soon as I could, but, uh, it's gotta go back to green if I even stand a chance at my mother letting me in the house," bitterly, she explained.

"Your mom," Luz hesitated, "She's not great, is she,"

"You could say that," Amity hummed, non-committedly.

"It was kind of obvious from the start that you had some kind of past trauma or something... And then you specifically brought up your mom... You know it's not right to lock you out of the house for your hair colour, right?" the thief affirmed anxiously.

"Sure," Amity shrugged, "I'm not completely disillusioned. But it's not technically my house anymore, so my mom can do whatever she wants, really. But it'll still be worse for me in the long run if I get kicked out and don't have to go than if I endure one evening of her insufferableness,"

There was a certain advantage to being accustomed to diving into a world of fiction to escape reality that helped to realise that maybe Odalia's treatment of her was not normal. Like, sure, she wasn't going to base how her life should be off of a book, but that book still made it pretty clear that she shouldn't be living as she had been. And it didn't help that Ed and Em very much got treated differently. That made it obvious that it was personal.

"What do you have to go over for, then?" Luz asked, obviously unable to contain her curiosity.

"Family dinner. First, one since I moved out... I'll get absolutely flamed later if I miss it... Not that I should be telling you that, though,"

 "This is probably going to sound kinda bad out of context, but I really think you should be valuing your mental health over some logistics like criminal records... If talking to me helps you, then talk!" Luz reasoned. 

"That's the thing. I have literally no idea if this helps! But I also really don't want to be in this stupid store buying stupid hair dye right now, so maybe stalling is better than that!" gruffly, Amity bemoaned.

"If you really don't want to that badly, then don't," Luz said simply.

Wow, great advice, Luzura... She never would have thought of just 'Not' on her own... Titan, had she even been listening to anything Amity had said!?

"I sincerely hope you realise it's not as simple as that," Amity raised an eyebrow.

"I mean, it kinda is... Couldn't you just use an illusion for the night? Then you wouldn't have to sacrifice your individuality for your mom, and you still don't have to deal with the consequences of her finding out about that individuality!" brightly, the thief suggested.

"But I don't know any illusion spells..." meekly, Amity admitted.

Luz blanched, "Huh? Just use a concealment stone! I hear they're really discreet now,"

Amity's brows knitted together, "You think that could work? I wouldn't want my mom to realise or anything, is all. My siblings use them already, but she knows about that... I think she probably approves... But if she even found out I usually keep my hair like this..."

"Isn't the whole point of those things that they're easy to hide? And it's not like it's changing anything but the colour... She couldn't accidentally figure out that it's different from what it looks like with a head pat or something," the thief mused.

"My mother doesn't do head pats," Amity deadpanned.

Yes, she was missing the point here. That was intentional. 

Then Luz reached out and patted Amity's head, messing up her hair a little, making it go static and frizzy in midair. Amity froze and probably blushed. That was... unexpected, to say the least. Did humans just... do that kind of thing? It left her longing for more in a strange way and Amity wasn't sure whether to like that or not. 

"Well, that's what they're like!" cheerfully, the thief announced.

"Yeah, I knew what they were..." Amity mumbled.

"Just checking," Luz grinned, "It felt appropriately comforting too. Like, I know it's horrible having to try and fit in with everyone else, so I guess I feel compelled to help you out here. Don't give up on yourself, Amity,"

"Do you mean here on the Isles? How much difference does being a human make-" inquisitively, she began.

Luz cut her off, "Nah, it's been great here. I meant back in the Human Realm,"

"What's it like there?" Amity asked abruptly.

She was no human fanatic like Gus had been at Hexside, but that didn't mean she couldn't exercise curiosity. Come on, it was a whole different world to the only place she'd ever known! You couldn't blame her for asking...

"Different, it's different for sure," clearly thinking on the spot, the thief described, "Everything has to run on machines because we have no magic and all that. But, I guess it wouldn't be for you, but everything there is just so much more normal. I fit in better here because I can be myself and that's just a norm? Or something? Everything else is so weird that most people don't even bat an eyelid at what I do,"

"I think you'll find they do when you rob them," Amity rolled her eyes.

"Hey, I meant in general when I first got here. Having a secret thief identity is a little different..."

"Are thieves more normal in the Human Realm?" Amity wondered aloud.

"Uh, not really. They're still criminals... We just have way more boring heists. No magical getaways, just like, run for it. And hope you don't get caught by security cameras," the thief shrugged.

"Talking from experience?" Amity chuckled.

"Nope! I only became a thief when I got here. I just watched a lot of movies at home," 

Movies in the human realm allowed such graphic descriptions of crime? Titan, it was no wonder Luz was so nonchalant about being a criminal... That or she just genuinely saw some kind of endgame for herself that wasn't getting captured. That was ridiculously optimistic. That didn't mean Amity couldn't absolutely see her thinking it, though.

"The Human realm certainly sounds... odd," eventually, Amity settled on.

"Probably to you, yeah. I'd have to show you some time to make it less odd," surprisingly shyly, the thief responded.

Amity raised an eyebrow, "Is that an invitation?"

"If you want it to be," Luz laughed, "I could show you around sometime when this is all of over and I can get back?"

That was an odd statement. Was Luz stuck here? There should be no other reason she couldn't go home, right? Unless it was some silly 'I vowed to not return until I completed my mission' kind of things, but Luz seemed too solemn, too genuine when she'd just spoken for that to be the case. 

"How did you get here, anyway," casually, or what she hoped was casually, Amity inquired.

"Portal. But I blew that up,"

Amity squinted, left eye twitching, "You... blew up the portal you came through,"

"Yeah, I didn't have much of a choice. But anyway! It's fine - as I said, I prefer it here anyway," grin faltering, Luz insisted.

"You'll get back," confidently, Amity stated, "I don't know how, but you will. Put it this way, if you can avoid being captured by literally the entire Emperor's Coven, I think you can engineer your way back home,"

It was a little unclear to even her where this certainty and faith was coming from.

"Thanks, but it's not that big a deal, Ams. There's not much there for me,"

"But there's something, right? You left something important to you back there. That's what you're worried about," Amity persisted.

The thief's expression crumpled, and she looked a little disheartened, a big change from her usual cheery demeanour, "I miss my mom. I can't even get contact through to her... This is the longest I've gone without speaking to her..."

Amity approached and lightly patted Luz's shoulder, "You'll see her again, human. You'll get back and that whole realm will know who Luz Noceda is! Even if that's because we send you off to human prison for being too much of a nuisance here,"

"You know too well that I'd just escape here," Luz snickered.

"Unfortunately..." Amity sighed, "But that isn't going to stop us trying. Actually, on that note, you're lucky I haven't tried to take you in yet today,"

The thought hadn't really even crossed her mind... How disturbing... She must have really been in a funk of thinking she had to dye her hair... 

"I assumed that was just because we were in a store and you didn't want to be the one charged for destruction of public property," snarked the thief.

"Tell you what, human, I'll give you a minute headstart. Then I'm calling in my division," cockily, Amity taunted.

Gathering her shopping up in an easy position and running lightly on the spot, Luz's expression turned mischievous, "I'll take that," she threw a handful of coins at Amity, "For my stuff and the broken property, yeah? Later, Ams!"

And then she was gone like a flake of snow on the tip of your mitten. Impossible to track as ever, that was to say. The snails she had thrown did seem to be around the right amount, though. However, Amity didn't actually fully know what the thief had been buying, or, technically, stealing.

She approached the front of the shop and wearily explained to the cashier what had happened. The poor employee looked a little freaked out at the thought of this happening whilst she was on shift, but Amity made sure to promise her financial compensation from the coven. She was pretty sure that happened for this kind of thing, anyway. If not, she would just have to pay it herself. Or maybe take her mom's money next week and do that. It would be pretty satisfying, even if she would never actually have the guts to go through with it. 

Sighing contently, Amity pulled out her radio and made a call, "Yeah, yeah, Inspector Blight here. I'm off-duty right now, but I think I just saw Luzura run out of the potion shop on the Bonesborough high street. Possible and suspected shoplifting,"

She was promised that some of her division would be out soon. Amity grinned and rolled up her sleeves, preparing to go have a silly time trying to catch a thief and also pointedly ignore her siblings' list of fixes for her mother.

Chapter Text

Luz had a plan, and if she said so herself, it was a good plan. So they needed a power source, eh? Well, fortunately, Luz Noceda (And also Lilith Clawthorne, but hush about that) was capable of reading, and so she had found a good one. And they needed to pull off a heist of sorts to get it, eh? Well, fortunately, Luz Noceda was a thief, and she was a good one. 

So, yeah, her big rebellion against Belos and all that just wasn't going to work without something seriously potent to power it. That had led her to her reading Belos's diary again, and that was where she and Lilith had found something... interesting.  

Expecting something other than spy information to come from this diary they'd stolen, hadn't been quite expected, but it was a welcome change nonetheless. You see, Belos wrote in his plots about a strange substance called 'Titan's Blood', capable of seemingly warping reality around it. Warping reality to the point of even... crossing realms. Mr Cult up in his castle obviously wanted it for the same reason he'd wanted Eda's portal door, but that was not something he'd opted to write down the reason for in his diary. 

Point was, a substance like that could easily power the kinds of things Luz would need it for. And, y'know, it might actually help her get home someday... That'd be cool... Just as the stolen door of Belos was useless without the key, Luz's key was useless without a door. She could make one or something with Titan's Blood, though. After she'd used it to stop Belos and his evil plans, of course.

The hardest part of this plan in particular would have been tracking down where to get Titan's Blood. Note the 'would have', because it was actually a cakewalk; Belos had just listed a hotspot for the stuff in his notes. Admittedly, that did mean that there was a high chance that she'd run into the Emperor's Coven up there, but, hey, was it really a cool Luzura heist if there weren't high-stakes? 

And, besides, if she just went on her own, there couldn't be... complications like last time. She wasn't letting there be a second Gus. (Who, yes, she was still working on a second good plan to get out of the Conformatorium.)

That was why she was currently hiking her way up the Knee, to a special series of caves and tunnels located about halfway up the mountain, equipped with an earpiece and fluffy thief outfit. on this fine day. She was grateful for her cloak, that was for sure: its magic repellant seemed to work wonders on general cold too. And, jeez, if it was this cold halfway up, she dreaded to think what it would be like at the absolute peak... 

She had technically been to the Knee before, actually. Eda took her before the days of her criminal record as means of training. She'd learnt another glyph from that session, but... It hadn't all gone smoothly. They'd had to leave quite hurriedly before they could even remotely look at making it to the peak when they noticed Emperor's Coven scouts nearby. Eda, still possibly being the most wanted criminal on the Isles (A title Luz had since usurped), had needed them to get the heck out of there rather swiftly. And so they had. 

According to the map she'd drawn herself (With a little geographical help from Eda and Lilith) from Belos's notes, she was actually very close now, at least. She could certainly hear the sounds of scouts bumbling around, so that tracked. Luz pulled her hood up a little tighter and lightened her footsteps.

She hoisted herself up off of the mountain path and into a small alcove on the side of the mountain that formed a clearing. It wasn't particularly impressive-looking for her destination, but it was scenic. She used an invisibility glyph to sneakily whisk herself over to behind a tree sitting just next to the opening to the tunnels. From the looks of them here, they were old mines. Belos might have actually mentioned something about this being an old mining hotspot for witches of the past, but Luz couldn't necessarily remember that for sure.

A coven scout trudged wearily into the open and stretched. She probably would have just taken them out right there if they didn't manage to come across as absolutely not a threat. Luz doubted they were even awake enough to notice the covering of soot and dust lining their boots and cloak right now, let alone spot a crafty and well-hidden thief. 

 After the scout, evidently only having come outside for a glimpse of fresh air, lugged themself back inside, Luz took her chance and assailed the sanctity of the cavern by diving silently in behind them. 

It was quiet inside. Eerily so. The walls were lined with ice, crystalline and fortified, looking as if they were looming and towering over their victims. At any second, Luz could both imagine them caving in as a last desperate act of revenge and withstanding even the strongest of magical hits. If her only way of navigating into where the actual Titan's blood likely was wasn't through following this scout, she'd probably stop to test the strength of such intricate and threatening design, but she could hardly do so as was without alerting at the very least this one scout. 

Maybe her confidence in the place wasn't actually helped when she and the scout came out into a larger, more exposed section of cavern, crawling with other scouts and decorated delicately with mining equipment such as carts like fondant figurines on a cake. Well, it did feasibly look like the kind of place where you could hack away at the wall or something for some mega-powerful, coveted substance. But it really didn't look safe for her t be around. That might have been more due to the sheer volume of scouts than the quality of the actual cavern itself, though.

She pulled out another invisibility glyph from her jacket pocket and applied it, distantly taking note of her dwindling supply. Of course, she could just draw more, but that was harder to do on the fly with glyph combos. And it was hard to argue that invisibility wasn't going to be her biggest friend in a place like this, so she was going to have to start using them sparingly. 

Choosing which tunnel to sneak down in her limited time invisible was as simple as bolting down the tunnel that looked the busiest. That was most likely the one to lead to Eclipse Lake, the location Belos had named as a hotspot for Titan's Blood. He had also said that veins running through the Knee could be mined... But Luz didn't really trust him and also hardly thought that there was going to be a plentiful supply there. Especially looking at the walls now... Yikes... Those sure were some dried-up veins...

When this tunnel led to another cavernous clearing, she just gave up on stealth and followed and ducked behind a nearby rock to get help. She probably should have drawn a better map of the mines... 

"Lilith?" she hissed into the line, after giving it a brief tap. 

"Luz!? Are you okay!? Are you injured!?" her aunt hurriedly answered.

"Yeah, I'm fine, just a little lost. Can you get out Belos's notes and help me actually get to Eclipse Lake? I'm in a wider cavern right now, the second one along," she asked.

There was a rustling over the line, presumably as Lilith got out the required book and skimmed it, "Well, you're in luck today - you're actually along the right path. Just take the furthest exit from there and keep following through until you reach the lake. Hopefully. These instructions are a little, uh, unclear,"

"Well, they're not really supposed to be instructions, right?" Luz joked.

"Point taken," haughtily, her aunt huffed, "Stay safe, though, Luz,"

"Can do," brightly, she responded.

The line clicked off after that, leaving Luz to get back to her work again. The furthest tunnel didn't look too busy in terms of scout numbers, but she could just easily not be able to see them from her current angle. She didn't really want to use up another invisibility glyph, so instead, she opted to hitch herself down a steep, but well-concealed rock face to approach. That was really where her troubles started.

See, it turned out that the reason there weren't many scouts stationed there was that left to guard this tunnel were everyone's favourite pair of inspectors! Under other circumstances, this would be great, but right now this had the potential to be terrible, because Luz knew for certain that both of them, but especially Hunter, were way more perceptive than the average scout.

Amity's luck with singling her out was practically unmatched and Hunter was wound up so tight he noticed the slightest little changes around, usually. Her best bet was to hope that luck was actually favouring her today and that Hunter was distracted or something. She'd gotten away with that before... Like when she snuck onto his ship! Piece of cake, right?  

Eh... Not so much... She tried to dash behind them and grab a place ducked behind a nearby rock, but her footsteps weren't quite quiet enough to be undetectable. Hunter's head whipped around and Luz could just imagine him narrowing his eyes behind his mask. She twiddled her thumbs anxiously.

"Check behind that rock," carefully, Hunter commanded.

Luckily, Amity was, as ever, her saving grace, "Why don't you, for a change. No offence, Inspector, but the last six times you've heard anything, it's been scouts. The most important thing was when I threw a rock at the wall and you made me check it out,"

"Now, Blight, a good inspector would always check out every possible avenue of-" 

Amity groaned loudly. 

This exchange was another lucky break in how it gave Luz a chance to slap an invisibility glyph on herself before anyone came over and disturbed her. With one of these lovely guards being Hunter, someone did inevitably come over to check behind her rock, so her being unable to do anything but hold her breath, literally, made sitting still a little easier.

That all went off of the rails anyway when Hunter decided he wasn't generic guard number seven from some beloved media franchise and opted to do a little more than just lightly survey the area. He got out his staff, the artificial one, and poked her quite hard in the shoulder with it. His posture straightened in confusion when he realised he'd hit something and Luz just couldn't help giggling lightly from both the small, but the sharp jolt of pain and also the amusing nature of the situation. You may recall, this meant that she revealed herself. The invisibility glyph was gone.

"Oh, Blight," Hunter called smugly, "What was that you were saying about there being no way this was something important?"

"You could just have called me over regularly if you want to play at being a great- Oh," she too straightened up upon seeing Luz, "You come here often, human?" the inspector snorted dryly. 

"Nope! Sorry, Ams, but this is my first time," she nodded sagely, half-hoping to appeal to Amity's good side and half-just-straight-up-stalling whilst she conjured up a plan.

"Blight!" Hunter interjected, with a vindictive lilt, "What did I tell you about being flirtatious with a criminal?"

Amity's face went starkly crimson, "I try not to remember, Inspector. I blanked that conversation out of my mind due to trauma," she answered evenly.

Luz was a second away from being in peels of laughter here. She was going to start wheezing in a minute! Hunter, the Golden Guard, the one who somehow hadn't figured out that perhaps he had some slightly more than platonic feelings for an ally of a criminal himself, had lectured Amity on not consorting with the enemy. Was- Was he worried that she was going to woo Amity with clever words and they were just going to run off into the sunset? (Admittedly, that would be nice, but they both had a job to do here...)

"Then I'll have to reiterate it to you later, apparently! Now, are you going to tie her up or do I have to do everything around here?" he huffed.

Classic villain line, anyone?

"You're the one that can just summon a rope with your staff," Amity arched an eyebrow.

"And you're the one who can use weird goo stuff as rope even easier!" Hunter retorted.

The inspector almost audibly rolled her eyes before approaching Luz herself. The feeling of having her wrists and midsection bound by abomination goo was getting frighteningly familiar. Not that she wasn't totally going to escape it, as per usual, but still. Couldn't the Emperor's Coven try something a little more creative than just tying her up for once? 

"So..." Luz started as she was forced to her feet, "What are you two here for?"

"That's none of your business, human!" Hunter started.

"Protecting the mining operations," boredly, Amity finished.

"We are going to have a serious conversation about leaking information to super thieves later, Blight..." the Golden Guard grumbled.

If Luz had to guess, they definitely weren't. And if they did, it didn't seem like Amity was ever going to be in the mood to take any of it in. Fair enough, Luz wouldn't pay it any attention either.

"You can have it now, if you want," cheekily, she put in.

"Quiet, you! That defies the point and you know it!" argued Hunter.

They were moving now. It was funny though, they weren't going back the way Luz came; no, they were going further into the tunnels... She realised with an excited start that they were probably just trying to deliver her to a superior or something, but were actually inadvertently sending her straight to her destination. She still needed to figure out a solid escape route to get the Titan's Blood and run with it, but the odds still seemed to be in her favour here.

"What are you two inspectors doing in a place like this, anyway? Surely this is a little out of your area of expertise," idly, she chatted.

Luz had been expecting Amity to answer her again with some vague information, but it was instead Hunter who proudly stuck his head up to reply, "Emperor Belos had means to suspect you would be coming here soon to disrupt our mining operation for Titan's Blood! As the head of his coven, he stationed me here to do my Golden Guard duties, and as Blight is still technically my apprentice, I brought her along,"

"Intern, Inspector, there's a difference. I'm your intern," complete with venomous calm, Amity corrected. 

"And what was that you said about not leaking information to me?" snickering, Luz pointed out the obvious.

She guessed the silence from behind the mask meant that Hunter had no good response to this. As expected. Amity snorted and shot her a warm look, though. It made Luz feel kind of warm. 

Luz then took to diving around in her pockets to see what she had. Well, there were glyphs, obviously, but she was hoping to find something a little more before committing to an escape plan. She found the portal key, which was cool... sorta, but it would probably be safer if that had managed to stay at home and not in her collection.

 She found a torch too. An LED one that had probably come from the Human Realm, but that was definitely not going to be useful when she had light glyphs. Other than that... Yeah, it was just her and the glyphs... 

Problem was, she was most certainly lost in these tunnels now. Like, she hadn't quite managed to follow where she'd been led and that fact alone was yet another wrench in the works. She groaned internally.

"I assume you're here for Titan's Blood too, Luzura," coolly, Amity stated.

"That's-" Luz began, smirking.

"Classified?" the inspector chuckled, "As ever... I'll just take that as a yes,"

"Any chance of you telling us why you need it?" boldly, Hunter inquired.

"To take down Belos," nonchalantly, she responded.

"That's too vague! We already knew that you had a rebellious plot against us, but the point of asking would be for you to tease us with details so that you satisfy your need to mess with us and we get a nugget of useful information out of it!" he whined petulantly.

"Well, you're not going to get anything out of her now that you admitted that... Try subtlety, next time," wryly, Amity sighed.

Luz giggled under her breath. She didn't even need to do the snarking for that one.

Eventually, their merry little band of criminal and law enforcers shuffled awkwardly into yet another clearing, though this one smaller than the other she'd seen. A short demon was sitting on the shoulder of some kind of abomination soldier, grinning both leisurely and maniacally. Luz was sure she'd seen her at the palace before, but definitely didn't remember seeing her this... psychotic. If it was the same woman, that was.

"Kikimora, ma'am, we have captured Luzura as asked," like any good man raised as a soldier, Hunter reported impassively and kowtowed to his colleague and/or superior. 

"Wonderful work! I see you finally decided to be useful for a change," this Kikimora giggled.

"I'm just doing my job," evenly, he dismissed.

"Well, we know our great Emperor had his eye on his little golden boy recently, so perhaps it's just surprising to see you pull through under all the pressure," saccharinely sweetly, the demon preened.

"I didn't see you doing anything to capture me..." Luz looked off to the side and remarked.

"What was that!?" Kikimora rose to her full, definitely inconsiderable, height and raised a fist.

Yeah, Luz didn't like this woman. She was going to have some fun here. 

"I just meant that it was these two inspectors here who caught me, whilst you sat around on your abomination, doing literally nothing, but yet you think you have the power here," snidely, she clarified.

Amity smacked her palm over her mouth and snorted into the fabric over her glove. This did little but empower Luz. Maybe that was the point, though. It was getting a little harder to read Amity. No longer was she just as uptight and pro-Emperor as Hunter. If that is, that had ever been her motivation. Luz had kinda just made a bit of an assumption about Amity... Perhaps it was more likely that she just believed in following the rules set out for her, be it from the government or her mother.

"Insolent brat..." scornfully, Kikimora growled, "I'm going to have fun locking you up in the dingiest little cell we have..."

"Then stop monologuing and get on with it!" Luz was very acutely aware that she still didn't really have a plan here, "Or, wait, oops..." she fished out a stash of light glyphs and activated them, "Too late!"

Whilst everyone else was busy averting their eyes, Luz sliced through the abomination goo binding her with a sharp side of ice (Glyph made, not ripped off of those walls) and grabbed another invisibility glyph. It could have been her last, who knows; she didn't really have time to stop and check. 

She sprinted out of the room and made her way swiftly down the nearest tunnel she could find. She was already lost, right? Then what difference would it make if she took some wrong direction!? Honestly, this might technically be the worst things had gotten for her on the job yet. Sure, the Emperor's Coven's methods of detaining her were still sorely lacking, but that could be blamed on the lack of any effective counter for glyph magic because it was literally just her using it. Their strategies here of waiting by the Titan's Blood as bait or something and then using the maze-like structure of the inside of the Knee as a prison seemed to be working though!

That held up as consistent, to be honest. Luz wasn't much of a planner herself. She didn't tend to think things through, like just then. It was easier for her to say that she'd think of a plan than for her to actually go through with that. Amity and Hunter on the other hand... All she'd seen from them were attempts at coordinated assaults and clever trickery that would definitely work on her if she wasn't a human mage using long-forgotten techniques. If they just knew her skillset well enough, they could probably catch her, sure! But for all the times she ran into them, she'd never quite had to use the full breadth of her skillset. As their traps never improved, neither did her escapes. A catch-22, sort of. 

This whole internal monologue wasn't necessarily relevant to her currently as she dashed madly through the repeating pattern of tunnels and caverns surrounding Eclipse Lake, but perhaps it served to illustrate just why this was a problem for her. There was somewhat a plan on the Coven's side and Luz was still incapable of doing little more than ever; just going with the first bombastic idea she could and, quite literally, running with it. She probably should slow down and call Lilith again, but her glyph had just worn off and she didn't know how close behind her assailants were. 

Unless...

Well, it was probably going to be horrible to hear the wind rushing at the microphone for Lilith, but desperate times called for desperate measures, right? Still absolutely bolting it, Luz tapped a button on her earpiece and grimaced nervously as she waited for it to be received on the other end. 

"I'm assuming something happened," her aunt immediately deadpanned upon picking up the call, "Your tracker's showing you running all over the place,"

"Yeah, I had some slight issues getting around when it's all so enclosed... And also they brought inspectors in to anticipate me..." hurriedly, she explained, hoping her audio was clear enough to understand.

"The Golden Guard again?" affirmed Lilith, surprised.

Luz nearly went careening straight into a wall due to paying too much attention to the conversation. But she still didn't actually have a desire to find out how strong it was, thanks, so she did manage to sid past it in time.

"Yeah, and Amity. I got away all okay, but now I'm very lost. Any chance Eclipse Lake is close by?" 

Lilith sighed, "Sometimes I wonder if you let those two capture you on purpose just for a laugh..."

"Hey, I only stick around captured for longer than I need to just for a laugh and you know it!"  she protested, good-naturedly.

"If you insist," her aunt hummed, "Eclipse Lake is two rights away from you, by the way,"

And the Noceda luck pulls through again!

"Great! Thanks, Lilith, I'll go swing by real quick and then get the heck outta here, then!" she managed hurriedly, before dropping the connection. 

She could hear something that sounded like footsteps gaining on her now. Never a good sign... It was probably Hunter, if she had to guess... Luz had never been a good runner, so if there was anyone who could definitely gain on her despite her headstart, it would be the guy raised to be a soldier. But she only had two right turns left until her destination now! After that, she could just bust her way out or something! 

She rounded the first of these turns and gave a passing glance over her shoulder when she was sure she had an easy straight to run just ahead of her. Someone was catching up to her, yes, but plot twist, it wasn't hard to make out from the splashes of colour that this was not Hunter; this was Amity.

 At least this could be a situation she could charm herself out of?

Having been stationed literally in a mountain all day so far, Amity was not in the best of moods. However, she could at least say that she was not cold anymore, having just legged it after Luzura in a coat that seemed to do its job at insulating rather well when she was actually warm enough for there to be something to insulate. She still wasn't in the best of moods, though. Even if Luz had been on her a-game of snarking at people Amity kind of wanted to see get snarked at. 

She did also seem to finally be catching up with the thief too! It could just be that Luz was slowing down due to tiredness, but perhaps Amity's time as Grudgby team captain was finally paying off... She wasn't going to put too much faith in it being the latter. It wasn't as if she'd been captain for that long...

Finally fed up with running, Amity decided to take a move to conserve her stamina and hope to outlast Luzura. She summoned a large abomination to carry her, one that would admittedly slow her down, but was, as they say, slow and steady enough to win the race. Her creation took long and robotic steps, trudging determinedly towards its target like a husk of a soldier. 

That turned out to not be worth it in the end, though, because only a minute later and she (and Luz) had reached a clearing much larger than any seen before in these tunnels. It was a dead-end too. Luzura was cornered.  Unless of course, she'd decided to be smart and had brought along a palisman, because there seemed to be a rather gaping hole in the roof of the cavern, showing off a stunning view from partway down the mountain. The distant afternoon sun curtained through, illuminating a dusty crater of a floor that seemed to almost sparkle in such light. 

In the middle of it all, the one she'd been chasing. Luz was knelt down in that crater, sifting through the dust hopefully like a bright-eyed toddler first setting their palm through sand. Except that this was very definitely not beach atmosphere. There was a palpable drop in temperature as soon as Amity and her abomination entered this chamber, even if it didn't really bother her due to her coat finally working as intended.

"What are you doing?" Amity surveyed the situation with a careful eye before giving up and asking.

"Same thing I'm here for in the first place," distractedly, Luzura answered.

She hesitated, "This is... Eclipse Lake, right?"

It would be so easy to approach and get ambushed by the thief right now. But Amity wasn't going to fall for another ploy, today, if this even was a ploy. There was something desperately real about the distant way Luz had responded. 

"Should be, yeah," the thief hummed.

"Then there's no Titan's Blood," matter-of-factly, Amity declared, "This place was already dried up long before we got here, from what I hear from the scouts. If there was any chance of you making it through, you'd be much better off checking the tunnels for veins, like we are,"

"Well, you said it, Ams. If I can't get through to check elsewhere, I might as well stay and check here! I can't give up. That's not who I am," oddly solemnly for the usually cheerful and upbeat thief, Luz chuckled.
 
"I don't see how you have another option..." Amity shrugged, side-eying the thief.

"Well, am I just going to sit here?" dryly, the thief bemoaned.

Amity slowly nudged her abomination further from her and nearer to the main exit. It probably wasn't a ploy. She knew that. But something uneasy was settling in the air. Something tense and tight, something ghoulish and smug, something uncomfortably heavy, twisting and curling, sinking and dropping, like a long snake had coiled its way over the shoulders of everyone in the room. To some degree, she trusted Luz, but she couldn't shake the feeling that something was off. 

"I suppose not," uncomfortably, she admitted, "You could always just turn yourself in if things get that bad... Join Gus and all that..."

The thief twisted her head over, a strange narrowing of her eyes giving her a harsh and calculating edge. She obviously didn't appreciate the mention of her friend. But Amity would still see the desperation in the little worried creases around the edges of her face and forehead. 

"I'm good, thanks," she retorted in a strange tone, "But, say, you never actually told me why you and the Coven need the Titan's Blood so badly... You know I need it for my big plan, and I guess Belos needs it for his, but I wonder... Does that big plan involve a certain door?"

Amity narrowed her eyes, recognising the information as correct from what Hunter had told her, "Where'd you get that idea from?"

Luz sat up slightly, looking pleased, "So I'm right? Cool, cool... And I know because it's my door,"

She should really stop talking here. She was going to leak something actually important sooner or later. But she didn't want to. 

"Oh, I'm well aware of that... Do you know how often Hunter complains about Belos complaining about you keeping the key to it? I know it's technically yours and all, but if you'd just handed it over, we wouldn't have to be down in this frigid cavern!" Amity laughed, trailing off at the end.

The thief cocked her head to the side, "What do you mean?"

"We need the blood because we don't have the key. There's not much potent enough to power that door, you know..." obliviously, she explained.

Luz sat up abruptly straighter and stared, "There's blood in the key?"

"I... think so? Hunter made it out to be something along those lines, but, y'know... I'm just an intern, so I don't exactly know for certain..."

"Well, it's been fun, Ams, but I really should get going now..." Luz chuckled nervously whilst standing up tightly and brushing herself off, "If I really can't get to the blood, I'd best just leave, right?"

No... She couldn't, could she?

"Luz..." Amity started gravely.

"U-uh-huh?" Luz's grin was spread well too wide in her eyes.

"You have the key right now, don't you," it wasn't really a question; Amity was sure she was reading the signs right, here. 

She and her abomination began to approach, with her summoning her staff as well. Luz sighed and danced anxiously on the spot.

"I guess this is where we fight, then," she groaned.

"You could say that,"

And then Amity made the first strike with a leaping dive towards Luz, aiming to pin her down. The abomination blocked the easiest direction to dodge in. Unfortunately, Luz was still fairly agile, so she managed to duck and roll practically on the spot, avoiding both obstacles. She gave an appreciative nod to the thief for the skill displayed, but ultimately went back to a resting sneer afterwards.

With a flick of her wrist, Amity disassembled her abomination and changed its form into spikes, sending these down in an attempt to pin Luz down. It was quite finicky to try and hit the thief's, say, cloak, but not her, though. This meant that Luz had the opportunity to once again roll out of the way and come up with a counter-attack. She dashed up to Amity and flung some fire near, but not quite in the inspector's face, leaving it seeming to be rather a half-hearted attempt. That was at least consistent across both sides, then...

"I mean, we don't have to fight, right? I'll be honest, Amity, I'd really rather not... So maybe you could just let me go?" hopefully, Luz scrunched up her face and asked from just to the side of Amity.

Amity flung out a splatter of abomination goo, in hopes of catching the thief in it,

"I don't really have a choice but to fight you. If I let you go, it'll be really obvious and I'll get fired. Also, this is clearly a crucial mission for you, so no. But, I suppose, I could consider it if you hand over the key..." she winked.

Luz iced over the floor, tripping up Amity and leaving her off-balance until she could steady herself enough to clamber onto her staff. 

"So it is just about your job, at this point, not for the Emperor, right?" Luz dodged both Amity's fireball and suggestion.

"Well-" Amity faltered and opted to throw out another fireball to vent her frustrations at this question a little, "It's just, when you spoke to me the other day... I kinda realised some stuff about obeying authority and all that... And I think that the Emperor is- From what Hunter said- I-" she groaned, "What I'm trying to say is that I'm fairly certain that the Emperor is for Hunter what my mom is for. And I don't... like that,"

Luz paused her assault and studied Amity carefully, "And what about his cause? The containment of wild magic and all that,"

"Well, the only one I've seen use it is a very active criminal, but..." she sighed fondly, "I can't say I've seen it do anything inherently harmful,"

The next 'attack' was really just a light shoulder punch, like something Amity had observed amongst friends. 

"Surely we can make a deal then...?" Luz smiled warmly and suggestively.

Amity flung out s spatter of abomination goo and knocked the thief over, because maybe that was a little satisfying to do after mostly missing her with any attack she tried for a few weeks straight.

"You didn't let me finish," she retorted passively, "I still, to some extent agree with our system. Don't get me wrong, I hate sigils and what they stand for, but I'm not sure having a system more akin to guidelines wouldn't be better than whatever anarchy you're planning. I don't necessarily agree with Belos or you,"

Luz gave an amused little sigh of her own, "I guess no deal..."

They went back to fighting in a slightly more aggressive style after that. It wasn't quite as mean-spirited as Amity remembered being in the library or at the carnival, but it was harsher than how they'd both been holding back originally. Luz wasn't pulling the punches, and Amity was aiming more to knock the thief out than just simply trip her up or something. 

Dancing her way past a stray column of fire, Luz called, "You been training or something, Ams? This is quite the performance! Maybe I shouldn't be surprised that-" she caught her own words and frowned before picking up as if that had never happened, "That you and Hunter beat Gus!"

"Or perhaps you've simply gotten worse," Amity taunted, "Tired, Luzura?"

The thief flushed, "You wish..." she huffed.

Then Amity did the impossible; she actually detained Luz mid-fight. This had never happened before! She'd only ever had the upper hand against the thief by surprising the other or by trying something whilst they were playing out a chase sequence! But, see, what she'd done this time was target the cloak. Normally, this wouldn't work on account of it being, you know, magic repellant, but Amity made the wise choice to fly close enough to just grab it with her hand. She was then able to trip Luz up and tie her down with a thick lather of abomination goo.

Luz could escape this. She was sure of that. She'd done similar before, and she could do it again. Maybe some part of Amity even wanted that to happen. But the thief wasn't whipping out a fire glyph like Amity was sure she still had stored in her pockets; she was just staring pensively at the inspector, surely contemplating something.

"Alright, alright, you said you were basically on the middle ground between me and Belos, right? Then how about a different deal, one that doesn't directly benefit either of us," carefully, Luz proposed.

Seeing that the thief wasn't trying to make an escape, Amity took the opportunity to keep her more secured-down by splatting down Luz's hands from the vile of abomination goo she always kept concealed on her side. It was once again magic-restricting goo, not that that fact was particularly relevant. 

"Just what exactly are you suggesting?" cautiously, Amity demanded.

Luz craned her neck so she could look pointedly at the inspector, "I turn myself in, and you pretend you know nothing about the key,"

Something was up here: the air still carried that crushing anticipation. "And how does that stand to help you? You said this deal benefited both sides,"

Just what exactly Luzura's plan entailed here was crucial. She wouldn't just turn herself in right now of all times when escape was in sight. Not when Amity was still pretty sure she could break out of the trap she was currently in if she tried hard enough. She said that this was an even deal, but she definitely had to stand to gain something big here, otherwise it surely couldn't be nearly worth her freedom. 

"Well, obviously you guys get to keep me behind bars, stopping the current most renowned thief, but I get to stop you guys from getting the sure supply of Titan's Blood. That's why, if I'm to come here, Ams, you have to promise to not even breathe a word about the key's location" firmly, Luz expounded.

"So, you'll let me arrest you? No fuss?" delicately, Amity confirmed.

"The key, Amity," steelily, Luz pushed.

"Right, right, I keep the fact that you have the portal key quiet and you'll just leave us here to find our own Titan's Blood and'll come no fuss?" she repeated, albeit with that small amendment. 

"Promise, scout's honour," solemnly, the thief nodded.

"What does that even mean!? Is it a human expression?" interrogated Amity.

Luz giggled cheekily and buried her face into the dust. That had to be cold, right? The floor had only just been iced earlier... Silly human... Still, it was kind of an endearing little motion.

"You could say that," voice muffled by her mask and also the dirt, the thief agreed before sliding her head backwards to look at Amity, "Now you say it,"

"No," she growled, "I am not using that stupid expression,"

Luz's expression turned pitiful, "Jeez, fine, how do you guys promise stuff sincerely here on the Boiling Isles, then?"

"I suppose this so-called 'Pinkie Promise' thing is quite popular... But it's for little children and it's rather... crude. A Blight would-"

Luz gasped, scandalised, "You dare mock the Pinkie Promise? I don't care what a Blight would do! Amity Blight, you are Pinkie Promising me that you won't share a word about the key right now," pitch going up with each word, Luz demanded.

"You won't just run if I free your hand?" suspiciously, Amity affirmed.

What? Who could blame her for being cautious with someone like Luzura! She didn't know how trustworthy her human way of promising things was! And besides, she wouldn't even make a half-decent inspector if she fell for every ploy from every criminal.

"I already promised not to, Ams!"

Amity stared. You know what, she could use this.

"Okay, fine, but you're going to repeat that promise if I'm going to do this," the inspector instructed.

Then, she peeled off the covering off of Luz's left hand, crouched down off of her staff, letting it fade out of existence for now, and stuck out her own, pinkie finger, of course, outstretched. Luz clamped it into her own and shook both of their hands around merrily.

"I swear not to tell anyone about the location of the portal key," Amity vowed.

"And I promise to surrender peacefully and be escorted to the Conformatorium," Luz responded.

Satisfied, Amity nodded and raised her right hand to draw a circle around where their pinkies were intertwined. It glowed brilliant pink for a moment before fading as if it had never even existed to begin with.

"The everlasting oath has been bound," she proclaimed profoundly.

Luz stared, dumbstruck, "The what?"

"You didn't let me finish earlier," Amity grinned, smugly, "I was going to inform you that a Blight, or any self-respecting witch really, would seal this kind of vow with an everlasting oath, to make sure that the promise could never be broken,"

"So, it's a spell that means you physically can't break a promise you made under it? Cool, cool, that's fine.." hurridly, Luz stumbled through her words. 

Amity shot her an odd look, "Are we leaving now, then?"

"It's not like I really have much of a choice..." Luz sighed.

Slowly, Amity unbound Luz and helped her up, only leaving restraints on her wrists and turning the rest of the spare abomination goo back into a full-sized abomination to guard them whilst she guided Luz. It was odd; she'd one, but something still felt just sort of off. She put it down to some kind of adrenaline kick. 

The feeling didn't really settle as she walked, but that was fine; Amity could deal with some low-level anxiety. Besides, this was a good plan. Luzura was going to be stored away securely for her crimes in a prison, a good one. This was going to help her keep her job as an inspector because she was a good one. This had to be the right decision! It was what she'd been working for since her first mission was Luzura! This was a good thing!

...Right?

Chapter Text

They flew back to base after their mission at Eclipse Lake was... complete. Hunter would like to say it was a silent journey, as that would have much better fit his mood, but Blight had attempted to lift his spirits by chatting amicably the whole way. (She sort of gave up in the home stretch, but that was too little too late...) Suffice it to say, it did very little to help him. Despite being the first successful mission he'd had with Blight, it felt personally like perhaps the worst of their failures. Or, more accurately, his failures.

Blight had left to go celebrate or something as soon they'd touched down on base. Hunter hadn't really wanted to stop her on the account of him kind of wanting some alone time and all that. So he'd trudged back to his office and slumped down in that oh-so-familiar chair, only then finally bothering to unclip and remove his mask. The air was warmer here than at Eclipse Lake for rather obvious reasons, but judging as he hadn't been cold up there, it didn't really do much to improve his mood.

See, the crux of the matter was simply just a complete clash of him feeling like he was being horrible for not feeling good about achieving the mission bestowed upon him of capturing Luzura and feeling like he was an utter disappointment to his glorious Emperor for being outdone by intern not yet two months on the job. Sure, they had finally got Luzura caught for her crimes, but the 'they' there was just Amity. Hunter, the Golden Guard, the Emperor's right-hand man, had been useless, again. 

Hunter banged his fist against the desk, half-wishing he had just gone back to the Castle, because at least Flapjack would be there for him there...

He couldn't go back as was, though. He had failed his Uncle and didn't dare try and pretend otherwise. Anything Belos would do or say to him upon hearing the news of his lack of merit on the Knee would be justified. because it would be right! What kind of a head soldier fumbled around whilst his intern did all the heavy lifting!? 

Did this just prove everyone else wrong about him? (Well, everyone except Kikimora. She thought he was a failure anyway, though.) Did this... prove Emperor Belos wrong for choosing him amongst everyone else to become the next Golden Guard? It would be blasphemy usually to suggest that their great Emperor could make this kind of mistake, but the evidence supporting it... Hunter ran his hand through his hair dejectedly.

Perhaps he had been right all those years ago. Perhaps there wasn't a place in this world for a powerless witch...

"Hunter?" it was Blight. She'd returned for... some reason. Maybe he should have taken note that she'd used his name rather than his title. He didn't, at the time.

He rolled his head around to stare at the doorway blearily. It felt oddly reminiscent of the first time he'd been in this office moping after Luzura had first gotten the best of them.

"Sorry, Blight, did you leave something here?" trying his best to sound impassive, he questioned.

"Did you?" dryly, she replied.

He scrunched up his face, "No? I had work to get done again here, a report of the incident, or- Listen, Blight, why are you here? Didn't you go home already?"

She smirked cheekily, "Once again, didn't you?"

He stared, scrutinising her. She'd taken off the coat since returning from the Knee, but other than that, looked exactly the same as earlier. She was even still carrying that coat, actually! So, earlier... She can't have even left the building! But... why? She was the hero of the day: she didn't need to stick around and mope like he did. Or, as he put it for her, 'do paperwork'. (Yes, any forms he did have to file, he could complete in his room at the Castle, but she didn't have to know that.)

"I told you, I have work to get done," he scowled, deliberately avoiding meeting her eye.

Here's the thing, on paper, his excuse was sound. That meant that, for once, he had actually come up with a plausible deflection of the issue! It didn't really make him feel any better, but it was sort of nice to know anyway? Sort of.

"You don't look to be doing much," Blight remarked.

"No, I- We just got back! I've hardly had the chance to start, surely! And if you keep bothering me, I never will!" sharply, he scolded.

Infuriatingly, Blight took this not as the warning that it was, but instead as something to be ignored. She strolled right on into the office and took a seat at her own desk, setting the coat down on her lap and staring pensively at him. 

"Is something wrong?" carefully, she asked.

Hunter froze, "No. Why would it be? We won, remember?"

Blight smiled thinly, "Yeah, I guess we did..." she trailed off, "But it doesn't quite feel right, does it. We've been aiming for this for weeks, but it still doesn't feel like all that..."

"Concern for the enemy?" unhelpfully, deliberately so, Hunter suggested.

His subordinate shot him an evil look. Despite never once being up for this conversation, it did maybe make him feel a little better to get under her skin like this. In the nicest way possible, maybe he would feel even worse if he did see her off celebrating her victory, like she probably should have been. 

"That can be... your working theory," she scoffed, "But that doesn't answer it for you, does it? I wondered if perhaps it was because this just feels so much bigger than all of us. Like, we're just two people, right? But we're fighting for a way of life! Letting Luzura win isn't just letting her make off with a free bottle of shampoo or something - it's letting her bring about the destruction of our established system,"

"Then you should take pride, Blight. You took on a job for the whole Isles yourself. Congratulations," evenly, he commended.

The other inspector tilted her head to the side and scanned him. Hunter pretended not to notice and instead stared at the empty desk underneath his arms. It was clean and smooth, as you'd expect of Emperor's Coven property. As you'd expect from... him. But this wasn't his merit today, and he was the smooth hero of the Isles.

"Oh. I think I get it," curiously, Blight commented, "It's more that the victory feels hollow to you, right? You're... jealous?"

"I'm not...!" he snapped before reigning himself in, "I'm not so much jealous. I say congrats to you, and I mean it. But, no offence, but this was my task. It's more like..." he hesitated, not yet sure if he should be unloading, "Who am I if I can't fulfil even this simple task? Why should the Emperor care about me if I do nothing but fail him?"

Blight sat up abruptly straighter, "Is the Emperor going to punish you for this?"

"I deserve to be punished. Belos would be well within his right to do so. I would never say he is a merciful man, but he has his priorities. Today, be it what it is, we succeeded. That may... result in an oversight from our Emperor, then," Hunter paused, "Potentially,"

His subordinate took her time to digest this information. She looked as though she was mulling it over carefully, perhaps not quite sure what to do with it. Well, that would suggest that there was anything to do with it. Everything Hunter said was the truth, so there was little that she even needed to do or say to that! It was just the way of the world. 

"Is this why you're still here? Hunter, are you... scared to go back?" wide-eyed and horrified, (Or something, Hunter wasn't the best at reading expressions. She could be shocked at the colour of the table for all he knew.) Blight inquired.

"I don't fear the inevitable. I told you, if I am punished, I deserve it and I am well aware that is the will of the Titan. Belos does what he does to help me improve," he stated haughtily, "And, besides, I don't even know if he will be told exactly what happened. He may think that... I was the one who attained success today. But don't worry! I promise I won't try and steal your credit - I wouldn't lie to the Emperor anyway,"

"I'm not worried about you stealing my credit! Listen, does Belos usually... punish you for failing these missions?" Blight pressed on.

"Sometimes. Our Emperor is capable of understanding when the situation was out of our control and when I am directly at fault. He just teaches me to do better," he shrugged.

What about Belos being the emissary for the Titan and knowing how to carry out its will effectively was Blight not getting?

The junior inspector pursed her lips, "Not to... discredit the Emperor, but there are other ways of teaching. I'm sure this... works, to some extent, but you are aware that mistakes are normal, right? You, me, even Luz, make them! I can't say I always understand it myself, but that is just our way of learning. And you, Hunter, seem very capable of teaching yourself your lesson after making a mistake,"

"I'm still not one to disagree with the Emperor's will, Blight. Regardless of what others may think," sternly, he reprimanded. 

"No, of course not," slowly, she nodded, "I wouldn't otherwise. I was just trying to help, but I might have overstepped a little," 

Help? Help with what? The fact that Hunter was going to go back and proceed to beat himself up over messing up again? Maybe take a stroll down to the prison again tomorrow to be mocked and taunted by the prisoners? Blight wasn't going to help him with that by telling him he needed to stand up for himself more, or something. There wasn't anyone to stand up to.

Hunter sighed heavily, "Thank you for trying, then, but really, I will have to dismiss you now so that I can finish that paperwork I was talking about,"

He did have that to do, at least. Filing a report on the incident wasn't particularly interesting, but it did at least let him feel like he was doing something... Being productive in a boring way was better than being a waste of space and just sitting around moping about being unproductive earlier.

"I think you should head back to the Castle," plainly, Blight spoke.

"Why?" baffled, he stared at her.

"To catch a break. You look like you need one," the other inspector informed him bluntly.

Thanks, Blight... Exactly what he needed to hear when his self-esteem was already running pretty low... Did she think he was now incapable of doing his job? 

"I'm fine, thank you," curtly, he informed her, "And, besides, I have paperwork to do! Did you forget?"

"I can do that for you, Inspector. It's not a problem. I just- I don't any of us can do our best work when we're feeling down like you are. It helped you last time to take time away from all this, I think," 

"Last time I spoke to you about something like this, I was not 'taking a break'. I just changed to my other duties for a bit of a change! The last time I actually took a break the worst failures of our careers happened!" he ranted primly.

Blight snorted, possibly accidentally if her startled, guilty expression meant anything, "You mean the second Castle break-in? That wasn't our fault! And I wouldn't call it the 'worst failure of our careers'... We caught Gus, didn't we?"

"That's irrelevant," Hunter dismissed, abusing his power as the superior here rather handily. 

"Okay, how about this, I take the paperwork for you because it is kinda my job as an intern to handle that kind of thing, and you go report directly to the Emperor," his subordinate suggested.

Hadn't Blight just been complaining about the Emperor a few minutes ago? It was good to see that she seemed to have changed her mind, of course, but it was rather odd. Was there more to it?

"The paperwork report is for the Emperor and other high-ranking officials. Why would I report verbally?" unimpressed, Hunter questioned.

"Surely he would appreciate your haste," answered Blight, "And, uh, Hunter... You can tell him we captured Luzura together, if it helps. I'll corroborate that in the report,"

Ah, so that was her game. What he'd told her earlier had obviously left some kind of silly impression and had her worried... 

"I- Thank you, Blight. Much appreciated," he stated, knowing full well that he had no plans to go along with her idea.

He could just go back and write up his own copy of the report for Belos and give that one, the one that would specify the actual truth of the matter in it, in. All he'd have to do other than that was make sure that he told Blight the wrong place to deliver the report to... Hm... Getting it sent to his paperwork box at the Castle could work! Then he had full control of its whereabouts!

"No problem. I'll, uh, get started then! It's just a full statement on the incident and what happened, yeah?" she affirmed.

"Yes, basically. And make sure to have it delivered to me afterwards so I can submit it to Belos later on," he guided her towards going along with his own little plot.

"Understood. Have a good evening, Inspector," she wished courteously.

Getting off of the chair, making sure he had his mask along the way, Hunter made his way to the door, "And you too, Blight,"

He probably could have waved on his way out, just to make his exit seem a little more authentic, but, ah, what could it hurt? Blight seemed to believe that he was going along with her plan pretty well, anyway. Huh, maybe he actually had gotten better at lying. Not really a useful skill within the environment of the Castle (Except for helping to hide Flapjack), but a welcome one for the working world, he supposed.

Luz's journey to, uh, literal prison, was a lot less interesting. And a lot longer. As it turned out, being under arrest meant you were handed over between many sets of heavily armed squadrons and vehicles... And, man, hiking up the mountain on her own managed to be more interesting than trudging back down with these scouts who wouldn't even respond to her! That didn't make her solo journey in the back of a carriage any better, though.

One other issue that arose on the way down the Knee was that it was going to be rather hard to contact Eda to let her know what had happened. If Luz was lucky, she would be out of the Conformatorium before it got too late, because, yes, she was breaking herself out obviously, but with the speed they were going at, she was worried it would still be a problem. Through a combination of luck and the Emperor's Coven's incompetence, she did eventually figure that she could just call her mentor on her earpiece to explain if she was quiet enough. Which she was. 

Night had fallen by the time Luz actually arrived at the prison. She didn't really get the chance to stare at the stars, though: the warden was very insistent on getting her carriage well inside the Conformatorium before she was to be let out. A smart decision on paper, but unfortunately for them, Luz's deal with Amity was up. She'd promised to go peacefully to prison, but she was already there now... That meant for all intents and purposes, she was free to be as non-peaceful as she liked!

When some scouts opened the doors sealing her in the vehicle, she leapt out gingerly and proceeded to disarm everyone she could immediately see with a fistful of plant glyphs. They ended up suitably entangled. Definitely to a point where escape would be rather hard. Satisfied with her work, Luz ran out of the main chamber she'd been brought into and into the most desolate-looking tunnel she could find as to delay detection of her escape. 

As you may recall, she was about ninety percent certain she was out of invisibility glyphs, so this was just a race to Gus's cell and then back to the Conformatorium Walls. The Coven probably didn't expect rogue prisoners to be dancing around the prison. Luz soon found in her bull-in-a-china-shop dash around that they had signs up for different parts of the prison. One such of these signs was labelled 'Special holding cells'. She would bet good money (Of Eda's) on that being the kind of place they'd have stashed the accomplice to the most wanted criminal. 

She couldn't hear anyone else around her upon pausing for a moment, and she obviously couldn't see anyone lurking on her tail, so Luz just ended up booking it down the trail to the special cells too. She had tied those scouts up pretty tightly in the main chamber, come to think of it, so the only reason anyone would have to know she was free was if they came through and saw either her or what she'd done to her original escorts. 

Apparently, though, the Emperor's Coven had appointed extra scouts to guard the special cells' area! The tiles and walls changed colour from murky grey to blue when she entered this section, marking a stark and obvious change in itself, but Luz was more worried about the trio of scouts rounding the corner, chatting amongst themselves, to take much else in. She ducked back behind the corner she'd just turned with a grimace. 

She probably should have just waited for them to pass, but Luz was getting antsy knowing she was so close to saving Gus like she'd promised. And, to her credit, she had endured an afternoon of slow travel to be here... And managed to outsmart a Coven Inspector! 

 She dove back out into the open and thrust a pair of ice glyphs forward. They were supposed to swoop down and incapacitate the scouts by freezing them, but instead, she could only watch in horror as the bits of paper she'd drawn them on crumpled to dust before her, rather than exploding brightly into magic. This was... unprecedented! Her glyphs had never not worked before! What was she supposed to do?

"It's Luzura!" the first scout yelped.

"Just grab her! She won't be able to do magic here, remember?" the second grunted.

Now, Luz Noceda was no fighter really, but she had been in her fair few school scraps, so she knew how to make sure these guys were more likely to hurt themselves than her. The first scout, obviously hopped up on the thrill of seeing the real Luzura Clawthorne, charged frantically at her, probably just hoping to knock her over or generally disorient her. Luz waited until they were in range before ducking and sliding off to her right. The scout struggled to stop their momentum in time before hitting the wall behind her, so ended up indisposed for the rest of the duration of the fight. 

The second scout seemed upset by their comrade going down and started more tactically matching fists with Luz. She wasn't as good at dealing with the fast-paced, close-range action, so ended up taking a couple of hits for it. Her arms were definitely going to feel that heavily tomorrow... Eventually, though, Luz just landed a solid kick to the knee of the scouts, sending them crashing down to the floor as they lost their balance. She'd just kicked them pretty hard with her boot. Luz grimaced. They were going to feel that pretty heavily for a while longer than just tomorrow... 

Before either of those scouts or any more they could call in could come to deal with her, Luz made a break for it again. She'd have loved to stop and have gotten a chance to figure out why her glyphs weren't working, but there was no time for experimentation! She could only hypothesise and she ran, for now. 

One of the scouts had clearly been aware that her glyphs weren't going to activate, so that probably meant that there was something down here in this specific part of the Conformatorium that was applying the limits. From what Luz understood of the fundamentals of glyphs, this left two possibilities; the area had either been drained of the magic the Titan gifted to permeate through the air on the Isles or laced with some kind of magic restricting spell, like the one Amity had tried on her with abomination goo way back when, but way more widespread and potent.

The first would be better, as it would mean Gus would still be able to do magic, but the second was more likely. It made more sense for a magical prison to have limits on magic in general rather than just weird archaic wild magic that some human was using. It did still scare her a little how easily her glyph had just... crumbled. She'd expected it to just not activate if there was no magic to work on, not wither and decay until it seemed to have never existed! It was unsettling, and Luz was already running high on nervous energy and adrenaline. 

Not running into any more guards before she reached Gus's cell was a plus, but it did make the place feel eerily lonely. She couldn't imagine actually being locked up here. it was just so... cold, and empty. Jeez, she should have made more of an effort for Gus sooner; this wasn't fair on him at all! He'd hardly even done anything wrong in comparison to her, and yet she was the one on the outside of the cold, lonely cell.

"Hey, Gus," tentatively she greeted.

He jumped at the sound of her voice, but beamed when he caught sight of her, "Luz! Fancy seeing you here, eh?"

He seemed to be in fine condition, at least. He wasn't injured, and didn't appear to be any worse for wear than when they'd snuck into the Castle together. Maybe he looked a little tired, but this place... it would just do that to you. The air was sinking and magicless, feeding off of the energy you had. Gus looking as bright as he did was a miracle in her books.

"Yeah, thought I rather fancied a visit. You know, the place could probably use my tips on how to up its security and all that," lightly, she joked.

"How did you get in, then?" amused, Gus asked.

Luz paused, "How about I tell you whilst we work on getting you out. I knocked out a few of the guards on the way here, but I reckon there must be others, right? And those two won't stay down forever. They're definitely liable to call for help,"

"Sure, but how exactly do you plan on doing that? Your glyphs won't work and those bars are pretty strong..."

"I knew about the glyph stuff already, but, uh... I guess I was kind of hoping you'd figured something out about the cell," she frowned.

"Well, I was working on a plan on my own, but it'll be a lot easier now that you're here. There's a control room - if you can sneak in there, you can manually open the cell and then we can rendevous by the exit," Gus exposited.

That would definitely work, providing Luz played her part right. She was a master thief, so surely sneaking into somewhere wouldn't be a problem... But this felt more high-stakes and personal than usual. And she didn't have her glyphs to fall back on. That made her feel a sort of defenceless worry. What could she even do if she got caught? She was by no means a physical fighter, and she wouldn't have even been able to take on those two scouts earlier if there had been any more of them or they'd just bothered to attack more than one at a time.

"Okay, but it might be a little hard to sneak in without invisibility glyphs... It'll hopefully be fine, though. You just start running when you see the cell open, yeah?" she plotted.

"Hold on, Luz," Gus grinned, "I think I have something that can help,"

He unclipped something from around his wrist and passed it over to her. It was a small, blue stone tied to a string bracelet, still managing to glow dimly when she touched it, despite the lack of magical ambience.

"A concealment stone!? And it... works?" both excited and shocked, Luz confirmed.

"Should do. I've had it just project my regular dashing looks since I got here so the scout wouldn't figure anything is up, but it looks like it's still working," nodded Gus.

"Thanks, man. I'll have you out of here in a jiffy!" she promised.

"Alright, Miss Master Thief... I'll hold you to that," her friend chuckled.

Luz gave a final assuring nod before slipping the stone around her own worst and striding off at a brisk, but hopefully not suspicious pace. The concealment stone seemed to have given her a fairly convincing scout disguise, so reaching the control room without getting caught wasn't going to be a problem. 

She'd made it about halfway before running into obstacle number one: one of the pair of scouts she'd injured earlier.

"Are you on the next shift?" they demanded wearily.

Well, here's to hoping they didn't recognise her voice! "I think I'm a little early, but yeah," with the confidence of a professional con artist (You know, like her mentor) Luz replied.

"Luzura's free around the building. She's probably going for the other prisoner,"

They had to mean Gus.

"I just came from that direction and all seemed fine," she assured the scout, "But I'll keep an eye out. We can swap shifts early if you want, though. You go alert a captain about Luzura and I'll stay patrolling, keeping an eye out for her," 

If Luz went looking for Luzura, she was obviously never going to find her on the account of that just being her alter ego, but the scout didn't know that she was Luz Noceda, so all should be fine. 

"Yeah, okay... Thanks..." the scout sighed tiredly, "Good luck, man..."

Luz gave a firm nod before continuing in her march to the control room where freedom lay within. All things considered, that went remarkably well. Gus's concealment stone was doing wonders for maintaining her cover... Maybe she should use these things more often!

She never saw the second scout whilst hurrying her way down these hallowed halls, so they must have either gone the other way or just given up. Maybe they were still just lying there, not really bothering to find the motivation to go hunt a criminal that had just punted their knees. That felt a little harsh of a fate for them, though, so Luz was just going to choose to believe the former was true for the sake of her conscience. 

The control room itself didn't seem too fancy, thankfully. There were no cameras or anything of the sort you'd expect to find in a control room on TV, just a raised platform sporting various levers. They were labelled, but the writing on these labels was some kind of confusing code, probably intended to indicate which cell was which if you actually worked at the prison. The room was currently empty besides her, though, not that she definitely would have been able to come up with an excuse to ask if there had been others with her.

She scrutinised the code heavily, but it did just seem to be a numerical system with letter codes to show location or something. Indication of who was in each cell there was not. Luz frowned. Don't get her wrong, she knew there was a possibility that there were other criminals in this part of the Conformatorium that she just hadn't seen, but was it going to be such a bad thing if she just pressed down all the levers, caused a mass break-out and then ran for it?  She'd been here before, when she'd first arrived on the Isles actually, and there had been a plethora of innocents behind bars. Who was to say it was any different in the special cells?

Perhaps her inability to think things through properly was a benefit here. It was definitely heightened, she could say that for sure, but it didn't feel bad or wrong shoving her arm against every lever wildly, not stopping to consider the ramifications of this more than just 'Some actual criminals could be released'. Maybe that just showed her lack of faith in Belos, then.

Consequences found her almost immediately, though. Someone, probably a scout, began screaming loudly when they noticed something, probably a bunch of cells opening, and began to thump along to her location. 

She shuddered at the sudden uproar before booking it out of the Control Room, rapidly trying to come up with a distraction amongst the mayhem for her to use to sneak out with. Then it hit her. She had just created a big distraction. A massive distraction, in fact! If other prisoners were indeed out, then the scouts would be trying to ward everyone back, not just her and Gus. If they got out of the swarming zone quick enough, there might not even be anyone looking for them! 

Gus had said to meet at the exit, but he hadn't actually specified which one... She'd learnt almost immediately after his arrest that his earpiece must have been confiscated too, as he never picked it up, no matter how many times she and Lilith tried to contact it. Well, if Luz knew Gus as well as she hoped she did, he meant the exit that would provide the most flamboyant escape. If an illusionist was going to escape prison, he was going to do it in style and in a way that Belos definitely noticed. She grinned. The front gates it was, then!

Funnily enough, to get there, Luz had to pass back into the chamber she'd first been deposited in. Perhaps a tad surprisingly, the guards were still tied down and struggling. Hm. She must have made those a little tougher than intended. 

"Sorry!" she called out before running away again.

She heard some angry muttering as she fled, but, eh, she couldn't blame them for being grouchy after being tied up for twenty-odd minutes.

The route to the front gate from there was unexplored territory for her: there hadn't exactly been windows in her carriage... Here's for hoping her scout disguise was still up to scratch! Come to think of it, that probably had made those other scouts she'd yelled at rather confused. Luz snickered, imagining the comedic potential of someone who seemed to be your coworker running through the room you were tied up in and yelling sorry as if they'd done this to you whilst also not making any move to free you.

Gus shot into vision just as the narrower passageways gave way to an atrium before the front gates. She called out to him to alert him of her presence. He jumped at first, likely scared by her scout disguise, but settled once he recognised her voice. She jogged lightly to catch up with him.

"That's going to take some getting used to," he snorted, gesturing at her get-up. 

"I'll probably take it off once we're out of here, if that helps," she shrugged.

"Eh, you know, probably," Gus shook his head fondly as they ran, "So, tell me about this infiltration of yours,"

The gates were about a playground's length away now and the sky was out and in sight. But Luz still didn't have time to stop and admire it.

"I made a deal with Amity to let me keep some Titan's Blood if I surrendered. She made an everlasting oath and all that, but didn't notice when I only promised to get to the Conformatorium peacefully," gleefully, she explained.

"So you just unleashed all your pent-up chaos when you got here and could be... not so peaceful?" 

"Pretty much!" she laughed.

They reached the main gates with ease, some scouts noticing they looked suspicious but were located too far away to do anything to stop them. Gus hoisted himself up onto the bars and began to climb.

"Sounds about par of the course for you," lightly, he jabbed, "Need a hand up?"

"Nah, I got this," smugly, she turned him down.

Luz drew a fire glyph excitedly from her jacket pocket and used the momentum of its blast to bounce her to the top of the fence, landing clung to the upper poles, clearly above Gus. 

"Do you want a hand, though?" she taunted.

Gus shook his vigorously and began to scamper up the gate with renewed vigour. Some scouts had begun to congregate on the floor below them at this point, but, yeah, they weren't getting anywhere useful with that. 

When her friend reached the top with her, she stuck a safety hover glyph to each of them and leapt over the top to the other side, Gus following closely behind her. Jumping from an extraordinary height was fun when you knew you were going to land safely. it gave you the same kind of thrill that rollercoasters did, Luz supposed. Though maybe some of her glee came from running free from the Isles' most notorious prison with her buddy. 

Now that they were over the gate, Luz and Gus were home free. Eda could be called up to come collect them, and they could go and crash at the Owl House with everyone, and they could b ready for more adventures in their pursuit against Belos tomorrow. Home free, yeah? She liked that. Fitting social barriers never was particularly fun. 

Hunter had been summoned by the Emperor. It was probably just so he could deliver his report (Which he had successfully swapped Blight's with, yes), but there was always something nerve-wracking about visiting his uncle. Belos just had such a... grand presence. Yes, that had to be it. He was currently just waiting to be let into the office, so anxiety was easy to build up.

Eventually, Belos, still masked and caped, indicating that this matter was perhaps quite serious if he was around in formal attire, eased the door open, watching Hunter carefully as he enter the study quietly. There was a calm, but vicious glint to his Uncle's eye as it glowed gently behind his mask. That definitely pointed to this being about more than a report. 

"My Lord," Hunter bowed, staring at the rich carpet that his hands sunk into, "You summoned me?"

"Rise, Golden Guard, we haven't the time for formalities," Belos waved his hand dismissively. 

Slowly, Hunter craned his body upright, so he was standing to full height and arching upwards to observe his powerful demeanour. He shuffled forward, letting his boots sink into the carpet as he moved, and handed over the report he'd come with.

"My report from earlier," curtly, he explained.

Belos didn't even give it a glance over before he placed it down on the desk at the back of the room. It lay crooked there, unimportant and irrelevant.

"Good," evenly, his Uncle stated, "But that is not the reason I called you here, Hunter,"

The Emperor was watching him carefully, like a wise raven, from the old stories he was told, to the wanderer it knows is about to collapse on the path. It knows the wanderer will stumble, will fall, will die. It knows it will consume.

"Am I needed on duty, then, sir?" meekly, he tried.

"Not quite," Belos pressed, "I wanted to see if you had any... information. I understand you finally managed to take Luzura into custody earlier, yes?"

The wanderer paused to survey the surroundings. They were barren and desolate. The raven watched gleefully.

"Yes, my lord. But! It was Blight who did the deed, not me," earnestly, he corrected.

The raven cackled mockingly at the wanderer who seemed to be able to comprehend the danger they were in.

Belos laughed sharply at Hunter's insinuation, "Oh, you think I didn't already know that? I am well aware of your lack of involvement in the matter, Hunter, but that is neither here nor now. What is important is that your precious thief seems to have never made it behind bars,"

The wanderer noticed the raven and startled.

"Luzura escaped already!?" he gasped.

"Yes, she took the liberty of causing a right riot in the Conformatorium whilst she was there too, releasing all the prisoners in the special holding cells,"

Guiltily, Hunter stared, "Did we... manage to re-capture many of them?"

The Emperor laughed again, "Of course! The scouts at the Conformatorium are highly-skilled, Hunter. Do you believe you could do better than them?" 

The wanderer shrank inwards at the raven's caws. They were cold and black like its cloak of feathers.

"O-of course not. But you said that Luzura was not currently in a cell, so it must be that some escaped," 

"Indeed," wearily, Belos pressed one finger against the right edge of his mask, "Some rambunctious little fiends did manage to wriggle their way out. Most of them we can crush like worms. But among our escaped prisoners was both Luzura and her illusionist ally," 

The raven grinned wickedly and wistfully at the memories of its past prey. Would the wanderer be like that? They seemed poor and stupid, misguided by some human streak of defiance. All the while, the wanderer thought only of the friend they left behind at home. But they were alone in this wasteland of rich sand. 

"Should I inform Blight that we must double down on our efforts to capture her and her crew, then?" firmly, Hunter inquired.

"That won't be necessary. If we are going to end her petty defiance, we must make a big display of it. Her escape this time was the will of the Titan, Hunter, and it is a gift to us, As was, no one would have even felt our victory,"

The wanderer stumbled.

"But surely having her petrified now would save the people from her assaults against them," confused, Hunter rationalised.

"Oh, she was never going to be petrified," Belos shook his mighty head disappointedly.

The wanderer fell.

"Why not, my lord?" weakly, Hunter questioned. 

"The Titan has bigger plans for her than that, Hunter, plans just as grand as those for you and I. We do not question the Titan's will on how her rebellion will be destroyed," the glow of Belos's eyes sharpened and grew brighter, "Besides, I look forward to meeting this little radical soul myself,"

The wanderer perished.

"Haven't you two already met?" 

The Emperor stood tall and predatory, "She may have met me, but not I her. She was not the rebel we now know on the occasion you are thinking of, Hunter," wryly, voice laced with an almost psychotic excitement, he spoke. 

The raven glided down to scrutinise the prey it had just seen drop. It was still breathing, just about, but its spirit was crushed. Soon then, it could fulfil its purpose for the raven. 

"I apologise for my mistake," staring at the red of the carpeted, floor, Hunter returned.

Belos harrumphed quietly, "Of course. I had been hoping that you had some insight into all of this, but it appears that it is not the purpose the Titan intends for you. We will have to see how its ideas for you play out too, then,"

The wanderer dug their fist into the ground, finding strength in the hungry glitter in the raven's eyes, narrowed below the prim feathers rising on its head like stag horns. 

"I will not let you down, my lord," Hunter vowed solemnly, "I will make sure we have Luzura and all her allies backed into a corner until they are insignificant, like the fallen down travellers who are unable to complete their journey,"

Belos pressed his hand onto Hunter's shoulder, "Excellent. I would expect nothing else from you, Golden Guard,"

Hunter bowed before he was ready to leave, "Thank you for your time, sir. I will use what you have told me today wisely,"

The raven watched confidently as the wanderer scrambled back to their feet, managing to dart off to the safety of company. I knew they would be back. The raven stroked its feathers vainly.

"Of course you will,"

Chapter Text

Unbeknownst to her when she made it, Luz's excellent plan had a bit of a flaw to it. She may now have her Titan's Blood in the form of what was inside the Portal Key, but it appeared that she was still missing some rather key herb for her plan. Alright, she had thought, that's no big problem! She could just ask Willow for a location! Well, she could definitely do that. She hadn't counted on there not being a satisfying answer to that, though.

"Sorry, Luz," Willow frowned, "Those don't tend to grow much anymore. The Emperor's Coven might be keeping a stash of old ones, or even an attempt to grow new ones, somewhere, but I wouldn't have the first clue where,"

"And you couldn't just... grow one for me?" hopefully, Luz stared.

"That's... not really how plant magic works. I'd need a seed and the right conditions for something endangered like this," apologetically, Willow explained, "Surely you could grow on yourself with glyphs, though,"

Luz sighed dramatically. That'd been her first instinct, actually. She wasn't going out to some random location on the isles to hunt for a very specific herb when she could just grow it herself anywhere, even the Owl House's basement. Fairly predictably, in hindsight, it hadn't worked in the slightest. She'd grown some kind of other plant; Eda had said it was a cooking herb bush called 'Zennel'. That sounded to Luz like some kind of soothing thing, so she was more just glad she hadn't grown a batch of Sleeping Nettles after Hooty's last adventure with them...

"That doesn't work either... The glyphs probably work by similar rules to your magic, anyway..." dejectedly, sighed Luz.

"Ask Lilith, then. Out of anyone, she's the one who would know where the Emperor's Coven's stack of them is, supposing it exists," her friend suggested.

"That's probably a good idea," she admitted, "But you'll come with me to swipe them, right?"

Willow grinned deviously, "Of course! But for the interest of science, naturally," 

Luz sported a twin grin, "Naturally," 

Okay, so idea one of finding this stupid herb had been a no, but Willow's suggestion was a solid one, and it wasn't like Luz had walked out of that conversation with nothing! It was team mission with Willow time, later! The plant witch was usually either busier or more cautious than Luz or Gus, and so having her on missions was a much-welcomed rarity. 

So, to Lilith. Having flown back through the woods to the Owl House on Owlbert, Luz found her aunt in the front room, reading. She snuck up behind the sofa and put her chin on the edge of it to try and get a peak at what was on those pages. It looked like boring history stuff, to be honest. Something about the Deadwardian Era. Luz made a face and ignored it.

"Hey, Lilith!" she greeted loudly from behind.

Rather predictably, Lilith jumped and slammed her book shut at the sound of a voice. Luz giggled and raised a friendly hand. Her aunt didn't look best pleased, but after living in a house with Eda, Hooty and Luz for a while now, she probably was used to problematic roommates. 

"Can I help you?" witheringly, Lilith asked.

Luz swung herself over the sofa, "Yes, actually!" she grabbed her scroll from her pocket and loaded back up the picture of the herb she needed, "I need one of these for the potion, but Willow says they don't grow naturally anymore. She also said that the Emperor's Coven might have a secret stash, though, so I was kind of hoping you, y'know, knew something about it," 

Her aunt pressed a finger against her glasses and scrutinised the image. 

"I don't immediately remember seeing them in the Coven... I wasn't particularly close with Head Witch Snapdragon, though... I suppose it's unlikely that I'd know the details of her conservation efforts..." Lilith hummed before her face suddenly lit up, "But, wait!"

"Did you remember something!? Did you actually get a secret tour of Terra Snapdragon's private garden!?" excitedly, Luz gasped.

"What? No," her aunt frowned, "Much better! I remember reading about this herb growing prevalently just about anywhere during the Deadwardian times!"

Was there a way to gently tell someone that their obsession with history was really not relevant right now and that the stakes were too high for this mission to be putting what happened 400 years ago onto the table? 

"Uh, Lilith, you may note that we are not in the Deadwardian Era," grimacing, she asserted.

Her aunt just rolled her eyes, "I'm not delusional, Luz - I can see that. It's just, this may give us an easy way to get your herb!" 

Luz's eyes grew wide. No... This couldn't be a suggestion for what she thought it was, could it? Were they about to live out one of the coolest fantasy plot devices!? She took back what she said before! History was officially the best!

"Are we going to time travel!?" she pressed both hands down on Lilith's shoulders and stared.

The historian peeled Luz off of her, "Uh, maybe? We've been speculating for years here about the existence of these things called 'Time Pools', see? But nobody's ever found them because they're nigh impossible to track!"

She pouted, "So no time travel?"

"Uh, not quite. I built a device years ago with Eda to find them, and I've checked it - the calculations behind it are sound. To the best of my knowledge, the only thing stopping it from working is a lack of a strong enough power source. After your last mission, though..."

"You think Titan's Blood could power it?" quivering cheerily, Luz affirmed.

"I do," Lilith nodded confidently.

Luz jumped to her feet and bounced on the spot.

"What are we waiting for, then!? You get the machine, and I'll go get Willow and Gus! Meet you back here in ten!"

She may, uh, have not heard Lilith's response to that. Hopefully, it was an agreement... See, she'd already been out the door by that point! This was the plan and she was going for it. 

Seeing as her stupid family dinner was only two days away now, Amity was having one of those days. She'd clocked into the office, but Hunter wasn't even there yet, so she was just alone with some paperwork or something. She functioned perfectly fine on her own, don't get her wrong, but she was beginning to feel a little lonely and that was really weighing on her mood. It was just hard to find a reason to get through this specific day, y'know?

Of course, the slitherbeast in the room of Luzura's escape from the Conformatorium a few days prior, an act that was very definitely her fault. "I promise to surrender peacefully" she'd said, obviously not including her stay in prison as part of the surrender. Ugh... That had been why she'd felt so wrong afterwards... That had been why she'd left Eclipse Lake feeling the same way she did her apartment when she was convinced she'd left something behind. 

Thing was, Amity was sure that her disappointment in those events solely stemmed from the fact that she'd technically failed. Who cared at this point if Luzura was still at large? She'd never seen the thief actually hurt anyone who wasn't attacking her, and she only ever really seemed to rob the Emperor's Coven. The Coven who had currently set her up mindlessly in an empty room with some reports to proofread or something, mind you. Also the Coven enforcing these stupid rules about magic types that she was sure her family were going to bring up, the day after tomorrow.

"Have you made up your mind about what Coven you're going to join, Amity?" her mom would say.

To which all she could give would be, "No, mom, I'm still experimenting with my internship,"

Then Odalia would huff and give her the evil eye for the rest of the evening, not wanting a rogueish daughter who wouldn't conform and just join a Coven, because Titan forbid any of her precious investors find out she had a Coven-less daughter... Ed and Em would shoot her fake sympathetic looks for the rest of the evening, secretly just glad the attention wasn't on them, and her dad would hardly even notice anything had happened at all. 

So, yeah, screw the Emperor's Coven for putting that on her. She really didn't need another reason to be the family disappointment. But she wasn't going to go for the alternative! Getting a feel for the system before she was confined to it was an opportunity! And maybe it was some kind of past trauma from being locked up in her house for most of her teenage years speaking, but Amity could really do without being oppressed into something else. 

She groaned and slumped onto the desk. Was she really thinking all this? Anti-Emperor's Coven mental rants? Next thing you know and she'd be hanging out with Luzura... Oh, Titan, was that even a bad thing!? Luz... made her happy! That was more than she could say for just about anyone in her family, save for maybe Ed and Em on occasion. So, yeah, get out there and screw with all of that stupid Coven, Luz. Show her mom what a stupid system it was!

Honestly, she wished she could bring Luz along to family dinner just mess with them all directly. Unfortunately, there were more than a few problems with that idea. For one, plus ones were strictly forbidden at Blight family dinners because, "You hardly spend time with us as is, Amity! You don't need another excuse to ignore us!" Her mom had been using that one since she'd still been trapped in the manor and home-schooled. Because Edric had asked her nicely if she would ask Odalia to let them bring friends for it due to her being the 'favourite'. Amity never really felt like much of a favourite. 

The other problem with attempting to drag Luz over was probably the bigger one in that this woman was literally the most wanted criminal on the Isles and there was no way Amity's mother wouldn't recognise her face almost immediately. If she'd still been all that bothered about catching Luz, maybe that could have been a good trap, but no, Amity wasn't even sure if Luz was doing anything wrong anymore.

Ghost mewled softly from where she was prowling underneath the desk. With a small, defeated chuckle, Amity picked up the cat and sat her in her lap, running her finger's through her fur. Ghost prickled slightly at the touch at first, but quickly settled to just sitting quietly, quite possibly death staring Amity's work.  

"Silly cat..." she sighed, "That's not going to make it go away. You want us to just sit here, though? Me too,"

Ghost meowed pitifully and gave Amity a full view of her eyes.

"You know puppy-dog eyes are supposed to be for dogs, right?' she snorted, "And silly humans," after a moment, she added.

Ghost took little note of her words and just kept looking up at Amity, but did seem to have forgotten her conquest against the paperwork, at least. In a minute, when both she and Ghost were feeling a bit better, she'd finally get that done, but, hey, at least there were no witnesses to this blatant misuse of work time. That was vaguely funny, actually. She was currently being paid to sit at her desk and played with her cat, knowing full well she could blitz through all the paperwork she had in time, as soon as she could be bothered enough. 

Yes, Luzura being back on the loose was definitely going to be a good thing for Amity in the long run. Beyond all these... personal biases, it was a guarantee that she'd have to spend less of her time sitting around with some random paperwork for other people's cases. Titan, if Luz had ever had to do something like this, Amity could see why she'd become a thief...

To summarise a day's worth of progress was always going to be a tough task, but here Luz was trying to recap what exactly had happened to lead her here, anyway. 

So, uh, first of all, Willow and Gus had just readily agreed to come on her and Lilith's crazy expedition, which, fair enough; who wouldn't want to go time travelling? Then the Titan's Blood from the portal key (A weird blue liquid, in case that was relevant) actually managed to power Lilith's device! Again, Luz wasn't really sure why that seemed so strange, judging as Lilith was usually right about things for these missions, but it still seemed incredible nonetheless. But the icing on the cake here, they'd actually found the time pools. 

Luz Noceda, no longer really just an average human, but a random human in the grand scheme of things, had discovered literal holes through time and she and her companions had used one such hole to sneak into four hundred years ago or so. Honestly, that was probably what made it all so baffling. Like, she, her aunt and two best friends were standing on the musty dirt paths of the Deadwardian Era! 

"So, uh..." Gus, looking just as flabbergasted as the rest of them, began.

"We should get disguises!" excitedly, Lilith interjected, "Time travel like this is... unprecedented! We need to be sure to be careful to preserve the timeline,"

"You think us being seen displaced from time could cause issues? Luz... You didn't say anything about that..." carefully, Willow reprimanded.

Sorry, Willow, she'd just been too excited at the prospect of freaking time travel! Ignoring her friends for a moment (Sorry, guys), she pulled a light glyph out and tapped it gently, just to see if it would still work in this time. To her great joy, not only did the glyph light up, it burst into an even brighter symbol than she'd ever have gotten in the modern time. Everything was just... so much more alive here!

"Hey, I didn't really stick around for a long explanation! You hear 'We can go time travelling' and you just go call up your friends, y'know?" defensively, she explained.

"To be fair, it will probably be fine, but I still think it best to try and blend in with the people of this time just in case," hastily, Lilith concluded. 

"I can cover that," easily, Gus shrugged.

Willow chuckled lightly, "Couldn't we just put on hats or something? We wouldn't want to lose each other,"

Luz had her hood... She wouldn't go venturing into the unknown of time without her trusty cloak! Eda had painstakingly spent her time knitting to make that! The problem with that was then that she was pretty sure the point of disguises was to be unrecognisable from their modern-day selves, if possible. Maybe she could use some illusion magic. 

"I concur," Lilith nodded, "We can't stay too long looking for each other because the time pools may have changed location by then and we'd be stranded,"

"What if I just made an illusion of hats!" brightly, Gus suggested.

Luz snorted, "That's perfect! Then we satisfy both conditions, right?"

"I suppose so," Willow agreed, "Just... nothing stupid right, Gus?" she glared at him.

The illusionist held his hands up in mock surrender, "Yeesh! Wouldn't dream of it on something important and monumental like this!"

Could they get some kind of award for being the first people to time travel? After this was all over and they'd overthrown Belos, could Lilith submit a paper on what they'd done and win them all academic merit? No, no, focus on the mission, Luz. The rewards for beating Belos weren't the goal here.

Luz tucked her hood up and waited for Gus to start his spell... semi-patiently. She wouldn't deny bouncing on the spot again nor twiddling her fingers behind her back, but she wasn't complaining either. Willow took the short wait very differently and bent down to examine the soil. She ran her hand through it and adjusted her glasses before just sort of staring. Probably some kind of botany plant witch thing that Luz wouldn't understand. Lilith was then the only one waiting nicely.

Willow stood back up, grinning at first, but that expression quickly fading into a solemn sense of stoicism, "The soil's very different here. Way more alive! It makes sense why those herbs were so abundant. But... All the same, I wonder why it stopped being like that..."

"My glyphs work way better here too," Luz put in, contemplatively. 

Gus frowned at their conversation before summoning fancy hats for all of them with a flick of his wrist and snap of his fingers (And also a drawing of a spell circle, but that didn't make it sound as cool.)

"Oh, yeah! That was even easier than normal! And, trust me, something like this is usually pretty easy,"

Luz admired the funny hats of her companions for a moment. Lilith appeared to be wearing a straw hat and bandana, Gus a stylish cap, and Willow a beret adorned with a feather over her braids. They seemed both very real. That wasn't to say Gus's illusions were bad, but these were somewhat surreal. She knew they weren't actually all wearing hats, but yet she could almost see herself believing that they must have bought these at some stand here. 

"Then maybe even Lilith could..." aloud, Luz pondered, before trailing off for fear of being insensitive.

Both Lilith and Eda felt the loss of their magic, obviously, but Luz was pretty sure that Lilith, having had it as her crutch, something she could train to make herself special in, was more hurt by it. It was possible that if the atmosphere here was just brimming with more of the Titan's energy like it seemed to be, it would be enough to power Lilith's spells once more... But, of course, if it wasn't, that would be a crushing defeat.

"There's no point standing around here and investigating. We came here for a reason," defiantly, Lilith dismissed.

Luz shot her aunt a worried glance, but he agreed with the principle of what had been said still, so... Their group strode off towards the smaller, much smaller, town of Bonesborough. Or Proto-Bonesborough. Babysborough?

It seemed so peaceful, though! Obviously she hadn't exactly bought into Belos's nonsense about the dangers of the Savage Ages and whatnot, but seeing a civilisation arguably more at peace than the one in the modern time and its rigid system was sort of liberating. This was the proof that she was right in her quest, you know? 

There was a kid playing in the street as they passed. She was riding an abomination and also growing plants. So, in other words, mixing magic. But you didn't see her, or anyone else's, house go up in flames for 'disrespecting the Titan'. She, and also the abomination, actually, seemed just plainly happy. (Which was something she didn't know was possible judging as Amity's abominations always came out really... grumpy. Maybe they mirrored their creators.)

Of course, just because there weren't wild witches running around and celebrating chaos, didn't mean the town was completely free of strife, as Luz soon found out. They were wandering towards the centre of town, hoping to find a local expert or some kind of trader just selling the herb they needed, when Gus froze and said he heard someone screaming. Luz paused too, and if she really strained, she could hear someone crying out, yeah. She booked it towards the source of the noise, sort of just hoping her friends would follow her. Doing so led her to an... interesting revelation to Deadwardian Era Bonesborough, at the very least.

There was another human here.

He was a well-dressed, white man of fairly short height for an adult, with a bushy brown beard and ponytail. He flailed wildly as two demons tossed some kind of book between them, taunting relentlessly as they went. His accent also seemed fairly British to Luz's ear. 

She probably should have stopped and thought things through before rushing in, but as already established, that wasn't her strong point. Yes, the fact that she'd never heard anything about another human in the Boiling Isles was suspicious and probably meant she was about to change history or something by interrupting, but she wasn't going to let the opportunity to speak to someone who was in a very similar predicament to her, albeit likely without the thief complication, continue like this.

"Hey, you leave him alone!" furiously, she dove forward and swung at the demons with a club made of ice. 

Willow wasn't far behind her, fortunately, and made short work of tying the two up with vines. They could growl and grumble all they wanted now, but they weren't getting out! Willow's vines were notorious, as far as Luz knew, for their high tensile strength. 

The man stared at them coldly, "I could have handled that myself, thank you very much,"

"Oh, I, uh, sorry! I didn't mean to assume you needed help or anything, but I couldn't not interfere, y'know?" she stuck out her hand to shake, hoping the gloves didn't make her look too suspicious, "I'm... Luzura, and this is my friend..."

"Viney!" brilliantly, Willow interjected. Or maybe not so brilliantly, as Luz was about 90% sure that that was just the name of one of her Flyer Derby teammates.

"Right. Well, then, Luzura, if you'd excuse me..." dismissively, h brushed the pair off and attempted to leave the little alley he'd been cornered in.

"Hey, don't just let him leave!" aggressively, spoke one of the demons. 

Willow was frowning disappointedly at them, now, so Luz was pretty sure that issue was covered. When they ended up with the leaves of a sleep-inducing plant all over them, no one (Except for maybe the other human) was surprised. Well, to be fair, Luz didn't know Willow carried that specific seed on her, but it still wasn't some big revelation.

"Do calm down, will you," sticking his head up from the book he'd recovered and had been furiously skimming through as he walked, the man sighed, "I told you, there's nothing more I can do for poor Bluefang,"

Of course, the two demons were too asleep to respond to that, but that didn't seem to make a difference to the other human. He did, however, jump and startle when he nearly walked into Lilith and Gus at the end of the alley. 

"Hey, man, we're with her. No need to worry," Gus attempted to soothe.

"Lovely," dryly, the man retorted, "Who are you, then?"

Lilith narrowed her eyes and subtly sidled in front of Gus, "You never told us who you are, sir,"

Luz and Willow jogged up to the group at the end of the alley to join the conversation. Lilith ushered them behind her, so they were basically just standing with Gus, just off of Lilith's shoulder. Fortunately, they did all still have a good view of the human. 

"Oh, my mistake," almost boredly, the human began, "I'm Phillip Wittebane, scholar. If you've come here to gawk like them, then I suggest you leave now, though, because I'm not one to be made a mockery of,"

Luz ducked in front of Lilith, pointedly ignoring her aunt's light protests, "I promise, we're not here for anything of the sort, Mr Wittebane, sir. We're just in town to look for this herb, looks like this," she held up a picture she'd drawn to show locals, "We heard it was abundant around here, but we got a bit sidetracked when we heard you earlier, honest,"

"Oh, really?" calculatingly, Phillip affirmed.

"Yes, I'm a botanist, see, and my friends here are helping me look for this herb so I can add it to my collection. It doesn't grow where we're from.... up in the... north," Willow answered, "You know Luzura, obviously, but that's also her aunt Dertrude, and our friend... Slug,"

Gus raised an eyebrow and mouthed, 'Really?'. Willow shrugged rather unapologetically. If Luz had to guess how exactly Willow had come up with that on the fly, it was probably a mix between her mind being on slugs and slug demons as those were common in plants patches, and also, and this one was just fun speculation, 'Slug' was very close to being 'Gus' backwards. Luz really hoped it was partially because of that latter one. That would be hilarious.

"Interesting. Well, I could assist you four - I believe I know where to find what you're looking for. But, you'd have to agree to help me out as well.." tentatively in a strangely forced way, proposed Phillip.

Luz took initiative, "We'd be happy to help you too! What can we do?"

"I'm looking for information on a certain being that I believe could help me. Unfortunately, I seem to have injured myself due to those two heathens," derisively, he sniffed, "I believe it would be unwise to make the journey alone. If you would... accompany me, I'm sure I could aid you in your quest, too,"

Gus hurried forward, basically leaving Lilith, who had once been the point of their formation, now left at the back, behind all of them.

"What kind of being?" suspiciously, he asked.

Phillip handwaved the matter, "I do doubt that you'd of heard of him,"

"What being, Phillip?" a tad firmer, Gus pressed.

"Fine, if it matters that much to you, I am attempting to locate someone called the Collector. I believe his power and wisdom to be an invaluable discovery," now obviously annoyed, the other human let out.

Phillip knew something about the Collector? So... If Luz followed along with his quest, then she could get the herb for her potion and find out some extra information on the side! It was killing two birds with one stone! And hearing from someone with firsthand experience with the Collector was going to be invaluable for her too! This was the first person other than Belos to have even mentioned the Collector in this kind of capacity, and since she obviously couldn't just ask the tyrant she was opposing for help, this had to be a chance she took. 

"We can help!" she blurted, before anyone else had a chance to interject.

The others obviously knew that Luz was looking for info on the Collector, but judging from the number of concerned looks she got, they didn't necessarily agree with her immediate willingness to go along with this. But, you have to understand, Phillip being another human was kind of a big deal for her. She wasn't truly naive enough to think that every human was good, but you couldn't just come to the Boiling Isles on purpose. Phillip must have been displaced from his realm, his home, and if he needed to seek the Collector, that must be as a way to get back, And if he'd survived here at all, he couldn't be inherently horrible.

"Excellent!" Phillip remarked, "You all follow me, then, and I'll show you what I've been struggling with,"

He hobbled along to the front, a rather obvious limp now present, and began to guide them through the streets of Bonesborough. Lilith was the, closest behind him, likely attempting to keep an eye on him, whilst Luz's friends had sidled up beside her, equally wry looks on their faces.

"Couldn't we have talked this through before agreeing?" pointedly, Willow asked.

"Could you not have come up with a better fake name for me!? You and Luz got to pick yours, and I know Lilith's used that one in the past, Willow!" Gus hissed.

Luz giggled, aside.

"It was all I could come up with on the spot, okay!? I wasn't trying to single you out, or anything..." hastily, Willow grimaced and apologised.

"Yeah, I know," he punched Willow's shoulder fondly, "But next time, I'll pick fake names,"

"That's probably fair... You are much better at improvisation, anyway," sighed Willow, "But anyway! Back on point, Luz. I know we need information, but we don't know nearly about the Collector to safely say if this is an even half-good idea!"

"Well, if we're going to stop Belos, we have to know what or who the Collector is! I know it's probably not safe, but I don't think Phillip would be taking us to a death trap. And when else are we going to get a chance like this?" fervently, she argued.

"If I may, Luz," Gus interrupted, "You might just be a little bit biased here. I agree that we need to know more about the Collector, but I feel like the only reason you trust Phillip is that he's human, which, fair enough, but isn't really a good reason,"

Luz looked ahead at Phillip. He was idly chatting with Lilith, not seeming even remotely threatening. Lilith didn't seem to suspect anything either, and was actually talking back, so everything had to be at least mostly fine. Gus and Willow were probably just paranoid after the risks they'd had to take in the Eclipse Lake and last Castle raid missions.

"I probably am, yeah, but do you seriously think this guy is a threat? We met him getting beat up in an alley, and now he even seems to manage to be getting along with Lilith," carefully, she responded.

"Didn't Lilith come here for the historical context? She might just be invested in finding out about the local area at, uh, this time," uncertainly, Willow suggested.

"And even if that's not true, he could just be acting! People can act, you know!" Gus asserted.

Luz sighed, "I'll go talk to him, and then we can see for ourselves,"

Her friends exchanged glances, but eventually nodded along with her little plan, so she strode forward and interjected herself into the existing conversation. Well, it was more like she waited for them to finish up whatever it was that they were saying and then started a new conversation, but she seriously doubted anyone could mind that much.

"So, Mr Wittebane, how long have you been on the Isles?" casually, she asked.

He grinned broadly, "I was just telling your aunt about this, actually - I've been here for quite some time, researching your species and deciphering picto-glyphs. Speaking of which, am I to understand that you've been discovering and using them too?"

"Oh, did L- Aunt Dertrude tell you about that? yes, we've been looking into cool ways to combine them, fairly recently," excitedly, she expounded.

Another human had found and begun to use glyphs!? This was just yet more proof that wild magic couldn't be dangerous, then! People had been using them back in the Deadwardian Era and seemed perfectly fine! No doubt Belos had banned them when he brought about the end of the Savage Ages... Luz just hoped Phillip had gotten home before belos rolled into town...

"Yes, it's truly fascinating, isn't it? There must be nearly infinite ways to combine just the three of them!" maintaining a cool expression, but spreading wide his arms, Philip spoke.

Luz looked up at him quizically, "Three? Mr Wittebane, I have four basic glyphs - Fire, Ice, Plant Growth and Light!,"

"There is such thing as a light picto-glyph, you say? You must show me at once, Luzura! This could be groundbreaking for my research!" smiling, manically, the other human demanded.

"Of course! Do you have some paper? I'll draw one for you," smiling, she readily agreed.

From the corner of her eye, she could see Willow and Gus watching curiously as Philip handed over the book he'd retrieved from the two demons earlier, and turned it to a blank page for her. She was sorely tempted to have a quick flip through the rest of the pages, just to see what kind of things a poor lost human like him would write about, or just see if he'd found any glyph combinations that she hadn't, but that was definitely immoral and pretty rude, so she just about restrained herself. Being her first glyph, the light one was also an easy one that she could draw almost instinctively, now, so she was done remarkably quickly.

"Here you go!" gracefully, she handed the book back before her little gremlin brain could get the better of her and started sifting through the pages.

Phillip took out a quill and traced over her drawing on another blank sheet from a different page, before cautiously tapping it. When it crumpled into a brilliant ball of light, he clapped gently.

"Outstanding!" he turned to Lilith, "Your niece is an incredible young woman, you know. It took me years to even find one glyph, but your stories say she did it with ease! Perhaps she takes after you,"

Lilith looked to the side shyly, "Well... I did help with a few bits, so... perhaps, yes,"

Willow gasped sharply behind them, prompting Luz to drift back to where her other two companions had apparently paused. The two looked at each other before giving high-fives, and if Luz's curiosity hadn't already been peaked, it certainly would have been by that point. Upon closer inspection, they seemed ot also be pointing t something highly specific. Thing was, Luz was really feeling that thing where it was really hard to tell what someone else was pointing at because you have a different viewpoint to them.

"Did you find something cool?" good-naturedly, she queried.

"Cool? Luz, Willow spotted the herb! It's right in that field over there!" Gus ranted passionately.

Luz shot her other friend a quick glance fo confirmation, and when it turned out to be true, she vaulted over the nearby fence and into that field. Sure enough, amongst some kind of weird Boiling Isles grass and reeds, there was a bush of fairly familiar-looking herbs. She gathered a fistful of leaves and stuffed them, satisfied, into a small pouch she'd brought along specifically for this purpose.

Willow then trotted up behind her and began to carefully do... something to the ground. She was definitely doing magic, but Luz couldn't for the life of her figure out why until the plant witch straightened back up with an earthy palm full of seeds. 

"I want to try my hand at regrowing them back home," unprompted, she offered.

"Rather you than the Emperor's Coven," Luz shrugged.

Phillip was glaring at them, uncertainly but also calculatingly, when they eventually traipsed back, probably bringing about half the dirt of the field along with them. He was probably just confused about why they'd stopped to go seemingly frolicked in the field. Judging from his lack of reaction as they'd passed by this place as well, he seemingly just hadn't known the herb also grew here.

"Was the detour necessary? I assure you, I may be human, and I may be limping, but I can still navigate," primly, the man declared.

"We weren't doubting you, sir," lightly, Gus put in, "Viney just spotted the herb we were looking for, so we thought it would be easier on you and your leg if we just grabbed it and didn't have to make a detour later!"

"...Wonderful," Phillip spoke smoothly, "I... wasn't aware of the herb's presence here, but that is a certain stroke of luck for you,"

"And you too, don't forget! You won't injure your leg anymore, now!" brightly, Luz celebrated, "Speaking, of how much further do we need to go? We're not going to want to put too much pressure on you,"

An odd look overtook the man's countenance. It was almost as if he didn't understand the sympathy she was offering. Aw, he'd probably been mistreated here for being an unknown... Luz knew how that felt... Admittedly, the Boiling Isles had still felt leagues more welcoming than any school she'd attended at home, but she could still relate.

"We'll stop when we reach that cliff face, there," Phillip stretched out an arm and pointed to a fairly nearby rocky edge to the Isles' Arm's shore.

"Oh, cool! What's there?" she asked.

Phillip smirked, "A shortcut,"

When he said shortcut, he meant a shortcut. The reason they'd gone to the cliff face was to reach a place with suitably dusty ground as to draw easily the most complex glyph combination Luz had ever seen on. It had masses of fire, ice, and plant glyphs arranged in intricate patterns all around the five of them. Instinctually, she found herself shuffling closer to her companions, a little on edge about what was going on. On the contrary, Phillip was quite at ease as he dragged his stick through the dirt.

He slid smoothly into the centre of the glyph with them, before poking it purposely with the handle of his stick (Which actually appeared to be some kind of mechanical shovel upon closer inspection). His drawing burst to lie just as brilliantly as the light glyph he hadn't even known about to only shortly before this, and began to streak upwards in glorious, orange bursts. Luz averted her gaze away from the bright light and flinched as it overtook her vision. 

After a quick rub of her eyes and settling of her feet on the ground, she readied herself enough to figure out what exactly Phillip had done. And, well, it didn't take much figuring. They had completely changed locations from where the glyph combo had been drawn, meaning that, yes, this man had figured out the combo for teleportation. Frantically, Luz checked her pockets to make sure the precious herb that she'd come all this way for was still safe and wasn't like... allergic to high-speed travel. (It was fine.)

"Where... are we?" uneasily, Willow questioned. 

Luz gave a glance over at Gus, who shot her back a hardy look and indicated the wall behind them. She followed him up to it only o find that this was no ordinary wall. See, it was curved like they were in some kind of dome and there was a large hole just above her and Gus's heads, showing off a brilliant view of the sky outside. Unfortunately, it didn't take a genius to figure out where they were.

"You took us to the Titan's Head!?" hurriedly, she burst out.

Phillip cocked his head quizically, "Yes? This is where the Collector is rumoured to abide. We weren't just going to find him in Bonesborough!"

"But..." Lilith frowned uncomfortably, "This is sacred ground! We shouldn't be here!"

The other human ushered them all forward towards a great bridge with a grand sweep of his arm, "Perhaps that's why I found so many people so unwilling to accompany me here,"

Gus glared as he lead the charge to try and catch up to where Phillip was hobbling along ahead of the rest of the pack. Luz sprinted to catch up, not wanting to be alone at the back in somewhere eerie like this, Oh, and also not wanting to miss the action if the rest of her team was going to be involved. 

On the other side of the looming chasm they crossed, there was a set of doors. But these doors were no ordinary doors and were, in fact, adorned with fancy symbols, half of which were glowing, It didn't make a whole lot of sense to Luz, but Lilith's eyes seemed to light up when she saw it.

"What's that?" awestruck, she pointed to the doors and asked.

"That? That's the puzzle I haven't managed to solve just yet... I would attempt it once more, but my," he winced, "Leg doesn't seem to want to let me,"

Gus noticeably perked up at the mention of a more logical problem and volunteered himself and Lilith to help. The pair hurried over to the doors and started doing something to it. Luz wasn't going to pretend to understand it; all she could really say was that they were doing something to change which symbols and lines were glowing. She just opted to hang back with Willow as Phillip pulled out that book of his again and began to write.

After a moment of silence, she spoke up, "I think I'm going to go see what's up with him. He seems kind of lonely, y'know? And there's no point going on a group quest if you're not with the group! Wanna go see how Lilith and Gus are doing?"

Her friend shrugged, "Sure,"

She strode happily over to the man, always delighted to be allowed to satiate her natural curiosity, even if that part of the reason was not something she'd cited to Willow. (The plant witch would have just quoted the saying about curiosity killing the cat if she had.) She hovered over his shoulder.

In the distance, she could hear her three companions hurriedly talking in hushed tones, but they seemed to still be getting along with the puzzle alright, so that wasn't an issue. She shot them a quick thumbs up before getting into reading what the other human had been noting. It had to be about them, right? He was writing some kind of diary entry and was going to narrate the adventure they'd had together thus far!

She skimmed over his words and read them aloud, "I finally cracked the puzzle sealing the door," a bit self-absorbed, but... okay, "The beast behind it posed little threat to me, but... my companions... were not so lucky...!?"

(Curiosity had killed the cat.)

Phillip had to know she was there and reading. Why... Why was he writing something like that?

"The beast!?" desperately, she asked, "What's that!? Why did you bring us here!?"

The creaking sound of two large doors swinging finally open after a long period of dormancy sounded through the large chamber of the Titan's head. Phillip smiled proudly and watched something behind her. Luz didn't really want to turn. Then she heard her aunt scream and the unmistakable tone of thudding footsteps. She rounded on heel towards where some kind of dinosaur-looking thing had grabbed Lilith in one claw. Willow and Gus were giving chase.

She, of course, followed swiftly into the new chamber behind the doors, Phillip trailing calmly behind her, a sick grin spread across his face, a crooked and wicked smile. She ignored him and instead readied an ice glyph. This wasn't the time to ponder where she'd messed up this time. That was for later when her friends weren't in danger.

Willow seemed to have restrained the beast by the time Luz arrived on scene, so Lilith was thankfully free, but the vines of a measly witch didn't seem to be strong enough to hold this thing down for long. Gus grabbed her by the arm and dragged her behind a pillar.

"Told you you were biased!" he hissed.

"Not the time, buddy!" furiously, she retorted, "We just gotta figure out how to get out of here alive!"

Whilst the monster was distracted with Willow, Phillip seemed to think it was safe to just strut on through towards a podium at the opposite end of the room. His stance was open and carefree until he saw a wild and enraged Lilith racing towards him at quite possibly the fastest Luz had ever seen her go. She smacked an ice glyph onto her fist to harden it up before throwing it right onto Phillip's face, specifically making contact with his nose. He doubled over in pain.

"Nice one!" excitedly, Luz praised.

So, uh, yelling loudly in a room with a dinosaur monster was not her smartest move. immediately, its reptilian eyes snapped off of Willow and onto the pillar that she was hiding behind. It charged, forcing her, Gus and Lilith to dive safely out of the way. They made it with little more than a few scrapes, thankfully, but now the beast's attention was fully on them, and Phillip was traipsing him and his bloody nose back to his destination.

Willow regrouped with them behind a second pillar, one that was definitely struggling to hide the forms of four fully-grown adults. The monster pricked its ears attentively and began to creep up on them. The sounds of Phillip lightly digging filled the empty air between each great, creaking tread.

"So, anyone got a plan?" quietly, the plant witch huffed.

"Does anyone even know what that thing is!?" exploding out (Still quietly, don't worry), Luz externalised.

"No!" Gus yelped as it drew nearer. 

"I-" Lilith stuttered, "I might do!? I think it could be a stonesleeper! It must have been hibernating for ages in here, but theoretically-"

Luz peaked her head around the pillar and took the time to actually scrutinise the form of the dinosaur thing before them. And had large legs and ears and claws and teeth, but little front arms and scritchy spots just behind those big ears. Hold on... Scritchy spots? She saw Phillip dig up some kind of round piece of glass, but pointedly ignored it as she wracked her brain for what that meant.

"Did you say stonesleeper?" frantically, she affirmed.

"Huh? Yes!" Lilith confirmed.

Luz didn't wait for a negative reaction from her friends before she dive out from their hiding spot, completely defenceless and alone. Luz had another plan, though, this time, see, and it was another good one. For all the ignoring she and basically everyone in the Owl House did of Lilith's historical babble, the parts that Luz had always listened to were the stories of ancient monsters. Yeah, she recognised the name stonesleeper. 

She leapt onto its back using the same fire glyph trick she'd used to escape the Conformatorium and, for a moment, both she and the beast were frozen in place. Although, it was probably more out of confusion for it whilst she was there for the balance. 

Lilith bemoaned her reckless actions from back at the hiding spot, "Eda is going to kill fifty different ways for this..."

Then Luz started to rub away at the little scritchy spots behind the stonesleeper's ears, just like she remembered hearing they liked, way back when Lilith had been telling her about these things. Almost immediately, she felt the muscles of the creature below her loosen as it relaxed onto the floor and leaned into her touch. Like this, it was incredibly docile, acting more like a stubborn cat than a massive reptile.

Cautiously, Willow stepped into the open and approached. Her frown gave way t optimism, though, as she saw how Luz had tamed the beast. It didn't take long for Lilith and Gus to follow.

"Stonesleepers have a ticklish spot behind their ears! Of course!" Lilith clapped excitedly, "That was expertly done, Luz! Always nice to know you listen to me..."

She gave each of her companions a mini hug after sliding off of the creature's back to make up for the shenanigans this time travel adventure had created. 

"Don't I always?" cheekily, she grinned as she approached her aunt. 

"No," Gus deadpanned, "You definitely ignored me and Willow earlier," 

She blew a raspberry at him. That was hardly a fair argument... She had listened, just chosen to still ignore their warnings in favour of trusting in someone. Go see where that got her... Ugh, she'd got too used to Amity and Hunter...

Phillip was long gone by this point, having fled through more teleportation whilst she'd been taming the stonesleeper. He hadn't even so much as give them a second glance to check they were okay. Perhaps that wasn't that surprising when you considered how he'd written them all off as dead in his book before they'd even opened the doors to this place. She sighed. it would have been nice to find another human to believe in...

"So, uh, I doubt we're going to be doing any more sightseeing after that," Willow interjected, "Since we already got the herb, then, why don't we head back to the shore to get home before the tide comes in?"

Luz clasped that little pouch in her pocket protectively, almost afraid it would disappear from under her, truly rendering all her hard work here useless because of a stupid error in judgement. But it was fine. She had the potion ingredient, she had her friends, and they were all mostly unharmed! Everything basically was fine!

"Sounds like a plan," wearily, she agreed.

Chapter Text

So this was it, huh? The big day. It was ridiculous how fast by a month could go when you really didn't want it to. And believe, her that was a very big didn't want it to, for Amity. 

In only about half an hour now, she was due to be at Blight Manor for that stupid family dinner. She'd done her hair up just how she'd used to, faked that obnoxious green colour with a concealment stone, just as Luz had suggested, and dressed up in the fanciest dress she could get. (She would have just worn her work suit, but the probability of that upsetting her mom for it not being 'lady-like' enough for someone of Amity's calibre was all too high. Very hypocritical of her judging as she never wore dresses either, but at least the only problem Amity actually had with it was that she'd had to get a new dress.)

Unfortunately, she was also already in the process of flying over to her family home. Being late was not going to be tolerated, so she'd set off from her apartment rather too early, to be honest. Bonesborough was coming into view now, so she was close. At least if she arrived early, she could have time to make sure she was at her best before arriving, or maybe even do some browsing around the Bonesborough Market. Titan, she was getting so many conflicting memories flying around this place like this...

There had always been parts of this town that she loved; there had always been parts of this town she hated. Memories of wandering the streets with Willow and her dads as a young child were nice. Memories of the view from her window were not. She was sure many people would be grateful to have a window view of the sunset, unimpeded by trees or other foliage, every evening, but Amity wasn't sure she liked the sunset anymore. After all, what could a sunset represent but the failure for her to be on the truly beautiful side of that window each day? It was a blessing in the form of it representing the beginning of the period where she wasn't under her mother's thumb of the night, but it was mostly just a symbol of failure.

Ed and Em wouldn't have that problem. They weren't the ones held to the golden standard, and yet they still got treated as the golden prodigies. They got to finish their education at Hexside... She barely ever even saw them work for anything! Their window was at the front of the house, the part Odalia wanted to be seen, where they couldn't see the view of the sunset in the shadow of the house. 

Amity squirmed uncomfortably as she saw a little outcropping over the edge of other Bonesborough houses. That was the corner of her house's roof. That depressing mauve colour would have given it away even if she couldn't immediately recognise it for what it was.

She was going to land just far away enough from the Manor to not have to hang around it due to being early, you know. But she wasn't the only one who had left with plenty of spare time, apparently. A familiar annoying voice started to call out for her, from below. Well, closer to the house than just straight down below, but from the way she'd described her problem, she'd thought that was evident.

"Hello, Edric, Emira," boredly, she spoke as she landed in the Blight manor back garden, where the twins were sitting on the grass. 

There was a figure watching them in the hallway window. It was blurry by the way the evening sun shone directly onto that side of the house and reflected off of the glass, but Amity knew the figures of her family well enough to identify this person. Neat bun, stiff posture, wide stance, piercing stare (Even when you couldn't see it)? Yes, that was her mother. Well, perhaps it was better to have Odalia watching them than talking to them.

"Pay up, Ed," Emira laughed.

Amity narrowed her eyes at her siblings and shot them each an individual questioning look.

"It's not technically time for start, yet..." miserable, Edric argued.

"What, do you want to pay double because she's early? There's no way she'd leave, so like I said, pay up!" demandingly, her sister pressed.

"What are you two on about now!?" before either of the twins could continue... whatever this was, Amity interjected.

"Ed bet you wouldn't actually show up today after you barely replied to any of our texts. I said you'd be too scared not to, and low and behold, we have our precious, baby Mittens back at the manor!" giggled Emira, in mock delight.

That... wasn't funny. The laughing was taunting and probably more meant to mock Odalia for these stupid family gatherings than anything else, but Amity wasn't sure she liked it still. There was something strongly unamusing about joking about the literal abuse their mother would put them through if any of them had decided to be a no-show tonight. The twins did live closer, and they did also have comparatively way less to do to make themselves presentable for this, but they were here even before her, so who was really too scared of Odalia to not show up?

Edric sighed and handed over a fistful of snails, "Nice to see you too, Mittens," he grumbled, "Couldn't this have been the one time you got fed up with all this?"

She stared pointedly at him, "Would you like to see what happens if you didn't arrive perfect for this?"

"At least we don't actively rebel against mom as soon as we're out of her sight," Emira sniffed haughtily before flicking a strand of Amity's hair, "I hear you had a lot of fixing to do, though,"

This was why she tried to avoid talking to her siblings as much as possible too. Odalia was the actively worst, and Alador she didn't really have to do much to miss, but the twins were malicious in a sort of sly way. They would never be as direct as their mother, and they would never do anything that could actively sabotage Amity, but belittling her? That was fair game. It should be the other way around, really. Amity was the golden child, the one with the bragging points to taunt about, but in this family, that just meant she was the one under more pressure. And the twins always liked a little bit of chaos, so they'd just love to see what would happen if Atlas ever dropped the sky.

"Like you two aren't just as bad as me..." Amity rolled her eyes, "You're just less overt. You don't get caught,"

"Exactly! Not active rebellion if no one even knows you did it!" Ed winked.

"Mom was never even looking for it with you! She was always too busy fussing over me spending three minutes less than she wanted on studying, or something, whilst you guys got away with skipping whole classes!"

Emira stepped in and patted her shoulder gently, "That was different, Mittens. We weren't doing any of that to upset her, or make her madder at you - that stuff was all for us,"

Amity could only stare at her sister in disbelief. What did her siblings think her motive was!? Oh, yeah, because it was so beneficial for everyone for her to have been rebelling for years just to annoy the woman who would have taken any excuse to punish Amity anyway. Did they... Did they not know how strict Odalia had been on her? They'd been in the same house, so it seemed unlikely, but maybe what was going on behind the curtain was a lot less obvious than she'd thought.

"Hold on, do you seriously think I did any of what I did and do just to rebel!? I wouldn't dye my hair just to rebel! I wouldn't leave home just to rebel! And I wouldn't be someone different than who I pretend to be for mom just to rebel! That stuff is still just for me!" frustratedly, she ranted.

Emira bit her lip and scrutinised Amity, "It's just..." she exchanged glances with her brother, "Well, we don't see why you needed to. You like school, like reading, like work. Why would you need to rebel against all that?"

"Are you kidding me, Em!? Is that seriously what you think it all was!?" the lid of the issue came flying off, "Mom pulled me out of school to isolate me, not to give me more time to learn or whatever! And I like my work now because it gets me away from here! I know you two never actually saw what was directly happening, but you can't genuinely think that what mom did to me is a good thing,"

"Mitt- Amity," she corrected and retreated back to Edric who was onlooking contemplatively, "We didn't know, honest,"

"Yeah... I, uh, I'm sorry we assumed, I guess? You just always came off as uptight! Vindictive, maybe. We'd do something and you'd do everything you could to make sure we'd get found out," her brother explained.

Because it was unfair. She'd be caught out for stepping a toe out of line, but Ed and Em could seemingly get away with anything, She'd always had something to prove in getting them in trouble. To herself, definitely. Maybe that did make her vindictive. But so what? It wasn't healthy for either party, but she had temporarily felt better when the twins finally got what was coming to them each time, even if it was always short-lived when she realised they never got it as bad as she did.

"And you retaliated! I wasn't unfairly laying siege to your castle or something -  it was some kind of long-winded war," desperately, she vented, "I- Maybe I was wrong to be harsh to you, but I can't regret it! Not after you still think I was just being petty or something," 

"Fine, then, Amity, we're sorry. Is that what you want to hear?" clearly getting riled up now, Emira stepped in.

"I just want you to stop treating me like I asked to be the poster child! And for you to stop thinking that's even a good thing! I want you to stop treating me like some kind of evil spirit, Ed, Em. Because you're my siblings. And I'm your sister," she sniffled.

Getting emotional over this hadn't been in the plan, really. But then again, she'd never even planned to stop to have a long conversation with the twins like this. yeah, whatever she hadn't really learnt her lesson back then either and had kept up a stupid crusade towards getting her siblings in trouble, but they hadn't learnt their lesson about why she'd retaliate like that at all, apparently. Ugh, this was why she didn't talk to the twins much, anymore. She loved them, they were still family, but they didn't really... get her.

"Mittens, we never thought you were evil," softly, her sister protested.

"We just thought you hated us or something," solemnly, her brother admitted. 

She looked at them gently, "I never hated you guys..."

"And we never hated you. Even if you made it difficult sometimes," Emira ruffled her hair and smiled.

Edric coughed lightly, "Very difficult..."

Both sisters shot him a glare for that one.

"What!?" he protested loudly, "It's true and you both know it!"

"Not the time, Ed..." Emira hissed.

Amity chuckled lightly. Hey, if she could smooth things over with her siblings, maybe she wouldn't have too hard of a time with her mom and dad, right? With any luck, her mom would find something other than her to complain about, and, well, she wouldn't really need much luck for her dad to ignore everything that went down at the table. Her grin faded.

Alador Blight was a bit of a different story to the rest of her family. Honestly, he was most similar to Amity, actually. Or, uh, he probably was. It was hard to say anything for definite when she hardly knew the man. Whilst Odalia was verbally scornful and the twins could be mocking, her dad was just never there. Never there to stand up for her, never there to take her places, never there to even talk to her. It was hard to hate someone you didn't particularly know, so Amity didn't really harbour any strong feelings towards him, She missed him, really. He'd been there when she was very young. She remembered someone playing with her by gifting her little abomination creations, and that level of care was something her mom would never give. And the twins would also have been too young.

But then people also said it was hard to miss what you never properly had. Those vague memories of what Alador used to be like were just that, vague. 

"So, uh-" awkwardly, she began, suddenly becoming very aware that they still had about 20 minutes until they would be let in.

Then someone fell out of a tree on the far edge of their garden.

The figure yelped as they hit the ground and groaned woozily as they tried to sit up. Ed and Em exchanged confused glances, but unfortunately for her, Amity knew who this was. See, at a push, she probably could have just recognised the voice, but as was, the rich purple cloak, gloved hands gripping fluffy hair behind a good and large pair of scuffed boots gave Luz away. Amity just stared incredulously. What in the Titan's name was Luz doing in her garden at a time like this!?

Eventually, the thief pulled herself together enough to turn around and give the siblings a cheerful wave. She was resilient enough to have bounced back onto her feet soon enough, as well. There were a few twigs and leaves stuck to her, but otherwise, Luz looked none the worse for wear, so that was a bit of an achievement. You know, considering that she'd just taken up diving out of trees.

"Heya, Ams!" Luz chuckled, "That, uh, wasn't supposed to happen,"

"No, I do suppose it wasn't. But then, what exactly are you doing here, Luz? I did already hear that you escaped - you didn't need to come to gloat or something," Amity sighed.

"Amity," Emira whispered, "Who is that?" Eric finished.

She shooed the twins off with a good flick of the wrist and shot them a glare that she hoped they correctly interpreted as 'Not now'. 

"Uhm. Well. I was... Y'know... Out and about..." vaguely, the thief eluded to... Actually, Amity had no idea what that meant. 

"No, I don't know," wryly, she said as much.

"Okay, this is going to sound kinda bad, but I figured out when your family event thing was from Willow and, uh, dropped by at the appropriate time," sheepishly, Luz elucidated, as if that explained anything at all.

"Why did Willow know?" suspiciously, Amity demanded.

But at the same time, the twins had figured out something, "Wait, are you that thief Amity knows?" Emira realised aloud.

Edric gasped, "Wait, so when you say you dropped by at an appropriate time, is this a robbery!?"

"Uhm," Luz responded, obviously not quite sure who to address first.

"Yes, she's the thief I mentioned," exasperatedly, Amity answered her sister's question for Luz.

"That's me!" half-cheerfully, half-nervously, Luz agreed, "But, uh, Willow knew because she knew what day you were leaving work early. And I can't legally answer that last question!"

What had they learnt from this? Willow kept tabs on her, Emira had taken to asking the stupid questions instead of Ed, and Luz was very definitely here to rob the manor. Eh, well, hopefully she took Odalia's most prized jewels or something. Seriously, why was Amity supposed to care if her mom's house got robbed? She didn't keep any stuff there anymore!

"Can you just do your definitely legal business quickly, then?" dryly, Amity asked, "If you hurry, you might actually interrupt family dinner,"

"Mittens, mom'll kill us if this is ruined-" Emira scolded quietly.

"Tempting, but that's not really quite what I came here for," flippantly, Luz shrugged.

Amity narrowed her eyes, "What, are you here to rob our prized front garden flowers or something?"

"Can I, uh, tell you about it in private?" she gave the twins a shifty look, "It's a little... personal?"

Alarm bells were ringing in Amity's head now. Objectively, she knew that Luz probably wouldn't have gone out of her way to accommodate Amity on missions only to stab her behind her own house or something, but this was still highly suspicious. She sort of trusted Luz, though, so she ended up agreeing to it anyway.

Luz led her just out of sight and earshot of the twins and whoever else might have been hiding in trees in the garden. They'd gone slightly into the forest surrounding Blight Manor at this point. So, uh, this would definitely be a good place to stab someone and get away with it... Lucky Luz was only a thief then, right?

"I think we're far enough now," Amity planted her feet firmly on the ground and crossed her arms, "Now will you tell me what's up?"

Luz rubbed her palms together, "Right... Right...." she seemed nervous, "So... I did come here for robbery, kinda. I mean, I am a thief... But, uh, I'm not really here to rob your property. Promise,"

"Just get to the point," Amity demanded.

"Ah, sorry. I'll just get out with it, then! I'm here to kidnap you," the thief blurted.

Amity could only stare, stupified. Had Luz just admitted to her face that she planned to whisk her away to Titan knows where? Her secret base maybe!?

"That came out wrong," mortified, Luz whispered, "I, uh, I meant that you don't and didn't seem happy being here, Amity. I was gonna, y'know, give you an out if you want. If you were, say, kidnapped by a notorious criminal, then you couldn't get in trouble for missing the get-together. But I wouldn't do anything without your consent, of course,"

"Right.." she just about managed to get out as a hybrid of a squeak and a mumble, "So... What's, uh, in it for you?"

"Uhhh... Another weirdo to hang out with at the Owl House? Knowing that I don't have to worry about you when I go do more crime soon?"

She should probably worry about the admittance to more dastardly criminal deeds being the near future. Especially after Luzura had so clearly been gearing up for something big for so long. But, uh, was that the point anymore? Like, if she let Luz fake kidnap her, she wasn't exactly going to be going to work... And then it wouldn't really be her job to care... And she wasn't personally invested in stopping Luz anymore...

"You'd want me there?" shyly, Amity affirmed.

"Sure!" Luz agreed, brightly, "Lilith would probably get on great with you, and Hooty would almost certainly take a liking to you, but Hooty likes just about everyone. And! And I'd definitely be happy for you to be there!"

"I... Sure, then, that sounds nice," and she'd gone and done it now... Sorry, Hunter, but goodbye Emperor's Coven! "Do you have a plan for this, too, or...?"

Luz ran up to her and hugged her. It was Amity's first time making physical contact in a not combat situation. Luz was kind of cushy to be with, what with her many layers of baggy clothing and woollen cloak. Amity blushed and stared at the floor.

"Kinda!" the thief laughed, "And I'm gonna have to go confront the beast..."

Amity raised an eyebrow and pulled away, "You mean my mom? Luz, you- You really don't have to do that..."

Luz was looking at her with big, warm, brown eyes now, forehead creasing in concern. She seemed considerably offput by that notion, which was very sweet (And very Luz), but not really a good thing. Amity didn't really want anyone she knew talking to Odalia. Her mother just had a way with words. She was a businesswoman through and through and that showed through, what with her always trying to make a deal or sell you something. The whole "A Blight always upholds their end of the deal" thing really made sure of that first one...

"Yes, I do," Luz frowned (Probably, it was hard to tell with the mask.) and firmly stated, "Me and Mrs Blight are going to have a little chat about some things..."

Amity sighed depressively, "Don't say I didn't warn you... She's... a lot, Luz. Just don't listen to what she says, okay? She literally sells things for a living! She knows how to get what she wants..."

"Well, lucky for us, so do I!" confidently, the thief winked.

Flushing again, Amity let go of Luz's hand where it had still been intertwined with her own from the hug, "Don't do anything stupid, seriously. No big risks like this is another one of your missions! If you're going to pull this off, you're going to have to do this right,"

Luz was already racing towards the boundary of the woods when she paused to look innocently back, "What do you mean, Ams? This is a mission!" she turned again, "And those always go right!"

"But-"

"Just stay right there! I'll be back in a min!" the thief called.

Welp. There was little else to do, then, right? Anyone she could actually be bothered to inform about this (Namely Ed and Em) she could just text.

Wow, she was really going through with this, wasn't she? All she could now was just trust in Luz. Well, Luz wouldn't be the most renowned criminal on the Isles if she couldn't pull off a good plan at least occasionally, Amity supposed. She could trust Luz. This time, anyway...

Shoot, shoot, shoot, shoot, Luz really could have planned this better. But, y'know, Amity was looking at her all sad like and then she just had to go through with making sure Mrs Blight left her alone! She did not, contrary to what she said, actually have a plan though. Yeah, that was a bit of a problem. 

Fortunately, every problem had a solution, and for Luz that was just going to be pulling off a classic 'I am in your walls' on Amity's mother and hoping that scared her into forgetting business tactics. So, she shot through the garden like the sneaky little snake she was and failed to even start her ingenious new plan when she realised she'd forgotten about the siblings. 

Amity's brother (Edric?) had grabbed hold of her by levitating her cloak and holding it steady. The force of her straining against it knocked her hood down. She turned around guiltily and glared at both of them.

"Hey, man, can't you see I'm busy here!?" a little miffed, she huffed.

"Where's Amity?" the sister demanded.

Maybe she should have accounted for Amity's siblings being worried about her well-being and also the fact that she was almost undoubtedly going to be stopped by them along her way. Well, anyway...

"In the woods! But don't bother her! She'll text you an explanation later or something!" hastily, Luz explained.

"Why can't she just tell us in person, later?" narrowing his eyes (Huh, must be a family trait...) Edric questioned.

"It's a long story, but I promise Amity isn't in danger," defensively, she held up her hands, "All you need to know is that I'm getting Amity out of here. No more family dinners!"

The twins exchanged glances, "And... she agreed to this?" asked Emira.

"Yes!" exasperatedly, and a little desperate to just get on with things, Luz confirmed. 

There was only so long she could stand around talking for. In a time limit kind of way and the fact that Luz had literally never sat still and waited for anything for a day in her life. Waiting was boring. Huh, maybe that was why she kept landing herself in these kinds of situations with only half-baked plans. 

"Okay, okay, we believe you, Luz. Just... if you're gonna do something like this, make sure you do it properly, yeah?" the brother sighed.

"And maybe don't tell mom we knew about this, yeah?" Emira added.

Luz nodded hurriedly in agreement before promptly ignoring them and dashing towards the manor wall to scale it. Aw, man, this really brought back memories of climbing streetlights as a little kid! Except, probably way more dangerous because this was a massive mansion of a house and the vines she was using to procure herself were nowhere near stable. 

Mrs Blight wasn't hard to find when Luz crawled in through the hallway window a few minutes later, either. That was because she was literally standing right there, almost as if she'd been waiting. Man, if people tried to say that she was the weird one for listening in incidentally through a tree whilst Odalia had been up in here overlooking the whole situation... Luz shuddered, but still managed to approach confidently.

"I assume there's a reason you absconded with my daughter and then manipulated the twins into letting you in," coldly, Mrs Blight laughed.

Her expression instantly grew stormy.

"Listen here, ma'am, what your kids did or didn't do is frankly none of your business at this point," she dismissed.

"It's my house," haughtily, Odalia insisted. 

"What about your husband?" Luz retorted, but the other didn't respond, "But what I meant was that I broke in here of my own accord, Mrs Blight. I think it's time we have a little chat..."

God, this woman was just so unlikeable... Immediately mocking, abrasive and unfriendly, completely unbothered about her family's right to their property, and what really bothered Luz was how she had referred to Amity, who she gathered from accidentally eavesdropping earlier was the prodigal golden child, as her daughter, but Edric and Emira were just the twins. Like they weren't good enough to also be referred to as her children just because they weren't Amity. Don't get her wrong, Luz did also prefer Amity, but she also only actually knew Amity. As the mother of all three, that was just a horrible thing for Odalia to imply.

"Broke in, eh?" thoughtfully, Mrs Blight repeated, "I suppose you'd be the infamous 'Luzura', then. I hear the Emperor is willing to pay quite the hefty sum for your capture..."

"Good luck with," Luz chuckled, "No one's quite managed that yet. But..." she drew out that last word, "I'm afraid you're not going to want to try that, anyway. See, I've come to make a deal,"

Odalia narrowed her eyes, and with the evening sun shadowing parts of her face, Luz thought she looked downright terrifying (Not that she'd ever admit that to the woman's face...), "A deal? I do suppose you know who you'd be dealing with, right? A Blight always upholds their end of the deal... And if you are to make a deal with one, the same is expected of you,"

"Of course," impassively, the thief agreed, "I wouldn't expect anything less.

Amity's mother fiddled with a brooch on her shirt and stared expectantly. There was something cold and unnerving about her eyes as she watched, though. Even with warm, orange sun filtering into them, her irises looked cold and blue, unfeeling and tight. They were too bright in colour, she decided. Blue seemed nicer in more... muted shades. This also did remind her of Belos that one time she'd seen him, though, so that was a factor. She was not likely to forget that one glowing eye blazing through his mask, and Odalia had that same kind of silent fury in both of hers. 

"Well, get on with it, then, girl," huffily, the woman demanded, "I have business significantly more important to deal with than this to attend to very shortly,"

"You're going to let Amity leave before your little family dinner even starts tonight, and you're going to pretend you never saw either of us here at all," Luz proposed calmly.

Odalia laughed harshly, "You've got to be kidding, right? Mittens has a duty to this family to come tonight, and she's not getting out of it just because she sent someone like you, all dressed up like some kind of ruffian, up here to harass me,"

"With all due respect, Mrs Blight, Amity didn't send me. You're just straight up wrong in all of that," politely, she offered, "You're going to comply with what I say because I have ways of making you regret it if you don't"

The woman's eyes glittered, almost impressed; they had that same predatory glint as Belos did when she fought him. It was the look of someone excited by the thrill of a challenge. But it was also the look of a cat toying with a mouse, knowing full well that it was superior.  "Are you trying to blackmail me?"

"You can see it that way, " firmly, Luz pressed on, " I personally prefer to see it as an extension of what you do, Mrs Blight. I'm just... giving you reason to buy into what I'm saying,"

Heh, that had been a good one, if she did say so herself. Putting up this act was kind of tiring... Despite what she'd implied to Odalia, even if Amity hadn't sent her, Luz had come to intimidate. A friendly, happy-go-lucky troublemaker like she usually was when she was on a mission with her friends, or playing around with Amity or Hunter wouldn't pass up against someone with quite the authoritative presence as Mrs Blight. 

"And what reason is that, little thief? I'm afraid vague allusions to threats aren't going to cut it," mercilessly, and almost flippantly, Odalia informed her.

"She'll tell everyone exactly what goes on behind these doors, mom. And that won't exactly do wonders for your reputation with your dear customers," someone came in with a cutting remark.

Amity!?

"Mittens, this conversation does not concern you. Leave," powerfully, the woman ordered.

Amity seemed to have followed her in through the window. It was a wonder Luz hadn't heard her enter, honestly, because she could definitely hear the window hinge creaking now. She couldn't even fully see, Amity. But there was someone dressed in dark clothes with mint-coloured hair standing in her peripherals, and there was no way that could be anyone else.

"It's literally about me! I want to go with her, mom, and if she has to, I do not doubt that Luz'll let anything she wants, anything that I could tell her, slip out to potentially influential people," steelily, the inspector argued.

Luz shrugged, "I told you you'd want to listen,"

Odalia clenched her jaw and glared, that silent fury suddenly seeming like it might be about to come not to silent anymore, "You break into my house, corrupt my daughter, and now you just want me to give in to your whims because you're threatening me? What Amity may or may not want to do is not up to her because this is all for the family. My business gains us favour, and favour gains us respect from the Emperor! Don't you want us all to be in the Emperor's good graces?"

"So we're in his good graces by selling weapons? Mom... we don't even know what he plans for them. But I don't think I want to be a part of that," coldly, Amity bit out.

"The Emperor's not really who he claims to be, ma'am. I don't know what you've been promised, or who promised you it on his behalf, but I guarantee you that he is not a man to support," feeling a little small compared to these two, Luz tried.

This was starting to feel a whole lot bigger than just a small mission to get Amity out... Why were moral alignments and political views coming into it here? Was this... Was his just how things usually were in the Blight household? Everything has to be justified, everything had to have a reason, and in turn, everything is an opportunity to be a reason, to justify something.

"I don't care what two insignificant little girls like you think. You'll have to trust me on this one, Mittens. But, hey, you'll be thanking me when we're living like royals!" judgement clearly clouded by ambition, maniacally laughing, Odalia proclaimed.

"I don't want that, mom! Neither do Ed and Em. We'd rather be more like everyone else than whatever you set up for us!" furiously, Amity contended.

"You don't know what you want! You're a child deluded by radical ideas!" mouth set into a hard line, Mrs Blight pushed back, hard.

"Enough!" a new voice called.

A man with shaggy brown hair, a pair of lilac-tinted goggles set over his eyes, and a messy, worn-out jacket traipsed out from the shadows behind Odalia. He seemed like he was taller than her, but his figure was hunched, almost like he was withering and cowering in her presence. He seemed emaciated and weary, not at all in good health.

"Go back downstairs, dear," Odalia hastily dismissed him.

The man, seemingly Mr Blight, aka Amity's father, wore a rather worn and perturbed expression, "Odalia, don't start this now. If Amity would rather leave, then just let her leave,"

"Dad...?" quietly, Amity mouthed beside her.

"First of all, you know that would set a bad precedent, and second, did you happen to conveniently miss the part where I was threatened?" her mom hissed. 

The man blinked. He scrutinised Luz, and probably Amity too, for a moment.

"Did you do that, Mittens?" carefully, he asked. 

"Ah, sorry, sir, but that was actually me," half-cheerfully, Luz interjected.

"Oh," he paused and blinked again, "And who might you be?"

"She's- She's my friend!" Amity blurted, "I invited her,"

Luz felt her cheeks go warm at the open mention of affection. Amity shot her a look in return as if to say Don't think anything of it. It was more bashful than scathing, though. Kind of cute, if she was being honest. 

"What exactly did you say to Odalia, then?" calmly, he continued.

'Alador-" his wife warned, but he silenced her with a raised hand.

Mrs Blight looked furious at this denial, but ultimately, what could she even do? If she tried to fight any of them three, it would just look bad on her and give Luz more fuel to burn, and if she tried to argue more it'd go nowhere. Alador, however, was a new player. He may be dismissing her, but he was the mediator here. That did also work in Luz and Amity's favour, though. This was an opportunity for both sides.

"I told her that she was going to pretend Amity and I were never here," brightly, Luz answered.

Mr Blight looked vaguely impressed, "Really?"

Amity quietly drew a circle in the air whilst Odalia exploded at them when her husband made no move to defend her, "Yes, really!" she snapped, "And she threatened to leak family secrets, can you believe that?"

"Which doesn't have to happen if you'd stop pretending any of this is fine and just let me leave! I- I'm done listening to you!" stormily, Amity retorted.

The inspector tore off her concealment stone, letting the true lavender hue of her hair wash over. Odalia's eyes bulged, leaving her expression looking downright murderous. Contrastingly, Alador baulked before letting out a little laugh when he saw.

"I'll agree to pretend none of this ever happened if you two do too," attempting to diffuse the anger being exuded off of the two other women, Luz once again proposed.

"Do you seriously just expect me to say 'Yes, yes, I agree to pretend this never happened!? Amity Blight, you stop this farce immediately or I will-" Mrs Blight seethed.

"We agree to pretend this never happened," stoically, but perhaps still a little tiredly, Amity's father interrupted, "And we promise to keep any further conflict about this just between the two of us,"

"What?"

Amity smirked, revealing a pink ring around her wrist, "The everlasting oath has been bound,"

Odalia's face went white and her eyes bulged. Her fists were clenching and unclenching at her sides and she fumed, staring wordlessly between the three of them. Once again, completely contrasting his wife, Alador seemed surprised and almost joyful at this development. He gave Luz and Amity a small, but proud smile and nodded.

"Nicely done," he whistled appreciatively.

Amity seemed to shrink in on herself when what had just happened sunk in, "Dad, I- I'm sorry," hollowly, she whispered.

Odalia continued to silently plot against them or something, off in her own little corner.

"Don't worry about it, Mittens. You just run along now. I'll deal with your mother,"

Luz didn't need to be told twice. She grabbed Amity's wrist and dragged the pair of them off to and out of the window, making sure they had a safety-hover glyph applied, of course. Edric and Emira were gone from the garden when they ran through again, perhaps having entered the manor for the dinner that might not really be happening anymore. Whoops. 

Even as they approached the woods, Luz could still faintly hear Odalia yelling. Honestly, she just felt bad for Alador more than anything... She hadn't heard a word about Amity's dad before, but for him to now just slink out and join in on Amity's ruse... Sheesh, that took some guts.

"Nice job on the oath!" Luz praised as readied Owlbert (Who, yes, had been safe in her backpack this whole time...). 

Amity was silent as she slid onto the back of Luz's staff. The inspector probably could have just gotten out her own palismen to use, but Luz didn't want to push her right now, and it was better to travel in smaller, less obvious groups when heading somewhere like the Owl House. Y'know, criminal central HQ.

"Thanks..." Amity mumbled after a while.

"Are you okay?" concerned, Luz leant back on the staff to look at her.

"That was the first time I'd seen my dad in years," blankly, she admitted, "He wasn't even there to see me off when I left home, but then out of nowhere he just- I don't know how to feel about it,"

"I think he took a big hit for us there. I don't know if that absolves him of... whatever he's done to you in the past, but it has to count for something, right? I think he's doing okay in my books," a tad unsurely, Luz volunteered her opinion. 

It seemed to roughly the right thing to say as Amity offered her a watery smile in thanks, "Then, uh, Luz, after all this is over... Once you, er, we deal with Belos's plan, we have to go back for him,"

They were close to the Owl House now, with it not really being that far of a flight from the main part of Bonesborough, so Luz began to descend towards the tree line. 

"Of course! Once this is all over, Amity, we'll go storming right back to Blight Manor and get him the heck away from your mom. And, and we'll get your siblings too! It'll be fine - they'll be fine, promise," determinedly, Luz vowed.

She reached backwards and offered the inspector her hand. The little vibrations going through it every few seconds told all she needed to know there. Amity was shivering. Once they got safely inside the owl House, they were going to sit down with a nice mug of hot chocolate, or whatever Eda had as the Boiling Isles equivalent, and just rest.

"Thanks," Amity sniffed.

Luz sighed in relief and squeezed the other's hand gently. 

Chapter Text

Honestly, this was going to be it. Hunter's last chance to prove to his Uncle that he was still useful. He'd caught whispers of an attempt to, Titan, he didn't even want to give it credence by admitting it... But he'd heard rumours of Luzura, of someone affiliated with Luzura, attempting to break into the Emperor's mind this evening at the Night Market. And it was just him now. Blight... Blight had been missing for two days. 

She'd left work early the last time she'd been seen to reportedly go to a family dinner and Blight Manor. A few executives had thought to go check there once it became apparent that no one could contact her, but apparently, according to Mrs Blight, she'd never even made it there. She'd just... disappeared. All this meant that Blight was now officially a missing person and Hunter was back to working on his own. Intern-less. It was kind of lonely, but he had bigger problems to worry about than that, really.

After his talk with Belos after Luzura's escape from the Conformatorium, Hunter knew he was going to have to double down. His Uncle said they were going to come up with a plan to make a show of stopping the thief, but... If she stole away into his mind first... If she disrupted the sanctity that was the Emperor's mind... There were going to be bigger fish to fry than the best way of dealing the final blow to her. 

It was a high-pressure state to be existing in, and yet it was something that he had to deal with by himself. If Blight had still been around, he probably would have recruited her, but if he were to include an entire scout division in this mission and have got the facts wrong... There was no telling what Belos would do to him. And he didn't want to be replaced. He really didn't. He couldn't afford to be wrong. He really, really didn't want to be wrong. 

He was patrolling the early embers of the Night Market now, decked out the most ornate version of his armour he could find. Tonight, he needed to instil fear. Let the criminals that roamed these allies see the sigil of the Golden Guard displayed proudly on his back and cower knowing that their rebellion was going to be quashed by the might of the Emperor's Coven. But also let it be a symbol of hope and light for the poor citizens just out and about, just trying to live regular lives all in line with the Emperor's vision for the Isles.

Some people here really were disgusting, though. So far he'd come across a vendor trying to trade teeth and a stand selling... Hunter wasn't really sure what, but it looked gory and he didn't need to do any more than that to issue out an official warrant that it either tone down its wares or shut. there was a small store selling Witches' Wool too. The small woman at the counter froze when she saw him and reflexively babbled about this being one of her last nights because she was going to be joining a coven soon. He nodded appreciatively and hurriedly moved on from that.

There had been no sign of Luzura yet, though. He'd sent Flapjack out to get a literal bird's eye view, but they... Hadn't returned yet. It didn't mean anything bad had happened to them, but Hunter was always internally worried about their safety when he knew Belos could be about, so that wasn't stopping him from fretting over them slightly. 

The thing that gave the game away for Hunter was the iconic cloak he'd heard Blight rant about to him many a time whilst they were filing reports or just generally chilling in the office. He heard the flapping of a heavy fabric in the night's breeze as he stayed quiet, in wait, in the shadows of a taller building. Silently, he pulled out his artificial staff and tiled the suspect. Sure enough, the weight of Witches' Wool flapping about was what he'd heard and he was currently following Luzura. The one who was about to try and attack the Emperor. He hardened his gaze.

She was definitely carrying a bag of something carefully in front of her, he noted. That lent credence to the rumours he'd heard that an illegal spell was what the thief was planning. He'd been a little wary at first because, you know, where exactly had this rumour come from? He doubted that anyone in Luzura's tightly-knit group would betray her, so it had to have been someone she'd bought potion ingredients or the likes from. 

Eventually, likely when she'd found a space both out the way enough and wide enough for a ritual, Luzura paused and began to unpack. Hunter watched from just around the corner, desperately hoping that she could neither hear the clink of his armour nor see the glint of light off of his mask. The thief laid out a stained book and began to assemble various ingredients into a vial. Most of them didn't catch Hunter's attention, being herbs and the likes, but then Luz pulled out a small vial containing a starkly blue liquid. Titan's Blood. How had she managed to get that!? They'd thwarted the Eclipse Lake mission! 

Unfortunately, the blood was more than just a bad omen for what had already happened. See, a spell to enter a mindscape, especially from afar like this, would require an incredibly potent power source, from what Hunter read. Usually, that would just be that a powerful witch was needed to enchant it. But with Luz casting it... Her power source had to be the blood. And unless she was performing some other incredibly powerful spell requiring an incredibly powerful source and matching the incredibly feasible rumours that he'd heard, this meant that she'd started the ritual. And she looked prepared, so...

When the mixture fizzed and burned a brilliant gold, Hunter knew it was his queue. He mustered up all his strength and bravery and tackled the thief, sending them both flying to the ground. The tube of the potion she'd been mixing fell to the floor with a light clink, mostly shielded from the fall by Luzura. By some miracle, the liquid inside didn't spill, meaning they were now both pressed on the floor, eying up the prize.

"Hunter!" Luz exclaimed, "What are you doing, man?"

"What do you think!? I'm stopping you!" he grunted earnestly.
 
He wrestled against her on the pavings of the floor, struggling to stop her from reaching the tube of potion for a short period of time. She was stronger than she looked and Hunter... hadn't been doing so well recently, so he was struggling a surprising amount. Flapjack had flown overheard when Luzura paused, likely to catch her breath or something.

Or so he'd thought. 

What seemed like a perfectly fair break for their little sparring match quickly became something very different, but Hunter didn't see that that had become apparent until too late. Luzura had snaked a hand into her jacket pocket and used the glyph that she'd retrieved from it to launch a torrent of ice towards the tub, shattering the glass and spilling its contents. Gold liquid bubbled and formed a strange sort of circle around the two of them. Flapjack dove towards him now, tweeting nervously.

He didn't really have time to process what they were saying, though, because the catalyst for the beginning of Luzura's spell was apparently just the leaking of her potion. Golden bubbles filled his vision as he and the thief were launched through the sky in a cloud of sparks, burning and shooting through the air like meteors in the direction of the Castle. Rather unsurprisingly, Hunter lost consciousness. 

He woke up again, after who knows how long, in an unfamiliar location. He appeared to be in an ornate palace of sorts, golden-framed tapestries decorating the walls and finely-made tiles elegantly spread across the floor. But then the walls... the walls looked paper-thin, like a single sheet of tree bark. He clutched his head and took a moment to orient himself. 

His name was Hunter, he was twenty years old, and he was the Golden Guard of Emperor Belos. Emperor Belos was his uncle and the one that had saved him by giving him a new chance at life. He would always do his absolute best to help his uncle, then, and that would mean that right now... Hunter sat up abruptly straighter as it all came flooding back. The rumours, the chase, the fight...

He craned his neck to look around and saw Luzura also blacked out on the floor. She was spread in an uncomfortable-looking position, with most of her body shielded by the cloak being crumpled messily over it. Fingers brushing together hurriedly at his side, he scrambled to get up and figure out exactly what to do here. In order to stop Luzura from stealing information from the Emperor and also successfully escape the mindscape himself, he had exactly two options: fight Luzura until she gave up and took them both out or beg the Emperor's inner self for help. Neither was preferable.

Quietly, he stumbled over to the thief and kicked her lightly. Within seconds, she began to stir with a light groan and several jolts in her legs. She too seemed disorientated, and perhaps a little light-headed if the way she kept trying to rub her eyes indicated anything. He stared impassively just to the side of her whilst he waited. 

"Ugh, my head..." she mumbled.

"Get up!" furiously, he hissed, "We don't have time for this!"

Luzura jumped to alertness and squinted at him. Oh, was his uniform too bright? If he was right, and they were both suffering from some kind of damage to their heads, that might actually be causing her some difficulty. Shame. 

"Hunter? Oh, man, oh, man, you aren't supposed to be here," she stated dumbly.

"Neither are you," pointedly, he retorted.

"Touché," she nodded with a slight crinkle to the corner of her eyes, "But still. See, you catching a ride in here with me really wasn't part of the plan, so unless you wanna risk getting hurt, you're probably going to want to stick with me until I can get us out,"

Despite the fact that this had already been Hunter's plan (Minus the fact that he thought anything directly in the mindscape would hurt him like it would Luz; no, he was more worried about the consequences if Belos found out when he returned...), he bickered relentlessly back, "Why would I need your help? I've read about mindscapes! I know how they work!"

Luzura was also standing now, listening vaguely to him in the background whilst she examined their surroundings. It was hard not to follow her gaze, no matter how much it felt like an invasion of his uncle's privacy. The paintings on the walls caught his eye regardless, though. They seemed to show all of the Emperor's great victories over the years, including... His... As in Hunter's... staff ceremony. When he became the Golden Guard. Behind his mask, Hunter teared up a little at the sight. 

"Okay, but I'm the one with people on the outside who can get me out, and I'm willing to bet that I'm the only one of the two of us who's actually been in a mindscape before," defiantly, the thief argued, "Come on, man, I don't wanna see you get needlessly hurt, even if we are enemies,"

He ignored her last, rather too persuasive statement, "When did you go into a mindscape before? That's illegal!"

She gave him a deadpan stare for a moment before answering, "I went into Willow's as a test to see if our potion works. Though..." her gaze began to wander again, "Hers was... a little different to this... A lot more trees, y'know?"

"Mindscapes reflect the individual," reflexively, he responded, "Maybe that's just to reflect her prowess with plant magic,"

She frowned uncertainly, "Maybe... But I just don't think all of this is quite right," she strode up to one of the paintings, one depicting the day he'd usurped Lilith Clawthorne's position when the Emperor had made an example of Edalyn Clawthorne by ridding her of her magic, thus stopping her crime, in all small steps and ran her fingers over the lines of it," This can't be all that happened that day..." she murmured.

Not wanting to let her get out of his reach, Hunter quickly followed her and began to examine the painting with her. It didn't seem off from what he knew of that day. Belos had sniffed out the whispers of Lilith's inevitable betrayal and snuffed it by using her as bait to lure her sister in. It worked, of course, and the only reason the two Clawthornes were still around to this day was because the Emperor let them escape the petrification ceremony to quietly live the rest of their lives in misery. It was the less merciful of the two options. He'd shown to the Isles that day what happened if you messed with wild magic. 

"I don't know what you're talking about!" haughtily he sniffed, "That day was a resounding victory for us,"

"But Eda and Lilith got away! That can't be true!" she gasped when her eyes met the painting just next to it, this one depicting Belos towering over the cowed form Luzura, the portal door in the Emperor's grip, "And this is definitely not true!"

"Belos won on both of those occasions," he shrugged, "It all makes sense... and, say, if you look over here..." he steered the pair of them over to the painting he'd noticed earlier, "This one here is accurate! And I would know, because that's me in it, receiving my staff!" proudly, he informed her. 

Luz's eyes were fixed on a small detail of the picture, one that was definitely him and his promotion, "Why does the Abomination Coven Head look so sad here?" she rounded on him, "If this was such a 'happy' say, why does he look so broken up?" 

"Darius? I- I heard he knew the old Golden Guard. I never did find out what happened to him, but perhaps it was... a tragic death and that made the day bittersweet for Darius. I'm sure my uncle is just as broken up about it behind that mask too. I may be his only remaining blood family, but I know he did and would have considered any Golden Guard like his family too," Hunter hummed, suggesting an explanation for every flaw Luzura could find.

"This is just made up of all the lies he tells," stiffly, she noted, "None of it's what really happened,"

Hunter leaned a hand onto his belt, looking for his staff, before abruptly realising it hadn't been transported with him. He settled for threateningly raising a fist instead.

"My family is dead because of wild magic, and you'd dare suggest my uncle is just... lying about it all!? It's real, Luzura! All of it!" vehemently, he protested.

"Nah... I bet I could just..." she shuffled thoughtfully away from him, "Reach my hand right through- Huh?"

He was about to investigate what had stopped her tirade, when he caught something out fo the corner of his own eye. A tall, looming shadow, horns of a crowned creature worn on its head, with the watchful stare of a raven. 

"Belos?" he found himself asking. But, hold on a minute, he hadn't been the only one to say that. Luz had asked the exact same thing whilst looking in the complete opposite direction. 

The dark figure paused right in front of Hunter, scanning him over just like Belos would. He instinctively shrunk in on himself, sort of awaiting the incoming punishment.

"Forgive me, sir, I was only trying to stop Luzura from breaching the true sanctity of your mind," carefully, he stated, staring at the floor as he did so, too afraid to look his uncle in the eye.

But then something strange happened. 'Belos' tilted his head to the side and sprouted glowing blue eyes all over his body, illuminating shadowy tendrils forming a mane around his neck and limbs and the horns that Hunter had previously thought to have been from his mask were just sharp protrusions coming straight out of the thing's head. Yet its form seemed to shift and change and melt just like his uncle's did when he was under a lot of pressure and couldn't keep his curse contained. He clapped a hand over his mouth to stop himself from screaming and retreated.

Was Belos's inner self cursed too? Were they... Were both of them actually in danger now!? Luz ran into his back, but he barely had time to process what she could be up to when the monster, Belos or not, opened its jaw and let out a horrible scream. And, oh, Titan, the scream... It sounded like a thousand individual voices crying out for help, the voice of the forest, ocean and town, a cacophony of noises at different lengths and frequencies all made by one creature. Such was the nature of the Emperor's curse. Such was the nature of wild magic. 

Luzura took one look at things behind him and evidently decided she wasn't taking any risks, for she grabbed his wrist and dragged them both into the wall, hard. Suprisingly, they didn't both get knocked out and gifted major concussions, but instead tore through the walls as if there had only been wallpaper decorating it anyway. As if there had only been a style and flair to it, no substance. 

Hunter didn't really like their chances after tearing through the wall either, to be honest. They were now falling down a pit that he couldn't see the bottom of, only able to notice the gradual spiral of withered, white roots beginning to snake up the walls like branches of an ancient oak. Even if they did somehow survive this fall, which, judging as he was with Luzura Clawthorne, the one known for escaping all manner of impossible situations, had surprisingly high odds, they were going to get absolutely torn apart by Belos down there. If he was out of control in his own mindscape, well, there was no stopping him. 

There was no cure for the curse besides palismen, and neither of them had any of them to sacrifice. He also couldn't imagine Luz just giving up because the mission had gotten impossibly more dangerous, so they were completely and utterly screwed. And even despite all that, the chances of him getting out alive and stopping Luzura were so stupidly low, that he might as well just sign his letter of resignation and get ready to accept the ensuing punishment now! He wouldn't even deserve to work for belos anymore after this! Hunter groaned. Why hadn't he just brought that scout squadron... 

They survived, because of course they did, due to Luzura using another one of her weird glyphs. It made them hover anxiously over the ground for a few moments before dropping with a light thud. The thief was immediately back on her feet, though.

"You, uh, okay there?" uncertainly, she affirmed.

Hunter had his face buried into the merciless, sort of sandy ground.

"Ugh..." he groaned before rolling his face over, "I'm fine. But I don't think either of us are going to be for very long," 

She cocked her head to the side, "What do you mean?"

He had begun to gather himself again by then. His feet were firmly back on the ground, and he was already scanning their surroundings for any sign of Belos's inner self. All he could see in the darkness around them now was the withered, old trees and the outlines of portraits hung around their centres. These paintings were... different, though. More violent. More dusty. More... greyed out. Though, to be fair, everything was more greyed out. That seemed to be the primary colour scheme of this place. Hunter shuddered; it was cold, and unfeeling. It had the same sort of atmosphere around ti as Belos, when he was observing Hunter very carefully.

"Hello!? His inner self!?" mockingly, he gritted his teeth and pointed out, "This, all of this... We're being punished because you provoked his inner self!"

"Excuse me!? I didn't even do anything! All I did was shove you out of the way when his 'inner self', which can I just say, was literally some kind of freaky monster with a bunch of extra glowing eyes, was already going to attack you!" she retorted, "Are you sure you're not the one being punished here?" 

Hunter stepped back, a little hurt by that one. Maybe that was because it was probably true.

"Oh, hey, sorry... I didn't mean it like that... I'll get us both out of here, okay?" hastily, Luz backtracked.

"I won't be any better off in the outside world. If Belos is trying to punish me in here, he'll definitely try to punish me out there," sullenly, he responded, "My best bet would be stopping and capturing you for him,"

He lowered himself into a fighting stance, Luzura watching him carefully, tensing her own joints, ready to spring away if necessary.

"Well... I can't let that happen either, really. How about this, we at least form a temporary alliance until we can figure out what the deal is with the Inner Belos. Besides..." she snuck in slyly, "You will literally be stuck here if I don't let you out with me, so you'd probably do best to go along with what I suggest,"

As much as Hunter hated to admit it, she had a point. If Belos's cursed form had taken over his inner self in his mindscape, there was no way he could request help that way. Luz really was his best bet. Even if he would be totally doomed when he got back to the real world, at least he'd be able to get some semblance of his life back, as opposed to being trapped in a mindscape until he inevitably got accidentally (Or on purpose if things got any worse here with Belos hunting them down...) thrown into the subconscious. Maybe he could even keep an eye on Luz like this and stop her from stealing any information that was too vital. 

"Fine," he contended curtly, "We'll go along together for now,"

"Great!" she beamed, looking, for some reason, genuinely happy at his decision, "I think it'd be-" she froze and the smile dropped.

"What?" he demanded, "What are you staring at?"

She grabbed his shoulder (Not the one with the pauldron, so that actually kind of hurt, Luzura...) and whirled him around, "There. It's... the Inner Belos?"

There was certainly someone there, she was right about that. It was a small figure, hidden behind one of the trees, only the tip of a horned wooden mask and puff of a sleeve poking out into view. But where Hunter could see a pale white glow about him and Luzura, there was something potent and purple around this... child. Because it had to be a child. They were too small and too juvenilely hidden to be anything else. But that couldn't be Belos, then. 

"No it isn't!" he scoffed, "The Inner Belos was, as you put it, 'a freaky monster with a bunch of extra glowing eyes', not some... kid. And, before you ask, no, there can't be two inner selves,"

"Are you sure? Because who else could it be?" giving him an odd look, she retorted before ignoring his warnings and approaching the strange figure anyway.

Not willing to let his only hope of escape be torn to pieces by some kind of unknown mindscape symptom of Belos's undocumented cure, or something, he chased hastily after her. The child that came into view certainly could have been Belos, he supposed upon closer inspection. They wore an old-fashioned puffy shirt with bracers and plain brown shorts. Th most striking feature was the mask, though. It was crudely carved, but it was undeniably the same shape as the Emperor's current one. It even had that same sort of hollow feeling to it where you couldn't quite see through its eye sockets.

"Hey," Luzura greeted softly, as one would greet an actual child, as she lowered herself to their level on the floor, "You knew what was going to happen earlier, right? You... saved us,"

Hunter shot her a quizzical look. What nonsense was she babbling about now?

Slowly, the kid nodded. He noticed they were gripping a wooden sword tightly in their left hand when they brought it out in front of them as they seemed to shyly agree with the nonsense Luzura had been going on about. Were they nervous? Did they feel unsafe in his and Luz's presence? 

He knelt down with the thief, just to the other side of the child. In retrospect, approaching a child whilst wearing armour and a mask hadn't really been a very good idea. Carefully, he reached up to where his mask was strapped on and left one of his hands hovering over that point.

"Is, uh, is the mask scaring you?" nervously, he swallowed, fearing the worst if this really was Belos and he'd managed to upset him, "I can take it off if you'd like. Maybe we can all take our masks, Luz too,"

The kid took a while, just like when they were responding to Luz, but they did eventually give another small nod. He unclicked his mask and slung it under his arm, giving Luz a glare to prompt her into fulfilling her part of their little deal too. Tentatively, she complied, pulling the piece of cloth covering the lower half of her face down, hiding it underneath the edge of her hood.

When both of them had done that, the kid stood up a little straighter. They stared each of them, Hunter and Luz, straight in the eye for a moment before reaching up to take off their own mask. It was easy, much too easy, the mask falling off like the kid had really just been holding up a paper plate the whole time. Hunter questioned how it had ever actually stayed on. The mask disappeared from the child's hand once it was safely off of their face.

Seeing the kid's face, Hunter was only more convinced that this had to be Belos, unfortunately. There was something archaically familiar about the open face of this kid, who couldn't have been about more than ten from how he looked, that Hunter had to pin on him just being very familiar with his uncle's current face. But he wouldn't recognise that fluffy brown hair sprayed around his head and shoulders, covering up the sides of his face and ears. It was unsettling, though. Why was this version of his face, one he couldn't possibly have ever known, so burned into his brain? 

"It's impossible to have two inner selves..." he mumbled slowly aloud, "But I have heard of strong emotions manifesting..."

What did that mean? Why was there a kid-sized Belos hiding behind a tree from his own nephew in his mindscape?

"Uh, maybe it's his... sense of guilt?" Luzura brainstormed.

He shot her a cold look, hissing quietly, "Don't be stupid! The Emperor's never done anything worthy of feeling guilty about!"

"Of, course, of course," sagely, whilst also looking like she thought what he'd said was laughable, Luz agreed, "Any 'feasible' suggestions then, smart guy? You're the expert on mindscapes..."

He couldn't help but get the feeling that he was being mocked. He hunched up his shoulders and refused to meet her eye, but still answered nonetheless, "It- It could be... his sense of innocence?"

Hunter looked into the eyes of the child. they didn't seem particularly scared, or even particularly innocent, but he put that down to him relating them too heavily to how they looked in the real world. They weren't glowing like the real Belos's often did, but they were that same shade of blue-ish grey, always calculating and watching. The raven was still here; it was just now small and maybe harmless.

"Children are innocent! They're a symbol of it!" he argued anyway.

Luz pursed her lips at his suggestion. She didn't seem impressed by it. 

Unfortunately, no one had time to comment any further in this discussion, because the pained cry of the other inner self, the real one, rang through the air, startling Hunter and Luz and moving the child to tears. he shifted uncomfortably on his feet, letting his freakishly familiar shaggy hair droop into his face. He whimpered slightly towards Luz who cooed at him in sympathy and scooped him up.

"We have to move, now," firmly, she said.

Kid Belos began to fidget in her arms and pointed at a nearby tree. His eyes should have been quiet and brimming with tears like they were only a few moments ago, but now they were hardened and focused. Just like when Belos was giving him orders, Hunter realised with a start.

"He wants us to go to... that tree," he mused aloud, making sure Luz had an interpretation of what was going on too. 

"If this little guy thinks that's gonna keep us safe, then that's where we're going!" bruskly, she proclaimed.

Then they, uh, ran to the tree. The Inner Belos wasn't actually in sight yet, but Hunter could hear footsteps, so he was definitely sufficiently motivated to do so. Why a tree was going to save them was a good question, though. As Kid Belos had already proven, they didn't exactly make good hiding spots. 

Nothing got better when he saw what the kid meant, because this plan was complete sacrilege and he refused to comply. No, Luz, no, Kid Belos, he wasn't going to invade his uncle's privacy and steal away into his memories! He wasn't even supposed to be here! The Inner Belos was getting closer, though. The scuffles of each part of its feet connecting with the ground were audible, a sure sign that it could be little more than just around the corner. And Hunter had seen the kind of good instincts that Belos's cursed form could have...

Luz had no such qualms in diving headfirst into the painting, the memory, but that made sense when you considered that that was basically just the reason she was here. When she noticed his reluctance to follow her, though, she backtracked.

Torso and arm hanging out of the tapestry impatiently, Luz raised a hand out to him, "C'mon, man, what're you doing!? I seriously doubt that the Inner Belos is going to go rampaging through his own memories!" she tried.

He shuffled on the spot, "But... It's not moral to invade his sacred memories..." he warbled.

"I mean, the kid is still a part of Belos, right? And he condoned this!" fiercely, she argued.

Hunter wondered why she was so concerned over his safety. But he didn't do that for particularly long, because the change in expression on Luzura's face made it extremely evident that there was something rather horrific approaching behind him, and there would be no points for guessing what.

Guiltily, he took her hand and let her drag him through the paint and fabric displayed in the frame and into the memory. 

They were in some kind of dark room, now, only a tall, gilded figure, obviously Belos, being immediately obvious. Luz frowned and pulled both him and the kid with her behind one of the columns that decorated Belos's chamber. Hunter was pretty sure he'd hidden behind one of these before, himself. He was still sorely tempted to mockingly tell Luz that they really didn't need to hide, because memories couldn't see you, though, but bit back the response in favour of just listening out. At this point, he needed to know what information she was finding out.

Belos was pacing the room, mask adorned proudly still, but his general uniform being a little more ragged than it was in the present day. If Hunter had to estimate, this was something taking place several decades ago, perhaps when the Emperor's Coven in its modern state was still fairly new. The Emperor seemed to be muttering, as well. To... someone else? Hunter couldn't see anyone else nearby; there were only shadows. 

But then he stopped pacing and he stopped muttering and he looked up, blue eyes blazing through his eyesockets at whoever was unfortunate enough to enter. 

"Can I help you, Golden Guard?" harshly, the memory of Belos spoke, and Hunter had to try very hard not to respond to that himself.

Another person, certainly an old Golden Guard from the look of their mask and the sigil on their back came into view and they slid nervously into the room, walking in small, uncertain steps. Hunter would recognise that kind of walk anywhere. This Golden Guard must be in trouble... 

"Sorry, sir, I didn't mean to bother you..." Hunter's predecessor trailed off.

"What did you want, then?" zeroing in on the issue like a carrion to a corpse, Belos demanded.

"About the... display earlier, sir. We got the reports back, and... Five witches perished in the incident,"

Hunter's eyes widened at what he heard and he found himself watching for Luz's reaction too. The Emperor hadn't reacted with so much as a grimace and had just continued pacing, the only acknowledgement being a slight hum, only just about audible. Luzura looked horrified and clapped her hand over the kid's ears. This made the kid giggle. At least, he was hoping it was the contact and not that Kid Belos thought this was funny.

"What display?" she mouthed urgently at him.

He could only shrug, "I... I don't know. That's not me up there..."

"Good," the memory interrupted them, "That should teach them a lesson... Just tell the crowds that they were wild witches and it was the Titan punishing them for their sins,"

The old Golden Guard's shoulders fell and their posture slouched at this. It was hard to get a good reading on them due to all the armour, but from experience, Hunter would say they hadn't taken this idea well. Who would? It was... hard to hear his Uncle saying such things. But... If it was Belos saying them, then there had to be a reason, right? Maybe he'd just misunderstood this conversation. Maybe it actually just meant that five wild witches had died and Belos was simply delivering the Titan's message on why this was through to his faithful right hand.

"But, sir! One of them was an upstanding member of the community! I can't just... lie to them all! There'll be people out there who miss those they have lost. It's not right to interrupt their grieving, right?" hurriedly, the Golden Guard argued.

Belos seemed to rather abruptly begin pacing again, his footsteps quicker than before, but still just as rhythmic.

"Brand all those who would dare grieve these criminals as traitors and wild witches themselves," flippantly, he spoke after a moment.

This, this wasn't right. This wasn't Belos. He was remembering this all wrong. His uncle would never just deny his people like this. That... that wasn't true. Everything the Emperor did was for the greater good! 

"I- I can't..." miserably, Hunter's predecessor stuttered, "It's not fair,"

'Stop' Hunter wanted to yell at this past Golden Guard, 'You're only going to make things worse for yourself,' He knew from experience with that one. But it was too late. Luz let out a small sound somewhere between a squeak and a gasp when the raven struck out for that on. 

Belos's hand tore out from beneath his cloak, its composition changing and shifting as bones extended and flesh faded into green sludge. The blow connected with the old Golden Guard, but they didn't so much as flinch at the contact. The Emperor himself shrunk back as if he was in pain as his arm had to come dragging back, the curse having warped it to have its raw elements of bone and tendon be exposed to the harshness of the outer world. 

The curse had always been a painful thing for Belos, Hunter knew that. It was still a little disheartening maybe to see that it had a history of violence all the way back to here, though. That was, if the memory even was correct. Because it did all seem a bit surreal.

"I decide what is fair and what is not fair here, Golden Guard," quietly seething, even if it probably just sounded even and impassive to an outsider like Luz, Hunter knew that was the tone, Belos bit out, "So, yes, you can,"

"Sir, please-"  they tried again.

The Emperor's form began to shake underneath his robe, melting and reforming in what Hunter knew was just the curse bubbling up on his skin, breaking the surface and forcing it to shift painfully between monstrous fluid and regular flesh. That had to be it. Belos's transformations, even if only partial, were causing him immense pain, clouding his judgement. He must not have been able to think clearly. That had to be it.

Luz tutted out little pained sounds behind him.

"Take off your mask, Golden Guard," steadily, the Emperor demanded.

The old guard reached up to where Hunter knew you could unclip the mask from, but made no move to actually take it off. They just left their hands hesitating there, staring the raven right up in the eye, practically daring it to try and do something to get them to remove the armour it knew full well was the thing protecting them from its harsh beak. If Belos were to see whatever expression they were wearing, it would only make things worse. Wearing his mask around his uncle was a rule that Hunter had been holding himself to for a while, now.

"I'm warning you, boy. Take. Off. The. Mask," Belos punctuated each word in his command like a new sentence, each one a talon raking against the mask's clip.

"I-" the old Golden Guard began, but they fled before actually finishing the sentence.

Hunter winced; that had not been a good move on their part.

Belos's figure exploded outwards at this because it was becoming increasingly obvious from this that his form only grow more unstable as his emotions grew and heightened. Hunter had suspected, but... It made sense. that explained why the curse always came out when Hunter needed to be punished.

This time it was a full transformation, not just a limb extending outwards or a harsh glow of the eye. A horned skeletal face writhed and formed overtop of Belos's mask, its smooth surface becoming gloopy and coarse and the horns extending upwards into sharp daggers in their own right. The Emperor's hair fell out of its ponytail and into a wild mane over the back of the bubbling skin covering his ribcage. It was more the mane of a wild animal, now. The raven had lost its cunning edge, becoming something more akin to the deathly symbol of a vulture. 

Belos's cursed form tried to retaliate at the old guard for his refusal to do either command, but its animalistic intelligence just had it bound to the edge of the room before stopping and growling when it realised they had gone. then it began to shrink back in on itself to reveal a much more dishevelled, but still very much intact Emperor. Belos went back to pacing and muttering after this, just as before.

The last thing Hunter heard before the memory faded was a quiet, but mischievous giggle. It was probably just the kid again, but... It sounded like it had come from somewhere else...

"The Inner Self will probably have passed by at this point," quietly, he announced to his companions, "I think it's time we leave,"

He stood up and made his way back to the way they'd come in, the back of the painting's frame still being visible on this side.

"Now, hold on-" forcefully, Luzura pressed, but he was already squishing himself back into the main bulk of Belos's mindscape.

The kid started laughing and bouncing his leg when the thief followed Hunter through, but she ignored him in favour of chasing Hunter up. He hadn't a clue why. Didn't she have trust in this kid to help them get around here, or whatever? Because he was totally Belos's sense of guilt and would definitely then help the enemy because of that.

"Hunter, seriously, man, stop. We gotta talk," she demanded.

"What!?" irritably, he snapped, emotions running high from what he'd just witnessed.

He'd been expecting her to comment on the abject horror of what they'd just seen the Emperor condone, but no, she'd opted for a much more personal question, "Is that how he treats you too!? Like, does he go all goopy on you too just for saying the wrong thing?" appalled, she questioned. 

"I don't know..." bitterly, he muttered, "He can't control it! It's a curse,"

"I know a thing or two about curses," carefully, Luz responded, "And that's... Not quite how they're supposed to work. You don't just go partially cursed when you get mad at your subordinate. They can run off of strong emotions, but... that seemed way too intentional,"

He stormed off in the direction he could see that Kid Belos was still happily pointing, "Yeah, well, it's not intentional. You were right the first time - it probably runs off of strong emotions. Besides, maybe he's just... Misremembering. Guilt and all that,"

Frankly, this was none of her business. What did or didn't happen to Hunter or any of the Golden guards up at the Castle was none of her concern, because that was never going to be her and she was never going to be there for it. And, besides, he highly doubted she came here just to make a case for him about having an unstable living situation or something. 

"Hunter-" she protested, but was cut off by the piercing shriek of the Inner Self.

It must have heard them yelling at each other... Ugh, why had no one thought to keep it down!? He and Luz exchanged worried glances with each other. Kid Belos seemed to be on his A-game today, though, because as soon as he heard the cry he was out of Luz's arms and scrambling off, only taking the time to turn briefly back to signal Hunter and Luz to follow. 

Unfortunately, he didn't think twice about diving headfirst through the tapestry this time. Maybe he was just morbidly curious about the treatment of his predecessors. Maybe it was stupidly gratifying to see that he wasn't just being singled out as a failure: it was like this for everyone who'd had his position. Either way, it was him, Luzura and Kid Belos in another memory, hiding from the Inner Self who still hadn't thought to check here for them. 

They were somewhere starkly different this time, though. They were still in a building, but it certainly wasn't the fine craftsmanship of the Castle. All they could see down right now was a rickety old corridor, with walls made of thin boards of wood with cracks that still easily let light leak in. The floorboards were of no better quality. This seemed to be some kind of shack, then, but Hunter couldn't recall a time when that would have been used. Maybe in the really early days of Belos's work.

The kid raced through it with practised familiarity, leaving Hunter and Luz to chase hurriedly after him. As it turned out, this memory's version of Belos was also storming down this hallway, looking as regal as ever, but almost as though h was a predator chasing them from the way he was just behind them. But that was silly, Hunter reminded himself. He knew mindscapes; he knew memories there couldn't interact with real things. they could only play on, with no way to pause or enhance any details. 

The path quickly widened into a wider chamber once they'd started running. And then it became very apparent where they were.

Another old Golden Guard, this one in a much more archaic version of the uniform than Hunter could ever recall, with its neck frills and dark colours, was standing in front of a dark cell, a hooded figure behind bars. That meant this was just some ancient prison. That made him uneasy for some reason. He would have questioned who exactly this prisoner was, but as he would soon come to realise, that was unimportant. In the moment, he was just simply too busy listening.

"I'm offering you a chance at freedom! All you have to do is just consent to testing-" Hunter's predecessor rambled.

"I told you, I'm not interested," coldly, the prisoner responded.

"But-"

"Golden Guard," frostily, Belos, having caught up to them in the memory now, greeted, "What are you doing? Not consorting with this wild witch, I hope,"

Hunter watched as the old guard's crumpled at those words. They straightened up as soon as they realised their mistake, of course, but it was definitely too late for Belos. The Emperor had eyes everywhere, he saw everything. He was ever the watchful raven, no one knew that better than Hunter (And probably anyone else who'd been Golden Guard...)

"No-! No, sir!" frantically, they denied, "I was just trying to get volunteer work for... perfecting the sigils,"

"And you thought a wild witch would help you? Silly boy, that's a foolish notion. If you'd like to discuss why exactly you thought that it could possibly be a good idea, perhaps we should take this discussion elsewhere, though," smoothly, the Emperor snapped. 

If Hunter was in his predecessor's position, he would have rather done just about anything but try to explain himself to Belos. Maybe when he was younger he would have gone for it... But that was back then he still craved validation in a way that seemed possible to get from his uncle. He knew better than that, now. All that impressed Belos was doing your tasks correctly and efficiently, He didn't like surprises, and he didn't like failure. The old guard didn't resist when Belos grabbed them harshly by the arm and whisked them away as a flaring red wisp. 

The memory faded slightly, becoming almost burnt around the edges as Belos transported himself and the guard (And also Hunter and Luz unknowingly) into what seemed to be a much older version of his main chamber. There were still pillars, but many fewer of them as the space was much more cramped than it was in the current day. Beside him, Luzura seemed a little freaked out by the sudden teleportation, as if she didn't know the Emperor could do that.

He elbowed her and made sure she knew this, perhaps as some kind of coping mechanism for what he was sure was about to occur to this Golden Guard, "The Emperor has mastered all kinds of magic, human - don't look so surprised when he shows off one you haven't seen before,"

Luz clamped her jaw shut and only gave him an eye roll in response, being too focused on the memory as it started up again, or something. The Kid laughed again. It was a little after silence had befallen them, though.

The memory Belos was pacing again, his footsteps echoing across this ancient chamber. It wasn't really surprising that it didn't have good soundproofing all the way back whenever this was taking place. At least, Hunter thought so. 

"I thought we needed volunteers, sir!" evidently no longer able to hold in their opinion, the old guard burst out.

Belos craned his neck owlishly to observe the guard as he continued to walk, "We do," curtly he contended, "But who they are is not for you to decide,"

"My apologies, sir, I had just thought that if the working sigils were to be..." Hunter's predecessor paused, stumbling over their next word, "Lethal, we'd want someone who wouldn't be missed if they... expired..."

Lethal? Expire? That- That couldn't be right. The sigils were created to restrict magic and keep the Titan happy. They protected everyone from themselves! Hunter clutched his own branded wrist and stared on at the ensuing conversation. There was a phantom pricking running along that arm as he continued to listen. He didn't even want to see Luzura's reaction, at this point, so all he could do was just stay there and pretend he could breathe okay, pretend what he was hearing wasn't affecting him.

"You are at least correct in that notion," haughtily, the Emperor huffed, "We do need those who expire to be people who can just disappear. But we need people in isolated positions for that, then. You remember the village on the Knee, correct?"

The old guard nodded mutely.

"Now that was a perfect spot. The residents were already presumed to have perished, so no one would notice if we had a little hand to play in that," sadistically, Belos explained.

"It... just felt wrong doing that, is all, sir. It thought, if these people had offended the Titan, then surely they deserved whatever happened to them as a consequence!"

Belos's form began to mutate and Hunter had to avert his eyes. His predecessor was pinned to the wall in a sickly-looking claw when he finally wracked up the nerve to look again. They... at least had the procedure of remaining calm and not letting the Emperor see your fear down.

"What are trying to say here, boy?" eyes glinting menacingly, Belos demanded with a thin veil of calm.

"I- I- I don't mean anything, sir! I just wanted to help..." scared like a cornered animal or a traveller in an unfamiliar place, the guard stammered out quietly.

"What was that?" impassively, the Emperor asked, "Speak up, boy,"

"I only said that I wanted to help..."  a little louder, the guard repeated.

 Belos scoffed, "Help? You call this helping? You dare presume that you know better than I, the emissary of the Titan, and then claim it's all for help? The sigils are my duty, Golden Guard. If you wish to 'help', make yourself scarce... I don't so much as want to hear you, understand? I am not to be disturbed again,"

This Golden Guard nodded meekly and, as soon as they were unceremoniously released from the Emperor's grip and sent tumbling harshly to the floor, they scrambled to their feet and ran. Not wanting to see anymore, to hear any more, to feel any more of and because of this, Hunter turned tail and followed, racing for the exit into the outer mindscape. He felt nauseous right down to his bones. This was not right. It... it just couldn't be.

Luz followed him out of the memory. He should have been glad about that on account of his current mission being to keep an eye on her (And he'd just had a perfect demonstration of what happened when missions were not correctly completed...), but he didn't want to hear what she had to say. This wasn't the time for her pity and false words of sympathy.

"Hunter..." softly, she started anyway, because he had no power to stop her.

He let out a very undignified, pained squeak, but ignored her. The kid must have thought he had laughed, because he giggled along.

"Did you, uh, know about the sigils?" tentatively, she questioned.

He rolled up the sleeve of his uniform and pushed his glove up, exposing his right wrist, "What do you think!?" hysterically, he retorted.

Her face fell at the sight of the brand displayed on his skin, "Don't... Don't worry about it, man, we'll figure things out, promise. The sigils haven't done anything yet, so... So there must be some kind of trigger!"

There was an idea shining in her eyes like a light bulb at that. He didn't even want to know what she was thinking.

"Who cares!?" desperately, he bemoaned, "Now we both know too much and I really don't want t-to end up like..." he trailed off. 

Kid Belos came curiously up to his feet and settled there for a moment. There was an odd look on his face that Hunter didn't really recognise, but then again, he wasn't really in a state to be doing physiognomy at that moment in time. After an awkward pause, the kid shyly offered his little wooden sword up, passing the bladed edge over to Hunter. Gently, he swatted it down, not wanting to take anything away from any part of Belos.

"You keep it..." he mumbled.

The kid shrugged and began to impatiently whirl it back around in his hand.

"You're not ending up like that last guy, Hunter..." darkly, Luzura promised. 

He sort of wanted to believe her, but everything was going kind of fuzzy and Hunter was beginning to question what was even really about this all anymore. It- It had to be some kind of fever dream or something, right? But Hunter hadn't been sick in years. Not in the Castle.

He fixated on the anger and determination in Luz's expression. that had to be real. He'd seen that look on her before, but not this intense. He couldn't have imagined it, especially not over something like this. She was certainly resolute in her resolve to keep going here, but... that wasn't really a good thing, right? Or... was it? He was having trouble keeping track of his priorities here. 

He had to keep following Luzura either way. Whatever happened to him when they made it out, he would never make it out without her. Hunter stared regretfully at the kid playing by his feet. If only whatever this part of Belos contributed to the real one meaningfully. He could use some innocence when facing the raven.

When Hunter started to look dizzy and pale, Luz knew they had to move. The creature, the Inner Belos or whatever, couldn't be far behind, and she was in no position to carry both him and the kid. They would just find one more memory... The ones she'd been in so far had been disgustingly informative, but none of them would give her information on the Collector...

Sure, knowing that there was some kind of diabolical plan for the sigils was great, and was definitely helping her piece together what exactly Belos was plotting, but she already knew sigils were bad news; this wasn't anything new. And if anyone was helping him fuel such a grand plan as this, it had to be someone as important as the Collector. She was kind of counting on it...

She grabbed Hunter's wrist and hastily took Kid Belos's hand, "C'mon," she said, roughly, "We need to get moving,"

The kid gave his usual response of an eerie giggle (Seriously, was that the only sound he could make? Maybe because he was only a manifestation rather than the real inner self, he was restricted in what he could actually do.) and Hunter just nodded meekly. Right, it was up to her this time. Like, literally, the kid wasn't pointing out any specific tree, so...

She had them wandering around the mindscape for a short while, attempting to find the right kind of memory. The staff in the paintings was... dark and gory, but it didn't seem, to relate to the Collector, from what she could tell. The only thing that seemed to be of note was this recurring figure in the memories. A blonde man with an open and happy face who looked eerily similar to Hunter was there again, and again, and again. Well, if Belos was Hunter's uncle, perhaps this was Hunter's father? Belos's brother? Luz wondered what happened to him. After a certain point, he seemed to just... stop appearing.

This place was beginning to get to her, she decided. The monochrome colours and the solemn darkness were just disconcerting, and that was why she was getting so distracted and wrapped up in unease. Belos's family history wasn't important to her. She'd come here for information on the Collector, and if she could help Hunter along the way, fine, great, even! But she couldn't go out of her way to solve little bits of trivia about him. Not to even mention Kid Belos... It was weird, this was her enemy, but because of his childish form, she felt compelled to help.

When the three of them stumbled into a clearing (You could get those in mindscape forests!?), they, uh, they found the monster! It was just sort of sitting there, almost peacefully as it pricked its ears and listened. Coming this close to it when it was rampaging and on the listen for them would usually have been a death sentence, but it appeared this clearing actually existed for a reason. 

At the centre of it, there stood a tree of particular interest. It was tall, noticeably taller than the others, and decorated in neon-coloured stars, glowing cyan light. And at the centre of it all, there was a large knot in the tree. Usually, something like that would be home to aged curls of wood, or a caved-out hollow shape for small creatures to nest in, but this was filling in with an insignia. A circle, split into two with a crescent and a gibbous, just like the moon, a face drawn across the line separating them. It was grinning broadly, and just as if it were the Mona Lisa or something, it seemed to be watching them. 

Unfortunately, Belos was actually a pretty decent artist, so Luz recognised this face as that of the Collector from his notes. His symbol looked a little different here, in colour, but it was undoubtedly still the right thing. She took a deep breath, doing her signature thing of making up a plan on the fly and praying to whatever was out there for some more Noceda luck. If the Inner Belos hadn't followed them into memories before...

Hunter had retreated to behind the nearest tree, visibly terrified at the sight of that thing. Well, that wasn't going to fly. She pushed him forwards and dove into the opening with the kid just behind him. 

The monster looked up, all of its eyes watching them. Luz used a light glyph, a big one, to blind it, sending it screaming backwards, before taking the lead in her little trio and directing them straight for that Collector tree. Hunter was looking more and more panicked as they ran, the poor thing, but after seeing what exactly this curse of Belos's had done to him... She couldn't say she was surprised. There was definitely some trauma there, and quite rightfully so. Belos's treatment of his predecessors was disgusting.

So, they made it into the memory alright, but she must have underestimated the Inner Belos's intelligence as a glorified goop monster, because it did, in fact, try to follow them. Emphasis on the tried part. The three of them were knelt below the painting's frame, Luz trying to breathe quietly and not fidget, hoping the others were doing the same. The monster stuck its ghastly jaw through with and ground its teeth as it searched. Could it taste with its skin!? Was it trying to smell them!? God, if they died here, then it would be all Luz's fault; this was her plan...

Well, by proxy of Luz still being around to tell this tale, it must have been evident that she survived. The Inner Belos did, in fact, seem to be able to taste with its skin or smell them. It left after a drawn-out moment of stillness that felt straight out of a horror movie. 

So naturally, when the memory Belos spoke up, she nearly jumped clean out of her skin. Hunter gave her a dry look. Right, right, memory, they weren't actually being addressed, even if it did feel targeted. But then...

"I can still hear you down there," almost playfully, the Emperor spoke.

Who was Belos talking to, if not them? He would never greet a Golden Guard so jovially, from what Luz could tell, and there was no way he valued any of his other pawns if his right hand was treated so badly.

A laugh, a sort of cheerful cackle, strangely similar to the kid's laugh, but perhaps a little older, more pristine, more cosmic, sounded. Hunter looked over at Kid Belos curiously, evidently thinking that it actually had been him. Luz still wasn't convinced, so she followed the memory Belos's line of sight over to the shadows behind them. They seemed to glitch for a moment, like static on a dark screen, before melding into the shape of a humanoid figure. 

"You found me!" the thing sing-songed, "Even after I was so careful not to let you see!"

Luz could see it a little clearer now. This was a small figure of the child-like statue, so if she hadn't already been mostly convinced from the voice, she definitely would have clocked at this point that this was another kid. The weird thing was their, uh, shape, though. If she'd thought Belos's goop monster cursed form was bad, then this was a whole other level. This guy was just literally 2D. Their form flitted across solid surfaces influenced by the shapes they were gliding over as if they were just a projection of the light. Or the shadows, really, but it was reminding Luz of a projector.

"Can I help you?" carefully, the Emperor asked. 

"Alone up here you plot and plan and build and bruise, but I'm trapped down there beneath the land you use! So, what I'm saying is, I'm bored of this extended trip, and you should speed up your plan to make everyone go all..." the being, probably the Collector Luz realised excitedly, paused over a statue and began to scream, creating an image of it crumbling, "Ahhhh, Mr-"

He stopped abruptly there and looked over his shoulder, giggling quietly. Luz frowned. That was a... weird place to stop. Mister didn't rhyme with trip! What kind of poetry fiend was this Collector!?

"You don't like me saying that last bit aloud," he shrugged.

"You never know who may be about, Collector. And we wouldn't want any little troublemakers finding out too much,"  Belos sighed, sounding almost like a parent berating a child.

Luz wrinkled her nose. That couldn't be right. She couldn't ever imagine Belos as a good parent. But there was at least confirmation that this was the Collector she was seeing, at least. She turned to see her companion's reactions. Hunter looked somewhere between disturbed and mildly confused whilst the kid looked as content and oblivious as ever. Fair enough, Luz didn't exactly like the sound of whatever the Collector had been telling Belos to hurry with either.

"You sent the kid out on an errand, didn't you?" the Collector smirked.

"The Golden Guard is out on a mission for me currently, yes," airily, the Emperor confirmed, "He should be back soon, as well,"

"Lame... You never want to do anything with me when he's around..." lamented the Collector.

"Patience," Belos chided, "You can have all the fun you want at whatever time you want after your draining spell has worked,"

The child-like god blew a raspberry. It was... odd trying to reconcile this juvenile presentation of the Collector with the descriptions of a powerful being and drive to discover him that Luz had seen from Belos's journal and Phillip's mission. 

With that in respect, what did Belos mean by the Collector's 'draining spell'!? Had she been right!? The Collector did have some kind of big plan that he'd handed over!? How did Belos even find this guy to receive it!? Did... Phillip leave clues or something? What even happened to Phillip at all? And what did he want the Collector for? 

And, once again, a 'draining spell'!? Was that going to suck the life out of everyone!? Maybe it was more reasonable to assume that it was just gunning for magic, but that would still completely uproot the Isles' way of life! Could... witches even survive without magic? Like, sure, Hunter seemed to be able to, but he was born without magic. There was no telling what would happen if someone born with it were to have it forcibly removed. As if she hadn't been motivated to stop Belos at all costs before...

"But what about right now? I want to play! Not sit around and watch you work!"  petulantly, the Collecter complained, reminding Luz that despite whatever schemes this god may have helped cook up, they were still very youthful in mind. It seemed a little odd to call him literally a child, but that was what he seemed to be.

"Now..."

Hunter, and yes, it was definitely Hunter and not any other Golden Guard; he had his mask off, revealing a rather dishevelled appearance, burst in. The Collector dove back into the shadows to hide at this, and Luz could just imagine him watching on curiously. That was what Kid Belos was doing at her side right now.

The real Hunter's face seemed to light up in recognition when his past self sprinted past them in the memory. He must have realised when exactly this recollection was taking place. She was tempted to ask him to share that information, but left it out in case she accidentally triggered something. He'd finally seemed to have calmed down from their chase and talk after the second memory, so she really didn't want to upset the delicate balance of calm he had going on, watching earnestly. 

"We see what he has to say for himself," cooly, Belos finished. 

"Un- Emperor, sir!" memory-Hunter scrambled onto his knees in front of Belos, "There's- there's been a problem! An unknown assailant attacked my ship just over Latissa and we lost all the cargo. The scouts are looking into it now, but..." he bit his lip and glanced over in Luz and the other's direction with a wince, "There were no obvious clues,"

Belos turned away, eyeing the point of the wall where he had to know the Collector was hiding, "That's an interesting way of saying you failed," after a while, he spoke up.

Memory-Hunter's face fell, "It's- It's not completely confirmed as a fail, yet... Kikimora was in the area at the time, and she's being questioned if she saw anything as we speak! And the scouts are still searching the wreckage of my ship, and-"

Hold on, a ship crash, missing cargo and Latissa teeming with scouts... Luz might just know when this one happened. There was a guilty weight settling on her shoulders as she considered the facts. Because this sounded like the evening she'd robbed Hunter's ship. And it sounded like he'd gone through on his promise not to tell Belos about her presence, too. Had he always looked that beat-up on that evening? How... had she not noticed that before?

"You crashed your ship as well?" Belos snapped.

"Unfortunately, sir. It was attacked, remember? The assailant got the sails... And I was... knocked unconscious during-" 

"Leave," snidely, he put in. 

Luz saw Hunter look away out of the corner of her eye.

"Of... course, my liege," solemnly, his past self dropped his shoulders down and agreed.

Memory-Hunter was gone from the room like a wanderer from a town, scuttling like a terrified rat as he went, after that. The real Hunter continued to stare at the floor, refusing to watch the conversation whilst Kid Belos rocked and giggled at his feet. Perhaps he knew what was about to come? He was behaving like Luz would as a kid when she knew her favourite part of a movie was coming. 

The Collector slunk back out of the shadows, snickering, and floated over Belos's shoulder, an arms leant playfully on him. "O.M.G," gleefully, the being exclaimed, "I thought I was going to get to see you get all super cursed right in front of me!"

He shifted his form in the shadows (Because he seemed to be able to do that...) to mimic Belos and mimed horns sprouting from his head and limbs flailing angrily all over the place.

"This one knows when to back down, Collector. Therefore there is no reason to have to teach him a lesson," wryly, Belos commented.

"But you were mad, though! You still wanted to hurt him, didn't you?" the Collector kicked around and spun happily in midair, as if he wasn't just casually talking about abuse. Luz wondered if he even had much of a standard for how wrong what he was suggesting was. 

"Nonsense," Belos denied with an amused snort, "All I have to do with one is say 'The Titan wills it so' or 'The Titan has big plans for you, Hunter' and he does exactly as he's told!" 

Luz could hear Hunter freeze and begin mouthing something after that. Just... how often had he heard one of those particular phrases from his uncle?

"Pfffft, really? I bet this one is just as treacherous as the rest at heart! Seriously, I'm starting to think you make those things just to destroy them!" she really didn't like hearing Hunter being referred to as a thing, but the Collector just seemed to use it as a prompt for something even funnier to suggest, his little face lighting up with a silly grin, "Oh, I get it! You have fun with it, don't you? The more they rebel, the more you get to revel!"

Belos's face had twisted into a rather pinched expression, but crucially, he was still smiling, "Of course not, Collector. Every time he... chooses to betray me, it cuts deeper.  It pains me to watch their repeated insubordination,"

"The more of them that fall, the more you end up punishing them all!" brightly, the Collector quipped.

Belos grimaced and didn't respond. He just returned to his desk over the other side of the room.

"Ugh, you never respond to my rhymes! Do you know how hard they can be to make sometimes!? I'd appreciate a little appreciation here..." the being whined.

This was going nowhere, Luz quickly realised. She'd... She'd learnt what she could from this memory. For Hunter's safety, and probably hers too, they'd be best just leaving.

Mutely, she picked Kid Belos up with a small scoop and nudged Hunter on the shoulder, motioning towards the exit. The Collector continued to nag the Emperor in the memory still playing in the background, but to be honest, she wasn't really listening anymore. She didn't really want to hear more of Belos's revolting plans to punish the Golden Guards. 

She tapped her earpiece as she left, sending a call through to Eda, "Hey, Luzura here, can you be on standby with the return potion?"

"Standby? I mean, can do, kiddo, but don't you want it immediately if you're done?" her mentor came through quickly.

Luz looked at the child in her arms, quietly watching her through stormy grey eyes, and then at Huter limping behind her with wide, maybe angry, magenta eyes and shaking hands.

"No, I, uh, I need to speak to Hunter before we leave to make sure he'd not gonna, y'know, go crazy on us or something," she paused thoughtfully, "Maybe set it up in the woods anyway, just in case,"

"Blondie's with you?" stifling a chuckle from the sounds of things, Eda affirmed, "That would explain why his little bird's been banging against our window for the past hour... Boots wanted to spray it, but Hooty was campaigning for bird rights!" 

Maybe Eda had just sensed her questionable mood from her solemn tone, but the attempt at humour was a welcome addition. She snorted wetly, "Yeah, Hunter's with me. He's, uh, going through it a bit r-right now, so be gentle when we get back," 

"Don't worry, kid, we'll be waiting. I'll get back to you when we're ready. Stay safe, over and out," her mentor assured her before cutting the line.

She took a withering breath in and examined their surroundings. She could sort of hear the Inner Belos somewhere nearby, but going into another random memory was, uh, not really a very good idea at this point, if the way that had gone the last few times had taught her anything. Hunter didn't look as though he could take anything more, and Luz wasn't really sure if she wanted to watch him take any more. Only Kid Belos seemed happy at the grim prospect of continuing. 

"Okay, I'm getting us out of here in a minute, but in the meantime, we're just going to bunker down and have a nice little talk, okay?" as brightly as she could manage, she explained.

Hunter gave a weak little stutter before sitting down at the base of a tree. 

"What... What do you want to talk about, then?" wearily, he seemed to just about manage.

He looked burnt out as hell from running and was looking at her now with tired, sunken eyes. His eyebags were accentuated even compared to in that last memory where, you may note, she already noted him as looking like kind of a mess. This guy probably needed a hug. If she was sure he'd react well to contact, she'd be happy to give it to him. Maybe in a less perilous location, then. 

She'd been planning to just tell him what she'd told Eda she'd ask him about, so basically whether he was going to be fine calling a temporary truce once she brought them back, but looking at the trainwreck before her, she couldn't help but change the plan, "When we get out of here, you don't have to go back, you know?" she blurted, "You could, uh, always stay at the Owl House with us!"

He stared blankly at her.

"I- I'm sure Eda would be cool with it and we already have Amity there and stuff..." nervously, she continued.

Sharply, Hunter looked straight up from where his head had been slowly drifting towards the floor as she spoke, "Blight's with you!? After the kidnapping report, we... We weren't sure," 

"Yeah, I got her out of a kinda bad situation with her mom, so she's staying with us for a bit. And, like I said, I can do the same for you if you'd like," she smiled softly before adding, "Hunter,"

Maybe he was even contemplating the deal, because Hunter was definitely thinking about something. She didn't get to find out what.

They must have been too loud or something, because the Inner Belos raced around the corner to the clearing and found them. Something in her snapped at that. She was fed up with this stupid curse chasing them around and being used as an excuse to treat Hunter and all Golden Guards over the years like absolute trash!

So, instead of finding a place for them to hide, or figuring out an escape route, Luz bounced onto her feet, took out a handful of glyphs and just went straight for the beast. All of its eyes were on her, but honestly, good. Kid Belos cheered her on with little squeals in the background. With a hefty grunt, she unleashed a torrent of vines and had the thing tied up tightly and bound to the ground in a matter of seconds.

Oh.

It was that easy, huh?

Well, if she could stop the inner self in the mindscape, could she, to some degree, stop Belos in the real world? She advanced on its tied-up form with some more glyphs at the ready. She wasn't going to try and kill it or anything, but y'know, maybe teach it a bit of a lesson...

'Wait, Luz, stop!" desperately, Hunter croaked, "Look!"

At first, she thought he was just upset because she'd just tied up his uncle, but as she got closer... She saw what he meant. And now she felt a little numb, maybe a little sick.

"Are those... Palismen?" horrified she squeaked and looked closer at the beast.

Sure enough, she could see the individual writhing forms of many creatures with blazing blue eyes, all screaming for help and chirping and growling sorrowfully. 'Stay back!' they seemed to scream as she looked over them. 

Behind her, she didn't immediately notice the kid get up, but Hunter seemed to. he shook and shuffled away, staring with injected eyes with flitting gazes between the palismen monster and Kid Belos. Then, he let out one shuddering breath and began to speak, catching Luz's attention. 

"We weren't running from the Inner Belos," whispering and beginning to hyperventilate Hunter realised aloud, "He... He was with us the whole time,"

Kid Belos, or just the real Belos, she supposed, gave one final eerie chuckle before throwing back his head and giving them a fleshy display of shifting into his adult self, complete with his aura's colour changing from soothing, spooky purple to an angry blood red. He gave both of them a once over with a twisted grin.

"Hello, Hunter. Hello, Luz," he shook his head lightly, "Nice of you to finally notice,"

God, this was all so messed up! What was it with all this child imagery used to turn her head away from the twisted nature of everything down here? Belos had hidden himself in the form of his child self just to gain their trust and then had proceeded to lead them around a bunch of traumatic memories. The Collector shared his sadistic sense of humour but was stuck in a fae-like state where he appeared as a youthful spirit. And yet Hunter and Luz, the only real kids here (even if she'd tell Eda otherwise), were left to shoulder all this horror and act mature.

Belos strode confidently towards the palismen creature and reached through the vines to dig his claws into its sides.

"And very nice of you to catch this one for me, though. You made for very a nice distractions for it, and these vines are expertly used!" he chuckled to himself and pulled a single palismen out of the amalgamation, "I can't capture it myself, you see, so it's been a thorn in my side for years,"

He couldn't? Or he wouldn't. Perhaps dealing with it himself wouldn't be efficient enough for him. Aw, if she thought she'd been mad before...

"But it's a necessary thorn, you know? Just like the thorn in a rose. Prickly, but necessary for defence. Without it," Belos smirked, "I wouldn't be able to do this,"

He extended his arm upwards and crushed the palismen with his fist, its energy pulsating down his arm in the form of that green goop. He exhaled in relief and left a cool, pleased expression on his face, very much not the expression of a sick man just getting his cure.

"And would you look at that? I feel better already," he continued anyway. 

"The Collector," steelily, she interrupted, "Who is he? And what is his draining spell?"

Hunter began to stumble away from the conflict, eyeing his uncle carefully. The palismen monster faded into whatever existed below this plain of the mindscape.

Belos sighed dramatically, "You would lead with that... Well, Luz, it's my way of completing my mission,"

"What's your mission!?" sharply, she demanded.

"It... Isn't obvious? Dear me, these creatures must really have warped your mind," in some sort of amused confusion, he chuckled.

"That's a funny way to talk about your own species," she narrowed her eyes.

Did he mean the wild witches, perhaps? For as insane as Belos was, surely he didn't think so ill of his entire kind... And, no! This stupid goal wasn't obvious, man! She was no mind reader! God, didn't these villain types get tired of just magically knowing everything except the things they really should?

He scrutinised her for a moment, "You really don't know who I am, then?" he shook his head and redirected his attention off of her and onto Hunter, "Shame. I really would have thought that between the two of you, one of you would have figured it out,"

Then he walked off like the infuriating man he was. Luz growled and stalked off after him. Eda of course chose this time to send the message that everything was ready and waiting, but she really wasn't ready to just be whisked out of there! For one, she wasn't with hunter, and for two, she could get info out of Belos, she was sure of it. He may have been being annoyingly cryptic, but he was hinting at something big. Luz didn't want to be a step behind in their little game, so she was going to figure out what that was. 

Hunter fell against the tree just in front of them, leaving it to support his weight. He wasn't facing them anymore, instead staring down a narrow passage. Luz couldn't see what exactly was making him crumple, though; it was around a bend.

"Who you are!? You're Belos! Just Belos!" frustratedly, she answered.

The Emperor ignored her in favour of approaching his nephew. But, oh, God, why did things have to get yet worse!?

Hunter was mutely examining a... graveyard of sorts. A grove of unkempt memories, their trees overgrown and uprooted. Each painting in them showed a gruesome death. A burial, a petrification, a burning. A stabbing, a drowning and some good old-fashioned blunt-force trauma. It was almost like it was the same person dying over and again in these memories though. A blonde man, happy, open face gradually growing darker and more tired in each iteration, the Golden Guard. A broken mask was heaped and displayed below each memory as well. A mask for every death.

That ray of sunshine of a man she'd seen in so many of the Emperor's memories back there was just shown here dying, over and over again. it was becoming very quickly clear that he had not been Hunter's father. Not unless all these men too were his sons. But these seemed to date back centuries if the age of the trees around them suggested anything. It... it didn't make sense. But, jeez, if it was bad for her... Imagine what it had to be like for Hunter! This was his whole life and legacy being torn up here. 

She'd been asked who Belos was, but surely the real question was who Hunter was. 

"Might as well already toss yours down there, eh?" cruelly, and strangely flippantly, Belos joked. 

Luz dove angrily at him, but he neatly sidestepped. Always a cheater, wasn't he... He'd just used the fact that this was his mindscape to his advantage. But she was still going to get him for that one... Hunter was getting out here alive. She wasn't letting a poor guy like him die alone here on her watch.

Brokenly, Hunter pointed at the remains down in the grove, "O-our family," he stuttered, "What did you do to them!? The... old guards! Our family! It... It w-wasn't wild magic, was it," slowly and disjointedly he shook his head, eyes wide and panicked, pupils tightly constricted in shock. 

Belos shook his head as though Hunter was only a five-year-old getting upset about having to share his toys with his brother, "And yet another shame. Out of all the grimwalkers," he gestured grandly at the portraits, "You looked the most like him, you know,"

"What?" Hunter just about managed to croak before the Emperor seemed to grow tired of his 'hysterics' and sealed the entrance of the grove up with a thick wall of white vines, trapping Hunter in there, along with the memories of the deaths of his predecessors.

Immediately, Luz was shoving herself against it, pushing with all her might. It felt fortified, though, perhaps having been made from the roots of the trees surrounding them. Determined to find something that would work, she sharpened an ice glyph into a blade of sorts and swung at it. Even the dents she managed to leave quickly sealed themselves over under Belos's watch. She tried setting it alight with a fire glyph for good measure too, but that didn't work, of course. Mindscape bark didn't seem to be flammable.

She just pressed herself against the surface of the wall again and screamed Hunter's name. He didn't respond. She couldn't even hear his sobs anymore. 

Belos seemed to have been waiting for her, almost boredly, this whole time. "There. Now that we have some peace and quiet, where was I?" he started doing the whole villain monologue thing again. Luz had had rather enough of it, to be honest. "Ah, right, of course. We were getting to the good part," his eyes twinkled mischievously as he continued, "Tell me, Luz, when do you think I got here?"

She backtracked so that she had an exit behind her that wasn't a wall of bark and bines leading to a dead end (Literally), "Got here? Do you mean when you were born?"

"No, child, I meant what I said," he tutted reprovingly, "You don't belong here, you know. But then again, neither do I..."

Belos arrived on the Boiling Isles at some point? He was... an intruder of sorts? Well, that lined up with his parasitic nature, but... The parallels he was drawing here. An uneasy feeling settled in her gut. No... He couldn't be suggesting what she thought he was, could he?

"Still not getting it?" he hummed contemplatively, "Perhaps I'd better just show you,"

She stumbled backwards into a picture frame that the Emperor had drawn out from the ground with a smooth flick of his finger. A little afraid to turn and see what he was trying to say with it, she ended up hearing the reveal before she saw it. 

But with her time travel adventure still fresh in her mind from earlier in the week, she'd recognise the rich, arrogant tones of Phillip Wittebane anywhere. Why did Belos...?

Oh.

She could only watch in despair as her past self scrambled to help Phillip and show him the light glyph, inadvertently becoming a sacrifice for his plot to get the Collector's disk. yeah, that had been how Belos had made contact with such a being...  But then if Phillip the human was Belos, she'd... helped her mortal enemy. And she was fundamentally the same as him; a human lost in this weird and wonderful world.

Coming to terms with being a played a fool for helping a jerk like Phillip was bad enough, but that jerk actually being the king of all jerks, the one she'd been trying to fight against using her time travel stunt? A whole new level of terrible. 

She sunk to her knees and tore her eyes away from the screen playing the memories of her being Philip's perfect little helper on loop. Belos was watching her patiently. She was being watched from both sides. 

"I... told you. You're just... Belos..." weakly, she denied.

"Just do yourself a favour," he smirked to himself, "My fellow human, and accept it. It feels good to not be, alone in this situation, doesn't it,"

She wanted to get up and scream at him, but her legs just wouldn't move.

"Don't talk about us like a team," she snapped, "I'm nothing like you,"

"I told you, Luz, fundamentally, we're one and the same! And that's why, despite all the trouble you've been causing me, I do still want to help you, truly. You destroyed your portal door in our little scrap before, but I can send you home! I won't watch another human life be destroyed by this place,"

Something clicked into place at his wording. The blonde man she'd seen in the paintings had had round ears, right? Round ears. Human ears. Something had happened to that man here, she was sure of it. But she was also very sure that her good 'buddy' Belos was not innocent of that one. Not after she'd seen him murder so many beings who shared that face in the grove Hunter was currently trapped in. 

"That's rich, coming from you," Luz growled before going for a bit of a gamble and a guess, "There was another human who came here with you before, wasn't there? But he didn't make it. You made sure of that. And I sincerely doubt this place ruined his life - you did,"

Belos's eye began to twitch and his form was flickering slightly, just in the same way it did in the memories with the old Golden Guards. The ones he'd killed supposedly with pleasure, she reminded herself. But you know what? She had functional immunity here. Belos wasn't going to attack her, not when he was in the middle of trying to make a deal with her. 

"As that simply comes from a place of ignorance, I'll let it slide. My offer still stands, Luz," carefully, he bargained.

"I have some questions first," she pressed.

"Okay," he agreed plainly, maybe just happy to see her considering it, "Let's hear them, then,"

"Once again, who or what is the Collector!? And Hunter, what are he and the other Golden Guards!?" hurriedly, she fired out before reigning herself in for her last one, "And you, Belos, who are you?"

The Emperor laughed, "That last one's easy - I'm Phillip Wittebane, same as I always have been," he stepped to her side and shifted into a younger version of himself, the version Luz would recognise as Phillip, and gosh she was kicking herself for not noticing the resemblance between this guy and the kid sooner, "And Hunter, just like his predecessors, is... a better version of an old friend. I trust you can put together who,"

Of course. The blonde man. The one Phillip had probably killed, just like he'd killed the old Golden Guards. Did that make Hunter some kind of clone? She tried to file a mental note to look into grimwalkers more later.

"You didn't answer my first question," harshly, she pushed.

He raised an eyebrow, "You believe that was accidental?" 

"No!" she spat out, "And go back to your true form already - it's demeaning speaking to an illusion like this,"

He chuckled as he changed back to the Belos she recognised in a red blur, "My apologies, Luz. It just merely served to best illustrate my point. But anyway, I'm growing tired of your deflections," he drew closer and loomed over her, "Have you come to a decision yet?"

She almost reflexively gave a rather rude retort to that one, explaining her exact feelings towards Belos in it, but she bit her tongue. Getting killed here would do no good for anyone. Feeling ready and heightened from the adrenaline, Luz moved her final piece across the chess board and readied herself for the consequences. 

"Yes," she left him hanging for a moment, "I think you're a jerk and horrible uncle, so there's no way I'd ever accept any help from you,"

He sniffed haughtily, "Fine, have it your way... But that leaves you as my enemy," he gave her a small, sadistic grin, "I'm sure you know what that means,"

Luz leant back into a fighting stance, "I'm sure I do,"

Belos struck swiftly after that, twisting his arm into the coil of a scythe handle and swinging straight at her. She ducked and rolled out of the way, mind scrambling to form a coherent plan for getting both her and Hunter out of here. She was in the middle fo getting stuck over the getting to Hunter part when she noticed the tears on the ground left by the Emperor's strike. If he could damage his own mindscape... She looked over to the wall forming Hunter's prison. 

Predictably enough, Belos struck again once he had reeled back in his arm and found the opportunity. This time, it was her neatly sidestepping as his claws raked apart the bark and vines he'd created, leaving an open line straight to Hunter, who was curled up in a ball on the floor, probably hyperventilating from what Luz could hear. She didn't give Belos another chance to strike: she dove into the grove and placed a steady hand on Hunter's back.

She made direct eye contact with Belos as her other hand climbed up to her earpiece and activated the line.

"Eda," she began slowly, watching as it dawned on his face what she was doing, "Now, please, now,"

There was a flash of gold light, and they were gone. Free from Belos's clutches with... at least something to show for it. The mission had at least not been a total failure. 

When she awoke again in the woods outside the Owl House, everyone was there, Amity included. That also meant Hunter and a little red bird chirping in his face nervously, though. The boy startled to life just after her and stared around him with blown-out dilated pupils. She recognised the signs of the ensuing panic attack too late. They all did. 

She should have gone after him after he ran off crying into the woods, she really should, but she just didn't have the energy. She didn't even have the energy to listen to her family around her. Taking in what had happened was a tall task.

She stared at the spot where Hunter had just been blankly before steeling her resolve. She was going to help that poor boy out. That was her next mission.

Chapter Text

Nothing had gotten better since escaping the Emperor's mind. He hadn't been found, sure... But Hunter knew full well that he could never return. 

Could he even let anyone see him again?

Perhaps that was a little extreme. He backtracked a little and sat up to watch over Flapjack, the little bird having been running on just as little energy as him since they'd fled on account of having to be Hunter's crutch emotionally and physically. The bird tweeted sadly at him and nestled onto his leg. He ran his hand, gloves handily removed due to the dirt that had been festering on them, through their feathers and sighed.

That first night since the... incident with the Emperor had been the worst. He'd stayed out in the woods, only able to weakly try and ward off anything that would try and attack him. He had hardly slept at all due to night terrors, as well. That had been where most of the dirt that seemed to follow him around now had come from. The following morning, he'd shared a light breakfast of wild berries with Flapjack before setting off to where he was right now - the Flyer Derby equipment shed. 

Okay, that seemed like a stupid place to go in hindsight, and having lived there for slightly over two days now, Hunter would agree, but it had been all he could think of in the panicked state of mind he'd been in. He knew his team never used the shed; they were a group of rather organised people who just brought all their own equipment to practise, and he had the benefit of knowing when anyone would be around so he could get out of there in time, He'd missed his last two practises anyway thanks to the business with Luzura and, well, he'd been out in the woods during the second, so surely no one would even think to look for him here!

But all this was a temporary solution. Hunter wasn't stupid; he knew he couldn't stay here forever. But he also knew that if he returned to the Castle, he would almost certainly be killed. Just like his predecessors, unhelpfully, his mind supplied. 

He didn't know where he was supposed to move on to, though. Luz had offered a place at the Owl House, but he couldn't go there, he just couldn't. He wouldn't be a burden to anyone there. And... Even if it was extremely evident that Luzura must have been right about his uncle all along, joining her at her place of residence felt like a commitment to her cause. Hunter wasn't quite sure he was ready for that yet. 

And to make matters worse, Hunter was fated to have to bunker down for the next few days, because he seemed to have caught himself a rather horrid case of a sort of food poisoning. More accurately, he didn't have the liberty of choosing what he ate when he had no reliable food source, so it was whatever scraps he could get from the garbage or a few kind vendors. (He'd had to find a cloak to hide his appearance in for that. even after shedding his Golden Guard uniform, he was still worried about how recognisable his face would be.)  Said scraps turned out to contain something that his system could just not digest and he'd been left feeling horrid ever since. And they'd probably also been mostly out of date.

Honestly, he just felt awful. His limbs all groaned and creaked in tiredness when he had to get up to move, not helped by the fact that he could hardly keep any food or liquid down. His mind was still reeling from the incident a few days back too. And on top of all this, he was definitely sleep deprived, and that was giving him trouble distinguishing reality from whatever was going on in his head at times. He just couldn't stay asleep, though. Not with the nightmares. That was why Flapjack had become so solidly his emotional support bird. 

He steadied himself in preparation to get up and groaned woozily as the world began to spin. Flapjack whined in concern and pecked at his hair. He swatted them slowly away and waited for the horizon line to stop wobbling up and down. The bird stared at him with sad eyes. He sighed.

"Yeah, alright, alright, I know..." he sighed, "But I can't just sit here all day,"

The bird disagreed, but he wasn't going to take that as the nail in his coffin, so Hunter got up anyway. His knees wobbled a bit, and he had to grab a table to stop himself from immediately doubling over (Thanks for reminding him about the food poisoning, stomach), but he hadn't fainted or otherwise collapsed, so that was a good sign, right? 

Then someone, complete with headphones and a little dance move of a shuffle slammed open the door, causing Hunter to jump and roll over onto the floor. He ducked under a desk and was very unfortunately reminded of why he had been sitting still before. Flapjack tutted quietly, but still reprovingly, and snuggled up under his hood.

Gus, because he wasn't going to do that trope of pretending he hadn't realised who this was, paused when he heard the crash and lowered his headphones. His eye flickered blue for a moment, probably perfectly innocently and just because of his propensity for illusions, but Hunter reflexively started to freak out. Belos? Was Belos here? No, he couldn't be, he reminded himself. No one knew he was here. 

Until in a few minutes when Gus would inevitably notice him. 

Flapjack, upon seeing who it was, decided to be a little traitor and just assumed Gus was safe. They dove out from under the desk and started frantically chirping at the illusionist, and Hunter was powerless to stop them. Gus frowned and stared at the bird for a moment, before his own palismen scuttled out over his shoulder and croaked something at him. Then Gus's head turned slowly in his direction and he crouched down.

"...Hunter?" uncertainly, his teammate affirmed.

Bile rose in his throat as he stared down this intruder. He could only let out a whimper.

"What are you doing here, man!? There's wanted posters up everywhere for you!" urgently, and somewhat baffled, Gus asked. 

Wanted posters...? Oh, Titan, Belos was looking for him, he was really looking for him! And... And the way Gus said that just now... Like this was nowhere near a safe location. Oh, Titan, (again) was he about to get turned in? Was he about to get caught!? There could be scouts outside on that pitch right now. 

Flapjack dived back at him, sensing his panic, and began to tweet soothingly at him, but it was too late; the damage had been done. Gus's body tensed when he saw the damage he'd done. Quietly, he sunk to Hunter's level on the floor and waited. 

"Is- Is he- Did you come to..." hyperventilating, Hunter managed to wheeze out.

Gus's hands flew up, "No way! I didn't even know you'd be in here! Because, I mean, it hardly seems like a very liveable space... Are you, uh, okay?"

Hunter tried to slow his breathing rate, but nothing really seemed ot happen and he was just left panting and gasping like some kind of animal. It was better than sobbing at least (And he'd done a lot of that recently...), but that wasn't saying much. He stared at his teammate mournfully and collected his scrambled brains enough to try and form a response.

"I- I'm fine, Gus. Just... taking a pit stop," he muttered.

"Really?" his teammate retorted before scaling himself back a bit, "Sorry, sorry, that was a little harsh... Could you... Come out from under the desk, then?"

He scanned Gus for any sign of animosity, and eventually rolled himself slowly out into the open when he found none. He still curled in on himself and pressed him against the table leg, though. 

"I won't interrupt practise by being here, promise. I'm just crashing for a while," with a watery, small voice, he tried to assure his teammate. 

He was expecting Gus to startle again, but the guy just gave him a sympathetic look with a twisted lip, "Okay, I'm going to need you to copy my breathing, alright?" he held up his hand in a fist and counted to four as he breathed slowly in and began to open up each closed finger in time.

Hunter watched curiously, still feeling things get fizzy and be muddied by his shaking form and unstable state, but somewhat able to focus on what was going on. This seemed... rhythmic. He liked it. That was probably what made it easier to join in. He observed us closely and tried to match his technique as best as possible, as if that was his current mission or something. Somewhere in between that distracting laser focus and the trick behind whatever Gus was telling him to do worked, and he could feel his chest loosening and his form stopping rocking.

Luck still wasn't on his side, though. The normalising of his breathing and heart rate sent his stomach lurching again, and it wasn't hard to predict what was going to happen in a few minutes. Silently, he excused himself past Gus and dashed out the door, all the way to a little out-the-way spot. Then he retched rawly, whatever small amount of liquid was left in him coming running up his throat like lava. 

He coughed and wiped his mouth wishing for some nice water right about now when it was over. Then he leant backwards and tried to use the brisk morning breeze as a substitute when he accepted that first hope wasn't happening. 

"Did something happen? With, uh, the Emper-" tentatively, Gus stepped out of the shack and asked.

"No," he denied, a little too quickly, "Just tired or something,"

"So you had a panic attack at my arrival, and then threw up over Willow's flowers because you were 'tired'," dubiously, Gus pressed.

 Hunter deflated and stared at the floor. (But decidedly not at the ruined flowers.)

"Those were Willow's?" miserably, he affirmed.

"All the plants here are, man, but that's not the point! If nothing's up with Emperor, why are there wanted posters up for you, and why are you here of all places?" his teammate hurried on.

Maybe some other day he could have thought of a decent excuse. 'I was just feeling sentimental' wasn't going to cut it thanks to the wanted posters, and 'Kiki's just pranking me' sounded laughable, even to him. Ah, who was he kidding, he was never any good at lying or excuses even when he was feeling well enough to think straight. He opened his mouth, actually ready to respond, before it sort of dawned on him who he was with. Gus. Gus. The one he'd arrested the other week! He would totally rat Hunter out to Luz!

He grunted huffily and tilted his head away from the illusionist. It probably looked rather petulant, but what else was he supposed to do? There... There wasn't really anyone he could trust at this point, and if his only option to get untrustworthy people (See: everyone) to leave him alone was to act like a child, then that was that! Besides, uh, I worked for that... That Collector guy Belos had been chatting with in... the memory, hadn't it? Hunter couldn't ever see anyone trying to attack that guy, but he still acted like a complete child. 

Flapjack gave him a look. You know, the look. The kind of look your sibling gave you when it was your turn to do the chores and you were trying to get out of them. (Or so he'd read. Hunter obviously didn't have any... living siblings.)

He sighed and looked over at Gus again, suddenly feeling rather small, "I, uhm, learnt some... bad stuff. It's hard to talk about," vaguely, he let out.

Gus gave him a sympathetic look before chuckling, "It's alright, Hunter, take your time. I've gotta come clean with you, to be honest - I do kinda already know basically what happened," 

The illusionist shrugged, not really looking that apologetic despite what he was saying. Hunter couldn't help it, he let out a small, quiet laugh. I was full of air and barely audible, but he knew he'd done it. He slammed a hand over his mouth. Not funny. Not the kind of thing to be joking about. Flapjack gave him a knowing look, so they did notice though, apparently, and, oh, Gus was wearing the same expression. They all knew, great. Ah, well, could be worse. He could be homeless, ill and on the run from the law. Oh, wait. 

"Then why did you ask?" he huffed.

"I dunno, really. I hear it's a courtesy thing,"  courteously, Gus shrugged.

"That's weird," blandly, he responded, "That's just stating the obvious, then,"

"And saying that something obvious that was stated is stating the obvious isn't?" wryly, the illusionist grinned.

Hunter couldn't keep up with the number of obviouses in this discussion. He leant back slightly and squinted at the early morning light. He, uh, hadn't really seen much of that lately; he usually aimed to try and hit the streets to go scrounging in the evening. That way, there were fewer people about and, if he was lucky, he would run into a stray Night Market vendor who wouldn't worry about who they were selling to anyway. 

"You've lost me..." tiredly, he mumbled.

"It was a joke. You can laugh," Hunter continued to stare blankly at Gus who gave up and sighed, "Just- Ignore what I said, then. We've got bigger priorities - like getting you somewhere more... hygienic,"

Alarmed, he slid backwards, instinctively holding a protective hand upwards towards Flapjack, who was perched on his shoulder.

"We? Gus, I'm- I'm fine here and I'm not planning on leaving anytime soon. It's not safe!" he managed (Just about) to argue.

All this adrenaline was making him feel even woozier. Or maybe that was just the lack of sleep acting up again; it was hard to tell. 

"Well, you're clearly not safe here either, dude! Seriously, you look like you just finished rising out of your grave!" a little taken aback, his teammate argued. 

Hunter examined himself once more. It... It wasn't that bad, right? His skin was a little... dry and maybe a tad grey, but it wasn't sunken in or bloated like he'd seen on actual corpses. And he probably looked more than a little exhausted, but that was just part of the course for him! And- And the dirt he couldn't help!

But, all the same, he... wasn't particularly happy like this. Believe him well, if he could whisk that stupid foray into the Emperor's mindscape away, he would. Even if meant going back to living in ignorance of the atrocities his once mentor was planning. It was a selfish ask, but could you really blame him? He was completely miserable as this and, if he was being honest, although he wasn't, as Gus had put in, having just risen from his grave, maybe he'd be in there anyway, soon enough. 

Did that mean accepting this offer was a good idea? No... Probably not... But whatever choice did he have? Gently, Flapjack nuzzle his cheek and looked hopefully between him and Gus. Okay, okay, enough was enough: the bird won again...

"And... You're not going to turn me in, right?" softly, he asked, having sudden anxiety-fueled visions of Gus just carting him straight off the Luz, or worse, even though he'd promised not to, the Emperor. 

"Huh? Didn't I already say-" he paused, "Oh. You mean Luz? Not if you don't want me to, I guess,"

"Yeah, I- Thanks," Hunter swallowed dryly, "Though, uh, do you... have a plan for where we're going?"

Gus shot him an odd look, "I just figured we'd go back to my place. No one will think to look for you somewhere random like there,"

He shot his teammate an even odder look back, "You're a wanted criminal! Surely the Coven's only about five minutes away from bashing down your door anyway!"

"Dude, if they were going to arrest me again, they'd have done it already," he smirked down at Hunter, "Besides, you think I started abetting someone like Luzura whilst being easily traceable?"

Well, in hindsight that should have been obvious, but it did raise the obvious question of what legal loophole Gus had been using this whole time. If such one did exist. Which Hunter kind of hoped it did, because it wasn't his problem if it inconvenienced the Coven anymore and he probably needed some kind of system like that to use himself. 

He staggered to his feet as he spoke, realising he'd need time to reacquaint himself with not being collapsed on the floor if they were going to make a figurative run for it soon, "How're you doing it, then?"

"If you were to ask the landlord or anyone at the Coven, I'm technically Willow's roommate. I pay half of the rent and all that, but I don't actually stay there - I'm still at my old house with my dad. She just tells people I must couch-surf or something, though," 

"How... old are you, Gus?" feeling a little consciously older (Or maybe that was just the sleep deprivation and food poisoning talking again), he questioned, because that explanation made him realise that... he didn't really know.

Gus looked fairly young, actually. He'd never really paid attention to it before, but now...

"Sixteen, why?" quickly, he answered, voice laced with suspicion. 

Oh, Titan, Gus was just a kid! He was dragging a literal kid into this whole mess with Belos and the Golden Guards and the draining spell. He'd arrested a kid for treason! How had... How had no one stopped this!?

"That's- You shouldn't have been allowed to have been locked up alone in the Conformatorium like you were, then! It's not allowed for minors! And... Uh, not to undermine you or anything, but shouldn't you, like, be in school?" he eventually settled on in a bit of a ramble. 

Gus sighed again and gave him a pained glare, "I moved up a couple of grades and graduated early. I would've been sent straight off to a coven too, if not for Luz... And as for the prison thing, I don't know, man! You're the high-ranking coven official here, not me!"

"Oh," lamely, he responded, "But I'm not a coven official at all anymore,"

"Okay," plainly, Gus responded, "You know what? Great! Good for you, man! But that doesn't answer my question,"

Question...? Oh! Right, the ever so simple 'Why?'. Was there an easy way of saying he literally had no good reason why and had just been asking in the first place because being sick and discarded from the coven made him actually think about his life choices? 

"Your comment about living with your dad got me thinking, is all," eventually he settled on. 

"That's it?" Gus snorted, "Yeah, I don't really know what I was expecting there. But you've only been back on your feet for a few minutes and you already look about ready to collapse, so how about I just get us out of here?"

Hunter stood to attention and tried to ground himself some more. Okay, so his condition probably was bad, but he wasn't some frail leaf about to be blown away by the wind. The swaying had just been a sleep deprivation thing! And he would know: this wasn't the first time he'd been up for the days straight. Maybe it'd be the last, though. If his brain would ever settle.

"Uh, yeah, okay," intelligently, he agreed.

Gracefully, Gus's palisman leapt from his shoulder and twisted into a staff in midair, which the illusionist neatly caught. He stood on the front of it himself, like some kind of pirate captain, and gestured towards the back to Hunter. He blinked slowly before indicating roughly to Flapjack. The bird tweeted in alarm when they realised his plan.

Gus laughed, "You've got another thing coming if you think me or your palisman are you letting you fly like that,"

Stubbornly, he retrieved his artificial staff from his somehow still intact clip-on belt. It felt wrong in his hands now, but it would definitely provide the quickest travel. And if Flapjack was going to refuse to help him like they seemed to be, he was going to have to use alternative methods. Titan, that red colour was hard to look at, though... It... reminded him too much of the glow around Belos back in the mindscape. Carefully, he averted his gaze from it and tried not to think too hard. (Not too difficult in his current state)

"But this way is quicker!" stubbornly, he protested.

"Hunter, may I remind you that you don't actually know where I live," dryly, Gus remarked.

"...oh," he managed.

"Uh-huh," his teammate nodded sagely, "You haven't really got a choice here,"

Hunter sighed, now resigned to his fate. Flapjack fluttered back onto his shoulder and began to chirp encouragingly. It was hard to argue with them... Reluctantly, he clipped back down his staff, pulled his hood all the way up (Ever paranoid about being spotted) and made his way onto the back of Gus's staff. It really wasn't the most comfortable position, and he especially didn't like the feeling of not being in control in the air, but it would have to do.

His palisman cooed soothingly at him as they first took off, but that did nothing to ease the uncomfortable feeling that was growing in him as he left the one place he'd called safe for the past few days behind. Or maybe he was just uncomfortable because he was up rather high in the sky with an already unsettled stomach. He risked a glance down below and quivered a little at the sight of the ground being at... dangerous distances below. That second one was definitely playing a part, then...

Things were... odd at the Owl House. If this had been her first day there, Amity would have meant that in a purely positive way, but this was far from it, because this was post-Luz's mind invasion mission. 

Nobody actually knew what had happened in there to have shaken Luz up enough to shut her mouth up about what she saw, but it wasn't hard to guess that it wasn't good. The thief had barricaded herself in her room, only coming down for meals or if someone really needed her, and evasively only talking about suspiciously unmission-y things. All Amity, or anyone in the house for that matter, knew was that she'd gone into the Emperor's mind as part of a reconnaissance mission, had accidentally been followed in by Hunter and then ended up seeing something she'd regretted. 

For as different as these past couple of days had been compared to the first one where she'd just got there and Luz had so clearly been trying to accommodate her (It had been very sweet to watch and still kind of left Amity feeling a bit fuzzy thinking about.), it was the nights that were worse. At least Luz had been right and the other residents here had taken to her quite nicely, so during the light hours, she could talk books or history with Lilith Clawthorne or play... stuffed teddy wars with Luz's little demon brother, but she was left to just listen with the rest of the house at Luz's screams and whimpers when the sun fell.

Even from the Owl House's basement, Amity found that whatever wracked Luz at night caused sounds that echoed around the whole house, making everyone wish she'd just let them go up there to help them. But the thief had taken to locking her door at night. She'd confiscate every item relating to the coven she could find during the day, and then vanish with them at night, suspiciously avoiding whatever she was doing with all that junk when asked. 

But you know what? Enough was enough. Today was the day that they were going to get through to Luz. She may not want to talk to them, but Amity knew from experience that nothing was going to get better if she just left the thief isolated and alone. So she'd recruited King to come along with her and, well, basically just bash Luz's door down. (That sounded kind of bad, but Amity swore it was for the greater good.)

She tried knocking at first, of course, but when Luz didn't respond, King grew impatient. He wiggled off of Amity's shoulder and scrambled against th door handle, eventually winning against it, letting the door swing loosely open. Quietly, as to not disturb Luz on the off chance that she was sleeping or genuinely busy, Amity entered, with bated breath.

Rather predictably, Luz was neither asleep nor busy. She was just curled up in the far corner of the room, by the window, sketching frantically in some kind of frenzy. She didn't look particularly better than when she'd last been seen either; her hair was still a bit of a bird's nest and she'd thrown a jacket on over her pyjamas in lieu of actually getting ready. She also didn't look up at Amity and King's entrance, just humming slightly to acknowledge their presence.

"Luz!" King whined and scuttled up to her, immediately pressing his body right up against hers, "It's been really lonely without you!"

She sighed and stroked his back, "I'm sorry, buddy,"

Amity felt kind of awkward just standing there, but she also wasn't really sure what she was supposed to do or say. She'd had all these plans before, but as soon as she was in place, she'd just become more stricken with pity for the thief. She kind of just wanted to hug her right now, which, understand, was a real oddity for her, but that wasn't going to solve the problem of Luz bottling up what she'd seen. 

"Uhm, hey," she eventually just let out, more in an attempt to announce that, yeah, she was here too.

Luz jumped a little, perhaps having been too focused on King, "A-Amity! Hey! Is something wrong?"

"Oh, no, I just-" she started.

"Is Hooty harassing you or something? I swear, I did tell him to leave you alone, Ams, but it's really hard to get him to listen, and-" 

"Luz, really, I'm-"

"No, no, no, you don't have to pretend for me! If something here's bothering you, I promise I won't be offended!"

"You're bothering her, you ding-dong!" Kind jumped onto Luz's shoulder and shook his head.

"I- I am?" Luz looked absolutely stricken at that and it was all that Amity could do to even keep watching, "Jeez, I'm sorry... I, uh, I promise I'll try and fix it, whatever it is, if you just tell me what,"

This kind of misunderstanding was the worse... Amity understood that the sentiment behind King's words had been good, but they had gone disastrously wrong anyway. Now Luz thought she was a problem and Amit was going to have to do double the work just to get her to open up...

"He didn't mean it like that... I- You're not a bother, Luz," she swallowed thickly, "I came up because I was worried about you, not bothered,"

"Oh. Really?" curiously, the thief tilted her head to the side.

"Yes...? It's just- All of this seems really out of character for you! I know I only really knew you out on missions, but you seemed so infallible before! Just about everything could be going wrong for you, but you'd still be joking with us, and you'd still always pull through in the end!" ranted Amity.

"It's not just on missions - Luz is always like that," King added.

Luz turned away and crumpled up the sketch that she'd been working on. King might've gotten a look at what it had been, but Amity certainly hadn't. She frowned at the callous and flagrant destruction of what likely was an outlet for Luz. Had she done that because Amity had arrived? Maybe if it was some kind of vent art. 

"I... didn't like how it was turning out," blankly, Luz announced.

"O-okay," confused, but maybe a little grateful for the explanation even if it was vague and quite possibly untrue, Amity stammered, "But, uh, back to what we were saying... You, you know you can talk to us, right? Any of us!"

"Yeah, Luz, we're always happy to lend an ear!" happily, King put in before looking down at the floor, almost as if he was imagining he could see through it, "Some of us even more than others..."

The thief shuddered, "Oh, god, don't remind me..."

Amity blanched, "Am I... missing something here?"

"You don't want to know..." King shook his head darkly.

Progress? Luz seemed more only mock traumatised about some incident involving an ear, somehow, so that was something! 

"Then can we..." she trailed off, not quite wanting to state the obvious.

Luz sighed, "Yeah, I know you'd all be happy to listen, but..." her face lost its brighter spark from when she'd been joking around just a few moments ago, "It's not that I don't want to tell you guys what happened as well! It's just.... difficult. I thought maybe I just needed time to process, but it's been days and I'm still not really sure what to do with myself. With, uh, knowing,"

"Could you maybe like, elude to it? Talk vaguely? Maybe it could help you work through whatever it is that you saw without actually forcing your hand and pushing you out of your comfort zone,"

"I... could try, I guess," Luz smiled thinly. 

Amity took a seat on the floor beside Luz and King. The thief took her pencil back in hand and began to tap the eraser on the end against her now blank page contemplatively. She was biting her lip too. It was subtle, kind of hard to tell, but there was a small creased just underneath her mouth giving her away. Amity wasn't sure why she'd noticed that, though.

"Do you want me to get Eda or anything? I appreciate that I'm probably not the person you really want here for this..." gently, she suggested.

Luz blinked, "Huh? Why would I not want you here?" she paused and blushed, "I- I'd rather get my story together a little more for Eda, anyway. Y'know, so we can make a plan and all that..."

"O-oh," Amity flushed a little too, "Okay, then, ˋ

"I'm guessing you heard the basic rundown of why the mission was... different, right off of the bat, right?" eventually, the thief began.

She nodded, "Of course. Because of Hunter,"

"Yeah..." Luz looked down at her blank page and began scribbling against it as she talked, "I don't think what happened was his fault per se, but I... don't think it helped matters, for either of us,"

The only damage Amity could see Hunter doing was if he had managed to actually restrain Luz in the mindscape. But she surely wouldn't be back at the Owl House if that had happened. No, this was something else. Had... Belos reacted differently to the intrusion thanks to him? Titan, she hoped the Emperor just hadn't noticed them. None of them back here had seen or heard from Hunter since he'd fled a few nights prior. Knowing what Amity did about his relationship with his uncle... Things didn't seem to bode well for him. Especially if even Luz was this broken up.

"What do you mean?" she frowned.

"Well, it's just... Whenever I get to thinking about what happened there's... stuff that personally upsets me and whatnot, but then I have to imagine..." Luz trailed off, "Like, if it's bad for me right now, it's going to be endlessly worse for him. And we don't even know where he is! Or if he's okay! And it's my fault that he was even there!"

"That's not true!" King squeaked indignantly, shaking his head.

"Yeah, Luz, if he chose to follow you in... Then I'm saying he deserved what happened, if you think he has it even worse off than you, then I wouldn't say anyone deserves something like that, but the consequences of that are his to bear. We can help him if we find him, but..." Amity expounded. 

It was a grim topic, though. Hunter had never seemed to be good at taking care of himself, what with the late nights pulled at the office and the perpetual eyebags, and the way his palismen was always glued to his side, but who was to say he wouldn't just... give up, if things were as bad as Luz said. It was odd; whilst she'd always sort of been invested in his well-being as her mentor on the job, her concern now felt more deeply rooted. Perhaps she was just feeling a little clearer after getting out of dealing with her own stresses with her mom, at least for a little bit.

"But, when we were in there, I was the one leading, I was in charge. I was supposed to make sure we'd be okay!" furiously, the thief ran her hands over her face.

"It's not your fault," Amity repeated firmly, hoping that maybe the stronger tone was what Luz needed over the rationality.

"I know, I know... But every time I think about it, it just feels like my responsibility! My responsibility to find him now, I guess, but I can't even manage to get out to you guys what happened. And I- I haven't even tried to find him!" despondently, Luz lamented, eventually cooling her roll after ranting and going back to sketching.

Amity didn't miss the tears forming quietly, though.

"Hold on..." King interjected, "But didn't you ask Willow and Gus to keep an eye out? When they stopped by the day after, you told them, and I quote," he started doing a silly imitation of her, "Promise me you'll look, guys. For Hunter, I mean. He's out there, I swear, so don't scare him off... And then Gus just sort of looked at you because they hadn't been planning on chasing him around with sticks or anything,"

Luz almost laughed, letting out an amalgamation between a sniff and a huff, "Did I really say that? God... They must have been so confused," 

"Yeah, I was pretty confused too," he nodded sagely, "Unless you actually did think they were going to chase him around with sticks,"

The thief wiped the corner of her eye and shook her head lightly. Amity shuffled up a little closer and tried to get a look at what she'd been drawing. Her hand had come to rest bringing up Willow and Gus, so it seemed easy to assume that Luz had either finished or her piece was relevant to what she was saying.

As it turned out, the drawing was both. It was a hastily finished, but still pretty good, sketch of Hunter. The eyes were accentuated in the most details, shrunk to almost pinpricks in shock at... something, whilst another... something seemed to loom over his whole figure, a shadow cast strongly on it. It was quite a disturbing image, but Amity honestly had no trouble believing that this was at least very much based on what Luz had actually seen. Shyly, she swung her arm around the thief's back, just in case.

 "I don't know..." Luz murmured, "I guess I was worried they'd hold a grudge or something,"

"Girl you have not seen the way Willow still talks about him if you think that's the case..." sassily, King chuckled.

"It can't be worse than watching him try to talk to her..." dryly, Amity let out an off-hand remark.

King looked her dead in the eye, "You're going to have to spill the deets on that later," he turned back to Luz, "But I feel like we're getting a little sidetracked right now..."

Luz winced and went back to sharpening the edges on her Hunter drawing, "Yeah..." she hesitated, "Should I... I mean, I suppose you wanna hear a little more?"

"If you're happy to share," Amity prompted.

She could sort of read Luz's thought process on her face after that. That was probably also partially because it wasn't hard to predict, anyway; Luz didn't know where to start. Maybe she was deciding what she even wanted to say.

"I saw some of the Emperor's memories," she blurted out, "Well, obviously I saw some... But I saw more than I really went there for. In an ideal world, I would have been in for the Collector memory and then out, but... Progress on that was kind of impeded,"

Amity held her free hand up, "Backtrack for a second, here - who's the Collector?"

"That's what she went in to find out!" reprovingly, King informed her. 

"And... Did you?" she affirmed.

Luz's hand moved to a new section of the page as she talked, "Ugh, unfortunately... It's, uh..." she swallowed thickly, "It's not good, though,"

The new drawing was taking shape as another person of sorts, that much was clear, but they didn't look quite right. It was silly to call a 2D drawing too 2D, but that was what it kind of was. Even just this outline felt... flat. It was starkly different from the crisp image that Luz had practically burnt onto just the same page.  

"Obviously! We found mention of this guy in Belos's private diary!" King tutted.

Amity looked at Luz curiously, "You stole the Emperor's diary of all things?"

The thief snickered lightly, "Yeah... It was the best way we could think of to find out what he was planning. Until the mind potion idea, of course. Then all the heists after that were for ingredients for that,"

"Even the book...?" sceptically, she questioned.

"Especially the book," Luz nodded, "Where do you think we got the recipe from?"

Oh. That was why she'd brought King along to go running through the Forbidden Stacks... They weren't just going to display an illegal text about how to make a potion to enter the Mindscape in the main section...

"Okay," curtly, she hummed, "So this whole thing was a big deal for you - there was a lot of prep that went into it. Even with what you... saw and the worry over Hunter, was it... worth it?"

  "I-" Luz's mouth fell open into a satisfying 'O' shape, "Well, I did find out what the Collector is and... uh, why Belos is actually working with him... So... I have to say yes. I have to,"

"But, do you think that was worth what you went through? Because... If it hurt you in the long run, Luz, then maybe we should... I don't know... Think about the ramifications of our next steps against Belos too?" Amity rambled.

"No, you don't understand," Luz's pencil tapped against the edge of the page satisfyingly, signalling the completion of her work, "This is the Collector. He's a God, he has to be, but... He's childish! He has the form of a child! The mind of a child! I don't think he really knows what he's messing with here, but Belos is just using him anyway! He gave Belos a plan, too. A..." she paused and stared down into the eyes of the strange being she'd drawn and only whispered, "A draining spell. And... I don't think it's supposed to be survivable,"

There was a nice elegant silence after that. Perfect for just finding out that your ruler was trying to kill you. 

The thief groaned and ran a hand through her hair, "Oh, god, sorry, was that too much? I didn't mean to-"

"No, Luz," Amity sighed, "This isn't about us... Me and King right now are here for you. And..." she paused, considering the weight of her words, "I think I get what you're fighting for, now. Against Belos and, uh, the Collector, it isn't about just you or me. It's about all of us, right?"

Something about being told her life was in danger really contextualised some things. Made it easier to empathise with Luz learning this first hand, for one, but also it gave a strange degree of clarity about this whole thing Luz had been fighting for. She hadn't understood it before. She'd asked about it and still hadn't understood it before. But something this big was supposed to be beyond the scope of one individual, right? And yet they were basically up against just one man. That was what really singled him out now, in Amity's mind.

King poked his head upwards, "Right! When you first came to us in terms of making a plan, Luz, you said you didn't want to do it alone. Because it wasn't all your fight, right?"

The thief hesitated. It was only briefly, but Amity caught it. There was... something more, then? "Yeah, I guess I did... Thanks for reminding me..."

"Is that it, then? The, uhm, Collector stuff?" awkwardly, Amity asked.

Luz looked up, almost dazed, "Uh- Nothing really relevant..." she flicked her pencil between her fingers, "Just some more disturbing stuff that the Emperor did... It's not really my business, though, so, uh,"

"Something personal for Hunter?" offhandedly, she checked.

"Something like that..." Luz nodded. 

And then she went for it. Hoping desperately that she wasn't overstepping any boundaries, Amity reached out and took Luz into both her arms. King scampered down and began to wait patiently by the drawings, the sketchbook having cluttered to the floor when, to her surprise, Luz gratefully returned the embrace. She buried her face in Amity's shoulder and clutched the back of the jumper the inspector had borrowed tightly.

"Hey, it's okay..." uncertainly, she soothed, "We'll figure this out! Just like you always did before,"

Luz let out a wet sigh, "Y-yeah... Thanks for hearing me out, Ams. I... I really appreciate it,"

"Anytime," Amity found herself responding.

And, Titan, if that wasn't exactly it... Honestly, what she wouldn't do for this girl...

Chapter Text

Gus's place was so antithetical to everything Hunter would have thought it to be only a few days back. He'd imagined it as some sort of weird combo of exactly like the Castle in the way that someone who could only remember ever living there could, but also as some kind of cult hideout. Maybe some banners up with Luzura's face on them or something. It wasn't at all like that, though.

The Porter household was warm and cosy in a way that the solace of Hunter's room could even have come too close to being. Mr Porter himself had warmly bid him welcome to the property after only a small, hushed conversation with Gus, as well. There wasn't any of that rampant hostility present at the Castle! And... The man hardly even questioned why his son was harbouring an ex-Emperor's Coven official (Currently a fugitive at that) at all! Titan, only a short while in and he'd brought up a tall glass of water and some medicine too!

Hunter was... safe here? His body was telling him to relax, that he was safe here, but his mind was still racing anyway. Why? Gus... Gus had never particularly cared for him before, but it wasn't as if they were strangers. And, besides, he had his teammate's word that he could hide secretly here. So if Belos wasn't going to find him here, then what was...? 

Funnily enough, what made it click into place for Hunter was the image of his hand before him. Oh. He'd spent so much time over the past few days worrying about being turned in and killed that he hadn't really stopped to think about... that. You know, that thing. The, uh, thing that Belos took pleasure in destroying. The better version of an old friend.

He didn't even know what a grimwalker was! But the sight of his flesh now, flesh that might not even be his, sitting upon a body that was perhaps truly neither human nor witch was disturbing. If he were to peel that all back, what would he find? No, he didn't know what a grimwalker was, but he could guess that it wasn't good. And the sight of his hand now could only remind him of the image at the very end of that grove he'd been sealed in - the image of a hand rising straight out of the grave. With the dirt under his nails and cracked bits of fibre-like skin running along his knuckles, he had to wonder; was that what he truly was? An... undead monster? The soul of an old friend, brought back unceremoniously and messily.

He reached for his water and took a big, silencing gulp after that. It tasted sort of bitter, if that was even possible. Maybe his taste buds were just messed up.

Gus re-entered the room after that. He had previously left to go and get supplies for Hunter, whatever that meant, but had returned with an armful of blankets and... someone behind him. Hunter froze. That someone behind Gus had dark-coloured braids and gold-rimmed glasses, strong, toned arms and quiet, compassionate eyes. Willow Park had shown up at Gus's door, and Hunter was really in no state to speak to her. Quickly, he began to comb through his loose strand of hair, praying to be able to get at least some of the dirt out. 

Willow let out a happy little gasp and ran up to him anyway, upon entering. She ignored the mud that was caking parts of his clothes and boots and sat right beside him, anyway, a gesture that he stiffly appreciated. Was it odd of him to feel wrong using the form of someone else, an old friend, to give her back affection now?

"Hunter, I was worried, man!" she huffed.

"About... me?" confused, he let out.

She hesitantly placed a hand on his shoulder and gave him a strange look, "You went missing and there were wanted posters suddenly put up for you, so yeah, I was worried about you,"

"That's... I mean, I'm fine, captain," hesitantly, he offered.

Gus rolled his eyes and, ever the showman, did a little fake cough. He gave the Hunter the most disappointed look known to man after that. Well, maybe he would be fine too? Besides, none of them knew any grimwalker biology! This could all be normal! (That was a half-hearted argument and he knew it.)

"Don't listen to a word he says, Willow. He's probably about to collapse,"

She dropped her grip on him as if she'd been touching hot iron. He staggered backwards, a little put off, nearly stumbling into a bookcase. It took all of his willpower not to fall over at that, unfortunately. 

He groaned, "It's just... I'm not actually about to drop dead, okay? i- I'm fine, really,"

He wasn't fine and he knew it, but his problems weren't everyone else's too. Gus could maybe know because it was probably useful information if he was to be staying at the illusionist's house, but the captain... She didn't need to waste her time worrying over someone like him. He didn't really even know who he was anymore, so why should she be invested in that person?

"Gus, what's the rundown?" curtly, she ignored him and asked.

"Some kind of allergies or food poisoning from eating random foods, definitely sleep deprivation," he looked pointedly at Hunter, "I mean, have you seen those eyebags? And all the myriad of other issues he had before," nonchalantly, Gus listed.

"Hey-" sounding almost strangled, Hunter protested.

Should he be offended by what was probably an insult? The Captain had lectured him before on getting healthier habits, but it wasn't like he didn't try... 

"Titan..." Willow shook her, "Where'd you even find him in the end?"

He didn't like how they were speaking about him when he was just right there, but he also wasn't really sure he was in a place to complain. If he... upset Gus, what would happen? With Belos, no matter how much Blight or Luz told him it was wrong, the punishment was clear. There was nothing to fret over, right? But if he angered Gus or Mr Porter, would they just kick him out? Turn him in? Ransom him?

"Oh, you won't even believe it..." Gus began to chuckle, but paused when he saw Hunter staring at him pleadingly. The Captain didn't need to know. It would only serve to further worry her. "It was just on some random street in Bonesborough! By pure coincidence!" smoothly, he carried his statement on. 

He shot Gus a grateful look. Perhaps all this was really only serving to indicate that at least a consistent reward system was in place. Hunter hadn't done anything bad, so Gus would do him a favour and over for him.

Willow laughed, bemused, "You're right - I almost don't believe it,"

"W-Well! Enough of that!" sharply, he interrupted, "How have you been, Captain?"

"Oh, uh, decent, I suppose. But work's been a nightmare ever since you and Amity went missing... I'm pretty sure the whole department's set to try and find you both," grimly, she responded.

Hunter could attest to the chaos that even just Blight's disappearance had caused, so if his leaving too had doubled that... Things had been miserable with just him. But he hadn't been allowed on the case itself due to having the Luzura mission from Belos... What was it like to look for a missing person like that? As he said, he hadn't been on Blight's case, but word had quickly gotten around about the lack of evidence surrounding it. How could you keep going on something like that?

The bigger issue with all that was knowing that there was an entire division of scout specialists on his case, attempting to track him down. Blight, as he now knew, had just been taken by Luzura. The thief had always been good at covering her tracks, so that was probably her work protecting Blight from being found, but what about Hunter? His hadn't been planned. It was a hasty, sloppy attempt to preserve his life! He- He must have left hundreds of clues!

"They," he swallowed dryly, "They didn't get anywhere with that, right?"

Willow gave him a sympathetic look and his stomach dropped. He wasn't about to throw up again, at the very least, but that glance couldn't be anything but trouble...

"Not as far as I know, but I'm not due in until later today... That's kind of why I was surprised to hear you didn't really have a specific spot to hide in  - the department's been run ragged trying to find you for the Emperor, so I guess I thought that if the answer was as simple as just wandering around town enough and you'd be found, a scout would have done it already," she explained.

"I... copied some of what Blight did?" not sounding particularly sure of himself, he tried to justify.

Of course, he hadn't actually done anything close to copying his trainee, but they didn't need to know. Honestly, he had no idea of what exactly Luz had done to keep the two of them hidden, but that once again came as unnecessary information to share. 

"You found out what happened to Amity? And you didn't report it?" sounding almost impressed, Gus laughed.

"Luz told me. When we, uh... You know... In the mindscape," he finished, thickly.

The room fell quiet and Hunter internally cursed himself for killing the conversation. 

"Hey, so, Hunter, if you... don't mind... could you maybe tell us a little about what happened in there?" hesitantly, Willow asked before exchanging a glance with Gus, "Luz told us some bad stuff happened to both of you in there, but she won't tell anyone either, and to be honest, I'm just worried. About both of you,"

"You don't have to, of course," hastily, Gus clarified, "But it might help to talk about it,"

You know what!? What did he have to lose!? If there was even a chance that this was going to help with the stress, and insomnia, and paranoia, then wasn't it worth it? Besides, despite Gus's insistence on this being Hunter's choice, he was the host here, and he probably had the final say. And he wanted Hunter to talk. And just plain wouldn't ever want to say no to the Captain. Especially in such a turbulent time as now when he... didn't know where he stood her.

Like, hypothetically, everything was fine, back to where it was before. Willow was worried, so she probably wasn't holding a grudge, and if they weren't on literal opposing sides anymore, then even better! But Hunter... still didn't know if he was ready to be Belos's enemy. He'd been the Emperor's pride, his glory, his punching bag, his failure, but never his enemy. It was a daunting leap. especially when it was in question if Luzura's rebel team would even want a... monster like him if they knew what he was. If he even knew what he was...

"Ah, okay, then..." faintly, he agreed, "I, uh, don't really know what you want to hear, though," sheepishly, he held his hand (If it really was his...) behind his head.

"Just- Anything you'd be willing to share, really," politely, Willow answered.

Anything but the grimwalker thing, then. 

There was a mirror on Gus's desk, just off to the side of them. It made sense for him, an illusionist, to have it, but... It let Hunter see his reflection, and he really wasn't convinced that that was a good thing. Looking now, it was a wonder he'd never noticed anything odd about himself before. 

His irises shone an unnatural shade of magenta, certainly not like anything even a vampire had, monstrous and evil-looking. His hair was dry and straw-like, seeming like the wheat of the fields or even just literal straw vagged into the head of a scarecrow (Was it his destiny, then, to oppose Belos, the raven? He was a monster: he didn't get a choice.). And his whole face just looked eerily familiar but in a... wrong way. Were his ears too big? The gap in his teeth too obvious? His skin too sunken? It was unsettling, to say the least. 

"I definitely wasn't supposed to be there," he opened on the obvious, not missing th little chuckle Gus gave at that after their conversation about stating the obvious, earlier, "Luz planned a solo mission and my goal had only been to stop her from completing the spell, not follow her in. But when I realised where I was, I knew I had no other option but to at least try and do my part,"

"What kind of responsibility did you think you had? Was this... a direct mission from Belos?" curiously, Willow followed up.

"No... I, well, I guess he probably did know that there was going to be an attempt, now that I think about it, but I didn't want him to worry, so I just went on my own. I should have brought a squadron, really, but, I don't know, I didn't want to stir up trouble or something," perhaps secretly a little happy that they were dwelling on his motivation rather than the actual events, Hunter expounded.

"I'm... happy you here with us, now," quietly, she responded.

"H-huh!?" lamely, he yelped back, half trying to fight back a light flush and half just really lost.

"Well, I was going to say that you know you wouldn't have been a bother to do something like that, but if you hadn't gone alone, you probably wouldn't be here..." she explained.

Would things have gone alright with Belos if he just hadn't seen what he did? Was his mistake really just seeing too much? Maybe she was right then, and it was a good thing that he figured out his worth just when he did... Titan, he must have seemed so naive before...

"And if you weren't here, you'd be with Belos," Gus continued.

"And... If you don't mind us saying, we've heard little bits from Luz and Amity recently about why that... might not have been such a good thing," Willow finished.

He wanted to argue with them like he had done with Luzura and Blight about why really, things had just been fair. As he'd been thinking about earlier, things were easier when he knew what to expect from people, Belos included. But after some many people had told him that what happened with Belos wasn't right and after he'd yet to see a single person be treated the same way... (Take Gus, for example. If Hunter had brought a fugitive back to the Castle one day, he'd have received a right smacking, but Mr Porter had been completely calm about the whole thing, for the most part.) He was beginning to think that that was no coincidence. 

"I'm, uh, I'm happy to be here too, then," softly, he admitted instead.

His friends (They... they were that, right?) grinned at him. That was how he knew he had said the right thing. It was nice having someone give him positive reinforcement, actually. It made him feel as though he was doing this for himself, because it made him feel good to see his friends happy, rather than out of some kind of desperate survival guide. But he'd a wager a lot that they wouldn't remain this way if he told them anything about the grimwalker situation. Maybe he could just get away with talking about Luz or that Collector guy. They seemed pretty worried about the thief, and from the way she'd reacted in the mindscape, Belos's strange accomplice had to somehow be pretty important too. 

"But, uh, a-anyway! You asked about Luz, right?" hurriedly, he pressed on.

"I think we said something about her, yeah," Willow motioned for him to continue.

"We both... saw some kind of bad stuff in Belos's memories and... I mean, my issue was, uh, well, finding out that I'd been living a lie, I guess. I thought I was doing something good for someone I cared about and thought was good, but, I guess I should have just listened to you two all along..."  

He didn't mean to make it about himself. But thinking back, how was he supposed to understand what Luz was going through? The Emperor had said some confusing stuff about Luz helping some human guy called Philip who was actually him and the thief had found that upsetting, but he didn't know why. She can't have done anything like him and have aided a villain like Belos for literally her whole life, and if she had actually helped him at all, how had he tricked her? The child trick would only work in the mindscape!

The captain rested her hand on his shoulder, "Hunter, I'm not going to claim that you didn't do any damage by helping the Emperor, but I also don't think I could ever really class what has happened as your fault..."

"I mean, you were kind of cult brainwashed..." offhandedly, Gus put in.

He looked up sharply, "H-huh?"

Willow shot the illusionist a look, "I think you're overwhelming him,"

"Is it not true?" Gus smirked.

The Captain just sighed, not gracing that with a response. Hunter was mostly just confused. 

"Okay, fine, we can get back to the topic at hand... Would you mind describing what kind of bad things you saw, Hunter?" the illusionist conceded.

"Uh," his mouth went dry. Well, he probably couldn't bring up the past guards without hinting at the grimwalker thing, and he really couldn't reveal that without ruining everything, so- "We were tricked by the Inner Belos," he settled on, "He disguised himself as a child and led us around the mindscape, showing... certain memories. Luz only really broke down after he revealed himself, I think,"

That eerily familiar face of a quiet, smiling child played heavily on his mind. If ever he thought he was evading Belos in his dreams, that kid would show up to haunt him, laughing just like he had done in the mindscape. Hunter couldn't understand the logic of it; why the kid was always in his dreams or why Belos had used that form, to begin with. Was he trying to show them both the wrong thing? Was he... looking for an excuse to get rid of Hunter?

His teammates shared uneasy looks. 

"He... showed you the memories? And, uh, I'm guessing they were kind of upsetting," Gus affirmed.

"Yeah, it was really strange! H-He just pointed at them until we went in! They, uh, they weren't even relevant to us! Just random bits from over the years to spoke us, o-or something," Hunter shuddered.

Gus frowned, "We gotta think about this like performers. Belos must have been playing a game, I just don't know to what end... He must have been looking for some kind of a reaction, but-"

Titan, had his previous theory been right? He was just... meaningless, replaceable trash? He'd been scared of being replaced before, but had that fear always been well-founded? He took a quivering breath and tried to settle himself. He was starting to feel a bit ill again, so he slid onto the floor and tried to remember the breathing thing his teammate had shown him earlier.

"Gus-" Willow warned.

"But what kind? It must have been some kind of bate for Luz - she was the only one supposed to be there... Did he plan literally all of this!? Was he trying to take her out of commission!?" frantically, the illusionist continued to muse.

"Gus!" the Captain interjected again, a little more firmly this time.

"What?" he snapped back, "I'm just trying to brainstorm!"

If he was sick here, would he be kicked out? This was bad. This was really bad. This was really, really bad. This was really, really, really-

"No, look," urgently, Willow pointed down at him.

"Oh," Gus let out softly.

Then they were both beside him on the floor the next moment, the Captain murmuring soothingly and Gus hovering just off his shoulder. He was aware that he probably looked to be in a complete state, but t least this way they might be sympathetic and he might still have a place to stay. Gus was- Gus was his friend! He wouldn't kick Hunter out whilst he was like this, right? And besides, he had a better chance just seeming like a crying wreck than a literal monster. Even if he was both. 

"Breathe, Hunter," Willow whispered, and then she began to count, just like Gus had earlier. 

"Gus did it like that too," he choked out.

She seemed amused at that, but just kept counting. Once again, the rhythm in it was soothing. It reminded him that he would still have a structure to abide by, even if that was different. It reminded him that life would just keep pressing on, no matter what. And it reminded him that these were his friends; they weren't just going to send him back to Belos over one small thing. 

"What can I say? I learnt from the best," the illusionist quipped. 

Hunter could feel his breathing steadying after that. He noticed at that point that he'd been rocking slightly on the spot and slowed his roll there, too. Gus shot him a thumbs up when he noticed, which he returned shyly. Willow smiled softly when she saw.

"Hey, so, you can say no, but can I give you a hug? You seem like you need one," a little hesitantly, she asked.

Gus shot her a knowing look, "You can give me one," 

Willow swatted at him and rolled her eyes. Luckily, Gus's little cheeky comment meant that she missed the worst of the blush that overtook Hunter's face at the question. She was asking, so she must want to, right? He... he'd like that. Especially if it'd make her happy. He probably owed Willow for still being here after he'd parted with her last time on kind of bad terms.

He shrugged, "S-sure,"

She watched him in bemusement, "Is that a 's-sure' yes, or a 's-sure' I'm just agreeing with you, Captain?"

"It's a yes," timidly, he nodded, "I'd, uhm, like that,"

At his confirmation, the captain moved in and wrapped her arms around him. Willow's hugs were really good, he decided. He didn't really have much of a baseline for them in general, but Willow's were enveloping and warm, and for every angular bone and monstrously strange feature, Willow had him covered with a soothing calm. 

Perhaps she gave some kind of indication that this could be a group hug and that Gus could join, because after a short while like that, someone else got in on the action. He cracked an eye open and saw that, yes, it was Gus. Gus's hug was smaller than Willow's, but still encompassing and reassuring. Titan, he'd only really known Gus in any meaningful way like, today, and yet he still had so much affection to give... It had never been like this with Belos.

As everything did, the hug had to end though, and in this case, it was a rather abrupt end. Willow's scroll buzzed to life in her pocket, making Hunter jump and the other pull away slightly. Her smile dropped when she saw it and she groaned.

"Shoot, they need me at the precinct now," she sighed.

"That's okay," feeling sort of small still, he replied, "Thanks for coming down here at all,"

Reluctantly, the captain got up and dusted herself off, shooting both him and Gus apologetic looks. 

"Yeah, I just wish I could have stayed longer," she shook her head lightly, "But I have to go tell them that there have been no leads on your disappearance and, really, we should just focus on finding Amity because she's been missing for longer, right?"

Hunter let out a little huff of a chuckle. 

"No, no, Willow, you have to make up a story!" Gus corrected.

"Uh-huh? You got any good ones then, Mr illusion Master?" with a laugh of her own, she inquired.

He watched curiously as their teammate began to act out his plan in little hand motions as he spoke. Did Gus usually do this? He'd never really noticed before, but ti was kind of endearing.

"Easy! Just tell them you heard a rumour that Luzura's behind it! Then they'll just go back to hunting Luz, and since she's not been caught before, I doubt they're gonna catch her now anyway!" he narrated.

Hunter hummed, "Yeah, we really didn't know anything about her base or any of her operations. We had to rely on intel about when she might be going on missions and try and intercept her,"

Maybe he was drifting towards helping Luz and her gang. He had just given away information about the Coven rather easily there...

"Exactly! So she can just lay low for a while, which, uh, she seems to be doing anyway," easily, Gus agreed.

"Huh, that's actually not a bad idea," the captain nodded.

"I don't what you talking about, Willow," playfully, Gus huffed, "All of my ideas are good,"

She rolled her eyes, "Yeah, yeah, sure... Keep telling yourself that..." but the banter couldn't keep her from her job. She began to walk towards the door, "I'll, uh, try and stop by again later. If you'd like,"

Hunter didn't trust himself to respond, so he just nodded shyly. She would probably still understand the statement. Besides, he had been told that his voice sounded annoying before, so this was surely an improvement for her!

"Sure thing," Gus put in for him, "I doubt we'll be going anywhere,"

Willow waved at them cheerfully as she dashed out, seemingly, and thankfully, not put off by Hunter's lack of speech in that last stretch. 

But once she was gone, what was there to do? Willow had been the one to ask about Luz and the mindscape, perhaps something to do with the test the thief had mentioned doing on her, not Gus. Were they just going to continue without the captain? Hunter wasn't sure how much longer he could keep going without mentioning anything even vaguely grimwalker-related... 

So, instead of anything rational, he ended up blurting, "The captain gives good hugs,"

It was true, but why, oh why, had he just said it like that!?

"She's been waiting a long time to give you one," amused, Gus chuckled.

What was that supposed to mean? Surely if she wanted to so badly, she would have just done it! And Hunter wouldn't have complained... He flushed lightly at the thought. Scrap that, he might have died of embarrassment if it had happened in front of Blight. And obviously... it never would have happened with Belos around. If this had been a verbal conversation, he thought, trying to alleviate the awkward tension, Luz or one of her friends probably would have said something stupid like 'I bet Belos doesn't even know what a hug is!' by about now.

"Huh?" obtusely, he responded.

Gus shook his head fondly, "Nevermind..."

"Um, okay..." still rather confused, he tried to change the topic, "Do you, uh, want me to continue talking still? I appreciate that you're worried about Luz, so-"

The illusionist cut him off simply by holding up a hand, "I'm gonna stop you there, man. Willow was asking you to talk to try and help you, not really Luz. In that regard, yeah, I guess I'm going to try and do the same, but, uh, I think I have a bit more of a sensitive question," he made sure to shut the door after Willow had left it open when she left, "Same stuff as before, though - you don't have to answer,"

What did that mean? Were they... Were they not worried about their friend? And what kind of sensitive question was this? Had he actually done something wrong!? Earlier, he would have been glad to have rules set, but now it was creating an uneasy feeling in him now, after having experienced something special with Gus and Willow just a little earlier. 

"I- I think I'll try my best to answer, anyway," timidly, he decided.

"Okay... But I'm not going to force you to. This, uh, this'll only work if you're doing going along of your own accord," he took a deep breath before sitting back down beside Hunter, "I guess you probably don't know that much about illusion magic, so let me tell you something. Fundamentally, it's all about acting. And in some ways, isn't acting just lying? You lie to yourself about what you're supposed to be, and lie to others about who you are. But, really, the thing about learning to lie, learning to act, is you get really good at spotting when someone's not quite telling the whole truth," he looked straight at Hunter, expression taught and grave, "And I get it's probably personal, but I couldn't help but notice that you were definitely not quite telling the whole truth during some parts of that conversation,"

Not quite telling the whole truth...? Hunter's eyes widened. He looked down at his palm again.

"No!" he quickly denied, "I- I didn't lie!"

"You're lying right now," dryly, Gus pointed out, "But I'm not going to force you to talk, man, just like I said. I just definitely noticed that things got funny about you when you started talking about the memories, They weren't irrelevant to you, were they?"

He was allowed to not answer, he knew that, but after things had been set up so cleanly for him like this... Could he really just not say anything? He ran a hand through his straw-like scarecrow hair, and rubbed a hand against his too-bright eyes, and cleared the space around his strangely off face with a deep breath.

"I... I really didn't want to tell Captain..." quietly, he admitted, "I don't want her to see me any differently... But if you already know I left out something... Then what do I have to l-lose, r-right?"

"Tell me if you want to, not because you have to," curtly, the illusionist repeated.

"No, I..." some part of him was coming to a realisation in real-time, "I think I'm scared because I don't understand, so, even if it's just an off chance, if there is a chance that you do know, I should take it, right? What I missed about the memories is that they were all about the past Golden Guards or... me,"

Gus leant forward and watched him curiously, "What don't you understand there? I definitely don't know more about your old position than you, Hunter, sorry,"

He sighed. Right... Someone outside of the inner circle of the Coven wouldn't know his, well, fake now, backstory in regards to the old guards. But Gus might know about grimwalkers. Gus might be able to tell him if he was a monster or not.

"No, it's more about who they were. I thought they were my family, but..." he trailed off.

"If this is you're way of telling me you're adopted or something, I promise that's fine, Hunter! You don't need to be biologically related to view someone as family - I mean, just look at Luz and Eda!" gently, Gus smiled.

Hunter frowned, "No, it's nothing like that... We... probably are still biologically related, I suppose... Because we're... kind of one in the same... I am the past guards? Or maybe it's more like we all stem from one point... I don't really understand it," he looked away from his teammate for the worst part, "All I do know is that I'm not really me. I'm not really real. Belos made me as a... clone of somebody else," he swallowed dryly, "Someone who was probably just like him at one point, but also somebody that, eventually, Belos wanted gone,"

Gus seemed to be taking this relatively well. he was clearly still digesting the information he'd just heard, as evidenced by his lack of immediate comment, but he wasn't yet looking hurt or disgusted. Hunter hadn't mentioned the g-word yet, though. 

"Okay." after a while, he simply stated, "But... That doesn't mean you're not you! Experience shape a person as much as genetics, Hunter!"

"I- I think you're missing the point here," Hunter argued, "I'm not... natural! I shouldn't exist! The dead can't just come back to life, but then what am I? Belos spoke with knowledge from four hundred years ago! And if there's one true rule on the Isles, it would surely be that the dead should stay dead, right? We literally live on a corpse! But that corpse doesn't come back and carry us around the Boiling Sea! But Belos- He brought me back from being someone else over and over and over- Just like he brought back the Titan's voice. And... if that's all fake and just made to manipulate, then what am I?"

"Then Luz isn't supposed to be here either, is she? If there's one fundamental rule here, it could also be said that this place is inherently magic, and she doesn't have a magic bone in her body!" Gus explained, "But you don't think she's out of place for being human - you think she's out of place for being a thief,"

Hunter bit back a comment about Belos's humanity (The, er, literal kind, not his morality) and how Hunter himself couldn't do magic either. But that wouldn't serve his point.

"Even if we didn't know much about humans, they're novelties, right? No one thinks they're inherently bad... But... I don't even know what I am really, Gus. I shouldn't exist!" he cried.

"You said you wanted my help determining what you didn't understand. We could... look into some archaic methods of cloning, if you'd like," patting his shoulder lightly, the illusionist offered.

Hunter flinched and shrunk back. Gus didn't know what he was doing. He... Maybe he wouldn't want to associate with Hunter when he heard the actual reveal. But then, maybe they could still go looking together. He... he had to try.

"Not like that... I know a... word for what I am. But even looking into old magic texts like I used, I've never heard of it before," wearily, he elucidated.

"Uh, okay... But my offer still stands! What... What is that word, then?"

Hunter finally looked up from the floor, only to whisper the name of the monster, "Grimwalker,"

This time, the reaction was instantaneous. He could pinpoint the moment recognition flooded into Gus's eyes faster than his acting skills could cover up what he'd realised. So, then. Gus did know something. Hunter went back to watching the floor. This could change everything... Had it been a mistake after all? He traced the rough outline of his knuckles on his left hand with his right.

"Like... Like from the children's stories?" the illusionist blinked, somewhere between impressed and shocked.

"I don't know..." Hunter grimaced, "I never got read any..."

"Well, they were mostly all silly tales anyway... The kind of stuff your parents told you to make sure you behaved and stuff," Belos threatened Hunter to make sure he behaved. Was the grimwalker truly a monstrous tool like that, then? "But!" hastily, as amended, "I do know a little more, too. From what you said about your origin, being a grimwalker would fit... Supposedly, ancient witches used wild magic to reanimate those who they had lost. The person wouldn't quite be the same... But they were a comfort for that witch, anyway, I guess. Their creation was, uh, outlawed ages ago, though, 'cause of the questionable ethics... I honestly thought they must have gone extinct..."

"Not extinct..." Hunter shook his head, "Belos has been making them for years. Every partner, every right-hand man, every Golden Guard he's had beside him for centuries has been one of us," he remembered the grove mournfully and only could manage to keep talking at a whisper, "But he killed them all. I- I'm the last of us, now,"

If grimwalkers were extinct save for him, then he was alone. There was no one he could ask for information on his kind, either. No one except Belos... Especially if Gus was correct and grimwalkers just existing had been made a crime. At least Hunter was already a fugitive...

"Hey, you may be the last grimwalker, but I promise you're not alone," the illusionist nodded firmly.

"You're not.. scared then? I don't know what I am, Gus! I could be anything! A witch, a human, a... monster!" Hunter curled in on himself.

"I've seen you fall off of your staff because Willow snuck up behind you and said your name, dude. I don't think I could ever be scared," Gus chuckled before abruptly sobering, "But I think you might be. And if you want to try and... understand grimwalkers, I'm happy to try and help you," 

Was he the issue? He... was the one who was scared, though. If Gus had no problem with what he'd just heard, then Hunter's fears had been unfounded. But he was still scared. He examined the back of his hand again. It looked the same as ever. The same as when he'd thought he was a witch.

"Really?" hopefully, he watched Gus.

"Sure, man! I'm sure the library has something!" Gus's expression turned mischievous, "Actually, we can go soon, if you'd like. Once you're better even! Just us two. A taste of your new life of crime as a fugitive, eh?"

Luzura had broken into the library once. He hadn't been willing to go along with her just yet before. But now... After Gus, Luz's friend and accomplice, had treated him with such respect and kindness, even when he found out the truth, maybe he was now. And Belos thought his kind was disposable. Gus wanted to help him learn about it. One of those was... wrong. Hunter knew what side he'd rather be on now.

As the Golden Guard, it had been his duty to protect the people of the Isles. Knowing Belos's grand plan now, it was Hunter's duty to protect the people from him.

"That'd be nice..." gently, he smiled, "Thanks. I... I'd like that a lot,"

"Cool! Give it a couple of days, and we'll tear up the halls of the Forbidden Stacks, then!" Gus held out his hand. When he realised Hunter had no idea what he was doing he giggled and explained, "It's a high-five. You just have to slap my hand,"

Hunter complied.

His palm stung a little afterwards, missing his gloves through the phantom feeling that they were still there, but he felt alive.

He didn't feel like the Emperor's right hand, a grimwalker, a monster. He was just Hunter and it was glorious to be living now.

Chapter Text

Supposedly, Luz was feeling better now. Supposedly, she'd gone and told the full story to Eda and Lilith late one night. Supposedly, she was back on her feet and ready to move on with planning since he'd heard Hunter had also been found and was with Gus. But Amity could still see her eyebags deepening and the tired edge to her smile. And surely Amity wasn't the only one hearing her still awake at night, pacing and crying in anxiety. And Amity knew that there was no way she was ready for large-scale plans if she couldn't even make up her mind on what she wanted for breakfast.

Something was going to have to be done, that was for sure. Amity had tried asking Willow or Gus briefly, but they were possibly even more clueless than her on account of having experienced none of what she was describing about Luz. And Gus was busy trying to help Hunter (Apparently, even if he was alive and mostly well, he had contracted some illness or something at the worse possible time...) and Willow was the only one of them who could show their face in public without stirring up trouble, so she was the one already having to save face. 

That last point about Willow had given Amity an idea, though. What if they had just spent too much time recently moping inside and making things worse? Luz was a social butterfly, being friendly with everyone she met, even her enemies on a heist! Maybe she was struggling with the isolation, even if it was self-imposed. Luckily, despite it being difficult to leave the Owl House, and despite them not getting any actual post to keep hidden, scrolls still existed. That was to say that Amity had seen something rather interesting on Penstagram.

She'd been scrolling through the local news account, as she'd been in the habit of doing since getting her internship, when she'd found an advertisement for a local event that certainly brought back a lot of memories. The Bonesborough Brawl. 

Her dad had won the event in her younger years, so ever since she was a little girl, Amity had at least wanted to try. She was already stuck at home being homeschooled by the time she was old enough, though. There hadn't even been a shot in the dark of her being able to make it out of the house to try and go. One year, it had even coincided with the Coven tryouts, so her going had most certainly been off the table... But she wasn't being restricted by her parents this year, and one very special quirk about the brawl was that the staff there did not care who you really were. You were your stage name and nothing more. 

In other words, if they went, it would not be Luzura the super thief or the missing Amity Blight up there, it would be whoever they chose to be! And really, what was more therapeutic than a good fight? If Amity was right, this was especially going to be something good for Luz. She'd thrived on the adrenaline and thrill and drive of knowing she had a mission when going on heists, so maybe they could emulate that feeling in a more controlled setting where, to be honest, there wasn't really even a risk of either of them being caught or turned in. 

The idea had gone over well with Eda when Amity had checked with her, too. Apparently, she'd always been a fan of the brawl because she liked watching people fight or something. Whatever, the reasoning hadn't been important... 

It was the morning of the Brawl that day, and all Amity had left to do was check with the girl herself if she'd like to go. So there she was again, standing shyly outside Luz's room, waiting for a response after a knock. The door as opened fairly promptly this time and Luz, still smiling like there would be no tomorrow if she stopped, ushered her in. 

"Amity!" she beamed, "Can I help you?"

"Uh, sort of," she stepped into the room and shut the door behind her, a habit she'd picked up from staying in Blight Manor and trying to avoid her mom, "I was thinking of going to the Bonesborough Brawl tonight and wondered if you'd like to come too,"

Luz hesitated, "Isn't that a little risky? I wouldn't want to get caught in public after finally getting the info off of Belos... And Eda says he'll probably be doubling efforts to go after me after this,"

"Eda told me that she thought this would be a good idea. It'll get us out of the house!" she argued, worried that the thief was uncharacteristically letting paranoia steer her, " And besides, we can just wear concealment stones! Also, if that fails, it won't matter! At the Brawl, they don't really care who participates. The rules are enforced the same for everyone, and it's more about the contest than the identities of the people who participate,"

She wasn't going to force Luz to go if she didn't want to, obviously, but she also did think that it was genuinely a good opportunity for the both of them. Besides, Amity knew what an accomplished duelist Luz was, and had faith that she could get somewhere in the brawl. 

"So... I wouldn't have to go as Luz or Luzura? And it wouldn't matter to the people running it that I definitely have a criminal record or that you're technically a missing person?" carefully, the thief affirmed.

Swiftly, Amity nodded, "Definitely yes to the first, and I'm pretty sure it's a no to the second. My dad even went to this thing when he was young, but I'm pretty sure they don't actually know that the founder of Blight Industries entered such a contest. I mean, if it was that big of a deal, my mom would have called it a public scandal and denied it ever happening, but I've seen the belt he won! It's just about having fun and proving your might,"

"Okay," Luz agreed, somewhat brightly, "Let's do it, then! Just us two, or..."

Amity blanched and froze, "W-well, I bet Willow would come if she could make it, but she's been so busy with work, so... I, uhm, yeah, I think it'll just be the two of us. Running around fighting in, uh, cute costumes," her face burned at the thought, "I, uhm, I gotta go make preparations! Find the concealment stones and all that!" 

She ran out of the room before the thief could get another word in edgeways after that. That had been a disaster. She could only hope that her... panic hadn't scared Luz off of the idea. Deep down, Amity definitely knew why she'd reacted that way, but did Luz? 

On her way hurrying back down to her room in the basement, she, by pure coincidence, managed to run into King. Figuring that this was probably an opportunity to salvage what had just happened and make sure Luz got to the Brawl tonight, she struck up a quick conversation with him. King liked fashion, right? Amity was sure she'd seen him help Eda with her makeup and dress before.

"Hey, King, I've got a quick favour to ask," hastily, she prompted.

"If Hooty's bothering you again, it's not my problem," wearily, he hissed.

Amity shuddered at the thought. Hooty the owl, bird-tube, demon thing had indeed been bothering her, just like he'd been bothering everyone else, since she'd arrived. She'd tried threatening him, indulging him, pretending to be asleep, actually going through with her threats (That had been a rough afternoon to clean up after...), and even just straight up ignoring him, but Hooty never did quite go away. You could always hear his voice just around the corner. Like right now, if she tried hard enough...

"Eda, you'll never guess what I heard about!" he screeched.

"No, uh, this is definitely something else," trying to block out the noise Hooty was making in the background, she explained, "Luz and I are planning on going to the Bonesborough Brawl tonight, and I was hoping you could help Luz look the best with her disguise. We're probably going to use concealment stones in some part, if that helps,"

King's eyes lit up, "Ooo, a fashion dilemma? Well, as the resident style genius, I'm sure I can help!" 

He began to scamper up the stairs to Luz's room as fast as his little legs could take him. Amity chuckled at the sight. It seemed that when King wasn't bickering with Luz (Or Hooty), he was kind of the sweetest little brother. She kind of understood why Luz had been so determined to just get Amity to back off at the carnival, now. 

Back in her room, she just had to work on making sure she looked her very best too. Well, she didn't exactly have her full wardrobe from Blight Manor, so she really was going to have to make do with whatever th concealment stone he still had knocking around could do... And maybe find some decent armour to put on underneath. 

She got out a notepad and began absently sketching out some ideas. A dress? That would be kind of cool to fight in, especially if it was only an illusion and she didn't have to worry about tripping over in it. Some kind of mask or glasses were definitely going to be necessary too, to hide her more easily discernable facial features. She drew in some blocky butterfly shades and just figured she could find a mask somewhere in this house of criminals if she needed to, later. Maybe she could try something different with her hair as well... Like letting it down for once. That could be cool.

She drew a little stick figure Luz in the corner cheering for her and grinned. It was pretty fun having complete creative freedom over her appearance without her mom judging her. Even more so than when she'd first gotten her internship and she'd still had to be a little careful, just in case Odalia suddenly decided to drop by unannounced (At least that had thankfully never happened...)

If she could figure out how to get the concealment stone to work for her design, all would be good, then. Gus would probably have helped any other day, but Amity had heard something about him doing a library raid today. (What was it with Luzura's crew and robbing libraries!?) Alternatively, she could try and call her siblings...

She looked away from the page and stared absently at her scroll, laid out on her makeshift bed as it was. The twins were probably under lots of surveillance, now. Obviously, her parents did know where she'd gone, but if Odalia thought that she could cajole Amity's literal location out of Ed or Em and show up announced to basically kidnap her, then she definitely would. So... If Amity called her siblings and accidentally gave away too much now... It felt harsh to ignore them like this, though. They probably were feeling it just like she used to when mom had her under such an iron fist. She'd have to try and quietly message them later, or something. 

But Hunter had taught her some of the basics of illusion magic when they fought Gus together, hadn't he? Sure, that had been a dispelling spell, and it had still been the twins who had taught her the literal basics, but if she understood the concept, then it couldn't be that hard to put it into practice and just do something simple like an outfit change. It wasn't like she was trying to disguise herself as someone else entirely, here... 

If Amity was going to the Bonesborough Brawl, then she was definitely going as herself, as a Blight. Even if her dad never asked for it, and even actively discouraged it, she felt like it would be a cool thing to try and follow up his legacy in this way. Especially after he'd actually stood up for her on the day of the family dinner. Alador hadn't been there before, and they'd definitely drifted apart more than a father and daughter who had no real animosity between them ever should have, but she wasn't necessarily going to begrudge him for it. If her suspicions were correct, and Odalia had a hand in that anyway, then... Well, it felt a little unfair to put all the blame on him, even if he definitely deserved to realise that not talking to his children was not a good thing at all. 

She slipped the concealment stone on and groaned when it promptly flashed and turned her hair bright green again. She tried it again, only to this time just end up with a different hairstyle. The rest of the outfit could use some work still, obviously, but if she could do hair easily enough... Maybe it was time to try a colour other than green. Other than lilac, too. If she was going partially for her dad, then maybe it was really time to go back to her roots...

Hunter had not at all realised that a library heist with Gus would quite literally be a robbery in broad daylight, but knowing his teammate's propensity for showmanship, this probably wasn't that surprising. Anyway, yes, as that slightly worried, slightly sarcastic statement confirmed, Hunter and Gus were robbing the library together that day. In, uh, the middle of the day. Well... At least they were in the Forbidden Stacks?

To be fair, sneaking in hadn't really been that difficult at all. You didn't need a library card if you were going to rob the place, after all, so Gus had just spun an illusion on them to make them look like some random background characters rather than a wanted criminal and a fugitive. 

He'd also been pleasantly surprised at how smoothly breaking into the restricted section was, as well. Who knew all you needed to get past Malfus's big, scary doors was a staff card that your friend had pickpocketed off of some poor librarian and a little bit of good timing? The Forbidden Stacks were less heavily monitored than the main section as well due to it being out of bounds for anyone other than staff. They were still going to have to be quiet, though.

"What are the chances we'll find something just by going to the 'g' section and looking for 'Grimwalker'?" Gus whispered.

"How do you know the books aren't ordered by author?" Hunter frowned in response.

The Castle Library had been organised as such. He remembered Lilith Clawthorne explaining that to him when he was still pretty young. Young enough that he hadn't yet started his training, anyway. 

"Because, if they are, I'll have no idea where to even start, and we'll be here for even longer," flippantly, the illusionist responded.

Hunter sighed, "Okay, how about we split up and look, then?"

Gus grimaced taughtly. Yeah, that was never going to pass, was it? It had been a couple of days since Hunter had first crashed at his friend's house, and, to be fair, he was feeling a lot better since then. His sleep levels were back up to the usual level of bad for him and he wasn't dealing with the food poisoning or allergy or whatever it had been, anymore. But, evidently, and maybe rightfully so, he still wasn't trusted to be left alone. Maybe Gus was just worried he'd see something he didn't like and just start fretting silently. 

"It'll be fine, Gus!" he protested, "I'll have Flapjack with me, and if anything goes wrong, then they'll come and get you!"

The bird poked their head up from where it had been resting in the crook of Hunter's neck and chirped in agreement. 

"Fine, fine..." his teammate sighed, "But only if you call me if something happens, too. I'd like to be with you when we get reading, if that's okay,"

Hunter shrugged, "That's cool. Even without the, uhm, personal connection to this case, it'd be pretty impressive to figure out some forgotten stuff about grimwalkers anyway, right?"
 
It still felt a little strange to say and hear that word so casually used... But he was going to have to get used to it if they were here to research, wasn't he? That was... fine. At the very least, he could manage; he was sure of that. They weren't going to have broken into the Bonesborough Library for nothing.

"Oh, yeah, totally! I bet no one's even checked these things out for years! Honestly, I don't even know if Malfus knows they're here!" confidently, Gus chuckled.

Hunter surveyed him curiously, "How do you know they're here, then?"

"Lucky guess? I dunno - I just get the feeling that there's got to be a record somewhere, and if it's anywhere, it's here. This is one of the biggest libraries on the Isles, you know," explained his friend.

"Then we'd better hope luck is on our side..." bitterly, he sighed, not at all thinking of the string of terrible luck he'd had in the lead-up to the trip into the mindscape. 

Gus nodded curtly, "It is, don't worry,"

And then he ran off to get searching. He had headed near the early sections of the middle shelves, likely looking for a 'g' section like he'd mentioned. Well, Hunter would best be looking further down himself, then. Maybe he could hope for an author with a surname beginning with 'w' or 'y'. (Not Wittebane, though... Anything by a Whittebane should be... burnt, probably. It couldn't have anything worth reading in it.)

Flapjack fluttered off of his shoulder and began to lead the way down in the opposite direction to Gus. Silently, Hunter moved, keeping t the edges of the shelves, just in case something or someone was patrolling down here and they'd just missed them. He wasn't too worried about that, anyway. If they were caught, it would be bad, sure, and they could get turned in, but he was confident in their ability to escape (Or, more accurately, Gus's.) And, well, if they found no books, then they couldn't actually find out that grimwalkers were actually horrible monsters, right!?

That was a stupid reason. A stupid anxiety. It didn't go away by acknowledging that, though. 

No, uh, actually, it only heightened when there on the shelf, he saw it; ordered by author just as he'd thought, 'Grimwalkers Extinction'. Tentatively, hands shaking as he reached out, he slid it out of its place and blew the dust off of the cover. There was a metallic skull decorating the front, glaring menacingly at him. He almost dropped the book when saw it, even if it was hardly the most realistic image. Flapjack twittered excitedly when they noticed what he'd found. 

"Yeah, I, uh- you'd better go get Gus, right?' nervously, he stuttered at them.

His palisman chuckled, nuzzled soothingly up against his cheek, and then dove up and over the shelves in search of the illusionist. Hunter sighed and sunk to the floor, book still clutched tightly in hand.

The title was hardly that promising. Sure, it was hardly information that he didn't already know, but that didn't mean it wasn't still alarming. It just... Struck more of a chord to see the words printed in bold on a book cover than where Gus distantly mentioned them. It made them feel more real. They screamed at him here that he was the last.

"Hunter!" excitedly, but still somewhat hushed, Gus exclaimed, "What you find?"

Wordlessly, he held up the text for his friend to see. The illusionist settled down beside him, thus returning Flapjack to their perch on his shoulder as their mission was complete.

"It's a little menacing, really," humourlessly, he laughed.

Gus grimaced, "You can say that again... But it's probably just supposed to be a historical account,"

"I hope so..." he mumbled.

Carefully, his teammate brushed aside Hunter's slightly too-tight grip on the front cover to peel the book open. Hunter shot him a grateful glance. Who knows how long it would have been before he'd worked up the nerve to do that himself.

The opening page was blank, as was perhaps normal for most books. (A lot of ones they'd had in the Castle Library had had notes scribbled there, though. Hunter had always suspected Lilith.) On the second double page, though, there was a contents, written out in neat cursive. Assuming that they'd probably want it all anyway, Hunter flicked the page straight over before he could stop himself. 

This opening chapter went on to detail certain legends about Grimwalkers. The story behind their original creation on one hallowed night all the way up to exploring a time when they were a common species to see about. He stroked the page fondly as he read about their use as conduits for managing grief. The ethics behind it were questionable of course (the author even noted such), but it was nice to immediately start on the right foot of their purpose for existing being positive. 

 The second chapter was the most interesting, though. It was theorising on the anatomy of grimwalkers using old scraps of texts about their creation. He ran a hand through his loose strand of hair. Palistrom wood for keratin, huh? That would be why he'd thought the stuff was so straw-like on him. Flapjack chuckled and nestled on his head, having just moved from his shoulder. Perhaps they were excited to learn that he was partially comprised of the same stuff as them.

Gus was watching him curiously when he turned his attention to the illusionist. He didn't seem grossed or freaked out by the more gruesome details about what exactly a grimwalker was, at least. Even if that was just a strange amalgamation of stolen parts of other creatures. But that was probably fitting for a thing that was stealing someone else's face without ever really being them. Hunter wasn't whoever Belos's old friend was. He couldn't be like someone that that man would associate with. 

"Stonesleeper lungs, huh?" Gus grinned, "Bet you must be able to hold your breath for ages! Those things were huge!"

"Well, the stonesleepers were pretty big, yeah, but we can't really speak to their lung size, can we?" Hunter frowned.

"Nah, man, you wouldn't get it unless you'd had one of them breathing down your neck. I think they have to be able to hold their breath for a pretty damn long time," vehemently, his friend disagreed.

Uhm. What?

"Gus, you know stonesleepers have been extinct even longer than this book says grimwalkers have been, right?" faintly, he affirmed.

His teammate rolled his eyes, "Yeah, I know that," he smirked, "But I have still seen a stonesleeper up close. Me and the rest of Luz's gang went time travelling once and met one. it was only in the Deadwardian Era, though, cause the poor thing had been hibernating, so maybe it's possible that some more are around? I mean, Belos had to get your lungs from somewhere, right?"

Hunter wasn't sure what to focus on, there. The statement about time travel, or the fact that Gus had a very good point at the end. Where did Belos get the stonesleeper lungs from? The answer was obvious, but viscerally horrifying enough that really didn't want to face it. But if the rest of him was borrowed... Had he taken something very literal from his predecessors?

"So!" he squeaked, "Time travel? How'd that happen?"

Gus side-eyed him, but answered anyway, "Luz wanted to test out the Titan's Blood and grab an ingredient for the mindscape potion, so us and Lilith helped her find the time pools. Lilith did most of the work, though,"

There it was, a good distraction.

"The time pools are real?" good-naturedly, he asked.

"As real as grimwalkers!!" lightly, Gus punched his shoulder, "So, yeah, turns out they're definitely not just urban legend. It wouldn't say I recommend trying to find them, though. it took like, all day," he huffed.

"Well, this says the spell is a transformation spell, anyway, so I doubt I literally have stonesleeper lungs anymore," steadily, he backtracked.

The illusionist shrugged, "Maybe not. But it'd be pretty cool, right?'

Hunter chuckled, but didn't answer; his mind was back on the book as he flicked over to the next chapter. This one was the titular chapter. The one about his kind's supposed, uh, extinction. 

The reason stated for their outlawing made sense, he supposed. A lot of the ingredients came from creatures that were still rare in the modern day, so conservation efforts even centuries back were probably needed. And the... ethical part was definitely a factor. Even those making grimwalkers with honest intentions had to admit that it was a tad dishonourable and unfair to just reuse a dead loved one's image. He didn't know why Belos had made so many grimwalkers, but he doubted it was even for reasons as good as these.

Grimwalker creation was better off being illegal. Even if that did mean he really would be the last of his kind. Even if it meant that, really, he shouldn't exist. 

"I'm surprised no one's made a horror show about these guys yet," Gus mumbled.

"I mean, we had to break in here to even find out these little bits, Gus. I'm pretty sure the general public just doesn't know enough about grimwalkers for that to work,"

"That wouldn't usually stop them..." off-handedly, his friend commented, "But I get what you mean. It would probably be kind of offensive to see one made with inaccurate stuff that just painted them as monsters. I should look into making a cool one, one day, though,"

The enthusiasm was appreciated. Also, if Gus thought that grimwalkers shouldn't be portrayed as monsters in movies, then he probably thought that they weren't monsters in general. He smiled lightly. That was good to hear.

"What about?" he put in.

"Probably some like, stock cryptid thing, y'know? Spunky protagonist finds and befriends a local grimwalker and they become best friends! Now that I say it, though... Maybe that'd be writing a little too much from what I know..." warmly, Gus described.

A little too much from what he knew...? Then, he had to mean Hunter, right? He considered them good friends. He considered them worthy of starring in a  movie! Hunter sniffed a little.

"No, I, uh, I think that'd be pretty cool," weakly, he agreed.

"You do? Great!" Gus beamed, "I think I'd obviously need your input to make anything like this anyway, so that's good. If I, uh, ever do get around to content creation, that is,"

Hunter wrapped his arm around his friend's shoulder.

"I think you could do it. I mean, you already look at things from that kind of showman perspective, right?"

"Yeah, I guess I do, now that you mention it... But-" Gus mused before freezing up, "Okay, this actually does sound like a proper movie plot or something, but I think we're going to have to move, now,"

He startled at the urgency in the illusionist's voice and sharply slammed the book shut, tucking it under his cloak. (A new one from Gus, not the same ratty one he'd worn through the woods and grime for three days.)

"How come?" nervously, he asked.

Gus showed off his palisman, newly sitting on his wrist, "She says Malfus heard some kerfuffle down here and has come to check it out. So, uh, unless you wanna get discovered, let's get going!"

You didn't have to tell Hunter twice! Swiftly, he leapt to his feet and began to book it down the aisle, towards the entrance they'd come in through. Gus followed closely behind, of course, and Flapjack sailed steadily ahead, making sure the path was clear for them.

This was far from being the most-high stakes chase he'd ever been on, but that didn't mean it wasn't still tense. Some part of him was still anxiously gnawing away in fear of being turned in and sent back to Belos, but another was strangely level-headed and calm. He trusted Gus, he realised. He knew that if something were to happen to him, Gus (And the captain) would do everything in their power to get him back. 

"I know we only got one book, but thanks for taking me here anyway," quietly, he said as they ran.

Gus shot him a double-thumbs up and grinned, not seeming too put off by all the exercise (Probably due to working with Luzura), "No problem, man! We'll make sure to finish reading that when we get back too, I promise,"

There it was, that confidence. Gus wasn't worried about escape, either. Was this how Luzura lived? Having fun at the moment, enjoying the adrenaline rather than constantly living in fear and paranoia about what would happen if she failed? Hunter could live like that, he was sure. It would be nice. And starkly different from how things had been with Belos.

"Then, uh, when we get back," he began, "I think I'm ready to join you and Luz. I'm ready, now. I kinda get what you were talking about, back in prison! It feels invigorating to get at something you truly believe in, like this, right? Well, I think I know what I believe in, now,"

"I'm proud of you, man!" the illusionist chuckled.

"I-" Hunter took a deep breath before letting out with it. They definitely didn't seem to be in danger, now. The exit was in sight, and Malfus was very definitely not. That didn't stop his resolve to go through with what he was saying, though. "I'm ready to believe in the fight against Belos,"

Gus's face held so much pride.

"I'm ready to believe in wild magic and the freedom of our people. And I'm ready to fight for us, just like I was always supposed to be doing," he declared.

If he could stop Belos from creating such a feeling of fear as he had in him, and surely Luz too, then Hunter had no other choice, there. He had to do it. He may no longer be the Golden Guard, but it was still his duty, his self-appointed duty, to protect the people of the Boiling Isles!

Luz hadn't put nearly as much into her disguise, honestly, it might have even been less of a disguise than her thief attire, so Titan dammit, why did she look so good like that!?

Amity was used to seeing the thief in baggy layers and jackets and hoods and boots, but here she was now, in a cropped hoodie, high-waisted shorts, leggings, and trainers, dressed more like she was going to school on a non-uniform day than to a brawl, and absolutely rocking it! She was still wearing a mask, of course, but it had to be more of a blase thing than necessary at this point, and Amity wouldn't be surprised if she took it off for the actual fights. 

Shyly, she sidled up next to the thief and fiddled with her shades.

"So... You excited?" awkwardly, she asked.

Luz looked up distractedly, and the corners of her eyes crinkled in a slight smile, "I guess. I was trying to figure out if I could spot Eda in the crowd whilst we wait, but she's either really well-disguised or forgot to come,"

"You forgot the secret third option that's one hundred percent actually what's happened where she's just late because she's doing her makeup or something," Amity deadpanned. 

That got her a little chuckle as the thief finally committed to looking her way. Luz fiddled with the cuff of her sleeve.

"Probably..." she sighed, "But I can't help but feel a little worried, y'know? I know you said this is all going to be fine and all, but I guess I just can't help worrying anyway. Like, what if she got arrested on her way here?"

The paranoia was certainly a far cry from Luz's usual happy-go-lucky attitude. But she'd been like this for days, so it wasn't really that surprising. Amity glared at the stage as they continued to set it up. Couldn't they just hurry up and get this thing started already so she could help Luz find her passion again?

"And go down without a fight?" she raised an eyebrow, "I doubt it,"

"Honestly, maybe she's just secretly entering, and that's why she's not milling about," the thief snorted.

Amity shrugged, "Could be," she hummed, "That would make things a little hard for us, though. I don't think either of us would stand a chance against her if she's really in it to win it... I mean, this is a brawl..."

There was a sort of familiar brightness to Luz's eyes as she tuned into the conversation and tilted her head to the side. That meant it was a familiar kind of cute that almost had Amity turning away to blush. But she could really do without feeling like her face was on fire all evening whilst she was trying to fight, thanks.

"What'd you mean?" curiously, the thief asked.

"I gather that not every match-up is really about who's the better fighter, here. You've got to make it flashy to impress the crowd too, and there aren't also really many courtesy rules. Eda turning into a harpy and going feral on some poor, unsuspecting, or maybe suspecting if it's us, soul would be a real crowd pleaser, in that way," dramatically, she explained.

"Hey, she wouldn't go feral on me," exasperatedly, Luz shook her head, "But you?" she smirked, "Yeah, maybe,"

"Guess I'll just have to come up with some crowd-pleaser of a move myself, then..." thoughtfully, she commented, "How does 'the Great Thief Luzura takedown' sound?"

Luz grinned competitively, showing off a real spirit still kicking in her, "Oh, I'd say it's on then, Blight,"

Somebody, probably the host of the event, cleared their throat and began to announce the start of the brawl. Neither Amity nor Luz seemed to be one of the first contesters up, so they were able to just sit and watch as two strangers, some kind of executioner and a cloaked oracle. 

Amity settled onto the patch of grass on the hill they were watching from. Luz followed her down. 

It was easy to see her point demonstrated in the fight that was going on right now, to be honest. The so-called 'Flexecutioner' had a comically large axe, one definitely too big to be particularly effective in a fight, but the crowd was cheering and clapping every time he took a daring and impressive swing with it. The same was true with 'The All-Knowing'. (Amity couldn't for the life of her remember his full name, but she also didn't really care. They seemed to be losing, so she wasn't sure she was even going to have to fight them.) Oracle magic was at its best when it was subtle, a fact she knew from her mom, but this fight was consisting of big flashes and large spectres looming about. 

One especially fancy dive later, and the Flexecutioner had the All-Knowing pinned, and the announcer called the match. The crowd screamed and cheered at that, excited by the action. So... they really liked big finishers then, huh? That was probably useful information.

It also probably helped to explain how her dad won, all those years back. Alador Blight was nothing if not extravagant in his designs for the company. His magic was impressive alone, of course, but watching someone fling around some purple goo was always a lot more exciting when they were actually the sort of mad scientist type with an army behind them. Now that would definitely stir up the crowd. If that was how Amity fought, she might even consider trying something like that! But, eh, she preferred to just go in with the one abomination, but have full control and precision with it, in exchange. 

Luz was called up next. Maybe Amity had been hoping a little bit to go up herself, but this was fine; she was here for Luz really, anyway. Practically buzzing as she stood up, th thief shot Amity a single, shaky thumb up before sliding down the hill and scrambling over the stage. 

She looked a lot brighter down on that stage, the purple of her jumper accentuated by the evening light, and her face having come alive before the crowd. The announcer introduced her as 'The Spell Raiser' and Amity watched her hands begin to fidget behind her back, where she was surely concealing glyphs. 

Her opponent honestly didn't even look like they knew how to fight, but that was part of the fun of entering the brawl. Besides, Amity was only thinking like that because this was an elderly woman with a hunch and a squint that Luz was facing; she didn't actually know. This woman could be a brawl veteran with a bunch of hidden tricks for all she knew! She wasn't going to judge!

Luz still won, though, easily. And in a very Luz was, too. As soon as the announcer said go, the old woman practically flew off of the ground and at Luz, greatly exciting the crowd from th get-go. But as a thief, Luz had good reflexes and was able to dig her feet into the ground and root herself down immediately, being able to swing the old woman off course when she got close. And then she really got the crowd going in hoards of excited whispers and cheers as she dowsed the stage in a dense fog, seeming to make her and the old woman disappear. Amity stood up from her spot on the hill and tried to watch a little closer. 

On the side of the stage, Luz gently stumbled off, leading the old woman along. Huh, she'd kind of killed it with kindness there, then. As the old lady had technically been the first one to leave the fight, Luz was crowned victor of the match and sent back up until she would continue with another round. 

She was smiling when she got back to the hill. Amity ran over to her and greeted her with a hug which Luz easily returned. In fact, Amity even found herself lifted off of the ground and spun around as the thief giggled in delight, euphoria obviously settling in. It wasn't difficult to laugh along with her.

"I think you might have been right, Ams!" enthusiastically she announced, "This is great!"

"Yeah?" Amity put a hand on her hip and followed up.

"Yeah. That wasn't even that difficult or anything, but I still feel like I pulled off something miraculous, you know? I guess it's the thrill of competition setting in," Luz explained.

"Maybe-" she was cut off by the announcer calling for the next contestants, one of them holding a rather familiar title; she grinned, "I'll just have to see first hand, then,"

Luz winked and shot her finger guns, "Good luck, Miss 'Mighty Mittens'!"

Amity blushed as she hurried down the hill, hands gripping her skirt nervously as she went. Hearing Luz call her by the silly name she'd entered the brawl with on somewhat of a whim, as a way to remember the other reason she was there, perhaps, was a tad embarrassing, in a good way, though. She wasn't Amity Blight, Odalia Blight's socialite daughter tonight: she was just her. Just Amity. So, go on, sue her for picking a slightly childish name. It brought up a fond sense of endearment for her.

The stage seemed a lot larger from down on it. The crowd bigger, too. She was here to win, if you really went into things, so should she be more nervous? No, she figured, that was only her secondary motivation. And she could really use an excuse to do a good bit of low-stakes brawling, anyway. Her hands itched to just go wild and get crafty with someone who finally wasn't Luzura for the first time in weeks. 

Ah, she'd missed her and her opponent's introductions whilst she'd been musing, hadn't she? She gave the guy facing a quick once over and wrinkled her nose. He also didn't seem like anything particularly special; just a guy in goggles in a vaguely combat-ready stance. Though, if she had to guess from the planted way he held himself, he was probably a construction witch.

That was proven true rather quickly actually. The announcer set them off with a steady, "Let the brawl continue!" and the guy was off to pounding his fist towards the ground as he drew a circle with his foot. Okay, she was probably going to need to stay off of the ground as much as possible, then. Hastily, she unscrewed the pot of abomination goo at her waist and let it flow free towards the floor, cushioning it and binding to her legs.

So when the next attack came, she gathered all the material below her and shot herself up, narrowly, but perhaps still easily, dodging the resulting pillar that shot forth. A country attack was easy after that. The way the guy left himself open could honestly be called nothing short of him drawing a target on himself. She flicked her wrist out, the one with the circle drawn around it, and watched smugly as the tendril of abomination goo snaked its way up behind him and making several exaggerated jabs and swats at him. The crowd seemed to eat this almost comedic display up. Howling in mock, but certainly good-natured from his expression, rage, the guy tried charging straight at her, probably hoping to go for something flashy like the Flexecutioner, but ended up the one on the floor, out. And all she had to do was trip him up...

In other words, it was an easy victory. But just like Luz had described, it was a thrilling one. Even just being able to physically vent her frustrations from since the Luzura case began, and perhaps even further back, was sort of nice. It was still mostly all in good fun, though; she wouldn't want to actually end up seriously injuring someone, here.

Now both with a victory under their belt, Amity and Luz settled back down together atop their hill, Amity having hurried gleefully back up there. 

"So, what'd you think, Noceda? Impressive or what?" teasingly, she taunted.

Luz made a show of flopping dramatically backwards to think, "Hm... I mean, I've seen you do better, but I'm not gonna say it wasn't good," cheekily she settled on.

Amity's brain fixated on the back-handed compliment about her having done better in the past. She supposed their duels always had been rather... lively. With the possible exception of the Eclipse Lake one, of course, but neither of them had really been wanting to participate in that. 

"I'd like to see you do better, then," she challenged, but not unkindly.

Luz abruptly sat up and clicked her knuckles, "I'll take that," she grinned, "You said we were here to have fun, right? Well, a bit of friendly competition couldn't hurt! And I do always like a good sports story..."

This wasn't really sport in the sense of a traditional sports movie being, well, one on one, but it was still sport nonetheless, so Amity supposed that could pass. And she had a feeling she knew what the thief was referencing here. 

"Good Witch Azura Two: Field of Deadly Fates?" knowingly, she hummed.

"You're getting challenged by the real deal, Ams! The Good Thief Luzura herself!" Luz answered.

She snorted, "I'm pretty sure you're colloquially known as the 'Great' Thief, actually,"

The thief wrinkled her nose, "That's a missed opportunity if I've ever seen one,"

Unfortunately, Luz, most people weren't actually Azura fans. That was part of what had drawn Amity to her in the first place, wasn't it? Some fond part of her wanting desperately for Luz to not be Luzura because she'd really liked the girl who'd rambled to her about the obscure Azura properties like she'd seen them all fifty times. (Which she probably had, t be honest...) But she liked both Luz and Luzura now, and really, they weren't that different, anyway.

Luz was kind and sweet and always happy to get caught up in a tangent, whether that be in a chill restaurant or in the middle of combat. And she'd always treated Amity with respect, even if it hadn't always been earnt. And she'd always been willing to give Amity a hand, whether that be advice or just straight up giving her an out from going to family dinner! She was only even at the brawl right now thanks to Luz!

That was probably what made it so fortunate that Luz just looked to brighten and become more open as the evening passed into night. They each fought a few more rounds, similarly not more challenging. (Perhaps it really wasn't so commonplace for elites such as ex-Emperor's Coven interns and super thieves to enter this thing... But there also hadn't exactly been restrictions...)

The crowds started to dwindle a bit as it darkened, but that didn't mean they were any less enthusiastic each round. And Amity at the very least still found herself positively lapping up the praise and attention she got just from messing about so freely on stage. Luz didn't mention it any further, but she was also clearly getting into it too. Even if the goal was something stupid like beating Amity at a local tournament, she seemed to fare much better having something tangible to work towards. Was that how she'd always managed to keep pressing on?

They saw their fair few strange faces as well, including, but not limited to, local conspiracy theorist Tinella Nosa, a short, enthusiastic girl who kept insisting she was a bat (Whatever that meant...) and some of Amity's old classmates, if you could believe it. She was sure she'd seen Skara and Viney up there at various points, the bard even facing off against Luz (And inevitably losing, of course.) Perhaps the real question was how Amity had remembered all these random people's names, though.

Of course, it was destined not to last forever and, really, with them both going to the brawl, it was a wonder this hadn't cropped up as a possibility between the two of them. See, maybe winning against the locals of Bonesborough with their somewhat more elite training hadn't been such a good thing after all... (Even if it had been fun...)

The announcer called up the names for the semi-final, and it was only moments before he finished saying the second of the two that would be facing off to decide who would end up fighting the reigning champion, Warden Wrath, in the finale, when it hit Amity. If she and Luz had won all of their rounds cheerily so far, and this was the semi-final, then that meant they were the only two left. And that meant...

The call demanded both the Spell Raiser and the Mighty Mittens were called up into the ring for an exciting semi-final that had the crowd already cheering in anticipation.

Panicking slightly, Amity turned to look at Luz, eyes wide through the tinted lenses of her shades. Luz swallowed thickly and grimaced at her. Then, slowly, she reached up and finally untied the mask from around her face. There was an obvious taught look of grim determination on there, amidst the same level of panic that Amity had.

"You want a rematch, then, Ams?" lightly, she asked.

Maybe she should say something about how she had come here to fight someone other than Luz. She didn't, of course, "You're on!" she grinned, instead.

They scrambled down the hill together, running at about equal level. (Amity had a feeling that Luz was holding back on her there, though; after many tough runs on escapes from heists, Luz should really have been the better runner.) The crowd seemed just as big now as it had earlier when they reached the stage. It wasn't actually, of course, but that was how it felt, strangely enough.

They took their places at opposing edges of the stage, and the announcer began to narrate the start of the match. Amity was once again not listening, though: her mind was running practically a million miles an hour at other things. 

Could she really do it? Could she fight Luz again at this point? The last time they'd properly had a match had been at Eclipse Lake, and that had certainly not been a fight worth having. They'd both sort of come out of it with something, but Amity still wasn't sure she could go through with something like it again. And.. She'd come here tonight for Luz, right? She couldn't take the opportunity away from her to let some much-deserved frustrations out on Warden Wrath, the one who had kept Gus in the special section of the Conformatorium! (After Amity had arrested him, sure, but she wasn't in charge of his punishment, though, was she?)

 No, she decided, it wouldn't be fair to go after Luz like this. She would stand down; it was only fair. Maybe even deliberately lose. But then the announcer said go, and neither of them moved.

Tentatively, Amity took a step forward after a long moment, testing the waters, mostly to see if this was some kind of strange trick from Luz. (Hey, after all the stuff she'd seen this girl pull, you could hardly blame her...) The thief only responded by holding her hands up in surrender, though.

"Sorry, Ams, but I just don't think I can do it. You said on the way here that this was for your dad, right? Well, knock 'em dead, champ! Go win that belt for him!" lightly, but not as brightly as she'd spoken for most of the rest of the evening (Perhaps now night), Luz announced.

Amity took another step forward, this one furious, "Hold on, I was just about to surrender. You can't go first!" bewildered, she protested.

"But... this whole thing was your idea. You deserve to win! For your dad... right?" the thief blinked. 

She strode quickly across to where Luz was on the other side of the ring to face her properly. The crowd began to murmur in confusion, and probably still excitement. The announcer seemed lost for words at the way no actual fighting seemed to be happening, and he just continued to gape at them. 

"Luz, I suggested this for you," swiftly, she explained.

"Oh," a little shell-shocked, the other let out, "But that doesn't mean you should just let me have this so easily! Surely having to do this for e is just all the more reason that I owe you!"

Amity must not have been thinking clearly as she next moved, but in time she would definitely come to think of it as probably a positive thing. She just sort of stumbled forward, hands landing just above Luz's shoulders to cup her cheeks. They both blushed.

And then her face was moving forwards, motioning shyly towards the thief. Luz seemed to realise what was happening, what she was being offered, and hastily nodded, mouth parting slowly as Amity continued to approach. Their lips met for the first time up on that stage, in front of the whole crowd of the Bonesborough Brawl. She was pretty sure she heard someone who sounded suspiciously like Eda cheer for them.

Delicately, she pulled away after an indeterminate amount of time and continued to smile at Luz, "You don't owe me anything,"

Desperately, like Amity had just pulled her up from drowning or something, Luz motioned between the two of them wordlessly. Amity dared not look over her shoulder at the crowd she'd just accidentally put that display on in front of. 

"But if you think you do, go win this thing for me," she blurted as a hurried continuation. 

Slowly, Luz nodded, "If-" she caught herself, "If you're sure... But you'll owe me one too after this, Blight" she grinned coyly.

"Oh, yeah?" almost afraid to ask, Amity prompted.

"Maybe take me on a date first, next time. I know a certain cafe that would take a couple of silly Azura fans like us in," flirtatiously, she giggled.

Amity swatted good-naturedly at her, "I'm sorry! I panicked! It just sort of happened!"

Titan, that had really not been her smartest move, Sure, Luz had consented and even seemed to have reciprocated, but that still didn't mean she should have kissed her once biggest enemy up in a fighting ring in front of hoards of people expecting, you know, a fight.

"Chill, Amity! I'm not mad, promise! I think... If you'd like..." she looked away at the floor, pink dusting her cheeks, "Maybe we could go out together sometime, though? As in, a, uh, date?"

"Yes!" she answered before she knew what she was doing, "Obviously yes, silly!"

"Great!" Luz smiled awkwardly, "Then, uhm, when this, as in the, uh, Belos stuff, not the brawl, is over, I'll take you on a proper date, Amity - human style!"

"I'll hold you to that," snarkily, and a little breathlessly, she laughed, "But we maybe should..." she shuffled her feet on the floor and gestured at the crowd.

The thief scowled lightly, "Yeah..."

Hastily, Amity stumbled away from Luz and strolled up to the announcer, hoping to look a lot more confident than she actually felt. (In actuality, she thought it was a wonder she was even managing to stand up straight right now...)

"I forfeit," curtly, she proclaimed, "The Spell Raiser can go straight on to the final,"

"Are you sure, ma'am?" he fumbled, "This is highly unusual, especially for someone of your-"

"I'm sure. Just let her go through," she nodded.

He turned to the crowd, surely either grimacing or wearing the most confused expression known to life on Isles, "Well, folks, that's a wrap! We'll be moving straight onto our final, then, with the Spell Raiser versus reigning champion Warden Wrath!"

She left the stage after that, obviously, and aimed to head back from the spot on the hill to think things over. On her way up she was sure she definitely saw Eda winking at her, though, so that probably had been Luz's mentor cheering for them earlier, too... She sighed and tried not to think too hard about how awkward this was going to make things at the Owl House later. Luz better have blackmail to keep Eda quiet with...

It was strange, almost euphoric in an odd way too, watching Luz down here, fighting for a place that, earlier, Amity had been sort of committed to going for. But she didn't really owe her dad anything, not like she wanted to for Luz. 

And honestly, she could see the thrill in the thief's eyes as she rough-housed with the warden, even from up here. That was what she had come here for, right? To see the light of passion once again shine in Luz's eyes. Well, there it was, burning and stark, like they were back on that first mission and Luzura was snarking at her before making impossible jumps and throwing herself recklessly off of buildings to pull cheap parlour (That was a little harsh, but that had been what it had felt like) tricks. 

Had that glee been from the thrill of the fight and the mission or for Amity? She couldn't tell, to be honest.

(She would figure it out later, though, and no matter what she was definitely going to try and claim about it being the former, she was going to know that it was certainly, at least in part, thanks to the latter.)

Chapter Text

When Luz woke up the next day, she had something of her old vigour burning brighter than even the fire they'd started trying to test how big they could make glyphs. A sort of harsh and unbreakable will to just do something and make a difference. That probably would have been a little too much for most people, but Luz did have a whole island to save, here. So, she did the reasonable thing and called her whole squad into a group meeting.

The denizens of the Owl House itself were given a simple yell (Too early for some, but Luz had no sympathy, not when they had a crisis on their hands.), and her other friends were called over Penstagram. They, uh, took a little more convincing, though. Apparently, if you went silent for several days, people started to worry about you...

"Willow!" she cheered when her friend picked up, "Emergency Meeting at the Owl House in half an hour!" 

Willow waited for a moment before speaking, "Uh, Luz, are you feeling okay? Last I heard from Eda, you weren't doing so good, so are you sure you're-"

"Yep!" she squeaked, "Amity..." she blushed furiously, "Took me out to the Brawl last night, and I won, and I guess that was all I needed! But anyway, let's not worry about me! We've got things to deal with!"

Luz could almost imagine Willow giving her a silent, judgemental look from the other end of the phone. Either from the embarrassed way she'd mentioned Amity, or just because her friend didn't believe her in general. 

"Nice... job," impassively, Willow complimented.

"Heh, thanks. It wasn't too difficult, though," she grinned.

"Right..." her friend trailed off, "So... Meeting in half an hour, did you say?"

"Yep!" heartily, she agreed, "Make sure Gus is there and, if you can, and if he's up to it, bring Hunter too,"

Willow seemed to startle at the mention of the old Golden Guard. Luz prepared herself for the incoming rant about his safety that she was bound to get because this girl was more protective of a silly bad, but sad boy than she was of friends she'd had for years. Probably a product of... whatever she and Hunter had going on. (Luz was a hopeless romantic, though, so she was dead sure that it was mutual pining.)

"Hunter? Are you sure, Luz? He's..." carefully, she affirmed.

"That's why I said if he's up to it - if he's ready and willing, he'll be an invaluable asset to us, but if not, no worries! I, uh, really wouldn't want to push him..." she elucidated.

Hunter's probably lifelong trauma that had likely increased tenfold since their adventure into the mindscape was really Luz's fault if you got down to it, so even if Willow was around to get all defensive for him, it should be Luz particularly bothering to look out for him. That was just fair.

Willow seemed to relax considerably, "Well, if you think it's a good idea, I trust you. I'll be over the the others ASAP," 

And with that, she hung up. 

Trust, huh? Oh, why'd she have to word it like that... That was the one thing none of her friends should really have anymore. She'd... betrayed them, hadn't she? Betrayed the whole Isles! She'd helped Phillip! And as much as she wanted to hide it, Willow and Gus were going to figure it out as soon as they made the connection between Phillip and Belos! And they'd been against helping Phillip the whole time... They'd tried to warn her...

Shiftily, she shuffled downstairs to check on Amity. (Her girlfriend, ahhhhh) She knocked on the door and bobbed in place while she waited. Amity probably realised who it was, because she squeaked and began to crash hurriedly around.

When the inspector (ex-inspector?) finally did open the door, she was propped awkwardly up in the doorway, clearly trying to block the view inside, blushing. She coughed, clearing her throat, "Uhm, hi, Luz,"

"Hey," she greeted simply, subtly trying to lean around her girlfriend to see inside (Hey, they say curiosity killed the CAT and Luz often time felt like that cat that went around knocking things off of your shelves. And besides, what was this if not a good distraction?), "Just came to see if you'd heard about the meeting later and, uh, if you were in. It's to, y'know, plot against Belos, so..."

Quietly, Amity shut the door behind her (Dammit.), "I was planning on attending, don't worry. Thanks for considering me, though, I guess," she smiled shyly.

"Cool! Cool cool," rapidly, Luz nodded, "Just wanted to give you the option to involve yourself if you weren't really feeling that was your jam,"

"You told me Belos was planning a Draining Spell, even if I wasn't on board before, why wouldn't I be now? And besides, as your girlfriend, it's my responsibility to help you out and prove my worth and whatnot!" Amity shot her questioning look as she spoke. 

Dammit, Odalia. 

"You know you don't actually have to prove anything to me, right? I chose to agree to a date with you, to be with you, because I wanted you to be in my future, however uncertain that is with Belos and all that, Amity," firmly, she explained.

Amity hunched her shoulders and kicked a foot slowly across the floor, her heel occasionally catching the edge of a floorboard and squeaking. She was also quite possibly biting her lip, not that Luz was looking or anything. 

"Yeah, I- Thanks," she sighed, "But then, I am definitely attending this meeting and participating in whatever crazy plan you come up with because I want to be in your future too, okay? And also because I'd really like to be on the side pulling off the miraculous stunts, for once," wryly, she finished.

"You sure they were all that miraculous? Maybe you guys just weren't very good at your jobs," she teased.

Amity raised an eyebrow, "Oh, we'll see about that," she smirked, "I think I can prove otherwise to you on this mission, Noceda,"

She giggled, "I look forward to it, Blight,"

Her girlfriend clasped her hand back on the doorknob and waved lightly at Luz. Luz waved back brightly, mind already wondering to what she was going to do whilst she waited.

"See you then," Amity called, just before she shut the door again.

And Luz still hadn't gotten a good look inside... Amity was a pretty tidy person, so it probably just meant she had something embarrassing in there that she didn't want Luz to see. Maybe, and this was definitely her projecting a bit here, she'd put up embarrassing drawings of them or something. Luz had done the same, but she was rather unabashed about it. 

As for what Luz was going to do to wait? Well, she trudged into the Owl House's front room and doodled not nearly as mindlessly as she'd have liked for the next twenty-five minutes or so. It was just hard to keep her mind from straying. She sighed frustratedly and scribbled harshly in the margin of the page. She was so sure she'd been feeling better! Why was it all coming back now?

Eda entered the room a short while through the wait.

"Hey, kid, everything alright? This is all a bit sudden for you," dubiously, she greeted.

Luz dug her pencil lead deeper into the page and didn't look up, "You know I've always been a bit spontaneous, Eda,"

Her mentor snorted, "Fair enough. But if you need me to take over at any point or anything, I'm certain I still have the charm to run this kind of thing," she watched Eda flick her hair as if to prove her point as she spoke.

She sighed and put down her drawing instrument. This wasn't going to be the kind of thing that just went away, was it? Fine, she could... deal with that. It was nice knowing her family here had her back on that, at least. Especially Eda. Eda knew more about why she was upset than anyone else. and even if Luz didn't necessarily believe her, it was nice hearing her say that it was her fault for what happened with Phillip. Or that Hunter got dragged into everything.               

"I can still lead a meeting," she rolled her eyes, "But, thanks. If I, uh, if the topic of you know who gets a little too close, though, could you lend me a hand?"                 

Eda winked at her and shot her the dreaded finger guns. (What a hypocrite; she rolled her eyes and scoffed every time Luz did those with Lilith...) 

"You got it, kid," she chuckled.

Luz picked her pencil back up and went back o doodling on the lined sheet in front of her. Eda left the room, presumably to make sure she could be fashionably late to a meeting in her own house. 

Earlier, Luz's drawings had been sort of misshapen dark things. She thought they might have supposed to have been Belos, but with the way her mind had wondered as she drew them, they could easily have just been amalgamations of all her fears and enemies over the years. There was one in the top corner of this page that had the Emperor's customary deer antlers. but the figure had the form of one of Luz's high-school bullies. And another like her camp counsellor. 
             
She'd only just finished up a particularly well-done, if she did say so herself, one of Eda when the first knock came on the door. Why Hooty didn't just let him straight in, Luz wouldn't know, but at an early like this, it could only be Gus. She bounced up and yelled at Hooty to open up, at once revealing her illusionist friend. And, uh, Hunter. Huh, she hadn't been sure he'd come.

"Hey, Luz!" Gus grinned. 

Shyly, Hunter waved at her from behind him. She gave him a small wave back before ushering the two in.

"The captain's on her way," stiffly, Hunter informed her, "But I was already with Gus, so we got here first,"

She shrugged, "That's fine - you're a little early, anyway," 

Luz hurried back over to the sofa and grabbed her sketchbook, more than a little eager to not let either of her friends see too much of it. Gus would, er, probably know what it all meant (And she just really didn't want to deal with more of that right now.), and it would probably be pretty awkward for Hunter if he saw any of the drawings of him she'd done. Or any of the multitude of Belos ones. 

Amity entered a few moments later, entrance signalled by the sounds of rapid, neat footsteps, likely having heard the commotion and assuming she was late. Assuming everybody possible showed, she was probably still in the first half of people to show, though. 

"Sorry, got a bit caught up reading," bashfully, the inspector apologised.

Hunter jumped, mouth quirking into a small smile, "Blight? Huh, I wasn't sure if you'd really be here,"

Amity gave him an odd look, "Why wouldn't I be?"

"I don't know... You went missing right before everything went down and it just felt a little surreal to hear you'd just been hiding out here, I suppose. It's fine now, so I probably just needed to see it to believe it," he answered, nervously.

Luz shot him a sympathetic look. Man, that was a mood... After seeing Hunter bolt like she had, she'd hardly believed it when Gus had supposedly just found him roaming in the streets. Maybe she even still didn't believe it a little. But here he was, right now, bundled up in the Owl House, so who was she really to doubt?

"Fair enough," Amity shrugged, "Nice to see you're doing okay?"

Gus snorted, "You're just lucky you didn't see him a couple of days back. That was a rough look,"

"Gus..." Hunter whined, "You said you wouldn't bring that up..."

"Oops?" the illusionist winked and offered. 

Huh. Wow. Had Hunter and Gus been friends before this? They seemed almost... brotherly, now. Though, then again, she and Amity had been close acquaintances, or friends if she was being hopeful, before that, but now they were girlfriends! 

Lilith hurried in shortly thereafter, balancing a stack of books in her arms and a rather bored-looking King on her head. Mutely, she permitted herself to take a seat beside Luz, and dumped what she'd brought in, including King, down. The books clattered against the cushions and King was quick to skirt away from her and onto Luz's shoulders. 

"I was asleep when she brought me in," bitterly, he muttered.

She patted the back of his head sympathetically, "Sorry about that, buddy. But, hey, it could have been worse! You could have been woken by Hooty!"

Speak his name and he shall appear as though summoned like the darkest of evils. 

Hooty burst in through the window, his body looping from outside the front door to the inside where they all were. His grin was as cheerful as ever. Luz watched Amity's eye twitch as she tried to subtly crack her knuckles. Hunter looked to be fearing for his life. At least Gus, having seen the nightmarish creature before many a time, seemed chill.

"Hey, friends!" brightly, Hooty screeched, "Who're we missing?"

"Just Willow and Eda," flippantly, Luz responded, trying not to make eye contact lest she end up delaying the meeting on Hooty's whims.

The demon tried to shrug, but on account of having no shoulders, just ended up wiggling something approximating his neck, "Well, Eda's always late anyway, and I saw plant girl just up the road!"

"The captain's nearly here?" Hunter perked back up.

Gus stifled a laugh.

"It's not like her to be late, you know. I don't know what you're expecting here," pointedly, Amity remarked. 

Eda stuck her head through the doorway, "Do I smell teenage drama?" 

King looked up sleepily and grimaced at her over the back of the sofa, "Not if you want to be the last to arrive,"

Luz's mentor was gone like a toddler's sharpies after they'd 'redecorated' their mom's work clothes. (Not that she was speaking from experience or anything.) Or maybe even faster, as Eda hadn't exactly had to investigate the scene much to find the root of the problem, that being that she was there earlier than she wanted to be, and removing it. 

Hooty suddenly swerved his whole body sideways, partially crashing into the window's frame and possibly damaging the hinges. The door knocked open, (Why hadn't he done this for Hunter and Gus?) and Willow strode in, still in her uniform from the looks of things. She grinned at everyone in the meeting room (See, the front room of the Owl House, but Luz had put a banner up that said 'meeting' when she first woke up that morning.) before taking a seat next to Hunter and Gus.

"Nevermind, Eda, all the kids are here now!" dryly, King called.

Luz poked him in the forehead, "You're younger than any of us, you little trouble maker,"

"So all the kids are here, then, yeah?" he snarked back.
 
She rolled her eyes fondly. She should probably contest still being called a kid again, honestly. Once again, she was eighteen... And, man, Hunter was like, twenty or something, even if he didn't look it, so she almost certainly protest that one. Though, then again, in all her crusty old woman glory, maybe things were all just relative to Eda. Even if it had been King to mention it... Then maybe King had just been spending too much time with her!

Eda trudged back into the room, moving considerably slower than when she had bolted earlier. Luz shot Amity a pained look. Her girlfriend chuckled and shrugged.

"So..." she twiddled her thumbs, "Anyone got any good icebreakers, or should I just get started?" she grinned lopsidedly.

Eda smirked, "Oh, I have just the best one out in the shed, kid,"

"No weapons!" hurriedly, she added.

Lilith sighed wearily, "I think you'd just best get explaining, Luz,"

She shrugged and stood up. Onto the sofa so that she was taller than everybody else, obviously. What kind of person would want to be the one awkwardly standing in the middle of the room during a tactics meeting?

"Does, uhm, everyone know what we're up against here?" awkwardly, she began,

Luz had been hoping to see mostly everyone, with the possible exception of Amity or King, because she hadn't exactly told them that much, nodding along, but instead, she got Gus and Willow exchanging grimaces, Amity doing that thing where she wanted to pretend she knew more than she did, and Eda and Lilith having a silent debate, complete with furious little gestures of confusion. Fortunately, King seemed unbothered and just shrugged at her.

"Not really the specifics, Luz. No one's really told us much," hesitantly, Willow explained.

"Yes, apologies, but your explanation was a little muddled before. A recap would be for the best," Lilith winced.

Great, just great. God, she wished she hadn't left her sketchbook down on the sofa arm... It was always easier to talk about all... that, whilst she was doing something else, even absently. 

"Well..." she struggled to find where to begin.

"We've found out Belos's end game for the Isles - a draining spell - and we've found out where he got the idea from - likely 'the Collector'. They're some kind of strange, god-like entity that has a deal of sorts with the Emperor. That's what we're up against," calmly, Hunter summarised.

Hold on, Hunter? Last she'd heard, he'd been even more reluctant to talk than her! What had changed!?

Gus surveyed Hunter proudly and nodded along, "Nice job, man," quietly, he praised. 

Hunter flushed and sat back down from where he'd become the guy standing in the middle of the room during a tactics meeting. An attempt at subtly had obviously been made on Gus's part, but Hunter, definitely nowhere used to positive reinforcement if he'd had Belos as a parental figure, had still found that too much. 

Luz blinked, "Well, yeah, that's pretty much the long and short of it,"

Amity's brows furrowed, possibly trying to understand the intricacies of that particular human idiom. A noble pursuit, but not one she was likely to succeed in.

"Perhaps we should start by, ehem, collecting all of our knowledge on the Collector," Lilith suggested with a satisfied grin.

It wasn't really a surprise when a few groans emanated around the room after that. Mainly from Eda and King's direction, as well. 

"I wouldn't put it quite like that, but in general, that would be a good idea," Amity conceded, "Luz, uh... Inspector, any insights?"

"I'm no more an inspector than you now, Blight," wearily, Hunter corrected.

She seemed to watch him for a moment, "I never said I wasn't an inspector anymore,"

"No? Not even after staying here for a week? And not after actively plotting against the Emperor?" almost tauntingly, he hummed.

Luz shifted uncomfortably. What exactly was building tension like this going to do? But at the same time, she didn't really want to interrupt whatever was going on, just in case it did turn out to be important for the two of them in long run. Amity had practically abandoned Hunter, even if that had all been Luz's fault, so she could see where both sides were coming from here. 

"After we stop the draining spell and hopefully overthrow our crusty, old Emperor, I think I'd like to return to my job," calmly, Amity explained, "Someone's got to keep an eye on this lot over here," she jabbed a finger at Luz, King and Eda.

Unwittingly, Luz snorted.

Hunter sighed, "Fair enough. Knowing what you're... meant to be can't be a bad thing,"

Her girlfriend shrugged, "Probably not. But if you're done being a pedant about my nomenclature..." 

Luz practically jumped at the opportunity to talk, not exactly something she'd been doing much recently, so it probably seemed strange to her friends, "The Collector, then? He seems to be a god of sorts, like we said. My theory is that he's trapped somewhere, though. In Belos's memory, he talked about being stuck in the Titan's bones, or something,"

"Beneath the bones," Hunter nodded.

Gus eyed them sharply, "But how's that possible? Surely he couldn't literally be under the Titan's corpse... And if he was, how did he manifest himself to Belos?"

"He was more of a shadow than anything," she answered, "And 2D, like a projection,"

Where the Collector was physically was not something she felt at all qualified to answer. Even that dreaded trip with Phillip where she'd helped him find that thing to contact the Collector hadn't told her practically anything about his actual location. But if he was using a device to cast his image to someone... 

"Then what was the projector?" contemplatively, Willow questioned.

Luz laughed stiffly, "Well, it's not like we can just go and check, right? So I guess we'll never know!"

Lilith, having all the necessary context to understand what topic had been nearly breached, frowned worriedly at her. Luz brushed it off, of course, with a slight shake of the head, but that wasn't going to any of the permeating concern. For anyone.

"Hold on, that Phillip guy was also looking for the Collector, right?" smoothly, Gus interrupted.

Luz shot a panicked look at Eda who grimaced, preparing to intervene.

"That was four hundred odd years ago," she dismissed.

"And the Collector's probably even older than that!" the illusionist argued, "The disk he found could have been some kind of projector or summoning circle! Did any of you get a good look at it?"

Not wanting to continue this train of thinking when it was getting uncomfortably close to the wound that was her unintentional betrayal, and also quite possibly not all that relevant, Luz shook her head firmly. Amity, who hadn't been there, just sat with an almost bored look. With Gus being the one to ask the question and Willow shrugging apologetically, Lilith had little choice but to go along with Luz.

"I didn't see any disk in the memory..." Hunter murmured, "But! I might have seen something like it in general! In... Belos's study, there's this funny, round piece of glass sometimes. I only saw it on occasion, though,"

Luz's stomach dropped. Yep, that was it alright... And so it was that this whole mess was entirely her fault. She wanted to curl up and probably go silent, but that wasn't really an option during something like this.

Willow grinned brightly, "That could be it, Hunter! I don't know how Belos would have found it after Phillip without anyone else knowing, but..."

Hunter stared at Luz pleadingly. Did he... know? How much had he heard from inside that little grove? Ah, who was she kidding; there was no reason for him not to have heard. But she'd kept his secrets... And the way he was looking at her now, it seemed he was willing to keep hers. She winced back at him. 

"We can worry about the semantics of it if we decide we need to take down the Collector. I- I mean surely there's an easier way to just disarm Belos than to try and oppose a god, right?" she rambled.

Lilith pursed her lips, "He doesn't usually leave flaws in his plans. I never once saw him slip up in the Coven,"

"Don't let him get to you, Lulu!" Hooty interjected, "I'm sure it's no fault in your observational skills!"

Lilith flushed gently and waved him off. 

"He'll practically have the next few years planned out flawlessly," Hunter sighed, "And his only real weakness would be his curse. We'd either have to take him down now, or wait until the day of the spell and hope to interrupt his plans. But... We don't know when that's going to be, and we can't bank on being able to trick or disarm him then!"

"Luz is pretty good at improv, though," off-handedly, Amity remarked.

Luz blushed shyly and sent a small smile her girlfriend's way.

Hunter shook his head furiously, "But we still don't know when! And... I don't want any more of us getting twisted up in his games. Tricking people, it's what he does. Even if we think we have the upper hand, we might have been playing into his plan the whole time,"

That wasn't directed at her, she knew that. Hunter wasn't a cruel guy, so he wasn't going to have been making jabs at her like that. But all the same... She stared at the sofa cushion. That had been exactly what she'd done, hadn't it?

She caught Willow nod out of the corner of her eye, "So we go for it soon, then? Figure out how he's planning on doing this and putting a stop to it!"

"I can't think how he'd manage to pull off a spell so big in the first place, honestly," Lilith tutted.

Hunter looked up, seemingly just realising something. Luz followed his gaze, worried about the next thing to come out of his mouth. 

"He... He was experimenting with basilisks a few years back. I wasn't supposed to see, but I spoke with one of them once. He was studying how they drained magic," slowly, he explained.

Gus and Willow suddenly turned to each other with wide eyes, "The incident at Hexside!" almost in synch, they both gasped.

Frowning and gripping the edge of the sofa, Amity straightened, "What incident?"

"It was about a year after you left, Amity. A greater Basilisk was loose in the school for a day after posing as a health and safety inspector. Apparently, the same thing happened at Glandus, but the Coven demanded we keep quiet about it and censored any mention of it in mainstream news," Willow expounded.

That would explain why someone who seemed, at least at this point, pretty up-to-date on current affairs like Amity hadn't a clue what they were on about. And also why Luz hadn't the foggiest what any of them were talking about. Like, basilisks? She'd never heard mention of anything like that during her stay on the Isles.

She voiced as much, "Hold on, what exactly are basilisks here? We have a few different portrayals in the human realm,"

King shuffled up onto the back of the sofa to explain, likely wanting to have more height, "They're a kind of demon supposed to have gone extinct long ago," well, the same thing had been said to her about stonesleepers, and one of them had definitely still been around when it shouldn't have been, so that was fishy, "They feed on magic and use it to shapeshift,"

"Belos's idea was around before any attempt at an execution of it, then," she hummed.

"I mean, I definitely would have noticed if Mr 'Wild Magic is forbidden' had tried to run experiments and steal our magic," Eda put in.

"What does he gain out of draining magic, anyway? Very rude," Hooty practically demanded.

Luz knew. From the way he'd talked so openly to her, and just her, in the mindscape, there could only be one explanation for it. Hunter probably knew too, then. 

She bit her lip, "It's not the magic itself he wants,"

"Then what, Luz?" Willow asked.

"Us- Er, you? No, he'd have me taken out too at this point, if he wanted," she sighed and started over, "It's a means of genocide, I think. He's looking for what happens when you, you know... Take the magic out of the witch,"

Most of the room already knew this, mainly because it was not one of the things Luz had thought was fair to keep to herself. And yet still, most of the room was in deathly silence, as if belos, complete with robe and scythe, had shown up as the Grim Reaper to claim them all right then and there.

"When the Basilisk attacked Hexside..." Gus wobbled, uncertainly, "No one actually died, even after having their magic drained,"

"We can't take that chance!" eyes wide, Hunter snapped, "Luz, you remember how he spoke about the sigils?" he gripped his wrist, that wrist, tightly, "What if magic isn't even all that he's draining?"

She nodded tersely and grimaced. He had an unfortunately true point. Belos could not be trusted in any way to not be attempting to pull off the worst-case scenario.

"So, what? How do we stop him? Because no offence, but we don't have the time to run experiments with basilisk or pull off another mindscape mission," Amity spoke up and looked at Luz sympathetically, "Not to mention how unethical both of those things would be for us at this point,"

Willow snorted before hastily sorting herself out, "Sorry, it's just kind of funny to hear you be the voice of reason about morals here, Amity,"

"I'm sure," she retorted dryly, "But somebody had to state the obvious,"

Gus elbowed Hunter at that, also laughing slightly. Hunter rolled his eyes fondly and sighed. Huh. She'd definitely missed something with those two. And even though she already knew most of Willow and Amity's backstory, was there more to sort out with them?

"Well, if anyone has any ideas, then..." Luz prompted. 

The room fell quiet again, a mixture of people looking away uncomfortably and giving each other worried stares. Right. She was the leader here. She may have been a traitor, but she was still the one they were relying on, whether she deserved that privilege or not. But... She didn't know what to do here. there were just too many unknowns! 

What would Azura do? She wasn't going to try and talk Belos out of anything, that was for sure... And Azura's whole schtick was about befriending rivals... Honestly, she wasn't feeling much like Azura at this point, even despite her title of 'Luzura Clawthorne'. She stared at her feet swinging back and forth, trying to push back the thought that she was really more like one of the movies' villains. And it was true. 

But that wasn't going to help her! And everyone was... they were relying on her!

"We- We could brainstorm?" she tried again.

Amity grit her teeth, but still tried to smile, "It's just that there's so much we don't know... Feels... odd,"

Gus nodded, concurring, "No chance anyone has any hidden info that might be relevant now? Anything on Belos or the Collector, really,"

Her secret was about her, right? What difference would knowing Belos is Phillip make?

"You've heard everything I know from either me or Luz," dejectedly, Hunter answered.

Well, probably not that little fact. But if Hunter wasn't sharing it, then it couldn't be important! Unless... Did he think she'd already told everyone? Luz blanched and sunk down onto the sofa.

Eda noticed her behaviour and gave her a quick wink, probably signifying that she was still willing to go through with what she promised earlier. With a stark cough, she cleared her throat, and strode further into the room from where she'd been leaning against the doorframe to the rest of the house before. 

"No point milling over what we haven't got a clue on, kids," after a pause, "And Lilith,"

"Hey!" Hooty complained, indignantly, "I'm not a kid! You know I'm a big-boy house now!"

"You're too easily distracted to ever be properly milling about, anyway," lightly, Eda scoffed.

Hooty harrumphed and retracted his form to be lying flat on the ground. Yeah, if she'd been awkwardly standing in the middle of the room during a tactics meeting, that would have been Luz, too. 

"Then what do you say we do?" flummoxed, Hunter inquired. 

The Owl Lady hummed, "Oh, y'know, get in that Castle, mess things up, go with the flow!"

"Oh my Titan, Edalyn, we are not plotting to ruin the Emperor's Shampoo again," Lilith groaned.

Again? Yeah, seemed about right.

"Well, if it would stop him..." reproachfully, Eda grumbled.

There was a point being made here, though. A surprisingly good one, at that. If they could disrupt the Coven enough, they'd at least have done some damage. 

"I think we could do a little more than that," she suggested. 

Willow smirked and looked over at Hunter, "Yeah, we do have someone who can give us some insight into the Castle's inner workings..."

"Huh?" Hunter jumped to attention, "Oh, right! Yes! I can tell you all that I know about scout patterns and Belos's workday!"

Luz sat back up a little taller, not quite wanting to be back on her feet yet, but getting there still, "Great! We'll start there, and then figure out divisions to send each-"

She stopped when she saw Amity frowning pensively at her. Amity.... didn't like this plan? She had been the inspector working against Luz; maybe she knew a secret flaw in that? That was still pretty damning... This was the main lead she had against Belos without having to affect her friends' opinions of her! And now it was threatening to still ruin her girlfriend's? 

"Hold on, Luz," she let out, an awkward few seconds into the pause.

"Oh, uh, y-yeah?" eagerly, the thief managed.

"Who says we need a plan? More of one than what we have now, anyway,"

Huh? But... Wasn't Amity the type to plan stuff all the way out? She'd always attacked and tried to interrupt Luz with purpose. She'd try to use tricky moves that she thought Luz wouldn't be able to deal with. And, if Luz wasn't such a quick thinker, she wouldn't have been able to deal with them! So what gave? This seemed very... odd.

"What are you saying?" carefully, Luz responded.

Amity gave her a silly grin, "Well, when was the last time you had a properly thought-through plan?"

"Eclipse Lake," she answered quickly, being able to distinctly remember the feeling of knowing what she was going for, and having to try and tightly stick to a schedule. 

"And did you plan on being captured?" confidently, her girlfriend continued.

"What? Uh, not really," confused, she responded truthfully.

"But you can't say it didn't work out in our favour," Gus piped up.

Were they saying her improv, the stuff that had really gotten Gus arrested in the first place on account of not giving him much more direction than just 'Distract them by pretending to be me', was a good thing? Hold on, it wasn't even just Gus's arrest that resulted from that! Wasn't this whole mess the fault of her improv? If she'd stuck to plan and just looked for the herb they needed, she wouldn't have tagged along with Phillip! And then the Collector wouldn't have been a threat full stop!

"But that's not always the case," weakly, she protested.

"Kid, when have things ever not eventually worked out for you?" Eda raised an eyebrow and chuckled.

She fell silent.

"Luz, if it makes you feel better, we can sit here and plan out our every step, but... I trust you. I'm pretty sure everyone here does. If we leave things up to the moment, like you usually do, I can't see things actually going badly," gently, Amity smiled.

They shouldn't trust her. They really shouldn't. And yet Eda and Lilith, both of whom knew the truth about Phillip, were nodding along in agreement. They still did trust her, despite everything. Then maybe... She still had a lot left to lose. And she didn't even want to think what the worst that could happen was. And yet...

"Okay," shyly, she nodded, "I'm in,"

Hunter raised his hand slowly, "In that case, I can... get us in. To the Castle,"

Willow and Gus buddied up to him, wearing twin grins. They seemed to have been hoping he'd agree to something like this. She almost wanted to snort; yeah, that seemed about right for the two of them.

"Great!" firmly, she grinned, "Then, I only have one more thing to add before we'd best be getting ready for this. Oh, uh, actually, two things - is tonight going to work for everyone?"

Eda shrugged lightly, "Criminals don't tend to have much on their agendas,"

King scampered over to her, "You say that like we aren't out at the Night Market or scamming someone most nights,"

"They're saying that we, at least, are, Luz," Lilith promptly summarised.

Then... She looked hopefully over at the rest of the group minus Hooty: he'd just go wherever Lilith was going anyway. Thankfully, none of them seemed dismayed by this rapid timeframe. Honestly, the way that Gus was grinning made her think he was revelling in it. Fair enough, a good heist did always get the adrenaline pumping. 

"I've never worked night shifts before, and I don't plan to start now, so yeah, I'm around," Willow chuckled.

"Eh... I was going to have a movie night with Hunter, but I guess if my talents are needed elsewhere..." dramatically, Gus embellished.

Hunter groaned, "Oh my Titan... It's fine, Luz. You wouldn't get far without me, anyway, so we can move our 'movie night' to another night,"

Gus stuck his tongue out.

Then, hesitantly, Luz spoke again, "Amity...?"

"Do you even need me to say it?" her girlfriend grinned, "Of course I'm in, Noceda! Have you ever seen me do anything but hang around and read books in the evenings, minus last night, anyway?"

Being relatively close to Amity, Luz was in prime hand-squeezing distance. So she, uh, did that. She grabbed Amity's hand and gripped it tightly in her own, interlocking and interweaving their fingers neatly.

"Thanks, guys," she half-sniffed, half-announced, "And in that case, onto my original statement..." she took a deep breath and smirked, "I hope you're all ready to be the best friends the Collector's ever had,"

To be honest, Hunter hadn't much of an idea of what they were supposed to be achieving, here. he was happy to get them into the Castle. he owed basically everyone who had been in that meeting! And even if he wasn't sure he ever wanted to see even a glimpse of his un- the Emperor again, he did want to hear that the man's plans had been foiled. That he'd failed, just like he'd proclaimed Hunter to have. 

So... He'd suited up into some more combat-appropriate gear that Gus had got him, and met back at the Owl House that evening, just as he was supposed to. 

Getting in wouldn't even hypothetically be the hard part. Hunter knew the scout patrol patterns, and they were sporadic. Funnily enough, walking around the Castle halls for even just a single hour at a time got boring. Especially when it was somewhat common knowledge amongst the ranks that Belos just saw all, anyway. Unfortunately for the scouts, but fortunately for Hunter and the rest, that last statement wasn't quite accurate: Belos saw only what he wanted to. He wasn't omniscient, just like he wasn't actually an emissary of the Titan. 

To the best of his understanding, the Emperor could use some kind of scrying spell, but he often didn't because, well, would you want to sit around all day spying on your mostly empty halls? Belos was a busy man, and he was usually tinkering with the portal door as of late. So Hunter was fairly confident in saying that he wouldn't notice if they just strolled straight through the front door. 

They weren't technically quite that careless, though. Everyone save for Willow and Gus would enter using invisibility glyphs. The Captain would get that front door actually open for them, saying that she needed to visit the Castle Library or such. Gus would be using an illusion to look like a scout, just to back her up. Then, once they were in, it was fair game to do whatever, really. Though, he had a feeling he knew what one of the jobs was going to be.

Even if Belos probably wasn't paying attention to them, someone had to go and assure that, didn't they...

But that was for later. He was actually stuffed around a corner from Willow, waiting for either her or Luz to give the signal for him and the others to use their invisibility glyphs (How the tables had turned from him trying to figure out what these things even were to using them himself...) and sneak past. He could just about make out the Captain's conversation with the scout manning the drawbridge and doors from here. (Thankfully, it wasn't Kikimora this time.)

"Hi, I'm the Site Manager for the Security Division," Willow had begun, "I need to be granted entry to report findings from my department on Inspector Blight's disappearance," 

Huh, clever, leveraging Blight's disappearing act as reason to be there. They couldn't exactly deny her now... Not when Blight had been the Golden Guard's intern. 

The scout said something, probably over the intercom, but Hunter couldn't hear it fully. he reckoned it was something like 'Come right on through' from the bits he did make out, though. He grinned nervously and began to watch Luz for the signal. 

It came in the form of the thief just taking a deep breath and then pounding her finger against the small square of paper she was holding. She vanished, just like that, nearly as soon as her finger made contact. Uncertainly, he tried to copy her, grabbing all his breath and holding it like he was using the water to sneak through to somewhere again, and then lightly snapping a finger (Freshly-gloved) against the strange symbol Luz had drawn. The next moment, when he could no longer see himself, he assumed he must have been successful and made a dash to catch up to Willow and Gus. 

They had all been warned about the risks associated with invisibility glyphs beforehand, so he knew that trying to breathe at this point would be stupid, and yet... Looking up at the Castle, his old home, he sort of wanted to just exhale deeply and then maybe start hyperventilating. Mercifully, he was able to keep his breathing, or lack thereof it, steady until they were well inside. 

After becoming visible again, they began to regroup. Really, they just had to wait for Willow and Gus to find their hiding spot (Up in the vents), then. They had made use of Luz's funny little earpiece things, but Hunter wasn't entirely sure he trusted them, in all honesty. 

Blight seemed to take note of his discomfort and sighed, "They'll be fine,"

He winced, "I... really hope so,"

She was correct, of course, perhaps having always been the superior detective of the two of them, and their two missing members were boosting each other back into the vents only moments later. They settled gently beside him, Gus clapping him on the back as he arrived and Willow giving him a winning smile. Gus's reinforcement was encouraging, gifting him confidence and Willow's little look was... He blushed. Gosh, he didn't know! It was just nice.

Luz looked eagerly between the lot of them, all squished into the vent's tunnel, "I guess it's go time, then. Everyone ready?"

Hunter sure hoped he was.

Chapter Text

Even when there really wasn't much actual air to go around, on account of the stuffiness that came from squeezing eight people and whatever Hooty was into a vent, Amity felt that there was still something of an air of finality permeating about. She didn't know if this was going to be the end. How could she? And she didn't know what exactly would be ending, if anything. (She hoped it was none of them, though.) Something was going to happen today, though, however minor.

Luz had pulled down her mask to speak and smiled nervously at everyone. Did she usually do that? Amity had only ever seen her keep the mask on during missions. But, then again, her identity had actually been a secret for a while... And she had always been in public (Or semi-public in cases like Eclipse Lake) view when the inspector saw her, whereas right now, they were all in a vent inside the walls of the Coven castle. No one was going to see her if they were even looking! Except for maybe Belos, but she really didn't want to consider that possibility too much.

"I think we split up at this point," Luz announced.

"Uh, Luzura, not to be too much of a downer, but that's going to be kind of hard to organise somewhere like this..." Gus grimaced.

Titan, they weren't going to go shuffling around in here, were they?

"I hear you, Gus, don't worry," Luz shook her head, "It's already too crowded, right? So with smaller teams, we have more room. We can just split ourselves in the order we're already in!"

Amity glanced around her. She was behind Luz at the front, and then subsequently in front of Hunter. Neither were really too bad options, then. But Luz also hadn't said how large their groups would be.

"How many?" promptly, Lilith questioned.

"Well, I can think of three jobs at this point, so three teams," not waiting for any of them to mill about on this, Luz continued with her usual bursts of energy and quick thinking, "Eda, you take Lilith, Hooty, and King with you and just go mess stuff up. I don't really care what that is, but it should probably be a good distraction. And Willow, you take Gus, Amity and Hunter up to the top and make sure that... Belos is kept busy,"

Sending Hunter against Belos probably should have been the biggest problem there. But unfortunately, Amity didn't have Willow's sing-track mind for keeping the old Golden Guard safe, so she'd noticed an entirely different problem.

"Luz-ura," she had to remember to quickly add the rest of the thief's alias on, "You're going by yourself? That... doesn't seem wise,"

Luz froze, "Well..."

King scampered hurriedly from the back, where he'd been with Eda, trampling on everyone's heads as he went. Amity winced as he landed on hers. "Nope! I'm going with her!"

"King..." the thief sighed.

"I'll be really sneaky and quiet, promise! And I've come on so many missions with you before... Come on..." he argued.

She scrutinised him for a moment before agreeing, "Fine, but don't go complaining that you'd rather be off causing trouble... And stay with me, okay? I... don't quite know what things are going to be like,"

"Kid, where exactly are the two of you going?" Eda called up from the back.

Luz grinned wryly, "To the Collector,"

In the smallest team? To the god? Titan, she really liked Luz, but it was at moments like these that Amity had to perhaps stop and question why. That couldn't even be a remotely good idea, surely! And although Luz had specified opposing the Collector then, what happened to not involving him if they didn't have to? What difference was opposing or trying to befriend him going t make if he was hostile?

She reached forward and grabbed her girlfriend's hand, as if that was going to stop Luz from tearing off on her mission, "Isn't that the most dangerous job of all?"

The thief shook her head vigorously, "Nah, that'd be dealing with Belos. That's why you guys have the biggest team,"

"But we don't even know how powerful the Collector is!" she protested.

"I'll get through to him. I know I will," confidently, Luz smiled.

"Luz..." she sighed.

"I've got this, Ams. And I'll have King with me, so he can end for help if it turns out the Collector can do stuff beyond just project an image," she promised. 

She shouldn't agree to this, right? It was an extremely risky plan, and... It was what Luz needed though, right? She sighed again. Luz thrived off of stuff like this. If she felt she was doing something for her mission, she would absolutely revel in it, no matter the danger. It was just who she was.

"Fine..." Amity relented, "But you better come back, Luz,"

The thief cracked a grin, "You won't be the only one after my head if I don't," she laughed.

She surveyed the group behind them, knowing they were all just as invested in Luz's safety as her. Eda, basically her mother... Lilith, her aunt... Willow and Gus, her best friends... Hunter... her confidant... (Something about going through trauma together bonded you tightly, apparently.) King, her brother... And Amity, her girlfriend. 

"You'd best count on that, Noceda," she nodded.

Luz chuckled, "Oh, don't worry - I am," she began to project to the rest of the group, "I trust there are no further objections, then?"

It was Hunter who spoke up, "Let's just get this over with,"

"Over with? I think I've been waiting my whole life for this," Eda preened, "But I get you, kid. Good luck with Belos. None of that lot will let him get to you, though. You know that, right?"

He fidgeted uncomfortably, "Of course, but..."

Amity turned backwards, "I've been there, man," she whispered, "It's not easy, but I swear, it'll feel worth the world afterwards. If you wanna try and swap, though..."

"No..." he took a deep breath, "I'd rather deal with this myself. I think I'd feel worse not knowing what was happening,"

"Then I'm going to need you to get us to the throne room..." she smirked.

He nodded, "Right this way,"

Amity waved back at Luz as Hunter slid out of the vent and began to usher them down a corridor. All these hallways looked the same to her, to be honest, but if they were distinct enough for him, great! 

Hunter was at the front of the pack, with Willow perched protectively behind his shoulder. Amity was side by side with Gus at the back. She supposed it was her job to keep a lookout from behind, then. Well, the place seemed fairly deserted, but she should still stay vigilant.

And, to be fair, she was getting almost bored (Only the adrenaline keeping her interested), so maybe the scouts had just given up patrolling. You'd have to be really invested, so perhaps like Hunter in the early days she knew him, to be able to properly complete your duties, she thought. Maybe that's why general scouts tended to be often sloppier than the supposed elite of elites should be. And she'd also heard they barely ever got any time off, so...

Hunter began to lead them up some stairs. Amity perked her head up. Going up must mean they were approaching the towers. She'd been up here the last time Luzura had invaded the Castle, hadn't she? They must be getting close. Unless, of course, Belos wasn't in his throne room. 

They were stopped before a large set of double doors. She could hear footsteps just around the corner, so signalled the group to take cover with a vigorous headshake and cutthroat gesture. Everyone got the picture and ducked out of the way. Gus had them covered too, spinning an illusion of them just being other scouts as soon as he realised what was going on.

Amity shivered as the people she heard passed. Amongst the small group, comprised mainly of three scouts, had been a Coven Head. Adrian Graye Vernworth. He didn't notice anything luckily, a testament to Gus's skills, she supposed, but something about seeing one of these high-ranking government figures just strutting around put her on edge. That was weird, right? She was about to see the Emperor himself, and she was still getting spooked by the vain likes of Head Witch Graye.

The doors were shoved open by the combined effort of Hunter and Willow and the soonest possible moment. They creaked a heavy sigh as they began to move, once again startling Amity. She blamed the adrenaline for her jumpiness.

The throne room was very grand, really, but it was also very empty. The torches were lit and that giant heart sitting above the throne was beating, but he, he being Belos, wasn't there. She turned to her teammates and grimaced. Hunter would have the best chance of knowing where else the Emperor would be, she supposed, but they were probably going to be at a disadvantage not having quite such a wide, open space like this. 

"Huh, guess some villains really don't just sit around lookin' pretty on their thrones all day," Gus shrugged.

Hunter faltered and then suddenly paled at those words, "He- He must have known something was up...! It's going to be a trap for Luz! Come on, we have to go!"

He was long gone by the time anyone could think to question him. Rest assured, Amity was certainly going to anyway, but him running and the fact that Hunter did objectively know the most about Belos kind of put a wrench in those works. 

Willow was the first to shake her trance of shock and take off after him. Not surprising, really; she was always the one to make sure he was really okay. Once again, gosh, wonder why that could be? If the situation had been any less serious, Amity would have chuckled as she began to chase after the two of them.

In the end, Willow had easily caught up to Hunter on account of her being the best athlete any of them knew (Seriously, check her Penstagram) and Hunter being a probably still-recovering, scrawny emotional wreck. She had her hand gently, but still firm enough to stop him from bolting, on his shoulder.

"Hunter, what's a trap?" she pressed.

Huh, someone beat Amity to the punch, there.

"If he somehow realised we were coming, after the investigation he saw Luz wanting to do in his mind, he'll have to know that she's making a beeline straight for the Collector!" urgently, he answered.

"You think he's staking her out?" grimly, she affirmed. 

"Luz?" a new voice called," She's not going to get very far anyway," Hunter froze," But all of you? Now there's a different story..."

Anyone would be remiss to not recognise that voice. Amity could hardly convince herself to turn worried about what she'd see. They'd lost the upper hand here if it was him... But, ah, who was she kidding? Who else would enter quite so dramatically, only to drop eerier and cryptic hints?

A misshapen chunk of greening flesh shot out from behind her. She jumped, beginning to regret not confirming the situation. Going for the centre of the group, like it was, it wasn't hard to guess who it was aimed at. However, as previously stated, Willow was number one in the protect Hunter squad. She deflected... whatever that was with a swift, rocketing vine.

Amity finally went to face her foe, already drawing Ghost out into her staff form, gaze set steadily. Belos was there, sure enough, standing grasping his wrist as green received up it, leaving some angry red marks behind. From... Willow's counter? The green stuff had been him!? Titan was that what Hunter had meant by his curse earlier!?

 "It's four v. one, Belos!" Gus taunted, "You sure about those odds?"

The Emperor laughed harshly, recoiling back upwards from where he had been tending to his wounds, "I know magic you all could only dream of learning, boy. And the way I see it, it's only four children..." he grinned sadistically at Hunter, "And one of them is hopeless at getting a job done,"

Amity stepped swiftly in, "Wow, I didn't know getting kidnapped made you hopeless at your job. And here I thought I was a good intern..." she embellished with a sigh. 

It hadn't really been much of a kidnapping, as was obvious to most people, but Belos wasn't to know that! Her disappearance was a mystery! If the Security Department hadn't cracked it, then they were in the clear here. And anything to take the heat off of Hunter, right? Amity knew she couldn't have stood up to her mother like she did without Luz; she was going to do the same for Hunter now. They were stronger together, right? Just like Azura told Hecate.

The Emperor watched her strangely, "The missing Blight? I'm sure your mother would be delighted to hear that we found out who took you. Shame I can't return you in one piece, then,"

At the mention of her mother, Amity lost all patience and strode forward with a sweeping gesture. They were just here to distract Belos, but if they could do some damage along the way... Who was going to say he didn't deserve it? (Don't answer that question; she knew most of the Isles would beg to differ.) 

The blade she formed out of abomination goo was matched in the air by Belos's hand twisting into a scythe. Such a transformation was both grotesque and fascinating to watch. It was so similar to abomination magic whilst still clearly being much older than the modern forms, and much more primal. And the way his actual flesh seemed to bubble... That wasn't natural. 

Gus winked and then there were suddenly clones of all of them, including Hunter, everywhere. All of the Willows were backing the Amitys up, for some reason. They seemed to make a good team, though. A jab from a furious plant was a lot more effective when reinforced. Belos seemed to mostly ignore them, though. She sighed. Why waste so much energy on one guy? he couldn't be that mad that Hunter had been forced out, by him no less, could he? 

"Surely you stand to gain more out of her safe return!" Hunter blurted, "And these other two, wouldn't it be more effective to make a public show of their deaths?"

Thinking back to what Hunter had terrifiedly rambled about the Emperor before, Amity could guess at what his game was here. Stalling by the getting the guy monologuing, huh? An old ploy, but one that seemed guaranteed to work on villains self-centred enough to believe they were always in control, like Belos. The way he only argued why the three of them should be spared was concerning, all the same, though. Where was the value of his own life?

"I care very little for the likes of Odalia Blight," the Emperor scoffed.

Well, at least they all agreed on that. It didn't stop Amity from going in for another strike, though. Such an attempt was still unsuccessful, but a stalemate was better than a loss.

"But someone like her would do anything to please you! Think of all that you could get out of her!" Hunter argued.

"I don't want to hear any ideas from you, boy," Belos tutted, "Traitors aren't to be trusted. And, besides," he smirked, an evil look that filled his features, old and wrinkled as they were, "I already wrapped her wrapped right around my finger! I have the whole Isles praising me and you expect me to kowtow to some upstart businesswoman?"

"The whole Isles?" Gus coughed, "Man, what planet have we been living on?"

Such insolence earnt the illusionist a lovely little personalised attack from the Emperor, who had finally taken his attention off of Hunter, apparently. Gus dodged, of course, but Belos attacked like that meant he had very decidedly not slowed down his assault to talk, and several clones were taken out in the process. Hmm, maybe she could change that.

She rolled her eyes and put on a grin that just screamed 'I am superior, you fools'. What better way than to fight arrogance with arrogance, right? They say don't fight fire with fire, but even a charred-up landscape will set alight if you engulf it with a powerful enough spell. "The same planet as him, of course," she sighed, "He's just too deluded to see it,"

Belos narrowed his eyes and washed out at one of her clones, "I'd watch what you say, if I were you. Calling me deluded when you spent most of your life fumbling around, following me blindly? Who's really deluded?"

"Still you," Willow chuckled, throwing a hefty vine over her shoulder, "Apparently you thought Hunter had even one evil bone in his body!"

The old Golden Guard let out an affronted sound. Something of a squeak really. Amity couldn't tell if it was from embarrassment, disagreement, fear, or all three. 

"I'm sure you feel so good about that too, Caleb," Belos remarked wryly, seemingly either crazy or talking to thin air, because none of them were named Caleb or even knew any Calebs (Hunter still paled at the name anyway, though. He must have known something...), "Is it really too much to ask for a family who won't betray me?"

Amity could feel her fury rising, "Family?" incredulously, she asked, "You think you have the right to call him family after how you've treated him? We've all heard about it! And that is not how family should behave!"

She tried to burn the edge of his robe with a hasty fire spell, but the Emperor's form could hardly be called tangible. He simply melted away from it and reformed behind her, as if he'd never even been stood there at all. 

"And would you know any better?" he chuckled elatedly, "Did your precious 'Luzura' teach you all about it? Ah, Miss Blight, I really wouldn't trust a word she says, if I were you,"

"Amity-" Willow tried to warn.

"What are you saying!?" she demanded, not sure if her quick response came more from the insult to her girlfriend or due to her morbid curiosity. 

"She's off to find the Collector, then?" he interrupted, seemingly on an unrelated note, "And here I thought I'd already given too much away! Strange what she does and doesn't put together,"

Gus, the real one, as his clones were all but destroyed at this point, met Amity at her side, arms crossed and brows furrowed; he was scowling intensely. Willow was moving behind them, probably off to help Hunter. She made neither of them any mind.

"Just get to the point," frustratedly, she grunted.

"Or at least just say what you mean, man!" Gus added.

"You would be no better than her..." he sighed, almost disappointedly, "Golden Guard, I don't suppose you'd be a dear and explain to these associates of yours what exactly my 'point' is?"

"Hunter...?" Amity mouthed, confused.

The guy in question quivered on the spot at the mention of his old title, but still brushed off Willow's hand from his shoulder and approached all the same. There was a kindling flame a fear alight in his eyes as he approached, she noticed. Was this how she had looked to Luz that day at Blight Manor? His movements also struck her as the way some lost tourist or the likes would approach a griffin ir a slitherbeast. They knew that some kind of predator was watching them, was plotting against them, but they had to wander through that area anyway.

He paused just when he got to behind Gus's shoulder before taking one more withering step closer, now also level with Amity. He stared at the floor as he spoke.

"I am not the Golden Guard anymore," he warbled firmly.

"No? Then who are you? Caleb, you were made to serve. Even a lost cause such as yourself should know that," almost amused, Belos scorned.

"It's just Hunter, now," bitterly, Hunter corrected, "A-And! You can deface me all you like! Call me names, tell me I'm a failure, whatever! I don't have to listen to you! But I won't stand by and listen to you drag Luz's name through the mud,"

"And another soul lost to their whims..." the Emperor sighed.

He leapt forwards, flinging his hand wildly out, as Amity could almost imagine Odalia doing as a slap, but from Belos, it meant it was an attack where his flesh began to shift and reach just as far as it needed to, fingers changing into bony claws that lunged and gripped for Hunter's throat. Willow was ready as ever, though. Neatly, she stepped over to be just behind Hunter and flung a counter over the old golden guard's shoulder, it easily deflecting the Emperor's strike, even piercing through part of the... whatever comprised his form when it looked like that.

"Luz is a good person, anyway," Willow argued, harshly, "Anything you say about her can easily be taken with a heaping of salt,"

He breathed deeply and unevenly as he tried to straighten up again, eyes twinkling with madness, glowing a brilliant blue (Just like Odalia's? Just like Odalia's.), "Really? Even if I told you she's been my best accomplice all along?"

Amity staggered backwards slightly. What? That... didn't make any sense! Luz was fighting Belos, wasn't she?

"Especially that," Willow countered, "That was a feeble attempt, at best,"

Belos shrugged as he slowly regained his composure, dusting off the grime clinging to his cloak now, "Well, I suppose saying stuff such as that out of the blue would make you doubtful... But I assure you, it's quite true - Luz has always been such a help to me. Even so far as to help me locate the Collector!"

"Luz would never do something like that! You're just messing with us," valiantly, Amity denied.

Hunter shook his head steadily, "N-no, Belos tricks people, yes, but that's... We're not the ones he's tricking. He tricked me. And... from what I gather, anyway, he tricked Luz,"

When!? And how!? Hunter only helped Belos because they were family! He felt that he owed the man something, and he'd been practically indoctrinated for years. But Luz? She had a sharp mind! And she'd always been a good judge of character. She'd have faith in Amity and Hunter, but then go on to be blatantly rude to Kikimora or, yeah, Belos himself.

But if Hunter insisted it was true... Actually, how would he even know, anyway?

"I didn't trick you, Caleb," The Emperor snapped, "I tried to save you!"

Willow narrowed her eyes and looked around, "You're delusional. This guy," she wrapped her arm around Hunter's shoulder, "This guy right here is not 'Caleb', whoever that is. He's not your pawn, and he's not whoever you want him to be,"

Gus exchanged a glance with Hunter. Amity got the impression that she, and quite possibly Willow were missing some crucial context here.

"This isn't even about him," disgustedly, Belos dismissed, "I don't want to hear any more talk of traitors, unless they're the kind that betrayed you to show me a way to the Collector,"

Gosh, Willow was right; he really was delusional, wasn't he?

"We've seen your writings on this, Belos! Luz wasn't even on the Isles on the date we first saw you reference the Collector!" fervently, Willow argued, always a believer in the good in people, evidently whether that was Amity, her old bully, Hunter, the man who served the biggest villain the Isles was facing for years, or evidently Luz under any kind of strange accusations.

"And you think one as tenacious as her is to be stopped by something like the linearity of time? Please, you were there too, weren't you? Time Pools ring any bells?" the Emperor seemed to laugh at the very insinuation that Luz could be stopped. Strange considering what he was trying to do.

At the very least, Belos seemed to have forgotten that he'd been attacking them amidst his crazy ramblings about urban legends and treachery. A good villain really did like to monologue, then. Did he think they would just give up because he was badmouthing Luz?

"That was four hundred years ago, man," Gus tried, "What are you on about?"

Four hundred what now? How much crucial context was Amity missing, exactly?

"I really do have to explain everything around here, don't I," exasperatedly, Belos shook his head.

"Look," Hunter stepped forward, shakily, once more, staring at the trio of Amity, Willow and Gus, "The details don't matter. The point is, Luz messed up a little bit, and helped the wrong person. She was tricked. But... that doesn't mean we should think any less of her,"

"One traitor preaching for another," mercilessly, Belos added in the background. 

Amity, and probably the other two too, was ready to go knock Belos out with a nice, well-timed strike to the head with the hilt of Ghost's staff, but Hunter had it covered. He swivelled on the spot, eyes still burning with fear, but also with the courage to face down that fear. He wasn't then looking at any of them anymore, but Amity could still somewhat feel his eyes on her. He was doing this because he could tell they were there to help him, then. 

"You know what, Emperor Belos? I am not a traitor. You showed me things you knew I couldn't handle and expected nothing to change. You showed me images of you messing with countless lives of my family and many others for years and expected me to just submit to you because of it. You showed me your plans to try and surgically rip out everything I hold dear in this world and expected me to stand idly by," he shook his head, "But I didn't just dig deeper into my own grave here. I behaved, as many would say any rational person would, and used that as a wakeup call, and now you have the audacity to claim that I betrayed you?"

"You were loyal," Belos hissed, "You used to want what was best for the Coven, for us,"

Hunter was stepping forward, to be right at the distance one would typically kneel before the Emperor, but was still firmly standing. He was shaking with defiance.

"Then what are you suggesting I want now? Because I know what that is, and it's that you leave me, my friends, and this Isle alone. I want to leave this ditch of depravity you created in the name of the Titan and go get a job where I can be happy. I want to wear what I want to wear, and style my hair how I want to style it. And I don't want to just be your substitute for 'Caleb' anymore! I am not Caleb, and I am not a monster!" fiercely, he proclaimed.

That was actually a really good speech. Did he rehearse that? Amity wished she'd had something proper and rehearsed to say to her mom when her time had come. She knew what she wanted to say, but it didn't quite all come out right, though. Hunter spoke with such purpose, though! Like a leader of a rally, like a wanderer swaying those of a far-off land to come and help them defeat a beast sieging their home kingdom. 

A wet, squidging sound reverberated around the room. Hunter staggered backwards with a grunt. Amity was worried for a second that he'd fully been impaled or something, and that the wet sound was his blood, but upon second glance, he was not bleeding nearly enough for that. And there was nothing sticking through to the other side of his body, so... Belos must have slapped him with that... goop stuff.

She darted to her old colleague's side, Willow closely behind her.

"Why can't you let me win just once, Caleb?" quietly, the Emperor growled, "Do you want to continue to die, over and over? Do you want to see her?" he grimaced, "That can be arranged,"

Belos dived forward with the grace and cunning of a raven, claws outstretched and reared into a wild position. There was a wanderer of this life, one still trying to find his place in this world straight into a collision course with him. But the wanderer had found people as he wandered; he found that, as the curtain of darkness that was the raven's wings descended before him, he had friends by his side. The raven was alone. Alone with his thoughts, alone with the dead, and alone with himself.

"No one's dying today," Willow promised, "I'll see to that personally,"

The Emperor narrowed his eyes and said nothing more, only willing now to fight, to attempt to wipe them out like he would the rest of the Isles if given the chance.

Amity, and the other three too, of course, fought back, naturally, but the inspector couldn't help but think of the futility of their efforts. They couldn't win against Belos; they had to all know that. But they couldn't afford to lose, either. 

She took a deep breath. No, she couldn't think like that. Not everything was on them, here. If things got too dangerous, Eda and the others would hopefully hear the commotion to come help. And... Amity had to remember whose team she was on here. Because Luzura Clawthorne could always pull off a good miracle.

The Collector really should have been harder to find. But, no, Luz had found her way into Belos's study where Hunter had described seeing the disk as if she was possessed, hardly comprehending what she was even doing. Neither she nor King spoke a word as they went, either. Although, Luz had a feeling her brother was only silent for fear of them getting caught, where her reason was a little different. In that she didn't know what it was, really. Perhaps the anticipation. 

Belos's study was a strange place, really. It was smaller than she'd expected from him, more cramped too, but still outfitted with many luxuries. The carpet was thick and of a deep, saturated red colour. The desk was polished and tidy. In the corner, there was a bookshelf, stacked with thick, hard-covered and bound books. She'd seen this shelf before, of course. Where else would she have gotten Belos's diary from? She wondered how many other of those books were written by him The crucial thing there, though, and the thing that she hadn't taken note of before, was the hazy glass disk resting flat on the top shelf.

She glanced over at King, resting on her shoulders so as to not tire his little legs, before hurrying over and standing on the tips of her toes to reach it. She heard him squeak lightly in excitement when she finally edged it off of the shelf. And then he was screaming with her when a strange sheen washed briefly over it and that figure, the shadowy projection of the Collector was bursting out. 

"What do you want?" he huffed, "I told you, I'm not in the mood for more of your-" he paused and watched them closely, his eyes literally expanding exaggeratedly as he did, "You're not Phillip,"

Luz shuffled her feet into the carpet, and placed the disk back down on a lower shelf, "Oh, yeah, definitely not. I'm Luz- Though, er, you might know me better as Luzura,"

King jumped as the Collector's form was suddenly flying over to a different wall, his legs swinging cartoonishly behind him as he began to chuckle. Luz didn't seem to be able to get a good reading on him. Everything about him now was so cartoonish and childish, but he'd seemed so... vicious before. He'd seemed child-like, sure, but he'd still been celebrating Phillip's death and destruction. It was hard to see that in him as he had begun to whine petulantly as soon as his disk was touched.

"You!" he giggled excitedly, "It's you! Aw, man, he complains about you and you two's little games all the time! Really makes me jealous,"

"They're not really games," affronted, King corrected.

The Collector was at her shoulder in an instant. It felt odd; his form was running over hers, but she couldn't feel a thing. Really like he wasn't there. But then he began to talk and she could feel the vibrations of his voice all the way down to her feet, as if they were echoing down from his true location.

"And you too!?" he gasped, delightedly, "I've always wanted to play with you!"

King stared, confused, "We've never met,"

"This is my little brother, King. Have you... heard of him or something?" Luz tried.

The Collector floated backwards. His arms stretched out behind him, still in a completely two-dimensional plane, and the strange silhouette of a hat stretched out into a question mark above his head. "You don't know who he is?"

"What?" she frowned, "I just told you who he is,"

He stared at her again for a moment, with a completely straight face, before bursting out in laughter, rolling and curling his way through the air as his little squeaks formed a sort of song around him. Luz turned her head to follow him as he went, not feeling safe enough to ever fully take her eye off of him. She wanted to trust him; he was just a kid, it would seem. But then, this was an ally of Belos, and she'd seen first-hand who the guise of a child could be deceiving. 

"Mmm, nevermind," he eventually let out, flashing back over to Luz, "So, what are you here for? Looking for ol' Phil? He's downstairs,"

"No, uh, Mister Collector, we were looking for you," nervously, perhaps taking in the appearance of this strange deity, King informed. 

The Collector's face soured, "Mister? Ugh, you're just as bad as him..." they started to kick their legs up, "So boring!"

King bristled uncertainly on her shoulder. Luz took a step closer. (Or at least, she thought she did; it was a little hard to tell with 2D projections.) Had she been... assuming too much about them? Belos always referred to them as 'he', but she could hardly cite him as someone who seemed like they would care for the pronouns of his minion/ accomplice unless it served him to manipulate them.

"Do you have other pronouns then, sorry?" carefully, she asked.

"Huh? Oh, those! You humans are fun...." they laughed some more, "I meant that it was so boring you trying to suck up to me like that, but now that you mention it... Phillip doesn't seem to really care, but I go by 'he' and 'they', actually! Using only one pronoun is also just so boring, y'know?"

"We can do better than that loser!" King immediately responded.

Luz took her time a little more, "How come you're so freely calling him by his name, now? I saw in that memory that you never once actually called him that. But you were going to, weren't you? That was the end of the rhyme before you cut yourself off,"

"The memory?" he frowned for a moment, "Oh! Right, you broke into his mind, didn't you? I don't really remember when you're talking about, though,"

It had been a stretch, anyway. Luz had kind of been hoping that the Collector had had some drama with Belos, and that was why they were suddenly so comfortable using his name like that. They'd claimed before that he 'Didn't like them saying that last bit aloud', with that last bit being some kind of name. Something had changed, at the very least.

"I was just under the impression that he didn't want you calling him that, is all," she shrugged.

They rolled their eyes, the white of them twisting into marble-like shapes and drifting over and across in smooth arcs, "I don't really care what he wants,"

"Then why are you helping him? Surely you could just, well, not leave, I guess - he'd still have your disk, but just not show up for him," Luz questioned. 

They wiggled their fingers excitedly and bounced around in a dance-like manner, "Because he's going to bring me back! Send me home! He's definitely still a complete jerk, but he knows what it's like to be away from home. That's why I know he's going to help me!"

Phillip did know what it was like to be away from home, yes. Or, perhaps, he once did. Where would a man like that call home now? He would obviously deny it being the Boiling Isles, just on the basis that this was a place for witches, but he'd lived here for four hundred years! The Human Realm would be completely unrecognisable to him!

Luz knew what it was like to be away from home too. These months she'd spent here had all been away from her home, too. But the difference was that she'd feel comfortable calling the Owl House her home in a way, too. The Human realm had her old life, her memories, and her mom, but it also was somewhere she'd chosen to leave behind. It was home, but not in a homely way. Not like the Owl House. Was that why the Collector related to Phillip so much? His prison certainly wasn't going to be much of a home.

"He and Luz are both humans, aren't they? They've surely experienced the same feeling of being an outcast, but Belos is happy to let her be even more of one by putting a bounty on her head! He fits in now, so he doesn't care!" King argued.

Where did the monster that Phillip had become belong? He fit in here now, a true wolf in sheep's clothing, but he surely didn't belong. But humans didn't turn into giant goop monsters with a thousand glowing eyeballs and attack young adults and kids on the regular. Or, uh, most of them didn't, anyway. It wasn't any more socially acceptable, put it that way. 

"She was breaking the rules though, wasn't she? Respect for that by the way - I love playing around like that! But it's still different. Phillip, ugh, tried his best with her, but he's not very convincing, is he?" they folded themself over backwards and shrugged. 

"Not convincing? What are you talking about? He's tricked practically everyone on the Isles at some point!" startled, she laughed.

The Collector abruptly straightened up and flew over to the ceiling, covering it all with the blanket fo his form, "What are you talking about?" he parroted, "You mean how he pretends to be a witch?" he showed images of little stick figures with pointy ears, one with deer antlers, an obvious Belos proxy, in the middle, "That was my work, actually. I taught him all kinds of magic!"

"Well, yes, I meant that, but..." she stared at the slightly fuzzy, slightly grainy, image of Belos the Collector had formed as it shifted slightly with them; it felt obvious that they were watching her back too from the way the eyes on each little person seemed to stare at you from any angle, like some kind of possessed Mona Lisa, "Convincing people to do things for him is kind of just a quintessentially Belos thing to do. I mean, just look at Hunter! And all of his predecessors, right? I don't think they even knew what they were fighting for!"

"And Lilith," King added, "She's talked to us about it - she really thought she was going t help people, or, uh, help Eda, really, by working her way up the ranks like she did," 

"Then he's good at tricking people, fine! I don't really know what that proves, though," they snickered, "I mean, we already knew he was a horrible person!"

And yet they continued to work with him. Why? They seemed to genuinely despise the man, but they had been the one to teach him the strange magic Luz and all of her friends had seen him exhibit, and they had been the one to go along with and assist with the Draining Spell plan. 

"It's important because how do you know he's not tricking you?" she countered easily.

They looked majorly offended by such an insinuation and flopped down off of the ceiling, peeling off of it like a plastic star, and reforming in their original, childish state right in front of her, predictably looking rather cross, "Because he pinkie swore me that he would help!"

"He promised Lilith he'd cure Eda's curse for her," bruskly, King disputed.

"But..." the Collector struggled testily, "I've been his friend for ages! For ages, and ages, and ages, and ages!"

"How would one actually go about freeing you, anyway?" curiously, Luz asked.

He froze in his little tantrum and eyed her, a mix between intrigued and wary, "Titan's Blood. It could rip through the fabric of this realm and take him to mine! Phillip needs it for his portal door to get home, too,"

Not his portal door...

The key she always kept in her jacket pocket, too afraid to leave it alone at the Owl House, lest it got raided, and too certain it could prove useful to bargain with again, like it had at Eclipse Lake, felt suddenly heavy again. Could she...?

"Do you know that would work? Where even are you? Er, physically, I mean," hastily, she began to inquire.

"Of course it would work!" indignantly, the Collector insisted, "It was that bully of a Titan who put me in here in the first place! If I didn't need something highly specific like that to get out myself, you think I wouldn't already be free?"

Luz and King turned to stare at each other, wide-eyed. Fortunately, the Collector didn't seem to notice their distress. Even though she knew her brother wouldn't be able to see anyway due to her mask, Luz found herself mouthing out what she had just heard. 'The Titan?'

"And then..." she continued roughly, "Where did the, uh, Titan, seal you?"

"Somewhere in between realms. It's all a little complicated for me, though. And lonely. Mainly lonely," he drifted away slightly, sadly, "There's no one to play with,"

"And if you were to find out that Phillip really had been tricking you about this all along..." timidly, she prompted.

The Collector's expression grew dark, all the bright whites of their eyes and mouth fading into nothingness, leaving behind only an empty silhouette, one that laughed cruelly and had fists shaking at their side as they spoke, "Then I would tear him apart, limb from limb, until only that pinkie finger was left,"

Luz stumbled backwards slightly, basking in the crushing weight of the Collector's crushing presence. It was a sore reminder that, yes, despite all these childish whims and desires and expressions he used, this guy was still a god. He may have been naively trusting in Belos for centuries, but if he was ever to find out the probable falseness of it, there would be carnage. Bits of Belos-shaped carnage.

"Not that that would work anyway..." they regained their facial features and sighed theatrically, "He would just pull himself back together with all those little goop molecules of his,"

"Well, he is lying to you," Luz blurted, before she could really stop herself, not wanting to keep anything more from anyone else after hiding Belos's identity from her friends so profusely, "I'm sure of it,"

The Collector's fac thundered, the tip of their hat arcing into little bolts that occasionally flung outwards and towards the ground, "What?"

Luz wasn't always much of a logical person, not like Amity or Hunter or Gus. She couldn't just give out a well-constructed argument proving that something Belos had done contradicted his supposed motive to help. But the Collector didn't really seem to be all that logical either. He was loud and exuberant and naive in his trust, citing a playground promise as solid evidence. She was a dolphin trying to live amongst sharks, and he was the very essence of the chaotic sea around them, letting even Belos, the orca, the cruellest and vindictive of dolphins, stay within his reach. 

They both didn't think in logic and argument, not like most people. But emotion... A confident optimism meeting a childish naivité. 

"He hurt me. I trusted him, two separate times, and each time he turned out to not be what I thought. It was hard seeing myself get manipulated like that, not once, but twice. I didn't even realise it until it was much too late and I was already in too deep on both of those occasions," she tried to communicate what she felt around each of those incidents, "The first time, he presented himself as the kind of person I just had a camaraderie with - I had to trust! A fellow human wouldn't betray me! I didn't find out until the second time that I was wrong,"

"But I do know who he is," confused, they tilted their head fully to the side.

She held up a hand to silence them, to let her keep talking, "And that second time was worse because it was definitely more deliberate on his part. He came to be, literally pretending to be that part of him that was still hopeful and naive and innocent and everything I wanted to see in people, and I took the bait. I knew that he was still Belos that time - I was in his mind, how could I not? - but it didn't really matter. He revealed his game in the end, telling me at length about the first time he'd tricked me too, just to rub salt into the wound,"

The Collector had gone back to just absently floating in front of her now. He remained silent, as if she was still speaking. Luz just took that as a sign to continue.

"I felt so stupid knowing that he'd played me like that. So easily as well! It seemed like he'd hardly seemed to try! I didn't trust myself for days afterwards, and I didn't understand why my friends still seemed to. After all, I'd been the stupid one, right? I did a little reflection, though, maybe I'm even reflecting right now, as I talk, and I realised some stuff - I can't control what I do and don't see, and I can't change what's done. But I can still keep trying and learning and helping," she took a shuddering breath, "So, yeah, I like to think I know when he's up to one of his games again, now,"

Their head was drooping by the time she was finished. She'd expected them to be angry, furious perhaps, after hearing their more violent ideas about how they'd deal with Belos earlier. But, then again, she hadn't really been mad with anyone but herself after she realised she'd been tricked.

"I don't understand..." they mumbled disheartenedly, "Why would he lie to me?"

Hesitantly, King jumped off Luz's shoulder to approach the Collector. Such a gesture probably wasn't really necessary, judging as the Collector was far from being physically here, but she understood the sentiment anyway.

"You said you taught him magic, right?" King affirmed, also turning quickly back to her, "And Luz, you theorise the draining spell was-"

"My idea? Yeah..." the Collector admitted, a touch impatiently, "Has he just been using me then? Did he ever plan on getting me home?"

"Well, as far as I can tell, he only first mentioned going after Titan's Blood recently. I, uh, read his diary after stealing it, and..." she trailed off.

He looked sharply up, "Did he know about it before, though? He told me he only just found out where it was! And then he didn't even bring any back!"

"It sounded like he'd been to Eclipse Lake before from the way he wrote about it, but I couldn't be sure, in general," vaguely, Luz answered.

His form swelled and shrunk and swirled. It was inconsistent, unable to simply settle on a single shape. An inability to process quite what they were hearing, Luz quickly figured. If the Collector had been working with Belos for centuries with the promise of freedom in exchange for their help, then that made sense. A few centuries was a very long time indeed. Longer than she could really comprehend, t be honest. 

But... She could help, right? Inside her jacket pocket, not one fo the other two stuffed with glyphs of all varieties, there was still that key in a small plastic bag. The glass eye on it had been neatly shattered in the very corner before, some remnants of those times still being visible in dark blue, crusted stains around the edge of the glass. It was sealed up with some plastic wrap now, and kept away in a small ziplock bag, just in case it leaked. But there was still blood inside. She'd used most of it for her trips to the past and into mindscapes, but not all of it. Enough for a trip home, she'd figured, so... Enough to help the Collector?

Eventually, they settled down, having gloomily sunk into the floor, the line making u their shape blurred and messy like the edges of a puddle, "So... I'm never getting back? I'll be stuck here forever?"

She paused, perhaps reconsidering the ramifications of freeing a god before deciding that this was what she was here to do: help this child, "No, hold on... I-" she pulled the key and its bag out, "I have some Titan's Blood. It's not much... And I was going to use it try and build myself a portal home at some point, but..." she smiled faintly, "You've been waiting much much longer,"

Gingerly, the Collector looked up. (Or, uh, really their face just appeared on the back of their head where it could actually see her.) His eyes were hopeful with the kind of innocence she really had expected from Kid Belos.

"You'd... do that for me?" cautiously, they asked.

"Of course!" firmly, she nodded, "it's just the right thing to do! And besides..." she began to smirk, "I think we could really help each other when it comes to Belos..."

"Oh-ho, yeah, there's a lot I'd like to show him..." they unpeeled themself from the floor and rolled up, grinning manically before abruptly sobering, "But you really don't have to give up your ticket home like that,"

"Huh? But it's like I said - it's only fair!" surprised at the maturity she was seeing from him, Luz argued.

He giggled, "No, silly! Not like that! I meant that you can keep your blood, and he," the Collector jabbed a shadowy finger at King, "Can help me! Then we can both go home! I... appreciate the thought, though. You're already way better than Phillip," their childish laughs turned to snickers, "I can see why he doesn't like you,"

Luz ignored that last bit of the comment, too busy focusing on what he'd said about King. Her brother could what...? But that wouldn't make sense unless he was... but no! King was so small! But then, wouldn't it go miles towards explaining his obsession with rulership and leading? So... If he was willing...

"I can do what?" baffled, King exclaimed, "I think you have the wrong guy! I'm just..."

"His son," the Collector finished, basically confirming things for Luz.

At the mention of his ever-missing dad, King perked up, "Whose son?" urgently, he asked.

"The one who put me in here!" the Collector huffed, "You look just like him, trust me,"

King looked a little- scratch that, very faint, "You mean... The Titan?" he warbled.

"Yup!" they answered, brightly.

Luz thought he was beginning to look a little queasy. Gently, she scooped him back up into her arms and gave the fluff around the base of his neck a friendly flick. He gave her a pained look, very definitely struggling to process.

She held a hand up to the Collector, "Would you mind giving us a moment? He, uh, didn't know,"

They looked at her with shy, pained eyes, "You'll come back, right?"

"Not even leaving!" she assured him, "We'll just be in the corner,"

He nodded slowly and drifted back over to the bookshelf, up the other end of the room to where Luz headed with King. Poor guy seemed so worried she actually would just abandon him after promising to free him, too... Man, the kind of damage being betrayed by someone you'd known for four hundred years did... She sighed as she reached the furthermost corner, not really sure if that was Belos or just the general situation.

"So..." awkwardly, she began.

"I can get you home, Luz...!" startled, King seemed to realise.

She ruffled his fur, "You can," she agreed, "But you don't have to. If you're... a Titan, you can do with that what you want. And, hey, if you do decide that's what you want, I promise I won't be gone forever, buddy," she winked, "If you can send me away, you can certainly still send me back!"

He stared at her sleeve, "Thanks, Luz..."

"And we'll have a proper talk about this later, okay? Kind of a big thing, so we'd be remiss to not, right?" she assured him.

"And we'll tell Eda?" anxiously, he affirmed.

"We'll tell Eda," Luz nodded, "And we'll figure it out together,"

King smiled shyly, mostly with his eyes, before turning to take a gander at the Collector. The guy seemed to be doing some combination of stretching and muttering to himself. All with the energy of a hyper-six-year-old, too. Though, they were a god... And would a projection even physically tire anyway?

"Do you think we're doing the right thing, helping them, here?" nervously, King asked.

Luz shrugged, "I don't think we'll really know until afterwards, but yeah. I think we're doing something good, at least. I think he deserves some people to help him just as much as you or I do,"

King seemed to accept that readily, but his poor little body was still shaking. Perhaps from the leftover adrenaline. Or perhaps he just was simply still reeling. Both of those would be fair. 

"Okay," he exhaled deeply, "Let's do this, then,"

She stilled her foot, tapping away at the floor subconsciously, and began to trot back over to the Collector. They didn't jump at her silent arrival, maybe not actually able to be surprised like that being a god and all, but simply spun their projection around, a Cheshire-like grin having spread across their face.

"So... You ready?" excitedly, he demanded.

"As we'll ever be," Luz acknowledged, "How are we doing this, then?"

They chuckled, "Oh, that's the easy part. Just follow my lead!"

The Collector then darted inside the shelf where his disk was waiting and hovered over it. Part of him seemed to be underneath it, but the tip of his finger phased through, causing the shine on the glass to ripple and hum uncomfortably. Luz wasn't really sure if King could see what was going on, to be honest. Or, more accurately, she knew he could from his place in her arms, but if he were to settle down on the floor... Not a chance. 

"Actually, " they zipped back over and shrugged flippantly, "You might want to hold it up, first,"

She complied readily, taking the glass disk once more into her hands, letting King slip out onto the floor, and crouching beside him , holding it thin-side-up. The Collector joined her on the floor, offering her one more cheeky smile before repeating their earlier action and sticking a finger, their pinkie, she quickly realised, through the glass. 

The second King seemed to take hold of that finger, the whole disk started to glow. It was swirling with light, cyan, pink, yellow, green - you name it. The Collector's shadow spread across the floor like some kind of ritualistic circle, spinning around unevenly, sparking with curves like that of the edge of the sun. The thickness of the carpet only served to distort his image more. 

Then, from the other side, Luz saw the tip of an accented finger emerge, curled into King's claw. The finger was the start, but then the rest of the body of a small, pyjama-clad child was pulled from the shape of this small, glass disk. The Collector's projection and shadow faded steadily as his real body was pulled out by King. 

The disk cracked right down the centre when the very last tip of his, the edge of his right foot, left it. She dropped it in alarm and stumbled back as the Collector took their first real in surely a very long time stretch and opened their eyes. A pair of red irises, much deeper and more heated than Hunter's, flicked rapidly back and forth between her and King.

"Uhm," she waved awkwardly, "Hi...?"

The Collector's true form was perhaps just as strange as his projection. He, as previously mentioned, seemed to be wearing some kind od pyjamas, complete with silly little shoes and a cloth cap of sorts draped over his head. His hair and eyebrows were white and fluffy and it reminded Luz of clouds. His skin was a striking yellowy-orange, though the left side of his face and ankle was marred with a much cooler, night-like purple, arced in the shape of the dark side of a crescent moon. And like she'd previously noted, his eyes were a stark red, though also surrounded by an otherworldly yellow. 

The last thing she noted was the little freckles on his cheek, shaped like stars. They were just the kind of juvenile she'd expect from his silly little outfit and demeanour, but seeing them for real on this childish boy really completed the picture for some odd reason. Despite the fact that this was a literal god standing, well not standing, floating, before her, with the height and face of a child, but powers of an eldritch being, all she could find her eyes drawn to were those freckles. They depicted such astronomical objects, but the infantile way that they had been drawn made this being feel more down to Earth than anything else.

They blinked owlishly at her before grinning, revealing a set of pearly teeth that seemed to twinkle like the stars in the sky; they clapped excitedly at Luz and King, "Heya! Nice to finally get out like this!"

"It's good to see you so... physical?" uncertainly, King tried.

They chuckled and bowed like a show host on a game show, "Thank you! Thank you... You're too kind..." they began to swing their arms by their side and hurried over to Luz's side, "Now, we going to go give ol' Phil what's coming or what?"

She shook their small hand warmly and laughed a little herself, "Oh, yeah, I've been waiting all day for this,"

"And I think I've been waiting centuries..."

Chapter Text

Having the Collector at her side should have made her feel powerful. Instead, Luz was more just anxious than anything to face him. She'd quickly realised, as she'd hurried down the Castle halls with King trotting at her heel and the Collector floating beside her, that leaving her friends alone with Belos had probably not been the best thing for her when she had things to hide. Things that... he knew... Things that he could hurt her and her friends with! And, oh gosh, not to mention the physical danger she'd put them all in. Ugh, she knew the plan had been to not think things through, but dammit, she Luzed things up again and not thought things through!

At the very least, they hadn't been hard to find. She'd run into Eda and co. first though, actually, She'd been following a set of noises, assuming it was the sounds of her friend fighting Belos, but nope! Just Eda rummaging around like a raccoon. (The second trail of sound she'd follow would lead to those she was looking for, though...)

When she noticed that the figures she'd rounded the corner on were, in fact, her pseudo-mother and aunt, she froze in place before waving at them cheerfully. The Collector hung around midair behind her, looking fairly confused as to why they'd stopped for some other crusty old person that wasn't the Emperor. King gasped delightedly and ran up to Eda when he saw her.

"Hey, kids!" she grinned back at them enthusiastically, "You find the guy?"

Luz pointed contently at the being behind her, "The Collector? Uh, in the flesh, actually! And he's going to help us with Belos!" 

Lilith adjusted her glasses and stepped forward slowly, approaching the Collector, "You're slightly smaller than expected, " dully, she noted, "But just as powerful! Look at the way reality seems to distort around you!"

Luz peered behind her, trying to understand what her aunt was even saying. Sure, well, the lines around the Collector were a little fuzzy, almost as if she was looking at the things just behind them through a glass of water, but distorting reality, really? Were they just throwing that term around? 

"Luz," he whined at her, "Why are we stopping?" 

"Sorry, buddy," she shrugged, "These guys are my family, so I guess we were just gonna catch up a little,"

But," he blinked owlishly, "We're in a hurry here, aren't we? Can't you do this later?"

Even Hooty was watching them strangely. He was quieter than usual, though (Stunned into silence?), so she should probably take her victories where she could get them. But... The Collector wasn't exactly wrong in his sentiment.

Belos was a live wire, a loose cannon, the match discarded by gunpowder. She trusted her friends to be able to handle themselves, but they were going to need help in the long run. She'd known that the Emperor was powerful before sending them in, of course, but the Collector had mentioned literally being able to reform himself from pieces. Now that was something on a scale she hadn't even thought to comprehend. Surely, then, only someone like the Collector could really stop him.

"You going to Belos, Luz?" Eda looked up from where she had been muttering something, probably crude, to King, "We can come with! He wouldn't be in with so much of a chance against all of us, surely,"

Her mentor had been the one to suggest this, but there was something reluctant about the way she spoke. Ah, that was it, then. She still had something she'd like to do. Well, Luz had the Collector to help, so Eda's harpy form wasn't likely to make much of a difference. And... If she could keep some more of her family safe...

"If you want," mildly, she agreed, "But honestly, with this guy, I think we'll be just fine already..."

Eda clicked her knuckles before rubbing her palms together excitedly, "Is that a no? 'Cause if so... You still want to go mess with Darius's makeup, Lily?"

Lilith snorted, "If we're really not needed..."

"I'm going to send Phillip ten feet under myself," defiantly, the Collector insisted.

Luz hoped that was something literal, not the, uh, colloquial meaning. She didn't want things to get too violent, really. If there was collateral, then she and her friends...

"Okay, then," Eda sighed, pressing forward to make sure she gave Luz a hug too, "Just stay safe, yeah, kid?"

"I mean, I can try... But, it's not really in my control what big, bad Belos does, y'know?" lightly, she argued.

"Still feels better knowing I said something..." her mentor shook her head wearily as she pulled away. 

King lept back over to Luz and scurried up her arm, landing, of course, on her shoulder. He waved at the Collector too, who resolutely shook their hand violently in King's direction. She supposed that was still supposed to be a wave, but this guy had been trapped with little interaction save for Belos for centuries; he probably wasn't exactly accustomed to most greetings.  And, well, she'd already known he was enthusiastic.

They trekked back down the way they came after that until they came upon a new noise to follow. Some sort of squidging sounds, some crashes, and definitely some good, ol' battle grunts. Luz looked over at King. This was definitely it this time, right? This sounded intense, and unless Darius was fighting with, Luz didn't know, Eberwolf (That was the Head of the Beast Keeping Coven's name, wasn't it?), then those awful wet sounds could only be Belos's... curse thing. She shuddered in memory, thinking of the sight of all the squirming palisman trapped in that amalgamated form, thrashing like bodies in a bag. 

Somebody screamed. It was fairly high-pitched, so Luz could guess that meant it was either Amity or Willow, but screams in general just tended to be high-pitched anyway, so that didn't mean much. Hunter and Gus were just as likely candidates as well, really. She paled at the sound and sped up her footsteps.

"That sounded like my friends," quietly, she exposited, mostly to the Collector.

They twisted their head around to watch her, "Not a good sign, then," still smiling playfully as ever, they nodded.

"No," vigorously, she shook her hands and head, "Not at all - we need to hurry,"

She started to bolt after that, the Collector easily keeping up, despite their small legs, due to the fact that, well, they were flying. 

"That's what I've been saying the whole time!" they huffed.

Fortunately (Noceda luck striking again?), the hallway her friends had taken up fighting the Emperor in was quite a central one. They found it quite quickly upon following the correct sounds of commotion, even. Only, to walk in and see Willow get slammed into a wall, but, hey, you had to take what you could.

Luz offered an apologetic glance to the Collector, hoping they'd understand what she meant, before rushing over to her friend. King jumped off her shoulder to remain with them. Hunter met her there, but Amity and Gus seemed to still be holding off Belos. The same Belos who seemed to have completely given up all pretences and had let his body morph into a form all too familiar to Luz. it bore the same shape and numerous crawling, glowing eyes as the palismen monster, complete with the same shaggy mop of hair falling dustily down the Emperor's back and those characteristic deer antlers crowning his head. 

She turned her attention to Willow. Also, none of the plant witch's injuries seemed to be too severe either. She looked a little banged up, and was clutching her ribs slightly woozily, but Luz honestly wasn't expecting any of her other friends to be doing much better either. Perhaps she'd made a bit of a mistake assuming distracting Belos was only a half the team job. 

"Captain!" Hunter panicked, his hands fretting about in the air. Willow smacked them down lightly.

"Ugh, I'm fine, fine..." she grimaced, "Just give me a sec..."

Hunter turned next to Luz, like a deer caught in headlights. More of a little baby deer, with no visible antlers or anything, stumbling around on clumsy legs, actually. A fawn more than anything. 

"Hey, Luz," shakily, he croaked.

She cringed, "Yeah, hey, man... I, uh, didn't mean to take so long... You guys aren't all this roughed up, right?"

There was a fairly red mark blossoming on the side of Hunter's face, just below his ear. And then a few cuts and scrapes across his forehead and the base of his chin. And, uh, was that Belos goop in his hair? Gross... His eyes were the worst, though. They weren't physically damaged or anything, but there was still something crushing in them. He was looking at her desperately like a drowning puppy. She looked away guiltily.

He shook his head, "I don't think so... Me, and now the Captain, mainly got the worst of it, anyway. Gus is too quick to really be caught, and Blight..." he smiled almost fondly, "She's a tough one,"

"You're telling me..." Luz snorted, an attempt at levity.

Hunter chuckled humourlessly, "Right, of course..." 

Willow groaned before managing to finally lift herself back up and crouch level with the other two. There was a crack in her glasses now, luz noted. Her braids were coming slightly undone, too. 

"You found him, though, Luz?" Willow pointed at the Collector, "That's, uh, him, yeah? And... he's on our side?"

She nodded absently, "Mostly. He just wants revenge on Belos, I think. Pretty understandable,"

Willow agreed wordlessly and tried to get up. She stumbled a little, but managed, of course; Willow Park was as tough as nails. Hunter was with her near instantly, shyly offering his shoulder as a support, were she to need it. Were it not for the mask, Luz would have had to hide her knowing smile when Willow accepted.

Then someone, well, not someone, Luz could recognise voices just as well as anyone else, so she knew this was the Collector, but anyhow, someone began to yell. 

"Playing without me, are ya?" cheerfully, but still harshly, they spoke, voice loud and echoey.

All of Belos's many eyes snapped away from Amity and Gus and turned to the origin of the voice in sync. It was creepy: they behaved just like human eyes as they moved, but the body they belonged to was decidedly not human. They widened slightly, probably in surprise, before narrowing, going much further inwards than before in steep lines, again. Slowly, he twisted his neck around so that his main pair of eyes, and more importantly, that decaying jaw he called a mouth, was in the right direction.

"Collector!" smoothly, Belos carried a statement off, "I see you've managed to... free yourself! How... delightfully unexpected!"

Luz saw their fists clench tightly at their side. King, who had been right at their side, stepped away uncertainly.

"Unexpected because it wasn't supposed to be possible or unexpected because you didn't want it to happen?" he growled.

Shoot, shoot, she should have thought before letting the Collector loose on Belos. It had been literally minutes ago when he'd claimed to be willing to Belos's very molecules apart. Letting him do as he pleased with all of his not-inconsiderable power whilst her friends (And her, she supposed) were around was a risk she wasn't willing to take. Luz scrambled up and brushed past King to reach him. 

"The former, of course," slyly, Belos nodded, jaw clenched too tightly for it to be fully convincing, though, "I assume Luz gave you her aid?"

They landed on the floor and approached him swiftly, "She did more for me in twenty minutes than you did in centuries!"

"Semantics, Collector. Our centuries were still well-spent, were they not? And you know I was trying my best to find Titan's Blood," he gave off the impression of sighing sympathetically.

"Well, your best wasn't good enough, Phillip!" they spat, "And... it wasn't ever your best, was it? I seem to remember someone telling me recently that you knew about Eclipse Lake the entire time!"

Luz watched as Amity and Gus silently retreated over to the others at the edge of the hall. She waved briefly at her girlfriend who, to her credit, did return the gesture wearily, but she was still left at the main scene herself. That was fair, to be honest, but even if she was expecting too much here, god, was it too much to hope? 

"Well, someone must have been lying," calmly, Belos insisted. 

Luz stepped forward, "If that someone's you, then sure," she responded hardily, "But if not? Then the jig's up, man. Can't really take back what I already said,"

Unhurriedly, Belos morphed back into his original shape, leaving the horns until last, only just starting to shake them off when he began to approach. His footsteps were poised and regal, like one would expect from an Emperor.

"Luz..." he sighed, "Oh, Luz... I offered you everything you could ever have wanted to get from me, and this is how you repay me?"

"She doesn't owe you anything!" King retorted heatedly.

He regarded them coolly, "No, I do suppose not. After all..." he trailed off to fix her with a twisting grin, "I should really be the one in your debt, shouldn't I?"

The sort of grim smile she'd been wearing dropped and she felt her hands begin to shake a little inside her pockets. Her friends were right over there! And not to mention the Collector! He... If he was this quick to turn on Belos? What was he going to do to her?

"And mine!" angrily, the Collector shrieked, abruptly interrupting.

Belos shot them an irritated glare, "Right, you've been such a dear help, Collector," wryly, he mocked, "Whining at me, pestering me, bothering me as you have done all these years..."

They swung their finger forward and halted him where he stood. Belos struggled against the invisible restraints the deity seemed to have applied, but only succeeded in making his eyes bulge uncomfortably. Luz averted her gaze.

"You'd be a pile of old bones by now without me!" they huffed.

The grip on him was loosened just enough to let him talk, "Oh, of course. I must thank you for that. I'm sure it feels most gratifying for you, now,"

The Collector must have realised what exactly the implication of that was, because just as suddenly as he'd begun to exercise his cosmic means of magic, he had let Belos go. Instead grinding his foot into the tiled floor with little, but surprisingly forceful stomps. Luz winced as the crack split cleanly through the point of impact and travelled all the way down to just before King's feet. her brother jumped and hurried over to her. 

"It'll feel gratifying when you're in pieces!" cheerfully, they promised.

Luz was more surprised by the sudden change from unbridled fury to this than anything. the Collector had always seemed to operate on whims in the short time she'd known him (A habit she could at least relate too...), but this was shocking. Somewhat of a reminder of quite how much of this was still a game to them, though. Because they weren't really in danger, were they? 

Luz and friends were vulnerable, extremely so. Belos could tear them down physically, throw them in his prisons, sway the public support against them and evidently crush their hopes by way of sly words. But he could't harm a god like the Collector. And he couldn't contain them any more than he could get the public to do anything about such an extraordinary being. that sharp tongue of his was still there, but Luz had to wonder if some of its silvery nature was lost on the Collector's childish demeanour anyway. 

Belos only just had time to brace himself (And by that, Luz meant cover and meld his form into mouldable goop that could take a hit much better than breakable human bones) before he was slammed straight into the roll. She looked over at the Collector in awe. They had only just moved their finger! A slight swing! And...! Well, Belos was indeed in multiple pieces. He seemed to be reforming, as predicted, but that was a little tough when clumps of green gunk were scattered just about everywhere in the hallway. Still, the large patch on the wall where Belos had been writhed and occasionally glinted blue. 

Hunter squeaked breathlessly behind her. She turned and began to frantically shake her hands in way of an apology. Amity stared at her, eyes wide.

"There!" the Collector swung their legs forward and blew a raspberry, "How's that feel!? You want more?"

"Hey, uh, Collector-" King tried to begin. 

A head formed on a small horned creature, just on the ground, its form growing larger as it began to talk due to the dripping green line on the wall behind it. 

This served to make Luz feel acutely aware of her friends behind her. Her friends who, once again, were tired. They'd been left to fight Belos for the entire duration of the time she'd been with the Collector. She'd witnessed Willow take a tumble. She'd seen the scrapes on Hunter's face. She'd noticed the way Amity and Gus carried themselves as they retreated. 

"Vindicating," horrifically impassioned, Belos hissed, "You made me into this, you know,"

Luz stepped in, in what she hoped was, confidently, "They didn't make you a monster. They didn't ask for your humanity,"

"I only asked you for one thing!" fierily, the Collector agreed.

The shape of the Emperor began to rise and reform, his body gruesomely twisting into its original image, "One which, if you recall, I was going to fulfil," he shrugged, "Not my fault you got impatient,"

She could see the moment the Collector made to retaliate that time. His finger twitched uncomfortably at his side, so similarly to how hers would when she was getting irritated, and began to subtly rise. But as she said, she saw it coming this time. And she saw a lot of herself in that instance; always ready to make that impulsive decision that really, in the long run, was probably not going to help anyone. And she knew she'd usually end up regretting her mistakes. For a long time, too. She didn't want that for him, if that was indeed how he thought.

Swiftly, she reached up and grabbed his wrist in a vice-like hold. A risky plan, really, but if it would stop him... She's sort of expected his skin to feel warm, or perhaps even notably cold, to the touch as he charged up his strange power, but no, it was just like earlier - just normal. A child's wrist. She felt bad holding it down like a handcuff.

"L-Luz!" they gasped, seeming a little hurt.

But she refused to clamp down any less.

She grimaced apologetically, "Sorry, buddy... But this isn't the way to go about things. We have to be... tactical,"

King bounded over and leapt onto the Collector's shoulder. Luz wondered if that was he was of helping her or soothing them. "Hurting him will only help you feel better now," he offered, "Trust me, it's not as gratifying as it seems,"

"And it's not going to stop him from hurting people like you or us again. We need something more... permanent," she added.

"But... He deserves it!" they protested, "And you heard him! I'm the reason he even knows how to control this all like he does!"

She sighed, "Then blame me," she looked over at her friends as she spoke. they didn't seem too surprised, actually. Had they already known? Heh. She had never been particularly good at hiding things... "I... I'm the reason you two even met,"

The Collector faltered, expression cycling rapidly through something. though not quite as literally animated as when he was still in his projected form, there was still something open and shut about his face, easy to read like a book. He was confused And hurt. And worried? Maybe? And then angry again. And then... Something else. Indignance, it would appear.

"Then why won't you let me fix things for you? This... That's the incident you told me about, right? The one where he tricked you? You should be mad, Luz! We should be done playing his game, and I want to choose my own! Don't you?" they rambled.

Hold on, rambled? How could the three of them sit here so freely and argue like this? Wasn't Belos...? She looked over at where the Emperor was supposed to be. There was someone there with him. Hunter. 

He seemed calmer now. She couldn't hear what he was saying, but it seemed cut from the way Belos's rising shape occasionally recoiled and spluttered. Good for him! He deserved to let that old man know exactly what was going on. Gus was watching him too, she noted. Probably Willow as well if she had to guess, but she didn't really have time to stop and check. It was nice to see that he had a good backup. 

And then Amity was once more at Luz's side, shyly letting their hands entwine, "Because that's not who Luz is," she spoke clearly.

The deity whirled around, likely wondering who exactly this girl was, "Well it is who I am! I want things to be about me for once! I just want to play! And I don't want someone like him around for that,"

"Neither do we!" exasperated, Amity exclaimed, "But you'll end up ripping this whole place apart before you even do any real damage to him! And I know what I'm talking about here - I've been trying to rip him apart myself for the best part of the last hour,"

A new solution was what they needed. A way of stopping someone without killing them. Just incapacitating them, then. Hm.

"I guess you just weren't trying hard enough!" he pouted.

Hold on, just incapacitate? A permanent incapacitation, huh? Why did that sound so familiar!? 

"Or maybe you need to back down and admit that Luz is right! And seriously? We just met! No need to be so rude!" Amity chided at practically a growl.

Wait! That was it! Petrification! She'd- In Belos's diary, he'd mentioned how the spell worked! If she could just be bought some time, she could surely figure out how to reverse-engineer a glyph for it, right? Belos couldn't reform if his body was made of stone! And petrification could hypothetically be undone, no matter what Belos claimed about it, if they never needed that, for whatever reason. 

"Uh, Amity-" King squeaked.

"Wait! Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait!" Luz cheered, "I know how we can stop him!"

"I thought you were against killing him?" huffily, the Collector protested.

"Okay, one, I told specifically you to stop because I was worried about what could happen in the process!" her voice grew a little raw, "I wouldn't want you to have to live with a castle full of people's deaths on your hands. Even if you don't get why that matters," she offered them a small smile, "And two! This isn't killing him!" 

"What then?" he paused, "It's not like... befriending him or something, is it? That's basically what you did with me, but we're both actually good people! Phillip wouldn't be in a thousand years!"

She wrinkled her nose, "What? No! It's petrification! Giving him a taste of his own medicine, as well!"

Amity gasped beside her. Her girlfriend's eyes were wide, well wider than they had already been (Something about being in a long period of stress where you had to be constantly vigilant did that to you.), but sparking now with hope. Confused hope, but, uh, hope nonetheless.

"Can you... really do that? I mean, doesn't Belos have a machine for it?" dubiously, and somewhat hesitantly, Amity was the first to respond.

Luz shook her head vigorously, "You don't understand - I know how he does the spell! I can turn it into a glyph!"

The Collector stared for a moment, "I want to do it,"

"What?" she looked sharply over at him. 

"I want to be the one to cast it," they repeated, a little more clearly.

"You... know how to use glyphs?" hesitantly, she affirmed.

He swung his little hands onto his hips, "I've been around longer than them! Of course I do!" 

She watched him reproachfully for a moment. On the one hand, this would be the way to go to settle things for everyone. But... Don't get her wrong, she trusted the Collector to some extent, or more accurately, she trusted in his innocence enough to believe that he wouldn't cause any real damage, but at the same time, could she take that risk? How would one even know how glyphs would react in the hands of a god? What if the whole room ended up a stone prison?

"Okay," she agreed anyway, because who was she to deny a child who hadn't been given anything in centuries? "Just, buy me some time whilst I figure out how to do it,"

They grinned and began to laugh, "Gladly,"

"What do you think I've been doing this whole time, Luz?" Amity teased with an eye roll.

She snorted, "Yeah, yeah... Don't go getting too big for your boots, Blight - I think you're about to be outdone,"

"We'll see about that..." Amity twirled her staff in her hand for a moment before dashing off after the Collector who had gone cartwheeling off in Belos and Hunter's direction. 

So it was just Luz and King again. She sighed and quickly settled into a crouch, whipping out a pad of paper to write on. King settled beside her, watching quietly. 

The urge to just start scribbling out the outline of a head was strong, as ever, but Luz resisted the temptation. Instead, she steadily sketched out a neat circle, feathering her lines as she went. They said that anyone who could draw a perfect circle was insane, and perhaps she was at this point, but enough practice and it felt as though the pencil just drew the shape for her, honestly. And perfect was relative, here; no one was exactly going around measuring it. 

Finding new glyph combos was like a puzzle for Luz. Every spell you could possibly imagine being done in a crazy place like the Boiling Isles was possible for her to draw out, many would just need a sheet of paper many times larger than this. It was like writing in some sort of code, linguistic or computing, both analogies worked. So, if she knew the components of the petrification spell... Slowly, she sketched out the shape of an ice glyph. Frozen. And then another. Permanently. Or semi-permanently, depending on who you asked. 

"Luz?" King asked timidly, "Is this actually going to work?"

She shrugged, "Won't know until we try,"

Some plant glyphs would be needed too, actually... A petrified being was still technically... alive, after all. 

He sighed gutturally, "I know... That's the worst part..." 

"This won't be like with Eda," easily, she promised, "It's kind of the reverse of it, actually!"

When King didn't respond, she left him to his silence and carried on drawing. She would have pulled him in a little closer for a nice hug, but, well, you could never be too careful when conjuring a weapon like this one. What if she did it right and then he put his little paw on the design and then- She shook her head at the thought. No, that would not be happening. 

Looking at her complete creation as she finished, she wasn't sure she liked it. Even in its pattern, this glyph just wasn't as aesthetically pleasing. And she was just a thief! And an inventor, really. She'd never designed such a... violent glyph before.

Hesitantly, she ripped the page clean out of the book and stood up. King eyed her nervously. 

"Is this it, then?" he spoke up.

"I think so,"

The Collector was, for lack of a better way of describing it, playing with Belos as she began to move over to him. The Emperor was being tossed left, right, and centre and the god distorted gravity and zapped him around. All relative to them, she supposed. Relatively easy, that was; having that much power always available would surely make stunts like these not really feel like much. 

Amity, contrary to her words, was not, in fact, proving herself against Belos. Instead, she was stood in front of the other three of their group, guarding them closely. All three looked a little bit on the queasy side, and now that Luz could see Gus up close, yeah, he didn't seem to be doing as well as she'd thought. Good thing it'd all be done with, soon. 

"It's ready!" she called out to the Collector when in distance. 

They practically warped over, their hand stuck firmly out in front of her demandingly before she could even blink, "Give it!"

This was really not the time for this, but... Ah, who was she kidding? Belos was too busy squeezing his face back into shape right now, wanting to look his best as he tried to defeat a bunch of teenagers or something.

"Come on," she chided, "That's not the way we ask for things..."

They blinked at her, "What? This- Huh?"

Oh, right... That was a thing for children raised with actual parents at best, and a human custom no one here would understand, at worst.

"Nevermind... Just a quip about asking for things politely," she dismissed.

"Oh," they frowned, "Can I... Please have it, then?"

Behind them, Belos clicked his neck into place with a satisfying snap, and began to lightly growl. Little stumps of antlers were sprouting, seemingly involuntarily from the way he tried to shake them off, from his forehead.

"Yep!" she answered hastily, pressing the little sheet of paper into their equally little hands. They looked at the design as if mesmerised for a moment, before evidently taking note of the Emperor too and heading grimly, as grim as someone like them got, anyway, over. "Just press the outline!" she reminded them as they went.

God, she sounded like Eda...

She wanted so badly to say that was that, and that Belos hadn't even realised what was coming, too. But things didn't exactly go that way... She couldn't say whether he'd overheard them or simply recognised the glyph itself, as likely its inventor, but it was obvious that something had placed the idea of petrification in his mind. 

The symbol Luz had drawn glowed brightly once the Collector had tapped it, and Belos immediately went stiff, the stone pattern beginning to slither and creak up through him from his boots like constricting ivy. A raven was not scared in the face of death, though. Belos reached calmly under his sleeve and twisted his arm. The glyph was working quickly, but whatever Belos was doing was quicker. His arm began to swiftly convulse, jerking around as if something was alive under his skin, and a red light escaped from beneath the fabric covering it. 

And then Belos was no longer the only one set to become a statue that day.

Petrification was not as painful as you'd think, Luz found. But it was also immediately obvious that something was happening to her. Imagine, if you will, suddenly losing all feeling in a part of your body. Not in the pins-and-needles kind of gradual, creeping way either. Belos started his spell, and then she stopped being able to feel her feet in her boots. She couldn't feel them. She couldn't move them. She could scarcely even tell they were part of her, at this point. 

It was obvious that her friends noticed. They all came bursting over, Amity leading the charge, with shared looks of horror. She gripped the fabric of her cloak tightly and stared, gaze torn between the layers of rock her legs were turning to, and the Collector, still in the process of using the glyph. They were blissfully unaware of what was happening to her, too hyperfocused on their task to notice. 

At least she'd been a little untruthful when she'd said the process was fast, earlier. Or maybe untruthful was the wrong word choice; maybe she'd just not noticed how slow, agonisingly so, it all was until it was happening to her. She blinked back a few anxious tears when her friends began to talk. 

"Luz-!" Amity called, desperately.

"Does- Does anyone know any healing magic? We might be able to stave off the process!" frantically, Hunter suggested. 

Belos had raised his arm up, so that his arm, the one somehow casting this spell, was at the highest point of his body, thus meaning it would be the last thing to be engulfed. She would have grimaced if she felt comfortable enough to try moving more. That would require her to notice the parts of her that were stone-cold and still, though. 

"Guys..." she sighed fondly.

"Hey, no, none of that!" hastily, Willow warned, "Don't give us one of those 'It's alright, I did my thing etc...' speeches, Luz. This is not it for you!"

"Yeah, you're not- You can't leave me now, Luz! you promised..." King looked up at her with big eyes.

"Hey, hey, I'm not really going anywhere, right?" she joked lightly. Nobody laughed. Somebody might have sniffled a little, though. "There's not really much I can do now, but if the Collector finishes the spell quick enough-"

"We can keep things running for you 'til then!" Gus agreed heartily, "It's like Hunter said! Anyone know any healing magic?"

Gus was an actor: he was good at keeping up under pressure and still presenting as normal. But even he was cracking a little now. Luz could hear his panic in the way his voice cracked a little and he put a slight laugh on the end of the statement. It felt forced and out of place, very much like something put there in an attempt to achieve something, to misdirect.

Amity grunted in frustration, "My- My sister does! But she's not here! I left her, and- Argh, I should have asked her to teach me some or something first!"

"Come on, Ams, we're in public! It was a kidnapping, remember?" faintly, Luz quipped, eyes darting straight to her girlfriend, not wanting to look down at where she was feeling, or more accurately, not feeling the petrification reach her stomach.

"Wait, if I'm a..." King trailed off, "Maybe my blood can help!"

"No, no, buddy! That's not something we should just try like that! Besides, that helps magical things, right? And I'm..." she moved her arms whilst she still could, philosophy on whether moving was good or not right now doing a complete 180, and gestured at herself, "...Not that,"

"Then what-" Willow began, only to be cut off by Hunter, holding his palisman out in his hand. They seemed to still be talking right then.

He swallowed thickly, "Flapjack says they know a way,"

She sighed again, "No, guys, I told you - you just need to focus on the Collec-"

Amity looked up sharply, "Then what are you waiting for!?" 

Hunter frowned and looked at Flapjack for a moment longer before taking them in hand, in staff form, and wincing apologetically at her, "Sorry in advance if I get this wrong,"

She tried to shrug as best she could (A little hard as her ams were currently seizing and freezing up under the weight of stone), "Not like you can make things much worse,"

A spell began to be cast on her. Another one, that was. Hunter's face held an expression fo extreme concentration as he worked gently, in tandem with Flapjack, to press some kind of golden force against her. It looked silly, and though it really shouldn't be doing anything, but she also really couldn't deny the results because she could feel it.

She strained, "Can... Someone keep an eye on the Collector? I don't want them to freak out and stop..."

King nodded quickly and bounded over to monitor the deity. Luz breathed a sigh of relief internally; King was really the best one for this job, anyway. He knew the Collector the best aside from Luz, and well, had some kind of Titan power (probably) if needed. The original Titan had supposedly been the one to defeat the Collector before, so really, Luz had nothing if not faith in her brother. 

"Is it... working?" hesitantly, Amity asked.

Willow's eyes flitted between Luz, still just about alive and breathing and not-petrified and Hunter, zoned out from the rest of them in concentration, "I think so? At the very least, it's not progressing like it was,"

Luz chanced a look down at her torso. Sure enough, Willow seemed to be right; at the borders of her living flesh and the stone, a golden barrier seemed to be holding it back, and it was more so still creeping up like the growth over time, not weeds. 

"Just- Don't panic too much, yeah?" she advised, "We need cool heads here - we're right at the end of it all,"

Amity snorted wetly, "That sounds so weird coming from you,"

Luz shot her a look.

"Hold on, I think..." Gus's eyes widened at something in a direction she couldn't really see (Or turn around fully enough to look at), "I think they've done it,"

She felt what he meant much more than saw it. Because suddenly her chest was rising and falling again with breath and she could I organs going all funky as stone receded down her, pushed harshly against by the remnants of Hunter's will and Flapjack's magic. 

When she finally could look at the handiwork of her team, there it was; the Collector lording triumphantly over a statue of a man with a cruel face and deer antlers. 

The Collector was celebrating. King was cheering them on. Luz felt a sense of relief for multiple reasons. Amity was practically crying out of a mix of worry and also relief. Gus was anxiously hobbling around, celebrating vocally. Willow had only now begun to relax once the danger had been cleared. Hunter stared blankly at the statue of his uncle.

There was so much there, really, but all Luz could feel was more of that overwhelming relief. She'd done it! Saved everyone! The Collector wasn't wrecking the building, Belos wasn't twisting her friends physically and emotionally, and Luz herself was... still around to see the result! She clutched at her jacket's sleeve, glad to feel the true sensation of fabric.

It was... over?

No more threat to the Boiling Isles? No more attempted genocide at the hands of a madman, or crazy schemes from the mind of a god craving attention and friends. 

No more... Luzura.

Huh, that sure was a bittersweet feeling.

The Collector flew over, "Luz!" he shrieked, "Did you see! I did it! He's gone!"

She coughed lightly, her throat feeling a little (heh) gravelly, "Yep!" she lied, also hiding the way she was practising flexing her fingers again behind her back (They didn't need to know what had only almost been the case - it would only serve to upset them.), "Great job, man!"

They stared with wide, red eyes, "Are you... proud of me?" they asked, slowly.

The answer was easy.

"Of course!" she surveyed the room heavily, wanting to offer each and everyone one of her friends' gratitude for everything they'd done for her today, "I'm proud of us. I'm proud of all of us,"

And, huh, she supposed that included herself too.

Willow was the one to come find him after it was all over. Luz and Gus were coaching the Collector on how to deliver a speech, so the rest of the Isles could understand what had just happened. Blight was off Titan knows where doing Titan knows what. So when Hunter was left to go trudge somewhere to reflect a little, it was the Captain who located him and offered to take him back to her place. He didn't have it in him to argue, and it wasn't like he wanted to, so he readily agreed.

There was a somewhat hollow feeling swelling inside him. Belos, his abusive uncle and the evil emperor of the Isles, yes, but still someone he'd known for all of the parts of his life he could remember, was gone. Permanently. 

There was a chance someone would figure out how to reverse petrification, of course, but for now, it was like the sci-fi concept of cryogenically feezing someone, but without the potential to safely unfreeze them. So, yeah, Belos was gone. His family, his biological one that was, was properly gone now. The spirits of his predecessors and that original one, Caleb, could rest easy now, he supposed.  

 Upon arrival at Willow's apartment, she ushered them hurriedly both over to the bathroom sink to clean up a little. Titan, he was really a mess right now... Not quite as bad as the time when Gus had first found him after... But still not really a state he wanted the Captain to see him in! 

He rounded his hand around the faucet rapidly, and twisted until there were spurts of water being released. He then scooped as much of that up as he could at a time and used it to scrub the grim off of his face, thin the rims of small scrapes, and generally just cool off a little, Willow seemed to be doing something vaguely similar next to him, but with a little more grace and dignity. Or perhaps it was just less desperately.

It was when he got to cleaning his hair that he first became aware of the feeling. The bits at the back had gotten a little longer as of late on account of him not really trying to maintain them when with Gus, and not having time to care during the Luzura case. It wasn't that noticeable, but... Looking now, he could imagine what it would look like in a few months more time when it would be curling out from underneath his head and flopping down to his shoulders. And he would look like him. 

But if he was gone, then would Hunter have to succeed him? He didn't want to be like Belos, he really didn't. He couldn't be like Belos, killing his family and lying to the people closest to him. He-

"Captain," he began shakily, prompting her to look up from their comfortable miasma of silence, "Do you-" he flinched and took a breath, "Have any scissors?"

She glared at him sharply, "What?"

He tried to flick his hair out of his face, but it just poofed right back down, "For-" he grabbed that one loose strand like Flapjack would, just a little tighter than they usually would (Not really hard enough to actually rip it, but the thought was still there), "For this,"

"Oh," she loosened up a little, "I can do one better than that actually! You want me to cut it for you? It'll be... easier,"

Hunter flushed and shuffled his foot around on the floor, "S-sure! I just want it, uh, not like this, really. It looks too much like it could turn into, y'know..."

Willow was already most of the way out of the room when she'd heard 'Sure', but she made sure to face him as he continued to talk, "Don't worry - I get you," she winked, before disappearing off to get her stuff.

Titan, what did he do to deserve Willow Park? She'd just understood him! Just like that! He'd hardly had to explain himself at all! Hunter couldn't do that for other people, usually... Don't get him wrong, he could tell when something was off about them, but then it was really just up to speculation. Willow really was special... He sighed dreamily.

She came back a short minute later with the mentioned scissors, a stool, and a broom, and made her way over to and behind Hunter. He realised quickly that the stool was probably there so she could be tall enough to get a proper reach at his hair and settled down on it. She dropped the broom off in the corner.

"To clean up with afterwards," she clarified playfully.

He nodded slightly before trying to still his head (A little hard when he was still quite shakey), "Thanks, Captain,"

"It's no problem," she sighed, "I think we could both use something to distract ourselves with, anyway,"

He pulled a face, "You could say that... I really don't know how Luz and Gus are doing it,"

Willow hummed lightly, and he felt the first snip at his hair take place. A few blonde strands blew past his face. "There's a person involved. Of course Luz is there! She finds intrinsic motivation just from that," she chuckled a little to herself, "And come on, Gus? He'd never miss a big show like this!"

"I think he takes things a little differently to us, too. It seems easier for him to keep pressing on," he added, "When I was in prison- or, uh, he was, and I was visiting, he didn't really seem that dissuaded. I suppose I probably thought it strange on some level, then, but it's admirable, isn't it?"

"Gus is great," Willow assented.

She moved around to the front of him to start work on the front strand he'd specifically complained about. It'd grow back; he knew that much, but hopefully not for a little while, and if he kept it maintained enough, that wouldn't be a problem anyway. With a careful few cuts, she got the chunk of it off and then cleaned up the edges a little. He ran his finger across the now bare edge, marvelling at how different his hairline felt now that that strand was reduced to just a few curling corners. 

"That alright for you?" she affirmed before continuing, noticing him admiring her work,

"O-oh! Yeah! Exactly what I wanted, even! It's just..." he paused and snickered, "I don't know what exactly Flapjack's going to pull on now to get my attention,"

He'd rather worry about the bird than worry about Belos. One of the two actually cared about him.

"Maybe they'll just start headbutting you or something - that's what Clover does to me," she suggested with a laugh, heading back around to the other side of him to finish up.

"Do palismen pick up behaviours from each other?" he wondered aloud.

"Not sure," she clicked her tongue lightly, "You know more about them than me, anyway,"

He struggled not to fidget a little, "Maybe we could... test some time, then," he gave a nervous smile, "I mean, planning an experiment for something like this wouldn't be too difficult, and I'm already experienced in making observations about palismen, so... It'd just be a case of finding a volunteer," 

"Well, you know," Willow began with a teasing smirk that Hunter saw in the mirror, "I don't suppose I'll have all that much to do for a branch of the Emperor's Coven after that's about to be shut down..."

She moved away with a flourish and left Hunter to examine what she'd done. He shuffled up towards her mirror and rotated his head around a few times, testing how it responded to little ruffles and shakes.

It was nice. It was really nice! He had small tufts sticking upwards and over to the right, but the back of his head was much barer and clearer, still covered, but not curling threateningly down, taunting him with his likeness to Belos. It was sleek too, fitting of someone set to start picking back up the pieces of their life rather than messy like they were content to let it fall apart. 

He shot her a grateful set of thumbs up, "Then... That's a yes?"

She sighed exasperatedly, "You think I would say no to something innocuous like that? Besides, it's an excuse to make sure you're eating lunch and all that, isn't it?" she joked. 

He chose to ignore that last comment. It had been a necessity of the job, and whilst, yes, he could recognise that it probably hadn't been... healthy, what did it matter now that he was long gone from the reason that forced him to? 

"It'd be nice to have an excuse to hang out for something other than Flyer Derby," shyly, he added instead.

That must have been the wrong thing to say. Willow looked suddenly to the floor, cheeks darkened slightly. Was she... angry? Would she prefer they just spent all their time training for Flyer Derby!? He- He could do that! If that was what it took for them to spend more time together-! And he liked Willow! A lot, actually, so he was happy to make a compromise like that if really needed! 

"O-Or! We could just stick to normal, or maybe even extra practice!" nervously, he corrected. 

Her gaze shot back up, one hand fiddling with her partially undone braid as she began to speak, "Oh, no! I'm happy to spend time with you outside of practice, Hunter! Don't be silly! it's just..." she looked away again and took a deep breath, "I like you a lot, you know,"

Huh, go figure. Hadn't he just been thinking the same thing?

"Me too, Captain! I, er- I like you a lot too!" he beamed, sheepishly.

Why was that so much more embarrassing to admit out loud?

"Ah, that's not quite what I..." her expression turned pained, "Sorry, I just sometimes forget you haven't spent nearly as much time with Luz as the rest of us..."

"What's that supposed to mean?" he frowned.

She shushed him dismissively, "Don't worry about it - that's not really the point anyway," she hesitated, taking her glasses off and absently polishing the lenses before beginning again, "It's just that when I say I like you, Hunter, I think I mean a little more than just that,"

Heart starting to beat a little faster, to race, even, he gripped the closest thing behind him, the edge of the sink, and tried to still himself. That didn't mean...? No, no, surely she was just going for something like he was her, or rather, the Team's best Flyer Derby player or something. Although... Her tone was remarkably cryptic, just like when Gus or Luz or Blight would speak about him and Willow...

"Oh, uhm, really?" he stuttered out nervously.

"Yeah, I..." she trailed off and, oh Titan, was that a blush? What did it all mean!? "So, uh, sorry if this is a little out of the blue, but would you want to... go get coffee with me or something, sometime?"

He blanched, "Haven't we already done basically that?"

She giggled, seemingly forgetting her nerves, "I forgot you could be a little obtuse. Don't take that as a bad thing, though - I like it about you,"

"Then what did you mean?" carefully, he asked.

"Going out together in a romantic sense. Getting coffee together as in a date," gingerly, she explained.

Oh, Titan, oh dear. Hunter gulped and froze. This was a good thing! A great thing, even! But, oh, gosh, if it wasn't still making his stomach turn...

"I-I Would-" he paused to take a deep breath, "Like that a lot! It would be nice. Very pleasing! Uhm... delightful!" 

She deflated a little in relief and approached him cautiously, "Great! We can work out the details when things have calmed down a little, I suppose, but I'm, uh, happy to play it a little loosely for you, if you'd like,"

"Hm? For me?" he baulked, still caught up in watching her move closer. 

"Oh, uh, I understand," she paused and laughed a little stiffly, "And have perhaps observed that it could be said that you aren't the most experienced in this field, Hunter. Which is totally fine!" she added, "I'm not really either - nobody was especially dying to go out with 'Half-a-witch Willow', but I just meant that I'm happy to take things as slowly as you need,"

Half-a-witch? But... Willow was one of the most talented people he knew! In just about everything she did! He thought that had been obvious! Did she... Did she not realise?

"Well, those people were idiots!" he huffed.

"Huh, sorry, who? Wh-" her face flushed brilliant scarlet when she caught on, and she took to looking at the gaps between the tiles on her floor rather than at him, "Ah. I'm sure they had their reasons. Maybe they were just insecure themselves,"

Gently, he rested his right hand on her shoulder and cupped her chin up slightly with his left. Such close contact was very foreign to him, especially without his gloves, but it was electrifyingly exciting, and he could tell from the almost imperceptible way Willow's face changed that she was receiving some kind of positive emotion from it too. 

"Hey, that's still no reason to look down on you! I mean, you're incredible, Captain- Er, you're incredible, Willow,"  he reasoned. 

She sighed fondly and giggled at his antics, "Thanks, Hunter... That's... all in the past now, anyway. My main point still stands, though,"

"About taking it slowly? That's, uh, probably a good idea..." he smiled lightly, "For both of us,"

Willow let out a shaky laugh. Oh, had she still been nervous? She'd done a damn good job of disguising it, then: Hunter had hardly noticed at all. But then again... Gus and Luz and Blight seemed to think that Willow liking him... this way (And vice versa) was really obvious, in hindsight, but he hadn't noticed that either, so perhaps he just wasn't as perceptive as he liked to think. Especially in regards to these kinds of matters. 

"Yeah..." she ran a hand through the parts of her hair that were straying messily away from her braids, "Probably..."

He wondered for a moment if they should perhaps leave the bathroom rather than milling about in it like right fools, but then again, they'd just gotten together in front of Willow's dusty sink and smudged mirror after she cut his hair with what appeared to be a pair of kitchen scissors, so did that really matter? He took her hand gently, instead, and made no other attempt to move.

"Do you, uh, wanna talk about that at all, though? I've been told it helps to actually talk about things, so..." he trailed off distantly. 

"No," she answered immediately before groaning and correcting herself, "I mean, I do, but it's not really as simple as that,"

"Huh?" he tilted his head to the side.

"There was someone that we both know involved and I just- I don't wanna bring your opinion of her- them down or anything. That's not really fair," she sighed, "They've gotten better. I'm not even sure they really knew what they were doing," 

Someone they both knew? And someone who was female, from the sounds of the way Willow hadn't quite managed to catch herself in time, there. Well, Hunter didn't exactly know many people... It couldn't be Willow herself, and it couldn't be Luz - she'd arrived on the Isles too late - so unless it was some curveball like one of their teammates that he knew less well, it had to be... 

"Blight?" tentatively, he guessed.

She groaned again, "That obvious, huh?" she squeezed his hand a little and adjusted her glasses, "Like I said, I just don't want what you think of her to be unfairly affected,"

"It's not unfair if she actually did do something, right? And besides, if it's clear she's sorry, I don't see why I should begrudge her," he coughed before hastily adding, "Unless I've seriously misread things and you actually would prefer me to hold a grudge,"

She laughed lightly, "No, you're good. But, uh, if we're gonna have this talk, could we maybe have it somewhere a little nicer?"

He had still misread the part about their location not really mattering, though. Whoops? Then that broom Willow had brought in earlier caught his eye. 

He gestured towards it and then the small piles of hair left messily around, "What about...?"

Brazenly, she dismissed his question, "That's a problem for Future-Willow... and Hunter. Just," she pulled on his hand a bit, "Come on,"

She lead them through to the front room they'd passed through earlier and sat them down on the sofa. It was a little beaten up, but comfy. Worn-in in a used and loved kind of way rather than having become uncomfortable and stiff with age. He waited a moment for her to begin.

And then she seemed a little lost on how to do that, so he took to prompting, "I'm, uh, guessing this was all at school?"

She nodded grimly, "Yeah... Amity, uh, well, I didn't know it at the time, but she'd been basically blackmailed into ditching me. We were friends before that, actually. But then she took that as keep Willow away at any cost, I guess?" Willow grimaced and scowled, "I don't know why. But then suddenly it was the coolest thing to pick on 'Half-a-witch Willow' for being bad at magic or clumsy or scared of ladybugs,"

"Ladybugs are freaky, though," indignantly, he put in.

She let out a huff of laughter, "I know right!? But it didn't matter - Amity was doing it, so that basically meant the rest of the school had to. It was supposed to be prestigious to be her friend, you know. And her older siblings were practically worshipped! All that meant was that everyone hung onto her every word, though," 

"Did you, uhm," he tried to think of what one would do about something like this in a school environment rather than in the Coven, "Talk to a member of staff at the school? I don't know exactly how things work there, but if something like that happened in the Coven, it would be reported and dealt with," he paused, "Or, at least, I think it would have been. I don't really know if I can trust what they told me any more, though,"

She snorted derisively, "I told everyone, man. Everyone I could, anyway. Teachers, Principle Bump, my Dads... But they either couldn't do anything or didn't care. In Hexside's case, I think they were just scared of Amity's mom,"

"She sounds pretty scary from what I hear," absently, he added.

Oh, he hoped that didn't sound like he was defending this! It was just that he had heard how Blight spoke about her mother, and... Well, she'd compared his relationship with Belos to hers with her mom, so...

"Oh, she is," Willow nodded amicably, "So I sort of get it, but still! I don't understand why they did nothing even after Amity left!" she then ranted.

"Left?" confused, Hunter repeated, "I didn't know she dropped out,"

Willow rolled her eyes, "That's 'cause she didn't. Her mom pulled her out to homeschool her," Hunter must have made a pretty funny face at that, because she suddenly burst out laughing, "Yeah, that's about right," she agreed, "But I guess nobody else noticed anything odd about that, or they just thought that Edric and Emira still being there meant sucking up to the Blights was still the way to go, but they kept going after that,"

"I just can't understand why anyone would want to pick on you, Captain," he shook his head, "I mean, you're strong, brave, athletic, talented..." he flushed lightly, "...Pretty..."

She squeezed his hand again and smiled genuinely, "Thanks, Hunter. But I guess I wasn't always like that. It was only after I transferred tracks that I particularly found my footing. And that was after Amity left,"

"What did you study before?" curiously, he asked. 

Personally, Hunter couldn't ever imagine wanting to drop a track - they all held too much academic potential for learning - but Willow almost certainly had her reasons. Perhaps he could understand them a little more if he knew what it was that she dropped. 

Willow pulled a face, "Abominations..."

Hunter snorted a little despite himself. He tried to cover himself a little afterwards, but it was too late, the damage had been done.

"I know, right? Can't imagine me ever liking that, but my dads said it'd be best for a career," a wry edge made its way to her smile, "And, just between you and me, I think they're actually a little scared of the potential of plant magic. I don't know why, but I think it just freaks them out a little," 

"You freaked me out a little, at first," readily, he admitted.

"Good," she hummed, "That was kind of the intention, man. I didn't really know if I could trust you,"

"I hope you can now, though," hopefully, he responded.

She chuckled, "I wouldn't have asked you to date me then crashed in my front room with you to tell you about my school bullies if I didn't, Hunter,"

...A fair assessment. His heart did a silly little stutter at the reminder that he and Willow were now, uh, how had he seen it referred to before? An item? He wrinkled his nose. No, no, that sounded a little objectifying. Perhaps just saying they were together, but definitely as in together together, was good enough. 

"I suppose not..." he agreed, "A silly question, then,"

She grinned at him warmly and squeezed his hand again, "No! No, it's like what they say class and all that! 'No question is a bad question!' I can't really blame you for worrying, anyway. Not after I just unloaded being wary of Amity on you, and just in general after, uh, Belos..."

"But Belos had an ulterior motive! And, I suppose Blight probably did, too. But you..." he frowned, "You've never given any reason to believe you didn't genuinely believe in me the whole time, even if it took me a little while to get there. Not since that first incident, anyway,"

"Glad you think so," she shrugged, unperturbed, "'Cause let me tell you, you took your sweet time at parts!"

He winced, "Yes... I have been told I'm a little obtuse today already,"

"Really? Gosh, don't know who could have done that..." innocently, Willow batted her eyelashes before laughing and reigning herself in, "But in all seriousness, it's fine that you took the time you needed, Hunter. Well, not fine in the sense that I don't think it did wonders for your mental state, but I was fine with waiting. Rushing you wouldn't have helped,"

He sighed, "I suppose not... But still, I should really thank you for your patience, Captain. So, uhm. Thank you,"

"Hey, it all worked out in the end, right? We're both here, we're both alive, Belos is gone... And we've talked. We're in a good position now, man!" she exclaimed before, more softly, "A really good one,"

There was hope for the future, wasn't there? More than he could ever remember there being, anyway. He'd had a lot of hopes just before the Luzura mission began, but most of them got quashed pretty easily... And having hopes wasn't the same as being hopeful; those had been more like things he wanted to happen, whereas now, now he felt like things were actually going his way, and that those wants were truly feasible. He had... a lot of good people to help him out with that. 

Luzura had been his enemy at first, but now she was the one who perhaps understood him best of them all. She was there when it had all gone down for him, and she was still there now.  And he wasn't all as blind to emotions as he was sometimes made out to be: he could see that she was still struggling to fight through what she'd learnt that day too. But Luz just kept on fighting! It was inspiring, really. 

Gus who had been there for him in quite possibly his darkest hour. The guy that was literally four years younger than him, but still managed to understand and connect with him in such a mature way that he hadn't even seen the oldest of the Coven Heads achieve. they were petty and show-offs, but Gus was just proud and... cool? He liked a dramatic flair, just like them, but it was never to his, or any of the other's detriment. And he'd given up his time to research with Hunter. He appreciated that.

Bligh- ...Amity? After all this time it would surely only be fair to refer to her less formally, and more so as a friend would. Amity had been the one there with him through thick and thin. She understood him on a personal level too. She could relate to him! She'd been trying to tell him all along that Belos's methods were... wrong. And even when he stubbornly refused to believe that each time, she still kept going. A strange tenacity, really, but they were all weirdly tenacious when it came down to it. 

And then finally was Willow. (Not forgetting Flapjack, but he was talking about actual people here, not birds.) If Amity had been with him when things began to spiral, Luz when they began to crash, and Gus when they hit rock bottom, Willow was the one there for all of it. She'd never let him down. Through everything that had happened, she'd always been the constant, fretting over him and making sure he was safe, even when they were supposed to be enemies. And now that was certainly not going to change now. 

He smiled back at her gently and nodded.

"Yeah, that's... Yeah! We're going to be fine!" triumphantly he agreed.

She giggled, "That's certainly the spirit,"

Her looking at him like this, being so close to him is odd, in a way, but not a bad one. She doesn't even really know that much about... Well, scratch that, she knew nothing about his... heritage? He supposed that was a way of describing it. Terminology aside, it was a fundamental truth that grimwalkers were not a matter that anyone but him and Gus (And maybe Luz) much about. 

But that was okay. They were taking their time here, taking baby steps. He had his time to make his peace. 

...To enjoy their peace.

By the time Amity got back to the Owl House that day, she was exhausted. She'd been sort of ready to drop dead after the fight with Belos was over already, but then... It had only been fair, she'd reasoned, to let her siblings and dad know that she was okay, and that it was over prior to Luz and the Collector's big announcement. 

Odalia hadn't been there, thankfully. She snaked away off to go suck up to other businessmen or something. Amity didn't really care. She'd gotten a chance to speak to Edric and Emira and her dad... Just about stuff. It had been great, honestly. Her family was finally understanding her, and understanding why staying with Luz at the Owl House was helping. There was no crazy mother to tell them that they couldn't speak that way or discuss.

And then she'd almost dropped dead again once Hooty had let her in, and had crashed into the sofa in the front room, proceeding to do precisely nothing whilst she waited for Luz to get back. Actually, that wasn't quite fair; she just hadn't done anything productive. Hunter had messaged her, actually, asking for an update, but she didn't need to leave the site of the front room sofa to get out her scroll and reply to him saying that she knew little more than he did. 

And then she watched the stream of the Collector's announcement. It had been streamed on just about every network on the Isles, so... 

It had been pretty good, though. Luz had done a very good job of helping the Collector sound compelling, and even Amity, who had mostly been able to figure out what his deal was with Belos anyway, found it a little shocking at times to hear about the quite so viscerally dismissive treatment of someone who was still basically a child. Though, just based on Hunter, she really shouldn't have been surprised... The part she actually didn't get was what had been the 'in-joke' so to speak, of the Collector leading with 'I've come to make an announcement'. Especially not why it was so funny that Luz had been visibily doubling over just off in the corner of the screen on the broadcast. 

That had been about an hour ago, now. If Amity had to guess, Luz was probably on her way back, presumably after dealing with the hoards of probably pretty reasonable questions about this coming out of nowhere. Perhaps, ah, telling Luz that no plan was the best plan had been a small mistake when it came to how this affair looked in the public eye... But nevertheless, what was done was done. 

Eda, having slunk back some matter of time ago with a smug grin and an empty bottle of glue, poked her head into the room, "Still waiting, kid?"

Amity shuffled up to the edge of the sofa to lean around it, "I mean, yeah. Luz isn't back yet, so..." she huffed.

"That'll change soon, I'm sure," the Owl Lady chuckled, "These things take time,"

"Yeah, I know... Doesn't mean I like the wait, though," she groaned and flopped backwards. 

Casually, Eda approached, giving her a knowing grin upon arriving next to the sofa. Amity half-wondered if that meant she was going to have company now and had to bite back another groan because, for as much fun as Luz's mentor could be, that didn't mean she wanted to spend a nebulous amount of time sitting awkwardly next to her. 

"I can get Lily in and you two can nerd out for a little bit, if that'd make it any better," Eda wrinkled her nose before suggesting. 

Yeah, no thanks. Lilith Clawthorne was a fascinating individual, and definitely one Amity would love the chance to study and talk with on any other day, but she wanted to be actually ready when Luz got back, you know? And she didn't want to end up preemptively socially drained. 

"I'll be fine," she shrugged, "It's like you said - this is just part of the process,"

"Yeah, okay. I'll leave you to it, then," Eda turned to leave, "Just give me a shout or something when the kid does get here, yeah?"

"If you insist," Amity agreed.

And then she was on her own again to be unproductive. Well, at least it was peaceful. She flicked open her scroll and began to mindlessly scroll through Penstagram, half-hoping for some more news, but mostly just searching for any kind of entertainment. 

It would appear that some of the Coven Heads were putting out statements on the matter, actually. She snorted at reading some of them. Raine Whispers, head of the Bard Coven, was claiming they weren't surprised Eda had sparked a revolution like this, amongst other things. Did they know Eda, then? Huh, that sounded like a story for another time if she'd ever heard one. Darius Deamonne, head of the Abomination Coven, had proceeded to complain about all the things the Emperor had been doing wrong that had made him seem shady prior to this in his statement. A little unprofessional, really, but Amity couldn't help but only find it ironic, considering this had been almost exactly what her Dad had predicted Darius would say. (How did these two know each other, again?)

The majority of the rest of the statements were just boring drivel about how the Covens would be helping to work towards the reformation of the Isles, now. She did get another chuckle out of Adrian Graye's, head of the Illusionist Coven, statement, though. She'd seen him only earlier, in fact, patrolling the Castle as if nothing was up, but then he was declaring now that there was a 'masterful story' to the whole ordeal, and that 'only he could have handled it better.' Yeah, right...

Then the door swung open, well, it was practically kicked open really, what with the speed Hooty had rammed himself into it to open it at, and there she was, Luz Noceda, looking like she was teetering on the edge of exhaustion just as much as the rest of them, but not really much worse for wear, in the doorway. She had King on her shoulder (Ah, so that's where the little guy had gotten to...) and the Collector just behind her. Despite the weariness evident on all of them, yes, even the little god-child, they were grinning, all three of them. 

Swiftly, Amity stood up to greet them. Honestly though, she had no idea what to say. Luckily, Luz seemed able to pick up the slack for her.

"Hey, Ams!" jovially, she waved, "You, uh, been waiting this whole time?"

Shakily, Amity quickly denied the claim, No, no, don't be silly - I was with my dad and siblings for a bit,"

Luz's expression notably soured a little, "No Odalia, right?" cautiously, she affirmed. 

"Oh, not a chance," she snorted, "Mom's off scurrying to cover her tracks or something. You know, find some other big name to suck up to so they'll make her royalty or something. She might even be campaigning to make her the new Empress or something,"

Hooty finally bothered to shut the door behind the three new entries, spurring Luz and co to make their way over to the sofa. The thief flopped down onto it, next to Amity, whilst King curled up on the headboard and the Collector hovered impatiently nearby.

"Could you imagine..." Luz groaned, "God, I'm glad that will never happen,"

The Collector looked at her sharply, "You said we weren't doing any new Emperors, right?"

The thief shot him a lazy grin, mask having been down for the majority of the afternoon since the heist, "You got it, buddy! A loose Coven system still, maybe, but we ain't planning on getting Belos 2.0 out there - Amity's mom just seems like the type to think we are,"

He nodded slowly at the explanation of the joke. Amity could practically see the gears turning in his head as he did so. Or... Maybe she was just seeing the shapes of actual gears in his irises, tun, turn, tuning away. She looked away and blinked. Weird... But then again, this was a god she was dealing with, here...

"I get it!" he proclaimed loudly, after a moment, "She's like to you what Phillip was like to me or the grimwalker!"

Amity shot Luz a look. Grimwalker? Luz returned it pleadingly. Another time. 

"Probably shouldn't make assumptions about people you don't know, Collector," gently, she chided, "And you only just met Ams a minute ago!"

He stuck his tongue out childishly, "Just an observation..." he kicked his feet up in the air, "But, fine, I'm the Collector, nice to meetcha!"

"Amity Blight, Inspector," she returned stiffly.

"My girlfriend," Luz clarified with a nod.

"And, yes, the lovely Odalia Blight is my Belos of sorts, I suppose. Useless old hags, the both of them..." fluently, she continued.

Yeah, screw Odalia. If something just so happened to happen to that woman in the next twenty-four hours because Amity just so happened to have made the unfortunate mistake of telling a god child with no chill about her, well, she still probably wouldn't feel bad. 

The Collector bent over in peels of giggles, "Oh, man,"  he wheezed, "Phillip is a hag! Wicked Witch of the Boiling Isles!" he snorted at his own joke.

She gave him a half-flat, half-judging look, 'Yeah, it's, uh, really not that funny,"

He abruptly stopped laughing and stared at her, shocked. Whoops?

And then his face split open into a piercing grin and he turned to the thief, "Oh, I like this one, Luz! You should keep her," he nodded sagely.

"You do?" Luz questioned doubtfully.

Ouch.

He flipped upside down, "Sure! She doesn't baby me 'cause she's scared of me or anything!"

"Yeah, well, as long as you don't start turning the house upside down," flippantly, Amity shrugged.

The Collector smirked the kind of smirk only a defiant child got when they were planning to do something they had just been told not to. Amity cursed lightly under her breath and hoped to the Titan or whatever other god was out there that the little guy hadn't overheard that.

"Don't you dare..." Luz warned, exasperatedly, "You've got to be happy to stay here too, y'know,"

Interesting, so the Collector was going to be staying with them? That made sense; he seemed like he could use a good set of parental figures, and those could be found in heaps in this place. 

"I'd be happy anywhere but with Phillip," boldly, he declared.

Luz snorted, "I'm sure... But just to make doubly certain..." she flicked King's tail lightly with her hand, stirring him from what appeared to be a record time speedrun powernap, "You wanna show him the guest room, buddy? The, uh, other other one? The one that Amity's not in?"

Amity had already known that the Owl House had a multitude of spare rooms that people could stay in, of course - she had been living here for over a week - but the amount of so-called guest rooms this place had to offer never failed to surprise her. Did Hooty just make new ones any time they were needed? Just opened up a new hole in the ground and filled it with bedroom stuff?

King looked up at her sleepily in surprise, "Are we not gonna talk to Eda..?" he wavered.

Belatedly, Amity realised she was supposed to have announced the arrivals by now. 

Luz winced, "I know I'm asking a lot of you, buddy, but would you mind waiting just a little longer? Amity's been here waiting for me and all..."

Slowly, her little brother nodded in understanding, "No, it's okay, I get it. But... tonight?"

Eagerly, the thief approved, "Of course!"

"Oh, uh, before you two go..." sheepishly, Amity spoke up, "I was, ah, supposed to yell when you got here... You wouldn't mind finding Eda and letting her know for me, would you?"

The Collector laughed again, "I could just yell loud enough from here!"

King preemptively covered his ears and winced, "No, I think that's fine," his voice cracked a little, "You'll want to meet Eda in person, anyway,"

The two started to walk off, still bickering.

"I've actually already met her technically,"

"I don't know if that really counts-"

Amity turned back to Luz, who had her own bashful look on her face. She'd taken to quietly removing her gloves now, humming a slight tune that Amity would recognise anywhere. (Come on, of course she had the Good Witch Azura soundtracks downloaded...) 

"Sorry about that..." the thief sighed, "I guess you've probably been waiting a while, but it would have been unfair to tell them to shove off too soon,"

Amity grinned slightly, "No, it's fine, really. I get that you have responsibilities to people other than just me, Luz,"

"Yeah, I guess... I just wouldn't want you to think that I'm trying to not prioritise you," she admitted.

Quietly, Amity sidled up to her and pressed their hands nonchalantly together. Only nonchalant because she'd mastered the art of not thinking over what she was doing in this kind of situation too much. She might start combusting, otherwise. 

"I didn't think that," she shrugged, "You're doing fine, Luz. Better than fine, really. You completely saved us all today!"

The thief pulled a face, "I mean, sure, but it was my fault you all were even in danger in the first place,"

This again?

Firmly, Amity pressed Luz's face and moved it to face hers. They were close again, now. Like that time at the brawl- She flushed a little. No, no... This was a serious conversation!

"Luz, I promise you, even if something had happened to us, it wouldn't have been your fault. We chose to go, remember? It's no more your fault than the mindscape,"

Luz ran a hand through her hair, "Yeah, I know, I know..." she sighed frustratedly, "I know that logically, but it just never seems to fully click, Ams. I saw you guys all struggling against him and it just felt like I'd done something horrible!"

"But you know we're never going to blame you, right?"

She chuckled, "Yeah, I do. You guys are great like that,"

Amity smiled contently, "We try,"

There was a pervasive silence for a little bit after that. Amity probably could have spoken up to break it, but she could sort of see that Luz was still trying to get something out herself. Occasionally, she would open her mouth as if to speak, or just seem to talk in little animated gestures with her hands. The quiet wasn't too discomforting, though. There was a certain solace to it, really, after such a loud day. 

Eventually, Luz sighed and just went out with it, "I think the worst part is... I don't know if that was really the reason I was most worried about leaving you all with Belos. And that's bad... right?"

She might have an inkling as to where this was going.

"Depends. I doubt it's going to be something superficial, coming from you, though," she replied.

"I don't know really..." Luz grimaced, "It's just- He told you about how we, uhm, really met, yeah? I'm not missing something crucial here - he really did say something to that effect?"

Of course.

"You're... not mistaken," slowly, Amity confirmed.

The thief's expression fell flat, "Well, yeah. That," she sat uncomfortably for a moment, "I'm worried I was more concerned about that than your safeties. And that's..." she struggled to find the right word, "Just so damn selfish. I tried so hard to prove to you that my motives for being Luzura weren't selfish, and yet there I was, thinking stuff like that,"

"I actually think I only called you narcissistic and a hedonist," indifferently, Amity hummed, not sure what else to really say. it was easier to correct someone than to tell them what they wanted to hear. 

Luz snorted, "Yeah, and that's so much better..."

"Well, it still wasn't really true then, and it isn't now either," firmly, she asserted.

She pulled Luz a little closer again; they had drifted slightly further away across the sofa during the period of silence. There was a lot shining in her girlfriend's eyes in that moment. They were bright as ever, not dulled like just after she'd come back from the mindscape, but slightly glassy and confused, glazed over in a way and crinkling at the edges. Just what was going on in that head of hers...?

"You say that like it's a convincing statement on its own," cheekily, Luz put in.

Amity tutted at her, "It really should be," she put her hand on the thief's shoulder, "Seriously, Luz, I think you're about the furthest person from selfish on the whole Isles. We all have our own agendas and whatnot that we all seem to be so set on, but you were never dissuaded. And you never really worked for yourself,"

"You don't-"

She put a finger from her other hand to Luz's lips, rather effectively silencing her, "You nearly stopped after the mindscape just because you thought you'd caused so much damage. If it was at all about you, you never would have gone there. But no! It's always been about the people and the mission first and foremost,"

"You can have empathy and care for others but still be selfish," Luz reasoned.

"That's just what makes you a witch! Or- Er," Amity flushed and made to correct herself, "Makes you human, in your case. It's unnatural to expect yourself to be always able to put others first. And it's unfair to say that just because you had worries, probably well-founded ones, as well, about something we would likely find out, that you weren't also thinking of us and our safety,"

"Well-founded?" Luz retreated slightly, "Ams... I really didn't mean to, honestly! I-"

The thief looked crestfallen.

And Titan-dammit, she was going to have to stop doing this-! 

Amity grabbed Luz's shoulder a little tighter and pulled her close, yes, that close. She had one arm around her girlfriend's waist, and the other made its way up to rest her hand on Luz's cheek. Their lips met once more, not on a public stage in the light of the bright moon and shining stars, but in the privacy of the Owl Houses' front room. It felt more honest. Just as good, but more honest nonetheless. 

"Sorry," dryly, she apologised once they parted, "I just needed to get you quiet,"

Luz raised an eyebrow wryly, "Not that I'm complaining, but you could have just asked, you know,"

"Probably," Amity agreed, "But I wanted something drastic. I have a point to prove, here! We don't begrudge you, Luz, honest. I... understand that Willow and Gus were even there, and they still don't think you did anything actually wrong. I don't exactly know the full story... But you couldn't have known!"

"So I hear..." bitterly the thief remarked, "I don't know! I just feel so icky even thinking that I helped him. And... It was to find the Collector! They didn't deserve to be mistreated by him like that,"

"Of course not," she asserted, just to make her stance clear, "But, Luz, he's a god. He wasn't in a position of power with him in any way, but it can hardly be said that he can't take care of himself,"

"I don't know that they know any better than Belos, though! I don't think they've ever had anyone just sit down with them and actually try to teach them anything! I don't think they know family, Ams, and I can't help feeling that if I'd just not got them stuck with Belos for four centuries, that might not be the case... Not to mention the damage he and Belos nearly caused together..."

"Let's... not get too caught up in the details..." that sounded so weird coming from someone as pedantic as her, "Considering what could have been if one little thing changed won't get us anywhere,"

Especially not after their big victory. They won! They should be celebrating, not moping about the small things that could have gone better along the way...

"Yeah... I know..." Luz sunk her shoulders down.

"Hey, come on," softly, Amity pulled her girlfriend's chin up, "You've spent so much time improving things for all of us, me, Hunter, King, Willow and Gus too, I'm sure, and everyone in this house, really, even if you can't see it. I think it's about time we started giving back to you,"

The thief huffed out a laugh, "Once I get home, I have to show you around, Ams. You're really something special,"

"Right back at you, Noceda," Amity snarked.

A knowing smile made its way onto Luz's lips, "Y'know, I'm glad I met you, Blight,"

Amity did a double take, laughing slightly herself now, "Not that I don't share the sentiment, but where's this coming from?"

"Nowhere in particular," Luz shrugged, "It's just true and I felt like making that known,"

Ah, even when playing on the same team as Luzura, you still couldn't quite be allowed to know what she was about to pull out of left field. Amity smirked. That was alright - she had always liked a good challenge. (Unless it was her mom...)

"Human custom?" she quirked up an eyebrow and checked.

"Nope," Luz popped her p, "Just a Luz one,"

"Huh. I might have to steal that one," she chuckled.

"What, pulling compliments out of thin air?" the thief questioned.

"Maybe. You definitely deserve it and all," nonchalantly, Amity shrugged, immediately moving to look at her nails (Painted black, as ever) so she didn't die of second-hand embarrassment looking at Luz's expression after that one. 

Titan, it had been a long road to get here. Imagine telling the Amity of about a month ago that she'd be exchanging compliments with the Isles' most wanted criminal whilst on said criminal's front room sofa. Completely unbelievable. 

Luz had a funny look on her face when she finally did look up, "Once again, I'll say it, Ams; you're really something,"

"I hope you mean that in a good way," she joked.

The thief winked at her, "Only the best,"

There she was, super thief Luzura Clawthorne, Good Witch Azura super fan Luz Noceda, the elusive girl in that trademark witches' wool cloak that kept getting away, flirting with Amity. And yet, yeah, this was still a significant improvement from a few months back. 

As far as jobs went on the Boiling Isles, Amity was absolutely not set with hers. That being, of course, because she technically didn't have one. And she wouldn't have one until they managed to re-establish a work and coven system. One that wasn't dictated by a four-hundred-year-old crusty Emperor, that was. 

But she had Luz now. Luz and a few others, that would support her, but Luz had been the instigator. Luz was bringing her... a certain few advantages that she was sure many other people weren't as lucky as to have. Did just anyone get free accommodation at somewhere as crazy but loving as the Owl House? (Well, if it was possible, Luz would probably let them, but that wasn't quite the point...) And, gosh, was this what having a family that actually cared was like?

There was never a dull moment there, either. And after everything, the Luzura hunt, the skipped family dinner, the Collector... 

She wouldn't have it any other way.