Chapter Text
Eda, Hunter, King and Luz were outside near their own stall. Eda was dusting off the table as Hunter sweeped near the table, while Luz was reading out loud her Azura book with King somehow paying attention.
“Emboldened by the dishonor Hecate had shown, Azura lifted her staff to the cotton-candy skies and shouted, "I challenge you to a Witch's Duel!" And look! I drew a flip book.” Luz was dramatically monologuing, flipping between two pages for her flipbook.
Eda genuinely looked like she was suffering as she stiffly continued to dust her desk. “Blondie, how in Titan’s good name do you live through this?” Her voice was equally strained as she turned to Hunter.
Hunter, who had currently zoned out while sweeping the same spot on the ground, perked up with a little “Hm?” Realizing what she just asked, he shrugged. “You learn how to tune it out with experience. Give it a year or two.” He added with a little smirk as the bottom of her eyelid twitched.
“Ugh! Please stop reading that. Its flowery language is an insult to witches and driving away all of our serious customers!” Eda finally snapped.
Hunter couldn’t help but snort a laugh. The street they were on looked like a ghost town.
“Um, Eda? What customers?” Luz motioned to the street with both her arms. “There aren’t even any stands around. What’s going on?”
“This is a bad omen.There must be something horrible going on.” She whispered dramatically, squinting her eyes.
“Luz! Something amazing is happening today!” Hunter saw two people rushing towards them. One had dark skin and was on the younger side compared to all of them, while the other looked around Luz’s age and had big round glasses with dark blue hair.
“Gus, Willow! Hey guys!” Luz waved, running up to them a bit. Then, she suddenly turned on her heel and ran over to Hunter, dragging him by the arm towards the two witches.
“Guys, I totally forgot to mention this two days ago, but this is my brother, Hunter!” She motioned to him, while he just stood there with a broomstick in hand.
That seemed to surprise the both of them. “Your brother? But he’s a witch.” Gus said.
“I grew up in the Human Realm.” Hunter said bluntly.
That seemed to excite Gus, as he gasped and instantly pulled out a notepad. “I can’t believe this! A witch grew up in the Human Realm! You sir,” He gestured to Hunter with his pen. “Will be an honorary member of the Human Appreciation Society!”
“Do I get a say in the matter?” Hunter said with the same tone.
“Nope! Although…” Gus’ eyes squinted, as if deep in thought. “If you grew up in the Human Realm, that would make you more of an ambassador than me. Alright, you are hereby permanently banned for the Human Appreciation Society.”
“Sweet.” Hunter sarcastically smirked.
“Do you know how to do magic?” Willow asked.
“Uh, no, not yet.” Hunter shrugged, not really caring.
“Hey!” Eda suddenly shouted, drawing in all their attention. “As much as I love a good friendship reunion, unless you came here to purchase something or are here for a reason, take this conversation somewhere else. Not Hunter though, you still need to sweep until everything is spotless.”
“Eda, we’re on a dirt road-”
“Don’t wanna hear it!”
“So! You guys mentioned an amazing thing happening?” Luz piped up, bringing the conversation back on track.
“Oh yeah!” Willow presented the pamphlet in her hand. “It's the annual Covention! Student witches get to see all the types of covens before they're placed in one. There's even a mystery guest this year!”
“A job fair for witches?!” Luz seemed incredibly interested. “Eda, can we go?”
“Absolutely not.” Eda firmly declined.
“Well, Hunter’s holding a broom, don’t make me sick ‘im on you!” Luz practically threatened.
Eda glared at Hunter and hissed, swiping her duster in the air threateningly, which just looked more on the ridiculous side.
“I’m not fighting that.” Hunter pointed at her sarcastically, managing to get a chuckle out of Luz.
“Eda, why not? I never went to one.” King piped up, looking up from the Azura book he was reading.
“I never joined a coven for a reason. Sure it's like a fun club for witches, but you're also giving up your magical independence to be part of a crooked system.” Eda said. At Willow’s distraught face, she continued with a shrug. “Eh, but, you know, no judgment. In any case, I haven't been to one since we were girls.”
“We?” Luz gasped.
“I - the - I mean -”
“Who’s we? You have a mysterious past! Now we gotta go!” Luz cheered.
“Your sister?” Hunter asked Eda, making Luz look at him shocked.
Eda winced. “Yes. Her.”
“Dude! Spoilers!” Luz playfully pushed Hunter. Or tried to, as Hunter didn’t even move.
“That aside, you guys are not going.” Eda firmly said.
“Okay then.” Luz’s voice turned dark. “You leave me no choice. King.”
Almost immediately, King started to read out loud. “"You shall not shan't doeth no more harm," Azura callethed out…”
King continued reading while Eda wore a face of pure misery. “So flowery, so awful.” She muttered.
She reached for Hunter’s throat and took the Portal Key that was around it. Pressing the button, she summoned the door and left. However, as the door folded into itself, Luz gently threw King into the door before it managed to fully close. Three seconds later, Eda emerged with King sitting on her head.
“Stop it! Stop it! I will literally do anything to stop this!”
A quick staff ride later (with Eda loudly contemplating dropping all of them off it), and they were standing in front of the massive building with a sign reading ‘COVENTION TODAY alchemists anonymous tomorrow.’
Willow and Gus excitedly lead the siblings inside, while Eda was struggling to keep her bushy hair inside her comically oversized cap. “Gotta keep a low profile.” She muttered mainly to herself.
When they entered the main entrance, Luz gasped out loud as she stared at the ceiling. There were 9 massive banners, each of them a different color as some witches flew by on their staffs or enchanted brooms.
“Whoa… Was I even alive before now?” Luz breathed out in wonder. Hunter couldn’t help but be impressed too.
“These,” Gus pointed towards the ceiling. “Are the main 9 Covens. There are a ton of smaller ones you can join, but you have to be in one of the 9 first.” Gust explained as they all walked through the stalls.
“There’s Flower Coven, a branch of the Plant Coven, Artist Coven, recommended for Construction Coveners and , Big Dog Coven and Small Cat Coven for demons and Beastkeepers-”
Eda clearly had enough of all of this and groaned loudly.
“And the Grumpy Coven, apparently.” Willow giggled. “Although, if there was a Grumpy Coven, would it be a branch of the Oracle Coven…?” Willow muttered to herself.
“What was that?” Eda snapped.
With that, the group dispersed.
Hunter, Luz, Willow and Gus were left with each other while King ran off somewhere.
“Ooh, what’s that?” Luz gasped and pointed to one of the stalls.
“That’s one of the main 9 ; the Construction Coven. They’re responsible for reparations of cities and incredibly powerful witches can shift entire landscapes for flatter ground.” Willow explained.
They all observed as a bearded man picked up a stack of brick, wood and clay with one arm and threw it up. All of them suddenly fell on top of each other neatly, and with some clay mud in between, created a small shack. Hunter was quite impressed ; a shack like that would have taken multiple men to build in a week.
“They also create power glyphs to strengthen magic.” Willow explained further as the man handed one out to a very small demon, who screamed about destroying stuff.
“Hey, if you want to destroy stuff, then try coming to the Demolition Coven!” Some random man shouted.
“Power glyphs?” Hunter asked curiously. After the near disaster that was Eda’s curse, some more combat oriented glyphs could be helpful. Who knows when they’ll run into a non-nocturnal demon or a malicious witch.
“I heard that they enfuse a portion of a Galderstone into the paper, giving only temporary boosts in magic.” A weirdly slightly transparent Gus chimed in.
“Yowza-wowza!” Luz exclaimed.
The illusion of Gus shifted into Luz now, who said the same thing as her, causing the siblings to yelp.
The illusion vanished, revealing two Illusionists in front of them. Then Gus suddenly ran in from the side, even though Hunter could’ve sworn he was just behind him.
“Ah! You've been taken in by the allure of the Illusionist Coven. We like to magic with a hint…” He suddenly disappeared with a cloud of smoke, reappearing only a few feet away. “... of showmanship.”
Throughout that entire display, Eda had managed to catch up to them, her eyes darting everywhere cautiously.
“Wow! Acceptance? Comradery? A sense of belonging? Covens sound incredible! Eda, why haven't you ever joined one?” Luz asked her.
Eda’s eyes caught something, and she turned both of them towards it. She guided them a little bit away from Willow and Gus, both of them seemingly excited about some other Coven. “Watch closely, you especially Hunter.” Her voice was serious and grave.
They all saw a young witch with a rolled down sleeve, standing in front of another witch with a massive glove. The glove was pressed onto the former’s right wrist, and tendrils started to creep through the arm before vanishing. The entire time, the young witch was standing tensely and winced when the sigil took its effect on them, their skin now slightly paler then it was before.
“When you join a coven, all your other magic is sealed away, possibly forever. From now on, that kid will only be able to make illusions. Since I never joined a coven, I can do every kind of magic.” She demonstrated that by casting a fireball and a waterball, both of them vanishing a second later. “That's why I'm the most powerful witch on the Boiling Isles.” She walked away with a bit of sass.
“Luz! Hunter! Look over here!” Gus ran up to them and dragged them both to a passage.
“That panel looks popular.” Luz remarked, looking at the entrance.
There was a doorway leading further inside the building. Two golden banners were set up, with a Coven Guard standing close, keeping eyes out for anything suspicious. Hunter started getting really weird feelings about them.
“Look! It’s the Emperor's Coven panel! Do you think they’ll sign my forehead?” Gus excitedly asked.
“Only one way to find out!” Willow said, grabbing Gus’ and Hunter’s hands and leading them inside.
The inside looked somewhat like an auditorium, with massive space in the center. A little bit like a gladiators arena.
After about a minute, a very disgruntled Eda and an excited Luz came inside.