Chapter Text
Don’t go wasting your emotion
Lay all your love on me
Don’t go sharing your devotion
Lay all your love on-
A loud slamming noise caused Arcana to leap from her bed. She felt her heart practically pounding out of her chest, as her body jolts a bit from the coldness of her bedroom floor.
“My lady, I am sorry to disturb you, but it is time for you to get ready for school.” A male voice calls from the other side of the door. “We wouldn’t want you to be late again like last time, would we?” Arcana props herself up from the floor, clearing her throat.
“Certainly not. I doubt the Emperor would be pleased if I managed to score myself another detention. I’ll be down in a few minutes. Thank you, Nyx.” The male lets out a noise of acknowledgment, and Arcana can make out his footsteps walking away. She pulls herself off the floor completely, and slowly drags herself over to her mirror. There was still sweat dripping from her forehead, and the bags under her eyes seemed to look heavier.
She had that dream again.
The dream of that woman singing.
She supposed this was the nicer of the two dreams her head seemed to play for her on repeat, but it didn’t make them any less annoying. Every time Arcana had that dream about the woman singing, she could never fully remember the lyrics. It aggregated her to no extent because she would always catch herself humming the melody after the fact. Though she was frustrated with being unable to find the song at all throughout the Boiling Isles, the melody in a weird way comforted her. She would catch herself humming out the tune when she fell under distress, and it had more of a calming effect on her than any healing spell she knew. She and the tune had a love-hate relationship.
Arcana shakes her head from her thoughts, drawing her attention back to the mirror. The first thing she notices, the first thing she always notices, was the scar that graced her forehead. The scar traveled across her left eye, all the way to her once-pointed ear. She still shivers every time she stares too long. Arcana has no memory of how she got it, just that she had looked this way since she was four. Whatever had happened, it had left her blind in one eye, and with a pointless ear. She let out a sigh. She hated it.
The next thing she notices is her unruly deep red hair. The curls were particularly wild today, refusing to be tampered down with her wide-tooth comb. She gave up after about five minutes of brushing, as it only seemed to agitate her hair more. She quickly pulls her hair into a loose bun, before grabbing a piece of long black fabric. She ties it around her left eye and uses its excess to cover her left ear. If she didn’t want to see the awful scarring on her face, she was sure no one else would either. She releases her hair and it falls back into place, covering her ears, and bangs covering the left side. Arcana absolutely despised having this much hair, but it made her feel better to have the extra security. After placing on her Hexside uniform and making sure her wristband covered her coven mark, she was finally out the door. However, she didn’t make it too far.
For the second time today, in that very short morning, Arcana found herself back on the floor, a soft groan escaping her lips. Her eye peaks open, spotting her best friend lying on the floor in the same position. She pushed herself up, lending a hand out to the blonde boy, who quickly accepts it.
“Hunter…what have I told you about just standing in front of my door?” She grumbles, pulling the boy to his feet. “Do you really enjoy getting knocked down all of the time? Should I be worried when we are on our next mission?” She tsked, causing his face to blush in embarrassment.
“D-Don’t say it like that! You make me sound like a creep!”
“Maybe you are one.” She teased, causing him to frown. “Why else would you stand so close to my door?”
“C-Captain Nyx sent me to come to get you! I was just about to knock when you so rudely charged into me.” He huffed.
“Charged? Hunter, I walked, casually, normally, out of that door. Always so dramatic.” She rolled her eyes and gave him a soft smile as she began to walk forward, with Hunter following close behind. “Plus, Nyx needs to relax. I still have plenty of time to get to Hexside.”
“I don’t get why you choose to stay at Hexside. I’m sure Emperor Belos would be able to have Hettie train you and teach you everything you need to know. Learning from an actual coven head is probably way better than anything Hexside could provide you.” Arcana shivers at the mention of her mentor.
“Yeah…no…I think I’m good. Seeing Hettie on the weekends is torcher enough already.” The two make their way toward the end of the hall. “Besides, school is a chance for me to just…just be me. We always have to worry about our duties and how we represent the Emperor and his mighty coven, we never really get a chance to be ourselves. In a weird way, it gives me a chance to relax.” Hunter gives her a skeptical look.
“And your idea of relaxing was failing your history test?” Arcana pouts and shoves the boy, as he lets out a small laugh.
“That was one time! And we had just come back from that week-long mission!” She says defensively. “I was so tired that day, I barely even remember showing up.” She lets out a small snort. “Bump was so mad when I showed up in my pajamas.” The two both giggle at the memory.
“Not as mad as Nyx was when he had to drop his actual duties to bring you a uniform.” Arcana groans, placing her head in her hands.
“Ugh, don’t remind me. The lecture I got from him that day still haunts me. He will never let me live that down.” She lifts her head up, a smile returning to her face. “But you see, that’s what I love about school. I can have and make memories that don’t always revolve around my duty to the Emperor. And, it’s nice to socialize with people our age. You should try it sometime.” Hunter’s eyes narrow slightly and he lets out a small scoff.
“I am perfectly happy with where I am at, thank you very much. My service to Uncle is all I need…” Arcana frowns but it quickly disappeared when a light shove hit her shoulder. “Plus, why would I need any more friends when I already have the best one around.” He was grinning from ear to ear, and Arcana could swear her heart melted at the sight. “As long as you’re with me, then that’s all I need.” He exclaims. A light blush makes its way on her face, and she lets out a small giggle.
“Yeah, I guess I am pretty great.” She teased. “Alright, Goldie, I’ll see you later. Try not to cause too much trouble without me.” Hunter crossed his arms and pouted.
“You know I hate it when you call me that.” He grumbled out.
“And yet, you never do anything about it so…” She blows a raspberry at him. And like the child he is, he sticks his tongue out in response. Arcana goes bounding down the stairway, stopping when she hears footsteps rapidly returning to the top step.
“Don’t forget, the Emperor is assigning us a mission later! You might want to let Bump know that you’ll be gone.” She nods her head, before disappearing down the stairway completely. Arcana lets out a small sigh. Ever since a particular human showed up at the Boiling Isles, things only seemed to have gotten busier around the castle. They seemed to think this human girl was a potential threat, even Hunter thought the same. But, Arcana knew better than that. After all, she considered Luz to be one of her closest friends.
That only seemed to make her life much more complicated.
💠💠💠
Arcana Astraios had been dealt a very chaotic set of cards during her short lifetime, and yet nothing felt more chaotic than this last month. She met her first human, and though she was known to be working closely with the illusive Owl Lady, Arcana was unable to resist the girl’s charm and charisma.
After assisting Willow with Luz’s escape from the wrath of Principal Bump, she found herself running into the girl more and more often. Especially since Willow and Gus had become fast friends with her, she tended to see the human much more. Then even more consistently after she started to officially attend Hexside. Luz was a breath of fresh air for Arcana and was one of the first beings she met who realized the Emperor’s Coven wasn’t all that it seemed to be. Plus, Luz’s enthusiasm for magic was just adorable to her and even reminded her of Hunter when he would talk about something exciting he found out about with wild magic (before shutting himself down mumbling how it was prohibited for a reason). Luz had been nothing but an amazing friend to her, which is why this last week had been particularly hard on her.
Arcana was going everything in her power to avoid Luz.
It was a little over a week ago that Lilith had finally captured the Owl Lady and when she was almost petrified. Though she was freed by the supposed mercy of the Titan, Eda had been stripped of her magical abilities. While Arcana didn’t cause Eda’s capture, she couldn’t help but feel an overwhelming sense of guilt.
Being a part of the Emperor’s Coven was a goal so many young witches strived for. It was a status, a symbol, something that supposedly meant you were better than all others while being the ones to keep the peace between the Isles. And yet, Arcana felt nothing but shame with her association with the coven. She had for a while now, starting to believe that maybe the Emperor might be wrong about how harmful wild magic really is. But then she would feel guilty about ever thinking that because the Emperor was also the one who gave her a home. Who gave her the ability to learn, who didn’t give up on her when she seemed to fail horribly with every kind of magic, and who did nothing but express his pride in her after finding out she was a natural with healing magic.
In short, Arcana felt eaten alive by her guilt.
It only seemed to get worse when she found out that Eda was having a hard time making ends meet without her magic. Luz, Willow, and Gus had all seemingly sworn off the Emperor’s Coven, and who could blame them? They hurt Eda, they hurt the people they are supposed to protect. But, Arcana was still a member. And none of her friends knew. In fact, no one at Hexside really knew, with the exception of Principal Bump. Part of the Emperor's agreement for her to attend Hexside was if she kept her coven status a secret. He didn’t want her getting any special treatment. But now her lie made it hard for her to stomach being around her friends.
To Hexside, she was just your average witch, who just did exceptionally well with her healing courses. But to her coven and to the general public, it was a completely different story. With her uniform on, she was known on the Isles as the Emperor’s Shield, a witch who was rumored to be a powerful healer (though she disagreed on that) and was only ever seen paired with the Golden Guard. Her role was to be Hunter’s living shield in a sense, blocking any serious blows that might come their way on their missions. After all, the Titan had big plans for him. At least, that’s what Belos always told them. Plus, it didn’t hurt to have a medic on sight just in case things did head south.
Hunter was an amazing fighter, no one could deny that. But Arcana had noticed he tended to lean a bit more heavily on his offensive abilities, much to her dismay. And that is where she would step in. Her specialty was defense after all. Over the last few years of their conjoined training, they had both learned to balance each other out, which gave them a rather high success rate for their missions. After all, they wouldn’t want to fail their Emperor. Arcana was grateful for her position and grateful to Belos for even giving her the opportunity. But, it was getting harder for her to be proud of the work she was doing, that her coven was doing, when in the end, it was hurting her friends. She felt stuck and didn’t really know who she could turn to for any advice.
Arcana just wanted this day to be over.
The school bell’s loud screech yanks her from her thoughts. She quickly scratches her locker’s chin and it spits out her healing course’s textbook. As she makes her way down the hall, she hears rapid footsteps following behind her.
“Hey! Cana!” A female voice shouts. She felt herself cringe. “Wait up a second!” She turns to see Willow and Luz, both slightly out of breath. “Man, it’s not every day you beat us to class!” Luz gives her a big smile. “We didn’t even see you come in!” Arcana lets out a shaky laugh.
“Y-Yeah, sorry! I just came straight to my locker.” Willow raised an eyebrow.
“And stared at it for ten minutes?” She questioned. Arcana let out another nervous laugh.
“Yep!” Luz and Willow exchange a brief look before shrugging. “I r-really don’t mean to be that witch, but we should probably head to class.” The two nod and the group begins to walk through the Hexside halls. Willow suddenly jumps and skips up ahead, turning to face Luz and Arcana.
“I almost forgot! Gus and I are going to see the grudgby game after school today. You guys should totally come!” Arcana lets out a small sigh.
“Aw, I would love to, but I have to help out around my family’s clinic today. Which reminds me, I’ll probably be out for the next few days too.” Willow frowned.
“They’ve been taking you out of school a lot lately. Is everything alright?” Arcana quickly nods.
“We’ve just been really busy lately! Can’t leave my parents hanging, you know?” She felt herself cringe internally at her lie. Since for obvious reasons she couldn’t say what she was really up to, Arcana had fabricated a story in which she was helping her parents with a mobile clinic. It was the first thing she could think of and no one seemed to question it. “I promise I’ll catch the first game playing with you when I get back.” Willow smiles and nods before turning to Luz.
“What about you? Feeling up for some grudgby?” The girl shakes her head.
“Can’t, I’m going to be helping Eda out with some of the bounty-hunting stuff! I hope we take one of the bigger bounties this time…these little ones just aren’t paying enough.” She murmurs the last part. “But I think Eda is worried that I can’t handle the bigger ones.” Arcana feels her chest contort, as she bites on her bottom lip. “But, we’ll be fine! We always are.” Luz says with a big smile. “I’ll catch you guys later! Can’t really afford to get a detention today." And with that, the three part ways. For the remainder of her school day, Arcana felt a pit consume her stomach.
Why did things have to be this way?
💠💠💠
School seemed to drag on forever that day, but Arcana was finally home. She practically rushed to her room, collapsing onto her bed. She was there for barely a moment before she heard a knock on her door.
“Yes?” She grumbled out, her voice muffled by her pillow.
“The Emperor is requesting your presence, my lady.” Nyx’s voice chimed in. Arcana let out a small groan, before sitting up.
“Alright, I’ll be down in a minute.” She got off her bed quickly, rushing to her closet to grab her uniform. She brushed her wild red locks up, tying them into a tight bun, making sure to pull back any loose strands. She didn’t need her hair getting caught in her mask. She shivered, no, not again. She readjusted the fabric around her eye one last time, before reaching for her mask. It was similar to the one Hunter wore, but hers was made from an icy blue stained metal rather than gold. Arcana placed it on her face and pulled the hood of her cloak over her head.
“Let’s see what Belos has in store for us this time…” She murmured to herself. Arcana grabs her staff and makes her way down the hall. As she rushes through the castle rooms, she passes scouts along the way, all of which would pause their movements to salute her. She doesn’t think she’ll ever get used to that. Finally, she approaches the throne room’s gargantuan doors, hearing the faint pulsating of its giant heart.
“You’re late.” A voice called out. She rolled her eyes, turning towards Hunter, who had dawned on his uniform as well. “You’re lucky he hasn’t called us in yet.”
“Yeah, yeah…” She shrugs. “Not much I could do about time. You do realize I just came back from school, right? I thought I was pretty speedy.” Hunter shakes his head, and before getting another word out, the throne room’s doors creak open. Kikimora steps out, with a stern look that seemed to be permanently plastered onto her face.
“You may see the Emperor now.” The two both nod, before slowly stepping into the room, Arcana following closely behind Hunter. She felt a small shiver going down her spine as she sees the Emperor standing by his chair. The large heart pulsating aggressively behind him. No matter how many times she had stepped foot in this room, it still gave her the creeps.
“Hunter…Arcana…so good to see you.” The two quickly fall into a kneel, both bowing their heads.
“Emperor.” Belos’s hand makes an upward motion, causing them both to stand.
“As I’m sure you’ve heard, our ships have been running into some trouble as of late. A Selkidomus to be specific. Quite a vile creature, don’t you think?” The two remain silent as Belos begins to descend the throne’s steps. “I want the two of you to take care of it.” They both nod.
“Yes, Emperor.”
“Good. Head to Captain Salty’s ship in Bonesborough. He will take you to the creature. Do not fail me .” Again, the two nod. Belos waves his hand again. “I wish you luck.” With that, the two bow and head toward the room’s exit. Arcana let out a small sigh, as she felt her heart practically ramming through her chest. It would never be easy to talk with that man.
On the bright side…
At least the assignment didn’t seem too hard.