Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

King isn’t sure how long Collector has been free of their prison disk, but it’s long enough to get the feeling that they’re not really aware of how fragile mortals are.

For one thing, there’s the puppetification of everyone they can get their hands on. King knows he said they needed a whole island worth of people for “the owl house game,” but a) he had had to think fast to get Collector to help in the first place, and b) why not ask people to play?

And then there’s the matter of literally hunting down anyone that he missed puppetifying on the Day of Unity with those creepy star things.

And don’t even get King started on the destruction and desecration of the land, of the Titan, of King’s dad—

“Hey, King, do you think we could play a different game?”

King blinks himself out of his stupor, immediately on high alert. “What? Why?”

Collector shrugs, hands clasped around his ankles as he floats in mid-air. “I’m getting bored playing out what Luz did. I wanna do my thing.”

King panics. He knew this would only last so long! But what kind of game could Collector possibly want to—

A light glyph goes off in King’s mind.

“Oh. You mean like, Hide and Seek?”

Collector brightens. “Yes! I love Hide and Seek!”

“Great! But,” King fiddles with his claws, “since you’re so powerful, I have a little change to the rules.”

Collector hums. “What kind of change?”

“A good change! When the game starts, you... reset everything. So I was never found. That way, you can be the first person to find me, ever!”

King swears the air around Collector becomes even more nauseatingly bright. “Yes! That’s a great idea!”

“Wait!” King yells before they can snap their fingers. “When I say reset everything, I mean everything. All the land has to be back to normal, and all the buildings, and all the people. And any memories of... me, and the Day of Unity, have to... to be erased.”

Collector frowns. “Everyone who lives in the demon realm?”

“Yep. Everyone except me and you, so no one knows where I am. It’s the only way it’s fair.”

“Ugh, fine.”

Collector snaps their fingers.

King sits up with a gasp, suddenly feeling stone floor beneath his paws. Jean-Luc chitters into the room, tilting his head.

“It worked,” King breathes.

His voice sounding normal surprises him. He should be a baby again; he said before he was found! He reaches up to his horn, his eyes widening when he feels the line of where it had been cracked and glued back on.

“Oh, no.”

Chapter Text

Luz can’t move. Her limbs are stiff and so heavy, she can’t so much as move a finger in a desperate attempt to scratch a glyph into the stone floor to help. She can only watch as her friends storm into the Skull, magic blazing against Belos.

“Luz!” Amity cries.

And damn it, even her tongue is too heavy to call back to her, to ask for help, to tell them all to LOOK OUT—

and then the Collector is there, kneeling in front of her, grinning maniacally.

“First one to find him is the better best friend!”

Luz wakes up with a start, slapping a hand over her mouth before she can yelp and wake anyone else up.

It takes a few seconds for her to realize that she could move her hand without disturbing Amity or Hunter. The three of them and Willow had been alternating sleeping on the bottom of her bunk bed and the extra mattress since returning to the human realm, while Gus and V took the top bunk.

So... why is she in the top bunk now?

Luz scrambles down the ladder, almost falling when she steps and her foot isn’t quite on the floor yet. The floor that none of her friends are sleeping on — there isn’t as much as an extra pillow in sight.

“What the heck?” she mutters to herself.

The sight of her calendar above her bookcase makes her heart stop. She knows V has kept it updated since she got back from Reality Check. She knows that when she fell asleep last night — when they all fell asleep last night — it had been the end of September.

But now her calendar is open to May, with all but the 31st being crossed off.

Which means...

“No.” Luz shakes her head, hardly noticing she’s physically backing away from her calendar. “This... this isn’t possible. This is just another dream.”

She backs into her closet. When she turns and looks into the mirrored doors, she could scream.

Her hair is as short and straight as it was at the start of the summer. The bags under her eyes are nowhere near as dark as they were last night; they’re more stayed-up-all-night-binging-fanfic than they are guilt-induced-insomnia. The cut on her eyebrow that had finally fully scarred over from the battle at the Skull isn’t even there anymore.

And is she shorter, too?

Something clatters downstairs, and Camila swears loudly.

“Mom!”

All thoughts of weird time bullshit are left in her room as Luz bolts down the stairs. She jumps over the last three and nearly runs into a wall in her rush to the kitchen. Her mind is racing, preparing her for Camila having been spooked by Hunter having fallen asleep at the table after a midnight snack, or a palisman hiding in a cabinet again, or even a demon that had somehow gotten through the broken Portal.

She’s not prepared for her mom to just be picking up a frying pan, with nothing else out of the ordinary in sight.

“Oh, sorry, mija,” Camila says. “The pan slipped, is all.”

“Oh.”

Luz tries to force herself to relax, to drop her hand from where she had naturally gone to grab for glyphs. She notices the calendar next to the sink, as consistently updated as the one in her room, is also open to May.

With all but the final day crossed off.

I can wake up now. Please.

“What would you like for breakfast?” Camila asks. “I’ll make anything.”

“Uh... surprise me?”

“Alright.” She sets the pan on the stove. “Are... you ready for Reality Check today?”

“As ready as I can be, I guess.” Luz takes a step back and gestures over her shoulder. “I’m... gonna get changed.”

As the day goes on, it becomes impossible to ignore the fact that this isn’t a dream. Everything is too detailed, too specific, to just be a dream, or even a memory she’s horribly fumbling her way through.

But the last three months on the Boiling Isles plus one in the human realm were no dream, either. The nightmare, the reflexive reaching for glyphs, and the unhatched palisman still sitting on her desk are all confirmations of that.

Eda said time pools are the only form of time magic. There’s no way Luz had stumbled through one of those.

So how the hell is this happening?

And why does no one else seem to notice?

Luz checks every news source she can think of and social media she has, but there’s absolutely no mention of some kind of universal reset or mass déjà vu or anything.

Loathe as she is to admit it, this is one of those problems that are way too big to figure out on her own, at least by the time she’s standing on the sidewalk to wait for the Reality Check bus. Her bag is heavy with her palisman and a notebook’s worth of pre-drawn glyphs, and Camila is hugging her a bit tighter than is strictly necessary.

“Now, don’t worry. Summer camp is only going to be for two months.” She kisses Luz’s forehead. “The time will fly by!”

Luz nods absently. “I know.”

“And I want you to make some friends. Real ones; not imagined, or drawn.”

She nods again, thinking of just how many people she befriended on the Isles, how she has a girlfriend, and even how V made friends at Reality Check. “I can do that.”

“I know you can.” Camila kisses her forehead again and finally lets her go, but seems to hesitate. “You know, I could call out of work and drive you to Reality Check myself. We could spend a few more hours together.”

Luz starts. Camila didn’t say that last time. “Uh...”

“They won’t miss me at the clinic for one day.”

She knows. That’s the only thought in Luz’s head. Out of everyone in the human realm, her mom is the one other person who remembers. And she doesn’t want me to go back.

Camila squeezes Luz’s shoulder. “You... you can say no. If you think... the bus, is the right way to get there.”

It would be so easy to take her up on the offer. Titan knows everyone’s lives would probably be better if Luz had never crashed into them. It’s her fault the Day of Unity happened in the first place.

But...

She has to make sure her friends are okay. Before saying goodbye for good.

“I... I think I’m gonna take the bus.”

Camila takes a deep breath. “Okay.”

The tightness of the next hug confirms for Luz that Camila knows. Luz returns it just as tightly, hoping her apology for doing this again, for putting her through this again, comes through.

She isn’t sure how long they stand there before Camila’s phone vibrates in her purse, but it isn’t long enough. Reluctantly, they let each other go.

“Well, I gotta go to work then. Text me when you get there. Cuídate mucho, mija. Qué te vaya bien.”

“Te quiero, mamá.”

“Te quiero también.”

Luz waits for Camila to completely walk away before wiping the tears that had stubbornly made their way out. She takes a deep breath before looking behind the trash can.

Nothing and no one is there.

“Come on.” Luz looks around. “Where are you, Owlbert?”

It’s only a few seconds before Luz has to accept that he isn’t here. But she knows the Portal is.

It has to be.

So, taking one last look at her house,

at Gravesfield,

at the human realm,

she books it for the Portal House.

It doesn’t take long at all to get there, even if the path is a little overgrown without weeks of half a dozen teens walking along it.

And clearly this day is just insisting on going completely differently, because V, in her custom semi-human form, is already leaving the Portal House when Luz gets there.

“V!”

“Luz!”

Luz practically tackles her sister in a hug, which she happily returns. In their relief, they both start talking at once.

“You’re okay!”

“I woke up on the Isles—”

“No one was here when I woke up—”

“—and I was so worried because I wasn’t anywhere I had been before—”

“—and it’s the start of summer again and I’m shorter—”

“—and Eda wasn’t at the Market—”

Luz lets V go. “Wait, what was that last part?”

“Eda wasn’t at the Market.”

“But... how did you get here?”

“With this.” V holds up the Portal Key. “I found the Portal buried in the ground near a house.”

Luz takes the Key carefully, hardly believing she’s actually holding it again. After months, she has her way between realms back. “How is this possible?”

“I don’t know. But it’s really freaky.”

“Tell me about it.”

V looks at Luz. “You’re... not going back, are you?”

Luz pockets the Key. “I have to figure out what happened. No one else here even noticed, except maybe Mom, and if Eda wasn’t in the Market...” She squares her shoulders. “I need to make sure everyone’s okay. But I’ll be back as soon as I can. I promise.”

V suddenly pulls her into another hug. “Please be careful.”

Luz melts into the embrace. “I will.”

“Luz! V!”

They let each other go at Camila’s yell. Luz takes a step toward the House.

“Take care of Mom for me, okay?”

V nods. “Come home soon.”

“As soon as I can.”

She runs through the Portal with a bright flash. A few seconds later, Camila walks through the trees. V runs up and hugs her tightly. Camila catches her and rubs her back, but can’t tear her eyes away from the Portal House.

“Come on, bebé. Let’s go home.”

~

Philip truly does not know what has gotten into the Collector today. While the celestial has never exactly been patient in the nearly four hundred years he has known them, they’re truly outdoing themself today.

Especially outdoing their usual nonsense.

“...and I forgot to make sure I was freed when I reset time,” the Collector is saying, “so now I can’t play Hide and Seek.” He throws himself on Philip’s desk. “I need to be freed!”

Philip pushes away from his desk, hardly keeping in an annoyed sigh. “As I have told you, Collector, I will free you after the Draining Spell takes effect on the Day of—”

“Blah blah blah.” The Collector sits up. “You keep saying that, but I already lived it. And you didn’t free me! You threw me in the broken grimwalker pit! King was the one to free—”

Philip tosses a towel over the Collector’s mirror, silencing them. The emperor hums to himself.

“I’ve never heard of a King.” He picks up his mask and stares at it. “But I can change that.”

~

The first thing Luz notices when she steps through the Portal is that, true to V’s word, she’s not in Eda’s stand in the Market. Instead, she’s in a small clearing, with trees on three sides and a large wrought iron gate on the fourth. She approaches the gate, and, atop the stone arch it sits in, she can just make out the name Clawthorne.

“I need to find Eda.”

It doesn’t take all that much walking through the woods, the Key safely tucked in her pocket, before Luz finds a cute little house, which no doubt belongs to Eda’s parents. While part of her wants to ask them for help, or at least a ride to town, she really isn’t eager to interact with Gwendolyn again.

Especially if she’s back to believing in that stupid scammer.

Luckily, there’s a pretty obvious path leading away from the front door, and Luz can just see Bonesborough in the distance. After making sure her palisman is still safely tucked into her messenger bag, she starts down the road.

Even after just a few weeks, it’s kind of amazing how homesick she was for the Isles. Breathing in the pollution-free, magic-filled air feels good. Not knowing what may or may not be lurking in the woods, or whether it’s something out of her dreams or nightmares, is somehow just as comforting as the familiarity of rabbits and deer were in the human realm.

Those thoughts are interrupted by a sudden and intense uncomfortable feeling in her gut. She shudders and yanks her hood up, intending on huddling into it until the feeling passes, but it does the second she pulls it up. She starts to pull the hood back down, then has to pull it back up when the feeling returns again.

“Okay, then. Hiding my ears it is.”

When she reaches Bonesborough, a new uncomfortable feeling fills her. The sight of the city, free of the cloud of palpable anxiety, and with walls boasting fewer wanted posters and streets emptier of Coven scouts...

I really did make everyone’s lives worse, Luz thinks, watching the residents of Bonesborough leisurely go about their afternoons. If it wasn’t for me, none of this would have ever—

She walks straight into a wall. Clearly, she needs to get out of her own head. Luz grumbles to herself and rubs her nose, before her eyes widen.

“What...?”

She rips down the wanted poster she walked directly into. It should have been familiar, and it is, but it’s also wrong.

Because it’s Eda’s wanted poster.

But... King isn’t on it. And Eda’s hair is red, like it was when she was younger.

And her bounty was definitely not that high. Even right before the Day of Unity!

“This is bad.”

A passing demon scoffs. “Don’t tell me a squirt like you is thinking about hunting down the Owl Lady of all people?”

Luz rolls her eyes. “Of course not.”

She turns from the wall and starts for the Owl House, but the demon speaks again.

“Good. The Owl Lady and her merry band of Wild Witches give witches and demons a bad name. You wouldn’t stand a chance.”

Luz almost asks what the hell they’re talking about — the only people in Eda’s life for years until Luz arrived were Owlbert, Hooty, and King. Luz doesn’t even think she knows any other Wild Witches.

But she’ll get answers soon enough straight from the source. She doesn’t need rumors.

~

When deciding to go to the Owl House, Luz forgot to factor in the long and feather problem that is Hooty. Luckily, she hears his manic laughter long before she’s in range to worry about him attacking her, even if she does worry about who or what he’s already attacking.

On the bright side, Hooty being here means Eda definitely hasn’t gone anywhere.

On the down side, as Luz sees when she gets to the top of a tree roughly where she remembers Hooty’s outer limit being, he’s actively terrorizing a squadron of Coven scouts who are clearly trying to arrest Eda.

Which shouldn’t happen until the start of July!

(At this point, it’d be faster to list the things that aren’t different from Luz’s actual first day on the Isles.)

Luckily, it only takes Hooty regurgitating a tea set for the scouts to be sent running, most screaming, “Not again!”

Luz waits until the last of their screams stop echoing through the forest before making her way down the tree.

Within thirty seconds of her feet touching solid ground, she hears Hooty yell, “OH BOY, MORE PLAYMATES!” and shove his head in the dirt.

Okay, clearly Luz was a bit off with where Hooty’s outer reaches were. But, she does have her timing right, because she rolls out of the way right before Hooty bursts out of the ground.

“A LITTLE ONE!”

“Hooty, it’s me!” Luz tosses her hood off, pulling on her round ears for emphasis.

“HELLO ME!”

“Ugh.” Hooty is Hooty, as frustrating as always. “It’s Luz. You know me!”

“HMMMMMMMMM, NOPE! I WOULD HAVE REMEMBERED MEETING A HUMAN BEFORE!”

The front door opens, and Luz sighs and tears up in relief at the sound of Eda’s voice.

“Hooty, what did you just say?”

“A HUMAN!” Hooty grabs Luz by the hood and carries her to the door. “SEE?”

Luz’s eyes widen as she’s brought over. Eda looks decades younger: her face is less wrinkly, there’s no pinched look of pain in her eyes, and her hair is only just starting to turn gray at the temples, while the rest is the same flaming red as her new wanted poster and her Hexside permanent record.

...almost like she— no. That... that wouldn’t make any sense.

“Huh,” Eda says, interrupting Luz’s thoughts. “How the hell did a human get to the demon realm?”

Luz’s heart stops. Eda doesn’t remember me either. Eda doesn’t... no, okay, don’t spiral, Luz. Answer her question and don’t cry. Think of a— ugh, fine. “I... fell into a pond in the human realm and came out in the demon realm. A lake on the Knee.”

Eda’s eyes widen. “You came here from the Knee?”

“Yep! People there said that Eda the Owl Lady is the most powerful witch on the Boiling Isles, and if I had any chance of getting home, it would be to find her. Someone said she lives just outside Bonesborough... does she live around here?”

Eda preens, just as Luz hoped she would. “Well, lucky for you, human, I am Eda the Owl Lady. And I am the most powerful witch on the Boiling Isles, if not the whole damn demon realm! I can absolutely get you home.”

Luz beams, even as the Portal Key weighs heavily in her pocket. “Thank you, Eda.”

“Now, I don’t suppose you have somewhere to stay in the meantime?”

“Nope. I was hoping I could stay here?”

“Well, at least you’re honest about it.”

Eda waves her inside. Hooty finally lets go of Luz’s hood, and she follows the witch inside as he reels himself back in the door with a disgusting slurping sound, which is luckily cut short by Eda magicking the door shut.

Luz admires the living room, her chest warm at the sight of everything back to where it should be. “So,” she says, trying to keep herself from crying at the sight of the couches, “do you live here all alone?”

Something crashes in the kitchen, followed by several yells.

“Actually, I have a few roommates slash coven members.”

“Coven?!”

Eda gives her a look. “Don’t sound so worried, kid. The Bad Girl Coven is the only coven on the Isles that doesn’t seal away any magic.” She nudges Luz playfully. “Can’t be the most powerful witch in the realm if I don’t have full access to my magic, right?”

Luz sighs in relief. “Right. Sorry, just... haven’t heard anything good about covens.”

“Clearly, you’ve been talking to the right people.” Eda starts up the stairs, Luz right behind her. “Say, how long have you been on the Isles?”

“Four months.”

Eda trips, but easily catches herself. “Titan, kid. And you haven’t been eaten alive yet?”

“Heh, there were a few close calls.” Her first fight with Belos — Philip, whoever — flashes in her mind. That giant worm thing did technically eat her alive, but she blew it up before she even got to its stomach. She shudders at the rush of phantom heat from the fire glyph three months used.

Eda misses the shudder as she rubs her hip, visibly confused by something. But she shrugs it off and opens the door to Luz’s room. “There might be a bit of stuff in here, but it’s pretty much the only unoccupied room in the House.”

Luz peeks in.

Yeah, Eda wasn’t kidding. There’s a small mountain of stuff in the room; but everything she can see is demon realm stuff.

There’s not a single human thing in there.

Well, she doesn’t have the Portal. That makes sense.

“It’s perfect,” Luz says. “Thank you.”

“Eh, don’t mention it. Toss your bag in and I’ll show you around.”

~

The first thing Eda notices as she gives the kid a brief tour of the House is that she seems way too comfortable here. She seems to know exactly which floorboards to avoid because of errant nails that no one has gotten around to hammering down all the way, which closets hold entirely too much crap to even think of opening — for fuck’s sake, she hardly seemed bothered at the front door when Hooty was holding her by the hood for a solid two minutes!

Eda can’t make horns or tails of what that means, nor can she figure out why Hooty doesn’t bother the kid at all but the sight of the rest of the BGC in the kitchen brings her to a complete stop.

“You okay, kid?”

“Yeah.”

The word is strained, but one of them was loud enough to get the ex-demon hunters’ attentions.

“Who’s the kid?” Edmon asks.

“This is...” Eda stops, realizing she never actually caught the kid’s name.

“Luz,” she offers, still a bit strained.

“Luz! Luz, this is Edmon,” she gestures to the big demon with an eyepatch, “Tom,” a green demon with a butt chin, “Puhagi,” a witch with purple hair, “and Prim,” their resident tailor.

The kid waves half-heartedly, her eyes jumping between Edmon and Tom warily.

Eda doesn’t know what’s going on there, but she pats Luz gently on the shoulder.

“How about you go make your room comfortable? I’ll get you when it’s time for dinner.”

Luz nods mutely and leaves quickly. Eda barely hears her start up the stairs before the entire damn coven demands, “What the fuck?”

“She’s a human,” Edmon adds in a growl. “How is she here?”

“Fell through a pond in the human realm and ended up on the Knee, apparently.” Eda doesn’t know if she exactly buys that story, or why a tiny voice in the back of her mind is screaming that the story is familiar for a different reason, but she’ll leave the kid her alibi. “I’ll take her back there tomorrow and figure out how to send her back.”

“Hold on,” Prim says. “She could help us.”

Everyone turns to her.

“How?” Puhagi asks.

“Well, the Covention is next Sunsday. Lilith has been the ‘mystery guest’ since she became Coven Head.” Prim looks at Eda and gestures upstairs. “With an apprentice, you have a reason to go and distract your sister, while the rest of us can stage the raid on the Conformatorium we’ve been planning.”

Tom raises his hand. “Why wait for the Covention?”

“Lilith will likely call for reinforcements once she sees Eda, since she’s never been able to capture her on her own.”

Eda stands just a tad taller at that.

“And reinforcements would come from the Conformatorium,” Edmon says, finishing Prim’s train of thought.

They all look to Eda, who nods.

“It’s a good plan. It’ll probably take a while to figure out how to get to the human realm, anyway.” She looks upstairs. “But why try to pass the kid off as my apprentice? Humans can’t learn magic.”

“Nothing a little illusion magic can’t hide,” Prim says.

Eda hums. “You got me there. Alright, I’m in. But let’s leave Luz out of it, alright? She’s got enough to worry about, being in a different realm and all.”

Everyone agrees, and Tom says he’ll gather all of their Conformatorium floor plans, hand-drawn collaboratively across their numerous trips there.

~

Dinner is a lot quieter than Luz was expecting. With four extra people, the demon hunters at that, she figured it would be somewhere around middle school cafeteria level, but it’s actually a decent volume. That and the inclusion of griffin eggs (which Luz had asked for when Eda came up to ask if there was any food she couldn’t eat) helps distract her from the fact that in whatever timeline she’s ended up in, Eda is living with the demon hunters who threw her, Willow, and Gus off a cliff.

Or... will throw them off a cliff?

Ugh, this is all giving her a headache.

~

For some reason, the kid’s silence during dinner sets off alarm bells in Eda’s head. She knows that’s totally irrational, because she doesn't know the kid’s regular level of conversation...

but Eda finds herself knocking on the kid’s door when she heads to bed.

“It’s open,” she says.

Eda gently pushes the door open, surprised to see how neat the room is. Sure, everything is pushed to the edges, but there doesn’t seem to be any immediate threat of collapse, and there’s a visible path from the door to the window — which Eda forgot existed in this room — in which the kid has laid her sleeping bag. She’s sitting in it now, looking up from a weird rectangle in her hands.

“All settled in?” Eda asks.

“Yeah....”

There are those damned alarm bells again. “What’s wrong, kiddo?”

“K—” The kid cuts herself off, fidgets with her weird rectangle thing, then sighs. “King is supposed to be here.”

For some reason the name brings a pang of loneliness to Eda.

“We got separated a few weeks ago, and I... I really miss him.”

“How’d you get separated?”

The kid opens her mouth to answer, but no sound comes out. Eda waits, but all she can manage is rapid breathing.

Oh, shit, Eda thinks. Okay, no, you know what to do. What did Mom do for Lil— What did Raine— Ugh, just get through the unpleasant memories. What am I supposed to do? Something... with senses? Yes!

“Okay, kid, this is gonna sound dumb, but I need you to do something for me, alright?”

Luz nods, shakily.

“Okay. Can you tell me five things you can see?”

It takes a bit, but eventually she focuses on five things long enough to say them: Eda, door, hallway, sleeping bag, piles of stuff.

Eda slowly coaches her through the rest of the senses: four things she can touch, three she can hear, two she can smell, and one she can taste. By hear, Luz’s breathing has slowed down. After taste, it’s normal.

But then she just... curls in on herself.

Eda almost reaches out to her, but Luz says, “It’s all my fault.”

“What are you talking about?”

“If I hadn’t come to the demon realm, none of this would have happened.”

Ah. Unrealistic self-blame. Something Eda knows well.

She sits next to Luz, her knees screaming in relief as she stops kneeling. Guess I’m getting older than I thought. “It’s not like you planned on coming here, right?”

“I still ran through the d— pond.”

Yeah, Eda knew it. But she doesn’t push. “You couldn’t have known that would bring you to another realm. It’s not exactly something that happens every day.”

The kid visually tries to disagree, but eventually just slumps into Eda. She tenses, but awkwardly tries to hold her anyway.

“So,” she says, fighting the urge to shove the kid off, “who is King anyway?”

“My brother.”

Ah, so the pang was empathy, not loneliness. That makes sense. But, “There are two humans on the Isles?”

“No, he’s a... demon. I met him when I got to the Isles. But he’s still my brother, and I have to find him and make sure he’s okay.”

Eda rubs her arm. “We’ll start looking tomorrow, alright? For your brother and a way back to the human realm.”

Luz nods, and then does something completely ridiculous.

She hugs Eda.

“I... thank you,” Luz says.

Now, Edalyn Clawthorne is no stranger to physical contact. The rest of her coven is constantly slapping each other on the back for successful missions and even good food. Her dad still constantly ruffles her already wild hair nearly every time they see each other. Even her mom offers a comforting hand on her shoulder every once in a while.

But she doesn’t remember the last time she was hugged.

Come to think of it, she doesn’t remember the last time she was thanked, either, and this is the third time the human has done that today.

Luz lets go before Eda can really react, wiping her face. “Not a hugger yet.”

“Yet?” Eda repeats as she stands, for lack of better things to say and do. “I wouldn’t hold your breath, kid.”

“I don’t know. I’ve been told I have a way of sneaking into people’s hearts.”

“Sure.” Eda pauses in the doorway, a little worried by the sad look on the kid’s face. “Good night.”

“Night, Eda.”

Chapter Text

The second Luz wakes up, she scribbles herself a to-do list for the day. It goes as follows:

1. Reassure Mom that I’m okay

2. Find out if Eda is cursed or not

3. Figure out how to talk to Hunter and check up on him

4. Find Amity

5. Find Willow and Gus

6. FIGURE OUT WHERE KING IS

As much as she wants to immediately find her friends and girlfriend, Luz knows she won’t be able to pretend like they’re meeting for the first time. And as worried as she is about Hunter being back with Belos, if he doesn’t remember anything, then she could be risking Belos trying to capture her for the Portal sooner.

...but if Belos remembers everything, she needs to worry about that anyway—

Luz shakes her head. No, no, she tells herself. Don’t worry about that right now. Focus on the list.

She sends a good morning text to Camila as she eats breakfast in the — thankfully — empty kitchen. Sure, she texted her last night, but leaving her mom in the dark for the entire summer was one of the (many) things Luz regretted the first time. If she can fix anything this time, she’s making sure that’s one of them.

With her breakfast done, she moves to the next list item and hunts down Eda. Luckily, it isn’t that hard to do; the House’s layout is the exact same, down to the errant nails in the floorboards she always managed to step on in her first few weeks.

Luz eventually finds Eda in the potions lab, which is a little weird, given she had always brewed in the kitchen. She shakes the weirdness off and bursts through the door with a loud, “So! Why do people call you the Owl Lady?”

Eda jumps at her voice and clutches her chest in faux-distress. “Titan’s Horns, kid. Give some warning before you just burst in somewhere.” She returns to stirring the potion she’s working on. “Why do you wanna know?”

“I love mysterious backstories. And a name like that has to have a good one.”

Eda scoffs. “Sorry to disappoint, then. My palisman’s an owl and old Hooty in the front door is an owl. Until I founded the Bad Girl Coven, they were pretty much the only beings I interacted with, so the nickname came from them.”

Luz’s eyes widen. “That’s it?”

“That’s it.” Eda stops stirring her potion and taps the spoon against the cauldron. “Well, I was cursed to turn into this owl beast thing when I was in school, but that only lasted a day.”

“What?!”

“Yeah, it sucked. I wasn’t in control of myself—” She cuts herself off, looking confused. “Why am I telling you this?”

“Backstories.” Luz starts backing out of the lab. “Their pull is irresistible! I’ll leave you to brewing. I need some fresh air.”

Eda waves absent-mindedly. “Don’t get eaten.”

~

It has been a very long day. King has done everything he could think of to keep from falling asleep, out of fear of waking up somewhere else and seeing Collector.

But his little body can only hold onto consciousness for so long.

It isn’t long after he lays down that he feels the familiar weightlessness of the In Between. He opens his eyes, taking in the realm with a quiet groan.

A booming voice quickly yells, “KING!”

He dives behind a large stone, his paws over his ears.

Go away go away go away, just let me sleep, he thinks desperately.

“I know you’re there, King~” Collector taunts.

“You have to find me in the demon realm!” King yells back.

Collector whines. “Why?”

“That’s the rules. You, uh, reset everything before I could say that one.”

“But I messed up! I’m trapped again!”

King sighs in relief. That means his plan worked. He may never see his family again, but they’re safe—

“Can we pause so you can let me out?”

“NO!” King clears his throat, trying to force the panic out. “No. You have to do it yourself.”

The In Between falls silent. King waits, hardly breathing, waiting for a tantrum.

But nothing happens.

“I, uh, believe in you?”

Still, nothing.

King peers around the rock, up at the floating prison in the sky. Collector’s back is turned to him, but he thinks the celestial’s arms are crossed.

“Are you giving me the silent treatment?”

“Maybe.”

~

Luz is wandering aimlessly around Bonesborough, lost in her thoughts and rambling to herself. Part of her is trying to achieve the last item on the list, but most of her just needs to process... everything.

“If the last four months never happened, and Eda was only cursed for a day, then... I must be in some alternate timeline.” She stops in the middle of the street. “Ugh, when did my life get so complicated?”

A passing witch bumps into her shoulder. “Watch it.”

“You—” Luz sighs, deciding it’s not worth it. She steps into the nearest alley to get out of the way. She feels like she’s been down this alley before. Something about the rats...

“Focus, Luz,” she tells herself. “Who cares how we ended up here. We need to find King. Because if we find King, then... everything will go back to normal. Because that makes sense.” She groans and slumps to the ground, resting her forehead on her knees. “This would all be so much easier if I could just ask Eda for help.”

“Did you say you needed help?”

Luz looks up at the voice, then glares at the demon who spoke. “Not from you.”

Adegast, or at least his wizard puppet, looks offended. “Is that any way to speak to your elder, child?”

“When it’s you? Yeah.” Luz gets to her feet. “I’m not buying whatever you’re selling, puppeteer.”

She starts to walk away.

“What if it was an equivalent exchange?” Adegast asks, following. “I can give you help for your problem, and you can do something for me.”

Luz doesn’t even slow down. “I don’t want your help.”

“Oh, but I want yours.”

Adegast snaps his fingers, and before Luz can run, another puppet wraps her up. She wriggles against his bonds, cursing herself for not grabbing her glyphs before she left the House, and cursing the universe for taking away her hard-earned muscles, leaving her with weak nerd arms again.

“I’m not above screaming!” Luz warns.

Adegast cackles as he drags her toward his castle. “Go ahead. No one will be able to hear you.”

~

Eda’s getting worried. She knows the kid said she was getting some air, but that shouldn’t take hours. She’s missed lunch at this point.

Why am I this worried? she half-wonders as she checks the living room again. No kid, but Tom and Puhagi are playing a round of Hexes Hold ‘Em and Prim looks ready to leave for her tailoring shop.

“Has anyone seen the kid?” Eda asks them. “I haven’t seen her since early this morning.”

The three of them share a look, then all shake their heads. The worried feeling in Eda’s stomach grows, and it must show on her face because Puhagi’s face softens.

“I’m sure she’s fine,” she says.

“Yeah,” Tom adds. “For all we know, she could be having a great time throwing other kids off of cliffs.”

They all ignore Tom.

“Prim,” Eda says, “I’ll head to the shop with you. She said she was getting some air, maybe she got lost.”

“Alright.”

Prim reaches for the door, but Hooty swings it open before she even touches the handle.

“HOOT HOOT! GUESS WHO GOT A RANSOM NOTE?”

“Ransom?” Eda repeats.

She runs over as Hooty gags, for entirely too long, and eventually barfs a crystal ball into her hand. She wipes off the mucus as her covenmates shudder, and in the process makes the video start.

“Eda the Owl Lady,” a grotesque octopus demon says, standing in the middle of a library. “How nice to speak to you again. I have your precious little apprentice at my castle.”

The video feed moves to show Luz tied to a chair, trying hard to fight against the white venous things keeping her there. She suddenly looks up.

“Eda, stay away! It’s a tr—”

The video cuts to static. Eda’s already running out the door, Owlbert in hand.

~

After the crystal ball ransom note is sent off, Luz kinda zones out from Adegast’s evil monologue. It’s all blah blah powerful magic, blah blah stealing business... honestly, if you’re gonna monologue, make it good!

Luckily, the monologue seems to be taking significant focus, because Luz soon feels the tendons keeping her feet tight against the chair slacken, and then fall away completely. She looks down to check, and sure enough, her feet are free.

And the floor is way too easy to scuff.

She keeps an eye on Adegast, letting her foot move with muscle memory as the demon rambles.

“...she must have some secret behind her power—”

“Oh, yeah, she does.”

Adegast spins around at Luz’s interruption. “What?”

She shrugs. “Yeah. I mean, I’d hardly call it a secret. She told it to me the second day I knew her.”

He crawls forward greedily, his eyes wild. “Tell me.”

Luz looks between him and the glyph, gauging the distance. “If that’s really all you want, then sure. Just come closer.”

He slides about three inches closer.

“A little closer.”

A full foot this time, but still too far away.

“Just a little...”

His tentacles are inches away from the outer circle now.

“Yeah, that’s good.” She grins to herself. “You can’t wait around for anything to make you special. You just have to choose yourself.”

She stomps her foot on the fire glyph and slides her foot forward. A burst of fire torches the puppeteer, creating an absolutely awful smell of burnt calamari and spent magic, and a scream that Luz knows will be haunting her dreams. The tentacle keeping her hands tied to the chair withers, and she takes her freedom to drag the collar of her hoodie over her nose.

The doors to the castle burst open. Eda flies in, a large fireball floating above her hand as she jumps off her staff.

“Let the kid go you—”

“Eda!”

Luz runs, launching herself into Eda’s arms. She waves away the fireball to catch her in a hug.

“Titan below, Luz, would it kill you to not get kidnapped for a week?”

“I know, but—” Luz suddenly pulls away. “Wait, what did you say?”

Eda blinks. “I... don’t know where that came from.” She sniffs and neary gags. “Ugh, what is that smell?”

“Oh, that’s... what’s left of Adegast. I... kinda maybe burnt him alive?”

“You... what?”

“Just, hang on.”

Luz backs up a few steps to scuff another fire glyph into the floor. She taps it with her foot, and watches Eda’s amazed expression more than the flames.

“You... you can do magic?”

“Yep! It’s a lot easier to cast with paper, though. I forgot to grab some when I left the House earlier, but the wood on the Isles is really weak.”

“Well, if it’s paper you need,” Eda slings an arm around Luz’s shoulders and starts leading her outside, “then it’s paper you shall get! It’s on me.”

Luz chuckles. “I’d hope so. I don’t have any snails.”

“Eh, don’t worry about that. Where we’re going, we don’t need snails.”

“That just means we’re gonna steal it, doesn’t it?”

“I said don’t worry about it, kid.”

They leave the castle, Eda’s arm still around Luz.

~

Hunter kneels before the Emperor, his head bowed in respect.

“You may rise,” the Emperor says, “Golden Guard.”

Hunter does, standing at attention dutifully.

“I was pleased to hear the raids on the Wild Witch camps this weekend were a success. Captain Wolff said you were instrumental in the missions.”

“Thank you, Emperor.”

“But, I find it quite odd that none of the Wild Witches had palismen. Don’t you?”

Hunter is glad for his mask, so his panicked look is hidden. But he’s practiced this, so his voice is steady when he says, “Yes, I do. But palistrom trees are becoming increasingly rare, sir, and many of the Wild Witches captured this weekend were young.”

The Emperor hums. “This is true.”

There’s a long, long moment of silence. Hunter knows he’s being evaluated, scrutinized, and hopes with every fiber of his being that he passes.

Finally, blissfully, the Emperor says, “You are excused, Hunter.”

Hunter bows, his sigh of relief silent against his mask. He takes his leave, ensuring his steps are as carefully measured and timed as his breathing.

He relaxes as he crosses the threshold of the throne room, and almost perks up at the sight of the exact two Coven Heads he was hoping to see today.

“Golden Guard,” Darius says in disdain, Eberwolf growling the same by his side.

“Darius, Eberwolf,” Hunter replies coolly. “I was just about to look for you.”

“Were you now?”

“I was. Follow me.”

He leads them through the labyrinthine halls of the Castle to the library, which is empty as usual. Normally, this would be his only sanctuary outside of his room. Now... it serves a different purpose.

Once Hunter ensures that the three of them are in fact alone, he swings his tech staff in a wide arc. A privacy bubble forms around himself and the Coven Heads. Eberwolf sniffs at the bubble, and Darius stares at Hunter as he takes his mask off.

“Now,” Hunter starts, “this is going to sound... completely insane, but I need you both to hear me out.”

~

Paper and writing utensils secured (albeit not entirely legally), Luz and Eda are riding Owlbert back to the Owl House.

“So,” Eda says, “as much as I want to help you find your brother and get home, we’ve, uh, got some time-sensitive plans coming up at the end of the week that we need to prepare for. But once that’s over with, I’ll help.”

A whole week? No, breathe Luz. “That’s fine. That gives me time to think of where King might be.”

Luz doesn’t think her voice really sells that. Eda jumps at King’s name, the same way she did last night, complete with the visible confusion afterwards, but it’s replaced with concern by the time she looks over her shoulder at Luz.

“Hey, I know it isn’t ideal, but you’re welcome to stay with me as long as you need.”

“Thanks, Eda. You promise we’ll start looking for King in a week?”

“What, you can’t take an old witch on her word?”

“I’m not asking you to make an Everlasting Oath. Just a promise.”

Eda looks confused. “Why do you know what an Everlasting Oath is?”

“I... made an impulsive decision with an equally impulsive witchling.”

Eda hums. “Fair enough. But yes, kid, I promise.”

~

Darius rubs his forehead, hoping the ache won’t fully form. “Let me get this straight. You claim that you have already lived through this entire summer, and you learned that the Emperor is a semi-immortal human, committed to killing everyone in the demon realm, and is being aided by a long-forgotten child god?”

The Golden Guard nods. “Yes.”

Darius looks at Eber. “And here we thought he was just trying to siphon everyone’s magic for himself.”

Eber growls.

“Yes, how does he do magic if he’s human?” Darius repeats.

“He carved spell glyphs into his arms.”

Darius’s face must convey every ounce of confusion he feels, because the Guard summons a pen and paper. He draws something, then taps it.

And to Darius’s amazement, a flower blooms out of the paper.

“He would never show me this,” the Guard continues. “A different human did. I don’t know when she got here, but she’ll be at the Bonesborough Covention on Sunsday.”

Eber sneezes.

“Because she and her friends gave me somewhere to go. They let me be someone other than the Golden Guard. And if anyone else has somehow managed to remember everything, I know it would be Luz.”

~

As much as Luz wants to use all the paper for glyphs, she already has an entire notebook for that. Besides, she needs to figure out the truth, or at least get some theories together.

Because here’s the thing: Eda clearly remembers King; Luz saw her reaction to his name. She doesn’t know that she remembers, but she does, which means they can’t be in some alternate timeline. Something just happened to change everything.

But maybe... maybe finding King is the key to bringing everything back to normal.

Chapter Text

By the start of day five, King has decided one thing.

His island is so boring.

Well, his tower is boring. Jean-Luc won’t let him leave, which he guesses makes sense. It is the one place on the island that has the cloaking glyph, or sigil, or whatever is on the roof that makes him invisible to Collector.

But there’s nothing to do.

He’s laying in the middle of the floor for the hundredth time, staring up at his old hatchery, when Jean-Luc lumbers into view, a small plate of food in hand.

“Can I please go outside today?”

Jean-Luc shakes his head.

“Just for five minutes?”

He shakes his head again.

King groans and sits up, making a promise to himself to never complain about doing outdoor chores again. “Fine. Give me the food.”

The stonewalker gives him the plate, which is full of half-rotten fruit and flies picked of their wings. King sighs and looks at the doorway.

“Come on, Eda, where are you?”

~

“Eda!”

Luz manages to trip over her own feet on her hurried way to the kitchen, still not quite used to being two inches shorter than she had gotten used to.

Eda isn’t in the kitchen, but Edmon is. This is the first time she’s been alone with the demon hunter since she’s gotten back to the Isles, and she tenses at the sight of him.

At least he isn’t the one that actually threw us off the cliff, Luz reminds herself. Just ordered it. Yeah, okay, that isn’t really comforting.

Once she realizes she’s been standing in the doorway silently for a solid minute, she blurts, “Have you seen Eda?”

“No,” Edmon grunts. “Probably sleeping off her bottles of apple blood from last night.”

“Right.”

Eda certainly wasn’t a stranger to apple blood the first time around, but without King in the House, she’s even worse.

But that won’t sway Luz! Because after days of fruitless theorizing and headaches, she finally has a distraction.

“Well,” she says, “when you see her, tell her I’m out adventuring. I’ll be back by four-ish.”

“Don’t get kidnapped this time.”

Luz pulls her hood over her ears as she heads out the door. “I won’t!”

~

Finally, something is consistent!

The trash slug is exactly where Luz remembers it being, and the slimy seed is even in its puddle of bile! She takes that as a good sign for the rest of the day!

“If Eda can still still kinda remember King,” she mutters to herself as she wanders through the woods, trying to find the clearing she first saw Willow in, “then maybe Amity and Willow will already be friends again.” She sighs wistfully. “That would make my life so much easier.”

“You can do it! You can!”

“Yes!”

Luz ducks into a row of bushes and peers through them, grinning widely at the sight of Willow. Even if she is in her Abomination track uniform again.

Willow paces around and gives herself a pep talk, until she steps on a flower. Instantly, she kneels down and apologizes to the plant as she regrows it.

It isn’t until Luz hears a cart rolling into the clearing that she remembers with an overwhelming sense of dread how much of a Blight Amity used to be.

No, hang on. We’re being optimistic—

“Willow! You’ve got to be more careful; I almost rolled into ya.”

See? Even if she didn’t sound that worried, that went a little better than last time.

As Amity slides off the cart, Willow stands hesitantly. “Hi, Amity.”

Luz winces at the amount of venom in her voice. That didn’t.

“Did you want to come with me to class early to prep your—”

Willow’s cauldron rattles, cutting Amity off. The abomination mud tips the cauldron and spills over the ground, groaning with semi-sentience.

“Oh, Willow,” Amity starts.

“Stop.”

Luz blinks. That definitely didn’t happen last time.

Amity also blinks, taking half a step back. “I just... I mean, I’ll... see you in class, I guess.”

Willow doesn’t say anything as Amity grabs her cart and leaves, a tad too fast to be casual. Luz is too busy trying to process what happened — What was Amity about to say? Was she actually offering to help? Why was Willow so mad? — to notice Willow ranting to herself and her magic going berserk.

Well, at least until a root wraps around her ankle.

Luz looks down at it with a sigh.

“Not aga— aaaaaaaaah!”

She hits the dirt hard, but at least remembers to exhale as she does.

“Oh, no, no, no, no, no! I’m so sorry!”

Willow coaxes the roots away from Luz’s legs. She rubs at them absent-mindedly as she sits up.

“It’s okay, the thorns only went through a few layers of skin.”

Willow suddenly leans very close to Luz’s face. “Do I... know you?”

Luz beams. “The hug worked!”

The witch blinks and backs up. “What?”

“The...” Luz shakes her head as her stomach sinks. Must have been one of those half-remember deals. “I, must have one of those faces.” She pushes her hood down and pulls on her ear. “Not exactly from around here.”

Willow gasps and stands. “You’re human! This is astounding!” She pulls Luz to her feet and spins around her. “A human on the Boiling Isles! How’d you get here? What are you doing here?”

Bells peal in the distance, and Willow slumps.

Why does that bell not scream? Luz wonders.

“I have to go be humiliated in front of my class,” Willow says, her tone full of storm clouds as she starts to walk away. “It was nice to meet you, human.”

“No, wait!” Luz grabs her hand and pulls her to a stop. “I’m Luz, and you’re Willow, right? I saw what you did with that flower, and those roots; you’re amazing!””

Willow blushes. “Aw, it was nothing. Besides, I’m not even supposed to be doing Plant magic. My parents put me in the Abomination track at school.”

“Well, then let’s get you into the right track.”

“How?”

“Trust me.” Luz grabs a handful of abomination mud and slaps it on her hoodie. “I have a plan!”

~

Eda’s used to waking up in pain after a long night of apple blood, but hangover pain is usually just in her skull.

Not her...

everything.

She lets out a pained noise that sounds closer to Owlbert’s warble than a groan, and lazily draws a spell circle directed at herself.

When there’s no immediate cooling relief, only a strained feeling in her bile sac, she forces an eye open and tries again.

Both eyes fly open when the spell circle just...

disintegrates.

Now that her eyes are open — and she’s very much awake — she notices that her bed is littered with feathers of all things. Far too numerous, and far too big, and far too red to be from anything already in the House.

“Well,” she says to herself, voice hoarser than it should be, “that’s concerning.”

~

Luz is suddenly thankful for her negative growth spurt, because the cauldron is smaller than she remembers.

My excitement probably made it feel bigger last time.

The cauldron rolls to a stop, if Luz remembers correctly, at Willow’s locker. Which means...

Gus’s voice drifts through the hole in the top of the cauldron.

“Yes!”

Luz slaps a hand over her mouth, wincing at the volume.

“Okay, Augusts,” Willow says. “I’m gonna tell you something, but you have to be cool.”

“I can be spool. I-I mean cool.”

“Okay. Abomination, rise.”

Luz stands, giving a bored, abomination-like moan as she does.

“Wow,” Willow says, stars in her eyes. “Very convincing, Luz!”

“Thank you!”

Gus drops his magazine on the floor and stares at Luz. As he freaks out, Luz can feel herself tear up. She forgot how small Gus was when she met him!

“...but Augustus is an expert,” Willow is saying.

This is immediately followed by Gus asking, “Where are your gills?”

“We only have them in the womb. Kinda.” A fact they had actually researched during the first few days trapped in the human realm. “You know, I knew an Augustus in the human realm. We called him Gus.”

Gus gasps, and takes to the nickname like a duck to water. The bell screams, and he runs off to spelling class. Willow turns back to Luz as she sniffles.

“Are you okay? Oh no, are you allergic to the—”

“No, no, I’m fine.” Luz wipes her eyes. “Just... it’s nothing. Time for class?”

“Yeah.”

Luz sinks back down.

~

Prim is long used to Eda’s late morning starts, but she’s never the last one awake. While the other three don’t seem that worried, something in her soul says something is wrong.

Right as Prim reaches Eda’s room to check up on her, the doors open, and she stumbles out, one hand bracing herself against the door and the other clutching her head.

“Good, you are alive.”

“Ha ha.” Eda flips her off and stands straight. “Woke up in a stupid amount of pain. It finally went away.”

That must be the bad feeling Prim had. “Are you okay?”

“Fine. Must have slept real dumb and tweaked my back or something. Could you get the bean juice brewing?”

“Sure.” She watches Eda practically limp to the bathroom. “Do you want me to get Puhagi as well? She is the best with Healing magic.”

“No.” Eda slams the bathroom door, then calls through it, “I’m fine!”

~

Class goes the exact way Luz remembers it the first time, down to the conflict between Amity and Willow in the hallway. Sure, she could have been the convincing abomination she was in front of Gus, but the plan is getting Willow back into the Plant track, and she needs to make Amity suspicious for that.

Even if she does feel bad about annoying her girlfriend.

The plan also includes accepting half of Gus’s PB&J and getting shaken like a ragdoll by Amity as a result. Luz manages to keep her laughter in, and now she’s climbing out of the cauldron in an empty classroom after lunch.

“Woo, freedom!” She holds her hand out to her friends. “High five!”

Willow and Gus stare at her hand, then share a confused look. Gus shrugs.

“Oh, right.” Luz does a self-five. “Slap my hand. It’s a human thing.”

Gus hesitantly slaps her hand. As he gains confidence doing it again and again, Luz feels herself tearing up again. It’s not like Gus had lost his passion for all things human, but it’s been a long while since she’s seen him this excited.

The moment’s ruined when the door slams open. Luz internally groans as she slumps to the floor, knowing what’s coming on her end.

~

Eda tries not to roll her eyes as Puhagi waves a diagnosis spell over her for a third time.

After a minute, she shrugs. “I’m not finding anything.”

Eda throws her arms up in defeat. “Then I really slept weird, like I told Prim.”

“You can’t sleep so weird that your bones feel like they’re on fire, Eda.”

“Do you have another explanation?”

Puhagi hesitates. “Too much apple blood?”

Eda gives her a look that would at least maim, if not kill, were she more practiced in Oracle magic.

“Or someone cursed you in your sleep?”

An uncomfortable feeling stirs in Eda’s stomach at the suggestion, but she plays it off with a scoff. “No one can get through Hooty. We both know this.”

It’s said for both of their benefits, though Puhagi shudders at the mention of the house demon. Even after living with him for nearly a decade, the ex-demon hunters still try to avoid Hooty. Eda can’t particularly blame them, but still delights in teasing them all about it.

“By the way,” Eda says as she pours herself a mug of bean juice, “have you seen the kid?”

“Edmon said she went out ‘adventuring’.”

“Huh. Good for her. Hope she’s having fun.”

~

Running from a near vivisection is no more fun the second time than it was the first, but at least Luz knows where Willow is leading her in the halls this time.

They have to stop at a corner to catch their breaths, Luz once again cursing the universe for taking away her hard-earned endurance.

“I’m sorry, Luz,” Willow says. “You just wanted to help, and you almost got dissected because of it.”

“No, no, don’t worry; this is all part of the plan.”

That, understandably, earns her a very confused look.

“Just... trust me.” Luz takes a deep breath, trying hard to ignore the steadily drying abomination mud on her skin. “Also, it’d be vivisected since I’m still alive.”

“Why do you know the difference?”

“Long story, which we don’t have time for.”

The sound of magic being cast gains both of their attentions, and they watch as hallway after hallway is sealed off with red magic.

“Great,” Willow says. “Bump is sealing us in.”

“Not for long.” Luz grabs her hand. “Come on!”

She leads the way to the atrium, where nearly every hallway has been sealed off already. Principal Bump is there, directing abominations to capture them. Luz and Willow duck behind a pillar across from him.

“Oh, this is awful.” Willow sinks to the ground. “I don’t know what to do. Amity’s right. I’m just Half-a-Witch Willow.”

“No. You’re Full-Witch Willow.” Luz kneels down and squeezes her shoulder. “And you’re great. And someone... someone once told me that great witches are resourceful.”

Luz pulls out the seed. Willow takes it, and it isn’t the anxious and self-conscious Abomination witch that does. No, it’s the confident and kick-ass Flyer Derby captain who faced down the Emperor himself alongside her friends.

Luz sits back to watch her work, but the second she even slightly relaxes, she realizes the mud on her skin has dried, and it makes her limbs feel stiff and heavy.

Too stiff and heavy.

Like they’re stone.

No no no no, not now! she begs her brain, but her limbs don’t listen when she tries to get them to move.

The world fades around Luz, her lungs feel like they still, as she just tries to get something to move. A finger, a toe, fuck just something. She knows she isn’t in the Skull, her body isn’t stone, so why can’t she just move—

Something lands on her and her entire body finally listens, even if she doesn’t actually mean to jump. The thing is Willow’s hand, on her shoulder, squeezing tightly, while the other is slowly counting up and down to and from four.

“Just breathe with me Luz, okay?”

Luz nods, she nods, she can move, and the air comes in and goes out of her lungs. She watches Willow’s fingers count slowly up and down, and forces her own to match the rhythm.

I can move, I’m okay, Luz mentally chants. I can move, I’m okay.

There’s movement at the edge of her vision, and she can distantly hear Amity ask a question. But she keeps watching Willow’s consistent counting, hardly noticing her let go of her shoulder to magically yank a vine to block Amity’s path.

Soon enough, Luz is breathing normally, and nods to Willow.

“Thanks.”

“Are you okay?”

“I will be when we get out of here.”

Willow helps Luz to her feet. Now that the magical seals have dropped, they make a run for the front doors. They’re in sight when Luz suddenly skids to a stop.

“Wait!”

Willow stops too. “What?”

“This is your chance to switch to the Plant track!”

Willow shakes her head. “Luz—”

“I’ll be fine, I’ll wait for you right outside. Go find Bump and get into the right track.”

“Are you sure—”

“A hundred percent.” She gently shoves Willow back inside. “Trust me.”

Willow still looks hesitant, but goes. Luz watches her for a second, before bolting outside, rifling through her fanny pack for a springwater glyph, slamming it down on the ground, and using the water to scrub the abomination mud off her legs.

It’s, unfortunately, not the first time she’s had some kind of... episode, relating to nearly being petrified. But it never gets easier.

She’s gotten most of the mud off by the time she hears voices coming from around the corner. Luz dives into the bushes to avoid getting caught, right before her fellow multi-trackers round the corner.

Well, she guesses multi-track hopefuls, right now.

Barcus is woofing and growling, and while Luz still can’t understand his words, she can definitely tell he sounds confused.

“What do you mean Oracle magic hasn’t worked since Sunsday?” Viney asks.

Luz tilts her head.

Barcus growls, sounding a little worried this time.

Jerbo rubs the back of his neck. “Are you sure? Wouldn’t we have heard something on the news if an entire branch of magic stopped working?”

Barcus shakes his head and sneezes.

“Well, no, you know I don’t trust the Empire, but you can’t really keep something this big a secret.”

The trio has walked too far away for Luz to hear anything else but an annoyed huff from Barcus. She leaves the bushes, staring after them and humming to herself.

“This is crazier than I thought.”

“Luz!”

She turns at Willow and Gus’s voices, and catches them as they hug her. Willow quickly adjusts, holding Luz’s shoulders tightly at arms’ length.

“You were right! Principal Bump was so impressed by my plant work he’s switching me to the Plant track! Look!”

She backs away and snaps her fingers, then spins around to show her magenta sleeves and leggings turn green. Luz cheers and pulls Willow into another hug.

“I told you it would work! I can’t wait to see you kick butt in Plant classes!”

Willow and Gus share a look.

“Wait,” he says, “you were thinking of enrolling at Hexside?”

“Yeah! Can’t reject me when I can pass the entrance exam.” Luz pulls two glyphs out of her fanny pack. She drops the ice glyph on the ground to create a pillar of ice with her foot, at the same time she activates the light glyph and tosses the ball in the air.

She’s decided she’ll never get tired of the amazed looks on people’s faces when she shows them her magic for the first time.

“This is amazing!” Gus says, staring at the light. “You can do magic! Titan below, is everything witchkind knows about humans wrong—”

“No, no. Humans can only do magic with glyphs.” Luz takes out another light glyph and shows it to them. “It’s the way ancient witches and demons did magic, before they evolved bile sacs.”

“You rediscovered a lost form of magic?!”

“Heh, yeah.”

“As amazing as that is,” Willow says, certainly still sounding amazed, “Principal Bump kind of... banned you.”

“Oh, right.” Gus pulls out a banned poster with Luz’s face on it.

Forgot about that. Luz takes the poster. “Eh, it happens. I’m sure Principal Bump can be convinced to undo it.” No thanks to her excursion to Detention.

Which she doesn’t need to think about, because she’ll figure out where King is and she and Eda will find him before that happens again.

They will.

“Anyway,” Luz says, rolling up the poster, “I gotta get home. I’ll see you guys later.”

“Oh, wait!” Gus holds his hand up. “One more high five?”

Luz grins. “Yeah.”

~

Eda stares at the crime board she’s set up in her room. Well, the one for the newest mystery; she has multiple going at any given time.

Unfortunately, this one is the least satisfying. She doesn’t have much to go on with Puhagi finding nothing, not to mention all of her symptoms seeming so random.

And constant.

The pain has been on and off for at least a few days now. This morning was easily the worst, being completely unignorable.

And if her magic is starting to go the same way...

Could the owl beast curse be coming back?

Eda shakes her head at the thought. What happened that day hasn’t happened once in the last thirty years; why would it come back now?

That might explain the feathers, though.

Someone knocks at her door, interrupting her thoughts.

“Who is it?”

“Luz! I have something to show you~”

The sing-song tone certainly piques Eda’s interest. She takes one last long look at her pain board before tossing a sheet over it.

The kid is rocking on her feet and is holding something behind her back when Eda opens the door.

“Nice to see you’re still alive,” Eda says. “Have fun on your adventure?”

“More or less.” She brings the mystery thing in front of her: a rolled up piece of paper. “I...” She unrolls it, revealing a picture of her covered in abomination mud with the word BANNED under it. “Got banned from Hexside!”

Entirely too many emotions flood Eda at once. A strained “What?” is the only word she can manage.

“Right, context.” The kid rolls the poster back up and starts gesturing with it. “So there I was, wandering the woods...”

~

Collector hates this whole stupid game. They don’t know why they thought it would work out any better than it did last time they played! Here he is, stuck in a prison, again, because of the stupid stupid stupid game and the rules he didn’t ask enough about!

And the prison is so boring! There’s nothing to do, and the only person they can talk to is Belos, and he never wants to play!

Not to mention, you know, the whole going back on his pinky promise thing. It’s like he doesn’t even know how important celestial promises are!

Collector is still deep in his silent treatment against King when he can suddenly see into the demon realm again. Belos must have taken the towel off the disk!

“Collector,” he says before they even fully look out. “This ‘King’ you mentioned. None of the Oracles are able to find him. Are you sure he exists?”

Collector considers giving Belos the silent treatment, too. But, King never said he couldn’t have other people help him.

“Of course he exists,” they say. “He’s probably hiding again. I couldn’t see him until he wanted me to, after you dropped me in the grimwalker pit. But that’s okay, because we finally got to play! First we played a game about his human best friend’s life, but then we changed it to Hide and Seek. But he didn’t explain all the rules he changed and I trapped myself in here again.”

Belos stares at him. “Did... you say, human best friend?”

“Yeah. She’s like, all he would talk about.”

He hums and strokes his chin, something that made a lot more sense when he still had a beard. “Can you describe this human? Or this ‘King’?”

“Of course I can describe King! One, he’s a baby Titan, so his head—”

“A Titan?” Belos’s eyes are shining.

“Yep! His dad hid him from me for ever.”

Belos grabs a pen and paper. “Would you show me exactly what King looks like?”

Chapter Text

Of course it has to rain on Seedsday. Because why wouldn’t a day that Hunter actually gets to leave the castle be way too dangerous to go out?

...at least, that’s what he pretends to think as he sweeps through the halls. Scouts practically trip over themselves trying to stay away from his faux-foul mood.

In reality, the boiling rain may as well be a Titan-blessed gift. It makes today the perfect time to enact Operation: Unthinkable.

Because Kikimora can’t go anywhere, either.

~

Luz bites back a sigh as she watches the boiling rain hit the Owl House’s forcefield. While she’s glad to know she won’t be on the run from the Owl Beast tonight...

she was supposed to be getting a Demons 101 lesson from King.

“Snail for your thoughts?”

Luz looks up at Eda’s voice. “It’s nothing.”

“Ah, come on.” Eda sits on the floor next to Luz. “That sad look on your face isn’t nothing. I know avoiding feelings when I see it.”

It’s said in her usual joking tone, but Luz can’t even bring herself to smile. Instead, she turns away from the window so she can rest her head on Eda’s shoulder. Unlike earlier in the week, she doesn’t jump, and somehow that just makes Luz’s heart ache more.

So she spills: “A boiling rainstorm was the first time King and I really bonded. He was trying to teach me about demons, but I was so focused on learning magic, I wouldn’t listen to him until there was a demon in the house.”

“Oh, shit.”

Now Luz chuckles. “It wasn’t a dangerous one. Well, it kinda was, but we thought it was a lot more dangerous than it really was. But...” She pulls out a light glyph, activating it as it leaves her pocket. “That was the night I learned magic. And the night I realized how much King meant to me.”

“That’s really sweet, kid. You know, we never had to evade a demon that broke into our house, but my sister and I got up to some crazy shenanigans when we were younger.”

Luz gasps with as much vigor as she can muster. “You have a sister?”

“Yeesh, is it that obvious?”

Too much. “Kinda.”

Tom scoffs as he enters the room, making Luz tense. “And you haven’t even seen her wrestle us for the last of the leftovers yet.”

“Oh, fuck off, Tom,” Eda says.

He repeats it in a mocking tone, but does leave the room. Luz forces herself to relax, breathing the way Willow showed her and reminding herself that he won’t throw her off a cliff this time around.

Probably.

Eda runs her fingers through Luz’s hair. “You really don’t like Tom, huh?”

Luz melts at the familiar gesture. “No. He... has the vibes of someone who likes throwing kids off cliffs.”

Eda snorts. “Yeah. Oddly specific, but accurate.”

Luz leans against her again. “Could you tell me something you and L— your sister did when you were kids?”

“Could I? Oh, which story should I start with? There was one time we were waiting for our dad to get back from this trip he would go on every year....”

~

For once, Hunter is glad for his ceaseless haunting of the Castle. He has guard and scout schedules memorized to the point he doesn’t even need to think about when the hallway that holds Kikimora’s office is empty.

Sure, he could just teleport into the office, but...

the tech staff isn’t Flapjack.

Besides, kicking open Kikimora’s door is more satisfying.

“Hello, Kiki.”

“Golden Guard!” The demon scrambles to cancel spells and shove artifacts into her desk. “Don’t you knock?”

“Only for people who knock for me.” Hunter closes the door. “I’ll get straight to the point: everyone knows you know everything that happens in the castle.”

“I don’t know what you mean.”

Hunter stares pointedly at the crystal ball that she has yet to shove in a drawer or cover. “I could overturn your desk and find what you hid just now.”

Kikimora’s hair hand flares.

Okay, Hunter tells himself, ease off a bit. We need her to cooperate.

“My point is, you likely have information that I need.”

“And why would I give it to you?”

Hunter takes a breath. “I’ll put in a good word with the Emperor for you. Get him to trust you more. Maybe even” — he shrugs — “get you a promotion with some time off to visit your family in Palm Stings.”

Kikimora’s eye shines, and he silently thanks Luz for her endless need to help people and her habit of oversharing. “What do you want to know?”

“First.” He holds out his hand. “I need an Everlasting Oath promising you won’t tell or even hint to the Emperor that I have asked for information, nor that I know what you will tell me. In return, you have my Oath that I will put in a good word with you for the Emperor.”

“Yes, fine.”

Kikimora draws a spell circle around Hunter’s hand hastily and shakes it.

“The Everlasting Oath is sealed,” she says.

“Good.” Hunter takes his hand back, reminding himself to burn this pair of gloves later. “Now, the Emperor communicates with a being from another realm. Where does he keep the communication device?”

Kikimora’s eye widens. “How do you know about the Collector?”

“Not important. Where is the communication device?”

“What will you do with it?”

“Kikimora.” His voice is dangerous. “I came here for answers, not questions. If you won’t give them, then I will end our Oath.”

Kikimora stares, glares, at Hunter.

~

Darius has known for years that there was something suspicious about the Emperor. His mentor, William, had had his own suspicions, but ever since he “mysteriously disappeared,” and a new Golden Guard with a face and voice too much like his was “taken in,” he knew he had to get to the bottom of everything.

And now this new Guard, this child, claims to have already lived through an imminent end of the world, one where his supposed uncle tried to kill him.

It’s enough to make Darius sick. Part of him, some long dormant instinct, wants to take the boy and Eber and run. But the damned noble part of him keeps him here, in the library of the Castle, waiting for the boy to return with information.

How did my life come to this? he half wonders, thumbing through a book that he hasn’t read a single word of.

Soon enough, Eber’s head lifts. Darius notices, and looks up as the boy walks in, his mask tucked under his arm.

“Well?” Darius asks, tossing aside his poor excuse of a distraction.

“There’s a disk in his office, usually covered by a towel. I’ll call a meeting with him in an hour in the throne room. That should give you at least twenty minutes.”

Eber snuffles.

“Because I had to make an Everlasting Oath so Kikimora would tell me, and I need time to burn these gloves.”

The boy turns to leave, but Darius says, “Wait.”

He pauses and turns.

Darius summons a scroll and hands it to the boy. “I think you’re making your predecessors proud. I know the Emperor won’t give you a scroll any time soon, but you need a way to reach your friends again, don’t you?”

Hunter takes the scroll carefully. “Th-thank you, Darius.”

Eber grunts.

“Thank you too, Eber.”

“And,” Darius says, “you do know you don’t need to do this, right? We can make another distraction to keep the Emperor away from his office.”

Hunter pockets the scroll. “I do need to do this. I’ll be okay.”

This time he does leave, his hands shaking as he puts his mask back on.

~

Thunder rumbles across Gravesfield, echoing throughout the Noceda house as Camila opens the back door.

“V,” she calls, “you’ve been in the rain long enough.”

“Awww. Five more minutes?”

“I don’t want you to get sick, mija.”

Camila doesn’t know if the rain or the cold could make her sick, what with being a demon from another realm and all. But she’s her daughter first and foremost, so she’s allowed to be a cautious.

To her credit, V does come inside. She towels off in the bathroom and changes into a warm sweater while Camila prepares tea for the both of them. Soon enough, they’re both settled on the couch, a nature documentary playing on the TV.

They only make it about two minutes before Camila swirls her tea around her mug anxiously.

“Does the rain really boil in the demon realm?”

V hums. “Oh, yeah. Why?”

“How do people protect against it?”

“Forcefield spells, mostly. I think some buildings are resistant to it, and caves are always an option.” She gestures outside. “It’s nice to not have to hide from it here.”

“So, if it rains while Luz is there, she’ll be okay?”

The question is directed more to her tea than V.

Sometimes Camila doesn’t know what she was thinking, letting Luz go back to that awful place. Yes, she made so many friends, and she knows not knowing what happened to Eda and King was tearing her up inside.

But when she woke up that day and none of it had happened yet, a very selfish part of her wished that Luz didn’t remember. That she could say forget about Reality Check, and just have her work at the clinic over the summer, and have a chance to actually talk to her in a way she hasn’t in too long.

And then she came rushing into the kitchen, unscarred physically but looking more than ready to fight like she knew what she was doing.

Camila knows that whatever happened to her daughter will affect her for the rest of her life.

Part of her will never forgive herself for driving her away like that.

V gently rests her hand on Camila’s shoulder, getting her attention.

“Luz will be okay, Camila. She came back the first time, and she has more experience now.”

Camila sighs. “I know.”

The two fall silent, the slow, even narration of the documentary keeping some background noise.

A few minutes later, though, V asks something.

“Why did you let her go back?”

A question Camila has asked herself every day. “I know I couldn’t stop her.” She grins to herself. “Once she sets her mind to something, there is no stopping her. Beside, you still needed somewhere to go.”

V grins, watery, and rests her head against Camila’s shoulder. “You’re a really good mom.”

~

Okay, maybe Hunter should have taken Darius’s offer for a different plan. His entire body is shaking as he walks to the throne room, his stomach is in knots, and he’s pretty sure he’s sweating through his new gloves.

But, he already agreed to do this. All he has to do is survive twenty minutes.

Of a short notice meeting.

That he called.

With the man (monster?) that has already killed dozens of Golden Guards who looked just like Hunter.

Stop thinking, you’re making it worse, he reprimands himself. Just, empty your mind, breathe, look anywhere but at him.

Before he knows it, Hunter has reached the doors of the throne room. He takes a moment to square his shoulders and take a deep, deep breath, before knocking.

The doors immediately swing open.

Hunter walks in, trying to focus more on his steps than the omnipresent and unceasing beating of the Titan’s Heart, echoing the painful beating of his own.

It doesn’t take long to get close enough to the throne to kneel. “Thank you for agreeing to meet, Emperor Belos.”

The Emperor’s tone is highly annoyed. “What was so urgent you had to meet with so little warning?”

“It’s Kikimora, sir.”

~

It is entirely too easy to break into the Emperor’s office. Darius holds his palisman, Bell, up to the lock while Eber keeps watch. In less than a minute, the tiny abomination has opened the door.

“Good work,” Darius tells his palisman as she melts back into his hair. “Eber!”

Eber scurries over, claws failing to find purchase and sliding over the polished floors through the door. Darius rolls his eyes but follows, closing the door behind him.

The two look around the office. Darius may get a little distracted by how messy the room is, but in his defense, who in their right mind piles boxes this precariously atop each other. Honestly, a good organization system could save so much time and stress—

Eber chitters loudly, jumping and waving.

“Yes, I’m looking!”

Darius turns to Eber, and is met with an unimpressed look. Eber points at a towel half-heartedly draped over something round.

“Oh. Good work.”

Eber huffs as Darius walks over. Without much ceremony, Eber yanks the towel off.

Nearly immediately, a shadow jumps out of the mirrored disk that had been hiding beneath it. The shadow travels up the wall, quickly forming the vague shape of a person. A white grin splits the face, before the expression turns confused.

“You guys aren’t Belos.”

Eber growls at the shadow, earning a nudge from Darius’s foot.

“Stop that.” Darius clears his throat and faces the shadow. “Are you the Collector?”

“Who’s asking?” The shadow laughs and waves before Darius can open his mouth. “Just messing, I know everyone in the castle!” The shadow rests their head on their hand. “The real question is, why are you here?”

Darius is already getting tired of this being. “We came to ask what you’re helping the Emperor with. We heard... things, that are worrying.”

“You mean the draining spell?” The shadow blows a raspberry. “Like I’d do that for him again.”

The blood drains from Darius’s face. It’s not that he didn’t believe Hunter, but... well, who would believe something like that?

Eber chitters a question.

“I just wanna play.” The shadow’s eyes light up. “Oh, oh! You two could help me! See, I need to find my friend King. We were playing Hide and Seek, and I accidentally trapped myself back in here. Could you help me find him?”

“Yes. We’ll get right on that. Now.”

Eber takes the hint and throws the towel back over the disk, even as the shadow yells to wait. The demon gives Darius a look, which he returns.

“We need to leave.”

~

“You are dismissed, Golden Guard.”

As much as Hunter wants to buy Darius and Eberwolf a few more minutes, the Emperor’s tone leaves absolutely no room for debate.

Not to mention, he’s starting to feel sick.

So, he bows with a, “Yes, Emperor Belos,” and leaves the throne room as quickly as possible.

He doesn’t process walking back to his room, save a quick sharing of nods when he passes Darius and Eberwolf. He’s pretty sure he isn’t quite in his body for the walk, and doesn’t really feel like he’s returned until he’s closed and locked his door.

His breathing is definitely faster than normal as he rips his mask off and yanks at his cloak—

A quiet tweet makes him stop struggling, makes his body stop shaking for a moment.

“Flap?”

His pillow moves. A little red feathery head peeks out.

Hunter’s heart soars.

“Flapjack!”

The palisman tweets happily as he flies straight into Hunter’s arms. He hugs him tightly.

“Y-you’re here! Titan below, you’re here.”

Flapjack chirps and nuzzles Hunter’s face.

“You— you remembered too. You’re okay. We’re okay. You’re here.”

Hunter sinks to the floor, resting his back against his bed as his best friend tells him to breathe, and that he’ll be okay too.

~

After a night of stories of Eda and Lilith’s childhood, Luz is laying on her sleeping bag, half trying to fall asleep and half trying to stay awake. Something... something feels like the answer to the whole universe... timeline problem thing is right there.

“Think, Luz,” she mutters to herself. “Something about Eda telling stories... and the rain... and her curse... and King’sssssssssss—” She suddenly sits up. “King’s island!”

That’s it! That’s where he has to be! Eda was only cursed for a day, so she didn’t isolate herself from other people, so she probably just hid out with someone this time when she flew away the first time!

“King is still on his island,” she says aloud. “I can’t believe I didn’t think of that sooner.” She exhales. “Could I find it again?”

She hopes the maps are in the same room.

~

Even though he doesn’t always end up in the In Between when he’s asleep, King still tries to sleep as little as possible. Eda and Luz will surely have something to say about that when they find him again — Titan knows Jean-Luc does — but he just... doesn’t want to be there.

Especially right now.

“Hey, King~”

King groans as he opens his eyes, the green void surrounding him again. He forces as much annoyance out of his voice as he can. “Yes, Collector?”

“I got some helpers! They’re gonna be looking for you too!”

“Oh. That’s... great.”

“I know! See you soon, buddy!”

Collector returns to their prison. King waits a minute to make sure he isn’t listening, before panicking.

“Bad bad bad, this is so bad. No, no,” he tries to reassure himself. “No one can find my island. No one even knows it exists. No one but...”

King looks at the floating cubes surrounding him. He remembers Luz said she had used the cubes to talk to her mom, but he had never tried to use them.

...but it’s almost been a week. And anything’s worth trying, right?

King exhales. Inhales. Calls, “Luz! Eda!”

Hundreds of miles away, a human and a witch sit up in a cold sweat and yell, “King!”

Chapter Text

Luz is honestly surprised that she managed to fall asleep while consulting maps to try to place King’s island. But after her midnight wake up yelling King’s name, she’s wide awake again. She knows she heard him yell her name, and Eda’s. Either she’s going nuts (possible), or that was a sign that she’s right about him being on his island (hopeful).

She takes the optimistic route: she spends the rest of the pre-sunrise hours double, triple, and quadruple checking every available map in the House as well as her own mental one, trying to place King’s island. The week Eda had promised is almost up, which means they can fly out soon, which means she has to be 100% right with where he is, or...

Unsurprisingly, Luz is a little tired when she heads downstairs for breakfast when she realizes the sun has finally risen. She blames her lack of sleep on the fact that it takes her a few seconds to register the dozen blueprints and lists spread around the kitchen.

“What’s going on?”

The four ex-demon hunters jump. Prim spins a spell circle, making everything disappear in a puff of indigo.

Luz blinks tiredly. “Okay then. Is there breakfast?”

“And apple blood?”

Eda trudges into the kitchen, looking as tired as Luz feels. They give each other a look, full of questions neither actually wants to ask.

Eventually, Edmon says, “There’s both.”

Eda and Luz turn away from each other to grab their breakfasts.

The other four very unsubtly move the invisible plans out of the room as the two sit and try to wake up. By the time Luz has managed to eat a slice of toast, they’re back in the kitchen, practically oozing the energy that Luz and Eda are severely lacking.

“So,” Puhagi says, “the Covention is today.”

Luz perks up at that. The Covention was where she almost made a truce with Amity! ...and kinda duelled with her. But hey, there’s no way that’s gonna happen this time. She can just focus on getting on her good side!

Eda notices Luz’s shift in mood. “I’m guessing you wanna go?”

“Heck yeah!” She drops her fork as she pumps her fist. “But, do we have enough time for a nap first?”

~

Hunter is surprised the Emperor actually allows him to go to Bonesborough’s Covention. Honestly, it might have just been a way to get him to stop bothering him — the conversation about Kikimora’s promotion didn’t exactly go well.

But here he is, sitting in a carriage with Lilith, headed for Bonesborough.

Unfortunately, he’s in a carriage with Lilith, who is even more insufferable than he remembers. He can’t decide if mutual silence and ignoring each other would be better or worse than her muttering her speech to herself and glaring in his direction every few sentences.

Needless to say, it’s a long ride to Bonesborough.

And honestly, by the time they’re making their way through Latissa, Hunter’s had enough.

“Hey.”

Lilith immediately looks up and snaps, “What?”

Hunter stares at her through his mask. Then, he takes the mask off, and lets the Golden Guard drop from his posture. Lilith’s face goes from pale to bloodless, her eyes lingering on the scar on his cheek.

“You know our rivalry isn’t worth it, right?”

After a few more seconds of staring, Lilith abruptly looks out the window. Hunter sighs, drops the mask at his feet, and reaches into his satchel to pet Flapjack’s back.

~

After a good long nap, Luz and Eda are riding Owlbert to the Covention. Luz borrows Eda’s scroll to tell Willow and Gus that she’ll be there, and to not ask how she found their Penstas.

“Why were you so tired this morning?” Eda eventually asks.

“I think I figured out where King is.”

Luz expects the usual jump at his name, but is not expecting Eda to eagerly look over her shoulder. “You did?”

She fights a grin at the clear moment of remembrance and speaks fast. “The island he was born on. It’s a few hours’ flight north but I’m pretty sure I remember where it is—”

The moment passes, the light almost visibly leaving Eda’s eyes as she turns back around. “Kid, there’s nothing habitable beyond our Titan.”

“You know you don’t believe that. Why would you say you’re the strongest witch in the entire demon realm if the Boiling Isles is all there was?”

Eda doesn’t have an answer for that.

Luz sighs. “I know it sounds ridiculous, but I’ve been to another island, with witches and demons living on it. And I’ve been to King’s island. They were both a lot smaller than our Titan, but they exist.”

“Okay, okay, I believe you.” In an added mutter, “For some Titan-forsaken reason.” At regular volume, “If you really think that’s where he is, we’ll fly out tomorrow, alright?”

“Alright.” Luz shoves Eda’s scroll back in her hair. “So why were you tired this morning?”

“Weird dream. Couldn’t fall back asleep.”

Luz sighs in relief. That has to mean Eda heard King too.

They reach the Covention center soon enough, and Willow and Gus are already waiting outside. Luz hops off the staff a bit before she really should, launching herself into her friends’ arms as they stare at Eda.

“Guys!” she yells, squeezing them tightly.

“You live with the Owl Lady?” Willow whispers, half-returning the hug.

Luz lets them go and takes in their confusion.

Oh, right, they didn’t follow me to the Owl House after the abomination incident. And I’ve kinda been avoiding them since then for memory reasons. Whoops.

“Yep!” Luz looks over at Eda, who is stealing her own wanted posters and shoving them in her hair. “She’s the best mentor I could ask for.”

The three of them watch as Eda tries to pull her hood over her mass of hair, knocking about three dozen obviously stolen objects out in the process. She looks around before shoving them all back in.

“Really?” Gus asks, doubt clear in his voice.

“This isn’t the most representative of her behavior.”

“Alright.” Eda, hair in her hood and objects once again stored, walks over to the trio. “Let’s get this over with.”

As they walk into the building, Luz feels a bit of that wonder and awe for the demon realm she didn’t even realize she had begun to lose come flooding back. Even though she knows the truth behind covens, seeing the communities that they build, all the casual displays of magic, and even just the people here safe and comfortable... it feels like she can breathe again.

“So, Luz,” Willow says as they start walking around the various booths for the countless covens, “how much do you know about covens?”

Luz is still admiring the normalcy around her, so answers without thinking. “Every witch and demon has to enter a coven within a few months of graduating school or they’re dubbed a Wild Witch. There are nine main covens, ten if you count the Emperor’s, and a lot of smaller ones. Every coven but the Emperor’s limits you to one form of magic through seals, but every coven has seals because—” Her mind catches up to her words just in time to stop. “Uh, the... Titan told the Emperor that only the worthy can practice all magic?”

Her companions all stare at her for a moment.

“Sooooo,” Gus says slowly, “everything.”

“Pretty much.” More than you know.

They pass the booth for the Construction Coven, which is notably absent of mild chaos. Luz looks around, waiting for Tinella to start wreaking havoc, before a realization hits her: there was no raid on the Conformatorium her first day. Tinella and Katya and... that guy who eats his own eyes — did Luz ever learn his name? — must all still be there!

As Gus greets his fellow Illusionists, Eda pulls Luz away from her friends a few steps.

Before she can ask if they can stage a quick break in, Eda says, “Be honest. Where were you staying all those months on the Knee?”

Luz blinks, before remembering that’s her cover story. “Oh. I, uh, was staying with a Wild Witch. She taught me a lot.” She lowers her voice to a whisper. “I didn’t want to say it in front of Willow and Gus, but she even told me that sealing off any amount of magic can be really dangerous.”

Eda’s eyes widen. “Wow. Not many people know that.”

“She’s a smart witch. She taught me everything I know.”

Gus waves goodbye to his trackmates, so Luz and Eda rejoin him and Willow as they set off further into the building.

It isn’t long before they reach the very back, where familiar dread creeps into Luz’s stomach.

Gus, though, gasps excitedly. “It’s the Emperor’s Coven! Do you think they’ll sign my forehead?”

“Only one way to find out!” Willow says.

The two of them run inside the theater. Luz is in no rush to follow, so Eda easily outpaces her. She notices Luz’s lagging and waves her along.

“Ah, come on. They might embarrass themselves enough for us to rub how much the Coven sucks in your friends’ faces.”

Luz gives Eda a look, her enthusiasm extremely suspicious. “Is this a part of what the rest of the Bad Girl Coven was planning this morning?”

Eda’s ear flicks, just barely. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Luz shrugs as they enter the theater, long used to Eda’s tells. “I get it. I’m a kid, and you want to protect me. But if there’s some kind of plan, I want to help.”

“Aw, that’s cute, kid.” She ruffles Luz’s hair. “I’ll keep that in mind for our next scheme, okay?”

Luz sighs, but lets the subject drop as they take their seats.

Honestly, she kinda zones out through Principal Bump’s speech, because she really doesn’t need to hear the same bullshit she heard for three months. But she zones back in at his introduction of Lilith, if only to play to Eda’s sudden ceasing of laughter.

“Didn’t you say your sister’s name is Lilith?”

“I did.”

“Thank you, all.” On stage, Lilith spells her mask and cape into Principal Bump, who walks off stage. “I am overjoyed to see so many coven-hopefuls in the audience today.”

Luz leans forward. She should really stop being surprised by things changing from what she remembers.

“The number of Wild Witches is steadily decreasing, with the induction of so many into covens. The Emperor, and the Titan Himself, are both very pleased by this. I have been chosen to share this information with you, as I have the highest honor of enforcing both of their wills, in spite of my humble beginnings.”

Eda scoffs.

“One day, some of you may be sharing the same honor, as scouts for the Emperor’s Coven. We always need new recruits, but we only accept the best, the brightest, and the most ambitious. Those willing to do anything to become great.”

Luz shudders, feeling the weight behind that claim.

“So be more! The Emperor’s Coven awaits you!”

Lilith spins, creating a giant raven illusion around her. The crowd bursts into applause.

“I need some air,” Luz tells Eda.

“Yeah, me too.”

~

Hunter stands casually at the Cooking Coven stand, keeping the exit of the theater in the corner of his vision. Flapjack said he saw Luz walk in earlier, no doubt for Lilith’s little show. Even though she had kept quiet in the carriage since Latissa, she had rehearsed the speech enough before that for Hunter to memorize how long it runs.

So Luz should be leaving right about...

Now.

“Not today,” he tells the witch at the stand who asked if he was interested in joining. “Thanks.”

Hunter tails Luz. Not for long, and not really for any reason but to wait for her to naturally reach a secluded area, at which point he drags her around the corner.

Luz bites his hand.

“Ow, fuck! Luz!”

“Hunter?”

He lets her go, shaking his bitten hand. “Did you have to bite me?”

“Instinct, sorry.” She visibly fights the urge to hug him. He appreciates that, both for the sentiment and the self-restraint. “What are you doing here?”

“Checking up on you. Kikimora bragged about Lilith failing to catch Eda at the Covention the first time around, so I figured you’d be here.”

“The first time?” Luz gasps and beams. “You remember everything!”

Hunter sighs in relief. “That means you do too. I don’t think anyone else does.”

“Mom and V do.” She chuckles to herself. “I guess that officially makes you family, huh?”

Hunter doesn’t know why, but that simple sentiment just...

hits him.

For years, he grew up with the lie that his family was destroyed by wild magic. And then he found out that the one ‘family member’ he thought he had, the person he spent his entire life proving himself to, the person that taught him family was about obedience and living up to impossible standards, not only lied about everything, but nearly killed everyone in the demon realm.

But... Luz doesn’t say family like it’s some weight, or pressure, or obligation.

It’s just... a fact.

He... really hates how easily he cries now. He tries to keep it in, but he just can’t stop the tears from coming out.

Luz lets him cry for a few seconds before half-hugging him, letting his tears soak the shoulder of her hoodie.

Luckily, he gathers himself quickly, and wipes his face.

“Ah, anyway.” Hunter sniffles. “Any theories on why it’s the start of summer again?”

“Not really. I think King is the key to putting everything back to normal, though.”

Hunter stares at her.

“What?”

“I think you’re right.”

Luz blinks. “Really?”

Hunter recaps his week: they all know the Collector is extremely powerful, so they are likely behind all this. Belos worked with them, so he must have had some way to communicate. He adds blackmailing Kikimora for information with the promise of time off to visit family — “Thanks for telling me about that, by the way.” — Darius and Eberwolf sneaking in to speak to the Collector, and the Collector himself mentioning a game of Hide and Seek with King.

“Hide and Seek?” Luz’s eyes widen. “Oh my gosh, that’s what that dream was about!”

She launches into her own recap: a dream of the Collector saying ‘the first one to find him wins’ the day everything reset, the fact that King isn’t with Eda because Lilith actually only cursed her for a day, so Eda had no reason to fly out to his island. So he must still be on the island he was born on.

“So if you get to that island first...” Hunter starts.

“The Collector loses.” Luz grabs his shoulders. “Please tell me Darius and Eberwolf didn’t let him out.”

He bats her hands away. “Don’t you think you’d know if they had? They said they’d help look for King, but they don’t even know who he is, let alone where.” Hunter frowns. “You know where his island is, right?”

“Kinda? I’ve only been there once.”

“Great.”

“I’m pretty sure I remember where it is! And Eda said we can fly out tomorrow to look for him.”

Pretty sure isn’t confident enough for Hunter’s liking, but if that’s all they have, then he guesses he has to take it. He fidgets with his hands as he forces his mind to go elsewhere. “Do you think everything will go back to normal once the Collector loses?”

Luz sighs. “We can hope. Pretending like nothing happened is killing me.”

“Me too.”

She looks at him, her eyes full of that stupid sad I’m worried about you more than I should be look, but before she can say anything else, Eda yells for her. She sighs instead. “Twenty snails says that’s Eda telling me I have to duel Amity because her and Lilith got into a fight.”

Hunter feels his ears perk up. “I don’t suppose you’d be against me watching?”

“I’d be delighted.” Luz gestures around vaguely. “If you wanna wait with someone, Willow and Gus are somewhere around here. They probably won’t remember you completely, but they’ll probably trust you since they knew you before.” She lowers her voice. “Sometimes it feels like everyone remembers, they just don’t remember that they do.”

Because that makes sense. “I’ll find them. Good luck against Amity.”

“Luz!”

She starts walking away. “I’ll need more luck convincing Eda not to cheat this time, but thanks!”

~

Amity used to have fun at the annual Covention, but this year, she’s just bored. She doesn’t know what it is, but she just...

wants to leave.

Even Principal Bump and Madam Lilith’s speeches didn’t really inspire much confidence or desire to stay.

Maybe it’s all that extra credit work Mom has made me do lately, she thinks, eyeing the exit of the Covention center. I wouldn’t miss anything if I left now, right?

“Amity, there you are.”

She just manages to not jump at the sound of her mentor’s voice. She turns to find the Coven Head not two feet behind her.

“Madam Lilith. Your speech was, so inspiring.”

“Thank you. That means a lot coming from my strongest student.”

Amity immediately goes on high alert. Praise never comes without an expectation for something else.

“And as my strongest student, there is no one better suited to this task.”

There it is. I can’t leave now.

“The Owl Lady has challenged me to a duel to prove who the stronger mentor is. Obviously, that means our students will be the ones duelling, and I would be honored if you were the one to represent me.”

She says that, but Amity knows there isn’t really any choice being offered here. At worst, it’s even a thinly veiled threat, the fate of her apprenticeship at stake if she declines.

So, with no real choice, Amity says, “I accept.”

“Excellent. Now, let’s find somewhere to practice, shall we?”

Amity follows Madam Lilith, holding her tongue despite her urge to point out plenty of good practice spots, or even ask why they’re not just using the theater. But then Madam Lilith stops in clear view of where the Owl Lady is standing, arguing with someone who looks... familiar.

Amity stares at the other girl, who’s wearing a purple and white hoodie with the hood pulled up and shorts over leggings. An interesting choice of outfit, not to mention unique, but it doesn’t help jog her memory on where she’s seen this girl before.

Distantly, she hears Lilith saying something, but she’s too bothered by how familiar this girl is to focus. The fact that her face is steadily warming is even weirder—

Something clicks in the back of her mind.

“That’s Willow’s abomination!”

Lilith blinks at the declaration, clearly surprised at having been cut off. “Pardon?”

“That girl helped Willow cheat in class the other day!”

Lilith looks over and hums. “So neither Edalyn nor her apprentice are above cheating.” She looks down at Amity with an evaluating look. “That just means we will need to be smarter and stronger than their cheating. Show me your free-summoning.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

~

Hunter finds it a bit ridiculous that finding two witchlings in an enclosed space is this hard.

He and Flapjack have been looking for Willow and Gus for probably about five minutes now. Flapjack had flown off about a minute ago, right as a crowd of Hexside students blocked Hunter’s path. He is not having separation anxiety, thank you, but he would very much like his palisman back.

Hunter perks up at the familiar sound of his palisman’s call. He turns to the sound, making Flap miss his eternal loose hair strand.

“Ha! In your adorable face.” Hunter pokes at Flap for emphasis, chuckling when he rolls his eye.

“Oh. He must be your palisman:”

Hunter jumps at the familiar voice.

Found friends! Flapjack chirps.

He sure did. Willow and Gus are right in front of him, and his brain is blanking, because they’re both... so different than how he met them.

But they’re still your friends, idiot.

“Uh, yeah.” Hunter holds out his hand, and Flap is quick to perch on it. “This is Flapjack. I’m Hunter.”

Willow and Gus introduce themselves in turn, Gus adding, “How did you get a palisman? I thought palistrom wood was super rare nowadays.”

“Oh, I didn’t carve him myself. We just... found each other, I guess.”

Hunter can tell Gus has a lot more questions, but Willow gently touches his shoulder.

“We should probably get going,” she says. “Sorry to bother you.”

“You’re not a bother.” Hunter blushes. “I mean, you’re Luz’s friends, right? We could... stick together for a bit until we find her?”

“You know Luz?” Gus asks, sounding even more excited. “Did you meet her on the Knee? What are you doing in Bonesborough?”

Hunter figures being from the Knee is Luz’s cover story. “Yeah. She invited me to this Covention since... I had the fire flu when Talvails’s Covention was held, and she knew how much I was looking forward to it.”

Willow chuckles. “Helping people seems to be her thing.”

“You have no idea.”

As they start walking around, Gus asks more questions about Flap. Hunter eagerly answers them, until he notices a scout putting a new wanted poster up. His blood runs cold when he recognizes the silhouette of a small demon on it.

Luz’s small demon.

~

Prim thinks the raid on the Conformatorium is going pretty well. Just as she predicted, it doesn’t take that long for the majority of the scouts and guards stationed at the prison to be called off to the Covention center. That fact is greatly reassuring, given that when she tried to check her gut feeling with Oracle magic, the readings went haywire.

The few remaining guards are easy enough to subdue or distract, especially as various prisoners join them as they’re freed. Three of them even offer to ensure Warden Wrath won’t interfere if they can join the BGC when the siege is over.

Prim is sure Eda will be delighted to get some more fresh faces in the House.

~

It takes thorough protesting and not letting Eda out of her sight, but the floor of the theater is booby-trap free when the bell screams for the duel to begin. Luz approaches Amity confidently, while the latter cracks her knuckles menacingly.

“Ready to show me what you got?” she asks.

“Nope.” Luz cups her hands around her mouth and yells, “Timeout!”

As the audience mutters amongst themselves, no doubt debating whether or not she can actually do that, she pulls out a glyph and shows it to Amity.

“I know I shouldn’t have helped Willow cheat. And I know bad things tend to happen when I’m around. But.” She activates the glyph, and holds the resulting ball of light out to Amity. “I will do everything I can to prove to you that there’s more to me than just trouble.”

Amity stares at the light, blinking slowly. “How did you—”

Luz takes the distraction and rips the power patch off the back of Amity’s neck.

“Ow! What the hell?”

“I saw Lilith put this on your neck.” Luz shows it to her, then crumbles it and drops it on the floor. “I made sure Eda didn’t cheat for me, so I’m not letting Lilith cheat for you.”

Amity stares at the power patch as she rubs the back of her neck. “But... she said I was her strongest...”

“You are. I don’t blame her for not trusting Eda, but I trust you.” Luz smiles at her. “If you want to call the duel off, we can.”

The audience starts calling for the duel to start. Amity looks at the crowd, then Lilith, then Luz.

“How confident are you in that paper magic?”

“Very.”

A determined grin lights up Amity’s face, immediately sending butterflies into a frenzy in Luz’s stomach.

“Then I’m proving to Lilith that I don’t need that stupid power patch.”

Luz grins and takes several steps back. “Time in!”

~

Up in the stands, Hunter is surprised at how enthusiastic Willow and Gus are watching the duel.

And how voraciously they’re rooting for Luz. Clearly, there’s some history between them and Amity that he would have to ask about once everyone got their memories back.

That said, it’s not like they’re exactly supporting the underdog here.

Hunter has only really seen Luz fight with glyphs once before, on the Day of Unity in the Skull. There was so much happening then, though, that it’s hard to look back and really remember who was casting what, not to mention the pain of the draining spell and trying to focus on keeping everyone alive.

But, if he didn’t know any better, he’d say that Luz is holding back right now.

At first, he thinks that they’re both holding back. But then he remembers that Amity currently has two months less experience than she did at Eclipse Lake, and that he was exhausted and using a new staff. There’s a very high chance that Amity really is fighting at her strongest right now.

And while her strongest is certainly impressive for a fourteen year old, it’s still nothing compared to Luz. Both she and Belos had told him of their fight during Eda’s almost-petrification, and how she had certainly held her own; and she had been fighting the Emperor for who knows how long in the Skull before the rest of them had gotten there to help.

Yet, she’s... not winning. She’s letting Amity win.

Luz is definitely taking her time pulling out glyphs, and Hunter can practically see her calculating which shots of abomination mud she can take without getting hurt too badly and she lets them hit. The others she dodges by a wide margin; meanwhile, Amity is only barely dodging, blocking, and countering Luz’s spells.

But, they both look like they’re having fun.

Hunter didn’t know it was possible to have fun while duelling.

When Willow and Gus take a break from cheering for Luz, they ask if she’s actually human.

“At least,” Willow says, “she’s been using magic for more than four months, right?”

“She’s definitely human.” Hunter doesn’t take his eyes off the duel. “Regular life or death situations make you really good at magic really quickly.”

You worry them, Flapjack chirps.

“Uh, and she’s apparently been interested in magic since she was really little, so she...” Hunter’s mind blanks on the specific word she had used. “Uh, hyper...?”

“Hyperfixated?” Gus offers.

Hunter snaps his fingers. “That’s it. She hyperfixated on it once she could actually do it. At least, that’s what she told me.” He winces as Amity’s abomination launches Luz into the wall. “Ooo, that’s gonna leave a mark.”

Down in the pit, Luz has the same thought as Amity runs up to her.

“Sorry! It hit you a lot harder than I meant, it was just supposed to knock you off-balance—”

Luz laughs from her spot on the floor, even as she winces and holds her ribs. “It’s okay. I should have moved a little faster.”

The bell screams, announcing the end of the duel far louder than Lilith’s yelled, “Victory to Amity Blight!”

Eda runs over as Amity helps Luz up.

“Luz, you okay?”

“I’ve had worse.” She hugs Amity a little tighter than strictly necessary when she gets to her feet.

“That’s not comforting,” Eda and Amity say in unison. They both look confused by Amity saying it, but Luz takes that as a sign to hug her even tighter.

“Can you actually not stand or do you just enjoy squeezing me?” Amity demands.

“Just... making sure I can stand,” Luz lies.

She lets Amity go and does manage to remain on her feet when Lilith arrives.

“I am so proud of you, Amity,” she says. “Congratulations on your first witches duel win.”

Amity beams and blushes. “Thank you.”

“As for you, Edalyn, who really taught this child?”

“She did.” Luz looks up at Eda. “She taught me everything I know.”

Eda looks taken aback for a second, before grinning and ruffling Luz’s hair hard enough to knock her hood off. “Dang right, I did! I have the most powerful apprentice on the Boiling Isles!”

Luz laughs. “Most powerful apprentice in the entire demon realm!”

“That’s my kid!”

Lilith clears her throat, loudly. “May I remind you that you lost?”

“Eh, minor details. My human held her own against your prissy little blue blood.”

“Human?” Lilith repeats.

Luz’s blood runs cold, that gut feeling to keep that fact about herself hidden this time around now making her want to puke. Lilith’s eyes settle on her ears before she can think to pull her hood back on.

“You are human. Well, that makes this all the better.” She stands straighter.

Luz pulls on Eda’s arm. “We should—”

“Edalyn Clawthorne,” Lilith announces to the theater, “I hereby place you, and your human, under arrest, by order of Emperor Belos.”

The audience bursts into protests as Coven scouts flood the pit from all sides, spell circles trained on the two of them. Eda yanks Luz onto her staff.

“Totally agree, kid!”

With that, Owlbert takes off. Spellfire wizzes by Luz’s ear, and she holds tighter on to Eda.

“Luz, wait!”

They’re already out of the Covention center by the time she places the voice as Hunter’s.

~

The sounds of celebration are loud when Luz and Eda get back to the Owl House.

Edmon is the first to notice their return and holds up a glass of apple blood in toast. “Everything was a success! We even got new recruits!”

Luz notices the very prisoners she was thinking about earlier standing around the kitchen table, indulging in Eda’s stores of apple blood. As much as part of her wants to be amazed, her mind is a little preoccupied.

Eda, though, clearly isn’t, because she whoops loudly. “That’s what I like to hear!” She pats Luz on the back. “Hey, really, good work today, kiddo. Don’t worry about the whole ‘being wanted’ thing; if anyone could get past Hooty, I would’ve been arrested a long time ago.”

With that, she heads to the kitchen, yelling at everyone to save her a pint or five.

Luz stares after her, trying to figure out what the hell just happened.

Why was the Bad Girl Coven raiding the Conformatorium?

Why did Lilith try to arrest Eda so early?

And why was Luz wanted by order of the Emperor?

She probably stands in the living room only for a minute, trying more to digest the last ten than answer any questions, before Hooty swings open without warning.

“HOOT HOOT, LUZ! YOU HAVE A VISITOR.”

She looks outside, surprised to see Hunter there. And—

She gasps, previous worries temporarily forgotten as she rushes outside. “You found Flapjack again?”

“He found me. Not important.” Hunter pulls something out of his satchel. “The Emperor knows about King.”

Luz’s heart drops when he unrolls a wanted poster, a shadowy version of King plastered on it.

Hooty pushes into her personal space. “HEY, HE LOOKS FAMILIAR.”

Hunter looks between the house demon and Luz. “The Collector got through him?”

Pieces click in Luz’s mind, and her stomach joins her heart somewhere in the Boiling Sea beneath the Isles. “The Collector told Belos that King’s a Titan.”

“King’s a what?!”

“I-it’ll take too long to explain.” Luz starts backing into the House. “I’ll catch you up when we get—”

Hooty suddenly maneuvers around Luz and Hunter, pushing them both back toward the House.

“Hey,” Hunter says, “watch it, you dumb—”

“Good work, Golden Guard.”

Hunter and Luz spin at Lilith’s voice. Luz realizes that Hooty has put himself between them and the verifiable army of coven scouts flanking Lilith. She grabs Hunter and starts slowly backing toward the door.

“OH BOY, FRIENDS!” Hooty says, manic glee naked in his voice.

“Move aside, bird worm.”

“HMMM, NO THANKS!”

Luz and Hunter make it inside right as Hooty starts unleashing hell on the Emperor’s Coven. Luz slams the door shut, and either that or the cacophony outside brings the Bad Girl Coven running into the living room.

“What’s going on?” Eda asks.

“Who’re you?” Edmon adds to Hunter.

“Not important,” he says. “The Emperor’s Coven is here; you all need to leave.”

Luz grabs Eda’s hand. “We need to get to King. Now.”

“Uh, guys?” Katya calls from the kitchen. “Not to cause a panic, but scouts are surrounding the entire House.”

“It’s fine,” Eda says. “Hooty can take them—”

“Edalyn! Call off your rabid demon!”

A fire lights in Eda’s eyes at the sound of Lilith’s voice. “And we can help him.”

“Eda, no!” Luz says. “Just leave Lilith be, we have to—”

“I’ll make it quick, kid.”

Eda rushes out the front door. Sharing looks, the rest of the Bad Girl Coven joins her, leaving Hunter and Luz standing in the living room.

Hunter, though, can’t stand still for long.

“For Titan’s sake.” He waves Flapjack down, his Golden Guard uniform appearing in place of his casual outfit. “I’ll try to get through to them, I still have authority here.”

He runs outside, too.

For a moment, Luz doesn’t know what to do.

If she goes out there, she could be used by Lilith as collateral against Eda, again.

If she stays inside, she would be safe.

If she goes out there, she could help fight back.

If she stays inside, she won’t know what happens until it’s too late.

Luz takes a breath, checks for her glyphs and palisman in her fanny pack, and runs outside.

Hooty, as always, is faring pretty well. He’s chasing at least half the scouts around, corralling them into the woods away from the House. Luz can’t see any of the ex-demon hunters or ex-prisoners, but it’s impossible to miss Eda and Lilith’s duel, or Hunter yelling at Lilith to stand down.

That’s all Luz can process before scouts are bearing down on her.

She reacts fast, pulling out glyphs from every pocket she’s stored them in and using them with perfect accuracy. Ice, fire, plant, and even a smoke to confuse scouts.

But no amount of speed or accuracy can fully make up for the fact that she’s still sore from Amity’s hit and vastly outnumbered.

Soon enough, she’s overwhelmed and physically restrained. That doesn’t take the fight out of her — far from it, she tries to kick and headbutt the scouts holding her — but seeing Eda and Lilith’s fight does.

Hunter has also been restrained by now, though by rope instead of scouts. Eda and Lilith are still going at it, even as the yard around them is on fire and pockmarked by craters.

As Luz watches the dizzying display of magic, something makes her heart jump in her throat.

Eda’s magic

falters.

Eda swears loudly

and starts drawing a spell circle with Owlbert,

but Lilith is faster,

and Luz can only watch

as Eda is knocked back into the wall of the House with enough force to make it crack.

“EDA!”

“She, will be fine,” Lilith pants. She summons rope to tie Eda up.

Luz fights harder against the hands holding her and yells to let her go, paying no mind to the grip on her arms starting to get painful. She needs to get to Eda. She needs to make sure she’s okay!

Lilith steps in front of Luz, blocking her view of Eda. “Did you remove all of her paper spells?” she asks the scouts.

Luz doesn’t let them answer. “Lilith, please! I know you don’t know it yet, but you can’t trust Belos. He’s a fraud, he can’t speak to the Titan, he’s not even a witch! He’s a witch hunter!”

Lilith pauses, just for a moment.

Luz takes it. “We were both there, in the Deadwardian Era. We helped him when he was still Philip. You studied the balusters before we went back through the time pools, I called you Cool Aunt Lilith, please, you have to remember—”

The moment passes. “Enough with your drivel, human.”

She draws a spell circle, and Luz’s world goes black.

Chapter Text

Luz wakes up in a coven transport, her wrists chafing against rope. Hunter is there with her, slowly banging his head against the wall.

“Hunter.”

He stops long enough to look at her, long enough for her to see that he’s been crying. “They took Flap. Your palisman, too.”

Luz looks at the floor. “Oh.”

“Yeah.”

He bangs his head against the wall again.

Luz wishes she could go back to sleep.

~

Lilith holds her head as high as it will go as she strides into the throne room. Finally, after thirty years, her sister will join her in the Emperor’s Coven, and she will no longer have to live in fear of being arrested!

And yet, Edalyn doesn’t seem to be very thankful. In fact, based on the half-dozen forms of restraint she’s bound by when the scouts force her to kneel before the Emperor, not to mention the wave of magic emanating off of her, she’s still a little mad.

“Edalyn Clawthorne,” Emperor Belos begins, “the infamous Owl Lady, the Wild Witch of Bonesborough. Mentor of a human.”

Edalyn spits her gag out. “If you even think of touching a hair on her head, I will shove your horned mask so far up your—”

“Edalyn!”

Emperor Belos laughs her threat off. “You’ve got it all wrong. The human is safe, for now. I just want the portal she came through.”

“Well tough shit, ‘cause I don’t know how she got here!”

In the beat of silence that follows her declaration, the energy in the room dramatically shifts to something dangerous. Lilith has to fight the urge to step away from Emperor Belos.

“Pity,” he spits. “I suppose I will have to ask the human herself.”

With a snap of his fingers, scouts drag Edalyn out of the throne room. She yells the whole way, begging Lilith to not let him hurt the human. She swallows a sudden bout of nerves — one that has been recurring for the last week.

“Are you taking her to get her coven sigil, my lord?”

Emperor Belos keeps staring out the door. “She will not be joining the Coven.”

“What?”

“You know, your family has been a pain in my side for centuries.” He looks down at her. “You have your ancestor’s eyes, did you know that? Through you, she may finally suffer a fraction the amount I have.”

He turns away. “Edalyn is to be petrified, at sundown tomorrow. You are dismissed.”

Lilith’s heart plummets. Eda can’t be petrified — there hasn’t been a petrification in 30 years! Sure she’s refused to join a coven, not to mention insulted the Emperor to his face, and Titan knows he is not a merciful man... And what does he mean about the Clawthornes being a pain in his side for centuries? The Emperor is certainly on the older side for witches, but—

“I said, you are dismissed, Lilith.”

She quickly takes her leave, her mind racing.

Maybe that human did have a point. She had felt some recognition at the whole ‘cool Aunt Lilith’ thing. And no one knows of her love of balusters.

~

King has finally worn Jean-Luc down enough with his begging to be allowed outside the tower, so long as he stays within sight. That’s fine by him, because that’s enough to walk around in the clearing, and the sun feels so good on his fur. Napping in warm sun beams has nothing on this feeling.

Plus, it’s just enough space to be able to get to food other than flies and things that are half-rotten!

“Note to self,” he says aloud, plucking fresh fruit from a bush, “never be ungrateful for Eda’s food again. And beg Luz to make more of her yummy human food.”

He bites into the fruit, but even as the juice runs down his chin, all he can think about is the food he so desperately misses.

“Yeah, once Eda and Luz find me, they’re gonna get so sick of me asking for... kraken tentacles. And toast. And... floating bacon.”

He bites a little more viciously into the fruit.

“Oh, and cinderberry pastries. And cocatrice pot pie!”

He’s practically finished the fruit by now, only the core left in his paws.

“Oh, oh, and maybe Luz can make those human realm pastry meat pockets again. What were they called? Empanadas!”

Away goes the core.

The loud familiar chattering of Jean-Luc fills King’s ears. He looks down at his paws, and finally realizes that he ate the fruit.

The entire fruit.

“Whoops.”

~

When Darius heard of prisoners being brought in from Bonesborough, his mind went to the worst case scenario. He immediately tells himself to calm down; any number of witches could be captured as prisoners.

But after half an hour passes, with no sign of Hunter, he has to admit that the worst case is reality.

Luckily, Coven Heads wandering the holding cells is far from suspicious, so Eber leads the way down, sniffing for Hunter as Darius tries to keep down his panic.

It’s not as if the boy has been actively going against Belos, he tells himself as they pass cell after empty cell. And Eber is still getting a scent. He hasn’t ‘disappeared’ like William did.

Yet.

Eber’s head suddenly lifts, and the Coven Head takes off down the hallway.

“Eber! For Titan’s sake—”

“Darius?”

“Hunter!”

Eber skids to a stop in front of the cell that Hunter is trying to look out of. Darius rushes to them, demanding, “What happened?”

As Eber fiddles with the lock, Hunter recaps: the human, Lilith’s failed arrest, the trip to the Owl House, the successful arrest.

“And,” Hunter finishes, “they took my palisman.”

Darius is genuinely taken aback by that; hiding a palisman is a big deal in the Castle, and Hunter is likely one of the few people who knows what fate awaits them. Yet he still has one?

Even Eber lets out a startled trill, though it is mixed with frustration at the failure of unlocking the cell.

“I know I shouldn’t have one,” Hunter continues, voice defiant, “but he found me. Both times.”

“Well.” Darius holds his hand up to his head, and Bell jumps onto his palm. “I guess it’s time for you to find him.”

Hunter’s eyes widen as Bell sets to picking the lock. “You... have a palisman too?”

“What, you thought I was part abomination?”

The pop locks as Hunter rolls his eyes. “Of course not.”

Darius hums in doubt. Eber chitters, and Hunter waves the comment away.

“No need. I know where the palismen are kept.”

~

Even without glyphs, and without her palisman, Luz feels more disgust than fear as scouts drag her into the throne room, her wrists still bound behind her back. There is a healthy amount of fear churning her stomach, sure, but it’s probably a 60/40 disgust/fear cocktail more than just one or the other.

Between dismissal of the scouts and the doors closing, neither say a word. The Titan’s Heart above the throne speeds up, but the occupants of the room only have eyes for each other. Luz tries to channel all of her disgust for the monster before her into a glare, while Philip watches almost passively, trying to place the girl in his mind.

Before he can, when the doors finally close, Luz demands, “What do you want from me, Philip?”

She doesn’t want to give him what he wants, but she doesn’t want him thinking he can pull whatever bullshit games he’s planning even more.

But for Philip, it feels quite nice to hear that name from another human for the first time in centuries. It also helps him place her. “Ah, I thought you looked familiar. Luzura, was it?”

“Luz.”

He repeats her name, letting the weight of another human’s presence weigh on his tongue. Luz fights a shudder.

“The human,” he adds. “I’m sure you remember that we have that in common.”

“That is the only thing we will ever have in common.”

“I wouldn’t be so sure about that. I’ve heard that you can also speak to a Titan.” He tries to keep the excitement from his voice, but Luz hears it loud and clear. “A live one.”

She snarls. “You heard wrong.”

“My informant does not get things wrong. No matter how... improbable, their information, they’ve never led me astray.” He leans forward in his throne. “Now, where is your Titan?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Philip shakes his head, almost mourning the fact that the damned Clawthorne got to her this easily. “Child, the Titan is the key to getting us both home—”

“I can find my own way.” Luz feels the knot in the ropes around her wrists finally start loosening, and really hopes the stone here is as easy to scuff as the wood. “I don’t want or need anything you can offer; I don’t have anything that you want from me. So let me and my friends go.”

Philip steeples his fingers and sits back. “Or what?”

A sudden burst of abomination mud punches him in the face.

For a second, Luz wonders if Amity somehow got here, before Darius forms from the mud.

And then Hunter zaps in, yells her name, grabs her shoulder, and—

Luz learns that teleportation is somehow worse than being almost petrified.

Luckily, she got the ropes completely undone before backup arrived, so she can catch herself on the bridge outside as she tries not to puke.

“Sorry,” Hunter says. “I forgot it takes some getting used to.”

“I’ll be fine.” The nausea passes, and Luz stands, though she does have to lean on Hunter’s shoulder a bit. “Are you okay?”

“I will be.” He unclips something from around his shoulder and hands it to her. “We got this.”

Luz gasps and takes the fanny pack. “My palisman!” The egg is still sitting inside, nestled among glyphs. She hugs it in relief. “Oh, I’m never letting you out of my sight again!”

Hunter looks at Flapjack, who trills. “I know the feeling.”

She zips the fanny pack closed and clips it around her waist. “Was that Darius in there?”

“Yeah. He and Eberwolf didn’t remember, but they believed me. And honestly, I think they’ll be glad they actually got some punches in when they do remember.”

“Will they be okay by themselves in there?”

Hunter nods. “They have to be.”

Not a minute later, a puddle of abomination mud appears and spits out Darius and Eda. The latter stumbles, which does nothing to keep Luz from hugging her so tightly she can feel her joints creak. To her credit, Eda returns it just as tightly.

“Lilith, of all people, is joining Eber in keeping the Emperor busy,” Darius says, shoving Owlbert toward Eda. “You all need to leave. Now.”

“Don’t need to tell us twice.” Eda sits on her staff and looks at Luz. “Still wanna find your brother, kiddo?”

“There’s nothing I’d rather do right now.” She hugs Hunter quickly. “Be careful.”

“You too.”

Owlbert only waits for Luz to settle on the staff before taking off. Darius gently taps Hunter’s head with the side of his hand.

“Eber and I will manage everything here. Do you have somewhere safe to go?”

Hunter nods. “I think so.”

“Go, then”

Darius starts to twist back into mud, but Hunter says, “Thank you. For everything.”

Darius stops, his heart aching. “Little Prince, I have done far from everything for you. But I will try, after all this, if you let me.”

Damning his tears, Hunter nods with watery eyes.

With that, he flies toward Hexside, and Darius returns to the castle.

~

King is laying on the floor of the tower again, staring up at the ceiling but not really seeing anything.

“...and then Luz and Amity shared this magical dance and defeated the monster,” he’s saying to Jean-Luc. “And I mean literally magical. They were both casting as they were dancing, and it was just... Jean-Luc?”

The bodyguard has stopped pretending to listen to King, and is instead staring out the front doorway. King sits up and also looks, but he doesn’t see anything but trees and grass.

“What are you—”

“King!”

All of his fur stands on end.

That sounded like...

“King!”

“Luz!”

King scrambles to his feet and makes a run for the doorway. Jean-Luc moves faster, blocking the way easily.

“What are you doing? Get out of the way!”

Jean-Luc shakes his head.

“What do you mean ‘no’? You’re my servant, you have to listen to what I say! And I say that’s my sister out there, and I miss her and she misses me and she isn’t going to hurt me so let me through!”

He’s crying. He knows this. He doesn’t care.

“Kid, I don’t think—”

“I heard him yell back, Eda!”

“Jean-Luc.” King stomps his paw on the floor. “I order you. To stand. Down.”

The construct stares at King, before

slowly

moving

out of the way.

King bolts out of the tower. “Luz! Eda! I’m here!”

“King!”

He runs through the forest, leaping over logs and weaving through trees.

Finally, finally, he sees a blur of purple and red.

“Luz, Eda!”

“King!”

He launches himself into Luz’s arms, and she easily catches him, spinning around as she holds him as tightly as she can.

“You’re okay!”

“I was so worried that you wouldn’t—”

“You weren’t here when I came back—”

“—but you did and you’re here and—”

“—and nothing was the same but—”

“Kids?”

Luz and King both turn to Eda, whose eyes are brimming.

“You’re... you’re both okay.”

“Eda!”

Luz runs to her, King still in her arms, and Eda catches them both as all three tear up.

“Oh, thank the Titan, you’re both okay,” she breathes. “I’m so sorry I forgot—”

“No, I’m sorry,” King says. “I tricked Collector into resetting time, and made him erase the memories of everyone who lives in the demon realm.”

Luz gasps and backs away from the hug. “That’s why I remembered! I—” Her eyes catch Eda’s right arm, which is suddenly missing from the elbow down. “Eda, what happened to your arm?”

Eda and King let each other go, and they all look at the witch’s arm, or lack thereof.

“Ah, right. My curse was destroying my arm, and apparently Raine promised a special kid to keep me safe.” Eda’s casual attitude immediately shatters as she looks at said kid and rubs at her scarred eyebrow. “Oh, kiddo.”

Luz winces at the touch. “It’s... I’ll be okay.”

“Wait.” King points between the two of them. “Your clothes and hair are different, too.”

As Luz and Eda take in that fact, they all come to the same realization.

King is the one to speak it: “Collector knows he lost.”

“I-it’s okay!” Luz says. “Hunter said they’re trapped in the disk again. And we’re all still here, so maybe it’s all okay?”

There’s a sudden loud and frantic dinging. Eda draws a spell circle, only to have it disintegrate.

“Ah, got to get used to that again.”

She pulls her scroll out of her hair, eyes widening as she unfurls it.

“Well, I got popular.”

“Eda,” Luz and King chorus.

“Alright, alright.” She taps a notification and reads. “Darius says the Collector is still in the disk. But...” She looks up. “We really need to fly back.”

~

Hunter really wasn’t expecting to fall asleep after getting to Hexside, but he wakes up in the paranoratorium in what sounds like the heart of the school day. After a second, though, he realizes the room has fallen into complete disarray while he slept. And...

there’s a lot more crying than he heard in his few days at Hexside.

Flap takes his usual spot on his shoulder as he leaves the paranoratorium. It only takes opening the door to see families tearfully reuniting, and his heart soars.

“They must have found King.” He looks at Flap. “We were right.”

Good! Find friends now?

“Yeah.”

Hunter takes a few seconds to prepare to force his way through the crowds the hard way, since teleporting with this many people around can be very dangerous—

only to be swept up in a bone-crushing hug three steps later with a cry of, “Hunter!”

“Skara?”

Flapjack yanks at her ponytail, demanding to let Hunter go, but she barely seems to notice.

“Titan, we’ve all been so worried about you! No one knew what happened to you guys after everything went down, and then nothing went down, and—”

“Dude, let him breathe.”

Hunter is suddenly free, and he gasps to regain his breath. “Thanks, Viney.”

“Don’t mention it.” Viney lightly punches him in the shoulder. “It is good to see you, though.”

“Yeah, you guys too. But—” Hunter’s initial question stops dead when he takes in the state of their clothes. “Whoa, what happened to you two?”

They share a look.

“Let’s just say,” Skara says, “be glad you never had to see President Boscha.”

“No kidding,” Viney says.

Hunter decides he doesn’t want to know. “Okay. Have you seen—”

“Willow?” Skara sing-songs.

Hunter blushes.

Viney sighs. “Ignore her. Willow and Gus were catching up with their dads in the gym last I saw. I can ride you through the crowds on Puddles, if you want.”

He barefly fights a shudder, remembering his last interaction with the griffin. “Thanks, but I think I’ll just walk.” He starts to do just that, then pauses. “It’s uh, good to see you guys alive and well.”

“You too!”

Hunter makes his way through the crowds of reuniting families, feeling that bitter sting of loneliness in his chest. He starts running to try to ignore it, and runs past the Blight siblings talking together.

“Hunter!”

He skids to a stop at Amity’s call.

“Have you seen Luz?”

“Not since last night. I think she found King.”

“She what?”

“Long story, we’ll explain when she gets here.”

She points at him with her staff, but more in a I was already holding this way than a I’m going to use this on you way. “I’m holding you to that.”

Her siblings wave at him.

“I’d take that as a threat if I were you!” Edric says.

Hunter rolls his eyes but thanks him and continues toward the gym.

It only takes another minute to get there. Willow, Gus, and who must be their dads are leaving as he arrives. His friends light up at the sight of him.

“Hunter!”

“Guys!”

They drag him into a group hug, which he returns.

“We were so worried about you,” Gus says. “Are you okay?”

“As okay as can be expected.” Hunter lets them go. “Are you two okay?”

“Now that you’re here,” Willow says. “Why didn’t you tell us who you were at the Covention?”

“Would you have believed me?”

“Probably not,” Gus says.

“I would I hope I would.” Willow gently takes Hunter’s hand. “You... mean a lot to me.”

Hunter stares down at their joined hands, at Willow's red face, before her words click and his own face turns bright red. “Oh.” He clears his throat at the squeak. “You, uh... you mean a lot to me, too.”

~

Philip is running out of places to hide. Ever since everything changed back, he’s had to run from his own coven, that thrice-damned Lilith leading the hunt against him.

He should have known better than to let the Clawthorne line live, either time around.

He doesn’t understand. Everything should have worked the first time. There shouldn’t have been a second time — and why didn’t he notice it was a second time until it was too late and his curse overtook his useless body?

The only one powerful enough to do this is the Collector. He must get to the disk before—

Philip speeds up when he sees the doors to his office. No one is near. He’s almost free—

The doors open before he reaches them. He tries to stop, to turn, to at least slow himself, but the Beast’s stupid claws can’t find purchase on the damned marble floor.

He crashes into his office, sending boxes flying and crashing down on him.

No. Must get out out out.

The door slams, and those infernal teal eyes glare at him from hundreds of years in the past.

“Any last words?” Lilith Clawthorne asks.

His Coven Heads step out of the shadows to flank her. Philip backs away, ignoring the additional boxes he sends falling.

“You... you can’t kill me.”

“Oh, please,” Terra says. Oh, ever his most loyal. Surely— “Do you really think begging will work?”

“Scooter Crane begged,” Raine says. When did they even get here?! “You showed him no mercy.”

Darius steps forward, his eyes darkening. “So why in the Titan’s name would you think we would show you any?”

~

Luz and King tumble when Eda collapses out of her harpy form, luckily on the solid ground of their Titan.

Luz is quick to get to her feet. “You okay, Eda?”

“Get me a bottle of apple blood and I’ll be fine,” she groans.

“Yeah, nice try,” King says.

He and Luz help her stand, until she can lean on her staff herself.

“Oof. Never let me fly for that long on my own again.”

Owlbert chirps, no doubt pointing out that she only took over in the last hour after he got too tired, but the kids say, “Noted.”

Luz looks around, her hand still up by Eda’s side in case she needs the support. “Where do you think everyone is?”

“Twenty snails says Hexside,” Eda says. “Darius said something about students getting ready to ride out the Day of Unity there. Wouldn’t be surprised if they rode out the shitshow, too.”

“Ah, good ol’ reliable Hexside.”

Eda gives her a look. “You’re not telling me off for swearing in front of King?”

She shrugs. “I think living through the end of the world is worth a swear pass or twenty.”

“Don’t use them all at once,” King teases. “But does that mean I can swear too?”

“Sure, buddy. Once you hit double digits.”

King’s tail droops.

“Hey,” Eda says, “I’m your... guardian, and I say you can swear as much as you want.”

“Yes!”

Luz laughs as she shakes her head.

She missed this.

~

For most of the human realm, everything suddenly reverting back to the way things were in late September happens without issue. There’s no major news report, no adjustment period, just business as usual when summer instantly turns to fall.

But for Camila and V, it’s impossible to not notice the shift: the drastic change from the living room being neat and orderly to being strewn with the mess of six teens, the outfit change without getting up, even the sudden swap in TV shows.

“What the...” Camila says when it happens.

“Did... is it September again?” V asks.

“I... think it is.”

The next few hours are spent confirming that it is September, and then trying to figure out how in the hell it’s September.

Of course, they can’t figure anything out. To the rest of of the human realm, nothing even happened.

After a few hours, though, Camila gets a text.

Be home soon, will explain everything

Thank you

“V,” she says. “Where’s that house you came to the human realm through again?”

~

After a lot of hugs at Hexside, and an often-repeated explanation on King’s part, Luz is sitting on the front steps with her friends and their families, her head resting on Amity’s shoulder with their hands linked.

“So that’s it,” Luz says, oddly numb. “Everything’s just... over.”

“Don’t sound so disappointed, kid,” Eda says. “The Collector’s reign of tantrums may be over, but we don’t know where Belos stands.”

“Oh, he’s taken care of.”

Everyone turns at Raine’s voice.

“Hey,” Darius, standing right next to them, whines. “You were only there at the end; why do you get to make the announcement?”

“It’s not my fault I wasn’t a Coven Head until late in the summer.”

“Raine!”

Eda runs and hugs her... Raine? Luz isn’t sure if she missed any development there, like she apparently missed Willow and Hunter’s feelings for each other all month!

Specifics of relationship status aside, Eda hugs Raine as the other Coven Heads — Lilith included — disperse to give their account of their fight against Belos, which is full of more curb stomping than Luz would have expected. But at least they all know for sure that he’s dead.

“And now,” Lilith says as she wraps up her explanation, “we enter the thrilling bureaucratic debate of building a new system of government for the Boiling Isles! Isn’t that exciting?”

“Yeah,” everyone says, unconvincingly.

“Hey,” Gus adds, “maybe you should talk to Mattholomule and Jerbo. Mattholomule couldn’t stop bragging about all their plans for New Hexside that Boscha wouldn’t accept.”

“Oh, wonderful! Thank you.”

Lilith wanders off, presumably to find Matt and Jerbo.

“Gus,” Willow says, “were any of those plans actually good?”

“No idea, I didn’t get to see them. But Lilith left us alone, so win!”

“Nice going, dweebus,” Eda says. “Well, if Belos is taken care of,” she looks at Luz, “all that’s left is getting you home again.”

“How are we gonna do that without the Portal?” King asks.

“Um.” Luz pulls the Key out of her fanny pack. “Maybe with this?”

Everyone stares between the Key and Luz.

“I... I woke up in the human realm when everything got reset. I wasn’t going to come back, but I couldn’t just not know what happened to you guys! V came through the Portal with the Key, so... I came back.”

“Thank goodness you did,” Willow says, squeezing her shoulder. “Who knows how long it would have taken everything to go back to normal without you.”

“Yeah,” Gus says. “Without you, we might have had to live through the Day of Unity again.”

“You were the only one who knew where King’s island was,” Hunter adds.

Luz blushes and waves the — admittedly valid — points away. “Ah, come on.”

“You come on,” Amity says, squeezing her hand. “You know you do things none of us could ever do.”

Luz nudges her. “Goin’ soft on me, Blight?”

Amity chuckles. “Always.”

Eda loudly fake barfs. “Your adorableness makes me sick.” Despite her words, her hand remains in Raine’s, as it has been since they arrived, even as she stands. “Let’s go back to the Owl House and test that Key out. Assorted friends and families are welcome to join.”

Gus whoops. “Assorted friends! A step up from Goops!”

Despite his enthusiasm, which is shared by the whole group, nearly everyone hesitates at even the distant sound of Hooty screeching when they get close enough to hear him.

“Is he more annoying than normal?” Amity asks, hands clamped over her ears.

“He’s probably just startled after everything.” Eda stops walking and turns to the group. “Anyone who hasn’t lived in the Owl House, stay here while we calm Hooty down.”

No one protests that. Luz kisses the back of Amity’s hand and Eda squeezes Raine’s as they and King continue on.

It isn’t long before they reach the end of the forest, where Hooty’s screeching becomes migraine-inducing.

“Why,” King yells, his paws over his skull, “exactly, do we have to be here?”

“ ‘Cause I didn’t want to go deaf alone!” Eda says.

“Eda!” the kids yell.

Somehow, that shuts Hooty up. He gasps happily as he gazes upon his loved ones.

“Hooty,” they all warn.

“HOOOOOT!!”

Eda accepts her fate, Luz and King try to escape, but they all get wrapped up by the weeping house demon.

“OH, I THOUGHT YOU WERE ALL GONE FOREVER! NEVER LEAVE ME LIKE THAT AGAIN!”

Eda pats Hooty. “There’s a good house demon. Let it all out.”

“And let us go!” Luz yelps. “You reek!”

“WE MISSED MY MONTHLY CLEANING DAY!”

King shudders as he dislodges five flies and a rat from Hooty’s feathers with one measly tap of his paw. “I can tell.”

Eda lets the hug last for a full minute before forcing Hooty to let them go.

“Alright,” she says once they’re free, “how bad is it inside, Hooty?”

He winces. “UHHHHH...”

He shares a look with Luz and King. Luz’s heart sinks, already knowing what the inside looks like.

“Eda,” she starts, “we might—”

“Nope. I have to see it for myself.”

It’s actually emptier than it was when Luz, King, and Hooty got back from the Titan Trappers’ island. At least then the trash was left.

Now, there’s...

nothing.

Luz isn’t sure how long they stand there, in the silence and the nothingness, before Eda finally clears her throat.

“Okay, enough moping.” She sniffles. “It was all just stuff. We can get it back, or get new stuff. Alright?”

Luz and King nod and wipe their own tears.

Eda slings her arm around Luz. “Let’s get you home, kiddo.”

~

Once they bring everyone into the yard, Luz presses the eye on the Key.

It does summon the Door.

Unfortunately, the Door is once again in a million pieces, and her heart breaks into about as many.

All of this...

and they’re right back to where they started.

“Oh, no,” Eda says. “If that crusty old fuck could fix this thing, so can we. Gilbert, you’re Construction, right?”

Gilbert Park adjusts his glasses. “Yes?”

Eda gestures to the pile of wood. “You’ve got your materials.”

“It’s not that easy,” Hunter says. Whatever he says next is definitely English, but it’s so full of technical jargon that Luz can’t understand a single word.

Based on the looks everyone else is giving him, she’s not alone.

Hunter fidgets with his hands at their confusion. “I... helped fix it before.”

“Great!” Eda says. “You’re in charge, then.”

He blinks. “Um, okay.” He takes a breath and squares his shoulders. “First, we need a stable doorframe.”

“Hooty, you know what to do.”

“No no no!” Luz and King yell.

“YES, MA’AM.”

Most of the gathered witches take Luz and King’s protest as enough of a warning to look away, and the rest follow the exact warning yelled as Hooty starts to remove himself. Hunter and Edric are the only ones who don’t, and one comes to regret it.

“PORTA-HOOTY, RETURNING FOR DUTY!”

“How,” Hunter says weakly, “how did he do that?”

Edric’s eyes are shining as he asks the same question enthusiastically.

“Better not to ask questions,” Eda says. “Now, let’s get Luz home, people!”

With everyone working together, it’s only a couple hours before a new Portal Door is standing in the front doorway of the Owl House. Luz stands in front of it, the original Key held loosely in her hand.

Amity squeezes her free hand. “Ready?”

“Nope.” She squeezes her hand back, then walks forward. “Let’s do it.”

Luz puts the Key in the lock,

takes a breath,

and turns it.

Blinding light shines from the edges of the Door. Everyone shields their eyes, and Luz even takes several steps back.

When the light fades, the Door opens,

revealing Camila and V on the other side, the red and orange trees of human realm fall stretching behind them.

“Luz!”

“Mom!”

Camila runs through the Portal and grabs Luz tightly in a hug. She returns it just as tightly, muttering apologies and trying to start an explanation on why she left, on why she put her through not knowing if her child was dead or alive again—

“Mija, mija, breathe.” Camila puts Luz at arms’ length. “You can explain everything later, okay?”

“A-are you sure?”

Camila nods. She looks around, clearly noticing everyone other than Luz for the first time. “Who’s Eda?”

Everyone looks at the Wild Witch, who laughs nervously. “I don’t think I know an Eda.”

Camila ignores the statement and starts walking in her direction.

“Uh, Mom,” Luz starts.

Camila hugs Eda.

“Uh...” Eda says.

“Thank you for taking care of my daughter.”

Eda blinks, then pats Camila’s back awkwardly. “Yeah. Well, you raised a good kid, Mrs. Noceda.” She looks at Luz. “I’d take care of her in any life.”

Luz, teary eyed, runs and throws herself into the hug.

And for the first time, she lets herself think that maybe she can have everything.

Chapter Text

After numerous discussions about wants and dreams, several personal confessions, a palisman hatching, and a lot of scheduling, a routine finally seems to be settling. The Portal has been moved from the front door of the Owl House to an out-of-use closet, and with a lot of tinkering, it opens to a closet in the Nocedas’ house.

A lot has changed, but a lot has remained the same.

For example, all of the belongings once residing in the Owl House have been returned, for better or worse.

“I still doubt that there’s a method of organization here,” Camila says, staring at a pile of medieval weapons covered in graphic t-shirts.

“Just because you don’t understand my madness doesn’t mean there isn’t a method to it.” Eda emphatically gestures with her new hook hand, something everyone is still incredibly wary of her having.

“Oh, you’re mad, alright.”

“You say that like you don’t like my madness. We both know it’s one of my best qualities.”

Camila hums. “And here I thought it was your charming personality.”

“Moms,” Luz says, cringing as she walks through the Portal dressed in her Hexside uniform. “I can’t tell if you’re arguing or flirting, but please stop.”

“Ah, come on.” Eda ruffles Luz’s hair, ignoring her protesting that she’ll have to redo her ponytail. “A little flirting never killed anyone.”

Luz shoves her off and goes about fixing her hair, though Stringbean, who is currently in snake form and acting as her hair tie, does at least half the work. “Raine’s gonna hear you eventually.”

Camila chuckles. “They would probably join in just to see Eda flustered.”

“I do not get flustered!” Despite the protest, Eda’s face is bright red.

Both Nocedas hum doubtfully.

Hunter, wearing his own Hexside uniform proudly displaying all tracks, practically runs through the Portal, Flapjack faithfully behind him. “Luz, come on, we’re gonna be late.”

Luz rolls her eyes. “Hermano, we haven’t been late for school once. And if we are, we still have at least another month before our professors won’t accept the whole ‘we helped save the entire Isles’ excuse.” She looks at Camila. “Not that I’ve used that excuse for anything.”

“But I will!” King jumps at Luz from the staircase, landing squarely in her arms. He points to the front door, his paw sticking out of his baby class Hexside uniform. “To Hexside, dearest sister, for the most noble of all quests: the pursuit of knowledge!”

Luz laughs and points with him. “Of course, Your Highness! We shan’t be late for mine brother’s first day!”

“Ugh, how did my kids end up as massive nerds?” Eda asks, hugging them both.

“You’re literally designing a wild magic university,” Hunter deadpans.

“Bah, details.”

Camila shakes her head. “Alright, time for school.”

She kisses the kids’ foreheads as they hug her, exchanging I love yous. Eda does the same, and grabs the lunchbox Owlbert brings from the kitchen.

“King, don’t forget get your lunch.”

“Oooo.”

“Luz, Hunter, don’t let him open it until noon.”

Hunter grabs the lunchbox. “You got it.”

“Hey!” King pulls on Luz’s cowl. “Get it back!”

Hunter grabs his staff as Flapjack produces it, a wide smirk on his face. “You’ll have to catch me!”

“Oh, it’s on!” Luz holds out her hand. “Stringbean, race time!”

“Be careful!” Camila yells as the kids speed off on their staffs. She sighs. “They definitely didn’t hear me.”

“They’ll be fine,” Eda says. “Only the everyday dangers are out to get them now, and they can handle those in their sleep.”

Camila glares at her. “You are terrible at comforting people.”

In Eda’s defense, the kids are fine. As the speed across Bonesborough, King is sat securely on Luz’s lap, Hunter isn’t teleporting, and both he and Luz are keeping clear of construction sites. The city, and the Isles at large, are far from being done being reconstructed.

For one, being released from the whole ‘one witch, one coven’ mindset has allowed nearly everyone to accept the fact that they actually do want to practice multiple forms of magic. While the coven seals make that impossible — at least for now, Alador has joined forces with Healers to figure out if they can be removed — reconstruction has become a complete collaborative effort.

For another, no one really wants to go back to how things were. Needing to rebuild is a chance to build new. And as they fly through downtown, Luz is so excited to see the scaffolding that promises a fresh start.

“So,” King says as they weave through downtown, “how’s V enjoying human school?”

“Oh, she’s flourishing,” Luz says. “Her friends from Reality Check finally processed the whole ‘her being a should-be-extinct shapeshifting demon from another realm’ thing and are actually planning a weekend trip here.”

“Really?”

Hunter slows down to fly directly next to them. “Only once V is ready to come back. She said she might try in a few weeks.”

King perks up. “We have to start preparing her favorite foods, then! Or her favorite types of magic?”

“Easy there, tiger.” Luz rubs his skull. “She still has to give us the go-ahead. But we have a cookbook ready. Speaking of helping people acclimate, how’s Collie?”

Not long after dealing with Belos, King had woken up in the In Between to the Collector crying. What to do with them had been one of the many conversations held over the last few months, and the general consensus was gradually introducing them to how to interact with and treat mortals. Somehow nicknames were one of the first topics, and the name Collie had been born.

“They’re antsy to get out again,” King says. “Eda says she wants to give it a few more months at minimum.”

“Makes sense,” Hunter says. “Didn’t he not even understand death?”

“He’s... growing to understand it.”

They slow on their staffs as Hexside comes into view. Other than needing to be deep-cleaned to get rid of the stench of dozens of teens who barely showered for weeks, the school is the one building that seems to have weathered the fallout of the Day of Unity. But, things have still changed: there’s been a huge increase of students interested in more than one track, and at least half of the school is now sporting two or three colored uniforms. Luz and Hunter are still the only two ambitious enough for every track, but once King graduates from the baby class, at least they know a third will join them.

Amity, Willow, and Gus wave as the other three land. Flapjack takes his usual spot on Hunter’s shoulder, while Stringbean rubs her face against each of the three in turn before returning to tie Luz’s hair back up.

King runs forward to perch on Gus’s shoulder, while Luz greets Amity with a cheek kiss and Hunter links his pinky with Willow’s.

The warning bell shrieks across campus, and students all hurry to homeroom. These six, though, take their time.

“You guys think this semester might actually be normal?” Gus asks.

“My normal?” Luz asks. “I really hope not. Actual normal?”

Something in the atrium explodes, and various students run about, screaming about firebee hives being hurled at them by a many-faced beast in the rafters.

Hunter sighs. “I wouldn’t hold my breath.”