Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

A blacksmith is a nail short, and so can't shoe a horse. That horse going unshoed means that an army is one rider short. The lack of that one soldier requires a change in strategy, which costs the army victory in a decisive battle, thus losing them the war. All for want of a nail.

Other seemingly inconsequential things can have just as, if not larger, effect on the future. Upstate New York, in the 1990s, elderspawn parasites from beyond the stars arrive on the planet seeking to turn the Earth into a feeding grown, only to be driven off by the work of the heroes of the planet and slain by the psychic scream of one of their rogue brethren.

Focus on two individuals, a young couple, each taken as hosts by the marauding parasites. The event was rather frightening, but not too traumatic, and so once freed they carried on with their lives as years passed, eventually starting a family, ignorant to the eldritch residue left behind in their very cells. They raised their daughter, an energetic ray of light in the night, ignorant of what they passed down to her. The father fell ill, the family moved to a small town in Connecticut for medical treatment but... For some illnesses, there's not much that even advanced treatment plans can do and a good man leaves his wife and daughter alone in a town that is... Less than tolerant of the young girl's eccentricities. The mother loved her child, but without another parent to give a strong, united front, well... Something had to give...

Luz Noceda stood on the sidewalk outside her family's home in Gravesfield, resigned to her fate. She had gotten a little too caught up in her plans for a book report and... Well, no one had gotten seriously hurt but maybe she should have thought that through better. She'd already been in trouble for a bunch of dumb reasons and now she had to go to a special camp for a few months or the school would kick her to the curb.

"Now Mija," her mother Camila said, "don't look so glum. I looked into this Reality Check place and it's just a camp, not one of... Those places."

"That doesn't really make me feel better about being exiled for three months," Luz lamented. "Too bad the gene test came back negative, could have gone to the Jean Grey Institute's summer program for three months instead."

"If the gene test came back positive we might not be in this situation in the first place," Camila countered. Gravesfield wasn't very tolerant of things outside the 'norm' except, weirdly enough, mutants and their eccentricities. For some reason, most of the town was willing to give them a pass. The worst that happened was about a year ago and might not have actually been related, a senior at her high school was suspended on a bunk charge coincidentally after asking about whether or not she could bring her mutant girlfriend from the next town over to prom. Ended up being a whole thing, got on the local news even, before the mutant community's Nazi-hunting former terrorist communal grandfather showed up and then stood just outside the property line for six hours. He didn't say or do anything, he just stood there. Menacingly. The kid's suspension was overturned later that day.

"Think of it this way," Camila continued, "if it's a good camp they might teach you something that will help you focus your energy a little more constructively. And if it's a bad camp, you might be able to bond with some other kids over how bad it is and make some friends who aren't snakes."

"We'll see, Mom," Luz said without committing to anything.

"Now I need to get to the clinic," Camila concluded, "The bus should be here soon, I love you Mija."

"Y tu, Mami."

Once her mother was gone, Luz rushed to the trash can. She'd needed to start fresh, no weirdness, and so had thrown out her Good Witch Azura book and... Immediately regretted it. Even ignoring how much she loved every single thing about the franchise and how much she saw herself in Azura, that book had been the last thing her father ever gave her. It simply meant far too much to her to throw out and she was still mentally kicking herself for trying when she found that the can was empty.

"No, no, where is it!?" She exclaimed, before noticing a peculiar sight: An adorable little owl hopping along, dragging a large garbage bag behind them. "Get back here you little thief!"

Luz chased the thieving ball of fluff deep into the woods and into an old abandoned shack where, in a flash of light, she suddenly found herself in a tent filled with assorted random junk, a free-standing door behind her. Sneaking forward to the front of the tent, Luz found a tall, pale older woman rummaging through the garbage bag as the owl affixed itself to the top of a wooden staff and turned to wood itself. The pale woman casually disposed of several valuable things that Luz doubted anyone had actually thrown out before gleefully declaring that a pair of novelty glasses would make her rich.

Then she tried to use Luz's book as kindling and the teenager was compelled to reveal herself, jumping over the sales counter around the tent's front and grabbing the book, "this is mine, sorry, thank you!" she shouted as she made her retreat back to the strange, giant-eye-adorned door...

Which folded itself into a briefcase and flew over her, into the hands of the tall, pale woman who loomed over Luz most sinisterly.

Luz, naturally, forced her way under the tent and out to freedom...

Only to realize that she was most definitely not anywhere near Connecticut anymore, given the color of the plants and sky, as well as the giant bones she could see in the distance.

"Where the heck am I?" She asked as she stood at the edge of a ditch. "Wait, and I... I didn't stumble into the... Dark Dimension, did I?" Luz then began to twist around, looking for any sign of Doctor Strange on the off chance that he was dimension traveling that day and could rescue her.

No Sorcerer Supreme, unfortunately, just a little pink fairy thing.

"Hello," Luz said hesitantly, "you wouldn't happen to be able to give me directions, would you?"

The fairy merely looked at her with a predatory look, before its mouth twisted into a horrific fanged maw. "Give me your skin!"

Luz reflexively slapped the tiny monster away and turned to flee only to be confronted by the pale woman again. "If you're going to kill me just do it!" Luz shouted, closing her eyes and bracing herself for the worst.

After thirty seconds of nothing, Luz opened her eyes to see the pale woman staring at her like she was insane. "Kid," she said, "I'm not gonna kill a potential customer... Unless they try to rip me off, eh!" she exclaimed and then tried to elbow Luz's ribs before putting a hand to her back and leading her back to the tent and parking her in a seat at the shop counter.

"Now, you probably know more about this stuff than I do, human," she said while gesturing to an assorted pile of junk and knick-knacks including but not limited to a Croc shoe without its mate and an old school portable TV, "so just grab something you like and we'll discuss price and... Wait, darn, you probably don't have any snails... Oh well," she shrugged, "I can be flexible with payment."

Luz tried to ignore the weirdness of the situation but couldn't, so instead she focused on the part that stood out to her the most. "That's a weird way to refer to refer to another human... Wait," Luz finally got a good look at the tall figure and made out her sharp teeth and pointed ears. "...You're not a mutant essentialist, are you? I thought that movement started dying out after the Genetic Diversity Preservation Act got passed?"

The pale woman laughed. "Kid, you're not on Earth anymore, and I'm not human. I am the most powerful witch on the Boiling Isles, Eda The—"

"Owl Lady!" interrupted an approaching figure, a bulky, armored man with one of those pointy helmets. "You are under arrest for crimes against—"

"Blah, blah, blah," the now-named Eda The Owl Lady mocked, "could you come back later? I'm busy."

The armored figure ignored Eda and grabbed Luz by the back of her shirt. "You're under arrest too."

"For what!?"

"Consorting with a criminal."

Eda rolled her eyes. The next few moments were a blur to Luz. When she became aware of her surroundings again, she was moving very fast through the air supported only by a broom-width piece of wood.

She almost screamed... Until she saw a large griffin flying nearby. A large griffin with the head of a pigeon, that breathed spiders. Just like her art project. Having been right about something distracted her from how high and fast she was being flown.

Eventually, the Owl Lady landed her flying staff in a clearing in the wilderness, outside a strange-looking cottage connected to a stone tower.

"Alright, Kid," Eda declared. "We should be safe here. And... You alright?"

Luz, honestly, wasn't. She felt weird. And, thinking back, she'd been feeling weird since she got here, "No. I don't feel so good right now."

"Motion sickness?" Eda asked. "I've got something for that... At least, I think humans can drink cinder ale..."

"Uh, no," Luz corrected. She started unconsciously stamping her feet as her nerves began to get to her. "I'm just... really on edge right now."

"Hah!" Eda exclaimed. "First time almost getting arrested?"

"No, actually," Luz admitted. That had been a very bad field trip and even though it was totally that older lady's fault the school made her get tested for a bunch of stuff before they'd let her come back to class.

"Well, you can relax. You're safe here," Eda insisted. "The whole property is protected by the best security system on the Isles," she declared as she led Luz up to the front door... There was a door knocker-type thing but without the knocker part. And it was snoring. "Ugh, way to undermine my point, Hooty."

Eda slapped the knockerless-knocker awake and it shot to attention "Ahh! I'm up, I'm up, hoot!" It then fixed its gaze on Eda and Luz and spoke in a voice that Luz could only describe as if someone's deliberately bad Mickey Mouse impression was also their real voice. "If seeker of entrance be what you be, you must answer my riddles three!"

Eda responded by slapping it again. "I'm not in the mood for games, Hooty."

"Ow!" Hooty exclaimed, "Jeeze, I was just trying to have a little fun. Take a joke why don't ya? Hoot." The door then opened itself and Eda led Luz inside.

"Now, as long as Hooty doesn't fall asleep on the job again, no one can get us here. Not the guards," Eda began to list off, "not the Emporer's Coven, and not any clingy exes. Just be mindful of..." Luz could hear footsteps approaching. "You know what, I'll just let him introduce himself."

"Introduce myself to who?" Came a high-pitched voice from the hallway. Luz turned to look and just barely caught a small black furry thing scrambling out of view.

"I mean," the high-pitched voice cleared its throat and then got deeper like a little boy pretending to be an adult, "Who dares trespass against I, the King of Demons!"

The small furry creature revealed itself to be a doglike biped with a horned, skill-like head, one horn broken, when it lept into view and then began T-posing to assert dominance.

Luz was silent for a moment, and then exclaimed "Ay que lindo!" and tackled the poor, defenseless creature. "Who's the softest, most adorable little boy? Who is? You is! You is!"

"No, I'm not!" the self-proclaimed King insisted, "Eda, get this horrible thing off of me!"

"Yeah, that's more or less everyone's reaction when they see him for the first time," Eda admitted. "Now let him go, he does need to breathe."

Reluctantly, Luz set the adorable King of Demons down, and then, no longer distracted by a cuddly widdle ball of floof, her awareness of the weird, anxious feeling returned to her and, honestly, it felt a little worse now.

"So, uh, Ms. Owl Lady, this has been really fun but I really should be getting home now so if you could please pull out that fancy door of yours I'll get out of your hair."

"No."

"No?"

"No," Eda confirmed.

"Why not?"

"Well, I did save you from that guard earlier," Eda said, "which means you kinda owe me, and luckily for you I have something that needs doing that only a human can do."

Luz blinked. "...You aren't going to sacrifice me to Mephisto as part of a plan to invade the human realm, are you?" She asked nervously.

It was Eda's turn to blink. "Who in the Titan's name is...? Jeeze you're morbid, kid." Eda laughed it off. "No, that guard's boss, Warden Wrath, has been after me for a long time, but this time he's gone a step too far."

"He stole my crown of power" the King of Demons insisted, "without it, I'm trapped in the form you see now."

"King's a very important person to me," Eda admitted, "and Wrath knows that if someone took something important to him I'd take it personally. His plan to to lure me out to the Conformatorium to capture me but what he doesn't know is that I already know the layout of that place like the back of my hand."

"So what do you need me for?" Luz asked.

"Oh, it's simple enough: King's Crown is locked away in the confiscated items room, which is locked behind a magical barrier that prevents access to any demon or witch who isn't authorized, but it wouldn't be able to stop a human."

"And If I help with this, you'll let me go home?"

"Of course, kid," Eda insisted, "I'm a liar, a cheater, a thief, and an all-around scoundrel but when I make a deal I honor it."

"Also, it's not like you have much of a choice," King added.

"Fine," Luz agreed. "What's the plan?"

Eda flipped Luz over her shoulders like a sack of potatoes and began walking away with her. "I'll explain when we get to the Conformatorium."

The Conformatorium turned out to be a very imposingly tall and sinister-looking prison tower.

"So the plan is simple," Eda began, "you and King will sneak in through the top and make your way to the confiscated items room. I'll go in through the ground floor and create a distraction, then meet you there once the guards are dealt with."

"I'm unsure about this plan," Luz admitted.

"It's fine," Eda insisted, "King and I have gotten in and out of tighter scrapes than this."

"Alright," Luz agreed. Then she pulled up the hood of her shirt and made sure the cat ear adornments were flipped up. "Meow meow!" she declared, psyching herself up.

"I like your spirit, Kid," Eda said with a smile. Then she went wide-eyed. "Oh, if you see a small, white-skinned biped with orange hair, a big nose, and a speech impediment let me know, she's one of Hooty's friends. She got grabbed last week and I should probably make at least a token effort to save her if she's here."

Scaling the tower was surprisingly easy. Pulling herself in through the window, however, was not. King laughed at her when she collapsed on the floor. "Cats don't do that."

As Luz and King got their bearings and began searching the prison, a voice called out from the cells "This is a bad place to be, little cat."

Luz turned to see a fanged witch in a cell... Someone who didn't look the least bit dangerous. "I'm not a real cat," she clarified, "I'm human and... What are in for? You don't look like a criminal."

"The Conformatorium isn't just for criminals, human," the witch continued, "Warden Wrath has broad authority to detain anyone who he doesn't think is a proper upstanding citizen regardless of whether or not they've broken the law. I'm here because I like to write stories about sentient food falling in love," the witch said while presenting a book, opened to a page that Luz didn't have time to read but which featured an illustration of an anthropomorphic tomato proposing to an anthropomorphic sweet potato.

"I like to eat my own eyes!" declared an odd-sounding voice from another cell.

"I was awwested for telling the twuth!" Came a high-pitched, feminine voice from another. "We awe but pwinted images on pages made fow the entewtainment of highew dimensional beings!"

Speech impediment. Luz checked that cell and found a waddling head-like creature that matched the description Eda had given. "Hi, are you Hooty's friend?"

The tiny being gasped. "Hooty sent you? Get out, now, I'm not wowth it."

"Not gonna happen," Luz insisted. That weird, anxious feeling that Luz had been feeling since stepping through that strange door had been getting worse and worse all day, but it'd reached an apex when she heard these people's stories and her blood started boiling at the injustice. "None if you have done anything wrong, you're just weird. You shouldn't be punished for that!"

...Luz, later on, would admit that she might have been projecting her own difficulties fitting in around Gravesfield onto the prisoners of the Conformatorium, but the point she was making still stood.

Luz tried to lift the lever next to the tiny being's cell but couldn't so much as make it budge. She cursed her weak nerd arms, but kept trying even as heavy footsteps began to approach.

"Keep it down in there, prisoners!" Declared a sinister and authoritarian voice.

"Warden Wrath!" Declared the food-fic author. "Human, you need to hide."

Frustration mounting, Luz gave the lever one last push as that anxious feeling she'd been having all day was suddenly replaced by... Well, Luz's best guess for what to call it was 'shattering.'

The heavy lever suddenly flew up and the cell door opened. The tiny being stepped out, confused and in awe, while Luz was suddenly distracted by her arms.

Specifically, the fact that they were currently enshrouded in an inky black, shadowy smoke-like energy.

"I'm magic!" She exclaimed like a five-year-old discovering that it was raining soda. Already ideas of becoming a witch like Azura were running through her brain

She was roused from a fantasy of becoming Good With Luzura, Sorceress Supreme by the tiny being's declaration of "A deus ex machina, the authows awe on ouw side!"

A door at the far end of the hall threw itself open and in stepped a giant of a man dressed like a cross between an executioner and a plague doctor.

The figure, presumably Warden Wrath, was about to say something when the tiny being screamed "Fight the powaw! Aaaaaaaahhh!" and drew a magic circle in the air, conjuring a blast of fire that threw him off balance.

Not sure what to do next, Luz decided to keep releasing prisoners. The man who ate his own eyes, of which he had several that quickly grew back it turns out, immediately charged out of his cell to join Hooty's friend but the author turned to Luz first. "Get out of here while you can, human. We'll take care of the Warden and then free the other prisoners."

"Are you sure?" Luz asked, suddenly very concerned for the well-being of the people she just met.

"We'll be fine," the author said with a smile. "My mentor in the Bard Coven taught me a few tricks. Now go."

Luz ran past the brawl and as she escaped she could have sworn that she heard whistling behind her.

King, fresh from wherever it was he'd been hiding, scrambled up next to her and lept on her shoulders. "That was pretty cool," he complimented. "Are you sure you need to go back to the human realm? I could really use someone like you in my army of nightmares."

"Thanks for the offer, but I'm sure."

"Will you at least tell me your name?"

"It's Luz."

"Luz..." King said contemplatively, "I like that name. When I reclaim my throne and launch my campaign of conquest, I shall name a province in your honor!"

"Aww, that's sweet." It was weird and a little creepy, but Luz was genuinely touched by the thought.

Just according to plan, the two of them met Eda outside the confiscated items room.

"I heard the racket upstairs, what the heck is going on up there?" The Owl Lady asked.

"I found Hooty's friend and started a prison riot," Luz summarized.

"Luz has weird shadow magic!" King added. Luz held up a hand and, with a bit of concentration, manifested the strange dark energy again.

Eda blinked. "That doesn't look like any magic I've ever seen, are you sure you're not like... What are they called, those humans with the... you said the name earlier, it's on the tip of my tongue..."

"...Mutants?" Luz supplied.

"Yeah, one of those."

"No, I'm not a mutant," Luz denied. "I was tested for it."

"Huh. Something to figure out later I guess," Eda said with a shrug. Then she tapped the door to the confiscated items room with her owl-headed staff and drew a magic circle on it, causing it to be blasted off its hinges. "So, just walk into that glowy energy thingy in there and grab King's crown. You'll know it when you see it."

Luz followed Eda's instruction to the letter, pausing only to take a breath to steady her nerves before pacing through the barrier, and immediately saw the only crown-shaped object there was.

"You have got to be kidding me."

A short while later, back at Eda's home, Luz starred incredulously as King, now wearing a cardboard crown from a fast food restaurant, as he gave marching orders to an assembled army of stuffed animals and action figures.

"So he's just a kid who's really into playing pretend?"

"Yeah," Eda admitted.

"So, don't get me wrong, I can relate, but that seemed like a lot of work for..."

Eda shrugged. "As far as I can tell, there's no one else in all the Boiling Iseles like King and I'm something of an outcast myself. All we have is each other so if it's important to him, well..."

Luz considered that. "...Yeah. I get it."

"Anyway, you held up your end of the bargain," Ea said while drawing a fancy key with an eye on the end out of her pocket. "So here you go."

Clicking the eye like a button, the portal door appeared and unfolded itself before opening.

Luz looked at it, then back to Eda. "So, I've been thinking... That anxious feeling I was having went away after my powers came in, and... Rescuing those people from unfair imprisonment, it felt good. Almost like being..." A thought occurred to her. "So back on Earth, we have these people who—"

"I've been visiting the human realm since I was younger than you," Eda interrupted. "Heck, I even married a human in Las Vegas once, mostly to steal his car. Anyway, I know what a superhero is."

Luz blinked. "I'm going to want the full story later. Anyway, it was like being a superhero and a big thing with superheroes is being responsible with your powers." Luz ignited her hand in darkness again. "I couldn't do this until I came here, it'd be pretty irresponsible to go home before I knew what it was and how it worked. And, well, I've... always wanted to be a witch."

"Humans can't be witches, Luz."

"Bologna, there are plenty of humans with magic," Luz insisted. "Doctor Strange, Sister Grimm, Magik.."

"Those are sorcerers," Eda countered. "Even that chick in red who calls herself a witch isn't a real witch. A human can't just learn what we do."

"Well, maybe no humans have tried hard enough," Luz insisted.

Eda blinked. "What's the real reason you wanna stay?"

Luz looked away. "I don't... I don't fit in back home. If it wasn't for my Mom I'd probably have run away a long time ago. This was, the most... You guys don't fit in here, so I thought, maybe...?"

King jumped up on Luz's shoulder. "Still here? Reconsidering my offer to join my army? I'll make you a major general," he sang.

Luz beamed up at him. "A major general?"

"Yes yes," King confirmed, "a major general!"

"I'm gonna have to work on my patter songs."

"I have no idea what that means," King replied cheerfully, before turning to Eda with wide eyes. "Eda, can we keep her, please?"

"Yeah, please?" Luz added with her own puppy dog eyes.

Eda rolled her eyes. "Fine," she foux-whined. "You can stay, but if you want to be my apprentice you're going to have to work for me first."

"Deal!" Luz declared before rushing Eda and pulling her into a bear hug, much to the witch's clear discomfort.

Chapter Text

Eda happily hung up her apprentice's first wanted poster right next to her current one. It hadn't even been a full week yet but Luz had clearly been paying attention and learning a lot.

...Okay, technically it was just a poster showing she'd been banned from the grounds of Hexside, but in some ways that was even better. Eda knew that Luz was too smart and talented for that indoctrination center and they must have kicked her when they realized that they'd never be able to break her.

This called for a celebration: She'd teach Luz how to crack safes tonight.

Speaking of her apprentice, Luz was sitting at the kitchen table contemplatively. It was weird, Luz was normally a little ball of energy... Unless she'd drunk bitter bean blood recently, which even with the disgusting amount of sugar the girl added seemed to help her focus better for a bit. That was weird, too.

Back on topic, it was honestly a bit unsettling to see Luz so quiet, so Eda slid up to her: "Snail for your thoughts?"

"Oh, it's nothing important," Luz insisted.

"You didn't fall for another con while you were out, did you?" Eda asked.

"No," Luz said quickly. "Totally learned my lesson about weird old men in bath robes with pockets full of glitter the other day."

"Well then what's eating you?"

"It's really not important."

"Luz," Eda insisted, "I've gotten very used to you running around like a hyperactive... hyperactive thing. This is the longest I've had to go without stopping you from putting your face in something magic since you got here and if we're being honest, seeing you sit this still for this long is a bit creepy."

"I'll have you know that I'm perfectly capable of sitting still," Luz insisted in mock offense. "I can even get woodland critters to come and sit on me."

Eda sighed. "If you tell me, I'll tell you the story of my trip to Las Vegas."

Luz's eyes narrowed. "You first."

Eda rolled her eyes and recounted the tale, finishing with "And that's why I can never go to Oregon. Your turn."

Luz took a deep breath. "So there's this girl..."

"Oooh," Eda teased. "Got a crush?"

"What? No!" Luz denied. "It's just... Wait, would you have a, you know, a problem if I did?" Eda seemed cool but they'd only just met and a lot of people seemed cool until you brought up a certain topic. If Eda was gonna broch it first, Luz might as well get confirmation.

"Why would....? Oh, right," Eda began in confusion before clarity struck. "Humans have that whole thing where some people can't mind their own business. Nobody in the demon realm cares about your dating preferences. We don't even have words for that kind of thing here."

"So someone who likes boys and girls...?" Luz began.

"Is just someone who likes boys and girls," Eda confirmed. "There's no special word for it here because it's too normal for anyone to care to come up with one."

"Huh."

"Now, what is it about this girl?"

"So her name is Amity. I first saw her when she was picking on Willow—"

"The chubby, muscular kid?"

"Yeah, her," Luz confirmed. "This Amity girl was picking on her and at first I thought she was just a Mean Girl but... While I was pretending an abomination for Willow, I got that weird anxious feeling back and—"

"And that wasn't the first thing you felt like sharing?" Eda asked incredulously. "That weird sensation is the only clue we have for what your weird dark aura powers are and... Ooh, that reminds me, I managed to get a healer to run some tests for you under the table."

"Tests?"

"If you're so certain that your shadow aura thing isn't a 'mutant' power," Eda began, "then you need to figure out what it is. Going by your theory that it's got something to do with coming to the Isles... Well, Magic for witches and demons is what we are. It's our flesh, blood, bones, and bile—especially bile," Eda explained. "So if your powers are related to our magic, a bit of routine blood work should clear things up."

"Okay then." Mentally, Luz decided not to ask if a demon realm medical expert would know enough about humans to tell what was normal and what wasn't. "So it only lasted for like a minute this time, and when it was done I had this like... Weird tingly sensation at the back of my neck, like.. Like I was aware of all the people around me. And uh... Amity acted really angry about losing her top student badge to Willow. She even jumped on a table like a demented teal Spider-Man, but... I just get the feeling that she wasn't really angry. It felt like she was confused, scared, disappointed, and a little sad."

Eda snorted. "Luz, some kids are so brainwashed by schools that they stake their whole life on how well they performed, or what their social life was back then, or whatever... Don't you humans have a phrase, 'peaked in high school?' or the like? This Amity girl is probably just some prissy pants grade grubber who just realized that all of her accomplishments in school are completely meaningless and had a personal crisis at the thought that she wasted her time regurgitating facts instead of learning practical skills or having an actual life."

"I don't know," Luz countered, "she definitely had the 'popular mean girl' attitude."

"Maybe she's just a mess?" Eda suggested, "What did you say her name was again?"

"Amity," Luz repeated, "Amity Blight."

"Blight?" Eda asked. "Did this kid have green or brown hair?"

"Both. Why?"

"Uh, no wonder the kid's messed up," Eda replied. "I went to school with her parents, before I wised up and left. Alador was scatterbrained as heck and Odalia's more of a control freak than Emporer Belos." The pale witch shrugged. "Any kids they have are either trouble makers or a ticking time bomb of neuroses. No middle ground."

Luz sighed but didn't respond.

"...You're already planning to try and befriend her, aren't you?"

Luz did not answer. Eda was about to pour herself an apple blood and start explaining why that was a bad idea when the front door crashed open and Hooty stretched his way into the kitchen declaring "Company!"

Shortly afterward, Hooty's conspiracy theorist friend Tinella 'Tiny Nose' Nosa walked in carrying an alligator purse. "Doctow Nosa wepowting fow duty!"

Luz blinked. "She's the healer?"

"I gwaduated medical school," Tiny Nose replied, somewhat offended.

"Yeah, but you also think that the world is a triangle," Luz countered.

"And?"

"I mean, back where I'm from most conspiracy theorists are sort of, uh... Not down with modern medical science."

Tiny Nose glared. "Don't you dawe lump me in with the anti-poshews," she said quite strongly. "Those people are cwazy."

"Tell me about it," Eda agreed before turning to Luz. "Look, kid, do you have any idea how hard it is to find a good, trustworthy back alley doctor? She's willing to do this for free since you helped her escape the Conformatorium and this is our best bet for figuring out what the deal with your powers is."

"Fine," Luz agreed. "Sorry uh, Dr. Nosa."

"It's okay," the tiny demon replied before opening her purse and pulling out a very, very big needle. "Now let's get those blood samples."

"I immediately regret this," Luz said quickly, then gulped as she held out an arm.

Ten minutes later, Luz was lying on the couch sucking a jug of something that managed to be both sweet and bitter through a straw, Tiny Nose having appropriated the kitchen table for tests after dividing Luz's blood samples across several vials.

"Sorry about that, Luz," Eda said, "I didn't know that humans needed that much of their blood."

"Has anyone told you that your voice sounds like a sassy grandma?" Luz muttered deliriously.

"I'll try not to take that personally," Eda replied dryly. "You feeling better?"

"A little," Luz admitted. "...What am I drinking?"

"...I'll tell you when you finish it," Eda answered in a tone that suggested that Luz wouldn't like the answer.

"So I've been meaning to ask," Luz began, "you talk about witches and demons... So are witches not demons?"

Eda raised a hand and rocked it non-committally. "There are some pretty big differences between witches and biped demons, who are... Well, the ones who have the biped body plan. Witches and biped demons have the same magic, but witches have much more... you know, take any two random witches and they'll look more like each other than any two random biped demons. There are differences in hair and skin and stuff, and you'll occasionally get say, someone with purple skin or a third eye, but witches mostly look all the same. We also have some things that no species of demon does, and there are some universal demon traits that witches don't have."

"Huh," was Luz's initial response. "So if you're not demons then what are you?"

"There are a couple of different theories," Eda began, "the one I like is that tens of thousands of years ago, enough humans for a stable population ended up here in temporary portals and the ones who could best stomach the food in the demon realm survived and adapted to it over time and occasionally interbred with the more human-like biped demons. There are too many similarities between witches and humans for us to be completely unrelated and the oddities you sometimes see in witches could be throwbacks to biped demon ancestors. Also," she finished, "the Emporer's coven really hates this theory and tries to suppress it so that'd get it my vote even if it didn't make sense."

"Cool," Luz answered. "So you're like... Atlanteans. Or Inhumans... Never got why they'd want to be called that... Where's King?"

Eda laughed.  "If you'd look down, you'll see that he crawled on top of you and fell asleep eight minutes ago."

Luz looked down and there he was, the King of Demons in his adorable, fluffy glory just curled up snoozing. "So he did... Seriously, what am I drinking?"

"If I tell you you won't want to finish it."

"Ee~daa?" Luz whined.

"Look, it helps with blood loss and it's safe for humans, just finish it."

Luz manifested a visage most grumpy, but dutifully slurped up the last of the concoction.

However, before Luz could demand answers Tiny Nose walked into the living room "The wesults awe back. Luz the human, youw blood tested positive fow puwe evil."

Luz sat up, causing King to fall off of her with a "weh!" and looked at the small biped.

"You're gonna have to walk me through that."

"Fwom your blood I extracted a substance that defied all conventional wules of mattew and enewgy, as if it was both and neithew," Tiny Nose explained, "extensive testing confiwed that it was anti-thetical to life and magic, as if meant to cowwupt and consume both. My pweliminawy theowy is that you wewe somehow combined with an organism composed of this substance at the genetic level and its traits laid dormant in your genome until you entewed the Boiling Isles and pwoximity to abundant ambient magic twiggewed these latent twaits to manifest. I then destwoyed the sample with fiwe, as it is much too dangewous to leave awound." She then reached into her bag and pulled out ten snails. "This should covew the damages to youw kitchen table, Ms. Eda."

"Huh, neat," was Eda's response. "Thank's for your time, Tiny."

"Anything for fwiends," the tiny demon replied happily before making her way out of the Owl House.

Once she was gone, Eda facepalmed. "Okay, you were right. I'll try to find someone who isn't a conspiracy theorist to run the tests again."

"If I'm gonna have to give that much blood again I'd rather not," Luz replied apprehensive.

"Suit yourself," Eda replied, "Now if you're feeling up to it I wanna teach you something cool."

Chapter Text

The last few days had been a mixed bag for Eda.

On the one hand, the kids knew about her curse now, which was good in some ways and bad in others all in and of itself. The truth was, she should have been honest about it and how it meant that she just didn't have the energy some days, on the other hand... The reminders to check that she has her Elixir every day, while appreciated at first, got old fast. Yeah, the kid's hearts were in the right place but she'd been dealing with this for 30 years and really didn't need more than the occasional reminder.

On a solely positive note, Luz had managed to figure out a way of working magic that Eda had never even heard of, using drawn glyphs, by copying a symbol that couldn't have been in the circle of Eda's own light spell for more than a few seconds. The kid wasn't a witch yet, just a hedge sorcerer, but she was closer than any other human had ever come as far as Eda knew.

So all in all things were a net positive... Until today. Nobody was in the Bonesborough market today because of a covention. A covention that she'd been dragged to on pain of listening to Luz and King read aloud from those Titan-awful novels Luz likes. Seriously, those things were targeted toward kids ages six to eleven, how many kids that age even understood prose like that?

Now, it hadn't been that bad, Luz was too smart to get brainwashed into joining any of those cults and was just enjoying watching all of the different kinds of magic on display, but the constant sassing by her friend... Glasses and the sturdily built girl and Luz's other friend... Goops hyping up the Coven system was getting on her nerves.

...Eda made a note to try and memorize their actual names later.

Then someone recognized her from her wanted posters just as she was trying to leave and she was forced to duck into a presentation for the Emporer's Coven with her goody two shoes Lilith, head stooge of the Emporer's lapdogs... Who recognized her when she tried to sneak out for a second time and insulted her in front of a bunch of children who were trying to get her autograph. Two could play at that game.

"You know kids," she said while sliding up to her sister, "when Lilly was around your age she got so excited to meet the Emporer's Coven that she peed herself."

This sparked a fit of laughter among the children and a glare from Lilith. "Laugh all you want, Edalyn, but while you petulantly defy the coven system and peddle trash for a living, I have the privilege of enforcing the laws of the land and mentoring the next generation of great witches."

"I'll have you know that I've taken an apprentice and I'd put good money on her wiping the floor with any of yours!" Eda insisted. Okay, maybe it wasn't right to put Luz on the spot like that, but what were the odds that anything would ever come of it?

"Eda!" Oh no. "Eda, Eda!" Luz called out as she popped up next to the Clawthorne sisters, having run to Eda so fast that she might as well have teleported. "I bumped into Amity again and she was being mean and got really really angry when I said I was training to be a witch and then she stomped on King's cupcake so I lost my temper and challenged her to a witch's duel and then she did some kinda everlasting oath thingy that means if I lose I have to give up learning magic forever, help!"

Both Clawthorne sisters blinked. "Did... Did your apprentice breathe at all while saying that?"

"Luz, did you agree to a time for the duel?" Eda asked, ignoring Lilith.

"Like, in an hour."

Eda face palmed. Looks like they were doing this.

"Wait," Lilith began. "Did you say 'Amity?' As in, Amity Blight? My star student?" Well, this just kept getting better. "It seems that you'll have the chance to put your money where your mouth is after all, Edalyn." Lilith worked an overly flashy spell that burned away all of Eda's wanted posters... At least the ones she could see right now, if her framed poster at home was gone Eda would be mightily ticked. "For one day, you aren't a fugitive. Use it well, I expect to see your student at her bes—"

"Really, Lilith?" came a young-sounding masculine voice.

The unlikely trio turned to see a golden-armored figure and a white hooded cape, holding a mechanical staff. Lilith grumbled as if she'd just stepped on a rake.

Luz was the first to recover. "Uh, who's shiny teenage Darth Vader over there?"

"The Golden Guard," Lilith explained bitterly. "A teenage prodigy whom the Emporer gives preferential treatment."

"That's a weird way to say 'The Emporer's right-hand man,' Lilith," the so-named Golden Guard quipped back.

"Why are you here?" Lilith seethed.

"Rumor has it that the Owl Lady has a pet human," The Golden Guard explained. "When one of your scouts reported back that she'd been spotted at the covention, accompanied by a kid with round ears, well, Emporer Belos was curious and sent me to investigate." Eda immediately drew her staff and moved to make sure she was in between Luz and The Golden Guard, but the Guard simply raised a hand. "Relax Owl Lady, my mission is just to observe, not interfere. At least for now. So that's all I'll do... That, and judge Lilith's decisions. It might be within your authority to suspend an arrest warrant but this is pretty petty."

Lilith stood firm and pouted. "The human is obligated by an Everlasting Oath to duel my protege. It would be unsporting to make her do it without the support of her own mentor," she justified. Eda snorted.

"Fair enough," the Golden Guard agreed. "Ooh, brainstorm," he continued, "I need to observe the human and it'd be a real shame if something happened to her given how interested the Emporer is, so how about I step in and play referee? Why am I asking, it's not like your compliance is a factor. Human, name?"

"...Luz," the human replied hesitantly.

"Luz the human? Well, you'd best use your prep time wisely. Byyyeeee!" He said with a wave as he walked off.

"He says bye the same way you do," Luz observed to Eda.

Eda responded by grabbing Luz by the shoulders and marching her to as close to somewhere private as they could get.

"Okay, with Golden Boy keeping an eye on things it's gonna be really hard to cheat," Eda began as she reached into her hair to draw out her box of special tricks, only for Luz to protest.

"I don't think we should cheat anyway," she said nervously and began stamped feet for a moment. "She got... really upset at the idea of cheating and she's already super mad. Right now I think she just wants to humiliate me but she did try to have me dissected that one time so, you know, if I make her any madder she might just try to kill me dead."

Eda blinked. "She tried to have you dissected?"

"Did I not tell you that?"

"No, you didn't. Okay, change of plans, if you're going to do this," Eda gagged, "'fair and square' then... You haven't had any new powers come in have you?"

"No, just the shadow aura and the uh... I've settled on ESP. It's a little generic but, what else am I gonna call 'vaguely sense people and if they're having a strong emotion?' I mean, I don't think there's a specific word for that."

"And you haven't discovered any more glyphs?"

Luz shook her head.

"So you're going into a witch's duel with an aura that makes you physically a little faster and stronger... And the most basic spell on the Isles, that has no practical combat use." Eda started rubbing her temples, she was going to need the well-aged apple blood when she got home. "You sure you don't want to cheat?" she asked while shaking her box of tricks.

"Eda, I will be upset if I have to give up learning magic," Luz began in a tone that indicated that this was the understatement of the millennium, "but I can live with it. I can't live with dead. Besdes, if I had to cheat to win then did I really win?"

That was a dumb question but Eda didn't have the heart to call her on it. "Okay, suit yourself... So Baby Blight's an Abomination track student, she's almost certainly going to conjure an abomination. At her age it'll be pretty generic and smaller and weaker than the ones you make manually so you should be able to run circles around it. With your skill set your best bet is going to be to ignore it completely and punch her in the face."

"That seems kind of mean," Luz observed.

"So's trying to have you dissected," Eda quipped back.

"You don't have any other advice?"

"No, not really," Eda shrugged. "Whatever your shadow powers are, they're nothing like any magic I know so I can't teach you any combat spells real quick and it's not like using your glyph with your hand all shadowy is gonna do anything cool..."

Eda trailed off as she and Luz both realized that they hadn't actually tried that.

Quickly, Luz drew out her notebook and sketched out the light glyph on a page before tearing it out and setting it on the ground. She darkened up her hand real good, then activated the glyph.

The Glyph proceeded to explode in a burst of blue and purple light, leaving a scorch on the ground.

"This," Eda said with pride, "is something we can work with..."

Luz stood, nervously, on one side of the sandy arena that made up the auditorium that had hosted the Emporer's Coven demonstration earlier. After a bit of experimentation and a lot of predawn light glyphs, Eda was convinced that Luz had good odds but... It wasn't like Luz was looking forward to fighting someone.

Luckily, Amity's anger seemed to have cooled. She stood opposite Luz looking smug, but Luz could only sense her general presence, not any particularly strong emotions, so this might not go horribly if things go wrong.

"Lady and gentlemen, witchlings of all ages," The Golden Guard declared from a stage at one end of the circular arena, "The star student of the Emporer's Coven's own head witch Lilith Clawthorne and the human apprentice of the infamous wild witch, the Owl Lady Eda Clawthorne—"

"You two are related!?" Luz couldn't help but blurt out, interrupting the presentation.

"...Yes, well anyway," the Golden Guard continued, "these two seem to have something of a grudge and... And I forgot my speech... Amity Blight, Luz the human, just... Just start."

Amity made the first move, drawing an orchid spell circle which caused a similar circle to appear on the ground. "Abomination, rise!" She declared and...

...Luz took a moment to glare at Eda as the absolutely massive slime golem emerged from the ground, easily two or three times the size of the ones Luz had seen when she snuck into Hexside. Smaller her foot and... Wait, what was that feeling she got from Amity? Surprise?

"Abomination, attack!"

The good news was that something that big was rather lumbering, all of its speed came from big steps so it was pretty easy to outrun.

The bad news was that it could rip its head off and throw it at her as a ranged attack, so there was a lot of dodging in addition to running.

But, she had an idea. As she fled the giant, stompy, head-tossing goo thing she dropped a few of her pre-drawn Light glyphs so that the abomination would step on them and they'd get stuck to its feet.

Pre-drawn glyphs that she drew while her shadow aura was formed on her hands, mind you.

"Is that all you can do? Run away?" Amity mocked.

"Better than dying," Luz quipped back. But still, the green-haired girl had a point, she would need to get a whole lot more glyphs to get this to work on an abomination this big, and dropping them to step on wasn't gonna get enough on it any time soon.

As she dodged the abomination's ever-regenerating head for hopefully the last time, she reached into her pockets to make sure that she had all of her light glyphs, then turned to face the slimy construct. Manifesting her aura around her legs, she charged the abomination down. As she got close, the purple giant raised a fist but before it could bring it down on her, Luz put all of her strength into her legs and jumped.

With her power enhancing her legs, she was easily able to clear the abomination's height and as she arced over it she deliberately dropped all of her glyphs, allowing them to rain down onto the abomination and stick to the muck that composed its form.

Unfortunately, Luz's aura enhanced her strength and speed, but not her agility. She managed to land on her feet, but Luz stumbled for about five steps before she could completely stop and her leg felt a little like rubber afterward.

"Okay, I'll admit it," Amity said, "That was pretty cool human, but it's gonna take a lot more than confetti to beat my abomination."

...Did someone just call her cool? Her, Luz Noceda? Cool? There was no way she wasn't gonna follow up on that by pairing her finisher with the coolest thing she could think of.

She turned to face Amity, cleared her throat, and began: "Do not underestimate me, Amity Blight..."

Amity's eyes went wide, "No."

"...For I am Luz the Human..."

"No..."

"Warrior of peace!"

"Don't you dare!"

Luz formed her aura around her hands as she finished "NOW EAT THIS, SUCKA!" She then clapped her shadowed hands together, remote detonating her pre-charged Light Glyphs all at once and blasting the abomination apart in the process in a flash of dark light.

A split-second later, Amity doubled over with a pained moan and clutched at her chest and all of the accumulated adrenaline of the past few minutes was flushed from Luz's body.

"Oh my gosh Amity are you okay I didn't know it would do that I'm so sorry if you're alright please say something," Luz said in one breath.

Luz didn't need her ESP to know that Amity was mad. The murderous rage in her eyes said that pretty well. She leaned up and tried to draw a spell circle but her hand was too shakey and it fizzled out.

She let out an angry grunt and tried again, but the Golden Guard jumped in and grabbed her wrist. "Stand down Blight, the duel is over."

"What!? Why?"

"Well for one you're dead on your feet while the Human still looks pretty fresh," he said like he was explaining the color of the sky to a child. Luz fought the urge to point out that she was out of glyphs. "And for two," he reached around and pulled a slip of paper off the back of her neck, and Amity's leg buckled. "Unauthorized use of a construction coven power glyph," he explained as the crowd that had assembled to watch gasped. "You came in wearing this baby and the potent construction magic inside pumped up your everything. I'm afraid to say it kid, but you're disqualified. The human wins."

"Go, Luz! Now finish her!" came King's voice from up in the seats.

Luz had no intention of doing that, both because the duel was over and because... The second the Golden Guard pulled the power glyph off of her, Amity's strong emotions shifted from pure rage to a mixture of shame and confusion and Luz wasn't the type to kick someone when they were down.

"I, I didn't," the green-haired girl began. "I didn't know, I... Don't know where that came from." And there came the panic, Amity started tugging at the hem of her school uniform as she began looking around.

Meanwhile, Eda walked up next to Luz, laughing like a mad woman, and threw her arm over Luz's shoulders. "I can't believe it," she managed to cough out in between hysterical peals, "Luz I've gotta thank you. his wouldn't be anywhere near as funny if you hadn't insisted on taking the high road."

"Eda, please stop laughing," Luz asked. Right no, she only had eyes for her rival who at this point seemed to be looking for a place to hide.

"I can't help it," Eda said though to her credit she seemed to be trying to stifle it. "Don't you see what happened? My goody two-shoes sister Lily cheated. The one time I play things fair and square is the time she stoops down to my level."

"I only did it because I thought you'd cheat!" Lilith shouted from where she stood.

Lilith's confession prompted a wide-eyed stare from Amity.

"But that's the fun part! I didn't!" Eda insisted. She then lost her fight to restrain her laughter. "I was going to, but my apprentice insisted on fighting fair because of how upset Baby Blight gets when people cheat. Everything she just did was all her," Eda kept laughing for a moment, "which means that not only is Luz a better witch than your star student, but she respects her more than you do! This has been the best day ever. Luz when we get home I'm breaking out the good apple blood and teaching you how to pick locks."

Luz didn't respond to that, she was too focused on Amity as she fled from the arena. Without a word, she ran after the other girl. This wasn't right.

Chapter Text

Luz wasn't sure what exactly blowing up Amity's abomination with her shadow-charged (corrupted?) light glyphs had done to the poor witch but Amity hadn't exactly run that fast or far and between that and the tingle at the back of her neck that was pointing her in the direction of sadness, shame, anger and like, also anger but directed inward, Luz wasn't sure what to call that emotion... Anyway, it wasn't hard to find the green and brown-haired witch.

Luz almost wished she hadn't. She wasn't the best with social cues and stuff but she very much got the feeling that Amity probably didn't want anyone to see her like this, sitting in the fetal position, back against a wall, clearly fighting back tears and of particular concern, Luz felt, she was biting down on the back of her own hand.

Luz approached slowly, not wanting to startle her, but Amity must have seen her out of the corner of her eye or something. She turned away from Luz and choked out, "Come to gloat?"

"No, I—"

"You can be a witch," Amity said, not letting Luz finish.

"What?"

This prompted the other girl to turn around and stare in disbelief. "It was one of the terms of the duel, I have to admit that you can be a witch. We formed an everlasting oath and everything... Am I really so insignificant that you'd forget that?" Amity asked, her voice shaking.

"No, it's just... That's not important right now," Luz tried to deflect. "What's important right now is—"

"Of course it's important!" Amity shouted. "My whole life for as long as I can remember has been nothing but working myself to the bone in order to be the best, then here comes Luz the human, talking about how she's training to become a witch as if it's oh so easy and turns out she's right!" Amity lost her battle to restrain her tears at this point. "If that had been a fair fight I wouldn't have stood a chance and even with... How did? What... Humans don't have any innate magical talent," Amity declared, "you have to have bargained with some spirit or something. Who was it, what was it!?"

"I didn't make any bargains," Luz defended. "I didn't really have any powers until I got here, I swear."

"Don't lie to me!"

"I'm not! Look," Luz sat down next to Amity and pulled out her notepad before drawing the light glyph. She then tore it from the pad and slid it over to Amity. "I found this while looking through a recording of Eda casting a light spell. Just, give it a touch." Amity seemed hesitant. "It won't explode, I promise." Reluctantly, Amity tapped the glyph with one and quickly withdrew her hand as it activated.

The slip of paper folded into itself and became a ball of light, just like normal when the light glyph was used.

"Eda thinks I might have stumbled into some older way of using magic, like ancient witches used. Figuring out how it works has... Well, that's my only spell so far."

"Then what was the other stuff?" Amity asked incredulously.

"I have no idea!" Luz declared. "As soon as I got here I got this weird anxious feeling all over my body and then when I was trying to lift a lever that was too heavy for my weak nerd arms suddenly URAAAHHH!!" she finished while thrusting her arms up. "Shadow aura. A few days later, it happens again, and boom, emotion sensing. Today we learned it makes glyphs explode. No idea what it is, Eda had a doctor do some blood work for me, apparently I tested positive for pure evil but..."

As Luz trailed off, things got silent... Until Amity laughed. It was just a brief thing, but it was better than crying or biting herself.

"I'm sorry, I guess I might have... Made the wrong assumption earlier," Amity admitted. "Every so often we get stories of so-called sorcerers in the human realm getting the power to use magic just given to them by some spirit or by doing something unwholesome and..."

"And you thought I was one of those?" Luz finished. "Maybe... Maybe I should have thought harder about how someone who was born a witch and spent so much time training their magic might react to a human saying that they're trying to become a witch... I could feel how angry you were, I should have—"

"No, it's fine. I shouldn't have crushed your friend's cupcake."

"And um... I'm sorry too," Luz began. "I didn't want you to be... Didn't want to hurt you, either, I didn't know that using the glyphs like that on... Are you okay?" She asked while tapping her chest with her knuckles to illustrate what exactly she meant when asking.

"Whatever that was," Amity began, "it felt like I was punched in the bile sack and now I feel like I've used up all my magic."

"I am never doing that again," Luz declared, apologetically. "I thought it was just an explosive, not..."

"It's fine..."

"No, it's not," Luz insisted. "I never should have challenged you to that stupid duel in the first place."

"I never should have accepted and I shouldn't have cast the Everlasting Oath," Amity countered.

"But like, I've never had friends before coming to the demon realm, I'm used to people picking on me but I just got so mad—"

"I just get really competitive about being right or the best... You know it turns out the Top Student isn't even an official thing, it's just something that Professor Hermunculous did—"

"And when I get going I kind of just sort of eh and don't really think things through, I'm too impulsive, and—"

"I got so aggressive and freaked out over basically nothing... Yeah, I was sort of disappointed and angry that Willow stooped to cheating, but—"

"I just get too obsessive and stupid sometimes!" both girls finished together.

Neither of them looked at each other for a few moments.

"So... Is there a way to undo the Everlasting Oath?" Luz asked.

"Yeah, but... Why?"

"This shouldn't have... It sounds like we both just sort of got caught up in the heat of the moment, so you shouldn't have to be... Magically compelled to agree that humans can be witches if you feel so strongly about how sorcerers gain their power." Luz explained. "And to be fair, now that I think about it from a witch's perspective it does sort of feel like cheating."

"If... I cast the spell again, or someone else cast it for us, and we shook hands in the spell circle and you, as the winner of the duel, agreed that the oath be undone, then it would be," Amity explained. "But.. I can't cast right now and... Why are you being so nice?"

Luz blinked. "What do you mean?"

"I was taught that everything was an opportunity and that everyone had an angle to work," Amity explained while avoiding eye contact. "But... I can't see what you get out of this."

"Maybe I just want to be nice?" Luz replied rhetorically "But if that's how you feel then why are you being so... Open with me?"

Amity looked away again. "I hate showing weakness but you've already seen me throwing a tantrum so the damage is done."

Well, wasn't that a red flag? "Amity... That didn't look like a tantrum."

"I had a fit when I didn't get my way," Amity countered with a blush. "What else would it be?"

"I mean, you trusted Lilith right?" Luz started. "And then she did... That? If you're her star student she should have known exactly how you'd feel about cheating but she still... How did she even get that thing on you without you noticing?"

Amity looked down. "...She hugged me."

"Hmm?"

"Just before the duel, she told me that she was proud of me," Amity began, "and that I was her best student, and that she knew I could beat you, and that I had nothing to prove, and then... My whole life I've been working hard to be the best but it never felt like it was good enough." Luz tried not to focus on how uncomfortably familiar that sounded. "And... We weren't exactly close, Lilith and I, she was just my teacher but she sounded so... Like she meant it. And then she hugged me. She'd never done that before... Nobody had ever..."

"You've never been hugged!?" Luz asked, incredulously. "Like, not even by your parents?"

"Not like that," Amity clarified, "at least, not for as long as I can remember. But... That's when she must have done it, and..."

"...Would you like a hug now?" Luz asked awkwardly.

"From you?"

"Yeah, that was weird to offer" Luz admitted.

"No, it was..." Amity began awkwardly. "Anyway, even... even if I have a right to be upset I should have kept my composure better."

"Who told you that?" When Amity didn't answer Luz's question, she decided to change the subject. "Wanna hear one of my embarrassing stories?"

"What?"

"I mean, you sort of... It's only fair..."

"I mean... If you want to..." Amity agreed.

"So about a year and a half ago, so halfway through my last year of middle school, my school had a field trip to a museum and I was excited because there was an exhibit on, well, magic stuff," Luz began. "I uh... I've always wanted to be a witch, which... Probably sounds pretty bad to you..."

"It's fine."

"I was especially excited because the museum had replicas of rare artifacts like the Eye of Agamotto and the Wand of Watoomb."

"I don't know what those are," Amity interjected.

"I'll explain later," Luz dismissed, "anyway, uh... This was a public museum, so my class weren't the only people there, and uh... I might have gotten a little too excited... This older woman was there and she apparently didn't know that the magic artifacts were replicas and thought I was a teenage supervillain plotting to steal them."

Amity blinked. "That is the stupidest thing I ever heard... What's a supervillain?"

"Someone who uses superpowers to commit crimes in a flashy costume," Luz explained, "usually with a gimmick. The costume and gimmick are important, presentation is what makes them super, not superpowers. And uh... It might not have been as stupid as you think, because I was in handcuffs by the time someone took a good look at the situation and realized how silly it was."

"That's just... That's not fair," was all Amity could say.

"That's what my mom said," Luz replied, "along with a whole bunch of words that I'm not allowed to repeat. But I guess the school thought differently. They made me get tested for a whole bunch of stuff, to see if there was an 'explanation for my behavior' or 'mitigating circumstances' or the like and they threatened to kick me out if I didn't."

"Anyway, that's how I was diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder and 'High Functioning' Autism Spectrum Disorder," Luz finished, "which would have been a good thing if there were any resources for that kind of thing where I live. They wanted to give me medication to help me focus better but the the drugs for that are pretty harsh and after talking it over my mom and I agreed that it might be better to try and manage it on my own first. You know, make sure I need it before going on that stuff. Some people do need it, but... You know, it can be a little scary to think about."

"I'm sorry," Amity said quietly.

"It's fine," Luz replied with surprising cheer given how serious the topic at hand was. "Coffee helps. Black as night, and with lots of sugar."

"No, I mean I'm sorry that something like that happened to you," Amity clarified, "and that your school assumed that you were the problem, and that when you actually did have problems you couldn't get help."

"I mean, they're not problem problems," Luz corrected. "They might be called disorders but there's not really anything wrong with me, I'm just built differently. It can be hard sometimes but I've done some research on it and I know how to manage... Most of the time."

"...What's it like?"

"So I'm simplifying here, but ADHD is like... Like my thoughts are going a bit too fast. I get a little excited and it can be hard to focus on only one thing unless it's something I'm really interested in and then I focus on only that which can be a bit of a problem when I have homework that needs doing but I then I start thinking about something I want to draw or something like that. Autism is... complicated."

"Complicated how?"

"Well, everyone with it is different," Luz explained, "it's mostly about communication. I mostly just... Don't nessesarily know where the lines are, socially, but a lot of people get exhausted just talking to people because of how hard it is to understand other people and some people just flat-out can't talk. Some people aren't good with expressions like, in the human world we have the phrase 'off your rocker' which means that someone is you know, crazy, but someone with autism who isn't familiar with the phrase might assume that they're talking about an actual rocking chair. You following me?"

"I think," Amity replied.

"But then there's a bunch of other stuff that someone with autism may or may not have. I don't really have sensory issues but a lot of people on the Autism spectrum react poorly to loud noises or bright lights, or certain smells or flavors or are just really picky about food."

"So... Would someone on this... Spectrum maybe like the taste of skullapeño peppers but having an actual piece of one in their mouth makes their skin crawl?" Amity asked.

"Yeah!" Luz replied. "Or like, apparently some people can't eat meat off a bone because eating that way makes their faces feel greasy and icky but again, don't really have issues like that. Again, everyone is a little different. Another thing is stimming."

"What's that?"

"It's auh, like, stimulating your senses by like uh... The stereotype is flapping your hands but there are a lot of different ways to do it," Luz started, "like, it's not just an autism thing, lots of people do stuff like this but it could be fidgeting with something or the like. With autism, it usually happens when you're anxious or excited. I usually stamp my feet and I don't always notice I'm doing it at first but it could really be anything."

Amity hummed and tugged on the hem of her school uniform.

"Another big thing is... Hyperfocusing, which kind of overlaps with ADHD for me... If I like something, I really like it. If it's important to me, it's very important. It sort of ends up being my whole life for a while. Or forever," Luz admitted. "It's also pretty common for interest to be uh, above or below your age demographic."

"...Like a teenager liking a flowery fantasy novel with convoluted backstories aimed at ages six to eleven that no one else she talks to about it seems to like or even know about?" Amity asked with an awkward smile.

"Yeah! Wait," Luz said as the gears turned in her head. "You have Azura in the demon realm?"

"I'm surprised you have it in the human realm," Amity admitted. "So, if you didn't know... Just to be clear, you weren't... Trying to make fun of me when you paraphrased the defeat of the gildersnake, were you?"

"Of course not!" Luz declared with a bit of panic. "You... You just said I was kind of cool, I had to follow that up and... Oh, that's why you got so angry after I...?"

"Yeah, sorry," Amity apologized. "Is there anything else that's important?"

"There's a lot of stuff, and not everyone has everything, but the last big one is... Meltdowns."

"That doesn't sound good."

"It's when you get overwhelmed with emotion, or in a stressful situation, and it all sort of comes out at once whether you like it or not," Luz finished. "I haven't really ever had to deal with that one either but..."

"Like losing your head about a stupid badge and getting violent?" Amity asked. "Or... breaking down crying with your back against a wall when you find out that your mentor has no faith in your abilities and you were just humiliated in public?"

"The biting your hand bit was a bit of a tip-off, too. Sorry, I didn't want to assume, but..." Luz said with a grimace.

"It's fine... When I was younger, after a routine checkup at the healing coven the healer talked to my mom about taking me to see a mind healer but mom just called him a quack and changed caregivers," Amity said with a shrug. "I'm just... a lot of what you just said sounds and feels familiar."

"So I'm not a psychiatrist," Luz said quickly, "I can't diagnose you but..."

"Just knowing that it might be something that has a name instead of just being... Weird," Amity began.... "I'll take that hug now if you're still offering."

Luz threw her arms open, "Always!"

Amity leaned in. "It's weird, I... This morning if you told me this was how I'd be spending my day I wouldn't but... I don't know, I just have this strange feeling that I can trust you, and the more you talk the safer I feel with you... That probably sounds crazy."

"Hey," Luz said as she embraced the green-haired witch, "I'm perfectly cool with crazy."

Both girls were suddenly startled by a declaration "There you are!"

They jumped apart and turned to see Eda standing over them, an overdressed King carrying multiple tote bags waddling behind her.

"Luz, we need to get out of here. Sort of got into a duel with my sister after you and Baby Blight ran off, long story short we have maybe five minutes before she managed to unglue her feet from the arena floor and... Wait, are you two friends now?" Eda asked changing tracks.

"I don't know," Amity said, "are we?"

"I mean, I'm not gonna say no to more friends," Luz said proudly as she turned to Amity, "so if you want to be—Amity your nose is bleeding!"

The young witch lifted a finger to her upper lip and felt the hot, red fluid pooling above it. Pulling her hand away to look at her blood-stained finger, her only response was "I should probably head to the Healing Coven's tent. Luz, I'll see you around."

Amity started to walk off before stopping and turning to the diminutive demon buried under a pile of swag. "King was it?" She began, "I owe you an apology. I shouldn't have crushed your cupcake."

"Oh I'm over tha—" King began, only to pause, "I mean, the King of Demons graciously accepts your humble apology!"

Amity blinked. "Okay then, bye" She finished as she rushed off toward the healer's tent.

Eda then led the kids that she totally had not adopted out of the covention at a brisk pace. "You're really something else, you know that Luz?"

Luz could only nod, the butterflies of worry were playing havoc with her stomach.

Chapter Text

Amity was fine. The healer running the crisis tent next to the Healing Coven's covention stand hadn't detected any permanent damage. Just some mild bruising on her bile sack and magic depletion, nothing a healer's patch and a day or two of rest couldn't handle.

The nosebleed, the healer said, was unrelated as far as they could tell. However, sometimes witchlings around Amity's age would get spontaneous nosebleeds shortly before developing certain types of 'abnormal oracle talents' and suggested that she make note of it if it happened again or if she manifests any unusual abilities. Amity decided to keep any such abilities she may or may not manifest a secret, lest her mother decide for her that she should switch to the Oracle track. She liked abominations, she was good at abominations, but if her mother saw any chance at all of making Amity more like her she'd take away one of the few things Amity ever got to pick for herself again.

Amity was in enough trouble with her mother as it was. Shortly after she was seen by the healer, Amity was tracked down by Lilith who tried to explain her actions but Amity found her justifications lacking and, still hurt from her now former mentor's betrayal, Amity insisted on severing that relationship then and there. Amity's mother had been most displeased about that upon finding out, lecturing Amity about how alienating the head of the Emporer's Coven would endanger her chances of joining in the future and she didn't seem to care about how Lilith had essentially used Amity to try and humiliate the Owl Lady. Then came the lecture about losing a witch's duel against a wild witch's apprentice, followed by the lecture about not keeping her composure better after losing the duel, apparently the rumor mill had exaggerated her retreat after the realization of Lilith's betrayal into her having fled in messy tears, which was just great.

Her mother had finished the tirade by grounding Amity, but Amity had to open her stupid little mouth and point out that that would mean that she couldn't hold the moonlight conjuring that her mother insisted she invite her 'friends' to. The 'friends' she only associated with because her parents wanted to network with their parents. Amity would have been fine with getting to skip out on having a bunch of people she could barely tolerate in her room overnight but she had to come out and say it and thus her mother backpedeled, saying that the lectures were punishment enough.

Amity considered inviting Luz, just to have one person she could actually stand present and if her mother questioned her she could spin a tale about good sportsmanship and cultivating powerful allies but... Amity didn't know where the Owl Shack was and the only time she saw the human was when she and her 'friends' were gathering last-minute supplies for the conjuring and when Amity noticed her she was talking to Willow and... Willow's friend in the Illusions Track. Amity couldn't well approach her new friend when she was talking to Willow, it would be... awkward and... Totally not painful... They were probably going to have their own conjuring anyway.

So the conjuring was a bust. They couldn't even animate a stuffed doll. Meanwhile, Luz and Willow and... What'shisname's conjuring, which brought the Owl Shack itself to life, had blown up Penstagram. Amity took a bit of vicarious glee in that someone had had a good night but...

Whatever, today was better. Today Amity was at her job working at the library and had just finished her absolute favorite part of the job: Reading to the small children who came in for storytime. She'd always loved reading and getting to introduce some of her childhood favorites to a new generation was one of the few pleasures in her life. She had just said goodbye to Braxas, a sweet and adorable little boy when she suddenly noticed a sensation. Warm and sweet and welcoming, like a big mug of hot choco-snilk and a good book on a rainy night. It was weird but the last time she'd felt that was at the covention when she was talking to...

Amity turned her head, to see Luz crouched awkwardly behind one of the bookcases.

"Luz? Are you... Spying on me?" She asked.

"No!" Luz shouted as she jumped up awkwardly, which earned a shush from elsewhere in the library, "I just, um.. You see uh..." Amity got the impression that Luz was panicking but then the human girl seemingly forced herself to stop. She then took a deep breath and continued. "I was exploring the library, uh, first time here and I overheard you and came to get a closer look but I didn't want to interrupt and... I'm sorry."

"It's fine," Amity insisted as she turned to start cleaning up.

"Need any help?" Luz asked helpfully.

"I appreciate the offer," Amity replied, "but this is literally part of my job."

"Oooh," Luz began again, "maybe I could get a job here. We could alternate lines while reading to the kids and do different voices for each of the characters."

"I don't think the position works like that," Amity countered, 'but if you're serious about getting a job here I could put in a good word for you with Malph—"

"Hey, Mittens!" called out a familiar voice, and Amity froze.

"Oh no," she whispered as her older twin siblings approached.

"Mittens, there you are," her sister said as she held out a pink, bunny-eared lunch sack. "Mom says to stop forgetting your lunch."

Amity quickly snatched the sack. She hadn't forgotten it, she stopped bringing that sack on purpose three weeks ago when a co-worker questioned why a girl her age still carried a bunny-themed lunch sack but no one at home seemed to have gotten the memo.

"Okay, thanks, bye," she said with her teeth clenched and a wave. Years of living with her older siblings meant that she could practically feel the mischief emanating from them and by the Titan it felt especially strong today.

"Wow, rude Mittens," her older brother said, "aren't you going to introduce us to your friend?"

"Luz," Amity began dryly, "these are my older brother Edric and my older sister Emira," she said while gesturing to each respective sibling, "Ed, Em, this is Luz."

"Oh, right, the human we've heard so much about," Edric acknowledged.

"Yes, now I really need to get back to work," Amity insisted.

"Fine," the twins said in unison and began walking off.

When Amity noticed that Luz too was leaving, she stopped her. "Actually," she began, "I'm off the clock in about an hour and a half so if you'd like to hang out you could meet me—" she checked that her siblings were out of earshot, "in the romance section," she whispered, "then. And uh... Try not to get caught up in whatever trouble Ed and Em are getting into."

"Got it," Luz said with a smile and a hand gesture that was like a fist but with her thumb extended straight up. Amity assumed that was a good thing.

Luz left and Amity returned to her work. As she cleaned up after the children she'd been reading to, part of her wondered why something as mundane as asking her new friend if she wanted to hang out had made her feel so nervous.

"I'm showing you a great deal of trust by showing you this," Amity explained to Luz as she made sure that no one else was in eye or earshot of a certain shelf in the romance section.

"Are you sure you want to show this to me?" Luz asked. "I mean, we haven't exactly known each other very long."

"Like I said at the covention, it's weird but I can't help but feel I can trust you," Amity countered. "I am choosing to trust that feeling." That warm, welcoming feeling that just radiated off of the human girl.

Amity then reached for a certain book whose name was an... uncomfortable coincidence and pulled it, thus flipping the secret switch that caused the bookcase to pull back and reveal the hidden study room that master librarian Malphas had let her use as her own private space. Amity then ushered Luz in and closed the entrance from the inside.

"Wow," Luz said as she looked around. "Your secret hideout is everything I could ever dream of in a secret hideout."

"Thank you," Amity replied with a smile. "But, you know... Secret hideout. Please don't tell anyone about this or try to come here without my permission."

"Scout's honor," Luz declared while doing... Something with her fingers at her brow.

"You were a scout?" Amity asked, images of Luz in armor marching through the wilderness in search of fugitives running through her head.

"For two months," Luz confirmed. "I got kicked out because I got a little overzealous during the cardboard regatta."

Amity blinked and decided she'd try to figure out what that meant later.

"So," she asked, "what do you think of the Bonesborough Library?"

"It's amazing," Luz declared. "it's like if you took everything good about a human library and then replaced all the boring parts with a delicious blend of horror and whimsey. Also, I think your siblings were hitting on me."

Huh. That was a new emotion. It was sort of like the kind of anger that Amity felt when someone went into her room or touched her stuff without her permission, mixed with a sour-sick feeling in her stomach, and a sensation not unlike what she imagined it would be like if her bile was starting to boil. Weird, Amity would have to try and process that later. "Yeah, they do that," she replied.

"Anyway," Luz started, "I've been meaning to ask... Are you alright?" Luz made a circular motion over her heart.

"Yeah, everything's healed up fine," Amity confirmed and then cast a simple light spell to show that her magic had recovered.

Immediately it seemed as if a great weight had dissolved from Luz's shoulders. "That's great. I was so worried that I'd hurt you badly and—"

"Luz, it's fine," Amity insisted even as a bit of heat came to her face at the thought of the human being concerned for her. "You didn't know it would do that and... I was actually trying to hurt you so if anyone should be apologizing—"

"Hey, none of that," Luz insisted. "We're cool now. So, what was that book you were reading the kids?"

The heat intensified in Amity's face. "Oh, nothing special, just Otabin. It's a pretty popular children's story, about a lonely bookmaker trying to make friends."

Luz gave Amity a knowing look before smiling. "You seemed so happy reading it to them."

"Y-yeah," Amity admitted. "I... The kids don't care about my social status or my grades. To them, I'm just the nice lady who reads them stories and I get to just be me for a little bit, and... Otabin is my favorite—was my favorite!" Amity quickly corrected.

"Amity," Luz said with a gentle laugh, "I am the last person who is going to judge you for still liking something that was important to you when you were little."

"...It's not just that," Amity began. "I... I guess I relate to Otabin, a bit. I don't really have friends so much as associates. Everyone I hang out with is someone whose parents are in my parents' social circle. The only one I have anything in common with is Boscha and she takes Grudgby a lot more seriously than I ever did."

"What's that, like a witch sport?" Luz asked.

"The best witch sport," Amity confirmed. "The only real friend I ever had was..."

"Willow?" Luz asked. When Amity didn't respond Luz continued. "She told me that you two used to be friends... Amity, you're not a bad person, why are you so mean to her?"

Amity began tugging on the hem of her tunic and flashed back to the ultimatum her parents gave her when she invited Willow to her eighth birthday party behind their backs. "I... I... Something happened and we couldn't be friends anymore. It's better, it's better if she hates me than if..."

"If she misses you as much as you miss her?" Luz guessed. Amity was about to ask how Luz could have known that until she recalled what the human had said about sensing emotions at the covention.

"...Yeah."

Luz came up next to Amity and put an arm around her, prompting the witch to reflexively lean into the comforting presence. "So I'm new to this whole having friends thing myself," the human began, "but if anime, cartoons, and fantasy novels have taught me anything it's that if you care about Willow then even if you can't be friends anymore she deserves to know the truth."

Amity wiped her eyes. "You're right. Could you... Help me talk to her... Not now, but when I'm ready? I wasn't brave enough to tell her the truth then and I'm not brave enough now."

"Of course," Luz agreed. Amity met Luz's eyes in that moment. Her pretty eyes and...

Oh. Well, that'd make an interesting diary entry.

"Now," Luz began in ignorance of Amity's realization, "if your magic is back we can let you out of that Everlasting Oath, and after that, I noticed that you only have Azura 1-4," she gestured back to Amity's 'favorite books' shelf, "and I never leave home without..."

Odalia Blight stepped into a chamber she'd used for privacy when attempting to divine the future and locked the door behind her. Mittens had come home late this evening and while she'd been cagey about her location, Odalia had been able to extract the truth from the twins before they left for whatever it was they did when they 'snuck out' at night... Something about a book? It's not like Odalia cared.

Per her eldest children, Mittens had been hanging out with her new friend. Odalia hadn't permitted Mittens to make any new friends, but that was a discussion for later. What was important now was that, when she pressed the twins for details they confirmed that Mittens's new friend was the human. The only human on the boiling Isles, the sorcerer who the Owl Lady had taken as an apprentice, the human who had humiliated her youngest in the Witch's duel at the covention and provoked her heir's sudden bout of rebellion.

Odalia had been prepared to confront Mittens over it when the thought tickled something in the back of her memory. One of the first things you learn on the Oracle Track is that the future is far from set in stone. Baring rare incidents with Time Pools, the world just wasn't deterministic. Still, that hadn't stopped Odalia from scrying possible futures when each of her children had been born, in order to have a better idea of how to guide them properly to the outcomes she wanted for them.

One of Mitten's possible futures, albeit an unlikely one, had mentioned a fight.

Privacy secured, Odalia drew her focus from her neck and summoned her oracle spirit, a rather horrifying specter.

"Spirit, when my youngest was born I demanded prophecies of her future. I dismissed one for being unlikely—"

"I know the one of which you speak... It seems far more certain now."

Odalia had thought as much. "Would you care to repeat it to me, I fear I may need to change my plans and hedge my bets."

"Of course, mistress."

Chapter Text

"You really like that berry stuff, don't you?" Luz asked the adorable little owl sitting on her shoulder.

The owl in question, Eda's palisman Owlbert whose theft of Luz's book had started this whole adventure, cutely hooted in response.

The last week and a half, Luz thought, had been absolutely crazy. To settle an argument, Eda has used a spell to swap King's, Luz's, and Eda's own bodies between themselves. This somehow resulted in a massive brawl in the streets and Luz had to actively resist the urge to scratch the itch on her bandaged wrist.

A few days later her friend Gus had told her that her ban at Hexide had been lifted and brought her to the school to speak at the human appreciation society. Unbeknownst to Luz, however, Gus had been lying to her, and well... The bad news is that Gu s wasn't president of the Human Appreciation Society anymore. The good news is that Eda had gotten the ban lifted for real and Luz was starting there next semester, which was going to be so awesome. Also, Eda taught her how to make fireworks to celebrate the destruction of the detention pit.

A few days later, Luz had... borrowed Owlbert in order to try and attend a sports game, Hexside vs Glandus, but... Owlbert had gotten hurt, something for which she was very sorry, and Luz had to go through many trials to both earn his forgiveness and prove to the Bat Queen, a giant palisman, that she was worthy of that forgiveness. Owlbert had then lied to Eda to cover for Luz, apparently saying that Luz had taken him out for ice cream.

A few days ago, she and King had collaborated on writing a book only for... Well, let's just say that they'd learned a valuable lesson about friendship and also avoiding predatory publishers.

Which brought Luz to today: As Luz was going over things she needed to know for her first day at Hexside, she'd noticed that she needed to know at least two spells to get into the standard classes, otherwise they'd put her in with the toddlers. She'd told Eda this, panicking, to which Eda replied that she'd think of something but first, they had some business to settle.

It was then that Luz had noticed a very apologetic-looking Owlbert on Eda's shoulder. Eda had finally worked up the motivation to call Owlbert out on his obvious lie from a few nights before and got the truth out of him. Because of Owlbert's passionate defense of Luz and insistence that the human had learned her lesson, Eda wasn't mad but insisted that if Luz wanted Eda's trust back she must perform a trial of penance:

Take Owlbert out for ice cream for real.

Mission accomplished, Luz and the satisfied palisman were making their way back to the Owl House. As they passed through town, however, Luz noticed two people with familiar dark green hair up near the town bulletin board.

"Hey Ed, hey Em!" Luz greeted Amity's elder siblings as she approached. She wasn't expecting them to jump or to turn to her looking so frazzled... Then she was hit by the guilt that was radiating off of them.

"Oh, hey Luz," Emira greeted nervously. "You haven't seen Amity around, have you?"

"Not since that day at the library," Luz denied, "I assumed she'd been busy." It was then that Luz noticed what it was that they'd added to the bulletin board: a 'Have You Seen Me' poster with a prominent photo of Amity. "What happened!?" she asked in a sudden panic. "Who did I have to hurt!?"

"No one!" Edric insisted perhaps a little too fast, when Luz glared at him, he buckled. "Look, it's our fault. Mittens gets so uptight sometimes and we thought that a prank—"

"Just a little prank!" Emira added.

"Yeah, just a little prank," Edric justified, "would help her loosen up a bit but we uh... Underestimated just how badly it would hit her and..."

"...She ran off," Emira finished. "At first Mom was pretty sure she'd come home after she cooled off but it's been days. She hasn't been home, she hasn't been at school, or the Library..."

"There are a lot of angry, brokenhearted toddlers right now," Edric interjected. "Have you ever been threatened by a kindergartener? It's surprising how intimidating they can get."

"If you see her, could you please tell her that we're both so very, very sorry?" Emira continued.

"And to please come home?" Edric finished.

Luz was about to ask what they did when she was interrupted by an impossibly deep voice calling out "There they are Daddy!"

When Luz turned to look, she saw the voice came from a small child in the uniform of Hexside's baby class, a red bipedal demon whose face was mostly a mouth full of fangs.

And he was sitting on the shoulder of the intimidating figure of Warden Wrath.

Who was himself flanked by twelve conformatorium guards.

"They're the big kids who were mean to Miss Amity and made her go away," the small child... Luz thought she heard Amity call him Braxas that day at the Library, declared while pointing to the twins. "Beat them up!"

"You heard him boys," the Warden replied.

Edric and Emira proceeded to draw blue spell circles in the air and vanish from sight. Luz herself likewise decided to make herself scarce, lest the Warden recognize her from the riot a few weeks ago.

At first, Luz was perfectly calm as she made her retreat, but once she made it to the woods outside of town proper she bolted making a beeline for the Owl House, rushing there in record time, jumping over the extended form of Hooty that reached out beyond the trees for some reason and bursting into the house.

"Eda!" Luz cried out as the worry that had formed in her belly reached an apex. "Eda there's a problem and—"Eda wasn't even in the Owl House, judging from the open portal door. As her concern for her friend grew Luz considered going through herself to find Eda, her need for help to see to Amity's safety beginning to outweigh her fear that it may be discovered that she ditched camp. Eventually, Eda walked in with a large heavy sack carried over her back.

Eda took one look at Luz's face, sat the sack down, and melted into a pose of resignation. "What's wrong?" she asked with a sigh.

"Eda, problem, Amity, missing, prank," Luz babbled, her brain going a little too fast to speak coherently.

"Luz"? Eda began, "Breathe"

Luz stopped and took a breath while Owlbert flew from her shoulder to Eda's and began hooting.

"Uh huh...? Uhuh? Really? Did they say what they did?" Eda replied to her Palisman. A few hoots later she looked back to Luz. "Okay, Owlbert filled me in. I'm not gonna lie to you, Luz, if your friend's been missing for days the odds aren't good but I know every nook and cranny of Bonesborough like the back of my hand," Eda said while pulling off her hand to demonstrate. That was a thing Eda could do and while freaky, Luz had gotten used to it. "If she's still here we'll—"

"Hoot hoot!" Interuped Hooty as he writhed and undulated into the living room. "I found a new friend skulking in the woods!" he declared. Then he started heaving for a solid thirty seconds before throwing up a massive, squirming owl pellet that burst open to reveal an incredibly freaked out...

"Amity!" Luz declared before tackling her no-longer-missing friend and pulling her into a hug.

"Well that was easy," Eda declared with unearned satisfaction.

"Where, huh?" Amity asked in a confused tone. "Luz?"

"I'm glad you're okay," Luz began. "Ed and Em told me that—"

"Don't talk to me about them," Amity said quickly and Luz could feel a spike of anger. "Just... Give me a second."

Dutifully, Luz released Amity and backed up. Amity started going through slow, methodological breaths and soon the red faded from her face. She then looked at Hooty, who was looming over the whole scene, and slowly scooted away from him. Then she began looking around the room. "Where am I?"

"The Owl House," Luz informed.

"...I thought it was the Owl Shack," Amity admitted, which prompted an indignant "Hoot" from Hooty. "Please stay away from me," Amity said in a small voice in response.

"Yeah," Eda admitted, "it's never pleasant when Hooty owl pellets someone. Can't think of a worse first impression."

"Amity, are you okay?" Luz asked.

"...No," the girl admitted. Now that things had calmed down some, Luz could see dirt and grass stains on her school uniform, a few cuts and scratches, and her hairband was missing.

"What happened?" Luz asked.

"Ed and Em found my hideout," Amity began, "and they stole my diary and... Posted the pages all over school," she finished while shrinking in on herself.

Luz blinked. "They said it was a prank. That's not a prank. That's just mean."

"And boring," Eda added. "Pranks are supposed to be about fun and chaos. That's just pouring oil on the flaming cesspit that is school."

"I got into school that morning and... People stared," Amity continued. "A few people laughed. Then I saw a page taped above a locker with a familiar doodle and... Looking at Ed am Em it was obvious they were responsible and... I had to get out of there. I felt... Couldn't let them see me, couldn't... Couldn't go home, either. Ed and Em never get in trouble for anything, so..."

"You ran away." Luz finished. "I know the feeling. I'm glad you're alright but why did you come here?"

"I was going to try and hop a caravan to Latissa, but then I remembered that I still had your book," Amity explained and pulled Azura 5 out of her backpack. "It wouldn't be right to just run off with it so I spent the last few days trying to find... Here. Because all I know about this place is that it's in the woods. Then I was attacked by your Bird Tube."

"I have a name," Hooty interrupted.

"Not now, Hooty," Eda dismissed. "Now, the question I have for you Baby Blight—"

"Please don't call me that."

"Alright, Bossy Boots," Eda corrected.

Amity paused for a moment in thought. "That's better."

"Now the question I have for you, Boots," Eda continued without missing a beat, "is just what do you think you were going to do when you made it to Latissa?"

"I don't know," Amity admitted. She handed Luz her book and then tried to get up and leave...

Only to be stopped: "Hooty, door," Eda commanded. Hooty retracted into the front entrance to the Owl House and the door slammed closed and locked itself.

"I might be an all-around scoundrel," Eda continued, "but I cannot, in good consciousness, let a kid your age live on the streets."

"I've been living in the woods," Amity corrected.

"And you certainly smell like it," Eda replied. "And uh, when's the last time you had something to eat?"

"...I found some berries yesterday," Amity confirmed while looking away. It was then that her stomach grumbled quite loudly.

Eda pinched her nose. "Okay, here's what's gonna happen," she declared. "You," she said while shaking her still severed hand at Amity so that it pointed at her, "are going to hop in the shower. Then we're gonna get some food in you. Then we're gonna sit down and plan out where you're going from here, you got that?"

"I... I don't think—"

"This is not up for debate. As much as I hate being responsible, if nothing else you're important to Luz and that makes you important to me. Luz," Eda continued with a turn to the human girl, "Boots is about your size, go see if you have any clothes she can borrow while what's she wearing is in the wash."

"Yes, mam!" Luz declared as she bolted upstairs. Before she made it to her room, she overheard Eda asking Amity about food allergies.

"You seriously didn't have anything else I could borrow?" Amity asked, not for the first time, as she sat on Eda's couch in Luz's otter costume.

"It's laundry day," Luz defended. "Besides, you look cute in it"

This made Amity's face go red. Poor girl probably wasn't used to genuine compliments, Luz thought to herself.

"Alright," Eda began. "So to recap: Boots ran away from home because her jerk siblings posted her diary all over school. Now that she's eaten and no longer smells like a forest gremlin the question is... What do you wanna do about it, Kid?"

"I just want to disappear," Amity admitted.

"Well I can do that for you," Eda quipped, "but I can't guarantee I can make you reappear." That seemed to startle Amity so Eda continued, "Now seriously, I am the last person who gets to judge you for dropping out of school or running away from home but... Are you sure that's what you want? This kind of thing needs to happen because it's your choice, not because you were chased away. What do you want out of your life?"

"My whole life has been building up to joining the Emperor's Coven," Amity said before pausing, "Uh, I mean... No offense intended to present company."

"It's fine," Eda dismissed, "but do you really think the Head Bootlickers are going to take in a girl who dropped out of school?"

Amity looked away. "I... I can't go back."

"Teenagers are the most fickle animals in the Demon Realm," Eda replied. "This time next month, nobody is going to care... Unless... You didn't write about any crushes, did you?"

Amit paused, briefly glanced at Luz for some reason, and then answered with a blush. "One, but... They don't even go to Hexside."

"Then nobody's gonna care after a few days," Eda said, "and you didn't write anything... Age inappropriate, did you?"

Amity blushed even redder, "Titan, no!"

"Then you're fine, this will all blow over," Eda said with certainty.

"And if it doesn't," Luz chipped in, "I'm starting at Hexside next semester. I'll have your back."

Amity let off an awkward smile. "Great... But... I'm not ready to go back."

"Well, then you can hang out with us for a few days," Eda answered. "Relax, take your mind off things, reconnect with nature, and when you're ready go back refreshed and confident."

"Ooh!" Luz jumped to her feet. "It'll be like a sleepover! We can do each other's hair and nails, dress up in animal jammies, and stay up late talking about Azura! What did you think of book five?"

"I didn't get a chance to finish it," Amity admitted.

"Then I know what we're doing tonight," Luz declared.

"Don't stay up too late," Eda warned. "Because we still need to get you that second spell and for that, I was thinking we'd be taking a trip to the Knee."

Chapter Text

Amity awoke early the next morning, partly surprised at feeling warm and comforted before she recalled the previous day's events. After Amity had been lovingly bullied into accepting the Owl Lady's hospitality the household turned toward the wild witch's latest acquisitions from the human world.

Apprently, a not insignificant portion of the Owl Lady's income came from scavenging discarded goods from the human world and selling that which she didn't want or need for herself to collectors at the market on weekends or otherwise appealing to the niche interests in human memorabilia. Usually, she sent her Palisman to do it, but as Luz had been taking it out for ice cream (something Amity made note of for when she eventually had a Palisman of her own) The Owl Lady had gone herself and, being rather more obvious than a small owl, could not just rifle through the trash in the human world which lead to her going around further than normal and finding a dumpster full of books behind the human school.

Amity was, naturally, quite horrified that an institution of learning would so callously discard archives of knowledge but Luz said something about how they were probably getting new editions in the coming school year.

Either way, the Owl Lady was convinced that she could make a mint selling tomes on human history, human language, human science, and human math to the right buyers and so Amity had mentioned that the library had been having a bit of trouble justifying its acquisitions budget this year and would probably pay quite generously for such coveted knowledge of another realm.

The Owl Lady's eyes almost literally turned to snails and she marched out the door with a heavy sack of pilfered books and that left Amity alone with Luz and the little demon who had proclaimed himself King.

Much of the afternoon had been spent making arrangements for Amity to stay there, which ultimately amounted to rearranging the contents of Luz's room (Amity resisted the urge to call it a closet) and bringing in some spare blankets and sheets to make a pallet next to Luz's strange human sleep cocoon.

That established and after a surprisingly well-put-together dinner, once the Owl Lady returned, much of the evening was spent... Well, dressing up in animal-themed pajamas and binge-reading through Azura 5, alternating reading chapters aloud and making their best impressions of what they imagined the characters to sound like.

Just after finishing they turned in for bed and that brought Amity to the current situation.

Part of her wanted to just stay like this, warm and comfortable, forever, but she knew she had to get up and after a brief period of indulgence she opened her eyes. And felt the heat immediately rise to her face.

At some point in the night, she had turned in her sleep to face Luz, and Luz had in turn turned over and thrown an arm over Amity meaning that if anyone were to walk in on them at this moment...

Carefully, so as not to wake the human girl, Amity turned over so that she was facing upward and tried to wriggle out from under Luz's arm only for her increased wakefulness to make her aware of another problem. Namely, at some point in the night, the self-proclaimed King of Demons had climbed atop the two sleeping girls and was now sprawled out over them, periodically letting out a quiet "weh" as he snored.

Amity found that she couldn't move without disturbing the position of either the human or the demon and, not wanting to wake either, found herself attempting to shimmy out of bed while causing as little disruption to the position of her bedmates as possible.

Eventually, Amity was able to wriggle out from Luz's am enough to sit up, though at this point King's position had shifted so that he was mostly on her lap. This was easy enough to deal with, as Amity could just pick him up and gently set the little guy down where she had been lying as she got up. Slowly she backed away from the scene only to freeze when King suddenly sat up. The small demon then crawled to all fours, stretched like a cat, circled around like a dog, buried himself into Luz's side, and went back to sleep.

Luz, for her part, reflexively pulled her now free arm tightly around King and mumbled "Hugs are nice" but didn't seem to wake up.

Amity then composed herself, allowed the heat to fade from her face, and made to leave when she noticed The Owl Lady standing at the doorway and the heat returned to her face in full force.

After quietly leaving the room and closing the door behind her, Amity turned to the wild witch and asked "How long were you...?"

"Long enough, Boots," The Owl Lady replied. "Now come on, your clothes are dry."

The only clothes Amity had brought with her were her Hexside uniform, given that she'd been at school when she decided to run away. The Owl Lady had not only washed it but also sewn up some tears she'd gotten while out in the woods.

"Thank you," she told the Owl Lady once she'd changed, only to realize she'd forgotten something. "Uh, I had a necklace that I took off and... Have you seen it?"

"You mean this?" The Owl Lady declared as she withdrew the necklace in question, a large pink crystal pendant on a black string. "I was gonna ask if you mind if I hold onto it for a bit? Some interesting spells on this thing."

Amity nearly panicked, if the Owl Lady knew what that necklace was then... But, the wild witch was powerful but she'd all but admitted that she'd dropped out of school yesterday. Would she even know enough to identify it? And wouldn't denying outright raise her suspicions? "Okay, that's fine I guess, just don't..."

"Relax, I'm not gonna break it," The Owl Lady assured as she pocketed the piece of jewelry again. "Now Luz usually doesn't get up for another half an hour so you just do... Whatever it is people do while I get to work on breakfast."

"Do you need any help?" Amity quickly offered. "I cook at home all the time."

"Huh, you'd think a rich girl would have servants for that," the Owl Lady mused. "No, it's fine."

"Anything at all I can do?" Amity pressed. "I don't want to be a burden."

"Boots, after that tip-off about the library you could clean out my fridge, back up my septic, and steal the crystal ball and I'd still be coming out ahead. It's fine," The Owl Lady insisted. "Just relax while I cook up some griffin egg omelets."

Amity looked around the general decor of the Owl House. "Aren't griffin eggs a bit expensi—"

"Shhh!" Interrupted the Owl Lady. "Humans can't digest most of the food on the Boiling Isles, so I make sure to have stuff I know Luz likes and can keep down. But... You have to have noticed by now how..." The Owl Lady waved her hand in a circular motion, "How she tends to take responsibility for things outside of her control, accept blame for things that aren't her fault... Heck, I'm pretty sure part of the reason she went after you that day was because she blamed herself for what Lilly did. If that kid knew that feeding her cost a bit more, she'd be so busy trying to 'pay me back' that she'd never get anything else done and the last thing I want is for that sweet girl to start thinking that she's a burden."

Amity blinked. "I never expected the infamous Owl Lady to be so motherly."

"You take that back," the wild witch in question quickly threatened.

A stirring sound from upstairs indicated that Luz was getting up a little early.

"Oh, darn," the wild witch acknowledged. "Look, if you want to make yourself useful,  go through my closet and see if you can find a coat that fits, we're heading to the Knee after breakfast."

Amity couldn't help but stare at Luz as the human girl practically bounced around, squealing about how beautiful the snowy landscapes of the Knee and the ruins that dotted them were.

"Everything here is so pretty!" she exclaimed.

"Yeah," Amity agreed while looking at the human who, thankfully, wasn't looking back at Amity at that moment. From the corner of her eye, however, Amity could see the Owl Lady rolling her own and blushed.

Eventually, they made their way to where the Owl Lady wished to make camp and, after setting up, the elder witch began to lecture.

"From what I've managed to scrounge up," she began, "the earliest witches learned magic by communing with the Boiling Isles themselves through the natural phenomena. Via the earth and sky, the moon and stars."

Amity didn't want to admit how skeptical she was of that story. Everyone knew that it was only Emperor Belos who could speak to the Titan and that wild magic like the Owl Lady was describing was using magic wrong, and that it angered the Titan, but she'd been shown undeserved kindness by the residents of the Owl House, especially in the last 24 hours, and this was almost certainly the only way that Luz could be a real witch instead of just another human sorcerer, so she held her tongue.

"Cool!" The human exclaimed, ignorant of the young witch's inner turmoil. "So how do I do that?"

"I have no idea," The Owl Lady admitted. "But I also know that ancient witches were drawn to the knee to study and practice magic and that, for some reason, the magic is strong and flowing here compared to other parts of the Titan's body. so I figure this is the best place to figure it out."

The Owl Lady then looked intently at Amity for a moment. "Hey, Boots? You know how to conjure fire yet?"

"No," Amity admitted. It had been on her to-do list but...

The Owl Lady hummed. "Alright then, Luz, get out your... What's it called again, a phone?"

"Yeah," Luz replied while drawing out her weird human scroll thing.

"Okay, fire conjuring is a pretty basic spell," the Owl Lady began, "and it's a lot like the light spell, just a basic manifestation of a raw element without being overly biased toward one of the nine main spell phlegms that more specialized forms of magic are," she explained. "And since you learned a glyph to cast the light spell by recording the light spell, I'm gonna teach boots fire conjuring and you're gonna record it. Multiple castings, a few different attempts to get it right, multiple chances to catch the glyph. Any concerns or questions?"

Amity looked away. "I still need a training wand to learn spells like that."

"What's a training wand?" Luz asked.

"Pretty common tool," The Owl Lady explained. "Charge them up with magic and they do most of the work casting the spell for you, helps you get into the mindset and feel for a given spell without using up your own magic or worrying about the spell fizzling or blowing up in your face."

"Cool!" Luz exclaimed.

"And you," the wild witch said as she turned back to Amity, "don't look so ashamed. So what if you still need a training wand? It doesn't matter how you learned, it matters that you learned."

"I learned the states and capitals from a children's cartoon from the nineties," Luz chirped. She then started humming something rustic-sounding. Amity would have to ask why the human realm had multiple capitals later.

"I... I'm the only witch my age I know of that still needs a training wand," Amity defended. 'It's..."

"That doesn't matter. If you're learning you're learning," The Owl Lady insisted. "But now that I think about it, are sure you need a wand?"

Amity blinked. "I'm not sure what you're talking about."

The Owl Lady face palmed. "This is why I hate school. Okay, so at Hexside they mostly teach you the Emperor's Coven-approved theory of magic, which ties everything down into its own little box and makes it all very clinical, but magic isn't clinical, it's wild and chaotic and alive, and no one with any sense can argue with that given that it literally comes from the heart."

"I mean, the bile sack isn't technically part of the heart," Amity defended but... Laid out frankly like that she couldn't help but acknowledge that the Wild Witch had a point.

"My point is, our magic isn't just some thing you pick up and put down, it's part of us just as much as our flesh and blood are," The Owl Lady continued, "and that means that the way we feel about ourselves is part of what makes it work. You're not gonna get much constructive done if you're in a destructive mood, getting spells to work at all might be hard if you're sick and feel like crud, and if you don't think you can cast a spell then..."

"You can't," Amity realized.

"No judgment either way," The Owl Lady insisted, and Amity could tell that she meant it just as she could tell she could trust Luz, "if you really do need a training wand then there's no shame in it, but are you sure you haven't just convinced yourself that you still need one?" When Amity didn't answer, the Owl Lady continued, "Look, I'm gonna be demonstrating the fire-conjuring spell for Luz regardless, so I'm just asking... You wanna give it a try?"

"...Yes."

Chapter Text

It took a bit to figure out how to position everyone so that Luz could get clear footage of the casting session, but after half an hour she had some pretty good footage of multiple castings of the fire-conjuring spell, and Luz couldn't help but beam at the happy, self-satisfied expression Amity made after she got it right.  Also, Amity's fire was a very pretty purplish-pink color.

Afterward, as the two witches sat and rested Luz herself pulled out a large thermos and began to pour herself a drink.

"What is that?" Amity asked as Luz filled the cup/lid with a dark, viscous liquid.

"Coffee," Luz replied. "Black as night, with lots of sugar." Luz then downed it in one go and grimaced at the strong, bitter taste even as undissolved sugar crystals crunched against her teeth.

Amity looked at Eda, "It's what humans call bitter bean blood." Eda paused for a moment. "Of course. I have no idea what she does to get it that strong. You could stain a coffin with that stuff and even with the disgusting amount of sugar in it it smells bitter."

"It's not that bad," Luz defended.

"King tried some and spent ten minutes twitching on the floor," Eda deadpanned.

"Seriously?" Amity questioned with a wary glance at Luz's thermos.

"Seriously," Eda confirmed. "She makes it some human device she salvaged out of my reserve of unsold human artifacts and while it's brewing she recites a prayer begging 'Loki, God of Magic and Mischief' to lay a blessing upon the 'bitter black blood of the Earth.'"

"...You're religious?" Amity asked.

"Not really but when the Old Gods walk the Earth and fight and/or commit crime regularly you don't have to be," Luz replied. "Also, Loki served a term as President of the United States," she added helpfully.

Both witches stared at her in silence as if trying to process if she was serious and/or what that meant.

Regardless, Luz could feel the caffeine clawing its way into her bloodstream as she had many times before such as during finals and midterms, and so she turned to her recently made video and began going through each casting of the fire-conjuring spell frame by frame.

After doing so, she deflated and let out a quiet, disgruntled moan.

"Nothing?" Eda asked.

"Nothing," Luz confirmed. "No glyphs. Not even a sign that a glyph might be there."

"That's odd. We know there's a glyph in the light spell and..." Eda acknowledged. "Okay, I'm gonna try and figure this out.  While I'm doing that, why don't you two go out and explore."

"Explore?"

"Explore!" Eda confirmed. "Walk around and take in the sights of the woods. Taste the air. Play in the snow. That's why we're out here, to make a connection with nature!"

Luz looked to Amity. "You want to?"

The green-haired witch blushed for some reason, swallowed, then agreed. "Yes."

The two girls got up and casually walked off into the wilderness.

"Now," Luz began, "How do we connect with nature?" She stuck her tongue out and wiggled it a bit. "I'm tasting the air and all I'm tasting is air."

"And we've been taking in the sights of the woods since we got here," Amity agreed.

"Eda's the best teacher I've ever had but sometimes I just don't get her lessons," Luz admitted. "And... At first, I'll admit that I was a little skeptical that she was teaching me anything but now I know that she cares and she's trying. I'm just not that good a student."

"Luz," Amity began, "you rediscovered an ancient form of witchcraft. You have to be pretty good at this stuff. You're going to be a great witch."

"You don't have to say that," Luz said with a glance away. "We undid the Everlasting Oath for a reason, you don't have to say that humans can be witches."

"I mean it," Amity insisted. "I... I still don't like the idea of sorcerers, people just... Asking powerful spirits for magic or performing sacrifices for power, but... You're not like that. You're trying to learn our magic and you're doing it the right way."

"I mean, it's not like..." Luz continued as they walked. "I found the light glyph under some pretty... stressful circumstances. King and I were trapped by the boiling rain with... A demon," Luz very carefully didn't mention Eda's curse. The older witch had to have had a good reason not to have told her and King about it before. "We needed a bright flash of light to stun it since it was a kind with sensitive eyes, and that's when I noticed the light glyph in the recording."

"I don't really see what that has to do with anything," Amity began, "so what if it was just a heat of the moment thing? What was it the Owl Lady said, if you learned you learned?"

"She also said that she thinks that the glyphs are ancient magic that witches learned from the Isles themselves by observing nature," Luz finished. "What is... What if it was just the Isles taking pity on some dumb human and a kid who were in danger? And if the Isles just gave me magic, then... I'm a sorcerer, not a witch."

Luz stopped walking when she noticed that Amity had stopped. The witch had picked up a stick at some point and was absent-mindedly dragging it through a snow bank.

"I'm not religious," Amity began, "and I don't know what the gods of the human realm are like, but what we're taught is that the Titan is a benevolent and loving god who gave of his flesh so that the witches and demons could have life and a home to live on and that his spirit persists and manipulates events to ensure the maximum safety and happiness of all of his children. He gets angry sometimes, because we unknowingly put ourselves in danger, and sometimes sacrifices have to be made for the greater good, as he tells us through The Emperor. Still, ultimately all The Titan wants is for us to be as happy and safe as possible in this cruel and dangerous world. I don't know if that's true," she continued, "but if it is, and the Titan did let you find that glyph then it wouldn't have been out of pity, it would have been for a good reason. Because he thought you deserved it. And being gifted magic is different from bartering for it, or stealing it."

"Just don't go spreading this theory around," Amity finished. "I doubt the Emperor's Coven would care for it."

"Thanks, Amity," Luz replied with a smile. Then she noticed something about the witch. "Amity your nose is bleeding again!"

Once more Amity raised a finger to her face but stopped as she realized that she was wearing gloves.

Luz reached into her bag and pulled out an emergency handkerchief which she handed to Amity who proceeded to use it to try and stounch the flow.

"This is my fault," Luz insisted quickly, "I must have done permanent damage and then you overstressed yourself with training today and now you're messed up for life and I'm so very sorry and—"

"Luz!" Amity shouted. "It's fine. I got checked over by a healer, remember? No permanent damage from your spells." Amity moved over to a nearby rock and sat down. "And the nose bleeds are unrelated."

"Huh?" was Luz's response.

"It's really rare, but some witches, like maybe one or two out of every couple thousand, will develop what are called 'abnormal talents' which are odd little bits of magic that are not magic... Um, it's hard to explain," Amity began to lecture. "they broadly line up with the Nine main magic types or else the basic spells that anyone can cast, but people with abnormal talents don't need to use spell circles and while they can exhaust themselves it doesn't seem to use their bile. They don't get sealed by Coven Sigils, either, but most people who have them really only hone their talents if it already aligns with the magic they want to study so it doesn't really matter."

"Huh," Luz acknowledged again. "And you've got one of these talents and it has something to do with nose bleeds?"

"I might," Amity corrected. "They usually come in at around my age and people with abnormal oracle talents can get spontaneous nose bleeds while they're coming in."

"Abnormal oracle talents?" Luz asked again.

"Yeah, you know, oracle magic is things like predicting the future, communicating with spirits, reading minds, long-distance communication, scrying, and so on so abnormal oracle talents tend to be things like... Oh, shoot."

"What!?"

"I got the first nosebleed like, right after I started getting that feeling that I could trust you," Amity explained. "And ever since the covention I've gotten a little better at feeling out how people are really feeling. I thought I was just getting better and infering from body language but it would explain what I sense when I'm..." Amity blushed again, for some reason, then stammered out a conclusion. "But um, my mom can never find out. I don't want to change tracks."

"We've got a word for that in the human realm," Luz began. "Empath. It means people who can sense emotions and intentions."

"That is a lot easier to say than 'abnormal oracle of emotions,'" Amity said. "Empath," she sounded out. "I like it."

"It's a subset of what we call psychic powers or psionics," Luz continued. "Which is basically everything you listed but also psychokinesis, which is manipulating stuff with your mind."

"Literally every main branch of magic has spells like that," Amity pointed out.

"Yeah," Luz admitted. Gears were turning in her head, this was starting to sound familiar. People getting strange powers in their mid-teens, including psychic ones that come with nose bleeds... "So Eda told me that there's this theory that witches are descendants of humans who ended up in the Demon realm thousands of years ago who adapted to the environment and sometimes made babies with biped demons."

"Oh, that old thing? Nobody seriously believes that theory anymore," Amity replied.

"Eda does," Luz insisted, "she made a good argument for it and I think we have some more evidence because these abnormal talents sound an awful lot like something we have back in the human realm."

"Really?" Amity asked, "What do you call it over there?"

"Well, if you're polite, you call them mutants," Luz began.

"...Like, they got into a bad potion and it changed them?"

"No," Luz corrected, "like they were born with genetic mutations. Something about their DNA is different and—"

"What's DNA?" Amity asked.

"Oh boy," Luz began, "that is... Not something I ever thought I'd have to explain to someone. Uh, so you know how when two people make a baby the kid..." Luz trailed off when she realized that Amity was giggling. "You're messing with me, aren't you?"

"Yeah. We know about genes and stuff here," Amity confirmed. "But if abnormal talents are genetic, nobody's done any testing to prove it. Most people don't care enough."

"Okay," Luz acknowledged. She looked closer at Amity to see how she was coping with the nosebleed. "You wanna head back?"

"No," Amity insisted. "I'm fine, the bleeding stopped."

"You sure?"

"Yes, Now, the Owl Lady suggested playing in the snow but... I don't know how to do that," Amity admitted.

"You don't?"

"It's not cold enough to snow on most places across the Boiling Isles," Amity continued and Luz felt stupid. It was called the Boiling Isles for a reason. "You either have to come up here to see snow or use magic to make it artificially and I've just never... I mean, my siblings have, and some of my... 'friends' but I've never really had a chance."

"Well, where I'm from we get a good crop of snow every winter, so I can show you," Luz explained. "First, we need to find a more or less open area with lots of snow."

After ten minutes of searching, the girls found a place where the trees thinned and the snow was nice and deep.

Wading out into it, Luz began with "So one of the most basic things you can do to play in the snow is called a snow angel. What you do is you fall back in the snow like this," Luz demonstrated, "and then wave your arms and legs around like this," more demonstration, "and it makes a shape like an angel."

A few moments later, Amity hit the ground next to Luz and made one of her own... Then asked, "What's an angel?"

"Are you asking for real?" Luz asked to clarify.

"Yes."

"It's a religious thing," Luz began. "When I first explained my little joke about having Loki bless my coffee I mentioned old gods? That's because not many people really worship them anymore. Most people in Europe and the Americas, the Middle East, and places strongly influenced by those regions belong to a family of religions that worship only one God and angels are like, His servants and messengers. In art, they tend to be drawn as beautiful humans with feathered wings dressed in pristine robes and a snow angel makes that same general shape."

"Okay," Amity acknowledged.

"But in the actual texts, they're like, wheels made of eyes and other stuff like that but most human artists don't care for that I guess."

"Really? But that sounds so much more... The human world must be boring," Amity concluded.

"It's not all bad, there's some cool stuff, but... Most humans aren't very accepting of things that are strange or different and... Let's just say that if it weren't for my Mom, I'd probably stay in the demon realm forever." Suddenly she sat up. "But enough of that. There's so much more I can show you."

Luz jumped to her feet and helped Amity up but before she could begin her lecture on snowmen she heard a loud crack followed by a series of other, less loud but still pretty loud cracks.

"...This snow bank is on an ice shelf, isn't it?" she asked aloud.

"Probably," Amity agreed.

"We should probably move before—"

Luz was cut off by the ground giving way under her and Amity. Reflexively she manifested her shadow aura and grabbed the witch as they fell ten feet into a rather shear tunnel of solid ice. Rapidly sliding down and occasionally twisting in the dark, heart pounding a mile a minute, Luz refused to let go of her friend until she was forced to as they crashed through a wall of ice and snow and landed in a snowy, tree-filled valley.

Luz flipped to her feet and looked around for any sign of Amity, finding the witch lying in a snow bank.

"Amity!" she shouted as she rushed over. "Are you okay?"

Amity grunted and tried to sit up. "I think I hurt my leg," she said. Luz checked and her right foot was pointing at a weird angle.

Panicked, Luz looked around and saw some fallen branches. "Okay, just sit here, I think I can make you a splint."

Luz rushed over, grabbed the branches, broke one so it was the right length, and snapped off sticks and bark to get it as smooth as possible before bringing it back to Amity.

She didn't have anything to find it with, however, so she had to cannibalize the bandages she'd had wrapped around her wrist and forearm ever since that brawl with Lilith and her scouts the day of the body swap incident.

"This is gonna hurt a little," Luz said as she repositioned Amity's foot so it was on straight before setting and binding it in the makeshift splint. She winced when Amity grunted.

"Okay, uhm, how many fingers am I holding up," she said while holding up her pointer and middle on her right hand.

"Two," Amity said without hesitation. Luz was about to see if she could remember how you were supposed to check if someone was concussed when Amity laser-focused on her now exposed wrist. "Luz, is that a coven sigil?"

Chapter Text

Eda looked up to the sky in worry. The girls had been gone for quite a while.

She was getting ready to go off after them when she noticed an airship fast approaching.

"Ah, farts," she declared. Then paused. "Wait, the kids are gone. I can swear for real! Son of a—"

Unfortunately for Eda, it was a very fast-approaching airship, and it caught up to her and landed nearby in the few moments where she was reveling in being able to cuss for the first time since she found King.

Up close, she could easily notice the abomination theming on the ship, and as she took a defensive stance a man she recognized from her school days disembarked. A male witch, now middle-aged, with messy brown hair held up by his goggles and a ratlike posture stepped forward.

"Edalyn," began Alador Blight, "where is my daughter?"

"I told you when I called last night," Eda defended, "I'm keeping her safe till she's ready to go home."

"I thought you were letting her stay at your shack in the woods," the chief engineer of Blight Industries declared, "not dragging her to the Knee of all places."

"How did you find us up here, anyway?" Eda questioned. "When I talked to you last night you didn't even know that Boots was missing until I told you."

"When Odalia's tracking spell said—"

"Tracking spell!?" two voices shouted in unison. From off the airship stepped a pair of older teens, one boy and one girl, with dark green hair. They both had some notable bruising.

"What happened to them?" Eda asked.

"I don't know," Alador declared. "They were like that when I picked them up from the Conformatorium."

"Did you just say that Mom has a tracking spell on Mittens?" the girl asked.

"She could have found her at any time?" The boy asked.

The twins both seemed to be quite nettled.

"Well, yes, and... I suppose," Alador said as gears visibly turned in his head. "I'll talk to your mother about this when we get home. But first," he said as he turned back to Eda, "where is my daughter?"

"Sent her off with my apprentice to enjoy nature," Eda replied. "Now I'm not gonna question your parenting but how often does she get to act her own age? She got sucked into Luz's nonsense pretty quick last night."

Alador didn't answer, instead, he pulled out a device with an oracle crystal embedded in it and... Was that an abomination frame? That probably wasn't gonna be part of the Blight Industry product line.

"The tracking spell says she should be here, where is she?"

Then something clicked in Eda's mind.

"Oh," she began. "The tracking spell isn't for Boots, it's for this," she said while taking the youngest Blight child's necklace out of her pocket. "I thought it was weird that an abomination tracker would have an oracle focus so I nicked it to take a peak... One way long-distance telepathic communication. One way long-distance emotional influence, remote memory reactivation. It got me a bit suspicious," Eda lectured, "So reluctantly I did some reading: enchantments very similar to this were used on collars meant to keep slaves in line in the early savage ages and were outlawed in the early Deadwardian era for exactly that reason. And that wasn't enough, the look on her face when she realized I had it confirmed it."

"...Odalia said it was for giving Mittens instructions when she helped with product demonstrations."

"Yeah, the one-way communication works for that," Eda acknowledged, "but the other stuff? Complex spell interactions there, making someone feel bad on command when talking to them and making them relive every other time you used it for that? That's only good for uh... What's it called again? You, Blight Boy, do you know?" She finished with a point at the twin in question.

"Uh, berating someone?" The boy answered.

"Ooh, close but not quite," Eda continued, "The answer I was looking for was 'abuse.' Something like this is only good for emotional abuse. Oh, shoot, I guess I am questioning your parenting. My bad." Eda's voice dripped with sarcasm on that line. "So maybe instead of criticizing me for bringing Boots up here, you should be wondering why she didn't feel safe at home after they," another gesture to the twins, "publically humiliated her."

Alador didn't respond.

Eda looked at the sky again. It was getting pretty late. "Now, I was about to go find the kids. You can come with me, see that she's safe, but I'm warning you right now if she doesn't want to go home with you I'm not going to make her."

"...And that's what happened," Luz finished as she carried Amity on her back, dragging a stick through the snow behind them. "Oh, and King wrecked your friend Boscha's clubhouse while wearing my face so that's gonna be fun to deal with at Hexside."

"So wait," Amity asked, "Lilth can just.. Force people into the Emperor's Coven? Has a branding glove for the sigil and everything, and... But we're told that it's such an honor to join, people compete to join, why would she even need the authority to press-gang someone and... And when everything came together in that fight at the end, one of the Coven Scouts grabbed the glove and forced one on you?"

"That is what I just said," Luz replied with a laugh.

"Why?"

"I don't know," Luz said. She would have shrugged but didn't want to jostle Amity. "Maybe he thought my shadow powers were some kind of wild magic and forgot that the EC sigil doesn't seal magic away? All I know is that the brawl came to a dead stop when I screamed and Lilith and some guy named Steve started berating the scout that did it."

"Are you alright?" Amity asked.

"Yeah," Luz, "even if the Sigil sealed magic away I don't have a bile sack so there's nothing to seal. The glyphs still work fine, my powers still work fine."

"...How does it feel?"

"It hurt. A lot," Luz replied. "But the pain faded after a few minutes. Now it just itches. All the time. Are they supposed to itch?"

"I dunno," Amity admitted.

"Aa~nnd drop!" Luz declared as she set Amity down inside a small cave that wasn't that far from where they landed. It'd make a decent enough shelter. "Okay, we're going to need a fire given how long we might be here for and how cold it is, but I never learned the trick for starting one without matches. Do you think you're up for casting the fire spell one more time?"

"Yeah," Amity agreed, "I can get it one more time."

"Okay, I'm gonna grab some more fallen branches for firewood, I'll be right back," Luz declared and marched back into the snow.

It didn't take long, the valley they'd landed in was tree-covered and Luz was able to get plenty of firewood and it also got her far enough away from Amity that the witch couldn't hear Luz berate herself.

"¿Cómo he podido ser tan estúpido? Ahora estamos varados y todo es culpa mía... Keep it together, Luz If you panic, she'll panic."

After that, she brought the wood back to the cave and carefully assembled a crude campfire-type structure for the sake of burning, which Amity ignited and soon they had a pretty pinkish-purple fire keeping them warm.

"...So is there a reason your fire is that color?" Luz asked. "You're using the same spell as Eda and her fire is normal fire colored."

Amity shrugged. "No clue."

That was disappointing, but Luz was distracted by the other girl's shivering. 'Luz, you fool,' she thought to herself, 'you left her sitting alone in a cold cave after pulling her out of a snow bank.'

Luckily, Luz had something to help with that. Her thermos of coffee should still be hot.

After checking, she poured some into the lid/cup and handed it to Amity. "Here, this should warm you up some."

Amity took the cup but looked at it hesitatingly. "Ummm..."

"It's best to take it in one long swig," Luz explained helpfully.

Amity took a deep breath. "If this kills me, tell Emira and Edric that I used my last breath to curse their names." She then, true to Luz's advice, downed the whole cup in one go.

The expression of pure disgust on her face would have been funny in any other situation. She actually went a little green.

"You actually like that?" she asked while handing the cup back.

"'Like' is a strong word," Luz replied. "I mostly drink it when I know I need to focus on something and avoid distractions. Self-medicating, I'd rather take a bunch of caffeine than... Like, the Venn diagram of drugs for ADHD and hard drugs is a circle, I would really rather not go on those if I don't have to. And coffee is something of an acquired taste, to begin with, so... You sort of get used to it, but yeah... You should have tasted what I came up with when I first started though. That was definitely bad to the last drop."

"No thank you," Was Amity's very quick reply. "You know, I think most people put some kind of cream in bitt—coffee."

"Can't do that," Luz admitted. "Severely lactose intolerant. And the non-dairy stuff just tastes funky to me."

"...so what do we do now?" Amity asked as a topic changer.

"Rule 1 for when you're lost in the wilderness is to find shelter near where you got lost and wait for rescue," Luz explained. "And we did that... Rule 2 is like, mostly about how to survive if you're stranded long term, how long you can go without food and water and that kind of thing..." It occurred to Lz that she didn't know how long witches could go without food or water. "But that's not gonna be a problem because when Eda realizes that we're not coming back she's gonna come looking for us, see the crack in the ice, and figure out what happened. My second day on the island she tracked me down pretty fast after I got conned by a puppet demon so once she knows there's a problem she'll find us ASAP."

"You got conned by a puppet demon?"

"Yeah, he posed as a wizard and said I was a chosen one," Luz admitted. "I'd just gotten to the demon realm the night before and didn't know that wizards here are just weird old men and... I had a naive fantasy of things playing out like they did for Azura."

"That's..."

"Dumb, I know," Luz admitted, "especially since I know that real magic isn't like a fantasy novel but..."

"I was going to say endearing," Amity admitted. "Most kids our age are too caught up in drama or too obsessed with status or Penstagram clout or too busy planning their futures to just, you know, be a kid. Maybe it was foolish but there's just something charming about being willing to believe in childish fantasies. I wish I were that confident."

Luz giggled. "You going soft on me, Blight?"

"Maybe I want to be soft," Amity replied rhetorically. "I've been awful to a lot of people and I hate it. I haven't been happy since I was a little kid. Not until... Not until I met you. Maybe... Maybe this, this... Maybe I deserved to have all my secrets exposed."

"No one deserves that," Luz insisted. "Ed and Em said that they were doing a light prank to make you lighten up but that, that's not a light prank. That's... I don't know what that is but nothing you could have possibly done to anyone justifies that!"

"You don't know all I've done..." Amity replied. "I've had to do things I hate doing so that I wouldn't look weak or damage the reputation of the Blight family. If my reputation is already ruined, maybe no one will care and I can just be the kind of person I want to be."

"There's a saying back on Earth: Every cloud has a silver lining," Luz started. "I have no idea where it comes from or how it relates to what it's supposed to mean, but it means that there's always an upside to every situation. So if you wanna have my kind of confidence, looking for the silver lining here is a good start. So, what kind of person do you want to be?"

Amity laid back on the cave floor. "I don't know. My whole life was basically planned out for me without anyone ever asking my input. I guess I can start with... Being nicer to people."

Luz moved to lie next to her. "That's always a good place to start."

"And maybe keeping my hair down," Amity added. "Mom always made me wear it up but I think I prefer it down. What about you?"

"You do look pretty good with your hair down," Luz admitted.

Amity's face became akin to a tomato for some reason. She was a very blushy person. "I meant, the kind of person you want to be."

Luz went silent for a moment. "Other than a witch?"

"Well, yeah."

"No clue," Luz admitted. "Being an author is something I've wanted to do since I was a kid but recent experiences have kind of soured me on it. Kind of wanted to be an artist ever since I was a kid tracing panels of Fullmetal Alchemist, but everyone who can hold a pen straight thinks they can be an artist. Every kid wants to be a superhero at some point and I do like helping people but it's... Dangerous."

"Since when do you care about danger?" Amity asked. "I mean, after everything you've done."

"Not dangerous for me," Luz corrected, "the friends and family of superheroes sometimes get... Targeted, by supervillains. Or regular criminals. Or crooked government types. They've cracked down on it really hard ever since May's Law got passed but it still happens and I don't think I could live with myself if Mom, Eda, or anyone else got Gwen Stacied because of me."

Amity sat up. "Okay, you made a couple of references there that you're going to have to explain to me."

"Oh, yeah. Sorry. They're uh, two big deal incidents of what I'm talking about with supervillains attacking a hero's loved ones and, proving my point, they both happened to the same guy." Luz sat up and cleared her throat. "Now, I don't know all the details because both of these things happened before I was born and I mostly pay attention to the magic heroes but... So there's this hero called Spider-Man because his powers are that he can do whatever a spider can... Actually, there are a lot of spider-men, and spider-women, a couple spider-girls, a few other spider-persons, and a spider-boy, but... This was the OG."

"Okay," Amity acknowledged.

"The first to happen was... Well, when we're learning about modern superheroes in social studies one of the first things they teach you about, after the initial appearances, is The Night Gwen Stacy Died." Luz took a deep breath. This was always an upsetting story. "Spider-Man had an arch-nemesis, the original Green Goblin... Uh, he's not a real goblin, that's just a name," Luz clarified. "One day, the Goblin kidnapped a woman named Gwen Stacy and took her to the George Washington Bridge in New York City and threatened her life unless Spider-Man retired and... Well, heroes don't tend to respond to hostage situations by just abandoning the hostages. Spider-Man tried to rescue her, but couldn't get to her before the Goblin tossed her off the bridge."

"And she..." Amity smacked her hands together.

"No, that's the messed up part," Luz continued. "Spider-Man tried to rescue her by stopping the fall with his web-lines and got her by the ankles and the sudden stop..." Luz pulled one of her fingers back to crack her knuckle.

"Oh my Titan," Amity quietly exclaimed.

"Yeah. Nobody wants to be in that situation and... What happened next isn't something we really have details on. By the end of the night, the Green Goblin was dead, impaled on his own weapons, and nobody saw Spider-Man for like a month," Luz continued. She tried to breeze through the gorier details. "But the thing is, nobody really understood why. The only connection between Spider-Man and Gwen Stacy was that Spider-Man was wanted for questioning in the death of Captain George Stacy. Nobody thought he did it, but the police wanted his side of the story and New York Police are pretty bad about being too aggressive but... Anyway, we got the answer years later."

"See, there was this incident called the Superhero Civil War. There was this really strict set of laws being debated that were collectively called the Superhuman Registration Act and the superhero community was sort of split on it," Luz continued. "Spider-Man was originally on the pro-registration side and he unmasked himself on live television to show his support, revealing himself as Peter Parker, teacher, photojournalist, and doctor of biochemical engineering and research... Who, incidentally, supported himself through college by taking pictures of Spider-Man and selling them to a Newspaper whose editor hated Spider-Man." That made Amity laugh. "But it also made people go back through Spider-Man's history, ask him questions, and the like... Gwen Stacy was his first girlfriend. She was killed just to make him hurt."

"And May's Law?"

"When Peter Parker took off his mask, it meant that some of his other enemies knew who he was," Luz continued. "This old school crime boss sent an assassin who shot and killed his elderly Aunt May Parker. That basically killed the SRA all the way dead when people realized the potential consequences... Also, some people looked more closely at it and it was like, enforcing it would require breaking a whole bunch of other laws and committing a few human rights violations. One of the senators who proposed it turned out to be possessed by a devil who was trying to force Spider-Man to sell his marriage."

Amity blinked. "What?"

"I know, devils are like, really petty," Luz agreed. "And this guy was a complete loser. Was ranting about how Spider-Man was more relatable when he was single when he got exorcised. Anyway," Luz continued, "Everything got sorted out, the big-name heroes on both sides of the conflict took sabbaticals to get their heads on straight, everyone was glad that the Civil War didn't escalate to violence, and May's Law got passed: It puts strict and harsh penalties on anyone who deliberately goes after a Superhero's friends and family but... There's a reason why the Parker kids quite famously go to the Jean Grey Institute and not a public school and it's not just because their dad teaches there."

"...I don't know what that is," Amity admitted.

"Hexside for mutant kids," Luz explained. "And a few other super kids, but mostly it's mutants."

"Okay."

"So like, I could be a Superhero now. Once I figure out what my powers are and how they work, and I like the idea of going out there and fighting the good fight and helping people in need but..." Luz trailed off.

"You don't want to put the people you care about at risk," Amity finished.

It was then that the girls noticed it was starting to get dark. Luz drew a couple of light glyphs so they'd be able to see properly when night fell.

"Eda should be getting here soon," Luz said aloud. She wasn't sure if she was reassuring Amity or herself.

"What if she doesn't?" Amity asked.

"She will," Luz insisted.

"But if she doesn't?"

"We'll cross that bridge when we get to it," Luz deflected.

Amity looked down. "If... If she doesn't find us, or if something else happens while we're out here and... I don't—"

"Amity, don't talk like that," Luz warned.

"Luz, planning for the worst-case scenario keeps me calm," Amity admitted with a cracked voice. It was then that Luz noticed the fear coming off of Amity, she'd been caught up in her own nerves about this situation that... She felt stupid.

"Okay."

"If I don't make it out of this, tell Willow that... Tell her that she was never too weak to be my friend, I was too weak for her, and that I'm sorry. For everything."

"Alright," Luz agreed. "But, it's not gonna come to that. You'll be able to tell her yourself."

"I know," Amity admitted, "but I just wanted to have a plan in case—"

It was then that the wind picked up outside, blowing snow everywhere.

"Something like that happens," Amity finished awkwardly.

"This is fine," Luz insisted.

Then the wind shifted, and a gale of ice-cold air blew into the cave with them.

On instinct, Luz threw herself in front of Amity and held the witch close and tight.

The sudden windstorm didn't last long, which was good. The bad news, however, was that it blew out the fire.

"This is fine," Luz repeated. "I can go out and get more wood and..."

"I don't think I can cast any more spells today," Amity admitted.

"We'll figure something out," Luz insisted. She looked out of the opening of the cave. Night had fallen during the windstorm. That was fine. The light spells she'd cast were still going, she could draw another light glyph to light her way outside.

Luz got up, drew the glyph, and handed the thermos to Amity. "I'm heading out, but the storm might have buried any sticks or branches I could have used for firewood so I could be a while. If you get too cold, drink more of the coffee."

Luz marched back out into the snow and did her best to find enough wood for a new fire. She succeeded, but it took a long time. She looked up at the sky, hoping to catch any sign of Eda about to swoop in on Owlbert.

No sign of her cool mentor, but something about the twinkling of the stars caught her eye.

"No way..." In the sky, formed as a constellation, was the Light Glyph. Was that what?  She scanned the sky for any others, but there was just the one glyph. "Still, if the ancient wild witches learned magic from the Isles then... The glyphs are found in nature!"

Luz, maybe a bit too excited, dragged the wood she'd managed to find back to the cave. Amity was a little jittery.

"How you holding up?" Luz asked.

"Fine. fine fine fine. Perfectly fine, fine as can be. I can't feel my legs. You have pretty eyes, do you wanna go—"

"Okay, two cups of my special brew is too much for you, noted," Luz quipped. "Hope I didn't get you addicted or anything."

Okay, build the fire, then figure out how to light it. Luz set down the sticks she'd found and looked closer at the pile of ash and charred wood that had been their first fire and... Wait.

In the ashes, dragged out when a stick was blown out by the wind, was...

Luz pulled out her phone, snapped a picture of the pattern, and copied it on her sketchpad.

After building the fire, she slapped the new drawing on it and activated the glyph, which caused the whole thing to quickly ignite.

"Second spell!" she declared proudly.

"Woo!" Amity exclaimed from behind her. "We're gonna, we're gonna be in the same classes then, huh? Not, not that that means anything changes... Hey we have this dance at Hexside next semester and—"

"Amity, breathe," Luz interrupted. "I know that it feels like you have endless energy right now but caffeine is a tenuous high. You're gonna crash soon so you need to conserve your energy."

Luz then looked at a spare stick she hadn't been able to fit into the bundle she'd made for the second fire, and got an idea. She grabbed it and walked back out into the snow.

"She's safe, is she?" Alador Blight asked with a glare as the lights from Edalyn's spells illuminated the massive hole in the ice and snow that someone or something had clearly fallen through.

"We don't know that this was them!" Edalyn defended. "It could have been a really fat manticor for all we know."

"Edalyn, if anything has happened to Mittens while you were watching her, the Emperor's Coven will be the least of your concerns," Alador threatened.

"When was the last time you talked to her?" Edalyn asked and Alador tried to focus more on the fact that she was missing than on how much of a punch to the bile sack that question was.

Off in the distance, a massive fireball erupted into the sky.

"Well," Edalyn deadpanned, "that's probably my apprentice."

Twenty minutes later, everyone, Mittens and Edalyn's apprentice included, was on the Blight airship heading back to Bonesborough. The twins had Mittens in a crushing hug while alternating between apologizing for the stunt with her diary and expressing relief and gratitude that she was more or less okay while the human girl stood awkwardly a little bit away from them.

Alador, however, was primarily focused on the makeshift splint around Mittens' leg. He glared at Edalyn.

"Fine," the wild witch muttered. "I'm a big enough witch to own it when I screw up, should have kept an eye on them. That doesn't undermine anything we talked about earlier, you'd better shape up at home." Eda said while gazing at Alador's children. "If she comes to my door looking for a safe place to hide again, then not only am I keeping her, I'll rat you out about the necklace. Don't know if Emperor Bonehead actually cares about things that were outlawed before he came to power but you need to mix illusion and oracle magic to pull that off and we all know how he feels about that."

"You'd take that risk?"

"If I know my sister," Edalyn countered, "she's so desperate for any kind of approval that she'd leap at the chance to get the praise that would come from rescuing a poor kid from a bad home. And if she ever gave half a dang about Boots she'll be quick to do anything to get her approval back, too."

"Lilith did ask us if we'd object if she bought Mittens a snake-pony not long after the covention," Alador admitted. "We turned her down, of course, but..."

"Well isn't that just classic Lilly," Eda said with a laugh. "Make a mistake and then try to 'fix it' without ever actually owning up. Anyway, Boots looks like she can't decide if she wants to bite your other kid's heads off or just give in and let them hug her so we should probably..."

The two adults approached the children just as familial affection won out over anger. Amity relaxed and said, "It's going to take a lot before I can ever trust you again."

"We'll do anything to make it up to you," Emira declared, Edric nodding along.

They finally let go of Mittens after that, and Alador's youngest looked up at him. He couldn't get over how tired she looked, despite how... Wired she'd been when they found her. What happened?

"I'm in a lot of trouble, aren't I?" She asked.

"...No," he declared. "I'm very concerned that you didn't feel safe to come home after the incident at school, but that's a talk for your mother and I. I'm just glad you're safe." It hurt that she looked genuinely surprised at that. "Once we get home, we'll get your leg looked at and get you something to eat... Do you still like pizza bagels?"

"The demon realm has pizza bagels!?" the human girl questioned.

This prompted Mittens to laugh and look at the human and... Huh. That's the way Alador himself used to look at Odalia before it became all about the business.

"Uh," Mittens then said while looking at Edalyn. "Miss Eda, if, if I'm going home I need my necklace back."

"No," Alador declared. "You won't be wearing that thing ever again."

If Mittens had been surprised at not being in trouble, now she was shocked. She suddenly looked nervously at the other occupants of the airship.

Edalyn, for her part, pulled the confused-looking human asside and started praising her. "You did good kid, you kept your head on in a crisis, made the connection with nature, and learned your second spell. First thing in the morning I'm gonna teach you about money laundering." That seemed to distract the girl.

Alador looked back to Mitten. "Like I said, when we get home I'm going to have a long talk with your mother."

Chapter Text

The following few days were weird for Amity. One of the first things that happened when they got home was her Dad taking her Mom asside to "talk" in his lab. Things got very loud, but Amity couldn't make out what exactly they were yelling about from her room.

An hour after that, a healer on a house call was led to her room and took a look at her leg. Luckily, her ankle had just gotten twisted by the bad landing, nothing was broken so it would only take a few days to heal once the healer's patch was on. she'd even be able to walk without support in the morning but needed to rest it overnight.

Dinner that night had been brought to her room by Edric, who apologized about her diary ten times before handing her a serving tray. A pizza bagel made from a full-sized bagel and a small bag of those spicy chips she liked. She hadn't had anything like that since she was a kid... She, she wasn't sure how she felt, but...

Sleep was fitful. Objectively, her fancy, expensive mattress was more comfortable than a pile of blankets on the floor but she felt more comfortable in that lived-in converted storage closet with her... Friend, Luz than she had in her own home for a while.

...Also, she suddenly thought about how she'd almost asked the human girl out twice while high on the potentially toxic brew that Luz called "coffee" just as she was falling asleep and the sheer mortification kept her awake for another hour.

The next morning, after testing that putting weight on her foot wouldn't make it hurt worse, she went down for breakfast and was surprised to find her Dad sitting with the family. Normally he took his meals in the lab. Her Mom looked mad. Over breakfast, Dad reiterated that Amity was not in trouble for running away and that she would not be wearing that necklace anymore. He then went on to explain that neither she nor Ed and Em would be assisting with product demonstrations for investors anymore, unless it was an emergency and then they would be paid an employee's wages for the night's work, and that he was cutting back on his hours at work because this whole incident had been a wake-up call for how out of touch he'd been lately. Amity wasn't sure how she felt about that, either...

But the fact that he was clearly trying to be supportive gave Amity enough courage to ask about keeping her hair down. Her Mom looked like she'd just eaten a raw bulb of garlic, but conceded on the grounds that Amity style it appropriately and dye it immediately so her brown roots didn't show.

Emira had immediately volunteered to take care of it and almost literally carried Amity back upstairs in order to get it done after breakfast, apologizing repeatedly for her diary. Amity was starting to get annoyed by how apologetic and protective her siblings were, but having them actually act like siblings for a change was nice and Emira... did do a pretty good job getting her hair in order. She liked what she did, even if part of her would have preferred any color other than green.

The rest of the morning had been spent on Penstagram. First she posted a status update that she was home and okay, then she went back through her timeline and made notes of rude things she'd said or posted. Amity had meant what she said about wanting to be nicer, which meant she'd have to apologize to some people. At last the ones she could apologize to and...

It became abundantly clear to her that most of the rude things she'd said or done had been directed toward Willow. She hadn't... Meant to single out her ex-friend or... Maybe she had. She'd wanted the other girl to hate her. Even things she'd done to try and encourage the girl were intentionally done to try and make the other girl try and spite her and... Maybe it was her fault that Willow felt the need to cheat? This... Was going to be harder than she thought.

That first afternoon had seen her escorted to Hexside. Her Mom had apparently called Principal Bumb and used her status as head of the Parent-Creature Association to arrange for Amity to sit for the midterms that she'd missed after she ran away. That took up most of the rest of the day, but Principal Bump had been very understanding of the situation and had discretely slipped her a pamphlet discussing mental health services provided by the school "just in case." He'd apparently already been at the school for an entrance exam. He said he wasn't at liberty to answer when she asked if it had been Luz, but gave a knowing smirk and said something about being pleased when his students worked out their differences and became friends.

The next morning, after threatening to glue Ed and Em to the ceiling if they didn't stop babying her and insisting that she didn't need a bodyguard, she went to the library to see if she still had a job. She was greeted by Maphas with a stack of "we miss you" drawings from the Kiddie Corner kids and a note that he'd taken the liberty of changing the opening mechanism of the secret study room to something that was harder to figure out how to get into, and that she could start up again as soon as she was ready. She'd taken her normal shift that afternoon and the hugs of happy children she received that day outweighed every other hug she'd ever received in her life... Not that it was that hard.

Also, Braxas had talked about how he'd had his daddy beat up the "Big Kids" who were mean to her and take them away to the "conformy-tory" so that explained Ed and Em's bruises.

It continued like that for a few days but eventually, the mid-term break ended, the new semester began, and Amity had to face the music.

Her loitering around the entrance before school officially started, her last bit of freedom before going in and seeing just how badly she was going to be mocked was rewarded when she was present for Luz's arrival. She approached just in time to hear the human saying something about how she was going to quit showering which Amity hoped was a joke, and then after biddeing her mentor farewell the human turned and saw her.

"Amity!" She greeted with a smile. The human girl then rushed over to her. "How are you? How's your leg? I like your new haircut."

"Fine and fine," Amity replied back. At least for now. "And thank you. Things are a little weird at home, but not bad. And uh, congratulations on getting in and not being in the baby classes."

Luz suddenly got a very sheepish expression on her face. "Uh, about that..."

"If you ended up in the baby classes somehow you better not use it as an excuse to show up to story time at the library," Amity insisted. "We can come up with better excuses to hang out."

"Oh, nothing like that, I'm in regular classes," Luz insisted. "It's just... I was helping Eda clean out her freezer and... Found a glyph in the frost in the back," she said while pulling out a pre-drawn one that conjured an ice block. "Eda swore up and down that it wasn't there the day before but... We might not have had to be in any danger at all. I'm so sorry."

This prompted Amity to laugh so hard that she almost fell and needed Luz to catch her.

"I'm sorry, I just... I think I needed that," she admitted when she was done. The absurdity of what Luz had just described had broken something in Amity and suddenly a whole lot of stress had melted out of her in the form of laughter. She smiled back at the human. "Luz, it's fine. Chances are you wouldn't have even noticed it if you hadn't had a chance to connect with nature... Or maybe the Titan just likes you."

"Yeah, well." the human girl began awkwardly. Amity then got a good look at her. Right now her Hexside uniform was the grey and white of an undecided student and Amity couldn't help but picture her in the different colors of the coven tracks and formed the idea that Luz would be cute in any of them. "Yeah," Luz finished lamely.

A small voice in the back whispered 'You don't need that bitter elixir, do you?' and Amity spoke up. "Um, Luz, would you like to go—" Suddenly a great deal of heat rose in her face and her brain switched tracks to 'don't screw up a good thing.' "And hang out. Later, after school? I'm free this afternoon."

"Sure!" Luz said with a smile. Luckily, she didn't seem to put together what Amity had almost said. "You wanna meet up here or go somewhere else and meet up there or...?"

"We'll figure it out later," Amity declared as her nerves suddenly failed her. "I should get inside!"

She then bolted into the building like the coward she was, passing a bemused Willow and... Amity needed to learn the name of Luz's other friend as they stood near the stairs at the entrance.

Amity managed to calm herself after getting to her locker, then braced herself for what she expected to be a day of ridicule. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

Opening her eyes, she was startled to see that Boscha, her three-eyed 'friend' had snuck up on her in the interim.

After recovering from her initial flinch, she braced herself for the worst. The pink-haired witch was obsessed with status and always on the prowl for any sign of weakness. Amity's only saving grace was that grudgby season didn't start until after Grom. Boscha was extra aggressive then. But still, whatever she did was going to be bad...

Except, Boscha wasn't doing anything. The silence was awkward, and Amit y could sense some strange feeling coming off of Boscha, something she wasn't familiar with but that she'd felt coming off of Ed and Em, her dad, and even Luz briefly. She couldn't name it but—

Amity's train of thought was derailed when Boscha did the last thing she ever expected the three-eyed witch to ever do: Pull her into a hug.

"I'm so glad you're okay," she said while Amity froze. After a moment, Bocha let go and reached into her bag. "So I wasn't able to round up everything, there are still a few pages missing, but..." Then the triclops handed Amity a bundle of papers that Amity immediately recognized as the pages from her diary. A tear came to her eye. "Hey now, don't go soft on me," Bocha said nervously, "it's not like I read them or anything."

"It's not that—"

"Okay, I read halfway through the one that was taped to my locker before I figured out what it was, but I stopped immediately and went on a rampage to get the other pages back," Boscha defended. "Now I wasn't able to get all of them and a few kids talked before I could threaten them so the whole school knows that you still like stories for little kids and about your bunny lunch sack but it's not any worse than that time you called the teacher 'mom' and I think the worst of it has blown over so dry those tears before someone sees you."

Amity wiped her eyes. "It's not that. I... You know how we started hanging out..."

"Because our moms were rivals in school and wanted an excuse to passive-aggressively brag about our accomplishments to each other as a way of keeping it going through us?" Boscha asked. "If I cared about that we wouldn't have been friends for this long."

"That's just it, I never really thought of you as a friend, I was just doing what was expected of me."

"Okay, ouch," Boscha deadpanned.

"And I... I'm sorry for thinking so little of you," Amity finished awkwardly.

"It's fine," Boscha declared with her signature eye-roll. "Has my besty been keeping anything else from me?"

"I don't like picking on people," Amity admitted. "I never have."

"Not ever Half-a-witch Willow?"

"Especially not Willow," Amity said. "And can we stop calling her that?"

"Fi~ine" Boscha whined like a child being told to eat their vegetables. "I'll try to dial it back."

"Thank you," Amity said with a smile. Then her nerves started getting to her again. "Um, which one was it that you read."

Boscha looked around quickly. "...The one about your crush on the human."

Amity noticed a brief tinge of anger mixed with sour sickness come off of Boscha, but it only lasted a moment, and the eruption of heat in her face meant that the only thing she could focus on was telling the three-eyed witch to "shush."

Boscha held up her hands defensively. "Hey, I get it. Of course, the Queen of Hexside has exotic tastes. So what is it that got your eye?" she asked with a mischievous grin. "The venom spay? The gills? The spinnerets?"

"Turns out that most humans don't have those," Amity explained.

"Really?" Boscha asked in genuine surprise. "Then what is it? She doesn't like those children's fantasy novels you rave about, does she?"

Amity very deliberately didn't respond.

"Oh my Titan," Boscha declared as if Amity had just confessed to beating up the wife of and stealing the kid of the world's greatest martial artist.

"It's not just that," Amity clarified. "It's... hard to explain but... she makes me feel safe and happy in a way that I haven't for a long time."

"Okay, I get that," Boscha acknowledged. Then she put an arm over Amity's shoulders. "Now rumor has it that she's starting at Hexside today so how about we go out and bag you a human?"

Amity started stammering. "Uh, right now? Like this? Today?"

"Uh, yeah," Boscha declared. "You want the human, you're getting the human."

"She has a name."

Boscha rolled her eyes. "Whatever, now come on."

A voice in the back of Amity's head, one that sounded suspiciously like her mother, whispered 'You don't deserve Luz.'

"I can't, not like this."

Boscha let go of Amity, turned to face her, and looked her in the eye. "I'm gonna tell you something that I have never told anyone else, and if you try to spread it around I'll deny it. I had a crush on someone once." Amity felt a brief twinge of what she could only describe as pain coming from the three-eyed witch. "But I waited too long to say anything, and she found someone else and Titan take me if I let that happen to you, so grit your teeth and bite the bullet, Blight. Before it's too late."

Amity looked down. "I don't want to... We've got a good thing going and it wasn't that long ago that I tried to... I don't want to mess this up."

"Amity, if she rejects you and it ruins whatever weird friendship you have," Boscha began, "then she didn't deserve you in the first place. And you'd know. Just ask her straight out."

"Okay, but... It has to be on my terms, got it?"

"Got it. Remember," Boscha finished, "I've got your back."

Unfortunately, there wasn't really a good time to ask Luz out during that first day... Because Luz somehow managed to get herself tossed in the detention track on her first day. Then Amity was pulled aside and asked to help with a demonstration for an inspector for the Emperor's Coven who, as it turned out, was actually a greater basilisk, a shapeshifting magic-eating snake demon that was supposed to be long extinct, who stole the magic from almost everyone in the school until Luz and a bunch of other detention trackers arrived to save the day and everyone's lives by crushing the magic back out of it. Afterward, she convinced Principal Bump to abolish the restrictions on track studies, allowing students to study multiple forms of magic. The multicolored uniform she was given to show that she was studying all of them was especially cute.

Okay, maybe she could have asked Luz out when they were hanging out that afternoon, but the excitement of the basilisk attack and Luz's heroic actions left her too emotionally drained to work up the nerve and instead, she simply asked Luz to teach her more about the human world.

...That had been a mistake. Luz's lecture on the different types of superhumans had been interesting for the most part, but the description of those 'symbiotes' complete with the sketch of that one serial killer gave her a nightmare that night. She vowed to never let Luz find out about it.

On the upside, Luz had given her a device from the human world that would let them stay in touch since the human's "phone" couldn't connect to what Luz had called the "witch internet" or the Crow network, while the same could be said of Scrolls and communication crows for human means of communication. Small, handheld, and shaped like something that Luz had called a "Tamagotchi," the device allowed strange, hieroglyphic symbols that Luz called "emoji" to be "texted" to its mate as a means of communication. Admitted, Amity had no idea what it meant at first, mistaking the short phrase "U R COOL" for a command until Luz explained that most of the symbols could be substituted for letters when the device was turned sideways though some of them were just what they looked like.

The next few days had progressed as normal but on the day when she finally worked up the nerve to ask Luz out, school was canceled due to a pixie infestation and that just took it out of her completely.

Back to the drawing board, work up the nerve for a few days, and...

Amity wanted to do it, but Luz was hanging out with Willow and that would be really awkward. So instead Amity stood in the distance and watched while Luz taught Willow how to duel human style, which involved holding hands and waggling your thumbs against each other. Skara, the bard student of Amity and Bocha's little circle, was handing out invitations to her fifteenth birthday party, but Amity wasn't paying much attention to that.

Boscha looked from the scene Luz and Willow were making back to Amity. "You're seriously in love with that dork?" She whispered.

"She's not that bad," she whispered back. "And could you keep it down, I don't want anyone to know until I'm ready to..."

"Right, right... I mean, okay, I get it, the heart wants what it wants but I can't help but feel that this would be a lot easier if it was someone who didn't spend so much time with Ha... With Willow."

"Didn't you used to be friends with Willow?" Skara asked Amity far too loudly, drawing the attention of several people in the hallway including Luz and Willow.

Amity's first instinct had been to deny or deflect but... She meant what she said on the Knee about wanting to be better. It wasn't much, but it'd be a start. "Yes," she replied bluntly.

The look of bewilderment on Willow's face at Amity's admission stung Amity's heart. The plant witch just stared at her until Luz reminded Willow that it was memory photo day in photography class and dragged her off.

Amity and Boscha had their next class together as well, though it was awkward as gears visibly turned in the three-eyed witch's head, but she seemed to be over it as class ended and they made their way to the cafeteria... But then they passed the open door of the photography room and something caught Amity's eye.

"Whatcha looking at, Blight?" Boscha asked. "Is there a ghost in Photography class? Are they cute?"

"Uh, no..."

"Wait, your human said something about memory photos. You caught a glimpse of your crush as a little humanling and you want a closer look?"

"...Yes!" Amity lied. "So um, you go along ahead, I'll catch up with you in a bit."

"Don't take too long!" Boscha playfully warned as she walked off and Amity approached the photo that had actually caught her eye.

A picture of herself and Willow as small children. Amity was hugging Willow tightly. That had been both the happiest and sadest day of her life.

A month ago, she would have tried to hide the photo, maybe even destroy it if it being a memory slipped her mind, but...

She pulled the strange human device from her bag and typed out a message, "IM READY"

A few minutes later, Luz replied. "GREENHOUSE AFTER SCHOOL"

Amity got to the greenhouse first and paced around nervously, alternating between making sure her hair was straight and clutching at the hem of her tunic hard enough that her knuckles turned white as she paced. This was...

She was finally going to clear the air with Willow and she was terrified.

'It's not too late to run,' a treacherous part of her mind whispered.

"Shut up brain!" she hissed.

She heard some movement from outside the greenhouse and stopped with her fussing, turning to face the door just as it opened and Luz stepped in followed by Willow. Strong built, chubby, muscular, braided-haired Willow.

Who saw Amity and turned absolutely livid. This was already going poorly.

"Luz, I said no schemes!" she exclaimed while looking towards the human.

Luz's shoulders fell as she looked skyward and whined "But it's no~ot! Amity asked me to help her talk to you weeks ago!"

Willow turned back to Amity and it was like something had broken in the other girl. Amity had never even conceived that sweet, nurturing Willow could be that mad but... Amity didn't need her abnormal talent to feel the rage coming off of Wilow.

"Okay, you wanna talk? You can start by explaining this." Willow then tossed a crumpled-up piece of paper to Amity.

It'd been a bit since Amity quit the grudgby team, but her skills weren't so rusty that she couldn't catch a simple toss. Unfolding it, Amity recognized it as a page from her diary. Specifically, the entry she'd written the day of the 'fake abomination incident.'

"What?" Willow asked. "Can't read your own handwriting? It says 'I don't know how to feel about today. Willow cheated. Got some weird... Person(?) to slather abomination slime on themselves and pretend to be her homework. Professor Hermunculus fell for it and not only gave her an A+, but he took my top student badge and gave it to her after just one good grade. I will admit that I lost my head and acted in a manner most unbecoming'—understatement of the century—'especially since today is also when I found out that the Top Student badge is just something Professor Hermunculus does and I'm the only one that cares, which made me feel really stupid'" Willow snorted. "'But... After everything was exposed and Willow and her accomplice bolted, Willow used plant magic. Strong plant magic, I had no idea she was ever that powerful or talented, and Principal Bump was so impressed that instead of punishing her for cheating, he transferred her to the plant track. I'm angry that she cheated and that her accomplice made a fool of me, but at the same time I can't help but be proud of her. I wish I could tell her.'"

Willow had recited the diary entry word for word, which meant she'd read it enough to memorize it.

"You told me, when we were little, that you couldn't be friends with me anymore because I was too weak," Willow continued. "You spent years mocking me and belittling me. Calling me half-a-witch and letting your new friends do worse. And now all of a sudden you're proud of me? And you admitted that we used to be friends today when you'd always denied it if it came up before ...I remember how happy you looked when I showed up to your birthday party. Ten minutes later you stabbed me in the heart... Have the last six years been... Some kind of sick game!? Or am I just finally strong enough and you think I'll just come crawling back if you stopped acting like that all I ever was was a mess on your bootheel?"

Amity had expected this to be a hard conversation, but... She hadn't thought about just how badly Willow would have been hurt. She knew she'd hurt her, but...

"No," Amity began. "It's... not... I..." Great, now her mouth wasn't working. She was suddenly intimately aware of how fast her heart was beating, the walls were melting away and she knew she was on the verge of another tan—meltdown.

Then something snapped her back to her senses before she could completely lose herself. She hadn't even noticed that she'd brought her hand up to her mouth until Willow grabbed her wrist. The other witch didn't seem... as mad.

"Please don't," the other witch begged sadly.

"...What?"

"You'd always bite yourself when you were super upset about something," Willow explained. "I always hated it when you'd do that and... You've got all your grown-up fangs now, right? It'll really hurt if you do it now."

Amity took a deep breath and when Willow let go of her backed up into one of the walls and slid down it. She hadn't expected Willow to sit down next to her.

"I'm sorry. I'll listen," the other witch said.

"Don't, I deserved all of that and more... I... A lot's happened over the past few weeks, and..." Amity swallowed and continued. "I've been rethinking my life, and I'm not happy with any of my choices. I want to do something about that, and it starts with telling you the truth. I wasn't... supposed to invite you to my birthday party that year. My Mom had made up a guest list of kids that she wanted me to socialize with. The children of people she wanted to network with, or that she worked with. Our kind of people... she didn't care that I didn't like those kids, that they were mean. She never liked that I liked hanging out with a kid who was only upper-middle class. But, it was my birthday, and I wanted my best friend there..." Amity trailed off for a moment and she worked up the nerve for the next part. "Mom was mad, and Dad just enabled her like he always did. She took me asside and gave me an ultimatum: If I didn't break off our friendship, she'd make sure you never got into Hexside and... Even though I was little, I knew that if that didn't work that she'd do... Something else." Amity knew where the bodies were buried. Sometimes literally.

"Why didn't you just say that?" Willow asked.

"Because I'm a coward." It was as simple as that, really. "I didn't know how to tell you that you'd been banished from my life even though you hadn't done anything wrong and, and when you asked if it was because you still couldn't do magic... I panicked. I figured that it'd be easier if you hated me, and..."

"I never hated you," Willow replied. "I've had so much anger bottled up in me for so long and... Sometimes I was mad enough that I wanted to hurt you, but even when it was that bad I never hated you."

"Willow, I'm so sorry. About everything," Amity finished. "I wasn't strong enough to stand up for you or brave enough to tell you the truth and I spent all this time hurting you and—"

"Amity," Willow interrupted, "I forgive you."

"Wha, uh... I was... I don't deserve—"

"Maybe you don't, maybe you do," Willow interrupted again. "You were in a bad place and you made a bad choice. But that... You were just a kid. How is a kid that age supposed to stand up to her parents of all people? And... I'm sick of carrying this anger around."

"I don't know how much clout I really have at school anymore," Amity began, "but I'll try and make sure that nobody picks on you ever again."

"It's mostly just you and Boscha, really," Willow admitted. "And Boscha's backed off since this semester started..."

"Yeah, I already talked to her about... I never liked picking on people."

"Thanks for that."

"So... Where do we go from here?" Amity asked. "I know we can never be friends again but—"

"Who told you that?" Willow interrupted for a third time. "I don't think we can ever have what we had, but if you want to be friends again... This is a good start."

The next few moments were a blur, but Amity could distinctly recall hugging and crying. Eventually, they composed themselves, and that just left one thing.

Luz had been standing at the entrance to the greenhouse the whole time, awkwardly, and now that the situation with Willow had been resolved, Amity could feel what she was pretty sure was some kind of anxiety radiating off of the poor human.

"So um, are you two good now?" She asked with a forced smile.

Amity looked at Willow, who nodded., so Amity looked back to Luz and replied. "Yeah, we're good."

"Okay," the human girl replied with more awkwardness. "I'm gonna... Eda's probably wondering where I am so..."

"You can go," Amity replied. "And, thanks for being here."

"I didn't do anything."

"You did enough," Amity said with a smile.

Luz smiled back before leaving Amity and Luz alone in the greenhouse.

"She's a good friend," Willow chirped.

"Yeah," Amity agreed. "She is."

"...You're in love with her, aren't you?" Willow asked suddenly.

"Who told!?" Amity snapped as the heat rose to her face.

"I was there when you almost asked her out at the beginning of the semester," Willow explained with a shrug. "And she's described you as a 'very blushy person' so... You'd be cute together," Willow acknowledged.

"Thanks," Amity replied awkwardly.

"But just because we're good now that doesn't mean I won't throw hands if you hurt her," Willow warned.

"Yeah, that's fair," Amity agreed. "I was actually planning to ask her out today but then I saw your photo of us together and..."

"I told her no schemes!" Willow exclaimed.

The greenhouse was silent for a moment, and then both witches laughed. It felt so good to laugh with Willow again.

But still... Amity would have to work up the nerve to ask Luz out all over again... Grom was coming up. That would be the perfect time to bite the bullet.

Chapter Text

A week or two after 'helping' Amity and Willow mend their friendship, Luz discovered a fourth glyph in the leaves of one of Eda's potted plants and that glyph let her conjure plants, which was cool.

...Then she decided to experiment, and see if her shadow powers had a consistent interaction with the glyphs. They did, they made all of them explode. Ice and Fire blew up bigger than light, while Plant was more of a firecracker than a grenade, but the type of explosion all looked the same and Luz wasn't interested in seeing if they affected magic all the same.

Once she was done with that, Willow and Gus arrived to walk with her on the way to school. Proving that Luz could be somewhat oblivious to things that didn't catch her interest, it was only now the day before that she found out about Grom, the demon world's weirdo version of prom-slash-social event of the season as far as Hexside students were concerned... Despite realizing that there were posters up for it and that Amity had mentioned something about a dance at Hexside this semester when she had her little caffeine high back on the Knee.

But, now that she knew about it, Luz was excited. She'd gotten kicked out of her last school dance for wearing that otter costume she'd let Amity borrow but in a place like the demon realm, a weirdo like her could be Grom Queen.

She'd expressed just that idea and was warned that being Grom Queen wasn't something people usually volunteered for by Willow but before she could ask what that meant someone ran into her.

"Watch it—I mean, sorry!" Came a familiar voice.

"Hey Amity," Luz greeted as she turned to help her friend pick up her spilled books.

"Uh, hey Luz and... Friends of Luz," Amity acknowledged with an awkward grin. From the corner of her eye, Luz could see Willow give a friendly wave and Gus a smile.

Luz picked up a folded sheet of pink paper and held it out for Amity. "Here, your note."

Amity's face flushed red and she quickly reached out to take it, only to stop just before her fingertips made contact. Amity then took a deep breath. "Bite the bullet," she whispered. "Actually," she continued as she pulled her hand back and... Uh oh, she was clutching the hem of her tunic. "The note is for you."

"Okay," Luz said with cheer as she tried to hide that she'd noticed Amity's nervousness. She wasn't sure what she was expecting but what she read made her freeze.

"Luz, will you go to Grom with me? Amity," written in big, fancy letters on pink paper.

Did... Did she mean as friends? No, there would be no reason for Amity to be nervous if that's what she'd meant, or for the note. She could have just asked straight out.

No, the fancy pink note asking one very simple question could only mean that Amity... Liked Luz. Like, like liked her.

Which raised the question.... did Luz like Amity back? Like like her?

Luz liked girls. She was Bi. Even if she wasn't out at home, Luz still liked boys and girls, which meant she liked girls. But did she like Amity?

Amity was pretty, smart, classy, sophisticated, and cool. And she was an excellent friend, once you got to know her, even if her mean old mother had tried to make her mean. What wasn't there to like? And Luz liked spending time with Amity, she was fun to be around and they shared interests, and Amity was so interested in what Luz had to say unlike anyone else that Luz had ever liked that way, and thinking back maybe... That impromptu sleepover when Amity had run away from home didn't count as a date, did it? 'focus Luz!'

So yeah. Luz guessed that she did like like Amity.

Which brought her to the final question. Why did Amity like like Luz? Most people thought that Luz was weird, or creepy, or cheesy. She'd confessed to other people she'd liked like that and was always rejected, or made fun of... What was there to like like about her?

Luz was about to ask Amity if she was sure when she realized Amity was gone.

"Luz, you alright? Boiling Isles to Luz," her young friend Gus asked.

"Uh, yeah, what happened?"

"You went perfectly still when you read Amity's note, then Principal Bump went on the intercom to announce that Amity was Grom Queen. She ran off after that."

"Oh, cool, did you see which way she went?" Luz asked.

"I think she was heading toward the gym," Gus replied.

"Okay, thanks, bye!" Luz declared as she sprung to her feet and ran after Amity.

"Okay," Luz muttered to herself quietly as she made it to the gym, "this isn't such a big deal. I'll talk to Amity, ask if she's sure she wants to go to Grom with me of all people, if she is, we'll go, I'll dance with the queen, and we'll figure out where to go from there, I totally won't throw up a tummy full of butterflies," Luz noticed that she was anxiously stamping her feet and made herself stop. That's when she noticed a small podium with a big, shiny red button on it.

"I know I shouldn't," Luz declared, "but if I don't I'm gonna be wondering about it all day and I can't afford that kind of distraction right now so.... Boop!" she declared as she pushed the button.

A loud stone-grinding noise greeted her in response, and turning back she saw that the gym floor was pulling back to reveal some kind of ancient crypt and two walls of weapons next to the ramp that led down into it. Nobody seemed surprised that it was there, though Principal Bump, or at least that werd Imp Demon he wore as a hat, gave her a slightly annoyed glare before shrugging it off. Okay, so she wasn't in trouble, so...

"So ancient tombs and medieval weaponry are a weird choice for a dance theme but who am I to judge? Maybe all demon realm school dances are like this."

"No, just Grom."

Luz turned to see Amity had come up next to her and Luz immediately realized that something was wrong. If the fact that Amity had obviously been crying didn't tip her off, the waves of sadness her ESP was picking up from the girl were... It was then that Luz realized that her ESP only seemed to pick up bad emotions. Well, that was one way to maintain super-speciation if she and Amity ever formed their own super-team in the future. Uh, Dang it, she kept getting distracted.

"Amity, are you al—" Luz was distracted by something gooey, dark purple, and slithery crawl across the shadowed, far end of the crypt-thingy. "What the heck was that?"

"That's Grom," Amity explained in a shakey voice. "Or Gromethus the Fear-Bringer. It's some ancient eldritch thing that's been trapped here for centuries. It takes the form of whatever your worst fears are. It can't be killed, but if you destroy its body it takes a year to regenerate and try to escape again. As Grom Queen, my duty is to step into that arena and prevent it from trying to escape this year."

Luz blinked. "Why is that a student's job?"

Amity shrugged. "Tradition?"

"Are... You gonna be alright?" Luz asked. She was confused, it didn't feel like Amity was scared, but...

"I'll be fine," Amity insisted. "Grom Royalty is chosen on merit of who the strongest and most skilled fighter is among the eligible students, and my worst fear has already happened so there's nothing that Gromethus can do to hurt me."

"Are you sure?" Luz asked. "Because tradition or not it'll take me like, twenty minutes to pop back into the human realm, call the Avengers Hotline, get in touch with Doctor Strange, and ask him to come back here and deal with Gromethus for you. I know you don't like sorcerers but this kind of thing is like, literally his job."

Admittedly, that would blow the fact that she wasn't at summer camp like she was supposed to be, and revealing to her mother that she'd been lying to her all this time was not something she was looking forward to, but she'd face that music for Amity and... Okay, yeah. For absolute certain, she did like like Amity. That was something.

"That would... Probably not go over well. I'd look like I was running from my duties and... Could he get here by tomorrow night? Maybe talk with Principal Bumb about it after the dance but... I'm sure, I have to face this and I'll be fine."

"Are you sure?" Luz asked again. She couldn't shake the feeling that something was terribly, terribly wrong.

"I'm sure," Amity insisted finality.

"Okay." With that, Luz moved on to a previous topic. Maybe this was a bad time, but maybe Amity would feel better for whatever was making her sad if she knew that Luz wanted to go to the dance with her and would be cheering her on while she beat that monster like it owed her money. "So... about that note...?"

"I should go!" Amity declared. "Grom Royalty gets the day off to prepare, I need to make sure I'm ready."

Amity then bolted, just like she'd done right after asking to hang out on the first day of...

"Wow, I'm dumb."

Getting through classes had been hard. Luz normally did very well at Hexside, even with the workload that had come with studying all nine Coven Tracks, but today she couldn't focus, and not for the normal reasons. Luz just couldn't stop thinking about how sad Amity was and how she didn't get a chance to answer the Grom proposal and the general feeling that something was very wrong.

Also, Amity's friend Boscha kept glaring at her in potions class for some reason.

Eventually, the day of classes ended and she started her way back to the Owl House. She wasn't sure what to do now and could really use some advice from a crusty old witch.

"Hey, Luz!" Hooty greeted her as she reached the front door. "How does 'Amuz' sound?"

"Like amuse," Luz replied on reflex. "Could you let me in?"

Hooty swung the door open without further complaint and Luz went in and started looking for Eda, eventually finding her... In a man's brown suit from the human world with King helping her fit it.

"What did I just walk in on?" She asked.

"Oh, Luz, Bumpypoo asked me to chaperone Grom this year," Eda declared.

"And Gus asked me to Co-MC the fight!" King declared happily.

"Oh, cool," she said hesitantly. "So about the fight..."

"Who's the sacrifice this year?" Eda asked.

"Sacrifice!?"

"It's an expression, Luz, calm down and... It's not you, is it?" Eda. "If Bumpikins is making you fight Grom, I'll have to introduce him to my friend Mister Woodchipper."

"No, Amity is Grom Queen," Luz explained.

"Really?" Eda begged with disappointment. "What's the fun in watching a kid fight a monster if it's one of my kids!?"

"And I'm really concerned—Wait, what?"

"Chances are, Odalia's not gonna bend so something's gonna break at Stately Blight Manor," Eda explained. "I've already told Alador that if Boots ends up here looking for a safe place to hide again I'm keeping her."

"...That might get awkward," Luz observed. "But uh... I'm a little concerned. Amity's sad about something and she insists that she's going to be fine, but..."

Eda got down to look Luz in the eye. "Okay kid, Boots is strong. She can handle Grom, and Bump takes all kinds of precautions so even if grumpy old Gromethus throws her a curve ball... well, as Chaperone part of my job will be to finish the creep off if her Highness can't pull it off. I won't let anything bad happen to her."

"Okay, but..." Luz trailed off.

"Would it help if I walked you through how this normally goes?" Eda asked.

"Maybe?"

"Okay, so there's this huge mythology around Grom, but the truth is that it's just a base, hungry animal," Eda began. "I'm not gonna say it's mindless because it can actually be pretty smart... but in the way that crafty predator is smart, not the way a person is. Grom runs on instinct and it likes to play with its food, so it almost never goes straight for a worst fear unless it's forced to go for a new target midway through the fight. You with me so far?"

"Yeah."

"Usually what happens comes in four rounds, rarely it gets to five and if Boots can avoid letting Grom touch her she might be able to cut it short," Eda continued. "It usually starts with something small and mundane, more of an annoyance than a fear like... a food you hate, or someone who likes to start arguments for the sake of starting arguments. Nobody ever falls for it, but Grom doesn't really have the kind of creativity needed to change it up. Round two tends to be more serious, but also kind of fantastical. Maybe something you saw in a scary movie or an intrusive thought you had as a kid."

"Like human souls trapped in cat bodies?" Luz asked with a shudder.

"I suppose," Eda agreed. "Round three is where it gets to the stuff that really gets you, really existential stuff. A parent you don't want to disappoint maybe, or the idea of growing old... It's nasty, but it tends to be abstract enough that you can power through it. The hard part is what happens if Grom grabs you: Grom is telepathic, but it needs to make contact to get really deep in your mind. If Grom gets a good hold on the King or Queen, that's when it becomes what you're most afraid of and that's different for everyone. Cue round four."

"And if it doesn't touch you?"

"Well, if that year's royalty are good, it's because they beat Grom in round three. If not, it'll usually try to go all out with something visceral and terrifying, maybe something from a recent nightmare, and go full-on offensive to try and make contact and then switch to worst-fear mode mid-round. But Grom can still be defeated at this point before that happens."

"Now, a lot of former Kings and Queens have said that facing their worst fears like that actually makes them feel relieved," Eda continued. "Something about confronting the thing that you're most afraid of while your classmates are cheering you on has a healing effect, but if Boots isn't feeling up to it that's where I step in."

"You said that sometimes it gets to five rounds?" Luz asked.

"It's rare, but if the Royalty overcomes their worst fear without destroying Grom's body, it assumes its true form, which is just a big purple goo monster with spidery legs and a gatorlike mouth. Intimidating, but compared to your worst fear it's nothing. That's how you know you have Grom on the ropes, and at this point, despite all its bluster it tends to be wide open for a finishing attack."

Luz wasn't convinced. "And this is how it always goes?"

"Almost always," Eda replied. "Boots is gonna be just fine," she reassured. Eda then looked more closely at Luz. "That's not the only thing eating you, is it?"

"Um, no..." Luz began awkwardly. "Um, before Amity was announced as Grom Queen she um... Asked if I'd be her date."

"Finally!" King exclaimed from his perch next to Eda's dressing mirror.

Luz blinked. "What?"

"It's obvious that she likes you, Luz," the tiny King of Demons declared. "Even I saw it. Hooty's been shipping you two ever since she stayed the night here."

Luz blinked. "Is that why he asked me what I thought about Amuz?"

"Oh, that's better than the 'cute couple name' he came up with last week," Eda quipped. "Luzity sounds like an herbal supplement you'd see an ad for at three in the morning. 'Are you fat and ugly? Try Luzity. We can't tell you it'll help you lose weight but look at this before and after. Did he lose it? Eee-yep!'" Eda finished in a mockery of an announcer's voice.

"Hooty!" Luz shouted at the top of her lungs. "Shipping real people is cringe!"

"Don't care!" the House Demon shouted back. "But is that a no on Amuz!?"

"Am I the only one who didn't know?" Luz asked Eda and King, ignoring the bird tube.

"Eee-yep!" Eda repeated. "Okay, she asked you to Grom, what did you say?"

"Nothing, I read her note and froze up," Luz explained. "My thoughts were going too fast, I was surprised that some—that Amity even liked me that way, I was trying to sort out how I felt about being asked, and once that was done I noticed that Amity was gone and Gus said she'd been named Grom Queen while I was out of it."

"Uh oh," Eda said with a grimace.

"Yeah, Uh oh!" Luz explained. "I went after her and found her but... That's when I found out what Grom was really about and we sort of got distracted talking about that. When I tried to bring up the note she ran off saying she needed to prepare."

Eda looked thoughtful for a moment. "Okay Luz, so Boots asked you to go to Grom with her. So the question is... Do you wanna?"

Luz could only nod.

"You like her the way she likes you?"

"I think so..."

"Then tell her!" Eda declared. "Go to her house and tell her."

"Okay!" Luz agreed. "Where's her house?"

"Blight Manor is on the other side of... Excuse me," Eda reached around the back of Luz's head and pulled back a massive spider that Luz hadn't even noticed was on her. "You gonna eat this?"

Luz shook her head. "You know what, I'll ask directions in town," and fled the room.

Blight Manor was... a Manor. Big, but sterile. At first, she tried just knocking on the door, but an abomination in a bow tie answered and moaned "No... Solicitors..." at her and slammed the door in her face.

So then Luz decided to try and go around the house, to see if she could find which room was Amity's, and when she noticed the weird sad feeling she'd sensed from Amity earlier and followed it she found she could see Amity passing back, and forth before a big, open-swinging balcony window.

Luz briefly wracked her brain on how to get the other girl's attention before remembering the Tamagotchi-like devices that she'd found in Eda's pile of unsold junk. She'd given one of the weird symbol texting things to Amity.

So she sent the other girl a message. "NEED 2 TALK LOOK OUTSIDE"

Through the window, Luz saw Amity pull hers from her pocket... Then rush out of sight.

Luz spent the next few minutes alternating between looking at the window and at her... she was just gonna call it an emoji texter, until she was interrupted by a greeting of "Hey, Luz."

Luz turned to see Amity's older sister. "Hey, Emira. Your bruises are healing up nicely."

"Thanks..." Emira acknowledged. "Look, Mittens doesn't want to talk to anyone right now, and she very carefully emphasized 'anyone' so..."

"But it's important!" Luz insisted.

"I know," Emira said with an apologetic grimace, "and I know you mean well, you're a good friend for her, but Ed and I are still on really thin ice with her... I'm honestly surprised that she trusts me enough to play bouncer. If I let you see her... I'm sorry."

Luz glanced back up at the window.

"...You're thinking about scaling the wall to talk to her, aren't you?" Emira asked.

"...No," Luz lied. "...Did, did I do something wrong?"

"No, I don't think you did," Emira insisted, "but Amity's not in a good place right now. I think this whole Grom Queen business is getting to her more than she wants to admit."

"Something's wrong and I don't know what," Luz insisted. "But she... She asked me something and I think she might feel a little better if I give her my answer."

"The way she is right now," Emira explained, "I don't think she's ready to listen. It might be best to wait until after Grom."

Luz wanted to shout that it would be too late by then, but... "Okay. Just..."

Luz texted Amity another message. "SORRY TALK WHEN U R READY"

"Um, you wouldn't happen to know what Amity's favorite flowers are, would you?" Luz asked Emira while holding up one of her new plant glyphs.

Naturally, Luz told Eda that just telling Amity had not worked out and why, and Eda's response had been a grimace and a note to try and be there for Amity if the other girl would let her, then said something about having to make a couple of crow calls in private.

That did not, in any way, leave Luz feeling any less concerned. She spent the rest of the evening and much of the next day glued to her texter waiting for any sign of Amity until finally, just an hour before the dance she got a message. "THANKS 4 FLOWERS" followed shortly afterward by "SEE YOU AT GROM"

That was encouraging, but it wasn't an "I'm ready to talk."

So, Luz got ready for the dance. She wasn't sure whether to go with the 'quirky girl tux' or a proper dress, so she split the difference with the shirt and coat from a tux with purple tights, the skirt from a tutu, and a practical pair of boots. She also slicked her hair back.

The plan was to try and talk to Amity before she stepped into the arena and just give the other girl her support. Apparently, the real party didn't start until after Grom was defeated so there'd be time to talk to Amity after she sent the monster packing and thus when things were calmer.

In the early stages of the dance, she just loitered near the door. Partially because Grom Royalty supposedly always made an entrance right before the fight, which meant loitering outside the door, and so that was the best chance she'd get to talk to Amity and partly because Boscha was still glaring at her, and boy, that girl was mad about something.

"Hey Luz," rang out a duo of voices, and Luz turned to see Edric and Emira.

"Hey Ed, hey Em," Luz greeted. "You two get stood up?"

"No," Edric declared with a defeated tone, "we never had dates in the first place."

"Turns out nobody wants to go out with the jerks who tried to publically humiliate their baby sister," Emira added.

"Speaking of," Luz changed the subject. "Where is she? How is she?"

"She'll be here in a second," Edric declared. "She's trying to do a little last-minute psyche-up."

"As for how she is," Emira began, "well the flowers helped a little. She told Ed and I what her problem was..."

"...and?" Luz asked.

"She made us promise not to tell anyone," Edric answered. "Especially not you," he said with a weird emphasis, "and even if we think a few other people knowing might be for her own good..."

Emira elbowed him in the stomach. "The last time we thought that... Well, you saw how that turned out." What Luz was pretty sure was shame and guilt radiated off of both twins.

"We managed to talk her out of her worst-case scenario, then Dad came in, said he'd heard about her being Grom Queen, and asked her how she felt about it," Edric said while rubbing at his belly.

"He told her that he was proud of her regardless and said that if she didn't feel up to facing Grom he'd back her up. That he'd call the school and say she'd come down with a sudden case of the common mold or something," Emira continued.

"Mittens said she'd sleep on it, and after talking it over a few more times today said she wanted to go through with it," Edric finished.

"That's good," Luz said.

"What's good?" Came a familiar voice.

Luz turned to see Amity who... Was she always that pretty? She was wearing a lilac-colored dress with matching socks, a black vest, a knee-length burgundy skirt, and black heels.

"Just that... Just that you're here," Luz answered with a smile. She could feel that Amity was... less sad, but she looked nervous. "How are you?"

"Better," Amity admitted. "Thanks again for the flowers. How did you know I liked lavender?"

"Lucky guess!" Luz declared while very carefully not looking at Emira, who had said not to say where she'd learned it from.

"So... About what you wanted to talk about...?" Amity started awkwardly.

Luz held up a hand. "Hey, if you're still not ready it can wait. You've got a monster to slay, Queen."

As if on cue, the noise in the gym went silent and Gus, working the mic, could be heard. "Alright everyone, it's time for the main event. Everyone clear the floor as we open up the arena and now I'm gonna hand things off to my co-host King!"

Stepping closer to the door, Luz could see King take the stage as Gus walked off and the area she'd gotten a peak at the previous afternoon revealed itself.

"Um, Hello Hexside... How is..." Kind audibly gulped and... Wait, did he have stage fright? "Excuse me a moment," he begged and then walked off stage, returning moments later with the 'crown of power' that Luz had helped him retrieve from the Conformatorium. "Alright Hexside, I'm King, King of Demons, and I'm here to give you a play-by-play on how this is going down... Going down like Glandus and St. Epiderm come Gudgby season, am I right?"

That was lame, but it got the expected cheers so if it works it works.

"In a moment, your chosen champion is gonna step down into the arena and show mean old Grometheus the Fear-Bringer not to mess with Hexside!"

More cheering. Maybe that crown did give King power... Did confidence count as a power?

"So without further ado," King declared, "you all know her, some of you love her, some of you hate her, but it can't be denied that whatever it is, she's got it, your Grom Queen... Amity Blight!"

"Wish me luck," Amity whispered before making her entrance.

"You've got this," Luz whispered just before Amity got too far to hear.

Once Amity made it to the walls of weapons, Luz and the Blight twins followed in and took position to see the fight. Amity selected a large, double-bladed battle axe before stepping onto the ramp down and Luz felt the heat rise to her face when Amity took a moment to mug for the crowd with her choice of weapon.

"Ooh, Look's like Amity's gone with an old favorite, the two-handed battle axe is the perfect blend of efficiency and brutality!" King cheered. "Grom won't know what hit it!"

A figure emerged from the shadows at the far end of the arena.

"Ooh, looks like the battle's started folks," King narrated, "and it appears that... Is that a skullapeño pepper?"

It was, in fact, a pepper the size of Amity. It resembled a jalapeño, but black with a stylized white skull on the front. The skull animated, like a projection on a screen.

"The chips you like were discontinued," it spoke with a voice like a stereotypical moaning ghost. "Now to get that delicious flavor you have to actually put pieces of us in your mouth, ooooooh!"

Amity's body language emitted rather strong 'are you kidding me' energy before she took her axe in both hands and splintered the offending vegetable with a single chop. The resulting chunks melted into goo and retreated into shadow.

The crowd cheered, and Luz threw her own voice in. "Woo, Go Amity!"

"So I don't know what that was about but it looks like your Queen is off to a good start," King declared.

There was movement in the shadows as a large figure emerged this time. A very large figure.

Like, 'barely fit in the arena' large.

Soon afterward the movement stopped and it became clear that the figure was a massive, bluish-purple serpent.

"Alright folks," King narrated, "if I recall my roommate-slash-major general's reading-slash-raving correctly, Grom has taken the form of the Gildersnake, the main bad guy of the first book in the Good Witch Azura series. I know he looks scary, but the Gildersnake has one weakness..."

Amity responded to Grom's new form by repeatedly blasting it with her fire-conjuring spell not unlike Azura in the climax of the book in question.

"...Dying!"

It took only a few blasts before Grom retreated into the shadows once more, to the cheers of the crowd.

"Since when can Mittens conjure fire?" Emira asked.

"Since the Knee," Luz replied.

"She learned without a training wand?" Edric asked.

"Eda thinks she just needed a boost in confidence."

"Looks like Grom is coming back for round three!" King declared as a witch stepped out of the shadows.

The witch in question was vaguely middle-aged, slightly heavily built, with green hair done up the way Amity's hair had been before she ran away.

"Now Mittens," the witch declared but... There wasn't the affection in the nickname that was there when the twins used it. In this witch's mouth, it sounded condescending. "You're making a fool of your—"

Whatever the witch was going to say, she didn't get to finish because Amity charged and smacked her with the broadside of her axe, sending her flying into a wall where she slumped down and melted back into Grom's purple goo.

"So, I'm not sure who that was but Amity looks like she enjoyed giving her the old what for!" King quipped.

"Okay, so... That was round three and Grom didn't get to read Amity's mind," Luz started muttering, "so round four isn't gonna be her worst fear, it'll be like... a bad dream she had..." That's what Eda said, right?

The pile of Grom-Goo didn't retreat this time, but shifted into a shadow form and took a new shape. Or rather, several shapes.

One by one different shadows cleared revealing... Bodies.

Badly injured, not alive bodies, with thick red fluid pooling around them.

Edric's body. Emira's body. Amity's Dads's body, Boscha's body. Willow's body.

Luz gulped as she noticed her own body which seemed to be particularly bad off.

Amity stepped back and one last shadowy figure took shape, the darkness clearing to reveal a tall figure in blood red marbled with inky black. Not just tall, but lanky, with long, sharp fingers and a pair of two large solid white eyes and a lipless mouth full of daggerlike black fangs.

The biped reached down and dipped its fingers in the red fluid that was pooling around it, and turned to smear a message on the wall of the arena.

The figure's proportions were off, and it wasn't wet-looking the way a real symbiote was. It was less like Carnage and more like...

The sketch of Carnage that Luz drew when she was telling Amity about different heroes and villains from the human realm.

"Oh, I screwed up," Luz declared.

"I have no idea what that is," King declared nervously, "and it looks pretty serious, but I have complete faith that your Queen can handle it."

In the arena, Amity drew a large spell circle and declared "Abomination, rise!"

From the ground formed an Abomination about the size of the one she'd summoned back at the Covention. There were some "oohs" from the crowd and Amity made a point to flip her head forward and pull back her hair to show that there was no construction coven power glyph on her neck this time.

"Abomination," she commanded, "attack!"

The giant figure of mudlike purple slime lept forward with surprising speed, attempting to tackle Grom's facsimile of the human realm's most prolific murderer.

... only to be slashed in half by the bladed tentacle that was once the faux-Carnage's arm.

The whole crowd gasped. Amity stepped back, and now it was Grom's turn to go on the attack.

It hadn't just recreated Carnage's power, it was fast too. Grom had Amity by the throat in less time than it takes to blink, the axe clattering to the floor. From the corner of her eye, Luz could see Eda preparing to jump in but it was too late, 'Carnage's' arm had transformed into a shadowy tentacle and both Amity and Grom's eyes flashed with a white glow.

The glow faded and Amity seemed to regain some of her strength. She jammed two fingers from her free hand into her mouth and whistled loud enough that a lot of the audience had to cover their ears, which disoriented Grom enough that it dropped her. Without even getting off the ground, Amity blasted the facsimile of Carnage with her fire-conjuring spell, which seemed to destroy it outright and caused the message on the wall and most of the bodies to dissolve into Grom Goo.

Most of the bodies. the fake dead Luz was still there... and it was sitting up.

"What could Amity be afraid of that's worse than giant snakes, her mom, and the worst serial killer in the human realm?" Luz found herself asking. Edric and Emira gave her a worried look.

It was then that Luz realized that her doppelganger wasn't changing into anything. The wounds and blood that had helped sell Grom's impersonation of Carnage were gone, but it was still just Luz.

Creepy-Luz reached into the pockets of her shorts and pulled out a pink note... And crumbled it up.

"You just had to go a ruin a good thing, didn't you?" It asked in Luz's voice. "You had to get greedy." It laughed, a cruel mockery with more bitterness than had ever crossed Liuz's lips in her life combined. "Had to reach for something you didn't deserve."

Amity looked down in defeat.

"I mean, maybe if you'd asked to go as friends I would have considered it, but no. You had to put me on the spot and let me spend half a minute trying to come up with a way to let you down gently," Creepy-Luz shrugged. "Probably for the best that you ran off after being named Queen, there's no way I could have come up with something good on such short notice."

Amity shuddered.

"Oh, don't give me that, you knew the answer was going to be no before you ever wrote the darn thing," another cruel laugh. "I mean, come on, who could ever love you? You're mean, you're weak. You're a coward. No one even likes you. Boscha admitted that you're only friends because your moms made you. Willow only forgave you because she was sick of being angry... And me? We're only friends out of pity. Or did you believe those stories I made up when I found you having a little tan—"

Luz wasn't sure what happened. One moment she was standing at the edge of the arena, the next her shadow aura was up and her boot was planted firmly in her doppelganger's face.

Grom wasn't down yet, however. A hand wrapped around Luz's ankle. A flash of memory and Grom dissolved into shadowy goop and reformed in front of Luz.

"Luz, what is this terrible place?" Grom asked in her mother's voice while wearing her mother's face. "This isn't camp. Have you been ly—"

Grom didn't get a chance to finish. Luz slapped a fire glyph into it and it was sent rocketing back into the shadows. She'd deal with her baggage once she was sure that Amity was okay.

Luz then turned and walked toward Amity. "Are you okay?"

Amity neither got up nor looked at Luz, so Luz kneeled down in front of her.

"Come on, you know that none of that is true," Luz insisted. "Your friend Boscha has been mad at me for two days and I think I know why now, and Willow forgave you because you meant it when you apologized... And as for me... Let me tell you a story," Luz continued, "one I promise isn't made up." Amity looked up at Luz, so Luz continued. "I've had crushes before, and I've confessed to them before... and I'd always get rejected. And made fun of. And it hurt, every time."

"Who... Why would anyone ever reject...?"

"Who wouldn't?" Luz asked. "I'm weird, I'm creepy, and all of my confessions were cheesy."

Amity sniffed. "I like cheesy."

"The point is, I never wanted to make you feel that way, and I'm sorry," Luz continued. "The truth is, when I read your note, I was just... I think that part of me, on some level, just... Get the idea that no one ever.. Could, like me like that, after all those... And, again, I never wanted to make you feel like that, I know how bad that hurts."

"I know," Amity agreed. "You were... You were going to let me down easy..."

"No," Luz denied. "The thing is... I was trying to talk to you yesterday so I could tell you that... At first, I wanted to ask you if you were sure, but... Amity, it took me a bit to process how I felt but... I do like you, like that. I wanted to tell you... Yes."

Amity's eyes sparkled. She blushed tomato red, and Luz helped her to her feet.

"So the only question left," Luz finished, "is... Amity Blight? Do you still want to go to Grom with me?"

"Yes!" Amity replied with no hesitation. This was met with the loudest cheers of the night.

Luz's face heated up. "I... forgot they were there."

"So did I," Amity admitted sheepishly.

Before the two girls could figure out their next move, they were interupted by a loud roar.

"Oh come on, still!" Luz screamed as Gromethus emerged from the shadows in its true form. "Okay, Eda says that it's just blustering at this point, we can finish it off easy."

"Luz?" Amity asked. "Please... Dance with me?"

This was neither the time nor the place, but Luz wasn't about to say no. The two girls immediately fell into each other's rhythm and performed an improvised tango that allowed them to easily dodge the Fear-Bringer's desperate attacks.

Then, without a word to each other, they began their finishing move. First, they shifted from tango to a waltz.

Then Amity surprised Luz by speaking. "Do not underestimate us, Grometheus the Fear-Bringer!"

Luz picked up what Amity was putting down, and so continued, "For we are the good witches Luz..."

"And Amity!"

"Warriors of peace!"

Grom turned to charge them, so they moved into the final act: First, they traced a large spell circle in front of them, then pulled their arms to the side so it was like one 'hadouken' pose hugging another. As the big spoon in the arrangement, Luze slipped a fire glyph into each of Amity's hands while palming a pair herself.

"Now eat this, sucka!" They declared at the same time as they thrust their arms forward, activating both Amity's fire-conjuring spell and the glyphs.

An absolutely massive, spiraling ball of pink and orange flames tore clear through the space between the two girls and the charging monster and blasted a hole clear through it.

Grom moaned, then collapsed into globs of goo and fled back into the shadows from where it came. A pair of tiaras adorned with pink gems magically formed upon Luz and Amity's heads.

"There you have it folks," King announced, "Gromenthus is down, I repeat, Grometheus is down, so why don't you all give a big hand to this year's Grom Queens!?"

The applause was nearly deafening as Luz and Amity climbed from the arena. Amity replaced the axe she'd wielded and the weapon walls retracted as the arena was resealed.

The next ten minutes or so were a blur of back pats and congratulations as last-minute set up for the actual dance part of the dance was conducted. At one point Eda came over and offered to teach Amity and Luz about moonshining. It was only a matter of time, given that she'd taught Luz about bootlegging back when she'd gotten the restrictions on multitracking overturned.

But then things quieted down, and King abandoned the stage and mic when he noticed that they'd brought out the snacks.

"So who was that?" Amity asked Luz once they got a quiet moment. "That woman that Grom turned into?"

"My Mom," Luz admitted. "I... I'm supposed to be at a summer camp where they teach weird kids how to better fit in but... I'm really not looking forward to telling her where I've been or what I've been doing."

"...She'd be upset that you're getting good grades and making friends?" Amity asked, dumbfounded

"It's more um... Where I'm doing it," Luz answered. "There are 'demons' back in the human realm and they're nothing at all like the people here. More like Evil Spirits and stuff, and I don't know how to explain to her that..." Luz had to stop and breathe.

"What if... I came with you?" Amity asked.

"Huh?"

"You've been a very good and supportive friend to me, Luz," Amity began, "so I'd like to be a good and supportive girlfriend... I mean, we are... Um...."

"After all that we better be dating," Luz insisted. "I don't think my heart can take doing that again."

There was an awkward pause, then both girls laughed and held hands.

"...Why is this scarier than fighting Grom?" Amity asked.

"No clue," Luz replied. "But we'll figure it out together. But we can't tell Hooty."

"...Why not?"

"He's been shipping us for weeks," Luz declared with a shudder. "And trying to figure out cute couple names."

Amity blinked. "What would that even be for us... Like, Lumity?"

Luz blinked. "Lumity? I like it!"

Amity blushed again. "If you like it then we can use it."

"Alright folks," Gus declared having reclaimed the abandoned mic, "it's time to get to the actual dancing part of this dance so everyone take to the floor. I just talked with the DJ and in honor of Hexside's newest Power Couple we're gonna start with something slow and romantic so get ready for Wholesome Magic Steady."

"May I have this dance?" Luz asked as the song began to play. Amity smiled and gave Luz her hand. The song was slow and the lyrics were kind of cheesy, but Luz could tell that Amity was happy.

Chapter Text

Amity couldn't be happier. She was Luz's girlfriend! They could do girlfriend things together, like... Hold hands! And hug in public and no one will think it's weird. And maybe, when Hexside goes on break, they could even... Dress up and travel together!

The first few days after Grom were a little awkward. While couples getting together at Grom wasn't unheard of, getting together while defeating Grom was another matter entirely. As such, 'Hexside's newest power couple' was the focus of much discussion, and in those first few days people just. Would not. Leave them. Alone.

...Though admittedly the look on Luz's face when the girl from the Human Appreciation Society asked if the spell they'd used to finish off Grom had been a deliberate reference to an "animated documentary of human space colonization and the politics thereof" had been adorable.

(After being shown the video in question, Luz explained that it was a work of fiction and that humanity did not, in fact, determine which nation ruled the world with a giant robot martial arts tournament. She then asked how exactly the HAS had figured out how to work a 'vee-see-are.')

But, eventually, things calmed down enough that the two young witches were able to talk and feel out how they wanted their new relationship to go and... Luz was so very sweet and affectionate and even if it made the blood rush to Amity's face it was all worth it. Amity swore that she'd do her best to prove that she was an awesome girlfriend who was worthy of Luz's love. She'd started by reading some of those human books that Ms. Eda had sold to the library, she wanted to know more about the world Luz had come from.

As she got ready for school, Amity felt that nothing could ruin her mood.

"Mittens, a word?" Came the condescending voice of Amity's mother just as Amity was about to walk through the door.

"Yes, Mom?" Amity replied.

"I understand that you have started... Seeing someone?" Her mom asked.

If it was safe to do so, Amity would have cussed. Instead, she very carefully didn't react, except to put on a mask of aloofness. She was good at masking her feelings, she'd been doing it for years. "That's correct. Is there a problem?"

"Oh, no no no no," her Mom insisted with the sweetness of poisoned candy. "I just want to meet the young girl who captured my princess's heart, that's all."

Amity's blood froze. "I'll speak with her about it and see if we can find a good time."

"Try to have her over this afternoon, for a little chat," her Mom requested in a way that was more of a command.

"Of course."

"And Mittens?" her Mom added.

"Yes, Mom?"

Her Mom did something that could be easily confused for a hug if someone didn't know better. It was too stiff to be a hug, too cold to be a hug. Even the fake hug Lilith used to plant the power glyph on Amity had an inkling of affection but this was an empty gesture. "You know that everything I do is for you. Even if it hurts."

"Yes, Mom."

Amity left for school fearing for Luz's life. Her nerves were not settled at all by the time she got to Hexside. To the point that she didn't quite realize where she was going and ran into another student.

"Sorry!" She apologized.

"Watch it!" The other student turned around and revealed herself to be Boscha... Wearing her letterman jacket. Right, grudgby season started today. "Oh, Amity... Are you alright? You look..."

"I'm fine," Amity lied. "Have you seen Luz?"

"No, just got here," Boscha replied. "Why, did she do something? ...Did she hurt you?" Boscha said, suddenly angry. "I warned her—"

"No!" Amity insisted. "It's... Wait, when did you? Never mind, I'll see you later."

Amity then wandered off in search of Luz, pausing only to wave at Willow when she passed the other girl using plant magic to conjure fruitlike likenesses of other students.

Eventually, Amity found Luz in front of her locker. The human girl saw Amity and immediately launched into theatrics.

"Oh dearest mother," she declared with a dramatic wave of her arm and a similarly exaggerated tone, "I cannot do my weaving, for slender Aphrodite has crushed me with longing for this," Luz shifted around Amity and wrapped an arm around her shoulders, "tender youth!"

Amity felt the heat rise to her face even as she smiled. "That was... Did, did you write that?"

"I wish!" Luz declared. "I was paraphrasing Sappho of Lesbos, an ancient Greek poet whose works were studied for centuries after her death. She wrote a lot of love poems addressed to other women and even thousands of years later we use words like 'sapphic' to describe women who love other women or 'lesbian' for women who are only attracted to other women."

"That's a pretty word," Amity mused, "sapphic... Wait, humans have special words for that?"

"Yeah..."

"Why?"

"Um... Remember how I said that humans aren't good about people who are different...?"  Luz began. "People like us or Willow's parents aren't exactly considered normal... I still haven't told my Mom that I'm bi. I know she wouldn't care but... It's a lot better than it used to be," she suddenly reassured, "but... In generations past folks like us had to form our communities and that meant we had to have names for ourselves."

"Okay," Amity acknowledged. "So, what does 'bi' mean in this context?"

"That I like both," Luz explained.

"So... I only like girls," Amity reasoned out, "so I'm a lesbian... But you like both, so our relationship is a sapphic relationship, not a lesbian relationship."

"You got it!"

That was interesting—kind of sad how it came about, but interesting.

"...did Boscha say something to you recently?" Amity asked suddenly.

"Oh, yeah," Luz said with a shrug, "The other day she threatened to feed me my own squeedlyspooch if I ever hurt you. Joke's on her, humans don't have those! ...I think."

"...I'm going to have to have a long talk her with later," Amity decided out loud. "Speaking of talks um... Are you free this afternoon?"

"I'm probably gonna have some homework to do but other than that my schedule's clear," Luz answered. Then she gasped. "I just realized, we can have study dates!"

"Yeah, that'll be fun but... My Mom wants to meet you," Amity said. "Today. And..."

"Okay," Luz agreed immediately.

"Luz, that... My Mom can be a little..."

"I remember what you told Willow," Luz replied. "But when we got home after Grom Eda told me that if your mom ever gave us any trouble to tell her that Eda still has the necklace and will rat her out if she gives her a reason, so. No clue what that means, but I trust Eda."

Amity froze briefly as she realized that the Owl Lady did, in fact, know exactly what the necklace was.

"Amity? Are you alright?" Luz asked with sudden, wide-eyed concern.

"Fine just... Really nervous about my Mom meeting you."

Luz patted Amity on the back. "It'll be fine. I'll come over after school, we'll get it over with, and then maybe you can come back to the Owl House and I'll get my instrument from Bard Class and play you the gooiest, cheesiest love song in all the human realm."

Amity blushed again. "I'd like that."

"Okay, I need to get to history class so see ya later," Luz then leaned in and placed a quick kiss on Amity's cheek before leaving, which left the young witch slightly dazed for a few moments.

Amity had gotten home from school half an hour ago, changed into her casual clothes, and then started pacing. Any moment now Luz would be arriving and then... If Mom disapproved of Luz, the best-case scenario would be if Mom abused her power as head of the PCA and the clout that came with the Blight name to have Luz expelled and then forbid Amity from having any contact with her ever again. Worst case... Amity didn't want to think about it.

She got an alert from her texter, "IM HERE" and, very carefully, so as not to rush or seem anxious, Amity went down to greet Luz and bring her to the sitting room.

"Swanky place you got here," Luz commented.

"I'll assume that's a compliment?"

Amity's Mom was already in the sitting room when they got there and Amity made sure she was sitting next to Luz on the sofa rather than letting Luz take one of the guest chairs.

"Ah, you must be Amity's new paramour," she said in a tone that made Amity's skin crawl. Amity knew that Luz wasn't stupid, but she didn't know if she was smart enough not to fall for her Mom's fake politeness.

"Yep, that's me," Luz replied cheerfully. "Name's Luz. Luz Noceda."

Mom hummed. "Humans have such interesting names... Do names have meanings, in the Human Realm?"

"Yeah," Luz replied. "Literally my name means something along the lines of 'light of the walnut grove' but my Mom says that it means 'the light that never gives up.'"

"Interesting," Amity's Mom continued. "Now, do you know why I asked to meet you?"

"Yeah," Luz continued, "and Eda insisted that I let you know that she still has the necklace and that she made me take 'every anti-toxin known to witches and some that are only known to giraffes' before coming over."

Mom laughed. "Oh, that Edalyn. Always such a troublemaker... You know, they used to call her 'Calamity' back in our school days."

"Oh, I know," Luz replied.

"But no, I'm not looking to cause any trouble," Mom continued, "I just want to get to know the young woman who stole Mittens' little heart. Make sure she picked out a good match for herself.." Amity's heart sank. "That's all."

"Good match?" Luz asked.

"You know, compatible," Mom said with a fake smile. "The Blight family has a reputation to uphold and something as unseemly as a bad breakup... No no no, that just wouldn't do."

"I would never... Amity is..." Luz didn't seem to know the words to express what she was trying to say. "I don't know... I don't want to think about breaking up, but... I can't imagine doing anything to hurt her."

"Says the girl who humiliated Mittens at the covention," Mom replied with a poisonous smile. Luz sank into her seat.

"That wasn't Luz's fault," Amity insisted in the bravest tone she could manage. "I was the one who started that conflict, I was the one who underestimated her power, and it was Lilith who felt the need to cheat."

"Fair," Mom agreed, "but wasn't she the one who cost you your top student position the week before?" Luz sank further.

"While Luz did help Willow cheat—"

"Sorry about that," Luz mumbled.

"—Professor Hermunculus was the one who didn't see through it, the one who arbitrarily revoked my position and gave it to Wilow after one grade, and the one who didn't listen to my protests. Also," Amity finished, "I was not particularly well-behaved that day either. I lost my head over an arbitrary sign of a teacher's favoritism and made a fool of myself... Luz, did I ever apologize for almost getting you dissected?"

"Water under the bridge," Luz insisted.

"You seem a little eager to defend her, Mittens," Mom noted. "Tell me, Luz, what does my daughter see in you?"

Luz hesitated for a bit. "I don't know."

"And what do you see in her?"

"She's... It's hard to put into words. She's cool and classy and smart and... Not a lot of people look at me and see a person instead of just an annoyance. I like her a lot and if she likes me then I want to do right by her."

Amity reflexively took Luz's hand in her own.

"If that's the case," Mom continued, "then why are you putting her future at risk?"

"...What?"

"You are the apprentice of Eda the Owl Lady, are you not?" Mom asked Luz. "The most infamous criminal on the Boiling Isles."

"Yeah," Luz acknowledged.

"And you don't think that that association, through you, might damage my daughter's reputation?" Mom asked in a way that wasn't asking. "Her impulsive decision to leave Headwitch Lilith's tutelage has already jeopardized her chances of entering the Emperor's Coven in the future. I understand that you've already been caught up in her legal troubles..." Mom gave a knowing glance at Luz's bandaged forearm. "If you really care about Mittens, do you really want to put her at risk like that?"

Luz didn't answer. Neither did Amity, no matter how much she wanted to. All she could make herself do was squeeze Luz's hand tighter.

"Or worse," Mom continued, "put her at actual risk. What do you think might happen if the Coven Scouts raid the Owl Lady's shack while Mittens is visiting with you? The best-case scenario is she gets tossed in the Confomratorium for associating with criminals and I have to go out of my way to bail her out. In the worst-case scenario, she ends up sharing whatever punishment the Emperor plans to bestow upon your mentor for the crime of collusion. My daughter is in danger from being with you and I just want to know if the risks she's taking are worthwhile."

The warm, safe feeling that Amity almost constantly sensed from Luz cut out. It was very quickly replaced by feelings that Amity knew all too well. Guilt. Shame. Self-hatred.

Luz started stammering. "Amity, umm... She, she... Has a... I'm so—"

Amity's blood began to boil and she felt her heart rate increase as pressure built up in her head and then something snapped.

The next few seconds were a blur, but when Amity came to her senses her entire body felt weird. Everything around her felt too small, too. It was only when she realized that she had her mother by the throat that she understood why. More specifically, she noticed that her hand wasn't made of hand, but rather a lavender-lilac-colored variation of abomination slime.

Part of her mind went off on a tangent about how rare a talent like abomination metamorphosis was but she clamped down on it hard. She had important work to do while she still had the upper hand... Even if another part of her enjoyed she could feel that her Mom was the scared, powerless one for once.

"I know what you're doing," Amity started, her voice rumbling and echoing. "Stop it. Just stop it! Luz is my girlfriend and you have no right to talk to her like that. Whatever risks there are are mine to take, not yours, and I am sick and tired of you trying to run my life. So here's what's going to happen. I am going to date who I want to date, namely Luz. I am going to be friends with who I want to be friends with, and you... Do not... Get a say. If you do anything to try and drive away the people I care about, who care about me, who make me think about the kind of person I want to be!" Amity wasn't sure if she needed to breathe in abomination form, but se felt herself starting to hyperventilate and had to force herself to breath normally before she could continue. "...I'll run away again. I'll drop out of school and become a wild witch. I'll drag the Blight family name through the mud behind me and make sure that everyone knows that it was because I'd rather be a criminal than put up with you."

"You're bluffing," her Mom insisted.

"A Blight always keeps their word," Amity practically sang. Mom often used that very lie to control Amity and her siblings and manipulate clients.

Amity felt, more than saw, three more people rush into the room. It seemed like her powers as an empath had gotten stronger, too.

"What's going on, I heard noise!?"

"Mittens, are you alright?"

"What in the Titan's name is going on here!?"

Edric, Emira, and Dad were all trying to talk at the same time.

Adrenaline spent, Amity dropped Mom and reverted back to flesh and blood.

Mom landed on her feet and immediately began to compose herself. "Honestly Mittens, there was no need for such histrionics. You're growing up. Of course you get to make your own decisions now. I was just concerned."

"Forgive me if my entire life means I don't believe that," Amity quipped back. "If you really mean it, then promise me right now that you won't interfere in my relationships anymore."

Mom rolled her eyes. "Fine. I promise that I won't interfere in your relationships anymore."

"Shake on it?" Amity asked.

Mom rolled her eyes again and extended her hand. Amity quickly drew a spell circle and dragged her mother's hand through it before shaking.

"The everlasting oath is sealed," she declared.

Mom took on a garlic-eating expression again but Amity didn't care, she got what she wanted. She turned around and it was only then that she realized that she'd upturned the sofa when she'd metamorphosed and Luz was crouched behind it, staring at her with wide eyes.

Awkwardly, Amity held out a hand to help Luz up. "Luz, are you okay?"

Luz accepted the help and awkwardly answered. "...Yeah."

"Edric, Emira," Dad began. "Take Mittens and her friend—"

"Girlfriend," Amity insisted. "Luz is my girlfriend." That felt good to say. "I'm her girlfriend." And that felt even better.

"My apologies," he corrected. "Edric, Emira, take Mittens and her girlfriend upstairs. I need to talk with your mother... And if you see one of the abomination-butlers, tell them to come here with the heavy-duty stain remover."

Amity then noticed the stains on the carpet where she'd been standing. A few splotches of blood, and a big patch of green. She pulled a lock of her hair forward and saw that it was her natural brown.

"Actually," Amity said again, "Luz and I talked about having a study date earlier." It wasn't technically a lie.

"Oh, then have fun," Dad replied.

"I might stay over."

"Remember to take a change of clothes."

Amity and Luz were then dragged out of the sitting room by Ed and Em.

Once up in Amity's room, Amity found herself sandwiched in a hug from her older siblings.

"Mittens we are so proud of you," said Emira.

"But you are going to be in so much trouble later," Edric added.

The genuine concern and affirmation that Amity felt from them... She still wasn't ready to fully forgive them, but... Soon.

"I know but... I just couldn't..." Amity squirmed for freedom and Ed and Em let her go. She then approached Luz. "I'm sorry, Luz. I was expecting that Mom would threaten you to make me... I never even thought that she'd try to... Are you okay?" she asked again.

Luz was still wide-eyed, still shocked. Just as Amity was wondering if her outburst had scared Luz, Luz spoke up. "Amity... That was... So cool! You just went glowy-eyed and then all 'grrr!' and then suddenly ''whoah' Slme Monster! and the slime monster form was just.... so... Pret~tyy!" Luz continued to babble excitedly for a few moments, so Amity just hugged her.

"What she said wasn't true," Amity insisted. "I am not in danger just from being with you and even if I was that would mean that you're in danger for being you so if we're together we can keep each other safe."

The warm feeling Amity normally picked up from Luz started to come back. "I don't deserve you," Luz declared while returning the hug.

"Funny," Amity mused, "I feel the same about you." Then Amity felt a sick tickle in the back of her brain as dots were connected. "...Luz. The songs, the poems, the hugs... You're not, trying to earn my affection, are you?"

"What? No!" Luz insisted. "I just... I remember what Grom said, about... You deserve to be loved, and I want to be able to make you feel loved... And you did say that you liked cheesy, so... Do you feel like you need to earn mine?"

"...A little bit," Amity admitted. "Do you want to know what I see in you? I see such a kind, loving, friendly person who... Even as I was writing the note I was expecting the answer would be no because how could such a good person ever l-like someone like me like that, and then..." Amity swallowed. "My whole life has been about working hard to be the best and it feels like nothing I ever do is good enough, but... When I'm with you, Luz, I feel like... I don't feel worthless."

"You're not worthless," Luz insisted.

"I know but... It's like there's this little voice in the back of my head telling me that I need to earn it, that I should be..." She wracked her brain for examples. "Baking you pies or taking care of you when you're sick or things like that."

"If that's how you want to show your love," Luz said with a smile, "I'll happily try anything you bake... but you should do things like that because you want to, not because you feel like you have to."

"I know."

"Though all cards on the table," Luz finished with a jovial tone, "part of me feels like I should have done a bunch of trials and tamed a dragon to prove myself before we started dating so I kind of get where you're coming from."

This prompted laughter from Amity, which Luz joined in on after a moment.

As well as an "Awwww" from the peanut gallery.

"...We really need to stop forgetting that there are people watching when we do stuff like this," Luz mused.

"Get used to it," Edric commanded.

"Face it, you two are adorable," Emira insisted.

"So, Amity," Luz began, "do you still want me to play that song for you?"

"Yes, but only if you want to," Amity agreed.

Other than Amity noticing that she was picking up more emotions, and more detail about emotions, from people, the trip across town was uneventful.

"Eda," Luz called out once they got to the Owl House. "We're back. It was um... Can Amity crash here tonight? I don't think she's running away," she looked back at Amity, who nodded, "but..."

"But Odalia was Odalia," Ms. Eda said as she came out of the kitchen. "Sure, Boots is welcome here whenever. But some ground rules, since you two are dating now: No making out, heavy petting, or other hanky-panky where impressionable young eyes can see you," she said with a thumb pointed to the table, where King was curled up asleep, "don't do anything I wouldn't do, don't do most of the stuff I would do, yada yada responsible guardian stuff responsible guardian stuff," she finished sarcastically. "So what happened?"

Amity looked away. "Mom tried to use your reputation to guilt trip Luz into... I think she was trying to make her break up with me. The joke's on her though, all it did was make us talk about our relationship and... I got really mad, discovered I can do Abomination Metamorphosis, and tricked her into swearing an everlasting oath to never interfere in my relationships again so... Net positive."

"Way to go Boots!" Eda declared with a hand outstretched. "Up top!"

Amity returned the strange, human gesture known as 'high five' that Luz had been spreading around.

"And I noticed your hair," Eda continued, "if you'd like I can brew you up something you can mix with dyes so you won't have to worry about it bleeding out again."

"Thank you," Amity replied. "Now um... Luz offered to play me a song from the human realm, so..."

"Got it, I'll leave you two alone," Eda replied with a knowing smile at Luz.

About five minutes later, Amity and Luz were sitting in Luz's room, the guitar she used for bard class held in the human's hand. The truth was, after the last hour Amity was exhausted, but...

Luz began to strum and sing. "I know I'm not that tall. I know I'm not that smart. But let me drive my van into your heart, let me drive my van into your heart!"

...This was perfect.

TLOA

Shortly after the twins dragged Mittens and her human away, Alador looked at Odalia with an expression of resigned disappointment. He was so cute when he thought he had the moral high ground.

"Odalia, we talked about this," he began, "I know you want what's best for her, but if we push her too hard, if she doesn't feel safe here, she's going to either run away again or break down completely. We need to compromise, let her act her age, and make her own choices. You only have yourself to blame for how she reacted."

Odalia just gave a knowing smile and focused on the vision she had while diving the optimal route to Mitten's best future. Mittens and her human as adults, in matching skin-tight black suits adorned with red dragons, lounging together on a stone throne beneath the Titan's beating heart and sipping from glasses of what was clearly a most decadent vintage as a broadsword as black as night dangled from the human's free hand.

"On the contrary, dear, that was exactly what I wanted to happen."

Chapter Text

Things had been going pretty well for Luz.

Then... Then, after Hooty fended off a raid, Eda bragged about how nothing could stop her but her curse and how even that hadn't acted up in a while, but... Poof, Owl Beast.

That was how Luz learned that the curse had been getting worse since sometime after Eda let her and King know about it, that the elixirs Eda took to manage it weren't working anymore, and that Eda had been hiding that.

Luz's thoughts kept turning back to when she was little and her dad was sick and there was nothing anyone could do to save him. The way Eda talked about her curse... It was even worse than that.

She was so checked out that she almost didn't notice that everyone at school seemed... Not anxious but... Anticipatory?

Eventually, she picked it all up and asked Willow about it.

"Don't you remember?" the plant witch asked "Today's the day of the field trip to the Emperor's castle."

"Oh, yeah," Luz said while rubbing the back of her head. "I was thinking I'd sit that one out." Mostly because if any scouts or guards recognized her from encounters it would likely end poorly but especially since she knew she wasn't exactly in a good headspace today.

"What, you've gotta come!" her friend Gus declared while holding a brochure. "We get to see the relic hall and everything."

"I mean," Luz countered, "what even is a relic, anyway?" Then she thought about "...No, seriously, in the human realm relics are things like historical oddities or the bones of holy men."

"Weird," Gus replied. "Here relics are ancient and powerful items of magic from the savage ages collected by the covens and donated to the Emperor. Like the Oracle Stone. It shows you exactly how to become your best possible self."

"I'm pretty interested in the Green Thumb Gauntlet myself," Willow added. "Legend says it can conjure any kind of plant its wearer can imagine."

"What are we talking about?" Came Amity's voice from right next to Luz, which prompted Luz to jump. She really was out of it today, if the 'vaguely aware of people' part of her ESP didn't pick up someone next to her.

...Then she noticed Amity's hair. Amity had left it brown for a bit until the dye additive Eda offered her was ready but she'd dyed it again in the time since Luz had seen her last and it was...

"Different."

Amity patted her now-lavender locks. 'Mom always insisted I dye my hair green. She said it was so all her kids would match, but... Wrong shade of green." Amity smiled. "But I was feeling rebellious and decided to dye it a color I liked better and I'm very happy with how it turned out. What do you think?"

"Pretty."

"Thank you, Batata," Amity replied with a smile.

"Um, how did the additive work out?" Luz asked.

"No clue," Amity replied. "I haven't been able to metamorphose since that day and I haven't been angry enough to trigger an adrenaline-bile feedback again so..." Amity shrugged. "Dad said he'd feel out for tutor in the Abomination coven but Abomination Metamorphosis is a pretty rare skill so it might be a while."

"Cool," Luz replied.

"Now, what were you guys talking about?" Amity asked.

"The artifacts in the relic room at the castle," Willow answered. "Luz was saying that she didn't want to go on the field trip but this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity."

"I mean, I get it," Amity added. "Given her um... associates. Not gonna lie, I'm kind of apprehensive myself. If the tour runs into Lilith it could get really awkward... But, on the other hand," Amity continued, "it would be pretty cool to see the Abomi-Flask up close."

Gus held up his brochure to Luz's face. "There's gotta be something that catches your eye, right?"

Luz gave the relic list a once-over just to humor Gus but then she did notice something.

"The Healing Hat... Cures even the deadliest of diseases and can break any curse..." Suddenly the gears started turning in Luz's head.

"It figures that that'd be what interested you," Amity commented.

"Huh?" She wasn't onto her, was she?

"...Because you're so kind and compassionate?" Amity clarified.

"Oh, yeah," Luz said feeling relieved. "Sorry, I'm a little checked out today. Maybe I should go to the castle."

Amity hugged Luz. "I've got to go now but I'll see you on the airship," she said. Just before leaving, she looked around and then, as if by impulse, kissed Luz on the cheek.

Blushing almost as red as Amity sometimes did, Luz began attempting to plot out a heist before her brain caught up to an earlier part of the conversation. "Wait, did she call me a sweet potato?"

On the airship, Willow explained to Luz the history of Emperor Belos, about how he spent years educating people about the dangers of wild magic and the importance of keeping the nine main forms of magic separate because mixing magics angers the Titan, and how the Titan speaks to the Emperor and... The whole thing sounded like a cult but Luz knew better than to say that aloud.

Once at the palace proper, a red goblin-like creature dressed in a white coat with hair sculpted to resemble a clawed hand introduced herself as Kikimora, who then took them across an extended bridge before lecturing them on the history of the Emperor's Coven in depth which all sounded... Really sinister. Luz wasn't really paying that close attention though, she was mostly on the lookout for hiding spaces, hints to the patterns of guard patrols, and flaws in security so that she could get back out again once she stole the Healing Hat.

Her initial attempt to steal the hat, just after the class left the relic room, was foiled when Willow and Gus noticed she was straggling and pulled her back to the group. Also, Amity gave her a little side-eye.

Not long after, however, Lilith appeared. Luz pressed herself up against a wall to stay out of the older witch's line of sight, noticed that Amity was likewise avoiding eye contact with Lilith, and waited. Eventually, it was clarified that Lilith, still looking ragged from the whooping Hooty had given her and her raid that morning, was set to go speak with the Emperor himself.

As the tour group and Lilith parted ways, Luz impulsively followed her mentor's villainous older sister. Tailing her without getting caught was... surprisingly easy. And soon enough, Luz had a vantage point to spy on Lilith's meeting with the Emperor.

The first thing Luz noticed about Belos was that he seemed to be sick. The second was that his throne was directly under a giant beating heart. The third was that he seemed to be English. Like, obviously he wasn't really English, he was a witch, but he had an English-like accent when to Luz's knowledge everyone else on the Boiling Isles spoke with American accents.

And that was a whole other thing as well, now that she thought about it. Everyone here spoke what was more or less American English but not any other Earth languages. No one was using translator spells, Luz asked and apparently, those weren't a thing.

Anyway, Belos commanded Lilith to capture Eda by twilight, tonight, or face the consequences. Then he ate a palisman.

Someone's personally crafted, bonded-for-life companion. A pet, a best friend, and a soulmate all in one, and he just cracked the poor little thing open like an egg and sucked out the magic inside.

Locking up people for lack of conformity, manipulating people with cult indoctrination, and branding people to restrict their natural abilities was one thing, but that? That was a special kind of evil. Luz had to bolt and find somewhere to hide, as her breakfast was coming back up on her.

Once she'd managed to do that and calm down... And forced herself to stop imagining it happening to Owlbert... And forced herself to stop thinking about how Lilith was the only witch in the castle with a staff... Luz looked out of a window and saw the airship from Hexside loading up to leave. Luz didn't have long, someone would notice she was missing so she needed to get back to the relic room and—

"There you are!"

Luz's train of thought came to a crashing halt as she turned around and saw Willow, Gus, and Amity standing behind her... Wow, the people sensing parts of her ESP were useless when she wasn't paying attention to it. And they all looked varying degrees of upset.

"Hey uh, Willow? Gus...? Sweet potato...?"

"It is a term of endearment!" Amity happily declared before blushing and returning to an expression of concern.

"Luz," Willow asked. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing's wrong," Luz insisted.

"You've been acting weird all day," Gus pointed out.

"And then you snuck off from the tour," Willow continued.

"Oh, you know me," Luz tried to dismiss. "Stupid, impulsive Luz. Always getting in over her head and doing dumb stuff for no reason..."

"Luz," Amity said as she stepped to the front of the group and made eye contact. "I didn't want to pry, Titan knows how mad I get when my boundaries are pushed, but... I know there's a problem. And you know how I know there's a problem." Luz wanted to facepalm, of course, she wasn't hiding anything from an Empath. "If you're going to... If you don't want to say anything, that's fine, but we can't help you if we don't know what's wrong."

Luz took a deep breath and closed her eyes. "It's Eda," Luz began. 'She's... Really, really sick," Luz didn't feel right mentioning the curse. "When I first found out she said she had it under control, but today I found out that it's getting worse. And the potions she uses to treat it aren't working anymore. I... I've already." Another deep breath. "I'm scared and I don't know what to do. The Healing Hat might be the only thing that can save her..."

Luz opened her eyes when she realized that her awesome girlfriend was hugging her. "Okay, looks like we're doing this. Off to commit high treason with my girlfriend. Is there a human phrase for that?"

It took a moment to respond. "I think the closest would be 'be gay, do crime.'" Luz admitted.

"Well if you're gonna break the law I'd hope you'd be at least happy about it," Gus chipped in.

"Do you really think I'm just going to let you two steal from the Emperor?" Willow asked as she adjusted her glasses. "Without me? Someone has to keep you guys out of trouble."

"You know, I don't think there are any laws against borrowing from the Emperor," Gus suggested.

Luz wanted to reject this, to say that she didn't want them getting in trouble just to help her, but she couldn't. "Thanks, guys."

Lilith burst through a wall into the relic room. Moments ago, the Emperor had been alerted to intruders in the chamber in question. Children who had apparently snuck off from the field trip from Hexside to play with the relics. They'd almost gotten away with it if it wasn't for the fact that one of them tripped the security system.

Specifically, the human tripped the system. The only human on the Boiling Isles. Edalyn's apprentice, whom she was so very proud of.

Lilith had volunteered to deal with the children immediately because if there was one thing that would make Edalyn come running it was the idea that someone or something she cared about was in danger.

...Well, that and well-aged apple blood, but Lilith knew better than to try to use that to lure Edalyn into a trap. It took her months to get the stains out of her robes.

Once in the room, two of the three real witch children attempted to defend themselves from her using the artifacts they'd pilfered but the Oracle Stone ironically enough only conjured an image of what you wanted to hear and the Green Thumb gauntlet still needed a competent plant witch to master: Artifacts or not, these were mere children and easy to defeat, disarm, and restrain.

The third child hadn't even grabbed an artifact. Just a witchling with... Wait.

"Abominations, rise!" Declared Lilith's former student as two rather standard abominations appeared from Amity's summoning. The head witch almost didn't recognize the girl with her hair styled and colored differently.

"Amity," Lilith declared, "I am very disappointed in you."

"Well, you're not my teacher anymore so your approval holds no value," Amity quipped. "Abominations," she instructed to her summoned minions, "attack!"

Two abominations charged at her, but Lilith was able to fend them off with strikes from either end of her staff and then dispatch them with blasts of lightning.

"Amity, please, I was the one who taught you how to fight."

Lilith was then forced to dodge a blast of brilliant pinkish flame. That was new. "You were a lousy teacher."

Lilith was actually a little hurt at that. "I mentored you for two years!" Lilith declared while batting away fireblasts.

"Yeah, and I'll admit that I did learn a lot from you," Amity admitted, "but there was no support. Every lesson was clinical and academic and the one time you gave me any positive feedback, the one time you ever said you were proud of me as your student it was a lie!" The fireballs got a little more intense after that.

"Are you still upset about that?" Lilith asked. "I tried to explain to you that I merely wanted to ensure that you were dueling on an even playing field. If you knew Edalyn, you'd know just how out of character it was that she didn't cheat."

"Do you have any idea what that hug meant to me!" Amity screamed. Her face then turned red. "But it doesn't matter. I do know Eda, she was the one who helped me over my dependency on training wands. And Luz was the one whose support gave me the confidence I needed to really bloom!"

Lilith noticed Amity looked past her with that line with a strange sparkle in her eye. She turned and saw the human standing in the hole that Lilith had blasted through the wall. She was looking back at the duel with a degree of hesitation, and cradling the Healing Hat in her arms.

Amity apparently noticed that Lilith had noticed the human and shouted "Luz, run!"

"But—"

"This will all have been for nothing if you don't take the Hat!"

Lilith couldn't let the human escape. She needed her to finally capture Edalyn, to finally induct Edalyn into the Emperor's Coven so that the Emperor would cure her curse as he promised. She'd chastised the scout who'd branded the girl... Then imprisoned said 'scout' when it was discovered that he had been an imposter who'd abducted and replaced one of her actual scouts. Of course, then someone sprung him from the conformatorium...

Regardless, Lilith wasn't happy that a coven sigil had been forced on the girl. Those were meant for witches, not humans, and there was no telling what the long-term effects on her would be... But that doesn't mean she wasn't going to take advantage of it now. The spell to activate the trap hidden in the coven sigils was subtle, but the human's screams of pain and clutching at her branded forearm before her muscles locked up completely mostly certainly weren't.

"Is that... Is that what the coven sigils are for!?" The sound of anger and betrayal in Amity's voice told Lilith that doing that may have been a mistake.

When Lilith failed to respond, Amity's eyes glowed abomination purple and...

Oh. Amity had clearly gotten much more powerful since she left Lilith's tutelage. Her abomination form was different from Darius Deamonne's. A lighter shade of purple, closer to the lavender she'd died her hair. No extra eyes throughout her body, the slime was uniformly colored, her eyes were pink rather than green, and in general, she was just 'cuter' for lack of a better term, but her teeth became just as sharp, and being cute did not make the form any less intimidating.

"Stop hurting my girlfriend!" Amity growled and slithered menacingly at Lilith.

Lilith reflexively struck at Amity with the head of her staff and tapped some of her palisman's power to generate a minor blast of electrical discharge. Not enough to seriously hurt the girl, but definitely enough to revert her back to her flesh and blood form and knock her out.

"The human is clearly a bad influence on you," Lilith mused before returning the pilfered artifacts to their display cases. The human had been quite reluctant to part with the Hat.

"Did you think this would help Edalyn?" Lilith asked the still-paralyzed child. Fool. If the Healing Hat would have worked on Edalyn's curse, Lilith would have used it on her years ago.

That done, she unbound the two conscious witchlings and set them, amity in between them, on her staff. "Tell Edalyn she has until sundown to rescue her apprentice."

She then sent them off, trusting her Palisman not to drop them on the way to Edalyn's shack, and turned back to the human.

"It is a shame you got caught up in all of this," she admitted. "You should have stayed with your own kind instead of getting dragged into the messes Eda makes for herself."

Chapter Text

"Then why were you so easy to curse!?"

"Alright, kid. Listen to me. I'm going away, and I don't know if I can bounce back this time. Watch over King. Remember to feed Hooty... And Luz, thank you for being in my life."

"Leave, human! Edalyn is finally with her family. Her real family. Go back to your world. This one is ours."

Luz had tried a desperate plan to help Eda. And all it did was get her friends hurt and force Eda to... Just like with Adaghast the puppet demon, Eda came charging in to save Luz even though she knew it was a trap. Except, Lilith was a much bigger threat than the puppet demon and Eda's curse being at its worst meant that she just didn't have the strength to...

Eda used the last bit of her power to save Luz and was captured. And what was worse, after Luz finally made it back to the Owl House after walking all night she found that while he was on that fateful field trip planning a heist, Eda had been knitting her a witch's cloak. Made from witch's wool (which was not, as Luz initially believed, 'magic s'ghetti',) a witch's cloak could be used to protect the witch from a lot of really nasty spells. Eda had been planning to make one for herself as the Emperor's coven had really stepped up on their attempts to capture her, but when she mentioned that every witch worth their salt had one Luz piped up that she'd like one and...

If she'd kept her stupid mouth shut, Eda would have made her own cloak like she'd planned and been better protected against Lilith. Maybe she wouldn't have...

When Luz read the note attached, "To a young witch, from her proud mentor," she broke down completely and it took her far too long to explain what exactly had happened to Eda to Hooty and King. How she'd succumbed to her curse and become the owl beast for good, how Lilith had dragged her into the castle, how Lilith had also grabbed Owlbert... And how terrified Luz was not just for Eda but for Owlbert, being trapped in that palace with a Palisman-eating monster like Belos.

Luz was so depressed that she didn't even bother to change out of her Hexside uniform. But then, they announced on the crystal ball that Eda had been sentenced to death by petrification, meaning that either Lilith had been lying about the Emperor curing Eda or else the Emperor was lying to Lilith. Either way, Eda was being transferred to the Conformatorium and Luz had maybe half a day to rescue her.

Dressed up in the cloak Eda had made for her and feeling anxious but determined, and with a pocket full of glyphs, Luz stepped out into the cruel, unforgiving world.

King scrambled out after her. "Okay, what's the plan?"

"You're not coming," Luz insisted. She wasn't going to put anyone else in danger.

"Luz," King replied sternly. "Eda is my family. If she's in trouble I want to help her."

"King, this is going to be really dangerous," Luz tried to discourage. She didn't say out loud that King was just a kid, but...

"What? We're going up against the most powerful witch on the Boiling Isles, who has almost the whole Isles eating out of the palm of his hands," King deadpanned, "so you know it's totally gonna be a walk in the park."

"Fair enough," Luz acknowledged. "But..."

"But nothing, without Eda we don't have anything anyway. Her savings are only going to last so long and nobody's gonna pay fair wages to a human kid and a demon who lost his powers," King quipped back. "Even if Eda wasn't important to us we'd still need her. So let's go get her!"

"Right, okay," Luz agreed. She was going to say that it was her responsibility to save Eda since she was the one who got her in trouble but it was readily clear that King would not be convinced otherwise.

Just then, Hooty's head emerged from the ground on his extended neck, and only then did Luz notice how the house demon was stretched out around the house and into an upstairs window.

"I've got good news and bad news," he began. "The bad news is, the calamity box in the basement doesn't work, hoot, so we can't use it to save Eda. The good news is, the basement is clean for when she gets home!"

Luz blinked. "What's a calamity box?"

"We have a basement?" King asked.

"Magitech transdimensional travel box from a frog dimension, hoot hoot!" Hooty replied by way of explanation.

"You've been spending too much time with Tiny Nose," King snarked. "Okay Luz, we need to get inside the conformatorium, but with a high-profile criminal like Eda scheduled to be petrified security is going to be tight so sneaking in isn't going to work, and trying to fight our way through the perimeter will only attract reinforcements... So we need to get arrested. Any ideas?"

Luz smiled. "Eda gave me some advice on my first day at Hexside that I think applies here."

With that, Luz went into town and asserted her dominance by punching the first coven guard she saw square in the face. That did the trick, and shortly afterward both she and King were tossed into the back of a wagon on their way to the conformatorium.

On the way in, through a small window in the wagon, Luz saw a pedestal with Eda's name on it. Her eyes narrowed and swore silently that it would always remain empty.

Once the wagon came to a stop, and Luz could hear guards speaking, Luz drew a glyph and braced herself for the door opening.

"Ahh, the Owl Lady's human apprentice," came the voice of Warden Wrath from the other side of the cart door. "It took ages to clean up after the riot you caused and we're still missing half of the radical rabble-rousers you freed."

Yes, because writing fanfiction about food falling in love was so radical. Honestly, Katya had sent Luz some of it not too long ago, the stories were adorable.

Luz didn't wait for the warden to open the wagon. She used a plant glyph to conjure powerful, strangling vines which surged forward, tearing the door off the wagon and grappling Warden Wrath.

While that was happening, Luz leaped from the wagon and kicked a coven guard in the stomach, froze another one with an ice glyph, sent a third flying off into a wall with a fire glyph, and finally turned back to the warden.

Wrath had managed to break free of the vines entangling him, so Luz used another ice glyph to surround him with sharp spears of ice.

"Where's Eda?"

"A holding cell in the dungeons," the Warden declared readily. "Please don't kill me, I have a son."

"I know," Luz acknowledged. "He seems like a sweet kid." She then handed the warden her notebook and a pen. "Draw me a map and I won't make him an orphan."

Gus Porter was a witch of principle. He didn't know Eda the Owl Lady all that well, just brief interactions while hanging out with Luz and Willow, and later Amity, at the Owl House, but his principles dictated that, whatever crimes the wild witch had committed, petrification was an excessive punishment by far... And based upon what he'd learned recently about coven sigils, he wasn't so certain that wild witchery was such a bad choice to make.

So he had a plan. He couldn't brute force his way into the conformatorium or sneak in and then fight his way to the Owl Lady, that was insane. Not even Luz was crazy enough to try that. But the execution was going to be broadcast on the crystal ball. His father, Perry, was set to report on it, and there would be an... calling it an audience was in poor taste.

It was obvious that the people of Bonesborough weren't exactly happy about the petrification. The Owl Lady might have been a nuisance, but she was one of them and her crimes did not deserve execution. Gus had overheard whispers about good things she'd done for some of the residents.

If the Emperor was as benevolent as he claimed, if he spoke for the Titan and the Titan just wanted people to be safe and happy... Then a little protest might change his mind. And if he wasn't, as Gus got the overwhelming feeling that Luz and the Owl Lady suspected and the sinister true purpose of the coven sigils suggested, then maybe the fear of rebellion would do the trick.

So, in order to kickstart a little protest, Gus felt the need to sneak, not into the conformatorium proper, but into where the observers would be standing. Amity and Willow would be joining him later, but he had a bit of prep work to do. A few time-delayed illusions should get a good protest started. Unfortunately, some guards were patrolling that area who would need to be distracted.

But, Gus was prepared for that: a few days ago Luz had shared with him what she'd described as a 'legend of the human realm' that was quite... Evocative. A hunter of horrific monsters, vanquisher of cults, and the bane of malevolent gods.

Just out of sight of any one guard, Gus conjured an illusion and an elderly human male, grey hair styled in what Luz had described as a "mohawk" and dressed in a colorful floral patterned shirt that Luz called 'Hawaiian,' a pair of sunglasses, a colorful human-realm bird dubbed a 'parrot' taxidermized on his shoulder, with shorts and combat boots with wheels hidden in the heals coving his legs.

With a shout enquiring about the location of his 'wee men' in an accent that Luz had imitated and called 'Scottish,' Gus's recreation of the human legend Old Man Henderson led the guards on a chase through town.

Then, Gus got to work.

After rampaging through the conformatorium Luz finally made it to the holding cell where Eda was being held which was... less of a cell and more of a corridor. At the far end, chained to some kind of platform, was Eda's form as the owl beast, snarling and struggling against the chain around her neck.

Luz approached slowly, and King hopped down from her shoulder. "Eda?" Luz called out, hoping for any response.

After a moment, the beast stopped snarling and blinked. Then its black eyes became Eda's gold. "Luz?"

"Eda!" Luz greeted before wrapping her arms around her mentor's neck and shoulders.

"I'm here too!" King declared before jumping up to nuzzle against Eda.

"You can't be here," Eda declared. "Why are you here?"

"To rescue you," Luz replied while releasing the hug. She then kneeled down and attached a fire glyph to where Eda's chain was pinned to the platform. Ignition, but no damage.

"You need to leave before someone finds you," Eda insisted.

"It's fine," Luz insisted before placing a plant glyph on the chain, igniting her shadow aura, and taping it. A little boom of dark light and the chain still wasn't broken. Luz hoped that had hurt whoever enchanted this thing. "I already beat up the warden and most of the guards. And freed some of the prisoners on the way here."

"Luz, I'm serious," Eda continued. "You just being here is putting you in some serious danger. The Emperor is almost certainly going to be here and... You're stronger than I ever could have imagined but he's the only witch who ever came close to me in my prime."

"I have to rescue you!" Luz shouted. "It's my fault you got caught."

"No, it isn't!" Eda insisted. "I'm the one who chose to defy the Emperor's law, and hey, I got away with it for over thirty years. I had a good run but... I knew my curse was getting worse, that I was slowing down with age. I knew I'd get got eventually, and saving someone I love is a better way of going out than what would have happened otherwise."

Tears welled up in Luz's eyes. "Love?"

"Like the daughter I never had."

"That just means I doubly have to save you now," Luz declared. "We're family."

"Yeah!" King added. "We took that portrait with the matching sweaters and everything."

Eda reached up a taloned forelimb and grabbed King, placing him on the ground next to Luz. "Look," she began, "I can't take care of you like this. Sooner or later the Owl Beast is going to take over again if you really want to help me." She then reached into the toft of fur and feathers near her neck. "I was lucid earlier and overheard the Emperor talking. He wants the portal." Eda withdrew the portal key and handed it to Luz. "Take the portal, go home, be safe, and destroy it behind you so that Emperor Bonehead can't get whatever it is he wants out of the human realm. Take King with you, watch over him, and tell your mom that I said she raised a great kid. If you're safe... Then I won't have any regrets."

Luz slammed another fire glyph on the chain. Still no damage.

"Eda..." Luz was starting to lose the ability to articulate. The platform started to rise into the air. Reflexively, Luz grabbed onto it. "I can't let you go," she insisted finally. "I've already... I've already lost... I love you, Eda."

"I know kid," Eda replied. Then she gave Luz a shove, pushing her off the platform.

Luz landed and watched Eda vanish into the open sky. She slammed a shadowy fist into the floor, cracking it, as she let out a cry of anguish.

She almost didn't feel the witch enter the corridor behind her.

"Drat," Lilith declared. "I'm too—"

Lilith didn't get to finish. Body wreathed in shadow, Luz pounced on her and pinned her to the wall by the throat, free hand posed to go through her face.

"Give me a reason," Luz demanded as she worked up her nerves. "Give me a reason."

"Pease, be—"

"It should be you, not her!" Luz declared.

"You're right," Lilith declared, which took all the wind out of Luz's sails. "In a single moment of impulsive weakness, a moment that was all for naught, I ruined my sister's life. Then I spent three decades trying to fix my mistake without ever admitting it. And my one chance turned out to be a lie. If I could switch with her, I would."

Luz dropped Lilith. "That... That doesn't... It's..."

Luz was distracted by a cute hooting. Looking down, she saw Owlbert. He was okay!

The small owl flew up to her and manifested his staff, attaching to it without issue, so that it landed in Luz's hand.

Luz turned back to Lilith, now noticing the guilt and shame coming from the woman. "Where do we go from here?"

"It's not too late to save Edalyn," Lilith insisted. "I know where we can go to get to her and there's something of a protest going on as we speak."

"Let Eda go!" the people of Bonesborough chanted. "Let Eda go! Let Eda Go!"

Gus's preparations worked like a charm. As soon as his father Perry Porter had begun the broadcast, Gus's prepared illusions manifested. His initial plan had just been simple messages, such as the 'let Eda go' that the crowd was now chanting, but when Amity and Willow joined him the abomination witch had her own suggestion and revealed what she'd been up to while he was sneaking in to set up.

Namely, that she'd told her older siblings she'd forgive them for the diary incident if they did her a favor, and had them sneak into the school to pilfer a set of memory tweezers from the photo lab. Adding a few blown-up images of the kindness that Eda had shown Amity when she'd run away contrasted with the still-fresh memory of Headwitch Lilith activating Luz's coven sigil had certainly driven the point home.

After rushing the stage, so to speak, the three witchlings gave their own testimony about the Owl Lady and what they'd learned over the last day regarding the Emperor's coven—especially Amity's, as the Blight family had a reputation, underserved though it may be, for integrity—had been more than enough to convince the crowd.

Gus's father, ever the consummate reporter, had pivoted from covering the imminent petrification ceremony to covering the protest against it, and that had caused more people from town to come in and join in.

The crowd began to work into a frenzy as Eda, in her cursed form but clearly lucid, was lifted up onto a platform and caged, Kikimora, the Emperor's assistant who was handling the ceremony, was visibly intimidated despite how far up and away she was from the protestors.

Soon, however, the Golden Guard made an appearance, flying on his mechanical staff.

"Attention Bonesborogh!" He shouted from on high. "You are all dangerously close to committing treason, so please calm yourselves down right now or else..." It became readily apparent that nobody was paying the least bit of attention to the Golden Guard. "Okay, where are the Coven Guards? ...Don't make me call in a battalion of Scouts now and... Why do I hear music?"

The reason the Golden Guard heard music, as it turned out, was that around the time he arrived a quartet of bards had made their way to the roof of the conformatorium. Dressed in matching uniforms, equipped with a tambourine, a bassoon, a recorder, and a viola respectively, and faces concealed with matching bat masks.

As their song came to a crescendo and bardic magic saturated the air, dark clouds began to form in the sky above the conformatorium. The lead bard played a sharp note on their viola and a bolt of lightning struck the statue by which the petrification spell was channeled, shattering it.

The Golden Guard landed on the roof near them. "Now who in the Titan's name do you think you are!?" he demanded.

"Allow us to introduce ourselves," the lead bard declared. "We, are the Bards Against the Throne! AKA..."

"The BATTs!" the three bards behind them announced before all four of them hissed.

"And we're here, head stooge of the Emperor," the lead bard continued, "to rescue the Owl Lady!"

Chapter Text

Perry Porter, ever the professional, continued to report on the chaos around him even as he was swept up in it.

"To recap the last ten minutes," he said as he ducked under a coven scout's spell, "the protest against the petrification of Eda Clawthorn was interupted first by the Golden Guard but then again by a group of dashing rebels calling themselves the Bards Against The Throne, or else 'The BATTs.'" In the background, someone hissed. "Currently, the Golden Guard and the leader of the BATTs are dueling, and presumably the petrification is off due to the destruction of the petrification machine."

Perry ducked again. "Shortly afterward, a group of coven guards, backed up by a scout contingent, arrived and declared that they'd dealt with 'the insane human.' As viewers still at home may recall from earlier in the broadcast, I was joined earlier by my son and two of his friends who shared what they had recently learned about the Coven System. Well, they reacted quite poorly to the guard's announcement and so did what I suspect were several other Hexside students and before you knew it a riot had broken out. I believe I saw a few students take out their scrolls, and a few minutes later more Hexolios arrived to join in the fight. Including what I believe to be a contingent from the beast keeping track who seem to have all painted themselves with tiger stripes and, it seems, freed all the animals from the Bonesborough Zoo."

A coven guard ran past Perry screaming and shortly afterward a teenage witch with a fishhook for an earring rode past on an albino pigmy giant tarratula, a young griffin following close behind.

"Oh, it seems there's a bit of an altercation occurring," Perry said while gesturing for the camera-witch to turn, revealing two coven scouts fighting each other while a young, slightly tanned witchling sat on the ground. "Just a moment ago, one of those scouts attacked that young man and the scout next to him responded by punching him across the helmet." One scout seemed to knock out the other and then helped the witchling up. "Mr. Scout," Perry begged as he approached, "what just happened?"

"Steve has been second-guessing a lot of his choices lately," the Scout answered, "and he did not sign up for beating on kids. Especially not his little brother. Steve quits," the scout finished while throwing off his helmet, revealing a strong family resemblance to the young witchling save for a horn on one side of his head. "If any kids at home are thinking of joining the Emperor's Coven, just remember that the training is harsh, you only get one day off a year, you're separated from all your friends and family, and the Emperor collects your palisman for some reason. C'mon Matt, we're getting out of here," the now-former scout declared while leading his presumed brother through the chaos.

"A fair warning from a brave man of principle," Perry concluded. "And it looks like a coven guard is about to attack me so I must conclude this broadcast. This has been Perry Porter, punching a cop in the face," the news anchor finished as he did just that.

"So the human realm has united governments, but not Emperors?" Lilith asked incredulously. They'd struck up a conversation about, well, literally anything. She might have been helping now but Luz really needed a distraction to keep her from remembering that this is the woman who threw her off a bridge into a mote of spikes the previous afternoon.

"We used to but most places have moved beyond that," Luz explained. "Most places, there are still some places where the ruler isn't called an Emperor but they act like it. But in most places, if they have royalty, it's just a ceremonial position. Where I live we elect the guy in charge and he serves for four years, then has to run for election again and you can only be elected twice."

"Really? Who gets a vote?" Lilith asked, fascinated.

"Everyone old enough and also a citizen," Luz explained, "but it used to be a lot more restricted for... complicated reasons. The most recent reform was about ten years ago: We used to have something called the Electoral College. Basically, my country is big and made up of a bunch of smaller states and it used to be that each state got a certain number of votes based on population and they voted for who the leader would be, with the citizens in the states voting to decide how the state would vote."

"That seems really complicated," King quipped.

"Well, back when my country was formed it made sense," Luz continued, "It was nearly three hundred years ago and without magic communicating and organizing stuff long distance was pretty hard until we invented technology to fix it so having the states handle it and then compress it down into smaller and more easily handled numbers was more efficient. Anyway, about ten years ago some girl from the middle of nowhere in Oregon made a very convincing argument to get it abolished, and poof, no more electoral college."

Lilith blinked. "A child did that?"

Luz shrugged. "She really wanted to see that unicorn."

"Why?" Lilith asked skeptically. "Unicorns are jerks."

Luz shrugged again. "Anyway, four years later Loki Laufeyson ran for president as a bit but didn't know that the college had been abolished and just barely eeked out a majority vote to be sworn in. He was so salty during his inauguration speech."

"...Human dialects have a lot of colloquialisms and other turns of phrase, don't they?" Lilith asked.

"Bet."

"Bet what?"

"Exactly," Luz deadpanned. Maybe that was a little meanspirited. She didn't even use that one, but... "Are coven sigils supposed to itch?"

"I don't know, I never got one," Lilith replied.

"...What?"

"The Emperor said I didn't need one," Lilith clarified. "He said I was special. He said that the Titan had big plans for me but... He was lying, wasn't he? Just like when he promised to cure Edalyn. He was just telling me what I wanted to hear and I was so desperate for... Oh. I owe Amity a proper apology."

"Ya think?" Luz quipped.

"Just her?" King added.

"Anyway," Lilith handwaved, "we're here. In this room is another lift that should take us to the roof near where Eda is being kept."

The hall was dark. As they stepped in, Luz froze and held an arm to stop the others from getting much further. "Someone's in here."

"Very perceptive, human," came a sinister voice in the distance. A voice with an English-like accent.

The lights all came on at once and revealed Emperor Belos in his robes and golden mask, like a stylized bird skull adorned with deer-like antlers.

The tyrant waved his staff, a mechanical one similar to that wielded by the Golden Guard, and suddenly spindly reddish-pink arms emerged from the ground and grabbed Lilith and King. The arms then rapidly drugged them away, tracing up the wall before dragging them seamlessly through the ceiling.

Luz pulled a fire glyph from her pocket and activated it, tossing a fireball at Belos.

Belos responded with a wave of his staff, deflecting the blast. "Alright. I'll play."

Amity was... She didn't know how to feel. Luz was gone. What else could the guards have meant when they said they'd dealt with the insane human? Cleary Luz, without taking time to recover from whatever Lilith had done to her to keep her compliant while the head witch captured Eda, had come here on impulse to try and rescue her mentor, got caught, and couldn't escape even after fleeing. What other explanation could there be?

Part of her was numb. Part of her was angry. And she'd already committed treason once this week so what was a little more? The Bards who were dueling the Golden Guard had destroyed the petrification machine but Eda was still trapped.

...Unfortunately, Amity hadn't exactly recovered from being knocked out by Lilith either. She probably should have stayed home to rest but she couldn't just sit there and do nothing. She had a bottle of pre-made abomination slime at her hip since she wasn't sure she'd be strong enough to conjure any directly but not enough to make a set of stairs or even a ladder.

She looked around. She'd gotten separated from Gus and Willow after the riot started. Right now, Gus was using his illusions to give his dad cover.

Willow, meanwhile, took out three coven scouts by conjuring vines beneath their feet and causing them to restrain them by both trunk and each limp. Amity wondered when Willow had gotten so strong.

A coven guard appeared to her left. Using her power conservatively, a sphere of abomination slime impacted them below the belt, which served well enough in regard to incapacitating them.

She then backed up, to get more space, only to back into someone. Turning around suddenly, she found that she'd bumped, appropriately enough, into Principal Bump. She wasn't aware that the implike demon he wore bonded to his head was a palisman. Or that he had such long black hair. Or that he was missing an eye and had a scar over the other.

"Amity are you alright?" He asked. Good old Principal Bump, always concerned for the wellbeing of his students.

"I'm fine," Amity quickly declared even though she didn't feel fine. "But I need to get to the roof."

"Why?" Her principal asked.

"A lot of reasons, right now mostly vengeance-based," Amity replied.

"As good a reason as any," Principal Bump agreed.

He pointed his staff at a nearby conformatorium wall and drew a speel circle with it, comingling his magic with his palisman's. "Abomination," he declared, "rise."

Amity was good, but Principal Bump's giant abomination was something else. Especially when he gave the second command, "abomination, stairs."

The massive construct of slime deformed itself and leaned forward and a moment later a grand staircase leading right up to where Amity needed to go.

"Thank you," she called out as she bolted up the steps.

"Any time," Principal Bump called back.

Once on the roof, Amity made her way to the cage where Eda was being imprisoned and saw that the Owl Lady wasn't the only prisoner anymore.

"Amity?" Lilith asked. "This is—"

Amity brandished some abomination slime at the dark-haired witch. "I do not want to hear a word from you! This whole situation is your fault!"

Lilith wisely shut her trap.

"Amity," King begged her attention, "Luz is—"

"I know," Amity acknowledged solemnly.

"...How?"

Rather than answer, Amity began to try and pick the lock on the cage with her abomination slime.

Unfortunately, dating the Owl Lady's apprentice did not automatically come with skill in larceny: the only crimes she knew how to commit were money laundering ("Thanks Mom," she thought sarcastically) and moonshining ("Thanks Eda," she thought sincerely.)

The point was that she did not actually know how to pick locks. After groaning in frustration, Amity caught from the corner of her eye the claw-goblin who led the tour of the castle yesterday trying to sneak toward a lift. She formed her slime into a blade and spun around to confront the demon, the Emperor's assistant Kikimora.

"Open the cage," Amity insisted.

"I am the Emperor's right hand!" Kiimora declared indignantly. "I will not be threatened by a mere child!" she continued as if she hadn't been cowering in fear from the riot the entire time. In the background, the leader of the BATTS played a crescendo and suddenly the Golden Guard was sent flying off by the spiral of a whirlwind.

"You're also the size of a grudgby ball," Amity threatened, "and I used to be Hexside's Team Captain."

That seemed to do it. Kikimora scrambled to the cage and unlocked it, then was batted asside as the door swung open and the prisoners escaped.

"Okay," Amity began, "we need to get out of here."

"We can't just leave!" King shouted.

"I think the townsfolk have the guards handled and the Bards just... Cleaned the Golden Guard's clock," Amity continued and hoped she was using that expression right. "I think things are good here which means getting Eda out of here is top—"

Nearby, the roof of the conformatorium began to crack. With a loud crash, it shattered outward and from the hole crawled—

"Luz!" Amity declared with relief and excitement before running to embrace her girlfriend. She wasn't sure how she'd gotten inside when the Guards were pretty clear about what they'd done to her but she'd take it.

"Oh, hey Sweet Potato," Luz greeted as she was hugged. "Not that I don't appreciate it but this is kind of a bad time." Something was new about her voice, like something was cutely whispering to echo every word she said.

"Okay, now we can leave," King finished.

Hug complete, Amity released her girlfriend and then got a better look at her... Amity wasn't sure that Luz could get any cuter but somehow she did. Her eyes were purple with black sclera. Her teeth were noticeably sharper, like a witch's fangs, but her canines were slightly longer than that with the one on the upper left poking out over her lip. Then there was her outfit. It was like the Hexside uniform, with the shawl/hood replaced with a witch's cloak and the tights extended to cover the hands and feet. Each of Luz's fingers looked to be tipped with a small claw, and the whole outfit looked... Organic. Kind of wet-looking... Amity belatedly realized that it wasn't a costume. The whole outfit was witch's wool purple, but alternating pink and blue tiger stripes marked her arms and legs.

"Dang kid," Eda asked from behind Amity. "What happened to you?"

"Explain later, leave now, before Belos gets up!" Luz explained. She then brandished Eda's staff, which Amity hadn't even noticed she was carrying in the excitement of seeing her alive and in this form, and then laid it out and mounted it

Luz had tentacles now. The cape of her cloak split into a couple and gently lifted Amity up and sat her down behind Luz on the staff. A moment later, King was deposited before Luz but between her arms. All Amity could think of was how good Luz was going to be at hugs now.

"Where is the Emperor?" Lilith asked as she mounted her own staff.

"Beat him up! Let's go!"

And with that, the whole party fled the Confomatorium through the sky.

If he had to choose where exactly he'd gone wrong that day, Phillip would have to say it was when he took the Owl Lady's palisman from Luzura.

He'd been perfectly content to let her test her mastery of the glyphs against him, exhaust her supply and her anger, before making his ultimatum: The Portal Door for the Owl Lady's life. Especially if it would let him get a good look at whatever bizarre glyph combination allowed her to create magic-disrupting detonations and envelop herself in strength-enhancing shadows.

Then he disarmed her, and Luzura's anger hit a breaking point. The shadows that clung to her body, which Phillip was forced to conclude were not glyph-related, erupted quite violently and then sort of congealed into some horrifying slime as her face took on the horrifying countenance of the foulest fiends.

She shouted, in a voice that echoed with a feral whisper, to "let go of him!" and then horrific tendrils briefly erupted from her body as she shouted to the heavens.

Unsettled, Philip countered with a blast from his staff, only for Luzura's cloak to move on its own to block the spell. With an unholy roar of rage, Luzura reached out and the purple mass coating her arm bubbled and erupted into grasping pseudopods that grabbed Philip by his torso and...

Well, it was a little hard to piece together exactly what happened next but the cracks in the walls, the hole in the ceiling, the fact that he could now hear a riot outside, and the lack of any sign of Luzura or the Owl Lady's palisman made it clear enough.

As he stood from the crater he'd been left in, he mused to himself "It's just my fortune that the only human I meet in centuries turns out to be a witchbreed." Still, it was better to be a witchbreed than a true witch, and based on Hunter's observations and those of spies in Bonesborough the girl was of good character, if severely misguided. Even if his suspicions of her... vices, based on his brief glimpse of her interaction with the lavender-haired witchling, were correct, she still didn't deserve to experience what this place did to humans.

But, that was for another time. He still needed her to find the time pools and help his past self learn the Light Glyph and find The Collector before he could rescue her from this place. And he'd need to come up with a new plan to retrieve his portal door from the Owl Lady, there wasn't enough Titan Blood on the isle to make another one.

Looking up toward the hole in the ceiling that let in the sound from outside, he improvised a plan to save face and run damage control.

At the top of the lift, he was greeted by Kikimora. "Emperor Belos!" She declared. "It was horrible. I tried to stop them but the townspeople are all out of control. They've overwhelmed the Scouts and Guards and a quartet of bards vanquished the Golden Guard, who was probably—"

She was interupted as Hunter Flew up and landed next to her. "Emperor Belos, I take full responsibility for—"

Philip silenced them both with a raised hand and surveilled the area. No sign of those bards Kikimora mentioned, and the way the townspeople were making fools of his military forces told him that he would need to see about bolstering them soon. With a wave of his staff, Philip conjured a massive illusion of himself above the Conformatorium and shouted "SILENCE!"

That seemed to force things to calm down. Unfortunately, he couldn't eliminate the dissenting witches right now, he clearly didn't have the forces for it and it would... raise questions. No matter, they'd all die on the Day of Unity anyway.

"Guards, stand down. People of Bonesborough, return to your homes satisfied that on this day you have done The Titan's work."

This caused quite a bit of muttering.

"Not too long ago," Philip lied with ease, "I was given a vision by the Titan instructing me to spare Eda the Owl Lady. If it were not for your protest, the petrification ceremony would have gone on as normal and I would have been too late to act on that vision. I thank you all for saving me from that dire mistake." More muttering. "The Titan has told me that in her current state, without her magic, she is no threat to anyone. And besides..."

Was this too petty of him? Putting such scrutiny on Luzura? Well, if he was going to tolerate her vice, it should be acceptable to indulge his own.

"...Her apprentice, Luz the Human, has been granted a blessing by The Titan."

Chapter Text

After arriving at The Owl House, Amity bore witness to Lilith using some sort of exotic magic to literally take half of the curse from Eda, restoring the witch to her true form at the cost of both of their magics. Luz began explaining how she could teach Eda what she knew about the glyphs and then they could learn more together before Eda, turning her now two-toned eyes to Luz's asked again what exactly had happened to Luz while she fought the Emperor.

...Unfortunately for Amity's curiosity, shortly afterward her scroll blew up. Her entire family was DMing her on Penstagram to "Come home" with a "now," added to Mom's message.

After saying her goodbyes, Amity rushed home, taking the long way around town just in case, and was greeted at home by her very concerned older siblings and father and learned about the Emperor pardoning everyone from the protest but also that going to a protest against the Emperor, even if it was to protect someone important to someone important to her, was very wreckless, and finally the claptrap about the Emperor declaring Luz to have been blessed by the Titan...

At this point, Amity was 100% convinced that everything the Emperor said was a lie. She'd seen what the sigils were for, she'd seen what the Emperor's coven was really like, and if he could communicate with the Titan then why couldn't he use the glyphs that were gained from connecting with nature on the Isles?

Her Mom, for her part, seemed to believe the Emperor's lie and commended her on choosing a good partner in a sickly sweet voice... Before chastising her for doing something that almost certainly cost her any chance of joining the Emperor's Coven. Honestly, it hadn't quite occurred to Amity that she was burning that bridge but she found herself not caring... That was when she realized that she never wanted to join the Emperor's Coven, she was just doing what her mother wanted her to do.

Once she was alone that evening, as she stared at her own forearm, she made a decision.

...The next morning, Eda hit her, Gus, and Willow on Pensta and told them that the residents of the Owl House were going to lay low for a few days and to not come over barring an emergency until they gave the all-clear in case the place was being monitored. Shortly afterward, she got a string of stylized hearts and a "C U SOON" message from Luz.

...'Soon' ended up being a little over two weeks. Amity understood the need for discretion but so long without contact with her awesome girlfriend really got to her. Still, Amity managed to spend the time productively. She did a bit of research. She spoke to Principal Bump about her academic future given a recent change in priorities, she finally gave that pamphlet he'd slipped her a good look and, upon seeing that the counselor on staff was a certified mind healer and that they could not talk to her parents without her permission unless they believed she was a danger to herself or others, booked an appointment.

...Also, in the interim, Amity and Willow wondered among themselves why the coven guards had declared that they'd dealt with Luz when she'd been in the conformatorium all along, which prompted Gus to reveal the illusion he'd used to distract them earlier. Amity would have throttled the younger witchling for leaving out such an important detail and letting her and Willow worry, but witch puberty had, if Amity had the human vernacular right, hit him like a truck and the after-effects of his rapid growth spurt were deemed to be punishment enough.

Amity also continued her study of the human realm, and upon learning of the date of Luz's return to school baked her a pie... At first, she was going to bake a fairy pie but then she recalled what Eda had said about Luz not being able to digest most demon food and spent an hour DMing the Owl Lady about human-safe food before the Owl Lady finally just sent her a crow carrying a human cookbook, a bill for ten snails, and list of demon realm ingredients that were human safe and similar to human food that couldn't be easily obtained in the Boiling Isles. Amity happily paid for the book and got to work.

Finally, on the day Luz was set to return to Hexside, Amity set out hoping to greet her girlfriend with a couple of surprises.

She got her chance when she approached the locker bay where Luz was stationed and saw her talking with Willow and Gus. Amity walked up when she saw an opening.

Luz noticed her before she could speak. "Amity!" she greeted and rushed over for a hug, which Amity gratefully gave.

"It's good to see you, Luz," Amity greeted in turn and... Uh oh. Luz was nervous about something... But, after the fiasco at the castle, Luz had to know that she could talk to Amity and/or Willow and Gus about her problems. So, act normal and Luz will tell her when she's ready. That decided, Amity stepped back and held out her arms. "Notice anything different?"

Luz looked her over for a moment and her eyes lit up when she noticed the changes to Amity's sleaves. "You're multi-tracking!"

Amity gave her girlfriend a big smile. "Yep!" Then she quieted down. "My chances of joining the Emperor's coven have gone down the drain and honestly, after learning what the coven sigils are really for I'm not sure I want to join any coven. So chances are I'm going to have to go wild so I might as well get a head start." Amity traced the green band on her right wrist. "I'm still an abomination specialist, but... I already knew a little bit of plant magic so taking a basic plant class just made sense and... The last time Willow and I had classes together weren't exactly good so I figured it'd be a chance to reconnect. I also spoke with your friend, Jerbo, and he's got some really great ideas." From behind Luz, Willow smiled. Amity then traced the yellow band on her left wrist. "There's a little bit of overlap between potion-making and creating abominations or abomination slime from scratch instead of just conjuring it, so a class on potions theory and properties of different ingredients felt like a good choice and, well, I kind of feel like I've been neglecting Boscha lately so a class together lets us spend a bit more time together, you know."

"You're a good friend," Luz complimented.

"Thanks," Amity then dragged a finger up her left forearm which, other than the band, was predominantly red, "and I'm taking a couple of bard classes because, well, we recently got a very good showing on what bard magic was capable of. I'm not really sure how it'll be useful to me specifically, but the first couple of lessons have been fun and if nothing else it's a trick to keep in my back pocket."

"Yeah, I heard about that," Luz agreed, "I think Eda knows them but she won't tell me. Still, sounds like you've been busy."

"Yeah. I also finally managed to talk to a mind healer," Amity shared next, "I officially have a diagnosis of Walpurgis syndrome which, as far as I can tell, is the demon realm name of that spectrum thing you mentioned."

"Oh, okay," Luz responded.

"Yeah, I uh... Can't get any special accommodations without telling my parents and I don't want to do that just yet, but I don't think I need any so... I'm just happy to know for sure." This was met by Luz being the one to initiate a hug. "Oh, I almost forgot," Amity finished when Luz released her. "To celebrate your triumphant return to the hallowed halls of Hexside," Amity said as she fished through her bag, "I baked you an apple pie."

"An apple pie?" Gus asked as Amity presented the confection to the object of her affection.

Amity had been a bit surprised by that, too. Putting apples in pies? Humans were so creative when it came to food. "I was on Pensta with Eda last night, trying to make sure that what I made for Luz was something safe and she eventually sold me a human cookbook."

"You were the special customer!" Luz declared. "Eda sent the book out but wouldn't tell me who ordered it."

"Well, I'm glad she didn't ruin the surprise," Amity said with a smile. "I had to make some substitutions, of course, but I hope it's up to the standards of the human realm."

"If you made it it'll probably be one of the best I've ever had," Luz said with a smile that melted Amity's heart. "You shouldn't have."

Amity smiled back. "I wanted to. So what have you been up to the last few weeks?"

"Oh, this and that," Luz replied. "Even after the whole town went up and arms, nobody's really willing to pay for potions from a magicless witch and that's most of Eda's income so we had to get creative. Did some bounty hunting, I served on a ship for a bit... I think I'm an accessory to piracy now. Fought the Golden Guard, he is a lot less friendly when he's on the clock... The money situation's okay now," Luz finished, "but Eda's looking for a few extra sources of income just in case... Oh, that reminds me, Willow," the human turned to the bespectacled witch, "Eda would like to know if you'd be willing to help her cultivate a human realm plant called agave?"

"I'm ready, willing, and able to try," Willow replied with excitement.

"Other than that, Eda taught me how to pickpocket and I've been teaching her and Lilith what I know about the glyphs."

Amity blinked. "Lilith?"

"Yeah, she's been staying at the Owl House ever since, well... I mean..." Luz shrugged.

"...and you trust her, after everything she did?" Amity asked incredulously.

"I mean, you were there when she took half of Eda's curse and she apologized for throwing me off that bridge."

"She did what!?" Amity shouted.

"Oh, right. You weren't there for that part," Luz said with a sheepish laugh.

Amity could not properly express how big of a deal it was that Luz was apparently comfortable sleeping in the same house as someone who tried to murder her in words, instead it just came out as random syllables.

"Look," Luz tried to explain, "it's really hard to stay mad at someone who looks at you with big, bright eyes and calls you 'miss teacher.' I think Lilith is just like, super desperate for approval or positive feedback from an authority figure or something."

Amity's eye twitched for a moment and she tried very hard not to think of how that meant that Lilith should have known exactly how badly Amity would have taken the betrayal and what Lilith had done to set it up.

"...And um... It''s not like I'm going to be living in the same house as her for very much longer," Luz admitted and her nervousness spiked, companied with just the tiniest bit of guilt.

"Luz... what's wrong?"

"...I'm supposed to be at this camp," Luz admitted. "And the camp ends, well, today. Got a text from my Mom about it... It completely slipped my mind... I need to go back to the human realm and... I don't know how Mom's going to take me being here instead of where I was supposed to be but she's going to want me to move back home and... Eda taught me this trick for how to open the portal from the human side, but..." Luz trailed off but there was clearly more to it.

"Luz?"

"I don't know if she's going to let me come back," Luz finished. "If, If I'd remembered I'd have tried to come back to Hexside earlier or I don't know, spent more time with..."

This prompted three young witchlings to hug the human witch.

"Luz, don't torture yourself with worst-case scenarios," Willow warned. "I've been there, it doesn't help."

"Besides," Gus added, "I'm pretty sure that Eda and King will try and kidnap you if you're gone for more than a week."

"And I believe that I said that I'd come to the human realm with you, and help you talk to her, back at Grom," Amity finished.

Luz was silent for a moment. When she finally spoke, she simply said "I have the best friends," with a sniff. Followed with "and an awesome girlfriend."

After a few more moments of hugging, the morning bell finally rang and they made their way to class. Amity mentally prepared herself, this was going to be a very interesting afternoon.

Chapter Text

Luz and Amity arrived at the Owl House that afternoon to find a mess created by Eda recklessly experimenting with Glyphs that Lilith had just barely managed to figure out a fix for by the time the two girls got there. After that was cleaned up and poor King, who'd been trapped in ice, was wrapped in blankets to warm him up.

On the plus side, it turned out you could combine the glyphs to create new effects. That was cool. Hopefully, Luz would get to experiment with that herself later. Hopefully. If things went well with her mom.

Not long after, Eda summoned and opened the portal door in a clearing not too far from the Owl House.

"So why are we all the way out here?" Luz asked.

"Because your mother might want to come to see where you've been all this time," Eda explained, "and a scenic forest scene is probably a better first impression than my junk pile or Hooty."

Amity shuddered, no doubt flashing back to her first meeting with Hooty.

"Now, I don't know how long this is going to take," Eda continued while pulling a furled parchment from her hair, "so here's a list of every human food I know of for sure that's safe for witches. In case, well... If this takes long enough, Boots is gonna need to eat." Luz took the parchment and checked it over. "I was gonna give that to you anyway since we all know that Goops at the very least will be dying to visit the human realm, but it's extra important right now."

Luz noticed something off about Eda's body language. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah," Eda declared without making eye contact. "It's just... This day sort of snuck up on me, is all..."

Luz hugged her mentor, and tellingly Eda didn't resist.

"...Amity," Lilith began, "before... This, I'd like to speak with you. Privately."

Amity glared at her former mentor, taking in the ratty and ill-fitting clothing she was now wearing. "If you can't say it in front of others, I don't want to hear it from you."

Lilith sighed. "Very well. I'd like to properly apologize for my behavior at the covention and, in general, my conduct as your teacher. I... Looking back, I knew your circumstances and... I should have known better how you would have taken... I am sorry I violated your trust and personal convictions, I am sorry I used you in a scheme, and I am sorry that I wasn't and couldn't be the kind of mentor you needed."

"I appreciate you saying that," Amity said cooly, "but it's going to take a lot more than that to..." Amity's emotions flared into anger. "No, if you think that's the only thing I'm... You tased me and tried to 'Gwen Stacy' my girlfriend!"

"And I'm sorry—'Gwen Stacy?'" Lilith started to apologize again only to break off in confusion.

"Uh, Amity, to 'Gwen Stacy' someone is referring to the 'killed them to make someone else hurt' part, not the 'thrown off a bridge part,'" Luz corrected awkwardly.

"Oh, my bad," Amity then corrected herself, "you tased me and threw my girlfriend off a bridge."

"Amity, I hurt a lot of people," Lilith admitted. "I did things I knew were wrong because I fell for the Emperor's lies because I believed him when he said he would help me cure my sister. Help me clean up a terrible mistake I made... I spent over thirty years running away from problems I caused, trying to fix it instead of just taking responsibility for my actions, and making a bigger mess in the process. You are one of the people I hurt, and I owe you an apology. I'm trying to be better. That's all I wanted to say."

Amity went into an angry, face-scrunchy blush for a moment but just when Luz thought that she'd pass out, Amity instead blew and forced herself to calm down. "Fine. I've been awful to people too, and been given a second chance that I don't think I deserve. I'd be a hypocrite if I didn't give you a chance, but... I don't like you. You shattered any trust I had in you when you gave me that glyph and it's just gotten worse since then... If you want my... It's going to take time before I can so much as respect you again."

"That's still more than I deserve," Lilith agreed. "If there is anything I can ever do for you, don't hesitate to ask."

Amity grunted, then took Luz's hand. "Off to the human realm?"

"Off to the human realm." Luz agreed.

The two girls stepped through the portal door and Luz couldn't help but smile as Amity gasped. "Everything's.. Green?"

"Yeah, most plants in the human realm are green, except for like, flowers," Luz explained. "It's honestly kind of interesting that leaves and grass and such are mostly red in the Demon realm, given how uh... I mean, even plant magic is green and there are plenty of green plants so..."

"Huh," Amity acknowledged. "That is interesting."

"Anyway, my house isn't too far away from here," Luz gestured to the path through the forest. "My Mom's probably worried about me. She has to have realized that I never went to camp by now."

"Luz," Amty asked as they walked. "Your mom isn't... Like mine, is she?"

"No!" Luz declared, wide-eyed. "She's... I know my Mom loves me and wants the best for me, it's just... I don't think she understands me. I don't... fit in around here. I'm not normal. You know what started all of this? I tried hard to prove that my... weirdness, I guess, could be useful. Most of my interests aren't... Not the kind of thing they test on here. I worked so hard on a book report and... Got so caught up in it that I forgot that you weren't supposed to bring live snakes and fireworks to school."

Amity blinked. "That's not allowed in human schools? Even with a permit?"

"Nope!" Luz declared, then laughed bitterly. "The camp was supposed to help me fit in better but... The pamphlet, it was just... Mom said she did her research to make sure it wasn't a... bad place. But.. It felt like if I went there, they'd try to change me into someone other than me. Maybe I did need a reality check, but... Not like that."

Amity squeezed Luz's hand, which Luz appreciated. "So I've been meaning to ask you," she said, clearly trying to change the subject, "what was with that form you took at the conformatorium?"

"So I'm not 100% sure how I got it, exactly, but..." Luz trailed off, she didn't want to spook Amity after Grom. "Um... Remember how I uh, was talking about heroes and villains here in the human realm, and I talked about... Symbiotes?"

Amity blinked. "You have a creature from another planet in your body?"

"No, but... It's the only thing I can think of for these powers," Luz continued. "I've got all the signs and... You're taking this pretty well."

"...I mean, it'd be a little weird if you did have another creature inside you all this time, but not that weird, so why wouldn't I take it well?" Amity asked.

"I mean, after Grom..."

Amity's eyes brightened with realization: "Oh, Luz. After... I had a nightmare about a depraved serial killer going after the people I love. Not about... so if it's one of those symbiote things, that's fine. They weren't the fear that Grom picked up on." Amity gave Luz's hand another squeeze. "And even if I was afraid of symbiotes and not specifically that Carnage creep, I could never be afraid of my kind, loving, cuddly, awesome girlfriend. My first thought when I saw you like that was about how adorable you looked."

Luz felt heat rising in her face but smiled. "Thanks, Amity. So anyway, remember when I said my blood tested for pure evil? I think what happened was that I got some symbiote goo in me and that it got mistaken for some kind of weird malevolent stuff and I guess something in the Boiling Isles made it all come out. I can't do the Shadowy aura anymore. I try and the whole symbiote form thing pops out, so like... Was the shadow aura like, aeosolized symbiote goo? Can't detonate glyphs anymore, either. That must have been some kind of bad reaction to the free-floating symbiote stuff. Though honestly, that was only ever good for hurting people so I'm not sad to see it go."

"I mean, I can see some situations where destroying a spell construct and making the witch who cast it feel like they got punched in the bile sack could have been useful," Amity replied diplomatically. "Like against that scout who branded you. Or when we were fighting Lilith."

"Maybe but... I guess seeing how bad it hurt you got me... spooked," Luz admitted. "Besides, I really don't think powers like mine and the glyphs were meant to mix. Anyway, another thing that happened was, well, Eda knitted me a witch's cloak out of witch's wool while we were at the palace. I was wearing it when I transformed and the symbiote gunk sort of... ate it."

"Oh?"

"I was upset at first, but the cloak comes back whenever I transform and all my symbiote goo protects against magic the way Witch's wool does so Eda says it's like her gift to me is part of me now and always keeping me safe, which made me feel better. Anyway, we're here," Luz finished.

Once through the forest path, the two found themselves on the outskirts of an ordinary small suburb, nothing much but a street and a few houses bordered by forest.

"Wow," Amity said as she turned to look at her surroundings. "I'm not sure what I expected human buildings to look like but, not this... They're so... Uniform."

"Yeah, human buildings are like that," Luz acknowledged. "My house is this one right here next to the path and... Mom's van is gone. I hope she didn't like, drive all the way to the camp when I didn't get off the bus home."

"So, a van is some kind of transport?" Amity asked. "I've been wondering about that."

Approaching the house, Luz tried the door only to find it locked. She reached for her key only to realize that it was in her bag. Which she'd mistakenly left back at the Owl House. No matter, Eda had taught her how to pick locks. She'd even gotten Luz her own set of picks... Which were also in her bag back at the Owl House.

"Ah, beans," Luz cursed. She then turned back to Amity, "so I have no way of getting in. We basically have to wait for—Oh. Never mind."

Just as Luz was explaining that they were locked out, she noticed a familiar van driving up. Luz stood up straight and noticed from the corner of her eye that Amity was adjusting her hair.

The car pulled up and Luz prepared to greet her mother and face the music, only to freeze as she realized that her mother wasn't the only one in the vehicle. Her mother got out, as did two others. Luz hyperfocused on a girl who could have been her identical twin, down to the clothes they wore, but heard the feminine voice of the other teen as they spoke.

"Thanks again for the ride, Mrs. Noceda," the teen said.

"It's nothing, Masha, I'm just so glad that Luz made friends at camp," Luz's Mom said, "but are you sure you didn't want me to drive you home?"

"It's fine, my parents texted me and said they were out till this evening anyway so it was either be the only kid to stay at the camp and wait for the bus or come home with you and spend more time with..."

It was then that the trio noticed Luz and Amity standing in front of the house. Luz's mom looked back and forth between Luz and the doppelganger. "Luz...? But...? What's going on?"

The doppelganger was just as shocked as Luz was, it seemed, but she broke out of it first: "I'm not going back!" she shouted in a voice that very much wasn't Luz's before darting past the house into the woods.

Luz, operating mostly on instinct, chased after. She barely noticed that her girlfriend was following her as well.

After a few minutes, she started to catch up and heard her doppelganger whine "Why couldn't this have just worked out!?"

As Luz got closer, she noticed something in the path ahead. "Hey, wait, stop!" She called out but the doppelganger ignored her and so stepped right into a snare.

Yanked upsidedown by her ankle, the doppelganger screamed and struggled and then, almost resignedly, slacked and shifted with a sound akin to a snake's rattle, melting away from a copy of Luz into a—

"Basilisk!" Amity shouted from behind Luz and the two girls skidded to a stop. And true enough, that's what Luz's doppelganger was. She was smaller, cuter, and more humanoid in the toro area than the greater basilisk that Luz had fought on her first day of classes at Hexside.

"Please," the basilisk begged from the snare, "I didn't want to hurt anyone, I just..."

Luz approached the poor thing but Amity called out to her, "Wait."

"Amity," Luz replied, "she's scared and helpless. I've got a feeling that she's not like the one that attacked Hexside."

"A basilisk attacked Hexside?" The basilisk in the snare asked, going very quiet and pale.

"Yeah, a greater basilisk possing as an inspector," Luz explained as she found the metal thingy that was keeping the snare tight. She didn't know what it was called but this was far from the first time someone had set up illegal traps in these woods and her Mom had taught Luz how to deal with them.

"She got out!?" The basilisk screeched. "But, she was crazy. We left her behind on purpose because she only ever talked about how witches were nothing but food and that she'd make them all pay by hitting them where it hurt. How did she get out!?"

"No clue," Luz said with a shrug as she finished undoing the snare, letting the basilisk down. "She wasn't exactly in the mood to chat and I was more concerned with stopping the rampage and getting back the magic she took."

"Wait, you fought her? But... How?" The basilisk asked.

"Well, I don't have any magic of my own so she couldn't drain me," Luz explained, "and I had some help from some friends who had some very creative applications of their magic, so it wasn't that hard to save the day. I don't know what happened to her after we crushed the magic out of her though so..."

"I don't think I want to know. If she's..." The basilisk dragged a reptilian hand across her neck, "That might be for the best but.. The idea doesn't make me any less sad."

"I get it, so... What's your story?" Luz asked.

"I'm... Not supposed to exist," the basilisk started. "Basilisks went extinct a long time ago. But The Emperor's coven did something to bring us back, they wanted to study how we drained out magic... They kept us in a hidden dungeon in the confomratorium, they experimented on us and forced us to drain magic from poor innocent creatures." The poor thing was shaking, so Luz changed tactics.

"So what's your name?"

"Number Fi—Vee," the now-named Vee started before correcting herself. "My name is Vee."

"Well, Vee, you got out. That's the important part. You survived and escaped and now you can get better."

"...I didn't really escape," Vee admitted. "After Number One and Number Two were taken for testing and never came back, Aiyayeye and Ivy started talking about how we needed to get out and a Scout overheard us. Instead of, you know, he... Unlocked the cell doors and left. The three of us snuck out after that, but we had to split up so we'd be harder to find. I snuck around Bonesborough for a while, then I saw, well, you, a human, and I snuck into that tent and through the portal."

Luz blinked. "Wait, Eda closed the portal as soon as she found out I came through it and you couldn't have seen me until after... did she open it back up after bringing me up front and I didn't notice?"

"I have no idea," Vee admitted. "I came out near that old house in the woods but then I heard someone coming and I panicked and... I didn't mean to steal your life, but you were the only human I'd ever seen, and... Camila thought I was you. She was so nice to me and..."

"Wait, she came back?" Luz interrupted. She'd been on her way to work when Owlbert had stolen Luz's book. "If... If it wasn't for you, Mom would have thought I'd run away."

"You did run away!" Vee shouted, voice full of sadness and bitterness. "You had it good, a roof over your head and a parent who loved you and you still ran! Why? Because you were afraid of a camp that was supposed to help you!? A place to make friends? Or did you just hate the idea of learning how to be a functional member of society?" Luz swallowed, but couldn't answer. "I was so scared the first few days at the camp. I expected that when Mo—Camila got home she'd find you and it'd be all over for me but after a few days I realized you weren't coming back and that if it weren't for me, she'd have been worried or heartbroken. I hope whatever you found in the demon realm was worth it."

"Don't talk to her like that," Amity began, "you don't know—"

"Amity, don't," Luz interrupted. "She's right... Even if Mami hadn't come back, she'd have realized I wasn't at Camp sooner or later, and... I... I didn't mean to hurt anyone, but I still jumped at the first chance I had to... I guess I've been pretty selfish." Luz looked back to Vee. "You must hate me."

"Yeah, I do hate you a little," Vee admitted. "But I'm also grateful. If you hadn't run away... I probably never would have learned that people as kind as Camila existed. So, thank you. Even if I have to find somewhere else to live now—"

"No, you don't," came a familiar voice. The trio in the forest turned to see that they'd been followed by Luz's Mom and the gothy teen who had come home with her and Vee. Luz's Mom had spoken up.

"Hey, um... How much of that did you hear?" Luz asked.

"Everything," the teen, Masha, replied. "So just so I have this straight... The Luz I made friends with at camp wasn't the real Luz, she was some kid fleeing from horrible, inhumane conditions in a place called the Demon Realm who sort of accidentally an identity theft. Meanwhile, the real Luz was having an Isekai adventure in the Demon Realm, but now she's back with this... Cotton candy-haired elf chick?"

"What's an elf?" Amity asked.

"And you," Masha fished while turning to Vee specifically, "are not human but instead some kind of shapeshifting snake demon?"

"Yeah, that's about right," Vee finished.

"That's wicked," Masha declared with a smile.

That was interesting. Basilisks could blush. Masha didn't seem to pay it any mind, but...

"I have the weirdest case of deja vu right now," Amity admitted.

Luz turned to her mother. "Mom, I can explain."

"One thing at a time, Mija," her Mom replied. She then kneeled down next to the basilisk. "Vee, is it?" Vee nodded. "You wrote such lovely letters. You don't have to go anywhere."

"But, your real daughter—"

"Would never want me to abandon someone in need, right Mija?"

"Yeah!" Luz added. "I've already got a bunk bed, I can move some of my stuff to the basement, and then we can be roomies!"

"There are laws in place for people like you," her Mom continued. "To protect people, especially children, from other worlds who need somewhere safe to be. There are services for this. We can get you a legal identity, and paperwork, we can enroll you in school, and get financial aid to help take care of you. If you want we can apply to get you citizenship, and if you want to stay with us then you can for as long as you would like."

Vee's eyes got noticeably wet. "Thank you," she said quietly.

"Now, I hate to ask this, but... Can you change into something a little less... Eye-catching? At least will we get inside."

Vee tried to shift back into Luz's form. Tried being the operative word, as her ears with still basilisk ears and gold irised eyes, as well as pale splotches on her face. "Um, this is as good as I can get. I need magic to change and I haven't fed in months."

"It's good enough for now," Mom confirmed. "We'll figure something else out later."

Then she stood up and turned to Luz.

"Now we can talk."

"I'm sorry," Luz started a dam of feelings that had been bottled up inside for weeks suddenly breaking. Nerves about telling her mother where she'd really been combined with new feelings about how ungrateful a daughter she'd been and how much she could have hurt her Mom. "I ran away. I just... I couldn't do it! I couldn't go to someplace that would try to make me into someone I wasn't!"

"Mija, I told you, I looked into it, it wasn't one of those places."

'I know, but..." Luz started hyperventilating.

"To be fair," Masha interrupted, "it took me about a week to be sure that it wasn't a really well-hidden troubled youth camp. And the logo on the pamphlet of the kid being shoved in a box did not help, you can't exactly blame someone for being scared."

"See, she gets it," Luz said, trying to play off her extreme reaction as a joke.

"They," Masha corrected.

"Huh?"

"I'm nonbinary," Masha explained.

"Oof. Sorry," Luz apologized.

"It's fine," Masha replied, "I still present pretty feminine so it's an easy mistake to make. I'm thinking of getting my nails done in Enby pride colors to make it more obvious."

"So humans have special words for that kind of thing, too?" Luz heard Amity mutter to herself.

Luz's Mom sighed. "Mija, I'm sorry I drove you away. Things will—"

"It wasn't you!" Luz interrupted, panicking. "It was never you. You're the reason I came back." Tears were starting to stream down Luz's face at this point. "It's just... It's everything else! For as long as I can remember, people have picked on me for being me. You remember the snake-skin incident in pre-school, right? Don't think I didn't hear what the other adults were saying. As I got older it kept getting worse and worse—I can't help but look for exit routes whenever I find human teens. I try to make friends and I keep screwing up, no one understands me... You know, with that book report... I was trying to prove that you wouldn't have to worry about me. That I could... But I got carried away and didn't think things through and just caused more trouble."

"Mija..."

"But... The Demon realm is different," Luz continued almost hysterically. "I have friends there! I got enrolled at a magic school, I'm getting consistently good grades for the first time I can remember, I... I wanted to stay. Every part of me wanted to stay, I'm not... I relate to the people there. I feel like I belong there... But I couldn't just leave you behind either so..."

"Mija!" Luz's Mom shouted. "I'm not mad. Please calm down. We can talk about this later... How did you get home? Can you go back, if you wanted to?"

"Yeah, there's a portal," Luz explained as a bit of the weight was pulled from her shoulders. "I could just come and go whenever I wanted... If you'll let me?"

"I'd need to meet your friends first," her Mom said, "and probably your teachers as this 'magic school' but... You handled this whole situation with Vee with a lot of maturity and wisdom. And part of the idea of sending you away was to help you make friends, so... If you got what you needed, then... Why don't you start by introducing your friend here to me," she finished with a gesture toward Amity.

"Right," Luz said while trying to forcibly compose herself. How did she go about this? She'd had a plan for how to come out to her Mom, it involved a slide show. Not just an impromptu introduction to her girlfriend in the woods after a very emotionally trying series of conversations... "This is um," she said as she stepped back and took Amity's hand. "She's my... ugh, um..."

"¿Señora Noceda?" Amity began. "Mi nombre es Amity. Soy la novia de Luz. Ella es mi batata. Ella me da coraje. Sé que no hemos estado juntos por mucho tiempo, pero... La amo."

Luz looked wide-eyed at her awesome girlfriend. "You speak Spanish?" She did. It was far from perfect, but...

"Just a couple of words and phrases," Amity said with a sheepish grin. "There were some textbooks and a translating dictionary in that pile of human books Eda sold to the Library, when I recognized your language I started trying to learn. I wanted to surprise you, but then I figured... This is as good a time as any. How'd I do?"

Luz was prepared to answer but was cut off by her mother pulling both Luz and Amity into a tight hug. "Tell me everything."

Chapter Text

"...And then the next thing I knew I was standing on Grom's face," Luz explained. "It turned into my worst fear after that but helping Amity was more important so I powered through. We talked, we cleared things up, and that's how we started dating!" she finished.

"I can't believe my little girl has her own girlfriend," Camila said with a teary smile.

"And I can't believe you're dating someone who tried to have you dissected," the human teen, Masha, interjected.

Luz looked to Amity, "and I can't believe you brought that up."

Amity shrank onto the couch in the Nocedas's living room. "I wanted to be honest. We... We didn't exactly get off on the right foot and I'm ashamed of that, but that is part of how we... She did say to tell her everything... Please don't hate me," she finished while avoiding Camila's gaze.

"Amity, I don't know what you were like when that happened," Camila replied, "but you seem to have changed for the better and Luz is... I can't remember the last time I've seen her so happy. I will, however," the older woman continued, "be having a long talk with this Principal Bumb."

"For what it's worth, in hindsight I think he was bluffing," Luz defended awkwardly. In response, Camila patted her purse which made Luz blanch. There was... probably some context there that Amity was missing. She was just glad that her girlfriend's mom wasn't angry at her over it. "Anyway um... I don't think Grom counts as a real first date but I do have pictures!" Luz declared to change the subject. "Getting these onto my phone was a real pain, but..."

Luz jumped up from her seat next to Amity and held up her phone so that her mom could see. "Here's a candid that one of Amity's friends took of me and Amity talking right after I sent Grom flying... I think this is right when I asked her out. This one is us finishing off Grom together... Here's us dancing together for the first time. Here's one of the official Grom photos of us together. Here's one with us and our friends, the little one's Gus, this Willow, and the one with three eyes who really doesn't want to be there is Boscha," Luz lectured happily. "She's a friend of Amity's, not the one who took the first picture and honestly I don't think she likes me very much but that's mostly because she's protective of Amity. Ohh, this one is me with King and Eda, I told you about them, right? Eda was chaperoning the dance and..."

While Amity tuned out the happy lecture that her bubbly girlfriend was giving to her exceedingly proud mother, all she could think about was how well this was going. Luz had been so worried about her mom not taking it well, not approving of the demon realm or their relationship, but here she was... Amity was so happy, happy that Luz was happy and happy that Camila had accepted her that she could pur. She was roused from her thoughts by the beckoning of the human teen, Masha.

"So if you don't mind me asking, if you're not an elf then what are you?" They asked.

"I'm a witch," Amity replied somewhat awkwardly. That wasn't exactly a question that was asked in the demon realm, even in cases of where a witch had obvious demon ancestry it was still pretty clear what they were.

"Yeah, you're a witch, but what kind of witch," Masha continued. "Er, um. You're from the demon realm, what kind of demon are you."

"I'm not a demon," Amity continued, "I'm a witch."

This seemed to confuse the human teen until Vee, the basilisk, spoke up. "Masha, witches aren't demons. Witches are uh."

"A species," Luz interjected from next to her mother. "Witch is the name of the species and they're not demons, but they can breed with demons. Witch is also sometimes used colloquially to refer to certain types of demons that can use the same kind of magic, but officially those are biped demons."

"Oh," Masha agreed, "so it's not like with humans where witchcraft is just one kind of magic you can study and... What?" The teen had obviously noticed Amity flinch. The witch silently cursed herself for not keeping a handle on her hangups. "Oh, I get it. It probably seems a bit weird to hear someone of another species use the term for yours for themselves when it's not really what they are, is it?"

"...Let's go with that," Amity agreed. "As far as I'm concerned, the only real human witch is Luz."

"...Girlfriend privelges?"

"Luz came to the demon realm to learn our magic," Amity defended, "she learned, respected, and participated in our culture, and she singlehandedly rediscovered an ancient form of witchcraft. She's earned it, and she did that before we started dating."

"So she's culturally a witch," Masha asked. Amity nodded, that summed it all up nicely, and the teen continued. "...Are these questions rude? I've never really been involved in a first-contact scenario before... Of course, this is more like second or third contact."

"It's fine... I can't act like I'm not curious about The human realm myself," Amity replied.

"Topic change!" Luz declared. "I've been studying really hard, so it's time to show Mami what I've learned!" Luz made a big show of stepping to the center of the room and drawing out her glyph cards. She fanned them out before carefully selecting one and slamming it down on the floor.

...And nothing happened.

Luz tapped the glyph card a few more times, each becoming more frantic. "Come on, come on!" She insisted. "You worked in the demon realm, why..." Luz trailed off and came to a stop as she began to deflate. "The glyphs only work in the demon realm."

Amity got up and crouched down next to Luz and, experimentally tapped the light glyph card her girlfriend had been trying to activate. No result for her either. "Luz...?"

"If the glyphs only work in the demon realm, then... I'm not a witch."

"Don't say that," Amity insisted. "Power isn't everything. I've seen your grades, between what you're learning at Hexside and what Eda's teaching you, you probably know more about magic than almost any other kid our age."

"Yeah, but..." Luz tried to interrupt.

"And you don't need magic of your own to make most potions, or for a lot of oracle spells," Amity continued.

"...I have gotten pretty good at reading tea leaves."

"And, it might not be that they need the demon realm," Amity continued, "maybe... Maybe they need a source of wild magic to tap. In the demon realm you could tap the ambient magic of the isles, but here... But pretty soon you're gonna have your own palisman, and they're made of powerful wild magic."

"...I was able to cast some spells I knew without drawing the glyphs when I borrowed Owlbert," Luz conceded. "But... You get your own palisman through the schools. Human school should be starting soon, it's not like I can just drop out..."

"Luz, your mentor is Eda Clawthrorn, the most powerful wild witch on the Boiling Isles," even without her magic Amity doubted that would stop the crazy old lady for long. "Even if you have to drop out of Hexside and go to human school I seriously doubt she's going to let you go without a palisman. Especially given, well... Has she told you her family history?" Luz shook her head. "The Clawthorns were the Isles's premiere palisman carvers for centuries. Her dad, Del Clawthorn, carved my Dad's palisman." She'd actually met Del once when she was little. Poor Ratador had gotten damaged in a lab accident and her father had needed help repairing him. "It'd be a matter of personal pride that her apprentice has one."

"Yeah..." Luz agreed. "You're probably right."

"Mija," Camila broached hesitantly, "this... Hexside. Do they teach... Normal subjects? Math and science?"

"Yeah," Luz confirmed. "Math, science, photography, where babies come from... I think magic school did a better job of that one than human school did... There's a magic twist to everything but everything but history is more or less the same as human school."

"And you're getting good grades?" Camila asked.

"I mean, they're not the best but yeah," Luz answered uncertainly.

Amity scoffed. "Don't be so modest, you're doing nine times the coursework of most students, I'd be failing everything if I had your course load."

This made Camila's eyes go wide. "Nine times the coursework?"

"There are nine main kinds of magic," Amity lectured: "Abomination, bard, beastkeeping, construction, healing, illusion, oracle, plant, and potion. Most students at Hexside only study in one track, and the ones who Multi-Track are mostly either dabbling or splitting their focus. Luz is studying all nine tracks equally."

"You're acting like it's a big deal," Luz dismissed. "It's easy enough when it's work I want to do. That was always a big part of the problem..."

"Luz was also the one who convinced Principal Bumb to start the multitracking program," Amity continued. "Before that, you were only allowed to study one kind of magic and in most cases, you could get in real big trouble for studying more than one kind, or mixing different kinds of magic. Luz was the one who convinced Principal Bumb that letting students learn what they want to learn was more important than following arbitrary restrictions like that and honestly, a lot of the kids at Hexside are a lot happier now." Amity had noticed that even kids who weren't multitracking seemed more enthusiastic about their studies as if the fact that they could study more than one made them feel more confident in their choices.

"Luz did all that?" Camila asked.

"And more," Amity added. "Human games and gestures and slang have caught on like wildfire. Three months ago nobody in Bonesborrogh knew what a high five was but you'd never know that now, and, and... I'm a better person for having known Luz. Three months ago I was nothing more than a petty little bully. I was saying and doing cruel things to people, even someone who used to be my best friend for... The stupidest reasons but Luz was still nice to me and she gave me the courage to change, and be the person I wanted to be instead of just another..."

"Amity, you weren't just—"

"Yes, I was," Amity interrupted. "I had my reasons, but they weren't good ones. You helped me realize that, and now I'm friends with Willow again. I'm not afraid of..." Amity hugged Luz. "Since you came to the demon realm, all you've done is make people's lives better. You might not be able to cast spells on your own, but as far as I'm concerned you're certainly a good witch. Just like Azura."

Pulling back, Amity could see that Luz was starting to blush. "Thank you, Hermosa."

"As I was going to say," Camila started, "there are... precedents for going to school in other dimensions. I'm going to have to make some calls and file some paperwork for Vee anyway. I was thinking, if you're really doing better at this Hexside, if it's a school that wants to teach you and where you want to learn, I could maybe talk to your school and work something out so you can keep going to Hexside instead."

Luz froze. "Won't, won't Principal Hal be mad that I didn't go to camp?"

"What's he going to do, kick you out?" Camila deadpanned.

This prompted a laugh from Luz. "...You're taking this so much better than I thought you would."

"Mija, Luz, mi cariño, all I've ever wanted was for you to be happy and safe," Camila began. "If you have truly found someplace where you finally feel like you belong, I wouldn't want to take it from you. Did you really think I would?"

"I guess, after everything... I know you worry about me," Luz answered. "And I know I'm a bit of a screwup—"

"No!" Camila insisted. "You are not a screw-up, you're just built differently. You've made mistakes, but everyone does. You know I spent three years selling energy drinks as part of a pyramid scheme? Or when I cussed out your principal when we first moved here?"

"That was actually kind of funny," Luz admitted.

"But the biggest mistake I ever made, was letting people try to talk me into changing you, instead of giving you the support you needed to thrive as you are... I was a lot like you when I was younger, you know," she continued.

"...You were?"

"You should see all the Cosmic Frontier merchandise in the basement," Camila continued. "And I had a hard time, too. And I wanted better for you, and I went about it the wrong way. I don't completely regret it, because you did find a place where you were accepted and Vee found a place to be safe, which might not have happened if I hadn't been talked into sending you to that camp, but I never should have made you feel like I didn't love you, exactly the way you are."

Amity couldn't see Luz's face, as the other girl had turned to face her mother when they began speaking, but her body language made it clear that she started to cry right before she and her mother began hugging. She hated herself for thinking it, but Amity couldn't help but be a little jealous of their relationship.

"So, does anyone else feel like they're intruding on something private?" Masha asked suddenly.

"A little bit, yeah," Vee admitted.

This prompted Luz to explode into laughter.

"Also, there was an alien invasion while you were gone," Camila added. "Worldwide. I didn't find out that the camp was safe until a day after everything was over. So knowing that you were safe in another dimension having PG magical adventures is honestly a relief."

"I missed an invasion?" Luz asked. "Who was it? The Kree. The Shi'ar? The Skrulls again?"

"Symbiotes," Masha interjected. "Like just dragons made of symbiotes flew in from space and started leaking their goo everywhere to take people over. They were led by this blue guy called the King in Black who I guess was their god or something. It was crazy."

"Most of the fighting was in New York City like it always is, but there were major incidents all over the world," Camila continued. "Luckily there were only a few hundred casualties, worldwide. Also, apparently, at some point, President McGucket personally remodeled the White House so it could turn into a giant robot. So the District of Colomba was mostly untouched."

Amity blinked. "What?"

"President Fiddleford McGucket," Luz explained, "he was Loki's Vice President. Everyone thought he was just some random crazy old man that Loki found in the middle of nowhere until he started pulling out super science solutions for problems and people looked into him and found out that he owned the patents for some recent innovations and was like some super genius who disappeared decades ago. He got really popular with the public after one of his inventions destroyed an asteroid that was set to collide with the Earth and when Loki didn't run for reelection two years ago, McGucket stepped up."

"Oh... Kay," Amity replied, having no idea how to respond or even any context for most of what that meant.

"So anyway, the planet was invaded by symbiotes?" Luz asked hesitantly.

"Yeah. The actual invasion only lasted a day though, apprently that Venom character killed their god and then all the symbiotes stopped fighting. Most of them left but a few stuck around," Camila replied. "That awful Friends of Humanity group tried to push for anti-alien legislation but the Avengers released a statement that this 'King in Black' guy was mind controlling them and that this group was the 'good ones' when left to their own devices."

"Also, turns out symbiotes aren't just regular aliens," Masha added. "Turns out they're like, Elderspawn. You know, 'ia ia Cthulhu ftgn' stuff. This King in Black Guy apprently made the first symbiotes out of this stuff that's like unstable molecules if they were refined from the purest essence of anti-life. Honestly, it'd be kind of cool if we found out in any other way."

Luz went stiff. "Tiny Nose was right," she whispered.

"Honestly, once everything was over it was a little nostalgic," Camila continued. "Your father and I were both in upstate New York when the 'Bad Ones' invaded in the 90s. We both got taken as hosts and everything. We woke up in the woods with a heck of a headache when everything was done with."

"Were you alright?" Luz asked though Amity could see the gears turning in Luz's head.

"Yeah?" Masha added. "Like, they published that study last year about once a symbiote's been in you, the goo just never leaves and you'll have it in your cells forever."

"That explains a lot!" Luz suddenly shouted.

Which in turn prompted another rant: Luz had mentioned that discovering her powers had been a factor in her decision to stay in the demon realm but didn't go into much detail about them. Now she explained them, even demonstrated her symbiote form which had prompted a squeal from Amity and a 'bi-colors, nice' comment from Masha, and that ended up being a whole thing.

"Okay. That is...Something I'll have to adjust to," Camila finally said after a moment. "But that does not change anything I said earlier. I love you, Mija, unconditionally. Now, I need to make some calls so I can get started on formalizing things for Vee and maybe handling your transfer, so... Why don't you take Amity out and show her around town? And vee? If you're going to be living here you should probably also have an idea of what the town is like."

"But... I still need magic to transform," Vee argued. "If.. If I'm going to be staying here as me, I need to not look like Luz and... I don't want to stand out, either," she finished with a gesture to the pale splotches on her face.

Amity sighed and braced herself. Having her magic sucked out by the greater basilisk had been most unpleasant, but she could already tell that Vee was different and Amity could afford to give the poor demon a little of her magic.

Just as she was about to offer, however, Masha jumped up. "I got ya."

"What?" Amity asked.

"So Vee already knows this," Masha began, "but I've sort of... always been fascinated with the occult. What got me sent to reality check was my parents walking in on me performing a ritual to try and contact a sponsor..." Amity wasn't sure she liked where this was going. "Jokes on them though, because my incomplete ritual did get someone's attention, not a sponsor but former President Laufeyson liked the chaos I caused, and a week and a half into my stay at Camp he paid the camp a visit." Masha began performing a few gestures, including one where their thumb, index, and pinky fingers were extended while their middle two fingers were folded against their palm. "They said they liked my spirit and taught me a couple of basic spells with the offer to take me as their apprentice once camp was over."

"...You're a sorcerer," Amity observed.

"I actually prefer the term wizard," Masha corrected, "but yeah."

"So in the demon realm," Luz explained, "a wizard is just a weird old man in a bathrobe with pockets full of glitter."

"Urgh," Masha responded. "Here a wizard is a sorcerer with a hat. But I don't have mine on me. Why?"

Amity didn't answer.

"Amity?" Luz "It might be best to just, you know..."

Amity sighed. "For a witch, magic isn't... It's part of us. Our flesh and blood—"

"And bile!" Luz interjected.

"Especially bile," Amity agreed, "but that doesn't mean it comes easy. We have to work for it and... My... Upbringing has sort of given me a... complex about working hard and being the best. I know that it's not a healthy attitude and I'm trying to change, but... I have hangups about things that seem like cheating, and what I've read about human sorcerers making deals for power, or doing unwholesome things... Feels like cheating." Amity swallowed. "But... You seem like a good person, and my hangups shouldn't be your problem, so... Sorry."

"Oh no, I get it," Masha agreed. "For what it's worth I haven't cut any deals yet. President Laufeyson actually said I should wait until I complete my training before doing anything like that because lots of hedge sorcerers end up making bad deals because they don't know better and the end results aren't pretty. I'm mostly tapping the ambient energy in the environment right now," they explained, "and none of the spells they taught me invoke higher beings for their effects, the closest I know to anything like that is... Well, what I'm casting right now," the finished.

Gestures done, Mahsa held out their hands and declared "The Flames of the Faltine!" suddenly between their two open palms appeared a ball of brilliant flame. "From the Faltinian dimension, the flames of the Faltine are renewable, ethically sourced, clean, and pure magical energy that pretty much everyone and their grandma knows how to invoke. Mostly as an attack, but also when making artifacts that need fuel," Masha continued. They then had the fireball out to Vee. "So I don't know how you—" Masha was interrupted by Vee opening her mouth wide and sucking down the fireball. "Wow, just like Kirby."

Vee shifted first into her true form, then into a form that was identical to Luz except for the bandages that Luz wore to help her resist scratching at her coven sigil. "I don't think I've ever been this full," she said sheepishly in her own voice. "So now I just need to... Is there a mirror?"

"Upstairs!" Luz declared while grabbing her doppelganger by the wrist and dragging her away. "Masha, you're her friend so we need your opinion too."

The sorcerer laughed and followed after, presumably to help Vee come up with a human form that was uniquely her.

"Aye, this has been a very long afternoon," Camila said. "But... Amity? I'm glad my Luz found you."

"Thank you, Mrs. Noceda."

Chapter Text

After Vee settled on a human form which was... Not too dissimilar to Luz, all things considered. A little shorter, a little stockier, different mouth, different hair(sandy with green and blue highlights that the basilisk's undisguised ears blended in with) eyes similar to her natural eyes, and a slightly lighter skin tone all wrapped up in a sweater, the four teens convened outside to explore the tone. Camila had wanted them to stay out of the forest for now, as there had been a major uptick in illegal traps in the last few months for one, and also an aged paranormal investigator and his neer do well twin brother were in town investigating ghost sightings in the woods. Camila had apprently already had to help one of them out of a snare trap once already.

The older woman had also asked if either Amity or Masha would be staying for dinner tonight, which prompted Luz to hand over the list of human foods that were safe for witches. Apparently, Eda had also written foods that witches for sure could not eat on the back, and this discovery prompted Luz to lament that her 'Sweet Potato can't try sweet potatoes.' Honestly, it wasn't that big a loss, Amity had never particularly cared for starchy vegetables sweet or otherwise.

As they prepared to leave, Amity took the chance to carefully examine the van that Camila had driven the two teens who'd been to camp back in. After a moment, she admitted to Luz that "I'd still let you drive it into my heart."

This was apparently a humorous thing to say, as it prompted a snort from Masha. "You didn't!?" The teen asked Luz.

This prompted Amity to blink. "What?"

"Uh," Luz began awkwardly and... Oh no. Luz's emotions began to tank. She'd been steady all through her trip home, even with her nerves, even when she started self-deprecating after the glyphs didn't work, but now... "That song I played for you... Came from a children's cartoon."

"...And?"

"I mean, it's a little cheesy isn't it?" Masha asked.

And suddenly Amity thought back to Luz's confession to Grom, why she'd frozen up when Amity had given her her Grom proposal. About being made fun of and everything made sense.

"I like cheesy," Amity insisted while reaching out to grab Luz's hand. "Luz sold it to me as the cheesiest and gooiest love song in the human realm. If it comes from a children's show, then that just makes me like it more."

"Oh, Jeeze, I didn't mean anything bad by it," Masha defended suddenly on the back foot. "I was just surprised and... Oh," they seemed to have some sort of realization as they looked to Luz. "I'm being a jerk, aren't I?"

"A little bit, yes," Amity insisted.

"So uh... I'm remembering now that, in the woods, Luz... You said something about looking for exit routes when you meet human teenagers... I'm bringing up some bad experiences, aren't I?"

Luz did not answer verbally, but she did nod.

"I'm sorry," Masha replied sincerely. "I uh... I've heard about you, at school." Luz froze again. "About the... A weird kid who nobody liked. I'm guessing it's all made up, but... I'm not trying to make fun of you, okay?"

"It's fine," Luz dismissed quietly. Amity squeezed her hand again. This... Wasn't the Luz Amity knew. The Luz Amity knew was energetic and outgoing, this Luz was acting like a prisoner rescued from a war zone.

"No, it's not," Masha continued, "I don't know the full story and, after meeting Vee when she was pretending to be you I just dismissed everything I'd heard about "Loony Noceda" but pretty much everyone at our school knows how much... I was at the tryouts for the play. Any other school that stunt would have made you a local celebrity. I'm guessing every other incident was people overreacting, too."

"...I mean," Luz began hesitantly, "in hindsight maybe my taxidermy sculpture didn't need to be filled with live spiders..."

"What?" Vee asked flatly

"I do taxidermy," Luz answered. "You know, stuffing and preserving dead animals? I mostly do squirrels and pigeons since I can get them from exterminators. I um... Stitched together a pigeon and a squirrel to make a mockup of a baby griffin and I filled it with spiders to simulate spider breath."

"...And you got in trouble for being anatomically accurate?" Amity asked.

"Yeah," Luz replied sullenly. "Shows what they know, real griffins do have spider-breath. And their eggs are delicious."

"Oh... kay,' Masha responded, "but... the point is... You get picked on for stuff that is not really a big deal and punished for minor transgressions a lot, don't you?"

"...Yeah," Luz admitted. Amity immediately made plans to burn down the human school.

"I'm sorry," Masha said again. "I'm sorry I wasn't more sensitive and... I'm sorry I didn't try to be your friend before now. Nobody deserves to be... You know."

"It wasn't that bad," Luz deflected with a forced laugh. "Lots of people have had it way worse than me. Vee was right, I didn't really appreciate what I—"

"No!" Vee shouted. "I... I shouldn't have said that. I don't know what it is you're talking about but whatever happened had to have been pretty bad for you to be acting like... This. At the camp, on the first day, there was a lecture. Some of the kids weren't people who got in trouble or needed help fitting in. Some of them came from... Bad places."

"At least one kid in the next cabin over agreed to come to Reality Check instead of getting sent to juvie," Masha added, "which admittedly did not help with my concerns that it was a troubled youth camp in disguise."

"One of the first things they told us was that some people had it worse than you did, but that didn't mean that what was bad for you wasn't bad," Vee continued, "And that just because it seems like someone had it good that doesn't mean that they weren't still hurting. I guess I forgot that. I'm sorry."

Luz inhaled. "It's fine. Now uh, how about that tour around town?" She declared while becoming the others to follow as she started walking.

Amity progressed from handholding to firmly wrapping her arm around Luz's, trying to be protective without making it obvious. Then she had a thought. "Should I cover my ears? So I don't stand out too much? Or maybe try not to open my mouth too much?"

"What's up with your mou—holy flip you have fangs!" Masha exclaimed.

"It took me a little bit to notice too," Luz admitted.

"But no, most people will probably just think you're a mutant," Masha. "There's still some issues with mutants in most of the country but Gravesfield is ironically pretty cool with them."

"Except for that one girl who got suspended after wanting to bring her mutant girlfriend to prom," Luz added.

"Oh, the school didn't find out she was a mutant till after the suspension," Masha corrected.

"Huh?"

"That was my big sister," Masha clarified. "Sveta didn't tell the school that Sophie was a mutant. She didn't think it mattered." Masha pulled out their phone and pulled a picture of an older girl with a clear family resemblance with Masha, albeit with a pink streak dyed in her hair, standing next to a girl about the same age with long brown hair and green scales covering every inch of her visible skin. "After Sveta got suspended, Sophie was out for blood and just let the local news draw their own conclusions about the bunk suspension."

"Huh, so it wasn't an anti-mutant thing," Luz concluded.

"Nope, just the vice principal being homophobic," Masha confirmed.

"We have a vice principal?" Luz asked.

"We had a vice principal," Masha corrected.

"I um... I'm probably not gonna like the answer, but... Why is it ironic that Gravesfield is mostly okay with mutants?" Vee asked hesitantly.

"Humans aren't always good to each other, Vee," Masha began, "just thirty years ago the government was seriously debating whether or not mutants should legally count as people. If ti wasn't for the X-Men and the Brotherhood of Mutants putting their differences aside long enough to deal with that invasion of robo-zombies from outer space and the whole general 'what-the-heckery' backlash from the public when that still wasn't enough to convince the lead senators behind that bill we could be living in a world where bigots could just gun down mutant children and never be convicted."

"After the whole 'mutants saved the whole world from a fate worse than death' thing, public sentiment warmed up to them significantly," Luz added. "Mutant registration was abandoned and the Genetic Diversity Preservation Act was passed."

"That one guarantees legal personhood and all the rights and protections afforded to a human being to all mutants, mutates, Inhumans, and other human species and subspecies, mutated or not, as well as any alien organisms of humanlike intellect and temperament regardless or plane or planet of origin," Masha continued before moving back onto topic. "Things are a lot better for mutants, but they're still not great in most places... Gravesfield, meanwhile, isn't so great when it comes to people in the LGBT or neurodivergent people but is second only to NYC for mutant acceptance."

Amity turned back to her girlfriend. "And you want to live in this place?"

"No," Luz declared bluntly and without hesitation. "But it's where my Mom lives, and most of my stuff is here."

"I mean, it's not as bad as it used to be," Masha interjected. "It's mostly stuff like... I can't speak for Luz but the worst that's gotten for me was a couple of teachers refused to respect my pronouns when I first came out as nonbinary and it only took a couple of months and a threat of a lawsuit before that got taken care of."

"I've been bullied a lot but nobody's ever tried to, you know, hurt me," Luz admitted reluctantly.

"Meanwhile if either of us were here at the founding of this town we'd have been hung," Masha finished. "Humans are bad at treating each other nicely but when you look at things on a historical scale we're getting better at it at a pretty quick pace."

"...So I'm probably going to regret asking," Amity began, "but... When 'this town was founded' is a pretty specific reference point."

Luz stopped walking and threw her head down. "Aw crud I knew I forgot something."

"Oh, yeah. This is probably gonna be really awkward," Masha continued.

"What?" Amity and Vee both asked at the same time.

"So this town was founded by members of a certain subset of a prominent religion," Masha began in a voice that evoked a storyteller. "And this religious group feared supernatural powers that they couldn't rationalize away as being miracles from their God, believing that all such powers came from dealings with malevolent or unholy spirits. The term used to refer to these people is derived from the old English words wicca or wicce for men and women, meaning something along the lines of 'sorcerer' or 'necromancer...' But over time as the language evolved, it became..."

"Witch," Luz interrupted Masha's storytelling. "The people who founded this town hated witches. But their idea of what witches were was wrong, they thought that they were all like, evil sorcerers."

Masha pouted but continued. "Like, murderously so. They also believed that their God would show His favor to those who were good and righteous and so believed that those who had good fortune were good people and that one only needed to do their chores and say their prayers to be successful in life... This also meant that when say, a tool broke, or someone got kicked to death by a spooked horse, or the harvest was bad, they didn't think 'Oh what a horrible accident' or 'What could I have done differently to prevent this,' they assumed that it must have been enemy action and, with no obvious enemy, the ill fortune would be blamed on witches."

"Which then lead to witch hunts," Luz lectured. "It's not enough to blame it on some outside force, they had to find and punish a scapegoat. Accusations would be thrown out wildly, sometimes at people the alleged victim had a beef with but usually on well..."

"Weirdos, people who didn't jive with the social hierarchy or the rules of the community, social outcasts, people who loved the wrong people, the guy who just moved to town, the childless widow with a suspicious number of cats, old spinsters, disobedient children" Masha listed off. "People who wouldn't be missed, who were already disliked, who were interpreted as a threat to social order, etcetera."

"A lot of people were tortured and executed just for being themselves in a way that was considered inconvenient by the pillars of the community in Old Gravesfield," Luz finished sadly.

"Of course, very few people seriously believe stuff like that," Masha defended, "in fact, a real witch would probably be pretty popular around here, but..."

"...Gravesfield, and other towns with similar histories of witch hunting, have a bad habit of monetizing it as a morbid spectacle," Luz explained.

"So we have things like a magic shop and an occult bookstore on Mainstreet," Masha began, "and a huge focus on the witch trials at our historical society but very little in the way of sympathy for the innocent victims of those crimes."

"...That's horrible," was all Vee could say, the poor demon clearly stunned.

Amity, however, couldn't help but think of what Masha said about how they and Luz would have been treated in those times. She found herself hugging her girlfriend protectively.

"Like, we're coming up on the town square," Masha said with a gesture to a statue in a clearing in the town center, with a statute of two figures in prominent display. "You see that statue up there of the two young men? That's in reference to a local legend about a pair of brothers who came to town as orphaned in the early days of Old Gravesfield and became witch hunters so as to fit in. Legend has it that as adults the elder brother was seduced or ensorcelled by a shewitch whom he then eloped with and the younger brother gave chase after, never to be seen again. We've got quite a lot of stuff about them, and don't get me wrong, all that stuff is pretty interesting, but we don't even know the names of half the Gravesfield witches."

"Amity, not that I don't appreciate the hug, but I can't walk like this," Luz explained after a moment. "did the stories scare you or... Are you scared for me? You don't have to worry, witch hunts like that are a thing of the past. It all happened centuries ago, so I can promise you we'll never have to deal with anything like that."

Amity gave Luz one last squeeze and then let her go before interlocking their arms once again. Still, the feelings Amity was picking up from Luz had normalized after the major drop earlier, which was good.

"Could anyone else do with a pick me up after that long walk and talk?" Luz asked. "Because well, the local cafe is right there," Luz gestured to a building across the street from the town square, a wall of windows under a sign saying 'Robin's Roast' next to a picture of a bird in a teacup. "It's a place where people hang out, but hot drinks and baked goods, and... Oh, Amity, you can try human realm coffee that isn't the coffin varnish I make."

Amity shuddered momentarily.

Vee, for her part, seemed to have a moment of realization. "Oh!," she exclaimed, "that's what they were talking about."

"What?"

"When President Laufeyson came to the camp to offer Masha the apprenticeship, they also looked at me and said that 'no blessing I can grant would salvage that horrific abomination,'" Vee suddenly said in a perfect imitation of the former president's voice, "and that I should 'just fill the machine with Mountain Dew like a normal person.' I was confused but... If It was meant for you..."

Gears were visibly turning in Luz's head. "...You can do that?"

After that exchange, the quartet of teens marched over to the cafe, amity bracing herself in the hopes that this experience would be more pleasant than her last. Upon entering the shop, which didn't seem particularly busy, they were greeted by a gruff, gravelly voice loudly exclaiming "I'm telling you, Ford, that woman's my ex-wife!"

Chapter Text

Inside the cafe, the only two customers were two grey-haired men, nearly identical save that one was in a human formal suit and one in a trench coat.

"Stanley, you thought that obviously forged photo the delusional conspiracy theorist at the historical society showed us looked like your ex-wife, too," the one in the coat dismissed. "Though now that I look closer, I can certainly see a resemblance between this woman and that monster as well."

"That was a joke, Ford," the one in the suit insisted, "but this... Same flight attendant hair, same weirdly sharp gold tooth, same bingo hall pale skin..." This was starting to sound very familiar to Amity. "Even the name is the same. Marilyn."

"Didn't you say that the last you saw her she'd jumped out of a car and into a canyon?" The one named Ford asked, incredulously. "And that was what, fifteen years ago? This photo looks pretty recent."

"They never found the body," Stanley declared. "And... You, barista. What can you tell me about this woman?"

"Not much to say," a woman who looked to be incredibly done with everything started while she was bagging pastries. "She came in a few months ago, ordered a latte, tried to pay for it with a live raccoon, and did something to the croissants that made them attack everyone when that didn't work. She ran out without paying, we threw out the pastries she ruined, and now the rats in the back alley are sentient," the barista finished.

"Really now?" Ford asked, suddenly intrigued.

Stanley, for his part, snorted. "Classic Marylin. Ah, if anyone could take down the IRS it would have been you... But... If she's magic, that's how she survived jumping into the canyon!"

"Please don't antagonize the alley rats," the barista said to Ford while ignoring Stanley. "We have a very fragile truce with them and cleaning up if they invade the store again will be a pain."

"Some other time then," Ford mused.

"Anyway, your to-go order's done," the barista finished while handing over the bag of pastries.

The one named Ford paid after double-checking the cost while his brother continued the lament his apparent lost love. They then turned to leave and noticed the four teenagers who had observed this exchange.

The one named Ford looked closely at Amity. Then he checked that the barista wasn't paying attention. "Boiling Isles?" He asked quietly.

This prompted Amity to go wide-eyed for a moment. She glanced over to Luz, who seemed just as surprised. Unsure of what to do, she timidly answered "Yes."

"Are you stranded here?" The man continued.

"Uh, no. I have a way of getting home," Amity answered truthfully but vaguely. "I'm just here with friends."

"Alright then."

"You know about the Boiling Isles?" Luz asked.

This prompted the aged human to turn to the human girl. "A... terrible accident, some forty years ago, caused me to become lost across the multiverse. It was only a decade ago that I was able to return. About fifteen years ago, my attempt to get home stranded me on the archipelago in question for about a week. I'd heard rumors of a witch in a nearby town who had a means to travel to the human realm, but when I snuck in to investigate she was nowhere to be seen."

"Hah," the man's brother laughed. "We came here for ghosts and found witches. It's funny. We went to Salem looking for witches and found ghosts!"

"After that, I had an encounter with a... Let's call him a colleague," Ford said, "who had come to the Isles under his own power to... Well, I can't repeat what he was looking for in polite company but after using some currency I acquired to ply him with the local liquor he agreed to use his portal device to take me out of there... In hindsight, that was a bad decision, he left me stranded for a month in a dimension inhabited entirely by anthropomorphic amphibians." he finished. "Now... How do you know about the Isles? My research indicates that they're an undocumented realm in this dimension and it's oddly coincidental that you'd just happen to walk in with a resident..."

"I uh... Sort of spent my summer there and now I can come and go whenever I want," Luz admitted very quickly. Amity would have facepalmed if this wasn't the kind of thing she found endearing about her beloved Luz.

"I'm a little too busy with my current investigation to pivot to a new topic now," Ford declared, "but if I were to return to Gravesfield at a later date would you be willing to give an interview?"

"Um... I'd need to okay it with some people but alright," Luz agreed. She then offered her hand to shake and when the older man reciprocated Luz, clearly by reflex, shouted "Oh, cool!"

What prompted this exclamation was revealed when the older man took back his hand, revealing six fingers instead of the default five possessed by most bipeds presumably including humans.

Luz froze. "I'm sorry, that was..."

"No," the man said jovially, "When I was your age my polydactyly got me labeled a freak. I'll take 'cool.'"

"Kid kind of reminds me of Mabel," the one named Stanley commented. "What's your name, kid?"

"Luz, Luz Noceda," Luz answered.

Stanley snapped his fingers. "The vet's kid. Nice lady. Ended up talking for like an hour after she helped me out of that trap. Hey Ford, if we're coming back here we should see if we can get the kids involved."

"I'd be nice to have the whole family together again," Ford admitted. "Well, I've taken up enough of your time. Stanley and I should be getting back before tonight's stakeout."

The two older men then left the teens alone.

"So that happened," Masha observed. "What are the odds that we run into those investigators your mom tells us about and they end up knowing about the demon realm and end up being friendly?"

"Pretty good, actually," Luz said... "The weird thing is I'm pretty sure I know that Stanley guy's ex."

Going up to the counter and looking at the photos of banned customers confirmed that 'Marilyn' was, in fact, Eda the Owl Lady. This got a chuckle from both Luz and Amity, which seemed to confuse Masha and Vee, though that confusion didn't seem to stop Masha from getting down to business.

"Hey, Carol," Masha greeted the barista.

"Masha," the barista greeted. "Back from camp, I see."

"Yep," Masha confirmed. "Just got back. Long day?"

"Yeah," Carol confirmed. "So I'm guessing you want your usual?"

"Mhmm."

"And..." Carol's eyes suddenly focused on Luz. "Strong brew, black as night, triple espresso shots, and as much sugar as I'm allowed to give you?"

Luz giggled awkwardly. "I guess I make an impression?"

"Oh yeah," Carol replied. "And you," she gestured to Vee.

"I guess I'll have what Masha's having?" Vee asked awkwardly.

"She's probably gonna want a bit more sweetener that I take," Masha interrupted. "Got more of a sweet tooth than I do."

"And you?" the Barista asked Amity. In response, Amity looked at the menu on the wall and realized that she was unfamiliar with the terminology and was uncertain as to what was and was not safe for witches to consume.

"I'm sorry, can I have a minute?" Amity asked. "I'm not really familiar with um.. Luz!" She panicked and pulled her girlfriend asside. "I have no idea what any of that is."

"Really?" Luz asked. "I know a lot of terms on the Boiling Ies are pretty similar to human terms and your mom really strikes me as the kind of person who'd be really into complicated orders at coffee places."

"My only experience with bitter be—coffee," Amity corrected to the human term, "were up on the Knee and once when I was twelve and got roped into helping my Mom entertain some house guests and that was about three tablespoons of some fancy blend grown on the Swampy Toes with half a teaspoon of quinotaur milk. It was disgusting, and you really don't want to know how the beans are prepared."

"Is it like the fancy human realm coffee that they make by feeding the fruit to a weasel and picking the pits out of the, you know..." Luz asked quietly.

"I wish," was Amity's response. That was a problem with her Mom. She seemed to care more about food and drink being expensive or fancy than actually being palatable, healthy, or filling. It only got really bad when there were guests over, but if Amity hadn't learned how to cook for herself she'd probably be noticeably malnourished. Seriously, why would anyone want to eat salty fish eggs or the liver out of an overfed bird when there was literally anything else to eat first? Hopefully, someday, Amity would understand the various eccentricities that came with coming from a wealthy family but she doubted it would be any time soon.

"Well, Eda's notes said that most human realm dairy is safe for witches and a latte is as basic as it gets, just coffee and milk, so that should be fine."

That settled, they returned to the counter and finished their order. Which was then made and paid for and the four teens took a seat at a table just outside the cafe.

"So, I got Carol to give me the hot goss while you two were having that conference," Masha declared while sipping from a cup topped with whipped cream. "Apparently a couple of kids from Gravesfield High presented as mutants all at once while we were gone."

"Oh really?" Luz asked, clearly intrigued.

"Yeah, when everything went down one of those dragons flew over town and I guess it spooked their powers out," Masha said with a shrug. "You know how it works, sometimes you need a little stress to kick the powers in. Anyway, a few weeks ago a contingent from the Jean Grey Institute showed up, details are spars but apprently all the new kids are starting there this upcoming semester."

"Lucky. Does the rumor mill know what their powers are?" Luz asked.

"One girl has a super scream, one guy's got laser vision, and another girl can control the clothes that she's wearing," Vee added.

Amity blinked, carefully tried her 'latte' and found it acceptable, and responded. "That last one seems... Odd?"

"There are lots of mutants with weirdly specific powers," Masha said with a shrug. "Like, sometimes your mutant power is just that you're blue. Not everyone can be the guy who can casually flip the Eart's magnetic poles or give hundreds of people strokes by thinking about it really hard."

Amity blinked again. "Excuse me?"

This prompted an animated discussion between Luz and Masha as they, much like with the witch hunts, tried to educate her though much more cheerfully in this case. About a system based on letters she'd never heard of for categorizing the powers of these mutants and examples given of those at the top category included not only the aforementioned examples but a man who could freeze the planet, a woman who controlled the very weather across the planet as if she was a goddess, a man who had the energy output of a star, a man by whom the forces of life and death were held in his hands, a man for whom the multiverse itself was but a step-ladder, and a boy who dreamed whole worlds into reality.

The conversation, spurred on by the questions of Vee, had eventually diverged from the topic of ungodly powerful mutants to other beings of note, such as the four adventurers who flew into space but were changed by a storm of cosmic radiation... One of whom had the power to, if he were so inclined, incinerate a planet and everything on it. And he was supposedly the least dangerous. Men and women twisted into unending, hulking enginees of destruction by city-destroying weapons... The fact that city-destroying weapons exist at all in such massive numbers, fifty-story-tall radioactive dinosaurs, a country in the continent of 'Europe' ruled by a despot, not unlike Belos. Another nation, this one in the continent called 'Africa,' had produced miraculous technology but was hoarding most of it because the rest of the world didn't 'deserve' it.

"...Including a cure for cancer," Luz admitted with a serenity that Amity didn't need her empathic abilities to know was fake. "...Bastards."

And that! Luz never swore. Even something as mild as that sounded wrong in her mouth. For her to swear like that... Amity didn't know why hoarding a cancer cure was so heinous considering... Oh. Maybe human healers don't know how to treat it without magic? That makes an outright cure much more important. Regardless, Luz wasn't showing it but was very clearly very upset by it.

The conversation moved on from there to entities from outer space: Luz had mentioned the Kree and Skrulls briefly when she'd first told Amity about the heroes and villains of this world but had left out how... massive and militaristic their imperial forces across the entire galaxy were. Or that the Skrulls had already practically taken over the world once, albeit this being a religious extremist offshoot rather than the 'core' of their empire. What Luz had not mentioned, however, was the giant of a man who habitually consumed all of the life force and bio-mass of a planet's entire biosphere as well as the energy of the planet itself who had tried on several occasions to put this planet on his menu. And Amity didn't know what this 'Thanos' was, but it had apparently succeeded in singlehandedly killing exactly half of all life in this universe before being defeated and the victims being miraculously resurrected, and wasn't that a whole other thing!

No wonder Camila had been so accepting of the Demon Realm and of Luz going there. In comparison to the nightmarish hellscape that was the Human Realm, the Demon Realm was a paradise. Poor Luz was just so used to this nightmarish place that even the most dangerous of her adventures in the demon realm was fun. It was safer than just existing here. Neither she nor Masha seemed to truly appreciate how horrific the world they lived in was, and while Vee seemed a little unsettled by some of this she'd clearly gone native just as quickly as Luz had back on the Isles.

Let alone...

"So remember that spree Carnage went on six months ago? Apparently, it was related to the invasion," Masha explained. "He was hunting down and killing people who had symbiotes, or used to have symbiotes, so he could cannibalize them to make his stronger as part of a plan to free that King in Black guy. He was stopped, but not before, well..." Luz had mentioned, in her lecture, that Carnage was supposedly dead... But the creep had been supposedly dead before and even with his deity dead as well that didn't mean he wouldn't continue to pursue power for his own agenda and... Luz.

...But, the demon realm wasn't safe either. While Luz was powerful. powerful enough to "beat up" the Emperor, the fact that he was back on his feet within minutes belayed that he'd either been holding back or that Luz's powers fully maturing had taken him by surprise. His claims that Luz had been blessed by the Titan were obviously a lie to save face, he might come after her... Luz had said this morning that she'd also fought the golden guard once. When her Mom had tried to emotionally manipulate Luz into breaking up with her, Amity had said that they could protect each other but... Amity couldn't protect Luz. Not from the Emperor and not from the horrors of the human realm. She wasn't strong enough.

There were no easy ways to get stronger, either. Soon enough, Amity would have her own Palisman, a lifelong partner and powerful tool that would augment her natural power with potent magic and help her stronger spells more easily and efficiently, but other than that the only way she could reasonably get stronger was to work hard, study hard, and learn all she can...

...But, she might be able to make Luz stronger. When Luz had told her about the heroes and villains of the human realm, while she'd left out a lot of very important details, she had mentioned that the 'venom' symbiote had absorbed the powers of the 'Spider-Man' she'd told her about back on the Knee, and when they first got to the human realm Luz had mentioned that her symbiote half had merged with her witch's wool cloak... If that pattern held...

It probably wouldn't be as simple as transfusing witch blood into Luz. Even if her symbiote side was able to absorb and replicate the properties of witch DNA that probably wouldn't give Luz a bile sack. A most, the symbiote mass might be able to replicate the properties of witch bile and spell phlegm but without a sack to contain them, they'd just be distributed through Luz's body, diluting their effects.

"Amity?" Luz asked. "Earth to Amity? You alright?"

"Yeah," Amity lied. "It's just a lot to take in and... I just needed some time to process it."

"Okay," Luz said unsurely. "Well, Masha says that sometimes people meet up in the park in the afternoon and play some older rock music as sort of an informal thing. Honestly, I didn't think anyone in Gravesfield would do something that cool, but... You wanna check it out?"

"Alright,"  Amity agreed. As they finished their drinks and departed, Amity's thoughts turned back to ways of making Luz strong enough to be safe.

Another flaw with the transfusion plan was the biochemical differences between humans and witches. While Luz and Amity had given each other enough kisses to verify conclusively that humans and witches did not have an allergic reaction to each other's fluids, blood was a lot more complex. Even if Amity found a universal donor willing to give to Luz, Luz's immune system might still react to the foreign blood as a threat and attack it. It was a problem with transfusions between witches and certain species of biped demons, which was a major reason why potions and spells meant to stimulate blood production had been invented. The blood would have to be smeared on her symbiote goo and absorbed that way to absorb it safely which was, honestly, probably better for several reasons, but still probably wouldn't be enough to give Luz magic the way a witch had.

Biped demons had the same problems as using witch blood did: Unless Luz's physiology was a lot more fluid than you'd expect, it wouldn't give her a bile sack Many biped demons had other abilities in addition to their spellcasting, but those were usually fully or partially a result of their physical makeup rather than a function of pure magic. Most beast demons were the same, with the caveat that many didn't have magic at all though a large number of them being non-sapiant would make ethically collecting their blood a lot easier.

Bug demons, on paper, seemed like an ideal alternative at first. They all had at least some magic, but it wasn't constrained to a specific organ or overly dependent on the same. Many of them were just animals and thus more easily ethically harvested—many of the nonsentient ones were either pests or farmed for food. Some, such as the bloodthirsty fairies who served as the key ingredient in Amity's favorite fairy pie, were both. But... Most bug demons were magically weak. It would take a lot of different ones unless she went with more potent bug demons. Some, like puppet demons, were powerful enough to cast spells and strong ones at that but in such cases had full sapiance which made collecting their blood ethically more of an issue which held true for most of the stronger non-spellcasting demons as well.

...Admittedly, what Amity suspected to be the strongest bug demon in all the Boiling Isles would almost certainly give Luz some of his blood to keep her safe if Amity asked, but Hooty's power was focused mostly in the form of raw physical might and the void dimension in his gullet and keeping Luz safe would require much more than just physicality. Also, the realization that Hooty of all demons was so powerful had been very unsettling to Amity and he would prefer to avoid him as much as possible, even more so than when she first met him.

That left both the people and fauna of the Boiling Isles as a dead-end, and Flora wasn't much help either. While many plants and fungi on the isles had properties that were beneficial to creatures that consumed them, that didn't guarantee that such properties would be expressed by Luz if she absorbed the plant's into her symbiote-side. Other plants had more overly useful properties that could be used to defend against those who might cause Luz harm... If her symbiote side could be used to generate sap, nectar, pollen, and spores. It might change when she'd had a few more plant classes under her belt, but as far as Amity knew the only plant that might be useful would be Palistrom.

Palistromwood was full of powerful wild magic, and it was the only exception to the ban on such due to how useful it was(though the Emperor was probably lying about the exact reason for that as well). While it was at its most powerful when worked into a palisman and bonded with a witch, if Luz could somehow assimilate raw palistrom wood into her alien side it should give her a replenishing, internal reserve of magical energy. Probably no special abilities beyond what the girl would eventually be able to do when she had her own Palisman, but every little bit helped. This was also the most workable plan: The Blight family had the connections to get palistrom and Amity would be expected to carve her own Palisman. When that day came, Amity would be able to save the leftover chips and shavings from the birth of her new friend and partner and present them to her lady love... But that was still a way's a way.

Titan willing, Luz would be safe until then and, Titan willing, it would be enough but... Wait, the Titan... The Titan's humors!

Lilith had drilled Amity on them extensively, apprently because they tripped her up when she was Amity's age, the Ttian's five humors were five resources found only on the Boiling Isles, even though it was far from the only land mass created from a titan's remains. Supposedly, this was because the Titan's body was still intact as opposed to just a hand here or a torso there. Each resource was technically renewable, which combined with observations about damage to the Titan's bone structures sometimes regenerating and the beating of the Titan's heart had led some to speculate that the Titan was still alive. However, the rate at which the Titan's body produced each humor varies considerably, and with overharvesting finding some of them in undiluted form was difficult in this day and age.

Titan Earth was the most plentiful. The titan's decaying flesh, mixed with minerals from the boiling sea and decaying plant and fungal matter that had been the first life to form on its body to create a substance similar to peat. Its magical power was low compared to the other humors, but its magic was life-sustaining and it was saturated with microorganisms that had rejuvenated soil that Titan Earth was mixed with. Thus, while Titan Earth could be sustainably harvested from mines in the Abdominal Forests, it was nearly monopolized by the Plant coven and its child organizations for use in manufacturing high-quality fertilizer and potting soil. Still, it wouldn't be that hard to get some.

Titan Bone was more potent, second only to the blood. It didn't refer to the actual bone itself, though that was often harvested as a source of metals and minerals, but to the bone marrow. You'd think then, that Titan Bone would have similar properties to Titan Blood, but you'd be mistaken. Instead, Titan Bone's properties lay in terms of stability. The core of literal bones of the earth, Titan Bone when not being used as a power source was commonly used as a component, ingredient, or reagent when creating something that was meant to last or confer resistance to damage or erosion onto something.

Titan Blood was of course the strongest, but also the rarest to find in undiluted, usable form. not only was it the most potent source of magical energy known to witch or demonkind, but it was supposedly able to open rifts in time and space itself, traces of it leaking into bodies of water being attributed to both the periodic arrival of artifacts from the human realm appearing on the Isles(other than those that Eda herself stole with her portal, of course,) as well as the old urban legends about time pools. However, it replenished slowly and overharvesting meant that most known veins of Titan Blood had dried up, and most of their locations were kept secret so it would certainly be the hardest to find.

Titan Bile is found in deposits all over the Isles, in organs resembling glands not unlike a witch's bile sack but not directly connected to the heart, though it is common to find them near the Titan's veins. Titan Bile's properties were highly similar to witch bile and the nine spell phlems, but far, far more potent. Rarely used in its raw state, titan bile that's been properly diluted and filtered is sometimes used in high-level spells and rituals often performed by multiple witches of a given coven.

Titan Breath was middle of the road in terms of power and availability. It could only be collected from the Titan's lungs, which themselves could only be safely accessed through the Titan's pulmonary artery. Air was drawn into the lungs via the Titan's throat, the entrance to which was sealed off lest travelers be sucked in and killed by the intense winds. Once in the lungs, the air was somehow imbued with mystical power, albeit one that diluted fast if the Breath was not contained. Titan Breath was almost exclusively used as a power source, but also as a reagent in spells meant to "breathe life" into inanimate objects. Amity had surprised Lilith by knowing the details of it, but her father used Titan Breath as the initial power source for a number of his inventions.

Even one of the humors could potentially bestow incredibly raw power onto Luz, but if Amity could get ahold of even a little of them all then it would potentially recreate within Luz the undiluted power of the Titan. Nowhere near the full power of a living titan, obviously, but even the smallest possible conceivable fraction would make Luz the most powerful witch in all the demon realm.

...Wait, would the Titan approve of that? It was almost certainly the will of the Titan that let Luz find the glyphs, but would the Titan's goodwill and favor extend to trying to take or imitate its power? Could it revoke the glyphs that Luz had already learned? Amity would hate herself if in trying to give Luz enough power to be safe she cost her beloved human the ability to cast spells. Why did applied theology have to be so hard?

Suddenly, Amity's ears twitched and she was roused from her thoughts by the realization that they'd arrived at the park, and the sound of the music playing. No instrument, of course. Only recordings played through speakers, but the rapid base beat paired with the powerful cords of a guitar immediately drew her attention and captured her imagination completely. It was as if she'd been sleeping for a long time and had finally been awakened.

"What is... That?" she asked, almost reverently.

Luz giggled. "This? This is Kiss." Then she peered closely at Amity's face. "Amity..." Luz began conspiratorially, "are you a rocker?"

If that meant a fan of this kind of music, then... Amity couldn't bring herself to speak, she could only nod.

Luz smirked at her. "Wanna dance?"

Amity's response was almost reflexive."Yes!"

Luz took Amity's offered hand and led as the lyrics began.

"Tonight... I want to give it all to you... In the darkness, there's so much that I want to do. And tonight... I want to lay it at your feet... 'Cause girl I was made for you, and girl you were made for me...."

Their dance lacked the elegance of the tango or the grace of a waltz. The was no formal dance for this kind of song that either knew, they mostly just spun around each other or threw each other about. Amity didn't care. Dancing at all with Luz was fun and this song that had enraptured Amity's attention... It was an almost perfect expression of how she felt about Luz... How it honestly felt like they were made for each other.

They continued their crazy, informal dance together through the whole song, stopping only when it was finished. For a moment, all of Amity's worries faded away and even when the song was over there remained a calmness and clarity. When they had a chance, Amity would talk to Luz about her concerns and they'd come up with a solution together. She should have just thought to do that from the start but, dancing with Luz to such an amazing song had brought her back to her center, she knew what to do now. And, as she looked into Luz's sparking brown eyes she couldn't help but feel that this moment was perfect.

On impulse, Amity leaned in to finally give her beloved Batata a first real kiss, on the mouth, when the mood was killed by a girl's voice intruding on the scene and making Luz flinch.

"Oh great, Loony Noceda's back from camp and already making a scene."

Chapter Text

Amity, very annoyed that her romantic moment with Luz had been interrupted by someone who clearly had no appreciation for romance or her beloved Luz, turned around to see who it was.

She found three teenagers, about the same age as her and Luz, standing in a group. In the lead was a girl with blonde hair with a pink stripe dyed through it and a build and jawline similar to Amity's own, though that was where the resemblance ended as the girl's skin had a slight tan. To her left was a tall boy with pale skin, brown hair, and blue eyes. To her right was another girl with dark brown skin and tightly curled black hair done up in two buns, with a slim build and wearing spectacles.

The blond leader girl was dressed in what Amity presumed to be normal human clothes, but the boy was wearing what looked like a varsity jacket, albeit without a letter patch sewn on, and the other girl was wearing an outfit with a number of layers terminating in a plain ankle length skirt.

"Hey Clara," Luz greeted awkwardly prompting a response from the blond one. "Scott," the boy. "Suzy," and the dark-skinned girl. "Didn't know you hung out together."

"It's a recent friendship," Clara explained. Hearing her speak, she was the one who had ruined their moment. "So, Luz. Back in town and already trying to be the center of attention."

"Excuse me," Amity interrupted, "but I can see plenty of people dancing to the music." There were, a few people dancing to a song about shouting out loud that Amity really hoped she'd be able to hear uninterrupted later. "Some are even dancing together."

"Yeah, but..." Clara said while waving her hand in a circle. "When it comes to Noceda you just know, you know? She gets so... I'm so sorry that she roped you into this, but you're new in town. You couldn't have known." Amity glared at the girl, but the girl paid it no mind. "She's just so... Extra."

"Dramatic," Suzy quipped.

"Tryhard," Scott contiuned.

"And, of course, who can forget..." Clara began.

"Cheesy!" They finished all at once and made Luz flinch. Now Amity was mad, but she had experience in masking her emotions. Going red-faced and passing out wouldn't help. It'd be hard though.

Ignorant of Amity's internal struggle, Clara continued. "Like, when we were auditioning for the role of Juliet in the school play, she acted out the suicide scene—and got the line wrong, mind you—and then actually cut open her dress and pulled out a string of sausage links to simulate her guts spilling out. Or that gross thing she did with her eyelids at the cheerleading tryouts." She shuddered, and then all three of the jerks laughed.

Amity was about to just grab Luz's hand and leave or something when the lead jerk continued. "Or the time she asked me out."

"What?" Amity felt herself asking by reflex and she immediately regretted it.

"Oh yeah, it was like super cringy," Clara explained. "It was the last year of middle school, a few months after she almost got arrested and that's a whole other story. It was the school talent show... I guess you can say that Luz and I were almost friends back then. We'd been in classes together since she moved here, had a couple of interests in common back then, and she wasn't so... Much when she was younger. Anyway, her performance in the talent show was singing this pop song from the nineties about standing out and getting noticed. I think it was written for a children's movie or something?"

"Stand Out's a solid song," Luz muttered in her own defense, though Clara didn't seem to acknowledge it.

"Anyway, it was very clearly about getting someone's attention and she kept making eye contact with me the whole time. Her singing was... Okay, but then she asked me out right after the show and..." Clara shook her head. "I've got nothing against girls who dig girls, but I don't swing that way and even if I did, I could do better. I might have considered going on a 'just as friends pity date' if she hadn't asked me out in such a cheesy way. I've tried to keep my distance since then to... Mixed success."

Luz was now trying to hide behind Amity.

"She tried to ask me out, too," Scott said suddenly. "It was a few months before the field trip when she almost got arrested. She wrote me this cheesy poem and everything and walked off shaking when I said no."

"She asked me out last year," Suzy added. "Around the time of the fall formal. We were in some classes together and she noticed I didn't have a date—there aren't that many queer girls who are out at our school, you know—and we were kinda sorta friends. I didn't really know of her reputation yet, I only moved here this year, and she was a little annoying but not... Too bad, I hadn't seen her worst yet. I considered it, she is kind of cute, but... I decided I'd rather go stag than have people think I liked a geek. Especially with the cheesy pickup line she used when asking. Good thing, too, since she showed up to the dance dressed like a rat."

"...Was an otter."

Amity forced herself to take a deep breath before turning back to Luz. "These are them? Aren't they? The ones who made you feel like no one would ever like you?"

"It wasn't that bad," Luz insisted. "It's not like they were mean about it, it's just..."

"They sound pretty mean to me," Amity insisted.

"Clara rolled her eyes. "Oh, come on. What, do you think she's entitled to a date because she asked?"

"No," Amiry clarifed. "No one is entitled to the affections of a specifc person. But Luz clearly put her heart on the line. She sang you a song," Amity said to Clara. "She wrote you a poem," to Scott. "And your rejections hurt her."

"It was her own fault for being so frickin' cheesy," Suzy countered. "And like Clara said, she's not even into girls so even if Luz had been a perfect Lady asking her that wouldn't have gone anywhere."

"Still, she could have been nicer about it," Amity insisted.

"It wasn't that bad," Luz repeated. "Clara could have outed me after turning me down. It could have been a lot worse. All they did was say no and why, I'm just a little thin-skinned is all."

Now? Now Amiy's blood and bile were boiling. Before she could act on it, however, Clara stepped around her and tussled Luz's hair.

"Aw, don't worry. If you keep trying then someday someone will know who you are and still like you," she condescended in an uncomfortably familiar tone. The same way Amity used to 'encourage' Willow. "If you manage to tone it down enough, you might even get someone to love—"

Clara did not get to finish because Amity smacked her right across the face.

"Do not." she insisted. "Talk. To my girlfriend like that."

Clara seemed shocked that someone had struck her, her first action being to raise a hand to her cheek, but after a moment Amity could see that what she'd said had caught up with the girl. "Wait, girlfriend?"

"Yes," Amity insisted while grabbing Luz's hand. "Girlfriend. Luz is a wonderful, kind, loving, creative, and optimistic person and my life is better for knowing her. I love her, just the way she is, and I will not tolerate people talking down to her." Amity almost considered pulling Luz into a kiss to punctuate her statement but decided against it. Their first proper, for real on the mouth kiss needed to be at a suitable romantic moment, not an impulse done to get one over a jerk.

"What do you know," Clara defended while stepping away, the other two jerks moving to back her up. "You're probably just some other weirdo she met at freak camp. How much did it cost to have that done to your ears?"

Amity responded by flexing her ears to show that no, this was not cosmetic surgery, she actually did have pointy ears. Then she gave a toothy grin and ran her tongue across her teeth to emphasize that yes, she had fangs, and they were bared.

This prompted the three to go wide-eyed. "You're a mutant," Suzy declared.

"That, that explains it," Carla. "You're not... Look, Gravesfield is good to mutants. You don't have to settle for someone like Noceda."

"Funny," Amity deadpanned. "I can't help but think that she could do better than me. She's so kind and compassionate and brave and funny. Me? All I have to offer is my love and my family's immense wealth. What's that worth in comparison?"

The three jerks looked at her with a bewildered expression. "Are, are you serious?" Carla asked.

"As a heart attack," Amity replied. "Before I met Luz I was just another little rich girl going through life conforming to the expectations placed on me. I was awful to people because that was what was expected of me. Luz helped me be the person I want to be, someone respectable. Someone worth loving and I can never repay her for that."

"Amity, that's not something you have to pay back," Luz insisted.

"I know," Amity replied, "but I want to try. Anyway, when I asked Luz out she froze up. I thought she was trying to figure out how to let me down gently until we finally talked and she told me about how she'd been rejected and made fun of and was convinced that no one could like her like this. That... That was you three, wasn't it?" Amity asked while glaring at the three jerks. They avoided eye contact. "Apologize. Apologize for making her feel like that. And for anything else, you've done to make her feel bad. Right now."

"And if we don't?" Scott asked definitely. Amity kept glaring.

"Do you seriously want to turn this into a fight?" Suzy asked.

"Do you?" Amity asked back.

Carla glared back at Amity. "The abandoned graveyard in Old Gravesfield. One hour." The three jerks then turned and walked off. None of the other parkgoers seemed to have paid much mind to the confrontation.

Once they were clear, Luz very quickly pulled Amity into a very tight hug. "¡Gracias mi heroína! ¡Mi hermosa heroína! ¡Mi heroína favorita e intrépida! ¡Te amo! ¡Te amo mucho!"

"Luz, what's the... I love you too," Amity answered to the part of that exclamation she understood clearly. She could guess at the rest when she had time to process it. "I was just—"

Amity was cut off by Luz smashing her lips against her own. It was awkward at first, Amity was taken by surprise, but after a few seconds, she leaned back into it kissing Luz back. After a moment, they pulled apart for air.

"Oh wow," Amity felt herself saying as her mind caught up to what just happened. "Kissing."

"I can't believe I just did that," Luz declared and Amity could feel that she was somewhat surprised at herself.

"I can't believe I just said that," Amity admitted. Still, as far as first real kisses went that was... Perfect.

"That was... So cool," Luz said. "Whenever I'd think about being in a story it was always as the hero but I think I like being the maiden whose honor is defended by a brave, dashing hero." Amity immediately made plans to acquire a dueling saber, a wide-brimmed hat, and a cape.

"Thanks, Batata," Amity. "But, Luz... I have to ask... You're normally so..." Amity thought back to their talk after the duel at the Covention. Luz had said that she didn't mind it when she was picked on but hated it when her friends were... and yet here she was, clearly minding being picked on.

"Yeah, uh... I guess being back here is bringing up so old..." Luz scratched at the back of her head and laughed nervously. "Um..."

Amity replied by pulling Luz back into a hug and kissing her forehead. "Luz, you're so brave when standing up for others. I don't know why you can't stand up for yourself, but I'll always be here for you when you need me."

"Amity," Luz gushed.

"After all," Amity continued, "we already agreed to protect each other." Amity might not be strong enough to protect Luz from the horrors of the human realm, but protecting her from jerks who put her down like that was well within her power.

"....Are we really gonna do this?" Vee asked, speaking up for the first time since the jerks got there. "Fight those people who were mean to Luz in an old cemetery?"

Amity blinked. "We?"

"I mean, yeah," Masha added. "You weren't expecting to fight three-on-one, were you? I mean, none of them really look like fighters so they're probably not even gonna show up," They continued, "especially since they think you're a mutant, but I just kind of assumed."

"No, I wasn't... I was just speaking for me," Amity clarified. "I wasn't expecting anyone else to..."

"Well, that's just silly," Masha declared. "I know you've got this whole chivalrous romance thing going, but you can't expect me to just sit back, right? Friends help each other."

"...If I'm gonna be living with Luz and M-Camila then, that sort of makes us family, right?" Vee added hesitantly. "Aren't families supposed to protect each other?"

"Now come on, just on the off chance that that wasn't bluster we've got an hour to prepare to rumble with Luz's evil ex-crushes," Masha concluded. "I know where the old graveyard is and a quick way to get there. We get there first we can scope out the terrain."

Masha led them through town, into "Old Gravesfield" where the buildings were noticeably older, with some reminding Amity of Bonesborough, and then into the woods.

Halfway along the path they stopped, because Luz noticed a creature thrashing about in a cage.

"Okay, seriously," she muttered to herself as she crouched down. "All we have are rabbits, foxes, and possums, nothing big enough to justify a cage this size..." After fiddling with the cage for a moment Luz got it open and the large, white-faced rat-shaped animal dashed off into the trees.

"Was that a possum?" Amit asked, bewildered. "Possums are real?"

"Yes and yes," Luz replied. "Why?"

"Um... Possums are considered a cryptid in the demon realm," Amity continued. "There are books on it and everything."

"Well, now you can tell people that you saw one with your own eyes and not be lying," Luz said happily.

"Um, not to uh, be a burden," Vee interrupted, "but... The further into the woods we go the more things are starting to smell like the Boiling Isles."

"I have noticed that the ambient magic has been getting denser," Masha admitted.

"You can sense that!?"Amity explained. "Without specialized equipment?"

"You can't?" Masha replied. "How... Oh, wait. You said your magic is part of your body. You wouldn't need to learn how to sense it. For sorcerers sensing and tapping ambient magic is one of the first things we learn."

With that, they continued further into the woods, eventually stumbling across a flooded clearing with a lot of gravestones just barely sticking out of the water, some dry land with an arch over it on the far side, and an old sign saying 'danger, deep water.'

"Wait, if the old graveyard is flooded," Amity began, "why did they want to fight here?"

"Probably just pulled a random location out of the air," Masha concluded. "If they show up at all the fact that we can't really fight here will make it pretty easy to talk them into standing down."

Vee was sniffing the air. "The magic. The thing that's making his part of the forest smell like the Boiling Isles, it's on the other side of the water."

"Swimming in a flooded graveyard is probably a bad idea," Luz observed.

Amity had a thought. "Luz? Try one of the glyphs."

"But they don't work in the human realm."

"I have a theory," Amity explained. "Please, just humor me."

"Alright," Luz agreed. She took a moment to look through her glyph cards before selecting one, clapping it between her hands, and setting her hands on the ground at the edge of the flooded section of the cemetery. Suddenly, a bridge of ice formed starting from her hands and rapidly spreading across the water to the far side.

"Wait, so if the ambient magic around here is so much denser..." Masha began.

"...And it smells like the Boiling Isles's magic..." Vee continued.

"...and the Glyphs work here but not in the rest of the human realm..." Luz added.

"Then something here is bringing in the same magic as the Boiling Isles," Amity concluded.

They marched across the ice bridge, finding more graves on the other side and a stone structure behind the arch. Vee sniffed the air again and approached one of the graves. After a moment she called back, "I found something!"

Reconvening in front of the arc, Vee held out a large vial, with an owl-shaped stopper, filled with a viscous cerulean liquid and Amity's heart nearly stopped. It couldn't be, could it? Here.

"Okay, if that's the source of the magic then... Hmm, here's a chance to practice with that one spell." Masha started making gestures again, including making that horned shape with their finger, before exclaiming "The Third Eye of Agamotto!" Wait, wasn't that one of the artifacts Luz had mentioned?

Regardless, a large third eye appeared on Masha's forehead. They looked at the vial with it, and then immediately fell to the ground clutching their face and shouted a long string of profanities that made Amity's ears burn.

"Oh Goddess, it's like looking right into the sun," they finally declared after a moment, blinking and standing back up, the third eye gone. "Okay, so what the crud is that stuff."

"I think," Amity began hesitantly, "I think it's Titan Blood."

Vee gasped and started holding the vial a lot more carefully.

Masha, however, was confused. "And that is?"

"The Boiling Isles are formed around the remains of a dead titan." Amity lectured. "We don't know its name, or even if it had one, so so we just call it 'The Titan.' Titans are extinct now, but beforehand they were like, the most powerful things ever. Every inch of their body was saturated with magic. All other complex life in the demon realm was originally born from the decaying flesh of titans, and the blood of The Boiling Isles Titan is the most powerful source of magical energy known to witch kind. Powerful, but rare," she finished. "I can't imagine how such a large vial of undiluted Titan blood ended up here."

"I mean, the building the portal door opens up in looks pretty old," Luz observed. "Maybe whoever had it before Eda came here and hid some for some reason?"

"Maybe," Amity agreed. If It was Titan blood, and it was letting Luz use the glyphs... Then that meant that the glyphs were powered by the Titan's magic. Combined with how she'd gotten them and Eda's theories about the ancient wild witches, this... This confirmed it. The Glyphs came from the Titan. Obviously, Luz wasn't some chosen one, those didn't exist outside of children's novels, but... The Titan had to have let Luz find them for a reason, right? Applied theology continued to be hard. "Luz, you should hold onto the vial. that way, you'll be able to do magic wherever you are."

Vee dutifully handed the vial over to Luz, who hid it on her person.

Then they waited.

And waited.

And waited.

Finally, after a long time, the three jerks from earlier approached from the same direction the four of them had come from.

"So, you actually showed up," Clara observed while examining the ice bridge. She tapped it with her foot before the three jerks crossed.

"I'll give you one more chance to just apologize to Luz," Amity declared.

This was met with a moment of silence, in which two things became apparent. Scott's eyes were glowing white, and Suzy's clothes were moving in the wind even though there was no wind.

Finally, Clara answered in a voice loud enough to echo slightly, "No, I don't think we will."

Chapter Text

Amity stared down the three jerks. Despite the threatening display, none of them had made the first move. Seeing that the jerks were hesitant, Amity decided to try and intimidate them into giving up.

...And show off what they were missing out on.

"Luz, would you care to dance?" Amity asked while offering a hand to her awesome girlfriend.

Luz smiled and took Amity's hand and, just like against Grom the two immediately fell into perfect synch. They danced together, in something that Amity hoped would become a trend, flawlessly, requiring no words to know exactly what they each wanted out of the dance.

"...Uh, what are you doing?" Clara asked suddenly.

Instead of answering, the two girls went into a spin, Luz twirling Amity so that she could use the heal of one foot and the toe of another to draw a large spell circle and Amity then summoned a giant abomination that lifted the two of them up into the air, spiraling around each other, as it formed. Once complete, Amitty looked down at the three jerks and smiled smugly, and unlike it would have been a few months ago this smugness was well-earned.

"What... What kind of power was that?" Scott demanded.

"It's not a 'power,'" Amity denied. "I misled you earlier, sorry not sorry, I'm not a mutant: I'm a witch."

...This did not get the response that she'd been hoping for.

"Oh, I get it," Clara declared with absolutely unearned smugness. "Loony Noceda realized she'd never be a witch and settled for the next best thing."

"Luz," Amity began, "would you care to show her how wrong she is?" She then turned to her Luz and gave her a reassuring smile.

Luz had clearly been nervous when Clara called her out, but it seemed that Amity's smile had chased the nerves away. Luz gave a determined grin and drew one of her glyph cards. Upon activating it, the human girl tossed a fireball into the air: "Spicy toss!"

"As you can see," Amity lectured while coming behind Luz and wrapping her arms around the other girl, "My Luz is a real witch. An adorable, talented witch who is an excellent dancer and she's all mine so don't get any ideas." Amity punctuated this declaration by leaning forward to plant a kiss on Luz's cheek, which caused the human girl to blush and giggle. "Abomination," Amity finished, "pose."

With that command, the giant abomination upon whose head the power couple stood took a knee and flexed both of its arms.

This seemed to tick off the three jerks. The blonde in particular glared up at them and screamed. The sound she made was ear-splitting and Amity found herself pained and disoriented even as the abomination rippled and lost its consistency. The sudden fall was dizzying and even if Amity could normally adjust and land on her feet after such a drop the scream had still left her too off balance. Adrenaline spiked, and her heart beat faster, but rather than landing in a heap on the ground the next thing Amity knew she was in Luz's arms in a bridal carry, and Luz was in her adorable, cloaked symbiote form.

"What the heck, Clara!?" Luz shouted. "We could have gotten hurt."

"What... Where?" Clara began and... And now the tree jerks were scared of Luz. "Did, did you ide with."

"Don't change the subject!" Luz commanded. "If I didn't have symbiote powers, long story, that could have killed us." Oh right, humans were more fragile than witches. With everything that had happened since Amity met Luz, she'd forgotten that.

"Your little girlfriend started it by showing off," Clara defended.

"No," Masha interrupted as they moved up to stand next to Luz. "You started it. You're the ones who came up to us and made a big deal about them having fun the same way everyone else in the park was. You're the ones that issued a challenge to fight. Don't try to shift blame."

"I don't get you..." Luz admitted. "Like, you don't like me, fine. You don't have to like everyone, but... You.. All of you. The second I... Why? Why are you so mean?"

Clara scoffed. "What? Do you think I, what, have some really toxic home life that left me seeking status by putting people down? Grow up, this isn't a cartoon." Amity was suddenly considerably less reminded of her past self. "Life's not fair and people who don't fit in get hammered down. It's as simple as that. You'd think they'd have taught you at that freak reeducation camp."

"It was a life skills and vocational training camp," Masha countered. "And while I can appreciate the fact that I now know to do most basic household plumbing and can drywall like a mother lover, at its worst the camp was just boring."

"...I liked learning about mortgages," Vee said from where she stood, sounding somewhat offended.

"And the fact that you actually mean that is your most endearing quality," Masha declared with obvious sincerity, and while Amity couldn't see Vee she could feel... Seriously, Vee's interactions with Masha were giving her the strangest case of Deja Vu for some reason.

"Whatever," Clara dismissed. "If you think I'm mean then you need another reality check. All any of us have done is tell you when you're acting weird or cringy or cheesy. If principal Hal wasn't so lenient you'd have been expelled at least twice, and you'd have no one to blame but yourself for being a little creep. Honestly," the blonde finished, "you should be thanking me. I've been trying to help you."

"...No. You haven't," Luz said. "This whole time you've been..." Amity crawled out of Luz's arms to stand next to her and put a supportive hand on her girlfriend's shoulder. "You look down on me. Just like everyone else. And yeah, maybe I haven't exactly done the best job of trying to fit in... Seriously, I don't know what I was thinking with the spiders, just got caught up in the idea, but still. Thinking back on it, I don't even know why I liked any of you."

Now they seemed offended. "Because we're all awesome," Scott defended.

"No, you're not," Luz declared. "Scott, you're a kid who acts like a jock without being on any of the teams and every so often you spout off some weird conspiracy theory you heard from your uncle. Suzy, your favorite pastime is critiquing other people's choice of clothes and Clara..." Luz took a deep breath. "Where do I begin? You're basically a mean-girl stereotype and you overreact to every little thing. And another thing," Luz continued, "but... None of you ever hung out before this summer. The only thing you have in common is being a mutant so..."

"So what?" Clara asked. "Do you think you're better than us all of a sudden?"

"...Yes," Luz admitted bluntly. "I think, I think I do." Then she started laughing. "I... I've never looked down on someone or made fun of them. Not even to make myself feel better and, let me tell you, I've had a lot to feel bad about. I think," Luz continued, "I think I was interested in you because you were normal. If I could approach any of you, and make you like me, then maybe people would... And I'm sorry, that was shallow and awkward, but... I have friends now. Real friends who support me but who aren't afraid to help me get back on track when I go off the rails—really help me, not just make fun of me. And a girlfriend who loves me for me. I'm a witch now, I'm learning magic, and... And I talked with Mami and I finally feel like I'm understood..." Luz kept laughing. "I don't... I don't need your approval. Or the approval of the rest of the kids at Gravesfield High or anyone else here in town. I have people whose approval matters to me for the right reasons, and I have it." Amity could feel a shift in Luz's emotions. "For the first time in forever, I feel... Okay with myself. Is this... Is this what it's like to have good self-esteem?"

Amity wouldn't know what good self-esteem feels like if she was going to be honest, but she knew what she was feeling now: Pride and joy, both for and of Luz. Amity made sure to give her girlfriend a supportive hug.

"And another thing," Luz continued, "two weeks ago I beat up the evil emperor of a magic dimension. School bullies and mean ex-crushes are a little under my pay grade after that, right, so if you don't mind I'll... Be..." Luz turned back to Amity. "Amity. Are you... Purring?"

Amity felt all the blood rush to her face as she realized that she had been. "Um, yeah."

"Witches purr?" Luz asked with the same tone as a small child finding out that it was raining their favorite soda.

"Um, no," Amity shyly corrected as the purring stopped. "I purr. It's ah, a throwback trait." Most witches had at least some biped demon ancestry, so anything out of the norm regarding witch anatomy was assumed to be a recessive trait inherited from demon ancestors. Of course, neither her parents nor her older siblings purred or had other throwback traits... "I'm sorry, I'm just... So happy for you and... I can stop." Amity's Mom had hated it when Amity would purr when she was little. She said it was undignified, so Amity taught herself how to override the reflex but this time it'd just...

"Don't you dare," Luz insisted while her cloak rose up to wrap warmly around Amity. "This just makes you even more perfect than you already were."

Amity smiled and started purring again.

"Anyway," Luz continued, "I'm basically already a superhero, and fighting high school students is a little... Unbecoming, I guess? Even if they started it, so I'm just gonna take my awesome girlfriend, my new friend, and my soon-to-be foster sister and leave if you don't mind." Luz let Amity go and moments later the couple, flanked by Masha and Vee, were crossing the ice bridge in preparation for heading back into town.

"I can't believe that Loony Noceda thinks she's better than us," Suzy deadpanned. Because, yeah, that was the takeaway. Not that Luz had outgrown their bullying, not how pathetic they were for being bullies, just...

"Oh, my Titan," Amity realized. She turned back to Luz's former crushes. "You started hanging out when you found out you had something in common... None of you have any real friends, do you? At best, you have people you associate with because of your roles in your school's social hierarchy."

"Shut your mouth, freak! You don't know what you're talking about!" The boy, Scott, commanded.

Amity ignored him. "Trust me, I'm intimately aware of how this kind of thing works. I bet none of you have romantic partners, either. You didn't come up to us and start this because Luz was acting disruptive, everyone at the... The music thing was dancing. You did it because you saw that she was happy with friends. Because someone who you look down on was 'beating you' at something." Amity couldn't help but chuckle. "you're jealous of her."

This, Amity soon realized, was the wrong thing to say. In one instant, Clara exploded in rage and screamed. The next, Luz had pushed Amity down and took the full force of the shockwave herself, being sent flying back.

In the third moment, the ice bridge that Luz had conjured cracked, and Amity felt herself plunge into the flooded cemetery.

It was, pun not intended, colder than a grave and Amity did not exactly have the best head on her shoulders at that particular moment. She thrashed, trying to gain some sense of balance or equilibrium or at least get her head back over the water but she couldn't. Things started to go black as Amity lost her strength. She had just enough time to lament that she and Willow had skipped out on their swimming lessons at Lake Lacuna as children before something grabbed her. A quickly serpentine figure cutting through the water pulled her swiftly and the next thing she knew she was back on dry land and coughing up water.

Breathing heavily, there was only one thing on her mind. "Luz!?" She called out as she twisted around to where her girlfriend had landed only to see that she wasn't there.

"The jerks took her," Masha declared while holding out another ball of the Flames of the Faltine. Amity noticed then that Vee was in her true form again and that she was also wet and shivering and leaning very closely to the warmth of Masha's fireball. "When she hit the ground and didn't get back up, they panicked and carried her off."

"This is your fault, Clara!" Suzy screamed while carrying three other people, one of whom was out cold, through the air over the path to Old Gravesfield. Everyone laughed when she said her power was to control her clothes but an Omega Level was an Omega Level: Making them float through the air and strong enough to carry her was the first thing she figured out.

"Don't blame me," Clara insisted anxiously, "That pink-haired witch started it."

"Should we have left her in the water?" Scott asked nervously.

"She'll be fine," Clara dismissed. "Everyone knows witches float. You sure your uncle will meet us in Old Gravesfield?"

"When I texted he said he'd be right over," Scott answered. "There's not exactly much traffic this late in the afternoon so..."

"Is Luzer still breathing?" Suzy asked.

"Yeah, I think," Clara said. "Still out cold though."

Emerging out into the old town proper, which was thankfully empty most of the year, the trio of teens was met by a large truck pulling up, with Scott's uncle getting out shortly afterward.

He adjusted his glasses and looked down at the conscious dork that had the teens so panicked. Gears were clearly turning in the man's head.

"You did the right thing by calling me, Scott," he declared. "Get her into the truck. I know what to do."

"Oh thank God," Scott exclaimed quietly. "You're the best, Uncle Jacob."

Chapter Text

In the early evening, while Alador was in his lab and her eldest children were off doing whatever it is that they do with their time Odalia Blight snuck out of the manor, disguised by a cloak, to a shady bar at the edge of town that only opened at night.

Giving the code word "politesse" to the doorman, she was let in and immediately escorted to the private table where her latest business partner was already seated. As she was seated, a glass was placed in front of her and her business partner held up a bottle of a tastefully expensive wine vintage. "May I tempt you, Ms. Blight?" the red-skinned demon asked.

"You may," Odalia agreed as she held out her glass. Her business partner poured her a generous amount and upon sipping it, Odalia found it to be suitably sour and bitter. When the food and drink made Odalia crave the treats in her private stash, she knew it was worth the money.

"I assume that everything went well on your end?" her partner asked.

"Like a charm," she declared haughtily. "With the human branded as part of the Emperor's Coven and acknowledged by the Emperor himself as blessed by the Titan, she is the natural successor if and when our beloved Tyrant 'falls,'" Odalia still wasn't exactly certain what that bit of the prophecy meant, but occasional rumors that Emperor Belos suffered from some sickness or curse, probably inflicted by wild witches, did go around and she suspected the most likely explanation would simply be that he would succumb soon. "I've even seen a number of futures where the human or my Mittens are fighting alongside a young man who I strongly suspect is the Golden Guard, or are dressed in the uniforms of Emperor's Coven scouts."

In fact, the possible future of Amity and her human as coven scouts seemed to be quite soon. Odalia had assumed that Mittens's chances of joining the coven were shot after she started the riot but perhaps the Emperor was more forgiving than she thought.

"Alternatively," Odalia continued, "I've been able to use," others might call it abuse, "my position in the PCA to get a look at the human's transcripts. She seems to be doing well, and a few of the possible futures I've seen glimpses of had scenes of her wielding powerful magic in addition to the strange powers she possesses. Should this foolish bit of rebellion not die out, should the seeds planted at the riot blossom into full revolution... I have not foreseen any future where she battles our Emperor, but I wouldn't put it past her. Especially if Mittens is encouraging her, and well, to the victor go the spoils. The human succeeding the Emperor is almost inevitable." The future was never 100% certain, of course, and each time Odalia looked for the scene of her child and her child's human on the throne it was a little different: Sometimes they were older or younger, different outfits, different haircuts, a handful where the human had seemingly be transformed into a horned demon with black fur and a carapace of bone, sometimes accompanied by servants or palisman, but almost always those two together on the throne. When it wasn't... Well, a future that prominently lacked the human depicted her Mittens standing over a razed castle, while one that lacked Mittens showed the human in the same position that the head of an army of monsters. Clearly, the two of them ruling the Isles together was the best result for everyone. "In the meantime, the Emperor's Coven has cut a favorable contract with Blight Industries. We are currently supplying them with weapons and Abomoton soldiers in order to make up for the obvious deficiencies that the little riot revealed in their strength of arms. Profit in the short term, and a stronger army for Mittens and her human to inherit. Having the girl branded was the best decision I ever made."

"Yes, my associate went above and beyond expectations on that job," the red-skinned Demon. "He even managed to frame things so it looked like he'd been broken out rather than escaping on his own. If I hadn't made him sign such a strict contract I might have given him a bonus for that."

"How did you make the acquaintance of such a talented demon?" Odalia asked.

Her business partner gave a charming smile, "Oh, I have a habit of cutting deals with people and have accumulated quite a lot of favors over the course of my life. Now that our little Queen in Black's ascension to proper royal status is all but guaranteed, all you need to worry about is making sure your daughter becomes her 'consort.'"

Yes, that was quite important. Odalia's oracle spirit was certain of it: royal or not, Mittens's fortunes were best in timelines where she was romantically involved with the human and as the primary heir, good fortune for her was good fortune for the Blight Family. The truth was, Odalia would have preferred anyone other than a commoner who consorts with criminals but the oracle spirit didn't lie and Mittens was apparently far less successful in life in general with any of the match-ups Odalia would have arranged before the human came to the Isles.

"That seems to be going well on its own," Odalia admitted. "As we speak, Mittens is in the human realm meeting with the human girl's mother. She's been trying to learn the human's strange language for weeks, hoping to impress. As if she needs it, the human's a commoner. The Blights are old money, nobles technically," not that that had meant much. "And while my own family made our money much more recently we did it through hard work and business sense. The current generation of Blights are the union of earned and inherited wealth, any peasant would be delighted that her daughter is marrying up."

"Already planning a wedding?" Her business partner asked.

"If I had my way, they'd already be married," Odalia admitted. "The sooner Mittens is the human's 'consort' the sooner the 'good fortune' starts, but alas."

"Is that even legal?" The red-skinned demon asked.

"Anything's legal if you exploit enough loopholes," Odalia countered. "There are some old laws and traditions that were never officially abolished. If I could get Alador to agree and get the human's parents' and/or guardians' signatures on a consent form with three credible witnesses and proof that no one was being compelled or coerced then I could get it officiated, but then the only venues willing to perform the ceremony would likely be in Las Pancreas and a fifteen-minute ceremony in a temple that holds only a dozen witnesses in between a dive bar and gentleman's club would never do and it would certainly cause a scandal. No, we'll have to wait a few years."

"It's probably for the best," the red-skinned demon replied. "I never much cared for romance myself, but even I know that rushing into things too quickly or at too young an age is just asking for the relationship to end badly."

"You're probably right... Though, I do find myself curious," Odalia asked, "what exactly are you getting out of this arrangement? I didn't think too closely about it when we first met, but... How does putting my daughter on the throne benefit you."

"Oh, it's nothing so grandiose, I've just... taken an interest in our little Queen in Black," the demon replied.

"You know, I'm still not quite certain what that means," Odalia mused. "It's not a term I've ever seen before. I've considered trying to bribe the Master Librarian to let me into the Bonesborrogh Library's forbidden stacks to look there, but if he doesn't take the bait he'd probably fire Mittens, and I'd never hear the end of it." Her youngest daughter could get so dramatic.

"Oh, now that's a story and a half," her partner began. "As you recall, I've got my ways of traveling across dimensions and I've seen and heard quite a lot."

Oh yes. Odalia had been skeptical of the man's claims when they'd first spoken after bumping into each other while Odalia was on her way home from a PCA meeting. Then he produced a rectangular device, similar to a scroll, which he called a "cell phone" which was similar enough to a device that the human was spotted using, with pictures of the human realm and other worlds besides. Then she was convinced.

"Yes."

'There are lots of dimensions with some form of magic," her business partner continued, "and every reality has its own way of categorizing it... But one which is employed in most dimensions is simple enough. It divides magic into the Right-Hand Path, pristine and elegant calling upon the divine and the cosmic powers and the like, and the left-hand path which is... well, it's vulgar and visceral. The power comes from flesh and blood, sex and violence. For simplicity's sake, the two paths are respectively called white and black magic, spellcasters who invoke them are thus respectively white and black magicians."

"Typically," the demon continued, "a white magician, invoking distant powers and drawing on clean cosmic energies, lives apart from the world and interacts with it either indirectly or from a place of authority. Thus, they aren't overly affected by changes to the world, some realms have stereotypes of studious wizards in ivory towers." The demon took a sip from his wine glass. "Of course, those realms use a different definition of 'wizard' than this one does. Black magicians, by contrast, live in the world as they interact with it, and so are affected by changes to the world and, to a degree, the changes they themselves impose on the world."

"There are exceptions of course, the Human Realm's Sorcerer Supreme is the stereotype of a white magician, someone who lives isolated in a magical sanctum coming out only to solve magical problems, but while they channel the clean cosmic energies of White Magic for most of their spells, one must be a "Master of Black Magics" in order to be considered worthy of the position."

Odalia hummed. "So, I suppose by the standards of these realms of which you speak, most witches would be black magicians? Or magical power comes from our bile and phlegm and if we're being honest I'm not sure how society could function without magic."

"Exactly correct, the witches of the Boiling Isles are an entire species of naturally occurring black magicians," the demon replied. "Now, plenty of people confuse black magic with dark magic, which is magic with inherently harmful or corruptive, but that's mostly because, well... Most black magicians who don't naturally have magic in their flesh and blood need to do less than savory things to fuel their spells and when your power comes from sex and violence, it gets very easy to see other people as batteries and when you start making moral compromises..."

Odalia could see the logic but pretended that she didn't. Instead, she changed the subject. "So, is a Queen in Black some... Archmaster of black magic?"

"Not quite, there's a concept in realms where sorcery is more common than inborn magic: As above, so below. Magic in the mortal plane is a reflection of concepts in the divine and cosmic planes and vice versa. White magicians in their ivory towers are reflections of the Ivory Kings, or Kings in White." The Demon smiled. "Beings pure energy in the form of bipeds who sit outside the cosmos looking in, using pristine cosmic energies to maintain the integrity of creation from the outside and rarely stepping in and cross them are the Onyx Kings, the Kings in Black, who maintain the cosmos from within with life... And flesh."

"Are you telling me that the human girl is some kind of deity?" Odalia asked skeptically.

"No no no," her business partner denied, "at least not yet. You see, there are two types of entities who serve as Kings in Black: Elder Gods, which are ancient beings of deep magic who embody natural forces and concepts, each essentially a living force of nature, and mortals who inherit the position from a previous King in Black. Whereas the Kings in White are rather uniform, all being members of a race calling themselves The Beyonders, Kings in Black are more unique and the King in Black of the human realm rejected his duties." The red-skinned demon laughed. "Being a King in Black is a tough job, and the King in Black of the human realm was alone. He ranted and whined about how he never asked for it, how it wasn't fair, and then tapped into a force known as the primal anti-life, a sort of equal and opposite of creation, becoming the Elder God of the Void and going on a crusade to kill all gods and cosmic entities out of spite."

Odalia snorted. "I believe the children these days would say something along the lines of 'what a warlock.'"

"Yes, he was something of an edge lord, as the human youth say," her new partner agreed. "Using the Anti-Life and his own shadow, he created creatures that served not only as weapons and armor with which to kill and steal the powers of his prey... But also to infect and subvert others to his cause and once those creatures have infected someone, a trace of them always remains behind dormant."

"The God of The Void, Knull was his name, was eventually betrayed by his spawn and imprisoned. Recently he escaped, enslaved most of his spawn, and continued on his conquest, but he's dead now, killed by a mortal living in a symbiotic relationship with one of his own spawn if you'd believe it, who has usurped the position of King in Black." Another sip of wine. "After the betrayal, some of his spawn attempted to be heroes while others continued to conquer on their own, including Earth, the planet in the human realm that humans are native to. Your daughter's human paramour's parents were both infected and so she was born infected... Essentially, she has four genetic parents: Two humans, and two of Knull's elderspawn. Half human, half god-murdering eldritch monstrosity. Since coming here, her elderspawn side has woken up."

"So she's effectively a descendant of this Knull fellow," Odalia reasoned, "and... What, could take his title from the usurper?"

"It doesn't quite work like that," the demon replied. "But... Other realms have their own Kings in Black. The Demon Realm, for example, had an entire race of them. Massive Elder Gods whose flesh and blood and bone and breath and bile were hypersaturated with magic, whose bodies were built around it, who instinctively commanded the elements in their own languages of magic, who created constructs of flesh and bone to serve them, who emitted life and magic in vast amounts, who even dead generate magic ex nihilo, whose decaying flesh spawns myriad organisms each with powerful magic inherent to themselves as well."

"We had such a race?" Odalia asked. That would imply that they don't anymore. But... Some of the details her partner had mentioned clicked together. "Oh dear, merciful Titan."

"Indeed," her partner confirmed. "You know it's funny? This dimension is called the Demon Realm but by the definition used commonly in most realms that know of magic and the multiverse, none of the inhabitants would be considered demons. The Boiling Isles natives would all be considered Elderspawn. Isn't it amusing how the same word can have different meanings in different places?"

Odalia took a large sip from her own wine glass while she contemplated what he just said.

"The human girl... You said that the... Elderspawn of Knull steal power from gods. If the Titan's ambient magic field..."

"Bingo," the red-skinned demon said, a gleeful smile on his face. "Our Queen in Black to be, without even realizing it, has been absorbing the power of an Elder God, a King in Black of a different realm, bit by bit, piece by piece, for months now. Just being here breathing in the air and eating the food is fueling a metamorphosis. I suspect it's what awoke her latent eldritch heritage, to begin with, and... Well, when a Klyntar, that's the proper name for Knull's Elder Spawn, consumes enough divine or cosmic energy, it may rarely become a deific being itself, or do the same for its host. If the human girl stays on the Titan's corpse long enough, she will ascend to divine or semi-divine status herself. A homegrown Queen in Black... The question is, of course... Will she take after Grandpappy Knull, after the Titan, or will she become something else entirely? I can't say I'm not curious," he finished, "and I intend to have my curiosity sated."

Odalia responded by downing the rest of her glass. "May I have another?"

"Of course, Ms. Blight," the demon agreed before pouring her another glass.

Odalia was halfway through that glass when she'd finally fully processed what her partner was saying. Then she smiled smugly, her daughter was going to be the consort of a deity and they'd be ruling the demon realm together. The Blights would live forever in the annals of history after that.  And the prophecy did say something about a Titan's rise.

Then something occurred to her. "You know, I don't think you ever actually told me your name."

"Oh did I not?" The demon asked, somewhat amused.

"No, you simply introduced yourself as a man of wealth and taste."

"Oh silly me, it must have slipped my mind: My name is... Mephisto."

Chapter Text

The next thing Luz knew, she was floating in a dark void. She tried to move, tried to open her eyes, but she couldn't do either.

"Luz?" called out a voice in the distance. A strong and deep voice, but also one that was warm and gentle. Like a hug. "Luz, you need to wake up."

She was asleep? That could be right. Her dreams were all usually either clip shows of previous adventures or fantasies about riding dragons. Except for that one recent dream where she went out dancing, to the movies, and on a swan boat with Amity but they kept getting interrupted before they could kiss. Did the demon realm even have swan boats?

"Luz!" The voice called out again, and suddenly Luz's eyes snapped open and everything hurt.

The first thing she realized was that she was still in symbiote mode, but he was also tied up. Luckily, symbiote powers came with symbiote strength and she was able to burst the ropes with a simple flex.

The next thing she noticed was that she was in a very small cage. Leverage was awkward but she was able to strike the bars with her claws and... Nothing happened.

"Nice try," a man's voice called out from behind her, "but that cage is made of carbonadium."

Luz blinked. "Seriously?"

"I know," the man said as he walked past into view, revealing a brown-haired, blue-eyed man with glasses and a professor's jacket. Now that she had her bearings, Luz's ESP was picking up three other people in the room. "I wanted to use adamantium but even the cheap mass-production version is so expensive. Carbonadium's almost as good but it's a lot cheaper."

That hadn't been what Luz meant but... Whatever.

Luz looked around and saw a corkboard of weird stuff, a picture of Eda as the Owl Beast (She'd have to ask her mentor about that later) and a computer monitor showing a few feeds and... Oh, crap. One of the feeds was frozen on her helping Vee out of that snare a few hours ago.

"You know, it's illegal to set traps and cameras in the woods out here," Luz observed. "Like, most of it is a nature preserve and the rest is private property. You could get in a lot of trouble if anyone finds out about that."

"I think that's the least of your concerns right now," the man said. It was then that Luz noticed some surgical equipment on a table.

"You know, if I had a nickel for every time I almost got dissected, I'd have two nickles," Luz mused. "Which isn't a lot, but it's weird that it's happened twice."

One of the people behind her gasped.

"Those aren't for you," the man dismissed. "Those are for the demons."

Luz's eyes narrowed. "So you know about the demon realm then." Then she blinked, realizing that he might have been thinking of like, actual evil spirits.

"Oh, I know," he said dementedly. "I know all about the demons. How they come here from Mars to steal our teeth to power their time machines!"

Luz held her hands before her face so that her index fingers nearly touched her nose and inhaled sharply and deeply through said nose. "I don't know where to begin with everything that's wrong with what you just said."

"And now," the man continued, "I have proof that the Martian demons are in league with symbiotes!"

Luz would have banged her head on the bars if she wasn't pretty sure it'd do serious damage. As it was she already had one heck of a headache.

"She's not just allied to them, Uncle Jacob," a boy's voice came out from behind her. "She's dating a witch." That'd be Scott.

"Yeah," a girl's voice, Suzy. "That must be how they got her to... What, turn traitor? Bribed her with a cute goth rich witch GF. It's the only way a loser like Loony Noceda could get someone to date her."

The denial on these people. "She's also an amazing dancer and a great baker," Luz quipped back. "Now, is Clara back there, too?"

"...Yes," the unseen blonde quipped. Luz's negative emotion sense was working now. Those three jerks all seemed... Uncertain about this? That was good to know, but at least two of them were doubling down.

"Okay, Jacob was it?" Luz asked. "What do you want from me?"

The obvious conspiracy theorist leaned down to leer at her, menacingly. "Your confession. I know you're in league with the demons. You even helped the reptilian one out of my trap and allowed it to assume your form. There's a renowned expert on interdimensional physics and the paranormal in town but he didn't believe my evidence," he continued, "but I just called him back. He'll have to believe me if I have living proof and three eyewitnesses to corroborate their confession."

Expert on the paranormal in... Oh, Ford. Eda's ex-husband's twin. Okay, he seemed like a nice guy. His response to seeing someone from the Boiling Isles was to make sure she wasn't stranded. So he'd probably like... Humor the nutjob and then go get help... And Amity wouldn't take this lying down, she'd probably... Amity!

Luz awkwardly scooted around to glare at the three teens who'd started this whole mess. "Where's Amity? Or Masha and Vee?"

"Back at the graveyard," Clara dismissed. "They're fine. Witches float."

Luz instinctively reached for a glyph, the goo coating her body producing one from wherever her clothes and the contents of her pockets went when she was in symbiote mode. "If anything happened to them I swear that this time the witch will be the one doing the burning." The three jerks shrank back.

"Common misconception," Jacob declared from behind her, seemingly oblivious to the threat. "The Gravesfield witches, much like those in Salem, were all hung on conviction rather than burned. As were the witches in England, mind you. Burning was the punishment for heresy or when a commoner woman committed treason. And if we're being honest more witches here drowned than were hung. That whole 'witches float' thing? Yeah, the Gravesfield witch hunters were very slow to pull the accused out of the water."

Luz took a deep breath. One thing at a time, she'd need to stall until Ford got here.

"Alright, I'll admit it," Luz began dramatically. "I am in league with foul spirits."

"Aha!" Jacob declared.

"Not only that," she continued just as dramatically, "but I am a soldier of authority in their forces, for in the army of the King of Demons, I am... a major general!"

Jacob gasped. "A major general?"

"Yes yes, I am a major general!" Luz sang. That practice with patter songs was about to pay off.

Clara blanched "Oh god, no."

"I~I~I—am the very model of a modern major general...!"

Getting back over the flooded graveyard had been tricky but after that, Amity had just gone into a fuge as the three teens rushed back toward the Noceda residence. She snapped back to lucidity as they approached the house and bolted down the forest path to the old shack in the woods, ignoring Vee and Masha. To the portal. Eda would know what to do.

Getting to the door, she noticed it was open a crack, and light was coming out. It peeled open just as Amity skidded to a stop in front of it.

Eda stepped through, hesitantly, and started to look around before seeing Amity. "Oh, hey Boots. Was just checking to see if..." The older witch's phrasing is awkward. "I take it that Luz is... What's wrong?"

"Luz, jerks, kidnapped, my fault, help!" was all Amity could bring herself to say between her panic and her lack of breath.

"Boots," Eda began, "Stop. Breathe." Amity forced herself to slow down and inhale. "Now take it from the top."

Amity then filled Eda in, summarizing how things had been going very well, though leaving out certain unimportant details, up until they ran into the jerks who made Luz feel like no one would ever love her and contributed to the heartache and confusion that had preceded one of the happiest moments of Amity's life, and how Amity had stood up to them on Luz's behalf, and how they'd challenged them, and how they'd foolishly agreed to the fight and how it'd just been bluster and Luz had stood up for herself but Amity had let off that one last provocation and made them actually attack and now Luz was hurt and kidnapped and it was all Amity's fault.

"Okay, here's what we're gonna do," Eda began. "It sounds like that last attack was just an impulse and the jerks ran off with her because they were panicking, so they're probably not going to hurt her any more than they already have, and Luz is pretty tough so she's probably not too badly hurt to begin with. So we're gonna take a page out of Lily's book and plan this out carefully. We're going to find Luz, we will rescue Luz, and then we will turn to the jerks who took her and we will murder them."

"Or you can just come with us," came Masha's voice from behind Amity, which made the witch jump. She was so out of it that she didn't even feel the sorcerer's emotions.

Turning around, Amity saw not only Masha but also Vee and Camila.

"Uh, Mrs. Noceda," Amity began nervously, "I ah..."

"Masha and Vee told me what happened," Camila said. "And we caught the end of your explanation... Amity, cariño, this isn't your fault."

"But—"

"No buts," Camila insisted. "You were just standing up for someone you love and I'm glad my daughter found someone who cares about her so much. Now, actually going to the graveyard was not a very smart decision but the fault lies mostly with the children who instigated the incident."

"If you say so," Amity agreed unsurely.

"And you," Camila said while turning to Eda. The Owl Lady became visibly nervous. "You must be Eda, Luz's mentor?"

"Yes, that's me, Eda," the pale witch said. "You must be Luz's mother, Camila." Eda was visibly sweating as she offered a hand to shake. "You've raised a great kid."

"Thank you," Camila replied, "and thank you for taking care of Luz these past few months. She's really flourished."

"Yeah, she does that," Eda admitted. "Cannot keep that kid down. Speaking of which, we've got a kid to find."

"We know where she is," Vee added.

"You do!?" Amity exclaimed. "How?"

"She um... Still has the Titan Blood," Vee admitted. "I smelled it when we were walking past the town square. It's coming from the Historical Society."

"We tried to get your attention but you were like, really out of it," Masha continued. "Anyway, the new curator was outside putting up a 'closed for emergency' sign on the door. We debated just going for it but decided that you know, having a responsible adult on hand might make things go more smoothly."

"Yes," Camila confimred. "What we are going to do is drive to the historical society, talk to the man in charge, and if the hijo de puta has hurt Luz I will beat him within an inch of his life. The important thing is to remain calm."

"Titn Blood?" Eda asked. "Boots, you mentioned the basilisk, hi by the way," Eda greeted Vee, "but not the Titan Blood? How did Titan Blood even get here?"

"No clue."

"You leave anything else out?"

"Nothing important."

Amity wasn't sure what she'd expected the inside of the van to be like, but it was... Nice. She tried to keep her breathing even. Luz would be okay. Luz was a fighter. Luz was the strongest person she knew in more ways than one. She'd be fine and they could all laugh about this later.

"You know," Eda observed from the front passenger seat of the vehicle, 'the last time I was in a car I drove it off a cliff."

"...Okay then," Was Camila's awkward response.

Arriving back in the town center by van was much faster than by walking. By now it was starting to get dark and overcast and Amity began to panic as drops of water started to splash against the windows. She knew how to ast a personal shield spell, but not one big enough for all of them and—

Vee put a hand on her shoulder. "Amity?" She asked calmly. "It's fine. Rain in the human realm is just cold water. I panicked the first time too, but it's perfectly safe."

"...Is the rain in the demon realm dangerous?" Camila asked.

"Only if you get caught in it," Eda quipped. "It's ordinary water, but it's boiling hot. There are spells to protect you and those are usually the first ones a kid is taught but the general advice is to stay inside."

"Well that explains a lot," Masha noted.

"Okay then," Camila said awkwardly. "But... The rest of the weather is safe, right?"

"...Yes," Eda replied unconvincingly.

"The boiling isles are usually warm and sunny," Amity said, forcing herself to speak rather than dwell on worst-case scenarios. "The boiling rain comes in more or less regular intervals with plenty of warning, sudden storms are rare and rarely last more than a few hours."

"Well, we're here," Camila declared. "Everyone, remember to stick to the plan. Stay calm, and wait until Luz is safe before employing any necessary violence.

Stepping out of the vehicle, Amity shivered at the unfamiliar sensation of drops of cool water splashing against her hair.

As the group braced themselves and prepared to enter the building, they were interrupted by a gravelly voice.

"Marilyn!?"

Turning, Amity noticed that the two older men they'd met earlier were exiting a vehicle also parked at the historical society. They must have pulled in just after them.

Eda stepped forward. "Oh hey... You," she greeted awkwardly. "You old... So and so. Why, it's been so long, uh...."

"You don't remember me, do you?" The man said in a tone that indicated disappointment but also resignation.

"I do not," Eda admitted.

"It's Stan, from Vegas," Stan replied.

Amity could see the gears turning in Eda's brain... "This isn't Oregon! ...I think. Oregon and Connecticut are two different places, right?"

"Ah, Classic Marylin," Stan observed wistfully as his brother, Ford, came up behind him. "So how have you been?"

"Look, Stanton—"

"Stanley"

"Stanley," Eda continued. "I'm gonna be honest, you were just a mark. And I'm busy. I've gotta rescue my kid."

"Your kid?" Camila asked.

"Her kid," Eda corrected with a gesture to Luz's mother. "Gotta rescue her kid."

The two older gentlemen looked over their group and something clicked.

"What happened to that sweet girl?"

"Jerks, bullies, fight, kidnapped, brought here," Amity rushed through the explanation.

"...The curator of this establishment called us, saying that he had collected more proof of demonic activity in the area," Ford declared. "Living proof, and eyewitnesses."

Stan sighed and reached into the coat of his suit, pulling out bands of a brassy metal that he then slid over his knuckles. "Looks like we're doing this. Why is it every conspiracy theorist we run into is the dangerous kind instead of the fun kind?"

"At least he's just obsessed with teeth," Ford replied. "The last one tried to harvest our organs. If you would let us take the lead?" He asked of the group, "he's expecting us."

Ford took point, trying the door and finding it unlocked despite the "closed" sign. He and his brother went in, and the rest of the group followed.

The bespectacled man at the front desk looked up as they entered. "Oh, good. You're here," he greeted excitedly... Then he noticed the rest of the group and suddenly turned hostile. "You're with them!"

Amity raised her hand and prepared to cast her fire-conjuring spell until Ford pulled something from his hip and pointed it at the other man. Amity didn't recognize the device, some kind of tube or cylinder with a handle, but based on the way the curator immediately threw up his hands in surrender Amity concluded that it was some type of dangerous human weapon.

"Where's the girl, Hopkins?" Ford asked.

"Through here," the man, Hopkins said while nodding to a door behind his desk. Very slowly he backed up to it and reached for the handle with one without looking away from Ford.

The door creaked open slowly and from inside a voice called out "Uncle Jacob?" Amity's bile boiled, it was that Scott jerk. Were the other two jerks there, too?

As it turned out, they were. The look on the trio's faces as the group marched into what Amity assumed was a repurposed office was priceless. Hopkins, or Jacob, was made to enter second to last at the end of Ford's human weapon.

"Oh, hey, the calvary is here," Luz said from inside the—they had her in a Titan-taken cage! They needed to grab Luz and get her out of there soon or Amity really would commit murder. Luz's symbiote side was manifested and two tentacles, wire-thin, budded from her outstretched hand to reach through the bars and pick the lock, which popped open a moment later and Luz crawled out and stretched.

"Could you have done that at any time!?" the blonde girl, Clara shrieked though thankfully not with her power-enhanced voice.

"I mean, not at any time," Luz defended. "If I'd done it without help nearby you probably would have just attacked me so I had to bide my time."

The three jerks blinked. "And... You figured that out all on your own?"

"Yeah, I'm surprised too," Luz admitted. "It's a good thing I had some coffee today. Though honestly, I figured that Mr. Stan and Mr. Ford would get here alone, see that Jacob here was a whackjob, and go get help or call the police or something."

"Got here at the same time as your friends and family," Stan said. "By the way... How do you know Marilyn?"

"I'm her witch's apprentice—slash—daughter-she-never-had," Luz admitted with a big grin. Amity could feel a great deal of nervousness from Eda all of a sudden.

"Luz?" Camila asked, "When did you learn how to pick locks?"

"I plead the fifth," Luz said, whatever that meant. Eda suddenly started whistling nonchalantly, causing Camila to give her some side-eye.

"Anyway, this Jacob guy's behind those traps in the woods and he's got a bunch of illegal cameras all over the place," Luz explained, "he was gonna dissect 'the demons' which um... Legally murder, by the way. Genetic Diversity Protection Act and all, and when I started singing to buy time he tazed me two and a half songs into the score of Pirates."

Very calmly, Camila reached into her purse and withdrew some kind of human realm sandal or slipper. Then, like lightning, she began to beat the tar out of Jacob with it.

"Yeah, he deserves that. We should probably call the police," Luz observed. "And you three should probably get out of here," Luz said while turning back to the three jerks.

"Why?" Scott asked petulantly. Meanwhile, Amity sensed two people approaching the building. She would have said something when she realized they were coming in but after this harrowing afternoon, she found words were failing her.

Luz deeply inhaled and exhaled through her nose. "You started harassing me when I was out with friends all minding our own business. You picked a fight with us. You could have killed me and Amity when she decided to style on you instead of choosing violence, could have killed us again when we tried to just leave instead of engaging with you, kidnapped me, and handed me off to some crazed loon. I do not think it's fair to ruin your lives over a series of stupid choices, since nobody seems to be badly hurt," Luz finished, "but do you have any idea how much trouble you could be in?"

"Ain't no 'could be' to it," came a gruff voice from the doorway into the room. All three of the jerks froze in fear as everyone else turned.

Standing at the doorway were two people. One, a broad-shouldered but very short gunman man with lightly tanned skin and wild dark hair that stood up to two points dressed in jeans, a t-shirt, and a leather jacket stood next to a tall, fair-skinned woman with long purple hair dressed in a suit and holding some kind of helmet.

"They are in a lot of trouble," the man concluded.

Chapter Text

After a moment of awkward silence, Amity realized that all the humans in the room knew who the newcomers were but she didn't.

"I'm sorry, what's going on? Who are they?" She asked.

"That," Masha began with a gesture to the short man with the crazy hair, "is James 'Logan' Howlett, AKA The Wolverine. Former Government operative, former member of Alpha Flight, field commander of X-force, retired, hand-to-hand and tracking expert of the X-Men, semi-retired, currently the Headmaster of the Jean Grey Institute for the Outreach and Education of the Genetically Divergent or Otherwise Specially Gifted."

"I'm also the history and art appreciation teacher and the staff advisor of the martial arts club," the short man acknowledged.

"Meanwhile the purple-haired woman is Elizabeth Braddock," Luz continued. "She's psychic, part fae, spent years semi-permanently body-swapped with a psychic ninja, and now she's taken over the role of Captain Britain, defender of Otherworld and the British Isles after her brother retired to spend more time with his wife and kid. Ms. Braddock um... You're my second favorite X-Person."

"...Who's the first?" The woman asked eyes narrowed in fake seriousness.

"Magik," Luz replied.

"Fair enough," Ms. Braddock replied. "Illyana's awesome."

"There's uh, there's a... Superhero just named 'Magic?'" Amity asked, a little confused.

"Magik with a 'k'" Luz corrected. "She's a bisexual icon who got stranded in a demon dimension as a teenager and emerged wielding powerful magic."

Amity blinked. "So your favorite is the one that's just like you?"

"That's a complete coincidence," Luz defended with total seriousness. "Also, I'm pretty sure she's not half space alien."

The man, Logan, suddenly sniffed the air and then turned Stan. "Long time no see, Bub."

"Yeah. Was about, what, twenty years ago?" The old man mused. "In Reno?"

A loud, sharp 'snikt' sounded out as three-foot-long blades practically erupted through the skin on Logan's knuckles, which made Amity shutter. He walked up slowly and held the tips of the blades just under Stan's chin. "Yeah. Reno. Where you left me holding the bag, Stanford."

Ford sighed. "Stanley, just how many felonies have you committed using my name?"

"...You know, now that I think about it," Stan replied as if there weren't three very sharp blades held just under his face, "as far as the government is concerned Marilyn is your ex-wife."

Ford palmed his face with his free hand.

Amity saw Jacob, no longer at the mercy of Camila's sandal nor Ford's human weapon, try to reach for some device he left on a counter... Only for a pinkish aura highly reminiscent of oracle magic to manifest over his head briefly before he passed out. Nobody seemed surprised that that had happened but it made Amity really uncomfortable and she felt her eyes drawn back to Ms. Braddock whose eyes had briefly flashed the same color.

The short man, Logan, retracted the blades back into his flesh which mended seamlessly behind the blades and Amity tried very carefully not to think about whether or not spilling his blood on Luz's symbiote goo would let her heal that fast.

"Okay," Logan said to the three jerks, "I'm gonna ask you one time: Is what that girl said true?"

All three of the jerks avoided eye contact but eventually, Clara broke. "Yes. All of it."

Logan hummed. "Alright. Now, I ain't one for letting kids go to jail just for being stupid, you don't learn anything in a cell, but can you give me one good reason why I shouldn't set a record and expel you three before the semester even starts?"

The three jerks looked panicked, but then Luz stepped forward.

"That's a little too harsh," she said. "Something like that on their records could stop them from getting into college or getting decent jobs. Nobody got seriously hurt, their lives shouldn't be ruined just because they made... A lot of bad choices this afternoon."

Logan grunted. "Chuck would just love you, kid." Amity didn't know who this 'Chuck' was, but the comment made Luz beam. "Now, you're the one who got kidnapped... Are you sure no one got hurt?"

"They knocked Amity into the flooded graveyard in old Gravesfield," Masha interjected. "She could have drowned if Vee hadn't rescued her."

Luz immediately stopped smiling and sent a glare at the three jerks, who all immediately seemed to come down with a case of chilled bones.

"So, the kidnapping victim is arguing leniency, how about the near-drowning victim?"

Amity swallowed. "I'm alright, and... Just a few months ago I wasn't much better than they are now." It hurt to admit that. "Honestly, I was probably worse. I got a chance to be better, so if Luz thinks they should get a second chance, then I trust her judgment."

'Fair enough," Logan said and then turned back to the jerks. "I hope you three appreciate just how lucky you are, that the people you hurt are the merciful type. Plenty of people I know would have let you get thrown to the wolves. Still, you aren't getting off without consequences. I'll be talking to the scheduling department, all three of you are getting enrolled in Professor Parker's ethics course and there'll be hell to pay if you don't pass. I also expect each of you in Betsy's office for counseling at least once a week until further notice. ¿Comprendes?"

The three jerks looked at each other for a moment before turning back. "Yeah, we comprendes"

"Comprendemos," Luz corrected.

"Huh?" Suzy asked.

"The first person plural of comprender is 'comprendemos,'" she lectured.

The three jerks did not respond.

"Now get out of here," the man finished gruffly.

"Um, what about Uncle Jacob?" Scott asked

"He's a grown man who should have known better," Logan replied. "We've got false imprisonment, illegal surveillance, and probably trespassing based on what's in this room alone," he produced a blade again, this time just the one from the middle of his hand, and tapped it against the cage. "And I'll bet dollars to donuts he doesn't have a permit to be working with carbonadium. I'll be turning him over to the police when we're done here. Now get."

The three jerks then left, with Scott hesitating to just long enough to look back at his uncle one last time.

A thought occurred to Amity, "do you actually have the legal authority to let them just walk off? Won't the authorities just charge them anyway?"

"The law is different when powers are involved," Masha observed, "like, the rule of law is based on the idea that the legitimate authority has a monopoly on force and well... They don't anymore. Attempts to regulate powers don't work so hot, so..."

"So after some trial and error, Uncle Sam's elected to take a hands-off approach." Logan finished, "We aren't above the law by any means, but we're mostly allowed to police ourselves and when powers are involved the rules are pretty murky. If I tell the cops that some of the kids from my school were involved but that I was handling it, they'll let me handle it."

"Who's Uncle Sam?" Amity asked.

Suddenly, Luz was by her side with a hand on her shoulder. "I'll explain later."

Amity responded to the presence of her girlfriend by taking Luz's hand. After everything, the contact, the proof that Luz was okay was reassuring.

"Now, one last thing," Logan began, "Since it was a group of students at my school behind the kidnapping. We do bear some responsibility. Even if the brats haven't actually started there yet, we could have headed some of this off if we'd caught the signs that they might do something like this in the interview process. So..." He looked at Luz thoughtfully. "There's still time before the semester starts and plenty of open seats. What to enroll? You wouldn't be the first half-alien kid. Not even the first half-symbiote."

Amity's blood froze, but Luz's response was immediate: "No thank you, I'm happy where I am."

"Fair enough," Logan replied, "but still, if there's anything—"

"Actually," Camila interrupted. "Luz spent her summer in another dimension and was enrolled in a school while she was there. She seems to be doing much better there and I know that there's a precedent for going to school in other dimensions, and Vee here," Camila placed a hand on the shoulder of the disguised basilisk, "is from that same dimension. It's not safe for her there and I was hoping to take her in..."

"Say no more, we deal with this kind of situation all the time," Logan replied. He pulled a card from his pocket and handed it to Camila, "we can hash out something basic in a minute but you can use this to get in touch with some people who can help with that later. Anything else?"

"You wouldn't happen to know anything about removing magic brands and tattoos, would you?" Luz asked.

This prompted a brief discussion wherein Luz explained everything she knew about the Coven sigils, including that one had been forced on her, and retracted her symbiote side and took off her bandages to show her sigil. Vee had flinched on seeing it, the poor thing. Unfortunately, the response had been that the only way Logan knew of how to deal with that kind of thing was to flay off the section of skin it had been applied to. He jokingly offered to do it now and flush the wound with some of his blood to grow her skin back afterward but Luz had quickly expressed the desire to save that as a last result. That had been met with a response about asking around.

"Alright, now that that's taken care of," Logan said as he stepped back, "we can get to what we actually came here for."

"I was going to ask about that," Ford began, "no one called you here, correct?"

"No. We're here because Cerebro picked up a new mutant in Gravesfield," Logan responded. "Their signature is relatively weak, so they can't have had their powers for more than a few months... But they just popped up fully formed a few hours ago. It's curious."

...Luz was giving Amity the side-eye, but Amity wasn't sure why.

"On the trip here," Ms. Braddock added and it chilled Amity to realize that she spoke with an accent reminiscent of the Emperor's, "I was able to use the portable Cerebro unit both to pinpoint the young mutant's location, which ultimately lead us here as we arrived, but also identify their characteristics as a beta-class mutant with an gamma level psionic gift, likely something passive."

"Like an empath?" Luz asked, making Amity snap to look at her. "Someone who can sense emotions but not much else?"

"Yes, that would do it," Ms. Braddock agreed. She then placed the helmet she was holding over her head. "It'll only take a second to verify."

"Luz, what are you doing?" Amity asked. Why was Luz bringing up her abnormal talent? She didn't want people to know about that.

"Amity, they're going to know," Luz replied. "I'm sorry, I know you didn't want anyone to know, but..."

"What are you talking about?" Amity asked, "They're not going to..."

"Actually," Ms. Braddock interrupted, "According to Cerebro you are the new mutant we're looking for, Amity was it?"

Amity Blinked. "That is literally impossible."

"Oh?" Ms. Braddock asked.

"I'm not from this dimension," Amity clarified. "I'm not even human, I'm... This must be some kind of false positive, it's confusing my magic for whatever it is that it detects."

Logan sniffed the air. "You smell human." Well, that was creepy.

"I mean, there is that theory about where witches came from," Luz mentioned. "The ones about ancient humans breeding with biped demons?"

"Luz, that's insane," Amity countered. "Do you seriously expect me to believe that two species with completely different evolutionary histories, who aren't even from the same plane of reality, can interbreed and create viable hybrids? Really?"

"Oh, humans can breed with anything," Masha chimed in.

Amity blinked again. "What?" she asked flatly.

"Okay, not literally anything," They clarified, "but if it's sapient and carbon-based a human can make a baby with it... At least genetically speaking, sometimes you need magic or super science to handle the mechanical part. It's got something to do with these guys called the Celestials who tinkered around with early human biology like, a million years ago. For some reason, they like it when their experiments can crossbreed with each other and they're very thorough about that bit."

"...Okay, can we come back to that later when there isn't something crazy in my ear?" Amity asked politely, trying very hard to focus on how crazy the alien science experiment bit sounded instead of on how Masha was essentially saying that she and Luz could have a child together when they grew up if they really wanted to.

"And Boots?" Eda added, "These guys have been around for a long time and I've been popping up around here for decades. If it was just your magic getting picked up they would have noticed me. And you know... Witches are closer to humans than we are to biped demons. The only real difference between humans and witches are the ears, the fangs, the bile sack, some digestive stuff, and the one undersized lung."

"Oh," Luz said in sudden realization, "that's why everyone at Hexside is impressed with how long I can run for."

"Even if... The Emperor's Coven went to extremes to debunk that theory and why would the Emperor lie about.... Because he's the Emperor," Amity realized bitterly. Everything he said and did was a lie. "Look, even if witches are descended from humans, that doesn't mean I'm a... I am, an 'empath'—please nobody in this room tells anyone if my mom finds out she'll make me switch tracks—but... That's just an abnormal talent. It's just my magic being a little goofy. It's..."

"Amity, I don't think it is," Luz said. "When you explained about Abnormal talents, you said that they weren't sealed by coven sigils. And there was the whole thing with those nose bleeds. You say they're very common with oracle talents, and, well... Nose bleeds are common with mutant powers activating and it almost always happens with psychics."

"That's not proof," Amity denied. "It's... There's gotta be other signs."

"There's one more," Logan added. "Beta-class mutants usually have tells. A body part that's a weird color, animal ears, an odd internal organ. Something about their body that doesn't really match with the blueprint, so to speak, though not really anything big. You got anything like that?"

...It couldn't be her... The purring was just a throwback trait, a sign of demon ancestry... That neither of her parents nor Ed and Em shared with her. Nor any other relatives that she knew of.

Amity swallowed. This was too much, after everything else that happened today it was just too much. "Can we table this? I, it's been a very long day and I do not need to add the existential crisis of questioning my species on top of it right now."

"Of course," Logan replied, "We ain't here to pressure you into anything, and this wasn't exactly an ideal circumstance it's just... Most kids who turn up as mutants without expecting it... It's a little scary. Look, I got a card and a pamphlet, just look 'em over when you feel up to it."

Amity pocketed what he'd given her and then just stood there, unsure of what else to do. After a moment, she realized she was tugging at the hem of her dress.

"Um... Mister Wolverine sir," Luz began, "you said you were going to talk to Mami for a bit about schooling and helping Vee... Do I need to be there for that? Because..." Luz seemed to be trying to say something without saying anything.

"Nah," Logan replied. "It's gonna take a bit too, so if anyone wants to stretch their legs now's a good time."

Luz wasted no time taking Amity by the hand and calmly leading her out of the, admittedly rather cramped, office and, seeing the rain pouring down outside, led Amity passed a frankly disturbing number of exhibits about how innocent people had been murdered before stopping in a small room devoted to colonial architecture.

"I'm sorry about that," Luz began nervously and... That was guilt. What did Luz have to be guilty about? "I'm sort of suspected that you were uh, you know, ever since you told me about abnormal talents and I figured if the X-Men were here for you then there wasn't really any covering it up. I didn't really think that outing you like that was a bad idea until I saw you stimming and then... I'm sorry, I didn't think."

Oh. Amity hadn't even been... "No, that was... It's not like you outright told anyone about my talent, you just... Alluded to it and said that keeping it covered up wasn't gonna... You still let me be the one who actually... I'm not upset about that, It's just... This is a lot."

"Yeah, I guess having the all dumped on you all at once was a bit much," Luz agreed. "But you know this doesn't change anything about you, right? You're still the same precious sweet potato you've always been."

"I'm not worried about that," Amity denied. "It's... honestly world view shattering, but I'll get used to it. It's just uh, on top of everything else today it's too much... After..." Amity couldn't hold it in anymore. She sniffed and had to wipe tears from her eyes. "After finding out how dangerous the human realm is and, after almost losing you, I..."

"Wait wait wait," Luz said gently. "You didn't almost lose me. I could have picked the lock at any time and honestly, I get the feeling that the jerks were second-guessing the whole 'kidnapping' thing. I don't think they wanted to hurt me, I think Clara lost her temper and then they panicked. I'm more worried about you, Masha said you almost drowned?"

"I can't swim," Amity admitted. "Wilow and I had lessons together but we'd always skip out on them to hang out instead and... I'm fine. Vee rescued me." Amity belatedly realized she hadn't thanked the basilisk.

"You sure?" Luz asked, eyes wide and sparkling with concern.

"I'm sure," Amity insisted. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah. I had one heck of a headache when I first woke up but I'm fine now," Luz insisted back. "Now what's this about the human realm being dangerous?"

Amity couldn't help but stare blankly at Luz for a moment. "...Remember earlier when you were told of an alien invasion and... weren't surprised? You just asked which one? Or when you and Masha were telling me about the many, many people who could destroy the planet on a whim? Or the time that half the universe died and then miraculously came back? And how often stuff like that happens?"

Luz blinked. "Oh, yeah, um... Dumping all that on you at once probably wasn't a good idea. Especially right after spooking you with the witch hunter stuff." Luz laughed nervously. "Probably made the human realm sound a lot scarier than it is. I'm sorry if you're scared, I—"

Yes, I'm scared!" Amity couldn't help but shout. She winced as Luz flinched. "I'm more scared than I've ever been. I... Luz, you're the best thing in my life. And I... I can't protect you. I can't protect you from whatever the heck a 'Thanos' is, I can't protect you from hundred-foot-tall giants that eat planets, I can't protect you from the Emperor, I can't even protect you from jerkish ex-crushes. I tried and all it did was get you kidnapped and I can't lose you again."

"Wait wait wait," Luz replied. "1: You did not get me kidnapped. You stood up for me and helped me stand up for myself. That's good girlfriend behavior, right there, you didn't do anything wrong."

"But—"

"And 2: you didn't lose me. I'm here. I'm fine."

"I thought I did," Amity admitted.

"Huh?"

"Af, after... At the protest, Gus used an illusion of a human realm legend you told him about, some sort of elderly god-slayer, to distract the guards so we could set up." Luz snorted with laughter. "But he didn't tell us that he did it until later, so when the guards came back and said that they'd dealt with the 'insane human' they'd done something to you and... I thought I was okay, seeing you okay, but..." Amity started breathing heavily. "But I don't think I am."

Luz responded by pulling Amity into a tight, comforting hug and rubbing Amity's back. "I wish you'd told me sooner. I'm sorry and... I'm not going anywhere, you know that right?"

Amity leaned into the hug. She was feeling a little better, but..." I know, but I can't help but think about, about... I was so... I had to... I kept thinking about ways to make you stronger earlier. It was either that or panic. I even came up with something that would make you the most powerful witch in the boiling isles, a veritable goddess, and then you'd be safe, but..."

"You sure? Kinda sounds like cheating to me," Luz teased.

"Your safety is more important than my integrity!" Amity shouted.

Instead of flinching this time, Luz just held Amity tighter. "Okay. Here's what we'll do. We'll talk over this plan of yours, maybe loop in some other people to make sure it's sound, and then we can try it. Maybe not the whole thing, I want to be a great witch the right way, but a little bit won't hurt if it'll give you some peace of mind. Okay, Sweet Potato?"

Amity sniffed. "Okay."

"Now, since when is it your responsibility to protect me?" Luz asked.

"Since, since that day at my place," Amity began, "when my mom tried to scare you off we promised to protect each other and..."

"Yeah," Luz acknowledged, "each other. That means we work together to keep both of us safe. You don't have to do this on your own if you're concerned just talk to me and if you're scared don't try to hide it. Alright?"

Amity couldn't speak at the moment, so she just nodded.

They stood there together, for a moment, before Luz continued, awkwardly, "Amity... I hate to ask you this but I need to know... Do you... Still, seriously think you're not good enough for me? That you need to earn my love?"

Amity felt the heat rise in her face. "I... I've spent my whole life working hard to be the best and never feeling like it was enough. If I did well my reward was just... It's like I had to justify my existence. I know you're not like that. I know you love me regardless, I know you won't..." Amity couldn't make herself say it. "But, it's a little hard to get out of that mindset."

Luz started carding her fingers through Amity's hair. "Yeah, I get that. It was hard to get out of the mindset of being, well, a loser. And as soon as I came back here it was like all of my progress was gone. But you helped me get past that and now I'm gonna help you."

Luz released the hug and stood up on her toes to plant a kiss on Amity's forehead. "Te amo, mi hermosa."

Amity smiled at Luz and met her pretty almond-colored eyes. "Te amo, mi batata."

Chapter Text

After taking a few moments to hug it out, calm down, and breathe after... Well, everything, Amity, and Luz slowly walked back up to the front of the historical society.

"You know it's funny," Luz said, "the thing I was worried about ended up being the best part of today."

...Wow. It'd only been a few hours since they stepped through the portal door into the human realm, and yet from where Amity was sitting it felt like weeks.

Arriving at the front, the first thing they noticed was Stan and Eda standing together, looking at Eda's scroll and Stan's phone.

"So here's Mable. She just graduated from Julliard..." Stan slid a finger across his screen. "Here's Dipper at his wedding. When I agreed to take in the pipsqueaks for the summer, I never expected that he'd end up with the Northwest girl. Or that he'd ask his crusty old Grunkle Stan to be the best man when they got married."

"Are you crying?" Eda asked incredulously.

"No!" Stan denied quickly.

"Whatever. Here's my little gremlin the time he got stuck in the sleeve of one of my old sweaters," Eda gestured to her scroll.

"Oh, that's just precious... I'm assuming he's adopted?" Stan asked.

"Ehe..." Eda waved a hand noncommittally. "I'm gonna be honest with you, I thought he was a dog for the first week I had him. Oh, here's Luz getting in over her head at an eating contest..."

"Huh," Luz commented. "Old people showing off photos of the young people they care about. Must be a universal constant."

"I heard that!" Eda exclaimed in mock outrage,

Amity couldn't help but giggle. Then she noticed Masha and Vee off to the side, Masha filling out some kind of form. Seeing that Luz was occupied with friendly bickering with the Owl Lady, Amity walked over.

"What have you got there?" She asked.

"Job application," Masha replied. "They're hiring and, well, a position just opened up. Don't think I'll actually get it, but no harm in trying, right? Most places these days have you apply online but the historical society is kind of old school."

"Is this something you... Want to do?" Amity asked. "Work at a place like this?"

"I mean, define want? I'm interested in history but this place is kinda... Eh," They admitted. "But I could use the extra cash, could do with getting out of the house, and it'll look good on a college application. I do want to be a historian when I grow up. Expose the dark, morbid secrets of our forgotten past and reveal to the public that which has been covered up by those who prioritize their agendas over the truth."

"That's a thing that happens?" Amity asked. Then she smacked herself on the forehead. "Of course, that's a thing that happens." Amity was starting to realize that a lot of what the Emperor did and was doing were known problems in the human realm.

"Yeah," Masha acknowledged. "There's a famous painting of Sappho of Lesbos, who is—"

"Luz told me about her," Amity interrupted. Then she smiled. "She even recited me some of her poetry."

"Ahh, that's sweet," Masha beamed. "Anyway, there's this well-known painting of her in the throws of passion with another woman... And it's been referred to, repeatedly, as 'Sappho and her friend.' At some point, people like... Well, us. People who love the same gender, or both genders, who don't identify with the gender that matches the bits they were born with, were decided to be 'wrong' and 'bad' by a decent chunk of the world despite stuff like this occurring in nature and historical evidence of it being a thing tends to get covered up so people can point at us and say we're something new and freakish." Masha seemed indignant. "Didn't really work with Sappho, but... There was a Roman Emperor, Elagabalus, who is mostly remembered as 'the boy who invented the whoopee cushion and got killed by his own guards at eighteen for stirring up controversy' but records from Elagabalus's time refer to her as a woman, state she identified as such, and make a record of her scouring the Roman empire for a physician who could give her a female body but you're not gonna find much evidence of that unless you actively go looking for it and I have a problem with that."

"I want to dig up the truth and expose it raw for all the world to see. Every dirty little secret. Every uncomfortable fact. Especially the stuff that would really help a lot of people for it to be more well known," Masha finished passionately.

Vee looked at Masha with sparkling eyes and a blush on her face and it suddenly clicked for Amity why Vee kept giving her deja vu. She tried to focus on whether or not she should try and help the basilisk avoid the sort of pain and confusion she went through or not but... She didn't know about the situation to judge, and her mind kept turning back to what Masa had said.

"Masha, I'm going to be honest," she began, "I'm very nervous about Luz staying here, after everything that's happened, and... What I've learned about the human realm. Things like that are... Aren't helping."

"Ah, shoot," Masha admitted. "Probably making Earth sound a lot more dangerous than it is, aren't I? Look, for all the bad stuff in the past it's a lot better now and heroes like the Avengers and the X-Men always stop the super crazy stuff before it's too late. For all my grousing, the world is all kinds of awesome and even though humanity is bad at being nice to each other, most people are fundamentally good."

"Huh," came the gruff voice of the man named Logan, "Chuck would love you, too."

It seemed that Camila's conversation with the two mutants had concluded and not long after the group went their separate ways: Camila, Eda, and the kids into Camila's van, Stan and Ford to canvas part of the forest they'd been planning to stake out before Jaccob had called them, and the mutants to call the local police to deal with said lunatic.

The rain had cleared up by the time they were finished, and Luz had been disappointed to realize that she'd missed "cold, human rain that won't kill me if I stand out in it" but a quick hug had brightened her spirits back up.

Amity kept close to Luz the whole drive home, at least in so far as the "seat belt" protective devices would let her, and made sure their arms were intertwined.

"So, Luz," Eda asked from the front seat, "can't go one afternoon without getting into trouble, can you?"

Luz laughed awkwardly. "Yeah, uh... You know, it's pretty surreal to see you of all people riding in a car."

"I know what a car is, Luz. I told you the day we met, I've been coming here for thirty years," Eda replied.

"Eda, you sold stick deodorant as candy and one claimed that fishnet stockings were proof that humans shed their skin,"  Luz quipped back.

"Luz, there's a reason why I tell you to double-check with me before buying any demon realm candy," Eda deadpanned while looking back.

Luz was confused for a moment and then took on the most disgusted expression Amity had ever seen on her face. A moment later, Eda started laughing.

Luz responded by reaching up and batting at the Owl Lady's head. "Jerk."

"Admit it, I got you," the wild which quipped back.

"Yeah, yeah..." Luz admitted. "It's a bit weird seeing you and my Mom just sitting next to each other, too."

"Really?" Camila asked. "Most kids would think it's normal to see their parents sitting together."

Luz made a choking noise and started stuttering for a moment before. "Uh, uh, I did let that slip, didn't I... Uh, Mom, I..."

"It's fine Mija," Camila reassured. "I mean, I would have been upset if you had just sprung that on me when you first got back but... I know you're not trying to replace me. Anyone with eyes can see that Eda cares for you very much, and I know for a fact that you have enough love in your heart for two mothers."

"Oh thank Titan," Luz muttered in obvious relief.

"Speaking of the Titan," Eda noted, "I hear you got your hands on some Titan Blood?"

"Yeah, we found it in the old graveyard," Luz mentioned. "I think that whoever had your portal before you hid it here for some reason. It makes the ambient magic in the area more like what's on the Boiling Isles and lets the glyphs work."

"They don't work with the human realm without it?" Eda asked.

"No," Luz admitted sadly.

"Uh... Camila," Eda asked turning back to the driver. "Do you have a safe?"

"Yes."

"If Luz doesn't have the Titan blood on her, it goes in the safe. That stuff is the rarest and most valuable substance in the demon realm," Eda lectured, "if she loses it, it can't be easily replaced."

Amity was tempted to bring up her plan but decided against it. She needed to talk it over with Luz first, and then run it by whoever it was Luz wanted to loop in, and the Titan Blood would be perfectly safe in the human realm until then.

Finally, they got to the Noceda residence and piled out of the car. "Eda, would you care to stay for dinner?" Camila asked.

"Nah, I got another gremlin back home I need to feed," Eda dismissed, "and my sister's probably wondering where I disappeared to. The kids are safe, I'll get out of your hair."

"Um, Eda," Luz interrupted. "I um... Forgot my bag back at the Owl House. Do you think you could grab it for me and bring it to the portal in a little bit?"

"Actually, I was going to ask," Camila interrupted, "but... Is tonight a school night?"

"Yeah," Luz admitted.

"Then I wouldn't want you to be late in the morning," Camila replied. "If Eda's willing to—"

"The Owl House is Luz's home, too, she doesn't need my permission to live there," Eda replied back maybe a little too quickly.

"Well, that's settled then. I'll send her back over after dinner," Camila finished.

Amity didn't need her empath abilities to feel the joy radiating from Luz at that moment.

Eda tussled Luz's hair. "Alright, I'll make sure King and Lilly know she's coming back. Luz, make sure you're prepared, King's probably gonna get clingy."

"Will do," Luz replied cheerfully.

Eda then went down along the path to the old shack where the portal let out, while the rest of them went inside.

Camila said that it would take her a little bit to finish dinner so the teens went up to Luz's room to help Vee settle in and make some room for her.

"So, Vee? You want top or bottom bunk?" Luz asked.

"Um, at camp I sort of got used to the top bunk but," Vee said hesitantly while looking at the stuffed animals on the bottom bunk. "I, I don't want to take your bed away from you."

"It's fine," Luz dismissed, "I switch which one I sleep on all the time. Besides, I'll be in the demon realm at least a little bit longer so it won't matter right away so if you want the top bunk you can have the top bunk."

Hesitantly, Vee climbed the ladder and sat on the bed. She bounced slightly and then shifted back into her true form. Once it seemed certain that the structure could support her weight she slithered down.

Masha looked at Vee with intent. "Can I hug you?" They asked.

"Huh?"

"You have a very huggable look to you," Masha clarified. "Like, you could probably make giant stuffed animals in your likeness and sell them for like, two or three hundred a pop and turn a profit that's how huggable you look. I would like to hug you."

"Oh, okay," Vee said awkwardly and was suddenly enveloped in Masha's arms.

"You're very warm," Masha said after a moment. "And your scales are so soft."

Masha's statements seemed to trigger a reaction in Vee, whose face became almost as tomato-like as Amity's sometimes got. The teen did not seem to notice.

"Was I that oblivious?" Luz whispered to her. "I feel like I should apologize for not noticing sooner and—"

"It's fine," Amity whispered back. "It was my nerves that were the problem. I should have worked up the courage to say something sooner."

"Should we—"

"Would you like to go out with me!?" Vee exclaimed-slash-asked suddenly.

Masha paused for a moment and then replied "Okay."

Amity blinked for a moment as it occurred to her that her situation with Luz was not as similar to Vee's with Masha as she had thought.

"Well," Luz declared. "That happened."

After that, while Amity admired Luz's Azura posters and figurings (and made note of how accurate her griffin mockup was considering it was made months before she saw a real griffin) Luz claimed to have noticed that there was a layer of dust on a lot of her possessions.

"Yeah, I'm lucky to have a Mom who respects my boundaries like this, but it does come with a trade-off," she admitted with an awkward grin. "I'll be right back."

"Uh, Amity?" Vee asked. "Can I ask you something?"

"Yeah."

"Luz said that she beat up the 'evil emperor of a magic dimension' earlier, um..." Vee began. "Is that....?"

"Eda got arrested and sentenced to petrification. There was a protest, Luz snuck into the conformatorium to rescue her, and well... To save face the Emperor had to spin a tale about how the Titan commanded him to pardon Eda and declared that Luz had been blessed by the Titan." Amity smiled. "There have been a lot more scouts and guards around Bonesborrogh since then, but at the same time, they seem reluctant to actually do anything."

"Luz is amazing," Vee said.

"Yeah," Amity replied with a smile, "she is."

Luz returned after that with a duster and started cleaning things off, awkwardly apologizing for the state of her room once again. This lasted all of a minute before Camila called them down for dinner.

Said dinner was... Well, Amity had no idea what it was but it was delicious.

"Is this okay?" Camila asked. "Amity? Vee? I had to improvise a little to make sure it was safe on such short notice."

"It's perfect, Mrs. Noceda," Amity replied. "I'd ask for the recipe but I doubt I'd be able to make it at home."

"I don't really have the same um, digestion issues that witches have," Vee admitted awkwardly. "Basilisks are basically nature's garbage disposals. Anything can have magic in it and sometimes it's more efficient to chew it up and swallow it than it is to suck the magic out. We can stomach basically anything."

Amity was briefly reminded that she was sitting down to dinner with an apex predator that evolved to hunt her kind but thankfully resisted the urge to shudder.

"The only weird thing about Vee when it comes to food is she put the milk in the bowl before the cereal back at camp," Masha quipped.

"Regular milk?" Luz asked.

"What they had at the camp," Vee confirmed. "Is there more than one kind?"

"Oh yeah," Luz replied. "Mom and I are both lactose intolerant so we can't have regular cow milk... Or most of the milk on the Isles," Luz mentioned as an asside. "And it's pretty severe, too. The 'will have upset stomach, nausea, and probably vomiting' within ten to twenty minutes kind, not the kind where it'll stay down but it's gonna be a problem for you later that night. We normally have soy milk. Sometimes we get almond milk which isn't so good to drink straight but is great on cereal, and cheese we pretty much have to go with whatever vegan options we can get."

"If you like regular milk," Camila added, "I can get you some."

Vee looked away. "Oh, it's fine. I don't want to be a burden."

"Vee, this is going to be your home and you deserve to be comfortable in your own home," Camila insisted. "And buying a gallon of milk every so often is not much of a burden besides."

Things got quiet for a bit after that before Camila turned to Amity. "So, Amity, could you tell me about yourself? You mentioned cooking, do you cook at home?"

"Yeah, a little," Amity confirmed. "My uh... Let's just say my Mom and I disagree on the topic of food and it became easier for me to figure out how to do it myself... I do not know what she has against pizza bagels." Her Mom had just banned them out of hand as a hard rule when she finally conceded that Amity could otherwise eat what she wanted if she made it herself. The bagel she'd gotten after getting back from the knee was the first one she'd eaten in years.

"So the demon realm has pizza bagels," Camila acknowledged slowly.

"I asked the same thing," Luz added. "It's a little weird what they have in common with us and what they don't. Anyway, Amity's being too modest. She does more than a little, she's a great cook."

"I do what I can" Amity deflected.

"She baked me a little personal-sized apple pie, just because," Luz explained. "They don't bake apples into pies in the demon realm, she got a human cookbook, figured out what was human-safe that she could substitute for the ingredients they don't have there, and made a perfect pie all in one night," she continued. "Such an aptitude for baking," Luz continued, "is a sign of a skilled cook."

Amity felt the heat rise to her face. "I'm not that good."

"She's like that all the time," Luz continued, "if I call her cool she says she's not that cool, if I call her smart she says that smart. She's too modest. It's her only flaw."

"I'm far from perfect," Amity insisted. "I was so awful when we met."

"You weren't that bad," Luz defended.

"I tried to have you dissected!" Amity insisted. "I stomped on King's cupcake just to be petty. I was..."

"And you changed for the better," Luz insisted. "That means something. If you were really bad you would have stayed bad."

Amity didn't answer. Instead, she continued eating.

"She's an amazing dancer," Luz continued. "When we're together it's like we just know, you know. No need for words, no one leading, we just dance. And she's so glamorous and classy and sophisticated... She reads to the children at the library—"

"That reminds me, Braxas wants to know why his dad is afraid of you now."

Luz paused for a minute. "Warden Wrath's probably afraid of me because I beat him and a whole squad of coven guards up in less than a minute," Luz replied matter-of-factly.

Vee meanwhile choked on her beverage. "I'm okay," she muttered.

And she likes Azura as much as I do!" Luz finished cheerfully as if the topic hadn't been changed.

"Did you introduce the books to her?" Camila asked, clearly choosing to focus on this rather than Luz getting into fights from her tone.

"No," Luz denied. "They have it in the demon realm, too. We're still trying to figure out how."

Amity thought the answer was pretty obvious, but didn't voice it at this time. "Azura is... Honestly my current favorite. I used to identify with Azura herself... But now I feel like I'm more of a Hecate." A villain who changed sides after receiving undeserved kindness from a shining paragon and who is burdened by the guilt of her past actions.

"Yeah," Luz admitted, "I can see that. Hecate started out as Azura's rival but changed for the better all on their own and all it took for her to motivate herself to do it was a little bit of kindness and forgiveness," Luz started. "She quickly proves herself to be a valuable, trustworthy, and affectionate friend to Azura even though she's much too hard too herself because of her mistakes in the past, and I have literally written a thesis on how the narrative arc of Azura and Hecate realizing their feelings for each other and working out where they want to go from there is one of the best-written romance arcs, and overall healthiest romances in general, in all of fiction." Luz blinked a moment after she finished. "Sorry, kind of got off topic a little at the end."

"You're too good to me, Luz," Amity replied.

"Hey now, I'm just paying you back for earlier," Luz teased, "if I'm not allowed to dump on myself then you aren't allowed to put yourself down either."

"I'll do my best," Amity replied.

"Uhuhuh," Luz said playfully, "I won't be satisfied until my Cotton Candy-Haired Goddess gives me a smile."

Amity couldn't help but laugh and smile. "Alright, my Cuddly Little Otter."

This resulted in an exchange of pet names in both English and Spanish that quickly dissolved into total gibberish that was interrupted only when Camila, eyes sparkling, said "Manny, nuestra Lucecita encontró una alma gemela."

That seemed to mean something significant to Luz but Amity's Spanish wasn't quite good enough to make it out. "I'm sorry, I don't know what that means."

"It means marry my daughter," Camila replied and Amity felt her heart skip a beat.

"Oh, okay... Is that legal in the human realm at our age?" She asked. "I... It might be back home, but if it is we'd have to jump through a lot of hoops, and... Even then the only venues likely to officiate a ceremony between people our age would be in Las Pancreas and Luz deserves better than—"

"Amity, cariño, that was a joke," Camily interrupted. "Please calm down. What I really mean is that I approve of your relationship with Luz, unconditionally, and hope that it's long and happy. You very clearly care for each other a lot and you seem to be very good for each other"

"Oh," Amity said in awkwardly. "Yeah. Okay. Uh... That means a lot. Thank you." The heat in her face from her overreaction was nearly unbearable but they managed to get through the rest of dinner without too much awkwardness.

After dinner, Masha received a text confirming that their parents were home and left, though not before planting a kiss on Vee's cheek and making the demon blush exactly as red as Amity was sure her own face was.

Meanwhile, Luz went back to her room to finish dusting and also to grab a few things and Vee went with her and that left Amity in the incredibly awkward position of being alone with Camila.

"Do, do you need some help cleaning up?" Amity offered.

"No, it can wait a moment," Camila answered.

Tick, tock, tick, tock... Amity was kicking herself for taking that joke literally. After what felt like an eternity Luz came back with some sort of rectangle thing under her arm and Amity felt immediate relief.

"Hey, just wanted to make sure Vee was all settled in," she declared. She then gestured to the device she was carrying. "I'm gonna take my laptop."

"Before you go," Camila began, "I want to ask you something, and I want a truthful answer. Luz... Do you feel safer in the demon realm?"

Luz's face scrunched up. "Why?"

"Luz, you were home for less than three hours and got into a confrontation with bullies that got you kidnapped and locked in a cage by a lunatic," Camilla said as calmly as a loving parent could manage to say such things, which wasn't particularly calmly. "Is that... Is that normal here? You were talking earlier about how comfortable and accepted you felt there, but... Are you safer there?"

Luz took a deep breath. "Yeah," she finally admitted. "I think so."

Camila hugged Luz, and said "Okay." She held her daughter for a moment. "Stay there as long as you need to. Just... Promise me that you'll call. And come back when you can, if only just for a few hours. And I want to meet all of your new friends."

"I promise, Mami. Te quiero."

"Te quiero, Mija."

After that, Luz took Amity's hand and the two young witches returned to the demon realm. Eda greeted them at the portal, of course, and was happy to know how well everything had gone. Amity had ended up crashing at the Owl House that night. She was too emotionally exhausted to walk all the way home, so she messaged Ed and Em on Pensta to let them know where she was and that everything had gone well.

And it had gone well. Despite the awkwardness and the kidnapping, as Amity dressed in a pair of the animal-themed pajamas Luz had on hand and laid next to her girlfriend, the self-proclaimed King of Demons starfished on top of them, she was happy.

Chapter Text

"¡Hola Mamá!" Luz greeted as she filmed herself. "I thought it might be a good idea to show you where it is I've, you know, been all this time." She turned her phone so that the camera could get a decent panning shot of her room at the Owl House. "This is where I've been sleeping. I know it looks a bit small but it's nice and cozy."  Luz then turned the camera back on her but held her phone out from her to get a more full-body shot. "And this little outfit with the tunic and the cowl and the tights is my Hexside School Uniform. Normally the colors correspond to what tracks you're studying but since I'm studying everything I get a balanced multi-color look. I'll be heading out soon enough but first..."

Luz set her phone down and stood back, "it completely slipped my mind last night that I could use the Titan Blood to show you my spells. I could wait until I come home again but..." Luz drew a light glyph and held it between her hands as she activated it so that when she opened her hands the ball of light floated gently out of them. "The light glyph was the very first spell I ever learned. Being able to do actual, real magic was... Amazing. I've learned so much since then, and I'm learning more every day."

She dismissed the spell and took her phone again, leaving the room. "This," she explained as she filmed her trip to the living room, "is The Owl House: Home of Eda Clawthorn, the strongest witch on the Boiling Isles, and..." As Luz entered the living room she found a certain adorable fuzzy little guy snoozing on a pile of stuffed animals, "the mighty King of Demons!"

"Weh?" King asked as his eyes opened slowly. "What's going on?"

"I'm making a video to send to my mom," Luz explained. "Say hi."

"Oh, hi," King mumbled as he snuggled with his bunny Francois, and closed his eyes again only for both eyes to snap open and the cutie-pie lept up. "I mean, Mother of Luz. Take joy in knowing that your child is the greatest and most loyal soldier in my army. When I reclaim my power and throne, know that you shall hold a place of honor in my Kingdom for having given her life."

King then immediately flopped down and fell back asleep, prompting Luz to giggle as she moved on. "Yeah, he's going to be the King of Theatre Kids when he's older."

Lilith entered the living room from the kitchen, holding a mug of tea, before going to the couch to look over her notes. "This is Lilith," Luz introduced, "she's Eda's older sister, even though she doesn't really look like she's older, long story. It's not really my place to say why but she's staying with Eda for a while."

"Um, what are you doing?" Lilith asked.

"Making a video to send to my Mom. Say hi, Lilith."

"Oh, hello," the older witch said awkwardly. "I am... Well, Luz already introduced me. I um... If it wasn't for your daughter, Edalyn and I probably wouldn't be on speaking terms right now so..."

Luckily, Lilith was saved from an awkward trail-off by a sudden interruption: "Can I be in the video!?" Hooty loudly asked, undulating into view.

"Sure," Luz agreed, "this guy is Hooty: The Mystical Guardian of the Owl House... And, I guess also technically the house itself. I don't know how House Demons work."

"That's okay," Hooty said reassuringly, "I don't know how I work either."

Lilith patted Hooty'ss head. "I've seen Hootsifer here in action first hand and I can assure you that despite his unsettling appearance there is no one you'd rather have at your back and no place safer for your daughter than the Owl House."

"Aww, shucks Lulu," Hooty replied and Luz left them to their friendship moment.

"Leaving the house now," she said as she walked past Hooty's extended, wormlike form and the open door, "we see that... Amity's still here."

The witch in question was. She was in front of the Owl House, talking to Eda.

"So um... Amity sometimes stays over when we have study dates or the like," Luz started explaining as she turned her phone's camera back to herself. "She crashed here last night. Don't read too much into that."

"Making something to send to your Mom?" Eda asked.

"Yeah," Luz said as she flipped her phone back around. "Say hi."

Eda greeted first. "Hey Cam... I can call you Cam, right? Message Luz back if I can call you Cam."

"Hola, Señora Noceda," Amity added.

"Amity, you're normally ah... Halfway to Hexside by now when you stay over on a school night," Luz asked.

"Oh, Boots here was asking me if I knew any ways to help a young witch grow stronger, faster," Eda replied dismissively.

"Sweet Potato, are you still worried?" Luz asked.

Amity blushed. "I'm sorry, I can't help it. I know we..."

"It's fine," Luz was quick to insist. "If you want to talk about it we can do it later... Eda, do you know a way to—?"

"One, that I read in a copy of the journal of some guy from the Deadwardian era, talking about something wild witches supposedly did in the early savage ages," Eda lectured. "Supposedly, a group of two or more witches could commune with nature and refine and purify their bile by dancing around a bonfire at midnight on the night of a full moon in a forest clearing... But I'm 99.9% sure the author of the journal was making the whole thing up since the ritual supposedly can only be done by female witches and the only real details of the dance that were specified were about the state of dress it was performed in."

Luz blinked. "I don't get it."

"You'll figure it out eventually," Eda quipped. "See, Boots gets it," she said with a gesture to Amity, who had a noticeable blush. "Anyway, the point is that for most witches the only way to get stronger is to find out what magics you're good at and work hard to get the most out of them. At least not without getting into all kinds of horribly unethical stuff that takes a severe toll on your mind and body," Eda finished. She then summoned Owlbert in staff form. "Now come on, I'll give you two a ride to school and Luz, don't make any plans for this afternoon: We're going furniture shopping."

"Huh? Why?" Luz asked.

"The sleeping bag and foam mat were fine when this was just for the summer," Eda replied, "but if this is gonna be your home, even if it's only a sometimes home, then you need a real bed."

Luz blinked again. "Are you sure you can afford that right now?"

"Eh, I know a guy," Eda dismissed. "Now come on. I know that neither of you want to be late and you can get some scenic shots of the town to send to Cam on the way."

Luz did do that, taking care to properly describe the sights of Bonesborough and the surrounding forest as Eda flew her and Amity above the town.

At school, she and Amity parted ways and Luz took every opportunity before and between classes to seek out her various friends to introduce them to her mom. Gus and Willow ("The best friends a girl could ask for,") her fellow Multitrackers ("That first day was crazy but...") Ed and Em ("They were cool, then it turned out they were jerks, now they're cool again... What's important is they love Amity and they're trying.") Even Boscha ("Truth be told I don't think she likes me very much, but she's the one who encouraged Amity to ask me out and she cares about her a great deal. She's a good friend.")

Then, in the afternoon after classes, she encountered Principal Bump making his rounds. "And this is the best principal that I've ever had."

"You're much too kind," Principal Bump declared as he took notice of Luz. "What's this, some sort of documentary?"

"I'm making a video to send to my Mom," Luz explained not for the first time.

"You know, truth be told I'd just assumed you were an orphan that wandered near Edalyn's house up until the incident at Grom," Principal Bump observed. "I assume you've spoken to your mother? I recall there was some concern about how she'd react to where you've been all this time."

"Yeah," Luz confimred. "We talked, and came to a proper understanding, I introduced her to Amity, and she's cool with me studying here."

"That's great to hear," Principal Bump said with a smile. "I'll admit, I wasn't looking forward to losing one of the best students Hexside's seen in a good long while."

Luz laughed it off. "I'm not that good. My grades were always inconsistent back in the human realm."

"This might be hard to believe coming from an educator, Luz, but grades aren't everything," Principal Bump began. "Ignoring the fact that your grades are in fact quite exceptional considering your course load and the amount of catching up you've had to do, you've shown remarkable improvement since you started here. That alone would be enough to call you a good student," the aged witch continued, "but your work ethic and shear enthusiasm for learning are practically infectious: Your fellow students have been working harder and been more eager to learn since you enrolled in this school, and the new ideas you've introduced are a clear factor. Allowing you to enroll here was one of the best decisions I've made as principal and I can assure you that if you had trouble in your human schools it's because they didn't know how to teach you and their loss is Hexside's gain."

"Oh, um... Thank you," Luz said shakily. "That uh... That means a lot... Um, Mami has a few concerns though... Uh, she knows about the dissection incident."

"I assure you, I was bluffing," the witch declared sternly. "And even if I hadn't been, the second you became a student at my school your safety and well-being became my number one priority."

"Okay and... Um... I also explained Grom to her and, actually I have some questions about that too. Why is fighting Gromethus a student's responsibility?"

"Because the average teenager's fears are more easily faced and overcome than more mature fears," Principal Bump lectured. "You would not believe how many times Grom has revealed that a student's greatest fear is that dream where you show up to class in your underwear. In comparison... Well, let me tell you a story."

"As you're almost certainly aware, Luz," Principal Bump began, "Hexside as you know it was founded when the students of Old Hexside conquered a rival school and built our new campus over the ruins of their school. And that I, a student at the time, lead the charge."

"Yeah, that was awesome," Luz confirmed with a smile. "But... Grom's been sealed under here for centuries..."

"Yes, here, the physical location," Bump explained. "But the seal was damaged by the destruction of the old school. It was years later when Grometheus the Fearbringer made its first escape attempt. I was the abomination track professor at the time, and I went to confront the monster. After all, as the leader of the charge against the previous occupants of the land, it was partly my fault. Can you guess what it turned into?"

Luz wracked her brain for a moment. "An invisible unicorn?"

"Every last one of my students," Bump clarified. "Dead at Grom's claws."

Luz gulped.

"Exactly. This was, of course, before we truly understood what Grom was so I was taken completely off guard," Bump continued to lecture. "The creature would have killed me had it not been for my predecessor, Principal Faust's, timely intervention. Probably the one good thing the demon ever did in his life. We managed to damage it enough that we could trap it in the arena under the gymnasium, but the spells that had been used to seal it originally had been lost to time. The tradition of selecting a student to defeat Grom each year started after the third time it managed to escape the arena when Grom attacked the current Star Grudgby player and all it did was transform into her, but bad at grudgby. A totally unfounded fear born from anxiety, easily overcome when properly confronted. The party was my idea," Bump continued, "Gromethus feeds on fear, the festive atmosphere created by the dance and by turning the fight into a spectacle drastically reduces its power, and, well... I imagine it's a lot easier to overcome your fears when all of your classmates are cheering you on. A lot of former Grom Kings and Queens have admitted to finding the experience cathartic when all was said and done."

"After Faust came down with a sudden and most unfortunate case of 'ignored the Beast Keeping Professor's instructions when a dangerous predator was in the pen,'" Bump continued, "and I succeeded him as Principal I instituted the policy of carefully vetting the students to ensure that Grom Royalty was both capable of handling it and someone who might benefit from facing their fears... and in having powerful witches playing chaperone in case something goes wrong. There were never any casualties during Faust's tenure," Bump quickly answered, "but there were far too many close calls for my taste."

"So when you chose Amity...?" Luz asked.

"I had assumed that her worst fear would have been her mother's expectations," Principal Bump confirmed. "I figured she could use a reminder that Odalia Blight was mortal and fallible, and honestly that she could use the confidence boost after how last semester ended, but, well, I misjudged that one."

"Yeah, that might be my bad," Luz admitted.

"Luz, child, I seriously doubt that anything you said or did gave Amity the impression that you would reject her so cruelly," Bump denied. "No, this was on me, I misjudged the nature and severity of her insecurities. Of course, if she'd come to me and told me she didn't believe she could face her fears I would have allowed her to swap out with a volunteer, and honestly, if she'd told me it was something so personal I may just well have picked someone else myself, but I suppose I didn't make it clear enough to the student body that that was an option," Bump finished.

"No, I mean, before that. the red thing Grom turned into when it grabbed her, uh... Amity asked me about the kinds of powers people have in the human realm," Luz began sheepishly, "And I um... Chose poorly for one of the examples I gave. Amity confessed to me that she'd had a nightmare about Carnage that night, so... Yeah. My B."

"Luz, you can hardly be blamed for that," Principal Bump insisted. "And even if you could be... Well, it all worked out in the end."

"Yeah. Well, thanks for telling me all that," Luz said before turning her phone's camera back to herself. "Okay Mamá, I'm gonna end it here. I'll see you soon, te quiero." Then she stopped recording.

"One last thing, Principal Bump," she continued as she turned back to her Principal. "Um... If that doesn't reassure my Mom, and you ever meet her in person and she reaches into her purse and pulls out a sandal... don't try to defend yourself, don't argue, don't fight back. Just run."

The aged witch looked like he was about to dismiss the warning, but he must have seen the look on Luz's face as he instead cleared his throat. "Duly noted."

Chapter Text

Amity was working in a spare laboratory that her father had given her access to when she asked for a workspace. If the only way to get stronger was hard work... Amity hadn't been sure how exactly she'd use bard magic or how it might be combined with her abominations, she'd wanted to study it because of the BATTS demonstration of how powerful and versatile it was made it look like a good choice for a secondary discipline, something to pull out of her pocket in an emergency and if nothing else it was fun...

But then she'd been introduced to human music. She was a rocker now, and when she'd told Skara about the wonderful music she'd heard in the human realm after her bard class this morning, something clicked in her mind and she was inspired.

She finished twisting one last screw and the bronze frame was finished. Then she walked over to her cauldron to check on her custom batch of abomination slime. Already she'd figured out how to punch up the quality of the slime with a few choice ingredient substitutions and careful application of potion magic, that was a no-brainer after just a few potions classes. Rudimentary experimentation with flowers and plant magic, inspired by a conversation with Jerbo after he realized that he wasn't the only one studying both plants and abominations anymore, had led Amity to find that her constructs were more durable if she added a bit of plant magic and some pollen and petals to the mix as well. For this batch, Amity had recycled the lavender bouquet her beloved Luz had conjured for her the night before Grom. Despite Amity's best efforts, she couldn't keep them alive much longer, and this way they'd live on in spirit through the instrument that Amity was forging and the music she'd play with it, inspired by her beloved's home world.

The brew was nearly done, and then it'd be poured into the frame and the Abomitech instrument would be completed, but one last touch was needed. Into the bubbling cauldron, she added an ounce of dissolved catgut(which was not, as she had been led to believe as a child, made from cat guts,) a pinch of powdered singing seeds and a single siren's feather. As she stirred the bubbling slime, she hummed to herself the melody of the song she'd danced to with Luz and channeled as much bard magic as she could muster into the slime so as to ensure that it'd make for a fine-quality instrument and focus for further bard magic in the future.

Once the slime was as close to perfect as she could make it, she pulled it from the fire(pink, as it was lit with her own magic) and poured it into the frame. Abomination slime cooled rapidly which was good in that it was quickly safe to work with but bad in that she had to work quickly to ensure the fine details of the correct shape, particularly the strings, were correct and the gadgets she was installing in it properly integrated but she was her father's daughter, for better or worse, and managed to get the job done and cast the necessary finishing spells.

She was tired. She'd used a lot of magic this afternoon, but it'd be worth it. Now her creation just had to rest as the finishing spell did its work and it could do that in the security of the pre-prepared carrying case. She cleaned up the laboratory, made sure everything was put away securely, did a last-minute safety inspection, turned off the "lab in use" light when she was done, and finally left.

After ensuring that her creation was secure in her room, Amity snuck down to the kitchens to see if they still had any orange blood.

Returning to her room with her refreshing beverage in hand, Amity found her older siblings standing patiently outside her room, radiating regret.

"Edric," Amity greeted. "Emira." What was this about? She'd already forgiven them... Oh, Titan, what had they done now?

"Hey Amity," Edric greeted. "Can we talk?"

"Um, sure," Amity agreed before letting her siblings into her room. "What do you want to talk about?"

"We've been doing some thinking," Emira began.

"And reading," Edric added. Amity snorted and Eric continued "Yeah, we're surprised too."

"Did Dad ever tell you how we found you up on the Knee?" Emira asked.

"No," Amity replied. Why were they bringing this up again?

"It turns out, Mom had a tracking spell on that necklace she had you wear," Edric answered. "The one that... the one that The Owl Lady is using to blackmail Mom? Anyway, The Owl Lady kind of went on a rant about it, listing off what exactly it does... Amity we all thought it was just a way for her to give you instructions when you were helping with presentations, we didn't know it was... That."

"It's fine," Amity insisted as a bit of heat came to her face. She didn't like that people knew about the necklace or what it was. "It's not like I have to wear it anymore."

"If we'd known," Emira answered... "Anyway, she said that necklaces like that were illegal and had been for a long time and that they were only good for one thing, then asked Edric to guess what that was."

"I guessed it was for berating someone," Edric admitted.

"Well, that is what Mom mostly used it for," Amity grumbled. "Why are we talking about this? The only way it'll come up is if Eda decides to rat Mom out." Something Amity hoped never came to pass. The threat seemed to be at least partially working in regards to keeping Mom from being Mom but actually having that dirty laundry aired was... The thought of it made Amity very anxious.

"Well, according to the Owl Lady, that's wrong," Edric continued. "She said it was only good for abuse."

Amity downed her orange blood in one go. "That's ridiculous," she said. "Mom is strict and, and her expectations are way too high but... she's not... She's never hit me," Amity denied. "I mean, not since I was little but... Lots of kids get spanked for misbehaving, that doesn't make it abuse."

"Amity," Emira began. "When you were six you accidentally knocked over a glass of juice. Even though you cleaned it up and it was on the kitchen tile so it didn't leave a stain, Mom still beat you with a belt."

"She didn't even have a belt," Edric added. "She sent her oracle spirit out with the Abomination buttler to buy a belt specifically to spank you with."

"So Mom's a little free with the punishments," Amity denied, "that doesn't mean she's abusive, it just means that... She was always super lenient with you two, so—"

"She isn't lenient with us," Emira interrupted. "She just doesn't care. You know, a few years ago we were jealous of you, we thought you were the favorite, but..."

"But now we know better," Edric finished. "Look, Amity, we didn't want to believe it either but... That's why we did the reading, and it all fits."

"You're uh," Amity observed awkwardly, "you're not calling me 'Mittens.'"

"I mean," Emira began, "it started out as a bit of affection, you know? You were five and your hands got cold so Dad made you those abomination mittens and you were just so fascinated by them that he started calling you Mittens but..."

"Then Mom started using it to uh, what's the word? Condescend to you? And we realized that we were doing that too, so..."

"I... I don't mind it when you or Dad do it," Amity confirmed. "I wish Mom would stop, but... You can... No, please, call me Mittens."

"Okay Mittens, if you're sure," Emira agreed and Amity suddenly felt less anxious about this conversation. "But, still..."

"According to this book that we found," Edric began, "abuse is when you hurt someone, physically or emotionally or... some other ways, in order to get something out of it. Especially when it's someone dependent on you or who can't get away, like, like your own kid. And that's... Mittens, that's exactly what Mom was doing. She wanted you to be a perfect little puppet and she'd yell and punish and threaten if you said or did anything that showed you weren't just an extension of herself."

"Making you break things off with your best friend at your own birthday party?" Emira questioned.

"Threatening to make you quit your job at the library if your grades slipped?" Edric added.

"Forcing you to host parties for people you don't even like in order to network?" Emira brought up.

"Literally threatening to have bad things happen to people you like if you don't behave?" Edric supplied.

"That whole mess where she tried to guilt trip Luz into breaking up with you?" Emira finished.

"That's all textbook emotional abuse," the twins concluded together.

"Okay," Amity replied with a gulp, "I... So maybe Mom was abusive but... Between Eda's threat and the Everlasting Oath that I tricked her into she's backed off... She even likes Luz now, ever since the... he emperor's claim that she's blessed by the Titan... Should probably figure out what she expects to get out of our relationship but... Why are we talking about this now?"

"Because Mom came within a hair's breadth of it working," Edric explained. "Just a few months ago, you were acting just like Mom." The remainder of that hurt.

"And we let it happen," Emira added. "We're your older siblings. We're supposed to protect you but instead..."

"We were abusing you, too," Edric finished sadly.

Amity got indignant at that: "Oh, that is a load of snorse—!"

"No, it's true," Emira interrupted. "The book we found, it... IT said that sometimes victims of abuse or neglect—"

"That's when you ignore the needs of people dependent on you," Edric clarified, "so what Mom was doing with us, emotionally—"

"Victims of that stuff will sometimes adopt the mannerisms of their abusers, or become abusers themselves," Emira continued, "and... Mom was trying to make you like her, and we ended up..."

"The pranks," Edric mentioned. "They started out to... We were jealous. We thought you were the favorite and tried to punish you for it instead of realizing that Mom was hurting you, too."

"Eventually e realized that it wasn't your fault," Emira continued, "but by then you were turning into Mom's mini-me and we tried to stop it by getting you to 'lighten up' as if you were doing it on your own instead of anything to stop Mom from..."

"And then there was your diary," Edric said with shame.

"I already forgave you for that," Amity insisted.

"Did you really?" Emira asked. "Or did you just say you would so we'd help you steal those memory tweezers?"

"I meant it," Amity insisted. "I... Maybe holding that over you instead of just asking your help was a jerk move, but...." Amity took a deep breath and decided to show her siblings a great deal of trust. "I have an abnormal oracle talent. I can sense emotions. I know you feel bad about what you did," she confirmed, "I know you love me. I know you're trying. I needed a little time to heal, but... You're forgiven. I mean it."

"You... Have an abnormal talent?" Edric asked.

"Yes," Amity replied. "And the only people in all of the demon realm who know are you two, Eda, and Luz. I haven't even told Willow or Boscha. If Mom ever found out, she'd force me into the Oracle Track in a heartbeat, so I'm showing you a great deal of trust when I say not to tell anyone. Does that prove that you're forgiven?"

This was, as Amity soon learned, something of a mistake. Tears came to the eyes of both twins and the next thing Amity knew she was the meat in a hug sandwich.

"Too tight, too tight!" Amity exclaimed with what little breath remained in her after being crushed as so.

Edric and Emira gave her one last squeeze before letting go. "Thank you, Mittens," Edric said.

"It means a lot to us for you to say that," Emira finished. "But... Forgiveness doesn't erase that deed. You weren't acting the way we thought you should be acting and instead of talking to you, we tried to hurt you. What we did was just as bad as what Mom does and... We're sorry."

"We should have been protecting you," Edric repeated. "But... We'll never do anything to hurt you ever again. And we'll do our best not to let Mom hurt you, either."

"We love you, Mittens," Emira finished.

"I know," Amity replied. "I love you guys, too."

Chapter Text

King was nearly conked out by the time the... Owl Family, question mark? Got back from the island where his 'castle' was located. Luz held the precious little guy in her arms as they settled down outside the Owl House.

Luz spared a glance at the strange construct of flesh and... Either stone or bone currently wrapped in Hooty's coils. "Jean-Luc is going in my room, isn't he?" Seriously, that thing gave her the creeps. It was like a symbiote, but the gooey bits were made of meat instead of... Whatever symbiote goo was made of. The ease at which it formed blades from itself didn't help. Nor did the fact that some of the meat leaked onto Luz's hand while she was in symbiote mode and her symbiote side ate it. She'd need to figure out how to make that not happen in case something icky gets on her hands in symbiote mode again.

Eda gave a sort of snort-scoff, "He's not going in mine."

"You sure we've got enough room in there?" Luz asked. "I still don't think I needed a queen-sized bed... Seriously, how much did you pay for that?"

"None of your business how much I paid," Eda deflected. "Now speaking of bed," the wild witch continued as she entered the house, "make sure you get to it at a decent time tonight if you're visiting your Mom in the morn... Ah, farts."

"So about that," came a familiar boy's voice from the living room. As Luz entered the house, she easily recognized the Golden Guard sitting on the couch and paging through what Luz recognized as the note for the first draft of what became Ruler's Reach. Luz hadn't realized that King had retrieved those. "Oh, Lilith," he said as the other adult walked in behind Luz. "Didn't think you'd be here," he said. "You know, I don't know what it was you were complaining about. Getting in here was pretty easy for me."

Lilith once again grumbled as if she'd stepped on a rake.

King woke up in Luz's arms. "Huh, what's going on?"

"The Golden Brat's here," Lilith declared with great venom.

"Well, what's he want?" King asked indignantly.

"I have two questions," The Golden Guard began. "First... Which one of you wrote this?"

"Um, Luz and I did," King replied awkwardly.

"Okay, gotta say," The Golden Guard began, "huge fan of Ruler's Reach. Prefer it over this draft, obviously, but this? This has charm. Would have been nice to see this after some polish but, you know... Almost makes me feel bad about what's about to go down."

"For the record, I'm not exactly proud of Ruler's Reach," King replied. "And uh... Huh. Never did get paid for that. Luz, when you get home after visiting the human realm we need to track down Piniet and beat him up till he gives us our money. And then, we shall buy snacks!" Luz had to admit she was a little touched that he's called it their money considering she'd disowned the work over King's changes, but...

"I'm sorry, when did this happen?" Eda asked.

"Can we focus?" Luz demanded. "Golden Guard, why are you really here?"

"Oh, that's simple enough," the masked teen replied. "The Emperor wants the portal to the human realm."

Luz's blood froze. "Why?"

The Golden Guard shrugged as he got up from the couch. "No clue, not my place to ask." He then brandished his staff at Eda. "Now, Owl Lady, where's the portal?"

"You've got a lot of nerve, Goofus," Eda quipped. "Especially when you're outnumbered five to one."

"Six to one!" King should while pointing at the Golden Guard. "Jean-Luc, get him!"

Jean-Luc proceeded to do nothing at all, as he'd gone dormant as soon as he'd been taken out of the castle.

"Hooty put down the construct," Eda declared. "You've got a new friend to play with."

"Oh boy!" Hooty declared as he dropped Jean-Luc and curled around to face the Golden Guard. "Do you like tea parties!?"

As Hooty stretched and slithered toward the Golden Guard, the Emperor's right hand clutched his strange mechanical staff and in a golden flash shot past Hooty... And past Luz, ripping King from her arms in the process before shooting out the door.

Everyone piled out after him and found him standing in the yard, holding his staff onehanded and having conjured some kind of red energy barrier forming a sphere in the air in which he held King.

"Okay, I really don't want to do this," The Golden Guard said as he gestured to the struggling King, "but orders are orders: Hand over the portal, or the dog gets it."

Eda shifted her gaze to Luz, and Luz nodded. King's safety was paramount, and besides...

Eda pulled the portal key out from around her neck and clicked it, causing the portal to appear and then fold into briefcase form. It fell, Eda caught it by the handle, and she slowly walked over and handed it out to the Golden Guard.

He took it by the handle, then gestured for the key. Eda sighed and handed it over as well and in response, the Golden Guard stepped back and released King so that he'd fall into Eda's arms.

...Then Luz shot her arm out, a symbiote tentacle exploding out of it and grabbing the portal from the Golden Guard hard enough to rip it out of his hands and drag it back to her as Eda bolted back toward the house to keep King safe.

"This was the plan, right?" Luz called out after her.

"Yes! Good job, you're learning how to forge documents later!" Eda shouted back...

Unfortunately, unspoken plans made up in the heat of the moment tended to have flaws. The flaw in this plan was that the Golden Guard had been holding the portal key in his other hand. He looked at Luz, looked at the key, pocketed it, and then bolted off into the forest.

Luz shifted to full symbiote mode and chased after him, pausing only to shove the portal into Lilith's arms as she did so. After a few moments, Luz belatedly realized that she had started running on all fours at some point. She had to admit, she was faster this way.

A minute through chasing the Golden Guard through the woods ended when he cleared the treeline and took flight on his staff. Not wanting to let him get away, Luz drew a plant glyph card from... She needed a name for wherever it was her pocket contents went and, much like Azura during her attempt at dabbling in sports, launched herself through the air with a massive thorny vine.

The thorn vault allowed Luz to catch and tackle the Golden Guard, sending them both falling through the forest canopy.

"You," the Golden Gaurd said while breathing heavily, "are a lot more aggressive than you were in the Shimmering Shoals." He then reached into his pocket and took out the key, looking over it as if to make sure it was undamaged.

"Give me the portal key, Goofus," Luz insisted.

"Okay, why do you people keep calling me that?" The Guard asked before forcing himself up and leaning on his staff for support. "And... No can-do. Either I leave with the key now, or you and your friends go to Conformatorium for treason."

"I've already broken in and out of the Conformatorium twice," Luz replied defiantly. "According to my girlfriend, Warden Wrath's kid says he's afraid of me now."

"Well in that case we'll just have to... Wait, you have a girlfriend?"

"Uh, yeah. Amity."

There was a brief pause as the Golden Guard processed that. "...So you worked out your differences... And now... Oh, oh, congratulations! I hope you're happy together," he said with genuine warmth. "Now if you'll excuse me I really need to get the key to the Emperor so..."

He tried to turn to walk off, but Luz managed to grab him by the hand the key was in. "Give me the key, Golden Guard," Luz declared while pulling back her other fist to strike. "Don't make me do this."

The Golden Guard proceeded to try and struggle out of Luz's grip, so Luz threw her punch and completely whiffed it, which was a good thing because as she extended her arm her fist shifted into a small curved blade similar to one Jean-Luc had used earlier that night and her forearm extended into a tendril so that said blade embedded itself into a tree.

"Huh," Luz observed. "That's new."

"...Did you just try to decapitate me?" The Golden Guard asked incredulously.

"I swear I didn't know I could do that," Luz insisted.

The Golden Guard then returned to struggling to get his hand free. "Okay, seriously, you have no idea how mad the Emperor's going to be if I don't come back with the portal."

"Sounds like you need a better job!" Luz countered. "Like Steve. Did you know Steve? He was a coven scout under Lilith? Well, now he's a janitor at Hexside. He says the pay is about the same but he gets more time off and better benefits."

"Quit trying to change the subject!" The Golden Guard said as Luz finally managed to break his grip. She just barely managed to get her fingers around the handle of the key when the Golden Guard managed to catch himself and grab the key by the teeth.

Luz formed a fist around the part of the key she had and started a furious tug of war, only for her blood to freeze when, in the struggle, she heard the sound of crunching glass and felt a viscous liquid lak onto her hand.

In her shock, she let go of the key and the Golden Guard held it up and immediately noticed it was cracked "Look what you did!" he said in a panic before noticing the cerulean liquid inside the key... And coating Luz's palm in a rapidly thinning layer. "Wait, is that Titan Blood?"

Luz didn't get a chance to answer, because as soon as her symbiote side finished absorbing the Titan Blood she was overwhelmed with searing pain and then everything went dark.

Hunter wasn't sure what happened. One second the human was standing there staring at her hand, the next she fell to the ground screaming. The weird purple slime thing that his Uncle had said was a blessing from the Titan receded revealing the girl was covered in glowing gold lines, like what happened when someone was marked with a...

After making sure the portal key was secure, Hunter kneeled next to her and tore the bandages from her right forearm, revealing an Emperor's Coven sigil. He'd heard about this. An attempt to apprehend the Owl Lady had been subverted by a third party still at large who impersonated a coven scout in order to brand the human girl. Sweet merciful Titan had his Uncle been mad when he found out.

Coven Sigils weren't meant for humans, there was no telling what kind of negative reaction she might have. Case in point: Coven sigil activation was not supposed to last this long or be this painful. But why had it activated now and not when it had first been applied? Unless...

Unless the Titan's Blessing on the girl had somehow reacted to or absorbed the Titan Blood and generated magical energy which the sigil, as an act of mortal artifice, mistakenly conflated with wild magic to be sealed away! If that was the case...

The golden lines faded just after the girl had finished screaming herself hoarse, but she was still breathing heavily, shaking like a leaf, sweating, and even looked a little paler than she had twenty minutes ago. Hunter checked her pulse and her heart was racing.

He had the portal key. Even if it was damaged this mission was still a partial success. He could just leave, but... This girl was his enemy, but...

Looking up, Hunter saw two witches, obviously the Clawthorne sisters on their staves, flying right over them. Clearly, they'd come looking for the human but overshot them. Chances were good that...

Hunter sighed and picked the human up.

The next thing Luz knew, she was in her bed at the Owl House. The next thing she knew after that was that she had a splitting headache.

Blinking awake, she found that she was currently surrounded by a large number of King's stuffed animals, including Francois, who were all positioned around her as if standing guard. There was a damp cloth on her head, and someone had changed her into her pajamas. Looking out the window it had to be nearly noon. Luz immediately panicked, first because she was supposed to go see her mom hours ago and second because she remembered what had happened to the portal key.

She reached around for her phone, her Mom must be worried sick, but she couldn't find it. Feeling herself nearly sick with panic she leaped from bed only to nearly stumble before making her way downstairs.

Once she got to the doorway where the hall led into the living room she saw Eda with her cell phone. "Cam, Cam, I know we should have called earlier but by the time I figured out how to make a call on this thing you were the one calling... Look, we've got a situation... No! No, Luz is... Well, she's going to be okay. Look, long story short some jerk tried to jack my portal, and the key got destroyed so... No, the portal itself is fine, otherwise we wouldn't be having this conversation, but... Look, I just need to figure out how to replace the... Cam, we both know that Luz would never do that," Immediately Luz felt slightly sicker than she already did. "I mean, yeah, she did technically run away once already but... Look, the point is... There have got to be people on your end you can call too, right? We can work on this on two ends and then... Look, everything's gonna be alright and..." It was then that Eda noticed Luz standing there. "Okay, Luz is up, I'll have her call you back in a bit."

Eda then hung up and set Luz's phone on the coffee table.

"Eda?" Luz began. "What happened?"

"After making sure King and the portal door were both safe, Lilith and I went out to back you up against the Golden Goof," Eda explained. "But you are very fast and we couldn't find you until... Well, when we heard you screaming. Luz, are you in any pain?"

"Head hurts pretty bad," Luz admitted. She remembered hurt, she didn't remember screaming.

In the next few seconds, Eda had gotten up, grabbed Luz, sat her down, and then dashed off. A few seconds later she returned with a potion and a glass of water. "This is for pain," she said while putting the potion in Luz'a hand, "this is because you're probably dehydrated," as she sat down the glass of water.

Luz dutifully took the potion and drank the water and... Honestly started to feel better pretty quick. Magic was awesome.

"Anyway, Lilly and I overshot you or something. The next thing we knew a crow call was chasing us down: It was King. A few minutes after we heard you scream, the Golden Goof had carried you back to the Owl House, told King and Hooty what happened, told them to call a healer, and skedaddled. After calling us King called Tiny Nose and..."

"Oh, okay," Luz said.

"What's the last thing you remember?" Eda asked as she sat down next to Lus and put a comforting hand on her shoulder.

"The portal key broke and... Titan blood. My symbiote side sucked it up and then... Pain."

"Okay, Luz, you're going to be okay," Eda quickly reassured. "Tiny did a pretty thorough test, more than I'd have given her credit for, and... There's nothing physically wrong with you, you had just... Well, when you took in the Titan Blood, you got magic. And the coven sigil acted up."

"I thought Emperor's Coven sigils didn't seal magic?" Luz asked.

"No, what they do is let you use all nine main magics," Eda corrected. "According to Lilly, they still stop you from mixing magic or using certain spells that are considered Wild Magic. And apparently, it still drains minute amounts of magic."

"Why did it hurt so much?" Luz asked while thinking about how she should have gotten the sigil flayed off when she had the chance. "It looked like it hurt that kid at the covention who joined the illusion coven but he didn't pass out."

"Two theories," Eda replied. "Theory one, those things were never meant for humans so it's not working right on you. Theory two," she continued, "Lilly seems to think that there's an upper limit to how much magic a single coven sigil can seal, and, well, even a teaspoon of Titan blood is a great deal of very powerful magic. Which leads us to the good news and the bad news..."

"What's the good news?"

"Since you can apparently absorb magic stuff to get stronger," Eda began, "we can probably just feed you magic stuff until you're strong enough to burn out the sigil."

"And the bad news?"

"It's almost certainly going to hurt like heck each time," Eda finished. "Definitely not that bad, you basically mainlined the strongest source of magic on the isles, but... If you decide to go this route we'll make sure to do it a little at a time, here, with a healer on hand."

"Amity had a plan to make me stronger," Luz said. "Back in the human realm I uh... Well, there's some crazy stuff back in the Human Realm that I kind of just take for granted but that got her spooked when it came up. I said I'd do a little bit of it to give her piece of mind, but we haven't talked about it since then."

"Well," Eda began, "I sent King and Lilith off to round up the munchkin brigade about half an hour ago. Figured they needed to know and you could use the support, so we can talk it over with her and... Luz, you should probably eat something," Eda changed tracks, "even if you don't feel like it. You've been out cold for most of the day, you need to keep your strength up. I've got some porridge from earlier or if you'd like I could heat you up some cockatrice soup. Something easy to eat."

After thinking it over for a second, Luz replied "Soup please."

"Okay, it'll take me a minute so why don't you call your mom back?" Eda said as she got up and headed toward the kitchen.

Luz picked up her phone and was about to dial her Mom's contact when the door flew open and Hooty shouted "Company!"

A lizard-like biped demon with three eyes, two open but the third in the middle of the forehead closed, stepped in awkwardly with a huge sack slung over his shoulders.

"Piniet?" Luz asked, exasperated. "What do you want? I'm really not in the mood to deal with—"

"Oh no no no," he said and Luz just then realized he was radiating terror. "I uh... I was visited this morning by someone who reminded me that I um, forgot, to pay out royalties for Ruler's Reach. So here," he said as he swung the bag down and set it in the living room. "Every last snail I owe, plus interest. Tell your friend the Golden Guard we're good now, okay?" he said and then immediately ran out through the door.

"Huh. That happened."

Chapter Text

Amity practically kicked down the door of the Owl House and rushed into the living room. At first, she'd been annoyed when Lilith had shown up to her place unannounced. She was... Trying to forgive her ex-mentor, but it was hard. But then she saw that King was with her and... Had two horns now. He'd explained that something had happened with Luz and that's all Amity had needed to hear.

Of course, Amity couldn't just go straight to comfort and support her beloved girlfriend. No, they had to go around town to collect Gus and Willow as well and... Well, this had been the first time Amity had seen Harvy and Gilbert Park since she broke off her friendship with Willow as children, and while they didn't say anything it was clear to Amity that they weren't as forgiving as Willow was and, honestly Amity couldn't blame them.

But having that unpleasant revelation when she was already anxious about Luz did very little to soothe said nerves, so once the party ended up at the Owl House Amity's only concern was Luz. Once she knew her girlfriend was okay, then she could deal with her own feelings.

The door was kicked open and Amity ignored Hooty's indignant hoot as she rushed in to find Luz in her pajamas sitting on the couch talking on her phone. So at least she was okay physically.

"Mom," Luz said, "my friends just came in so... I'll uh, put you on speaker."

Luz then fiddled with the human device and set it down on the table. Meanwhile, King scurried past Amity while grunting and lept into Luz's side with a "Nyeh!"

"Oh hey, your horn's back on," Luz acknowledged.

"Yeah, Eda glued it back on for me after Tiny Nose checked you over and made sure you were okay."

"Luz, who is this Tiny Nose? You mentioned her before," came Camila's voice from the human device.

"Uh... I guess she's my doctor here," Luz answered awkwardly. "Eda called her to run some tests when my powers first kicked in, and... I guess called her again after I... Um..."

"...Is she accredited?"

"...She graduated medical school," was Luz's answer.

"Luz, what happened?"

"Well, um, the portal key broke when I was um... Which I did not do on purpose," Luz finished far too quickly.

"I didn't think you did," Camila replied reassuringly.

"Mom, I heard the conversation with Eda," Luz said shakily. "I know you think that... I know you mentioned that..."

"...You heard that?"

"Mom, I'm so—"

"Luz! I... I shouldn't have said that. It popped into my head that you might just have not felt... Up to coming home after all and asked Eda to give me an excuse and... And that it was like... In that cartoon, you showed me a few years ago. When the little girl is afraid to tell her parents that her new friend doesn't come from a traditional family so the boy gives the phone to the tall magic lady he lives with and she panics and gives a bad excuse?"

"Then why did you bring up that I..." Amity could feel that Luz was feeling guilty.

"Mija, I know you feel safer in the demon realm. I... Wish I knew how much you had to deal with here. I just thought that maybe...? I was going to say that I'd understand—"

"No!" Luz shoued. "No, I... I wanted to come home. I wanted to spend time with you but... The portal key, and it broke, and... I'm sorry!"

"Luz!" Camila shouted herself. "I believe you. This is not your fault. Just... Mistakes happen. Accidents happen. I'm just glad that I know, and that if you have to be stranded somewhere it's somewhere where you're safe with people who love you. We'll figure this out," Camila reassured. "I'm on the Avengers website right now, there's a hotline I can call to get into touch with Doctor Strange and... Oh, they have testimonials from people he's helped before... Grateful parents whose daughter he rescued from a cult, an endorsement from the mayor of a town called Gravity Falls, some girl named Anne Boonchuy who says he helped her prove she still had the same soul after she died and got brought back." Camila paused again. "Why does that name sound familiar?"

"I think that was one of those kids who was stranded in that frog dimension that invaded California a little bit back," Luz said as if she was guessing... "Huh, I wonder if it's the same dimension Ford got stranded in?"

"Anyway, the key broke, and then what?"

"So turns out there was Titan Blood in the key and some leaked out and got sucked up by my symbiote side and... So the good news is, I might have magic of my own," Luz began, "the bad news is that uh, remember the Coven Sigil thingy? Yeah um... Turns out those hurt. Really badly. At least if you're human, so..."

"How bad?" Amity interrupted.

"Um, I passed out," Luz admitted. "Until um..." Luz checked the clock. "About ten minutes ago. Apparently, I screamed. Um..."

Amity's blood froze and her heart sank. Everything she'd thought of to make Luz stronger, make her safer, would have, would have...

Amity felt as if she'd be sick.

"Anyway," Luz said and Amity realized that she'd blanked out the conversation for a moment, "Lilith thinks that we can burn out the sigil by giving me even more magic, but... It's gonna hurt each time."

"Coven sigil activation normally only lasts a few seconds," Lillith added, "and as, to my shame, I am the former head of the Emperor's Coven, few people know more about how the coven sigils work than I: Luz's sigil activation taking as long as it did and having such an extreme reaction, even accounting for the fact that sigils were never designed for human use, can only mean that it was struggling to properly contain and regulate the magic she absorbed from the Titan blood."

"Lilith is it?" Camila asked over the phone. "Eda's sister? Now, when you say you were the head of this... Emperor's Coven... Did you know about the experiments on the basilisks?"

"I can assure you I did not," Lilith said. "And If I had known I would have... No, I'm sorry. I can't truthfully say that I would have done something about it. I..."

Camila hummed but didn't say anything further to Lilith. "But Luz, you're alright now?"

"I feel kind of eh, but yeah, I'm alright."

"The healer that Edalyn knows said there's nothing physically wrong with Luz," Lilith added, "but that the sigil reaction put a lot of stress on her system and that she should take the next few days easy, make sure she stays well fed and hydrated, and make note of any lingering pain."

"Luz, you follow your doctor's orders," Camila insisted.

"Yeah, yeah," Luz dismissed good-naturedly.

"So you said your friends were there," Camila continued. "Which ones? You have so many now. I heard Amity a minute ago..."

"Well in addition to my golden-eyed goddess," Luz began, "we're being joined by King, the bestest widdle guy in the world," Luz then tickled King causing the small demon to giggle. "And my best friends Willow and Gus... Say hi everyone."

"Hey."

"Hi!"

"Hello, Ma'am."

"Hola, Señora Noceda."

"So, everything... Fine now here," Luz said hesitantly. "How are things over there."

"They'd be better if you were here, Mija, but... Things are going well. The lawyer Mr. Howlett put me in contact with was able to put a rush on the paperwork, as of last night Vee has official refugee status and I'm her legal guardian. She'll have to reapply in two years, but in one year she can apply for citizenship, and if she gets that... Um... Question," Camila suddenly turned nervous. "How would you feel if I were to... Adopt Vee?"

Luz blinked. "I thought that was the plan all along?"

"I mean for real. With paperwork and everything."

"Again, I thought that was the plan," Luz continued. "It's not like she's a tenant or a squatter or something. You're already the closest thing she has to a mom and, well, I kind of like the idea of having a little sister. And like dad used to say, a Noceda doesn't do anything by halves." Luz laughed. "Once you said we were keeping her I just assumed..."

"Oh, gracias a Dios," Camila said, "The lawyer says that chances are good that Vee's citizenship application would go through since she has a strong case, but that someone who might be a... Burro, about things, might try to make it hard on her since she did technically commit identity fraud when she entered the country. Given her circumstances that can't legally be held against her but... Anyway, he said that her chances would go from good to guaranteed if I adopted her and—"

"Mom, you don't have to justify it to me," Luz interrupted. "I'm surprised that this wasn't the plan all along."

"Aye, you're such a good girl. I was just worried that, you might get... Jealous? Or feel like I was trying to replace you, or—"

"Mom!" Luz shouted. "It's... It's like you said when you found out about Eda: You know I have enough love for two moms, I know you have enough love for two daughters... Heck, you could have six kids and I know you'd do your best to make sure we were all loved and taken care of. Even when, even when I felt like you didn't understand me, or wanted me to be different, I... I never doubted for a second that you loved me."

This prompted a loud "awww!" from both Willow and Gus and a small spark of jealousy that Amity tried to bury.

"So, if Eda is your second mother does that make me your aunt?" Lilith asked suddenly

"It does now, Aunt Lilith," Luz quipped.

"That was a rhetorical question!" Lilith shouted, which prompted laughter from everyone in the room.

"Okay, that's taken care of," Camila said, "I wanted to hear your opinion before I broached the subject with Vee and... Oh, she just came in. Vee, cariño, I've got Luz on the line."

There was a bit of commotion on the other end of the call and then Vee's voice called out "Hello Luz. Are you alright? Ma—Camila was pretty worried when you didn't come over."

"I'm mostly okay," Luz answered, "but... Well, the portal key got broken last night," Luz said while once more feeling guilty. "So I'm stuck in the demon realm for the time being but... There are solutions to this problem, so..."

Luz clearly felt bad about being stuck here which... Amity couldn't help but feel somewhat relieved that Luz was safe from the existential horrors of the human realm for the time being, even as she hated herself for feeling it.

"Okay, that..." Vee didn't seem to know how to respond to that.

"How are things over there? Are you settling in okay?" Luz asked.

"Yeah. Everything's taken care of paperwork-wise so I can stay here and my friends took the fact that I'm not you pretty well. I was looking forward to introducing them to the real you, since now they know the real me, but..."

"Stuff happens," Luz finished. "Well, hopefully, I can meet them soon and I can introduce you to the rest of my friends... Most of whom are here right now." Luz then prompted everyone to introduce themselves to the basilisk. "Now when you say you introduced them to the real you..."

"We were hanging out at Masha's place. I went over looking like you since that's how they know me, I hope that's okay?"

"It's fine."

"But then I told them the truth and... At first, I was just gonna show them the human form I settled on but Masha insisted they'd be cool about it and Sam wanted to see what I really look like and... Yeah," Vee explained. "They took it pretty well. So did Masha's family. Then Masha told everyone that we're, you know, together and... Their parents like me, so that's good, and Kevin was chill about it but Sam seemed to think it was a little weird, she wasn't mean about it but when Masha said they like my true form over my human disguise Sam had questions."

"... Awkward questions?"

"A little. She was polite about it and kept checking to make sure I wasn't offended, then got bright red when Masha said they were..."

"They were what?" Luz asked.

"...Attracted to monsters," Vee finished. "They described me as a shapeshifting, magic-eating snake demon and then said that the thing everyone had to understand was that they were 'totally into that stuff.'"

"Ahh," Luz said in understanding. "Did that get awkward?"

"No, not really," Vee continued. "Masha said that they mostly like me for my personality and would still like me if I was human, but... They said my true form is like when you found out Amity purrs."

"You purr?" Lilith asked head turning toward Amity.

"Luz knows you purr?" Willow said at the same time. "I remember when we were little you'd get so embarrassed when I heard you and make me promise not to tell anyone and... Oh, I just broke that promise."

"My Mom hates it," Amity said as her face heated up "She wanted me to suppress it but... Luz likes it. She says it just makes me more perfect, so... I'm done being ashamed of it.." Amity tried to purr, but... "Okay I was going to try and purr there but I can't do it on cue."

Luz sat King beside her on the couch, stood up, and quickly kissed Amity right on the tip of her nose. Amity's face heated up even more, but it did the trick when it came to getting the purring started. Luz then pulled Amity down to sit next to her on the couch.

"Okay, so your theyfriend likes you for you but they also openly admit that they find you attractive, got it," Luz finished to the phone. Then she yawned. "Why am I so tired all of a sudden? I slept for like... Fourteen hours."

"Mija," Camila's voice said through the phone, "you're tired because of what happened last night, and... Have you eaten since you got up?"

"Not yet," Luz admitted.

"Rest, eat up. Make sure you drink plenty of water. Call us back later when you feel up to it, I'll let you go. I have more calls to make and something important to talk about with Vee."

"Wait, what?" The basilisk added before a click announced that the call had ended.

Luz yawned again and Gus and Willow joined her, King, and Amity on the couch, the children forming a cocoon of hugs to support the human girl and assorted expressions of relief that had been bottled up while she was on the phone spilled out in a loving, gentle cacophony.

Lilith for her part seemed to realize something. "Where's Edalyn?"

As if summoned, Eda wandered in from the kitchen carrying a large, steaming bowl. "Hot soup!" she declared as she set it down in front of Luz and then produced a spoon. "sorry that took so long. Turns out the canned cockatrice soup I had has an additive that isn't human-safe so I had to whip some up from scratch. The flavor might be a little off, I had to make a few substitutions and if it's a little salty or earthy that's because I added some stuff to fortify it, you know. Keep your electrolytes up and make sure you're getting your vitamins since some of the normal veggies had to go."

Luz tried a spoonful and then smiled. "It tastes great, Eda."

The Owl lady took on a look of relief. "Good, now eat up. It's important to keep up your strength." She then turned around and noticed that Lilith was giving her a bewildered look. "And what's up with you?"

"I'm sorry," Lilth said, "but it's just so... Baffling to see you of all people acting so motherly."

Eda responded by summoning her palisman. "You take that back."

Lilith held up her hands defensively. "Okay, okay." Lith then sprouted a mischievous smirk. "It's not bizarre at all."

Eda's body language shifted, and it became clear that she was plotting violence. "Hooty!" she called out. "Prepare the grudgby court."

"Oh boy!" the house demon shouted.

Chapter Text

After watching Eda and Lilith make fools of themselves for about the length of an average children's cartoon episode, give or take a few commercial breaks, the topic turned to removing Luz's coven sigil.

"So, Lilly says the sigils can likely only seal so much magic, and Luz taking in the Titan blood put it toward the limit," Eda explained, "so since she's in the unique position of being able to take in magic and make it hers or however that works, we might be able to burn out the coven sigil by giving her more magic... But the trade-off is the sigil's probably gonna act up again each time we do it. Boots," Eda said as she turned to Amity, "Luz says you came up with some plan to make her stronger back in the human realm. Would you care to share?"

"N-no," Amity stuttered. "I... That was something I came up with impulsively while uh... Freaking out about how casual humans are about living in a death world that experiences an apocalypse at least once a year."

"Are you sure?" Luz asked. "I mean, I did agree to try it a little, and now we have a good reason."

"That was before I knew it would hurt you!" Amity shouted before shrinking back and... Oh. That's why Amity felt so bad earlier.

"Sweet Potato," Luz said reassuringly, "you couldn't know that it would do something like that, and... I want to do this," she insisted. "The sigil itches all the time and... If the... We're gonna get into more fights with the Emperor's Coven," Luz said. "I could get restrained by those vine things again, and... Maybe I have a power that could stop whatever the Emperor's evil plans are now but I can't even use it because of the sigil."

"But, Luz... I don't want to hurt you," Amity said shakily.

Luz responded by hugging Amity. "You wouldn't be the one hurting me," she insisted. "It'd be the sigil. It wouldn't be your fault, it'd be that jerk's who gave it to me in the first place and... I'm willing to go through a little more hurt if it means getting rid of it."

"Titan Blood is the strongest source of magic in the demon realm," Lilith added. "It's highly unlikely that anything short of the Titan's other humors or palistrom would cause anywhere near as severe a reaction."

This did not comfort Amity at all, Luz quickly realized. "Amity..."

"Luz's symbiote side absorbed her witch's wool cloak, and, and when she was explaining the different heroes and villains of her world she mentioned that a symbiote had absorbed the powers of a hero called Spider-Man and now that symbiote and its descendants all had those powers as well, so... I thought we could use that to make Luz stronger, to keep her safe from the... But the only things I could think of that would be worthwhile were the humors and palistrom." Amity swallowed. "We, we promised to protect each other but... I couldn't keep Luz safe from the... And we talked about it, I'm still terrified and... Luz I'm sorry, but I can't help but be relieved that you can't go back there right now and I know I shouldn't feel that way I'm such trash I—"

Luz cut Amity off with a kiss, which seemed to reboot the panicking witch's brain. "You don't have to apologize. It's normal to worry and you can't help how you feel and... Yeah, now that I think about it, things like Galactus probably do make the human realm sound terrifying." Luz laughed awkwardly. "I have to go back but I understand why you're scared. You're not trash, and even if you were trash, well, then call me Oscar."

"...I don't know what that last part means," Amity said with a sniff. "But it sounds sweet."

"Human reference," Luz declared, "I'll explain later."

"Now, it's not like we'd just be letting Luz tough out the reaction," Eda declared. "If we're doing this it'll be here, with pain potions, while she's sitting or laying, and a healer on hand."

"And as long as we don't use any more Titan Blood," Lilith added, "the reaction shouldn't be... As bad. Even Titan Bone isn't quite as potent as Titan Blood. Honestly, the hard part would be getting the stuff. Titan Bone and Titan Biles are reasonably rare, Titan Earth is common but regulated, and Titan Breath is—"

"I can get Titan Breath," Amity interrupted. "My dad uses it to power some of his inventions... I just, need to come up with a story to tell him, since I don't think the truth will..."

"Then there's palistrom," Eda continued. "That stuff's been overharvested for years. It's getting harder and harder to find in the wild and cultivated palistrom trees are kept under lock and key. Bumpipoo and I have been jumping through hoops to make sure you kids can still get your own palisman—don't ask how it's a surprise—and even if we could get some palistrom is the wildest of wild magic. If Luz just took it into her body all willy-nilly, there's no telling what the effects could be..."

"So palistrom is what palisman are made of?" Luz asked uncertainly. Her mind turned toward what she'd seen the Emperor doing to that poor palisman that day in the castle. "Because, um..."

"Raw palistrom isn't alive the way a palisman is," Lilith replied. "It's the act of being carved that shapes the palisman into a form that can be animated, and the bond between a palisman and their first partner that brings them to life: Some sentimental types say that the carver, and first partner in the cases where a with didn't carve their own, donate a small portion of their own soul so that the palisman might live. Consuming raw palistrom would... You saw, didn't you? When you were sneaking around the palace."

"Yeah," Luz replied. "I saw what the Emperor does with palisman."

"...What does the Emperor do with palisman?" Gus asked.

"He eats them," Luz said grimly.

There was silence for a moment. Then Gus grabbed a bucket from Eda's junk pile and ran out the back door, though he didn't get so far away that they couldn't hear him retching.

"...Yeah, that was my reaction too," Luz acknowledged bluntly.

"Consuming raw palistrom would be different from what the Emperor does," Lilith said regretfully. "He... He said he was doing it because it was the only way to manage the damage inflicted on him by wild magic, who knows what the real reason..." Something seemed to occur to Lilith. "His body is made of slime."

Luz had noticed that while fighting him. "And?"

"It's malleable, but forms into blades and tendrils when he lashes out," Lilith continued, "and he's consuming Palisman for... What if... What if the Emperor is one of these symbiote creatures? Or a hybrid like you? What if the real reason he consumes palisman is to hoard their power within himself and better pass himself off as a witch?"

"...Does he react badly to fire and loud noises?" Luz asked.

"I don't know."

"Well, we can try that the next time we inevitably have to fight him," Luz concluded.

"Tangent asside," Lilith continued, "consuming raw palistrom wouldn't be the same as the horrific abomination that I could have and should have stopped." Lilith's palisman, a white raven, settled on her shoulder and started nuzzling her. "Which brings us back to how we're going to get any."

Amity spoke up again. "I... I'll be carving my own palisman. It's expected of me. We've already got a branch of palistrom prepared, we're just waiting for my education to reach the point where palisman ownership is traditional. I was going to save the bark and the chips and shavings."

"...That would let Luz pace herself on consuming it, and mean we can stop if there's a bad reaction," Lilth continued. "But... Amity? You are aware that if you only see carving your palisman as a means of getting palistrom, as a means for anything really, rather than a partner, a friend, then you won't be able to bond with them properly, right?"

"I know," Amity defended. "This is... Something I've been looking forward to for a while. It's just... If it can help out Luz, too..."

"Good," Lilith replied. "I remember how eager you were to have your own palisman when you first became one of my students, I'd hate for you to be unable to bond properly" she continued. "Was going to do my darndest to make sure you could keep yours when you joined the Emperor's Coven...," she whispered. "I also remember how excited you were to get to learn multible forms of magic but... It seems you don't need the coven to do that after all."

"Yeah... The Emperor's Coven was what my Mom wanted of me, but... I just want... You remember all that?" Amity asked.

"Amity," Lilith continued, "I'm sorry I didn't say this until when I did, and that I used it to try and... but I meant it when I said you were my best student. When I said I was proud of your accomplishments... And I'm proud of the things you've done since leaving my tutilige, too. Again, I'm sorry I wasn't the kind of teacher you needed and that... I couldn't and can't be the kind of authority figure you needed." Lilith then looked to Luz and Eda. "And honestly at this point even if I could it would be really awkward."

Luz blinked. "I don't get it."

"I'll explain later." Eda quipped.

"Thank you, Lilith... It means a lot for you to say that but... Today is about comforting Luz and solving her problems," Amity finished, "we can deal with our relationship drama later."

"Actually, this is helping," Luz insisted. she... Loved backstories. And drama. And the people she loved talking about their backstories and working out their drama.

"Still," Amity deflected, "we should at least come up with a plan of action."

"I can ask around about Titan Earth," Willow added, "the plant coven doesn't have exclusive control of it, and fertilizers and potting soils made from it are reasonably common. Worst case scenario, we might be able to reconstitute some with enough work."

"Yeah, those were my thoughts too," Amity, "glad to have a more informed witch agree with me... But... There's another problem... The glyphs.

"Luz blinked. "What about them..."

"Well, Luz," Amity began, "it's... awfully coincidental how you found them, right? You told me you found the light glyph in your recording when you and King were trapped with a dangerous demon by the boiling rain and it helped. You found the fire glyph in the ashes of our campfire when we were stranded on the knee."

"Wait, what!?" Lilith and Willow shouted at the same time.

"Oh, did we not tell you guys that?" Luz asked. "I think we're bad at keeping everyone in the loop on this kinda stuff..."

"And you found the ice glyph in the frost while helping Eda clear out her freezer... Where did you find the plant glyph?"

"It occured to me that if the glyphs occur in nature that they could be anywhere," Luz explained, so I took a magnifying glass to a potted plant and it was there."

"And it doesn't strike you as... Odd? That no one else has rediscovered them in all this time?" Amity asked. "And... They work by manipulating ambient magic. There's ambient magic in the human realm, but they only work there... In the presence of Titan Blood."

"...Amity, what are you saying?" Luz asked.

"I think... I think the glyphs come from the Titan," Amity began. "I think they run off of the Titan's power and... That the Titan let you have a chance to find them... Maybe... Maybe he likes your character? Or felt you should have a chance to learn magic... Or, or... Maybe Bos is a lying liar who lies and The Titan took a chance on an outsider exposing him but... Luz, if you take in all five of the Titan's humans, then... Then you'll have the magic of The Titan. Just a fraction of it but... Would the Titan approve of that? and if he doesn't... If he gave you the glyphs, can he take them away? The Emperor says one thing about the Titan but, everything we know about the Titan could be wrong."

King proceeded to laugh haughtily. "If the Titan knows what's good he'll be honored to let someone as amazing as Luz have some of his power. I say we go for it!"

"Boots, you're overthinking this," Eda insisted. "The Titan's dead."

"His heart still beats," Amity countered. "His lungs still breath. His bones and marrow regenerate. Most of his flesh has rotted away but what's left seems to replenish itself. His remains are still generating vast amounts of potent magic, and... If the Titan is a God, a being so powerful that life spontaneously generated from its flesh as it died then... Who says it needs a body to live?"

"Okay, fair," Eda countered, "but you're getting into some children's fantasy chosen one stuff here. None of that's real."

"I'm not saying that Luz has some predestined path in life, I just... Maybe I'm just still a little brainwashed by the Emperor's Titan Cult but... I don't want to make Luz stronger only to take away the first spells she ever learned," Amity finished. "Applied theology is hard, and... It's not like I can find any non-Emperor's Coven sources on what the Titan is supposed to be like."

Luz responded by finding a pen and a piece of paper and drawing out the light glyph. Carefully, she held it up and tapped it, and the paper folded up and transformed into a ball. "If The Titan can take the glyphs away," she said, "he hasn't done it yet."

"Yeah but... The Titan blood was an accident," Amity countered. "what we're talking about, that'll be deliberate."

Luz hummed. "How do you pray to the Titan?"

Amity blinked. "What?"

"I'm not really religious," Luz explained, "honestly now that I think about it it's kind of freaky that Loki actually heard my prayers, but... Maybe a prayer could solve the problem? Just... Tell the Titan that we don't mean any disrespect doing this, that we're mostly doing it to get rid of something that's hurting me, maybe ask for permission." Luz shrugged. "It can't hurt."

Things got awkward for a moment before Lilith chimed in. "As the former head of the Emperor's Coven, I was trained in how to lead certain services. I was never particularly religious myself but... I can improvise something."

Lilith held out her hand and Amity took it. Luz took Amity's other hand and then offered her a free one which was taken by Willow, who held her other hand. Eda rolled her eyes but complied and closed the circle taking Lilith's other hand.

King, being too small for this, wandered off at that point.

"Titan below us," Lilith began, "we beg your guidance in this matter. Luz the Human has been branded against her will with the sigil of the Emperor's coven and it causes her continual harm. We know now that the emperor likely lies about doing your bidding, but even if he is not those sigils were never meant for a human. The only way to remove it from her at this time is to give her greater power, and the only way to do so efficiently involves your humors, the gifts you leave us of your own flesh and blood. We mean no disrespect in using your power in this way, and do so only to aid a child in need. We humbly ask your blessing in this endeavor and, if you approve and are willing, please give us a sign. Amen."

...That sounded an awful lot like a Christian prayer with the names changed out. Especially the ending. Luz felt this was really strange, but that didn't stop her from joining in when everyone repeated that last word.

"Alright, now do we have any other business to attend to before I go take a long shower?" Eda quipped.

"Nothing I can think of," Luz said while waving her hand playfully and—"Oh sweet Titan!" She exclaimed.

At the very tips of her fingers... Spark! Dark blue and purple, but.. Sparks. Magic!

"Well," Eda deadpanned, "there's your sign Boots."

Luz was giggling like a schoolgirl while everyone stared at her as she tried to draw a spell circle.

King wandered back in, shortly followed by Gus who carefully placed a now thoroughly cleaned bucket back where he'd gotten it from. "Did we miss something?" he asked.

After a few attempts at drawing a spell circle that didn't go anywhere, Eda came up behind Luz and gently took her by the hand. "Okay kid, you need to focus. Concentrate the power at your fingertips, and picture what you want. Let's try the light spell. Easy does it," she said, speaking half as a teacher and half as a mom as she guided Luz's hand through the movement.

A small and steady circle was drawn, and Luz conjured the tiniest ball of light. Small than what she made with the glyphs even, but... She could do magic, even just basic magic, on her own! She hadn't been this happy since, since... Since standing up for herself against her former crushes at the graveyard, when she realized just how far she'd come and how loved she felt. There was no arguing that Luz wasn't a real witch now.

"Wow," King quipped. "We missed a lot."

Luz yawned and stumbled back to the couch... Hopefully that taking it out of her was because she was still recovering from taking in the Titan Blood and not any other reason but...

All things considered, even if Luz still felt terrible about not being able to see her Mom in person, today was a good day, and Luz wasn't going to let anything ruin it.

...A buzzing alerted the room to a message on Amity's scroll. The witch in question checked it, then went pale. "My mom just called a family meeting... And she wants me to bring Luz."

Chapter Text

As it would cause Amity quite a bit of trouble if she did not comply, and her Mom was still bound by an everlasting oath not to interfere in Amity's relationships, it was determined, reluctantly on Eda's part, that Luz would accompany Amity back home.

While Luz took a quick shower—and Eda brewed some 'coffee' from a thankfully modified version of Luz's recipe—Amity hit up Edric and Emira on Penstagram, checking to see if they knew what the family meeting was about (they didn't) and asking their help to keep Luz safe if this went poorly, which they both enthusiastically agreed to.

Fifteen minutes later, Luz came down, dressed in her normal casual attire, chugged a large mug of 'coffee,' and met Amity at the door.

Lilith and Eda flew them across town. As they landed just outside of the manor., Eda turned back to them: "Okay kids, Lilly and I are gonna be right outside. If there's any trouble at all, call us... In fact," with a flash her staff transformed into an adorable little owl which fluttered to Luz's shoulder. "Take Owlbert with you just in case."

Lilith's elegant staff transformed into an admittedly goofy-looking white raven. "Mike, go with Amity."

The raven nodded and flew to Amity's shoulder and... Lilith was trusting her with her Palisman... Named Mike. "Mike?"

Lilith sighed. "His name is a bit complicated, so he prefers the nickname Mike Socks."

"At least it's not Mike Rotch," Luz quipped. It took Amity a second to get it.

And then they marched into the manticore's den.

...Well, the Blight family's den, but given what Amity's mother was like the effect was the same.

They were, of course, the last people there. The twins, who from their expressions had been waiting there for some time, saw them come in and then slid apart so that Amity and Luz could sit between them on the couch.

"Alright," her Mom began, "now that we're all here—"

"What is this about?" Amity interrupted. "Why did you want me to bring Luz?"

Her mother glared at her. "Tsk tsk, Mittens. You know better than to speak out of turn." Amity wanted to shrink back, but she stood her ground, and that prompted her mother to continue with a roll of her eyes. "So suspicious," she said, "it occurred to me that your human and I may have gotten off on the wrong foot when we first met a few weeks ago and that was... I'm terribly sorry about that," she said turning to Luz. "I'll admit, I was skeptical and I had my concerns but you do make such a lovely match for my princess. she's gotten so much stronger since meeting you and... Blessed by the Titan," Amity's mother mused. "And you chose my Mittens. And of course, with your mentor pardoned after that ugliness at the conformatorium, there's no reason to fear the worst, in fact..." She wrapped her fingers around the oracle focus she kept at her neck. "I foresee only good things for you and Mittens. I asked her to bring you here because I want you to feel like part of the family." She gave one of her fake little laughs, "The odds are good that you will be, soon enough."

...That was... Amity wasn't sure how to feel. On the one hand, her mother was approving of her relationship with Luz and had all but said outright that she'd divined their possible futures to find that they'd almost certainly be happily married when they grew up was nice but... There was something predatory in her mother's tone and she couldn't quite get over the feeling that another shoe was about to drop. In the best-case scenario, her mother expected to get something out of this almost like...

"In fact," her mother continued, "there's this old tradition... It hasn't really been done in years, but the oldest and wealthiest families of the Boiling Isles used to arrange contracts when their children paired off..."

...A buisness arrangement.

"Contracts?" Luz asked, sounding suspicious.

"Nothing sordid," her mother said with a sickly sweet smile, "honestly it's an idea I've always thought was something romantic," she said with the tone she used when exaggerating about what a Blight Industries product was capable of. "Just a little piece of paper that says that, well, since you go so well together, that you'll be wed someday. In the future. When you're both of age."

"So... An arranged marriage," Luz acknowledged. "Er, marriage contract? Um... We don't really do that kind of thing in the human realm, I don't even think it's legal where I'm from, and... I've read stories about that kind of thing but they were always just really cringy excuses to pair off characters or justify other... Stuff."

"Odalia," Amity's sad interrupted. "We talked about this. We have to let Amity make her own choices."

"And I'm offering them a choice to make," her mother continued. "Her and her human. There's no pressure," she said, "I just thought that since there's no doubt that you two will be together long term, you might like to make the commitment now, have that security, get the complicated stuff taken care of way ahead of time so that, when you're ready, you can both enjoy your big day properly..."

"What kind of complicated stuff," Luz asked.

"Oh, like... finances, would you prefer to comingle everything or keep some assets separate, negotiating things like a dowry, dower, or bride price, what to do if the unfortunate happens, that kind of thing," Amity's mother lectured... There it was.

Amity was about to open her mouth to tell her mother off, but Luz cut her off. "Do you think I care about your family's money?" She said and Amity could feel in her bones that Luz was hurt by the insinuation. "That... I love Amity, and she loves me. That's... That's all that matters right now. I couldn't care less about finances and... If this works out and we do get married when we grow up that's the time to talk about this stuff. Not now, we're just kids..." Luz then muttered to herself that this was "just like those cringy fanfics."

"...What's her name?" Amity asked her mother.

"What was that, Mittens?" her mother asked back.

"What's her name?" Amity asked again. "When I brought her over the first time, you asked her name. You even asked her what it meant but... You're not using it. You're just calling her 'my human.' What's her name?"

Her mother put on an overly wide forced grin. "Luuu~cy?"

"Wrong answer!" Amity declared. "And there it is, Luz," she continued, "she doesn't actually care about you, or our relationship. She's looking at this like a transaction, in terms of money, in—" Amity quashed a thought about how part of her felt like it was a transaction and that she should be doing services in exchange for Luz's love—"Because that's all she cares about. She thinks she can profit off of this, somehow, and wants to lock it down and control it. You, you..." She said to her mother... "I hate you!"

At once, Amity felt two things. the first was relief, that she'd finally admitted it, that she'd finally put her true feelings about her mother into words. But she also felt fear. Fear at how her mother would react, fear at what she was going to do, and... She could run again? Eda would let her stay at the Owl House or... Maybe Willow's parents would let her hide there if she explained the situation just right, Gilbert and Harvy were good people they wouldn't... Worst case scenario, there probably wasn't anything living in that cave in the woods she'd been hiding in the first time she ran away.

Her mother walked over to her and raised a hand and suddenly Amity felt small, as if she was a child again, but... The next thing she knew Luz and the Twins were standing up between her and her mother.

"Just let it go, Mom," Edric began.

"They don't want a contract like that," Emira finished.

Odalia sniffed. "Fine. But Mittens, that was a very hurtful thing to say," she sounded sad, but even if Amity couldn't feel the anger radiating off of her she would have been able to tell it was fake. "Despite what you think, everything I do is for you. I just want what's best for you, you know that, don't you...?"

Amity didn't answer as her mother walked back to her seat. Mike Socks nuzzeled her face, and when Luz sat back down she curled her arm around Amity's and... This was wrong. Today was supposed to be about Luz, not Amity's drama. She's not supposed to be the one getting comforted, Luz is. But her mother just has to go and ruin everything.

"Which brings me to the other topic I wished to speak about," her mother... Odalia, began. "Not too long ago, I made the acquaintance of a wealthy demon and we very recently signed a deal that should provide Mittens and.. Luz, with everything they need to thrive and reach their full potential."

"Unfortunately," a new voice called out as someone else appeared in the room, "you didn't read the contract all that closely." ...What smelled like rotten eggs?

Turning to the door, Amity saw what appeared to be a red-skinned witch with a massive widow's peak, dressed in a black leather coat and carrying a cane topped with a silver skull.

Luz groaned. "Not you, anyone but you!"

"Luz," Amity asked, "who is that?"

"Please allow me to introduce myself," the newcomer began, "I'm—"

"Mephisto!" Luz interrupted. "Remember when I told you about the Civil War and how one of the senators who started it was possessed by a petty loser of a devil who wanted to break up Spider-Man's marriage? This is that loser."

"Strong words from one of Knull's bastards," the man named Mephisto declared. "Your great grandpappy on the eldritch side might as well have been a whining toddler compared to me."

"Why are you here!?" Luz demanded. "Shouldn't you be off... Losing Fiddle contests?"

"I'm here to collect what I am due," he said while conjuring parchment in a burst of flame. "You know, for a businesswoman Odalia sure did fall for a lot of older tricks. Just ply her with a bit of expensive wine and she'll sign whatever you put under her nose. Like here, 'I, lord Mephisto henceforth known as the contract holder, and Odalia Blight, henceforth known as the contractee, do enter into an agreement as such: The contract holder shall henceforth ensure that Amity Blight and her human are awarded every opportunity to excel and achieve their full potential and in exchange... The contractee and the remainder of her family shall forfeit their immortal souls'" He laughed dementedly as if he'd just told the most hilarious joke. "Gotta say, Odalia, tricking you was easier than getting Eve to eat the fig."

"You're not the actual Satan, stop acting like you are!" Luz shouted quickly.

"Luz, how do you know so much about this guy?" Amity asked.

"I've read the literature the Avengers put out," Luz explained, "every aspiring witch needs to know how to protect themselves from evil spirits."

Mephisto hummed. "Someone's aiming for Sorcerer Supreme."

"How dare you!?" Amity declared. "Luz would never hunt down and eat dozens of witches and sorcerers to build up her magical power."

"Okay, Amity, we're going to have to fact-check your sources on human magic later," Luz said as an asside, "but right now we kind of need to stop him from dragging your family to eternal damnation."

...Oh. That... That was what forfeiting their souls meant, didn't it... Amity was suddenly filled with immense terror... Not even Odalia deserved that, uh... "How?"

"Yes, how?" Mephisto mocked. "Are you going to fight me? I do have to admit that under normal circumstances, the transcendent slaying properties of your little slimy half might let you stand a chance. I'm a few steps outside my own realm, my powers aren't that strong here. A lucky blow outta do it... But right now, you're tired. You're weak. After what happened last night, we'd go one round before you were dead on your feet. You don't stand a chance."

"A challenge," Luz declared confidentially. "The limits on your ability to act are vague, but two things set in stone are that you have to obey the letter of any deals you make and that you have to abide by any fair challenge in exchange for souls under your dominion. So I challenge you."

"We challenge you," Amity declared, finding her voice through her panic. "I'm not letting Luz deal with this alone."

"Fine, what sort of challenge?"

Amity looked to Luz and... Luz seemed deep in thought. "Amity?" She whispered, "How have you been doing in your bard classes?"

"I'm okay at it, I guess."

"Good enough," Luz finished. "We challenge you to a musical battle: We perform in front of a panel of neutral judges, and whoever is judged best wins. Or if one side forfeits, or if you leave the venue you concede automatically."

"Alright," Mephisto agreed, "now... What are your terms? What's the catch?"

"If we win," Luz began, "you must take your sorry butt back to the bad place, and also you will have to void the contract and release the Blight Family's souls."

"And what if I win?" Mephisto asked smugly.

Luz paused for a minute, "Then you can take me back with you..."

"Luz no!" Amity shouted.

"Amity, it's the only way," Luz countered, "to take the Blight's place."

"Fine!" Mephisto declared. "And since you're being such a good sport about it... I'll even throw in the traditional reward for defeating me in a musical battle. Be back here in... Six hours!"

The devil snapped his fingers and Amity's family flew from their seats to the center of the room before being trapped in a cage of fire. At the same time, a gust of wind picked Luz and Amity up and blew them through the halls of Blight Mannor and out the door where they crashed into the waiting Clawthorn sisters.

"Amity," Luz began after everyone untangled themselves (and a very distressed Lilith's head was paced back on her body,) "this is—"

Amity cut Luz off by kissing her. "You beautiful... stupid... Self-sacrificing... Wonderful... Idiot!" she declared as love and frustration warred within her. "What possessed you to agree to that!?"

"...This is my fault," Luz finished. "Mephisto's a threat from the human realm. And if he was active here before now, you would have heard of him, so... He must have followed me here or something... It's okay, I have a plan, but..."

"The plan is to win," Amity insisted. "He's not getting my family and he's not getting you, I'll, I'll..." Amity drew a spell circle with bard magic and her instrument case appeared in her hands.

"Okay, what's going on?" Eda asked. Then Owlbert and Mike began hooting and cawing at their respective partners. Both looked shocked for a moment and then Eda smacked Luz across the back of the head.

"Ow! What was that for!?" She whined.

"For being an idiot," Eda declared. "Now, there's gotta be some way to weasel out of this..."

"There isn't," Luz insisted. "Devils are tricksy types, The only winning move is to beat them at their own game, and..."

"I wanted the first song I played on my instrument to be a love song," Amity admitted wistfully. "This... This is a good alternative but..."

"...Then we'll play a love song," Luz declared as if she had a sudden epiphany. "Devils like Mephisto... They can't stand love. Or goodness. Or purity. It hurts them, badly.... If we play a song that's an expression of pure love then, then he'll be in so much pain that he'll have to flee and forfeit the contest."

"Great!" Amity agreed as she felt relief at the realization of a workable plan. "Do you know any songs like that?"

Amity's relief turned back into panic and Luz bluntly admitted "I do not."

"...I do," Eda said after a moment. "And a bit of bard magic that goes with it. If we get going now, I should have just enough time to teach it to you."

Chapter Text

The return trip to the Owl House was done with haste and Luz almost wore herself out rushing to get the acoustic guitar she used in her bard lessons (and occasionally to perform for Amity.) Luckily, there was coffee left from earlier, and Hooty had baked muffins while they were gone for... Some reason.

"Non-dairy, hoot hoot!" he explained, so after a brief snack and a chance to re-caffeinate, Luz was ready to go... She'd have to thank Lilith later. While Luz hadn't been able to find a demon realm soda with a similar flavor profile and caffeine content to Mountain Dew and thus had yet to experiment with Loki's advice, her coffee recipe as it turned out was rather similar to one that Lilith had started experimenting with around the time she'd joined the Empero's coven and, having thirty years of experience on Luz in such matters, was able to give her some advice. Switching to a different roast for the beans and using a different type of filter had done wonders for toning down the bitterness which combined a few other tweaks and using fire bee honey instead of sugar to sweeten it... Well, let's just say that it ended with something better tasting and significantly less bitter but with a fraction of the empty calories and no loss in caffeine content.

....Based on Eda's reaction when they first made it, however, it was still something of an acquired taste.

"Okay kids," Eda began, "you need a love song, and the purer the better. Luckily a... An old friend and I wrote a song that should do the trick. Now, it was originally composed for the viola and the mandolin so we're gonna have to tweak it a bit... Boots, what kind of instrument have you got anyway?"

Amity opened her case and pulled out—

"Is that an electric guitar?" Luz asked.

In Amity's arms was a device that very much looked the part, made of curved bonze panels and solid lavender abomination slime. Even the strings were made of slime, though... There was what looked like a small speaker in the bottom corner of it as well.

"...I guess?" Amity declared. "At first I wasn't sure what I was going to do with bard magic but... I was inspired by the music we danced to in the human realm and... I mixed four different kinds of magic with abomination tech to make this. My own custom instrument. If I flip this switch here it goes from standard guitar to bass guitar." Amity did as such the instrument changed shape as the slime liquified and reformed, frets adjusted and six strings merged into four thicker strings. "There's a built-in amplifier with adjustable volume, and I can even program in a simulated drum track for when I'm playing solo."

"My girlfriend is a genius!" Luz declared proudly.

"That I am," Amity agreed with a smile, which made Luz smile back at her.

"Okay," Eda said as she dug through her own hair... For a full minute. "I need to put some shelves up here," she muttered before finally pulling out some sheet music. "So there's a bit of a story behind this song, maybe I'll tell it to you sometime..."

Hunter stood before his uncle as the Emperor inspected the portal key. He didn't even want to think about how severely he'd be punished if his uncle couldn't repair the key...

"I can work with this," the Emperor said after an agonizing series of moments. "The key will need to be repaired, but there's still plenty of time before the day of Unity. You may have failed in retrieving the portal but this is an... acceptable alternative."

Hunter couldn't remember the last time he'd received such unambiguous praise from his uncle. And yet... "Is there anything else you need from me, sir?"

"No. You are..." The Emperor turned to Hunter, his body language taking on a more curious posture as he tilted. "Is there something on your mind, Hunter?"

Hunter had to be careful with how he answered. If his uncle didn't like what he said, Hunter might lose another notch out of his ear. "It's... The human. The girl you said was blessed by the Titan."

"What about her?"

"She... She was hurt pretty badly," Hunter admitted. "When the key cracked and the Titan Blood inside spilled on her it... That coven sigil... I know she's our enemy but, she's blessed by the Titan. I... I know I shouldn't but... I want to help her."

Hunter braced himself for his uncle's reaction but instead of getting angry, his uncle sighed, almost wistfully. "Compassion isn't a sin, Hunter. This girl isn't like the Wild Witches our scouts hunt for, she's not defying our system out of malice. She's merely... Misguided. The truth is, I can see why she might think that a life of chaos and freedom with the Owl Lady is a good thing: Have I told you of my own time in the human realm?"

"No," Hunter replied, "I've heard rumors but..."

"It's a wonderful place," his uncle said as he removed his mask revealing a wizened man with a nasty green car across his face. "The trees are green, the nights are quiet, and the rain is cold and refreshing. But someone like Luz the human... The last time I visited that place, someone like her would have been a savage. Or a slave."

This took Hunter aback. "What makes you so sure?"

"Slave labor was a necessary evil in my time in the human realm," his uncle explained, "but rather than employ say, criminals, some elected to capture others from their homes in other lands with different, less civilized cultures and treated them as property. Working conditions were often, as the humans say, inhumane. I can't quite place the girl's features, she's clearly of mixed blood, but it's clear that she has ancestry from places whose people were commonly enslaved in the part of the human realm I am familiar with."

"Her features?" Hunter asked, confused.

"Humans aren't like witches, Hunter, where skin and hair and eye shape vary wildly within the same region. Typically in a single region those native to it will look broadly similar."

"How could people justify kidnapping others from their homes to, do what?"

"Mostly domestic chores or agricultural tasks, from what I recall," the Emperor clarified, "and as for how it was justified... Mostly, by claiming that they were ignorant, and through that ignorance were spiritually impure. Lesser. It's a tactic of propaganda of which I am uncomfortably familiar."

"Did the wild witches try something similar when you were unifying the Isles?" Hunter asked.

"Yes," his uncle said confidently. "Now truthfully, I'm not quite sure why the humans I knew went to such extremes. There were and are much greater problems than justifying the oppression of the labor, and if the ignorance of savages made them spiritually lesser then would it not be prudent to educate them and save their souls? Is one human life not worth the same as another? But I digress, Luz the human speaks too freely to be a runaway slave and too eloquently to be a savage. I presume that in my absence, human technology has progressed beyond the point where forced labor is necessary and the descendants of the slaves and other savages have been properly educated... But I can't see things having changed that much. She is likely still a second-class citizen in her homeland..." The Emperor smiled. "But, once I have the portal door and the Day of Unity is complete, I'll be able to properly help her instead of letting her be led astray by the Owl Lady."

Emperor Belos then replaced his mask. "If there's nothing else, you are dismissed."

Hunter turned to leave, glad that he hadn't been made to account for the detour he took that delayed his return to the palace, but he noticed something. "Uncle, do you smell sulf—"

Hunter suddenly became light-headed and then everything went black.

Amity stepped into her own home if anything more nervous than when they arrived earlier that afternoon. The song and the bardic magic that went with it had been learned relatively easily, albeit with two snags: Eda had discovered that she could still do bardic magic despite her curse, but it was corrupted and would destroy most things in the area. And Luz... Couldn't do the nine main forms of magic. She could do basic elemental spells, but... Lilith suggested that it might be because Titan Blood or not, Luz didn't have bile or spell phlegms...

These problems had been addressed, however, by Eda taking more care when teaching them the song and helping them adapt it to their instruments and with the discovery that Luz could still participate in group spells...

The bigger problem, however, was that Luz was running on fumes. She was supposed to be resting today, not risking her health and her soul to save Amity's family from her mother's mistake... If what Luz had said about the devil they were up against was true, that he was bound by the letter of his deals, then her family would be safe no matter what but... If this didn't work, if they couldn't force him to forfeit, and if the 'neutral judges' rule in his favor then Luz would suffer in their place and... Even if they won, would she be okay?

Into the sitting room, they stepped, Eda and Lilith behind them. No sign of the devil who'd done this, but her family was still sitting in the flaming cage and... The twins were trying to get her attention, but no sound seemed to be passing through the bars.

Luz yawned, and drained the last of her "coffee" from the thermos she'd poured it in before they left... That stuff was probably the only reason she was still awake at this point as it was.

In a burst of flame and foul-smelling smoke, the fiend holding Amity's family captive appeared. He'd traded out the leather coat for a crimson cloak but kept the cane.

"My apologies for being late," he said with false jovialness. He snapped his fingers and the furniture in the room flew to the walls. Another snap and a table with three chairs appeared in the cleared space. "But you wouldn't believe how hard it is to find neutral judges. I had to settle on some people who don't much have a reason to like either of us."

He snapped a third time and in three puffs of smoke appeared three figures, sitting at that table. On the right, was the diminutive form of Kikimora, the Emperor's assistant. On the left, was the Golden Guard. And in the middle...

"What is the meaning of this?" demanded Emperor Belos himself.

Amity's blood ran cold. She knew that this... Devil was powerful but to casually summon one of the strongest witches in the Boiling Isles, who might... She forced herself not to panic. She was just going to... Reveal that she's studying multible forms of magic in front of the three people most likely to harm her for that. All in order to prevent her beloved girlfriend from having to sacrifice herself to save the souls of her family. All because her mother, Odalia, did something stupid.

...The messed up part was that just a few months ago she would have given anything to show off in front of the Emperor himself. What a fool she'd been.

"In short," Mephisto declared, "the human here, true to her name, has declared a challenge: If she and her little girlfriend can best me in a musical battle, I release the Blight family from a really nasty contract that Odalia signed without reading it. If I win, however, the girl takes their place. You're here because we need neutral judges and, well, you're the closest I could find on short notice."

"How dare you!?" demanded Kimimora, "do you—"

The small biped was interrupted with a wave of the Emperor's hand. "Now Kikimora. It's not wise to antagonize a being powerful enough to treat me of all people like a page to be called at whim. Not without knowing who and what they are... Proceed with your challenge for now," he finished coldly. "But be warned, there will be a reckoning for this, strange demon."

"We'll see about that," Mephisto declared, and then... Stepped out of himself. It was as if the frames of a roll of film changed, but the image of a previous frame was burned into its predecessors. He did this until he had six doppelgangers for a set of seven, which all animated at once, conjuring instruments from fire. The lead Mephisto held what appeared to be a golden violin and... Wouldn't that weight a ton and sound crummy? three of them had variations on a guitar though Amity only recognised the acoustic variety. One held a large bowed instrument that she recognized as a double bass, one held a mandolin, and the final was equipped with...

"Oh no," Luz muttered fearfully. "Not a banjo... Anything but that."

The band of Mephistos began playing and singing acapella. It sounded like the song was supposed to be rock, but this version was especially twangy. The lead Mephisto then went into lyrics.

"Please allow me to introduce myself, I'm a man of wealth and taste. I've been around for a long long year, stole many a man's soul and faith!"

The song continued on as Mephisto proceeded to claim credit for various events that Amity had no context for, and asked for others to guess his name. Luz face palmed and the Emperor... Seemed to grow more and more uncomfortable with each second, especially toward the end when Mephisto sang a specific verse.

"Just as every cop is a criminal, and all the sinners, saints... As heads is tails, just call me Lucifer, 'cause I'm in need of some restraint! So if you meet me, have some courtesy, have some sympathy, and some taste. Use all your well-learned politesse, or I'll lay your soul to waste!"

As the fiend finished, Luz launched into a tirade. "You monster! Not only did you choose the single most on the nose song you possibly could have, but you had to go and butcher it by singing a Blue Grass version... You really are the devil, aren't you?"

"Well, that's the stupidest possible question you could have asked," Mephisto deadpanned. "Besides, if I played it straight I couldn't use the fiddle."

"You know that song's supposed to be sarcastic, right?"

"Don't care, now play your piece so we can get this over with," the devil declared as he absorbed his duplicates.

Amity and Luz each took a deep breath and composed themselves before starting to strum their respective instruments.

The song Eda had taught them was sweet and sensitive, and as the golden aura spread out from beneath their feet to bathe the room in orange hues Amity focused on the trick that made the song and its magic work: The song was written out of love, so to play it properly, and for the magic to be at it's most effective one had to be thinking of their loved ones while playing. So as Amity strummed and picked, she thought of hers.

Her wonderful, amazing girlfriend who loved her back more than she deserved, who was risking her health and soul to save Amity's family. Her siblings, who for all the trouble they'd caused her were still her brother and sister. Her dad... Her friends, Willow, Gus, Boscha... Eda, who'd taken her in when she had nowhere else to go... Camila, who accepted her into her daughter's life unconditionally... Even Lilith, now that the older witch had apologized and made it clear that she did care.

Only moments into their performance, Mephisto's body began to smoke. He fell to his knees and started belting out agonized screams as he covered his ears. Amity closed her eyes and continued to play, doing her best to tune the devil out and focus on the music and the people she cared for.

It wasn't a long song, just over two minutes, but... Hopefully, it would be enough.

They finished... And Amity's heart dropped. When she opened her eyes, Mephisto was still there. Smoldering, on his knees, breathing heavily, and radiating rage like she'd never felt before, but... Still there. The plan hadn't worked.

"...It's alright Amity," Luz whispered. "We've still got the orignal plan." ...The original plan that Luz had never explained to Amity.

"That... Was a dirty trick," Mephisto declared as he forced himself up. "I'm going to enjoy getting my hands on you, mortal..." He said with a threatening sneer aimed directly at Luz.

The response to that was for Eda and Lilith to step between Mephisto and Amity and Luz, staves drawn but he paid the Clawthorn sisters no mind. Instead, the devil simply gestured to the kidnapped heads of the Emperor's Coven.

"...Well, if we're looking at it objectively," Kikimora started for... Oh, Mephisto was gesturing directly at her. "The red fellow's song was performed better and, personally, there's something almost... Nostalgic for me, about his choice of instruments. If we have to participate in this sham, I have to give my vote to him."

Amity gulped as Mephisto smiled maliciously, and moved his hand so that he was now pointing at the Golden Guard.

"Well," the teen began, "while Kikimora has a point about technical skill, Blight and the human's song had more spirit. There was feeling to it while What's-his-name's song seemed to be running off of spite. And honestly, I think I just like that style of music more, so vote for the young couple."

A tied vote. That meant that the determination came down to... The single witch in all the Isles with the most reason to want something bad to happen to Luz.

"And you, Your Highness," Mephisto asked as he gestured to Belos.

"The truth is," the Emperor began, "I don't have much of an ear for music. Barring a few songs that are clearly just noise, it's all the same to me. But... Looking at why you preferred what you did... You admitted yourself to being a trickster who deceived my subjects into surrendering... What? Their souls, fiend? You are the worst sort of villain. Meanwhile, Luz the human despite how far astray she's been led by the Owl Lady unhesitatingly put herself at risk to save them. The Titan's will is clear, such benevolence must be rewarded. I have no choice," he finished, "but to vote in favor of Luz the human."

They won? They won! Sure, they'd probably be in big trouble with the Empeor's coven in a few minutes, but...

Mephisto looked for all the world like he was moments away from becoming an erupting volcano but then he just... Became calm all at once. "Oh well," he said cheerfully. "You win some, you lose some." He then pulled forth the parchment from earlier and tore it into halves and then quarters before dropping it and letting it crumble to dust as it hit the floor. "But..." He began threateningly, "I'll be seeing you very soon," he said while staring directly at the Emperor. "Now back where I got you from," he finished with a snap making the kidnapped judges and the table at which they sat vanish in a puff of smoke.

The flaming cage vanished and her family stumbled out, and the devil strode forward confidently, turning to slip between the guard of the Clawthorn sisters with unnatural speed to stand before Amity and Luz.

...And then laid his golden... Fiddle? On the ground at their feet.

"So there's some context here that I don't have," Amity admitted.

Mephisto rolled his eyes. "Look, some jerk wrote a song about 43 years ago and I had to go and be a smartass about it, just take the win." He then vanished with a loud bursting sound.

"Huh," Luz admitted. "Didn't even need the orignal plan."

"What orignal plan?" Amity finally asked, the threat being over finally letting her release her composure.

"Wait, did I not... Oh, I'm sorry," Lauz declared nervously. "I thought... Mephisto can twist the spirit of a deal as far as he wants, but he's strictly bound to the letter. The challenge I issued... Meant he was stuck between two deals."

"Huh?" Amity asked.

"The deal he made with your mom said that he got your family's souls in exchange for him helping you and your human," Luz explained. "You don't have any other humans hidden around here, do you?"

"...No."

"So, if he takes me to the Bad Place," Luz continued, "he can't uphold the letter of the orignal deal. So if we'd lost, he would have had to relinquish his claim on me to fulfill the first deal, and since the challenge was that he take me in your family's place letting me go means he has to let them go. Or he could have voided the first deal but then he'd have to let your family go and since I was supposed to go in their place if he lets go of his claim on them then he lets go of his claim on me. He was going home empty-handed no matter what."

It took Amity a second to process that, but when she did... "My girlfriend is a genius!"

"That I am," Luz agreed with a smile that made Amity smile.

Then Luz collapsed on top of Amity, making all of Amity's panic come crashing back with interest. "Luz, Luz!?" she begged as her heart pounded.

"Sorry," Luz mumbled tiredly, "I think I'm spent for..."

No, Luz... She pushed herself too hard and... Amity looked to Ed and Lilith for help but they seemed just as surprised and shocked as she was and... Wait, Lilith. The spell Lilith had used to help Eda weeks ago... How did it go?

"With this spell declared," she said as she pressed her head against Luz's, "let the pain be shared!"

Immediately Amity was overwhelmed with exhaustion and a mild headache. But... That meant that that was all Luz had now, so she'd be okay, right, and...

"Amity, what did you do that for?" Luz asked, sounding... Less tired than she was a moment ago, but... Still sounding very exhausted.

"Becuase, I... Huh..?"

"I'm not hurt, I... I've been tired all day and the caffeine wore off," she admitted. "I... Did I scare you? I'm sorry, but... Now you've got that and half of my... You know, from last night, and..."

Amity immediately felt stupid. But, to save face even as the blood rushed to hers, she declared, "Well, it would have been hard to get you home if you were passed out."

Then someone smacked Amity on the back of the head.

"Ow, what was that for!?" she asked as she turned to find a... Rather concerned Lilith was looking at her sternly.

"For being an idiot," her former mentor deadpanned. "You thought she pushed herself too hard today and was dying, didn't you?"

"...Yes," she admitted sheepishly.

"Half of dying is still dying, Amity," Lilith lectured. "If she had been dying of exhaustion or something, that wouldn't have saved her, it would have just killed you both. ...Would you like to be my student again? Until I find a new job I have nothing but free time and it's clear that there's still much I have to teach you. If you'll have me," she finished awkwardly.

That was a strange segue, but "...I'll think about it."

After making sure that Luz could stand on her own now... and feeling stupid since if Amity could, Luz could, Amity was... tackled by her siblings and was once more the meat of a hug sandwich.

Taking everything in after calming down from that Amity noticed that her mother had wandered to the corner of the room and was now staring out of the window. Her Dad was looking about hesitant, before finally turning to Eda.

"Edalyn," he began, "I hope it's not too much to ask of you but, Odalia and I are going to have to have a long talk and... I know Amity is seemingly welcome here whenever, but could you watch the twins tonight?"

Eda sighed. "Yeah, sure. Why not? Blight Boy, Blight Girl, go grab a change of clothes and meet Lilly outside," she began. "Lilith, I'm gonna go on ahead with Luz and Boots. When the other two get back, cut through town, and pick up some takeout. After today I do not have enough sporks to cook dinner for four teenagers, us, and King. It doesn't matter what, just remember Luz's food issues and call me if you're not sure."

And then... That happened. Eda flew Luz and Amity back to the Owl house on her staff and twenty minutes later Lilth came in, with the twins and several bags of fast food from someplace or another.

After dinner, Eda insisted that Luz and Amity go to bed early. And, as they were fading fast, there was no protest. Amity barely had enough strength to change for bed and head to Luz's room before collapsing and... This was the first time she'd slept over since Luz got her new bed. It was comfortable.

And as she fell into bed, Luz almost on reflex pulled Amity into a hug and sleepily mumbled "Wanna cuddle."

"And that," Eda declared to Luz as she made sure they were settled, "is why I got you the queen size. Night kids, if you need anything I'll be making sure the other two don't burn Hooty down."

And then sleep took them.

Odalia Blight couldn't remember the last time Alador had been properly angry at her. It took an hour of him ranting before she could get a word in edgewise. Once he'd said his peace, however, all it took were some crocodile tears and fibs about how "sorry" she was and how she only wanted what was best for the family, and how she knew she made a mistake to get him to back off.

Admittedly, she had to agree that they'd both take a few days off of work and find something to do as a family, to 'reconnect' with the children they barely knew anymore, but the company could run itself for a few days and honestly, the ay Alador was he might up and forget by next evening.

Then she set to scrying for a time, in her private room, and now, as the clock struck one in the morning and even dear workaholic Alador was in bed, Odalia sat sipping from a tumbler of brandy in the den, contemplating the events of the previous afternoon.

"Was the cage of fire necessary?" she asked out loud, and from the shadows manifested Mephisto.

"It had to look real my dear," the devil offered with a smile. "Did it work?"

"My oracle spirits cannot find a single possible future where Mittens and her human aren't together for life," Odalia confirmed. "Whatever bond they have can only grow stronger after the human's seeming willingness to put herself at the ultimate risk to protect the Blight family... The only way today could have gone better is if they'd agreed to the contract," she finished wistfully.

"Oh come on, you knew that was a long shot," Mephisto replied. "But if it's any consolation, I think I can guarantee that your youngest daughter is now the witch that Emperor Belos respects the most out of any in the Isles after what he saw."

Odalia grunted. That was good news. "How did you know the human would challenge you to a musical battle?"

"Challenging the devil to a battle of musical skill has been a meme in the human realm for decades, my dear," he replied back. "Though honestly, I underestimated her. She's much smarter than I gave her credit for, wording the challenge in such a way that it would have trapped me had the deal for your family's souls been real." He then made a show of sniffing dramatically. "Though not that smart: She didn't specify which 'bad place' or how long I had to stay. Gotta say they love me in Vegas." He laughed. "Though still, outright feeding me the perfect guarantee that this would play out the way we wanted, so I wouldn't have to throw the contest... Almost makes up for torturing me with that damned love song."

Odalia took another sip from her glass. "What are you getting out of this, if not souls?" She asked. "I mean, you're going to far too much effort for this to be about satisfying your curiosity."

"I'm after the same thing you're after, Odalia: Power."

Chapter Text

Luz woke up in the morning to find herself still cuddling with Amity. That was a good way to wake up but... Her arm was under her girlfriend, and she was still asleep. And so was Luz's arm. But Amity looked so peaceful right now, and yesterday had been so hard on her, so of course Luz didn't want to wake her.

However, the decision was taken out of her hands when her phone rang.

Amity startled awake, sat up, and asked "Wassat?"

"My phone," Luz answered as she quickly withdrew her arm and tried to shake out the tingles as discretely as she could. "It's uh, on the little table over on your side if you could hand it to me?"

Amity did as she was asked, and Luz saw that it was her Mom calling. She answered with the phone next to her head only to remember too late...

"¡Buenos dias querida!"

...That she still had it set to speaker.

"Morning, Mami," Luz replied back. Then she yawned.

"Luz, are you alright? I didn't wake you, did I?"

"No, I'm fine," she was definitely feeling better than she had been yesterday, if still a little tired and beat up. "You woke Amity, but..." She realized moments too late that maybe saying that wasn't wise.

"Amity's there?" her Mom asked.

"....Yeah," Luz admitted.

"Good morning, Mrs. Noceda," Amity replied. clearly still sleepy.

"So when she sleeps over, she sleeps in your room?" her mom asked.

"Yeah..." There was no point in lying about it now.

"...Alone?"

"No," Luz replied quickly. "Half the time King sleeps in here with me," the little guy wasn't at the foot of her bed right now, but she could see him curled up in his little basket. "And even if he didn't, well... Eda gave us rules when we started dating and we follow them."

"What does that have to do with anything?" Amity asked. Luz could see the exact moment Amity's brain caught up to that line of questioning. It was when Amity became her most tomato-like. "Oh my Titan," she said quickly.

"Do you want me to get Eda?" Luz asked. "So you can talk to her about this?"

"No, no, I trust you. I just wanted to make sure... Did we ever have that mother-daughter talk?"

"When I was twelve," Luz deadpanned. "We also covered it in school. Both schools."

"Okay just... Promise me you won't grow up too fast."

"Promise," Luz finished. "So how did things go with Vee?"

"I asked her, she froze for thirty straight seconds and then said yes, we filled out the paperwork. It'll be a few weeks before everything is official even with that fancy New York Lawyer speeding things along but... Congratulations, mija, you're a big sister."

"Nice!" Luz cheered. "Can you get her on the line? I want to give mi hermanita my love."

"She's still in bed," her Mom replied. "I think yesterday wore her out, I kept catching her mumbling about having a 'real family,' the poor thing. Now, was your day as restful as it was supposed to be?"

Luz did not answer at first.

"...Luz?"

"It was not," Luz admitted. She didn't want to lie to her mother but she wasn't sure how to go about explaining what had occurred.

"What happened?" her Mom asked.

"My mother did," Amity interjected bitterly, apprently having overcome her mortification at the earlier topic.

"¿Qué?"

"Well," Luz began, "a little after our call yesterday after we figured out a plan for getting rid of the Coven Sigil—"

A terrible thought occurred to Luz. She reached out to grab Amity's arm and quickly checked her wrist and forearm.

"Luz, what—?"

"Okay," Luz finished with a sigh of relief to see that Amity hadn't taken half of her coven sigil as well. "We were planning how to get rid of it when Amity got a message from her mom calling for a family meeting with a..."

"An order to bring Luz with me," Amity supplied.

"And uh.."

"I'd get in trouble if I didn't," Amity continued.

"She said it's because she wanted me to feel like I was part of the family," Luz continued, "she uses Oracle magic and said that she didn't see any futures where I... On the one hand, I don't hate the idea, on the other it's kinda creepy that... Anyway, what she really wanted me there for was to try and pressure us into a..."

"A marriage contract," Amity finished. "She looked into the future, saw that the odds were good that Luz and I would get married someday, and decided to make sure it happened on her terms." There was a word for how much anger Luz's ESP was picking up from Amity as she said that and in Britain, it meant drunk instead.

"¡Esa bruja!" Luz's Mom shouted, which prompted a blink from Amity.

"Yes, she is a witch. I don't see how that's relevant," she replied.

"...Oh, shoot, Was that racist?" Mom asked. "I'll try to be more careful about that... So I take it your Spanish practice is coming along well?"

"I'm still having trouble with rolling my Rs, but, yeah," Amity replied. "But... Yeah. My mother just had to go and..."

Amity grabbed a pillow and screamed into it.

"Honestly, I'm kind of happy knowing that she can only see futures where Amity and I, you know... Last, but... the way she was talking when she floated the topic it seems like she thinks I only care about money," Luz added.

"As if my family's wealth could compare to how loved Luz makes me feel," Amity mumbled.

"You know you don't need to earn it," Luz reassured.

"I know, Batata," Amoty replied with a smile.

"...So, you come money, Amity?"

"Yeah," Amity replied. "We're um... Old money. And my family runs a business... Please don't get weird about this," she finished quickly.

"¿Luz? ¡Cásate con esta chica!"

"La verdad es que lo estoy pensando," Luz quipped back. "Quiero decir, cuando seamos lo suficientemente mayores... You mean for the humility and not the money, right?"

"Of course, Mija. What kind of woman do you take me for?"

"Not the kind my mother is," Amity quipped bitterly.

"Oh don't you worry, once the portal's working again I'm going to have a long talk with Mrs. Blight," Mom said in a very threatening way. "I assume you said no."

"Yeah, but then something else came up. Amity's mom, um... Don't freak out."

"Luz, saying that doesn't... What did she do?"

"...Made a deal with the devil where she was conned into forfeiting her family's souls. Amity and I had to beat Mephisto himself in a musical duel to get them out of it."

"Please tell me you're joking."

"He left behind a golden fiddle when we beat him and everything," Luz confirmed.

"Luz scared the heck out of me when she—"

"Wore myself out and almost collapsed," Luz interrupted Amity while making a 'don't' gesture dragging her hand across her neck. Luz didn't want to lie to her Mom, but she did not need to know that she'd wagered her own soul even if she'd worded the challenge so Mephisto could never collect. "She was so spooked that she ended up using a pain-sharing spell to take half of it and... I'm sorry I scared you like that, Sweet Potato."

"Okay..."

"...You're not, second-guessing letting me stay here, are you?" Luz asked, suddenly nervous.

"N-no," her Mom replied. "That... It's not like demo-evil spirits aren't a thing here. It could have... Was just bad luck but..."

"But what?"

"I got in touch with a man named Wong when I called the hotline for Doctor Strange. He said something about a 'crawling chaos' that Strange was dealing with but that he'd be able to help us in a few weeks, I... when he makes contact again I might ask for tips on how you can protect yourself from that kind of thing going forward."

"That's probably a good idea," Luz agreed. "Now, hopefully, nothing will come up and we can just spend today resting and... Is there anything else you wanted to talk about?"

"No, I just wanted to check in on you. You're... Okay, right?"

"Yeah," Luz replied. "A good night's sleep and GF cuddles do wonders for recovery."

"But you said... Amity, if you took half of... How do you even divide...? Are you alright?"

"If I'm being honest I could do with breakfast and a nap," Amity replied. "It's better than last night though."

"Alright, I'll let you go no. Te quiero, Mija."

"Te quiero Mami, give Vee my love," Luz finished and then the call ended.

As both girls were thoroughly awake by then, they set down the stairs and found Amity's siblings. Luz was both surprised and confused to see their faces. Specifically, Emira's acne and Edric's glasses and stubble.

She looked at them and vaguely gestured at her own face before pointing at them.

"Concealment stones," Emira replied. "So anyway, now that you're up, there's something we need to talk about."

"Okay, what?" Luz asked while glancing at Amity to see if she knew.

"Well first," Edric began playfully. "Mittens, you never said that the Owl Lady let you and Luz share a room."

"Please don't," Amity said both quickly and grumpily. "We just had this conversation with her Mrs. Noceda, that was mortifying enough."

"Got it, boundary established," Edric replied while dropping the teasing tone. "Which brings us to Luz..."

"You're not gonna tell me that if I don't take good care of her and treat her with utmost respect they'll never find my body, are you?" Luz asked. "Because I already got a speech like that from Boscha."

"Are you kidding?" Emira asked rhetorically. "Mittens would kill us."

"With fire," Amity confirmed.

"Besides, we like you too much for that," Emira finished.

"We want to thank you," Edric continued. "For what you did yesterday. That... If what's his name hadn't taken the bait, if... You put your neck out for us and we aren't sure what we could do to repay you."

"That's not the kind of thing you have to repay," Luz replied as she rubbed the back of her head bashfully. "Besides, you guys are family."

This was met with an awkward silence before Emira said "Well, if you ever need anything from us just ask."

"I'll keep that in mind," Luz replied.

"Anyway, we should probably..." Emira drew a spell circle over Amity, hummed, and then repeated it on Luz. "Okay, you're both fine... As far as I can tell."

"...You know healing magic?" Amity asked.

"Yeah," Emira replied. "It's just a hobby but... Edric knows beast keeping magic."

"I had to learn," Edric defended. "A bat stowed away when we went to the Knee."

"Cool!" Luz quipped. "Where's Eda?"

"Haven't seen her yet," Emira replied. "After working out who got the couch last night—me!"

"Should have called tails," Edric mumbled.

"She grabbed some spare blankets and went upstairs with Ms. Lilith, I guess Lilith was sleeping on the floor in her room or something and—"

This line of dialog was interrupted by the Clawthorn sisters coming into the living room, Eda shepherding a clearly very startled Lilith forward.

"What happened?" Luz asked, concerned.

"Nothing you need to worry about," Eda insisted. "Lilly just had her first flare-up with the curse is all. But it's fine, we've got plenty of elixirs all over the house."

"Okay..."

"Now, ain't nothing scheduled for today," Eda continued, "nothing to worry about, no nefarious plots. So everyone just... Sit back and chill for a bit. Lilly needs to calm down and Luz, you still need to be resting. Doctor's orders... You too, Boots. Today's lazy day."

No sooner had Eda said that than the wind picked up. Significantly. Rushing to the window, Luz saw a funnel cloud approaching the house.

"I think we've got a tornado coming," Luz declared, panicked. Eda came up behind her and looked out.

"Oh no," she said in a subdued tone. "Kids, this is far worse than a windstorm. I need you all to hide in the basement. Now."

"Eda, what's going on?" Luz wracked her brains. "Wait, this isn't a gorenadow is it?"

"Much worse," Eda dismissed. "It's—"

Suddenly the wind stopped, and the front door flew open.

"Eda!" Hooty shouted into the house. "Your mom's here!"

Chapter Text

"Hola Mami, Hola Herminita," Luz greeted.

"Hola, Mija," her Mom replied through the phone.

"Hi Luz," came from Vee.

"How are things going back on Earth?" Luz asked.

"Well," her mother replied, "I managed to talk to your old principal and get Vee enrolled at the high school, she'll need to take a couple of remedial courses but that's about it."

"Masha offered to tutor me in history," Vee added. "We tried to schedule things so that I'll have classes with at least one of my friends from camp, too, but that wasn't always possible."

"Well, if anyone gives you any trouble they'll have me to deal with," Luz added. "Picking on me is one thing but going after the people I care about is something else entirely."

"And as for you... I'm honestly surprised at how accommodating Principal Hall was," Mom added. "When the topic turned to your situation I opened by showing him part of that video you sent me. You know, the part where your new principal is praising you academically and says that your old schools didn't know how to teach you? Principal Hal... Agreed. He admitted that Gravesfield High doesn't have the resources for someone with your special needs and that if you found a new school that can accommodate you and help you channel your energy productively then that's best for everyone."

"So... He's not mad that I skipped out on camp?"

"It's very clear that he doesn't understand you," her Mom continued, "but... You know he could have had you expelled over the fireworks, right? He doesn't seem to mean you any ill will, he just... The Camp was supposed to help you but you found something better. Also, it turns out you're not the first student from Gravesfield High to study in another dimension."

"Really!?"

"Really," her Mom confirmed. "He couldn't name names but said something about a dimension called 'Mewni' and how that exchange program had not ended well. Took a month to get the kid back from the parallel Earth he got stranded on. Was only a couple of years ago too. Anyway, he still had the paperwork, if you can pass an equivalency test at the end of your senior year you'll get a diploma from Gravesfield High, and whatever credentials you get from your new school should be recognized in most places."

"So that's all taken care of?" Luz asked to confirm.

"Yes. How are things going for you?"

"So let me tell you how my week went," Luz began dramatically. "Right after the last time we talked, Eda's mom came to visit. Turns out, they're kind of estranged because... So backstory, when Eda and Lilith were kids, they were like, apparently forced to compete with each other for something and Lilth out of desperation cast a curse on Eda thinking it'd only last a day and it did not."

"That's horrible," Vee observed.

"Yeah, she feels really bad about it," Luz replied. "The curse is basically like a chronic illness, as long as Eda takes her medication she can manage it but... That wasn't good enough for Gwen Clawthorne. Eda's mom was obsessed with finding an outright cure and fell down a conspiracy theory rabbit hole and not the fun kind. She was basically the local equivalent of an anti-vaxxer."

"What's an anti-vaxxer?" Vee asked.

"I'll explain later," Camila answered.

"Anyway, she showed up hawking the latest fake cure she got scammed into," Luz continued, "and Eda wanted nothing of it and sent her flying away which... I mean, I get it, Eda literally ran away from home when she was about my age because of how aggressive and invasive these 'cures' were. But..." Luz inhaled. "I can't help but think about how getting to spend some time with you is one of the things I want the most right now. But before Eda sent her off, she let slip that I wasn't the first human to live in Bonesborrogh and... Well, so, Amity's older brother and sister were here, too, because... Their Dad asked Eda to watch them while he talked with their Mom over the whole deal with the devil thing..."

"Right," her Mom acknowledged.

"And um... They were pretty grateful for what Amity and I did, and I told them that they don't have to repay me but..." Luz inhaled again. "According to Amity, their mother raised her children to think of everything as an opportunity or as a transaction. I've been trying to help Amity get over that but I guess the twins have a bit of trouble with it too because they went after Eda's mom to help her in the hopes that she'd tell them about the other human in Bonesborroh and that that could help me."

"Well, it sounds like their hearts were in the right place," Vee added.

"Yeah, and so was Gwen's but..." Luz continued. "I was supposed to be resting and so was Amity so we mostly ended up hanging at the house with Lilith and... Apparently Gwen was a little neglectful of her, emotionally. And it got worse after the curse, even though Lilith only confessed recently and only to Eda. We um... Had to stop her from eating all the ice cream from the back of the freezer. That's where Eda keeps the stuff from the Night Market that King and I aren't supposed to get into. She started trashing her mom for never giving her any praise, periodically apologizing to Amity for acting like that when she was teaching her—that's a whole other thing—and then they sort of ended up bonding over bad relationships with their parents... Until the stress of it all made Lilith flare up."

"Flare up?" her Mom asked.

"That pain-sharing spell that Amity used on me last weekend? She learned it from watching Lilith use it to take half of Eda's curse. We kinda had to manage that, meanwhile, Eda was lured out of the house by an illusionary apple blood salesman—I think she has a problem—and subjected to a 'cure' that was just dangerous and made her curse act up and to make both problems worse, Gwen had her palisman sneak into the house and steal all the elixirs Eda uses to treat the curse thinking they were bad and... Yeah, not fun."

"Oh, ella es una de esas personas."

"Yep," Luz deadpaned. "But eventually she realized that something was wrong, went back to the scam artist who sold her the book of cures, caught him red-handed, beat him up, stole his money, used it to buy more elixirs to replace the ones she ruined, and apologized to Eda and Lilth, and helped them get through it... You know you want to dislike people like her, but it's really clear that she was just a mom out of her depths who was trying to do her best so it's kinda... Anyway, she realized how badly she messed up and Lilith went back home with her to make up for lost time, but not before making sure Amity knew how to contact her." Luz started smiling. "Amity's time as one of Lilith's students didn't end well, but they're gonna give it another shot."

"Well, at least something good came of it," Vee observed.

"Yeah," Luz agreed. "Gwen also mentioned that the human who lived here before me donated something to the library in town, where Amity works, but we all were worn out from the excitement so we put it on the back burner, spent the rest of the afternoon resting and in the evening Amity and her siblings went home and—Ooh! I almost forgot. Amity's brother Edric practices beast keeping magic as a hobby and Gwen's in the beast keeper coven so she taught him some stuff. He also got curious about how the elixirs work so Eda gave him a rash course in potions. And her sister Emira does healing magic and seeing how bad health care scams and medical misinformation can hurt people inspired her to double down on it so they're both multi-tracking now." Luz couldn't help but be pleased by how many students at Hexside were bucking tradition and studying all the magics they wanted and thought they could handle instead of just one.

Anyway, I was more or less fully recovered by the next day, which meant school and studying and that's been going well, and yesterday Amity texted me and called me to the library. She'd talked to her boss about the thing that got donated and... So it was in a place called the Forbidden Stacks, which is where they keep rare, valuable, or dangerous books and normally only the head librarian is back there but... Malphas is a nice guy, and Amity put in a good word for me, so he was willing to let me borrow it... If I passed some trials."

"What kind of trials, Mija?"

"Oh, you know, just some normal library chores like reshelving books," Luz began, "organizing files, taming a paper dragon."

"What!?" her Mother demanded.

"He was not fun," Luz observed. "But eventually, I proved myself and was escorted back into the Forbidden Stacks to retrieve the journal... and it'd been eaten by an echo mouse."

"Well, at least it was an echo mouse and not an eye mouse," Vee commented. "So you can get the information back."

"Yeah, that's what Amity said," Luz confirmed. "The little guy can project information from pages he's eaten so... Malphas was cool about it, he said I could just have the mouse and gave me some advice on how to take care of the little guy but I was only able to get so much out of him and he's gotta get used to his new home before I can get more." Luz then sent an image of her new pet in his habitat to her Mom's phone.

"Aye, que lindo."

"Yeah. Also, my friend Gus went on an adventure with some kids from another school and also this one kid from our school, Mattholomule, who was kind of a jerk but I guess he's cool now. He won't tell me what happened but he and Matholomule are friends now so that's nice. I spent most of today, before and after class, making sure the echo mouse was comfortable and practicing combos with my glyphs."  Luz's mind turned to anticipation. "Eda says I should go to bed early tonight because something's happening at school nice and early and she insists that I don't want to miss it but won't tell me what it is."

"Well then, we won't keep you any longer. Te quiero, Mija."

"Te quiero Mamá, te quiero Vee."

Amity sat at her desk, staring at the blue-barked branch with a carving knife in her hand and no idea what to do. She'd had this all planned out, but now that she was actually sitting down to do it she was overwhelmed with doubt. What if the creature she carved didn't like her? What if it didn't get along with the palismen her friends were adopting today? What if her new partner didn't like the idea of the chips and shavings left over from its birth being used to help Luz? What if... What if she didn't do it right, and the palisman she carved never came to life?

No, no doubts. No insecurities. No... She had to do this. Bonding with a palisman was an important right of passage for any young witch, and the only shot she had of being strong enough to keep, to help keep all the people she loved safe.

Which she could never do if she couldn't get started... What to do when you don't know what to do? Her mother would just say to figure it out on her own, or give her precise instructions with no regard for what it was that she wanted out of this, but... Luz would say that it's not a sign of weakness to ask for help.

Amity took out her scroll and sent a DM to Lilith, asking if she was available and, if so, how long it would take her to get to Blight Manor.

Lilith immediately messaged back that she'd be right over.

Ten minutes later, Lilith having flown over at a breakneck pace, the older witch had joined Amity in her workroom. Her formerly former mentor took one look at the palistrom branch on Amity's desk and turned back to her. "You want my help with your palisman?"

"Yeah," Amity replied. "I, I know I made it sound more important than it is, if—"

"I'm honored," Lilith replied. "Carving your own palisman is a very personal endeavor and it is a privilege to assist in it in whatever capacity you wish."

Amity looked away. "So, the problem is... I can't get started. My thoughts just keep going and I know what I want to do but I keep thinking—"

"What if the palisman doesn't like you?" Lilith asked.

"...Yeah."

"Amity," Lilith reassured. "Every young witch has the same thoughts whether they're carving the palisman themselves or having it carved for them. I had that thought when I carved Mike," the white raven fluttered, "Edalyn asked our father that same question when they sat down to carve Owlbert together. Father told us that even he had that thought when he first carved his palisman, Toast."

"...Del Clawtorne named his palisman 'Toast?'" Amity asked incredulously.

"Yes," Lilith replied. "He very much did. The only witchlings who don't have thoughts like this are those who adopt a palisman, and even then there's the question of whether or not they can find a match. Now, to deal with these issues you simply need to calm your mind so I want you to close your eyes and try to take even breaths. In. And out."

Amity closed her eyes and breathed as Lilith instructed. After a few moments, Lilith spoke again.

"I'm going to ask you a few questions now. Is that alright?"

"Yes," Amity replied.

"Okay," Lilith began, "what's the worst-case scenario if you can't carve your own palisman?"

"My mother wouldn't let me go without one, it wouldn't look good for the Blight family. And she already invested in the palsitrom branch so a hand me down like Ed and Em got isn't an option. If I can't carve my own, she'd hire a carver, and... Any of the good ones would do their best to carve the palisman to my specifications, so that wouldn't be so bad..."

"Right. A palisman is a deeply personal thing, it's not uncommon to draw what you want so that the carver's work will match what's in your mind," Lilith lectured. "If you wanted, I could carve it for you and no one would ever have to know if you didn't want anyone to."

"I'd know," Amity answered. "I... It's not cheating, but acting like I'd carved it myself without telling anyone who really did it feels close enough, and... I'd hate myself for the deception. I have to at least try to carve my own or contribute in some way. Otherwise..."

"Alright, that's good to know," Lilth said warmly. "I never said this the first time around, but your integrity is one of your most admirable traits, and I never should have undermined it. So, if someone else carved it, you'd have to be honest. But would it be so bad if you had a staff carved by someone else?"

"No," Amity said surely. "The circumstances of a palisman's birth are irrelevant, it's an honor and a privilege just to have one whether I carved it myself, had one carved for me, or if ane listing palisman chose me. But I have to at least try to make my own. Or... At least make the first cut."

"Why?"

"Why what?"

"Why do you have to try to carve it yourself? Because it's expected of you?"

Amity wracked her brain, why did she feel like she had to? "No. It.. Is expected of me, but..." Why did she... "I have to try and carve it myself because... Because I want to."

Lilith laughed, just a little. "Alright. Now, do you have any familiarity with carving wood?"

"Yes," Amity confirmed. "I've been practicing for months in anticipation of this day."

"Alright, now... What kind of creature do you want your palisman to be?" Lilith asked. "If you could choose any creature in the world to be your partner, your friend, bonded for life... What would it be."

Amity smiled. "A cat. I've always liked cats... Even without the uh, purring thing, I've always sort of... Identified with them, I guess."

"What kind of cat?"

Amity had her ideal partner's image in her head. "White fur, short but fluffy. Periwinkle eyes. Thin but not too thin, with a long tale. An elegant, almost regal posture, but on the inside she should be affectionate and playful."

"Open your eyes Amity," Lilith said.

Amity did so, and Lilith gently handed her her carving knife. "You're ready. Start by stripping off the outer bark, and make the first cut. And I'll be here to provide any other assistance or guidance that you need."

Taking one last deep breath to steady her nerves, Amity got to work.

Hunter was not having a good time. The mission had been going smoothly, he got into Bonesborrogh undetected, landed at Hexside, attached the habitat of unclaimed palismen to the back of his airship, and managed to fly off.

...Then it turned out the human was in the habitat for some reason known only to the Titan, and had made her presence known by using the strange, symbol-based wild magic she employed to send him flying off into the distance like a rocket. He was starting to suspect that the near decapitation last weekend hadn't been an accident.

Luckily, his staff allowed him to return to the ship with haste, but now he had an issue. He didn't want to hurt the girl. Even if she used dangerous wild magic, even if she was an associate of the Owl Lady, she was supposed to be blessed by the Titan. They should be on the same side. They would be on the same side if he had anything to say about it. He was the head witch of the Emperor's Coven now that Lilith had gone awol, he'd make sure there was a place for her. And Blight, too. Such a brilliant display of bard magic, it'd be a shame to force the girl to pick. He just needed to convince them that their attitude about magic was backward and that the Emperor was the good guy. How hard could that be, teens had to love rules and authority, right?

"Okay human," Hunter began. "I'm sure that... This was a surprising course of events but.. I'm sure we can work this out. I can probably drop you off somewhere and—"

"Yeah, the only way we're working this out is if you turn this ship around and stop trying to kidnap these palismen," the human girl replied.

"I'm not kidnapping them," the Golden Guard replied.

"They're thinking, feeling creatures with all their own wants and needs and you're taking them to a secondary location without their consent," the human replied. "That's literally what kidnapping is! Especially when you do it for nefarious purposes."

"Nefariu—?"

"I know what the Emperor does with them," the human said with a glare. "What, did he run out of the ones he conned his cult out of?"

"...What?"

"Everyone's seen the report of the protest at the petrification ceremony," the human girl explained. "Where Steve told the whole Isles how being a Coven scout doesn't live up to the hype, he said that the Emperor takes your palismen. Do the scouts know what the Emperor does?"

...It had not actually occurred to Hunter where the Emperor's supply of palismen had come from.

"Look, sometimes sacrifices have to be made for the greater good," Hunter defended.

"When was the last time the Emperor made a sacrifice?" The human asked and Hunter didn't have an answer. He wracked his brain for one...

...And then a hand dragon attacked his airship.

Amity startled awake as she felt someone touch her shoulder. Confused, she looked about before her mind ought up to her and she recalled what had happened: She'd successfully carved her staff. Lilith had helped her apply the paint and lacquer, and then it needed to dry. Amity had gotten anxious waiting, and Lilith had suggested she sit down and try some breathing exercises. She most of dosed off or something.

"Amity," Lilith said, "it's dry. All that's left to do is for you to bond with it. If you will so kindly allow me the honor of formally presenting you with your staff?"

Amity blinked the sleep from her eyes and nodded.

Gently, Lilith lifted the staff Amity had carved from her work desk and carefully, with both hands, held it out to Amity. "Take it, the fruits of your labors, hold it aloft, and declare your heart's deepest desire."

Carefully, Amity took the staff, a purple staff topped with a regale white cat whose tail curled around it, and held it up. "I want to be a great witch!"

...Nothing.

"Hmmm," Lilith observed. "Are you sure that's what you really want? Can you think of something more specific?"

Amity wracked her brain. "I want to be a great author, like Mildred Featherwhyle."

Still nothing.

"Okay, Amity, you can't just say something you think would be nice," Lilith began. "Try something that invokes real emotion in you."

Real emotion... "I want to protect Luz, and Willow. My older brother and sister, my dad, Boscha... Everyone. I want to protect everyone I love."

...Still nothing. "No," Amity said as panic started to rise in her. "I know that's something I want, I... The idea of not being able to protect everyone, it... I can't lose them! Luz is the best thing in my life, I just got Willow back as a friend, just got a better relationship with Ed and Em, dad's actually trying now, and I know that Boscha actually wants to be friends instead of just... I can't lose that. I want to be able to protect them all from..." Amity's mind wandered back toward Grom Night when the monster had thrown her off-guard by assuming the form of the killer from her nightmare going after the people she cared about.

"Do you want it because you want it?" Lilith asked. "Or do you want that because you're scared, and you're desperate for some sense of control?"

That question cut Amity to the bone.

She looked down at the staff, sadly, and lamented that the palisman she'd put so much effort into was likely to never come to life at this rate.

"...I don't know what I want," Amity admitted to herself. 'My whole life I've been controlled by other people. Told what to do, what to think, what to want, and what my future would be. Anything I chose for myself, my friends, the way I styled my hair, my books, my childhood toys could be taken away or destroyed at any moment for any reason, and now that I do have a say in where my life is going and who I share it with I'm scared to death that I'm going to lose it, lose them... I..."

She closed her eyes. "I don't know what I want or what my future holds. I just... Want to make my own decisions."

The staff vanished from her hand. She opened her eyes in shock, worried about how she could possibly have screwed this up, just in time to catch a cat. A cat with white fur, short but slightly fluffy, with periwinkle eyes. She was thin, but not too thin, with a long tale. Regal, but she nuzzled Amity's face in a way that was affectionate and playful.

Amity couldn't help but smile as she felt the bond with her palisman forming and the unconditional love that the creature she'd created felt for her. Her paliman purred and Amity couldn't help but purr back and...

"Her name is Ghost," Amity declared. "And she's perfect."

Chapter Text

"...I mean, I get it," Hunter admitted as he watched Luz the human draw a set of her elemental glyphs. "After what my Uncle said about how people like you have it in the human realm, the sort of chaos of a wild witch is probably appealing but that doesn't make it any less dangerous."

The human paused from where she was placing the sleeping nettles to turn to look at Hunter. "People like me?"

"The Emperor told me that you were probably a second-class citizen in the human realm because the last time he visited people who looked like you were either slaves or savages," Hunter replied earnestly.

The human made an odd expression, before holding her index fingers extended over her face so that they pointed to her nose, through which she sharply inhaled. "Okay. You clearly don't mean anything bad by that, so I'm gonna let it slide but... No, none of that is right and the Emperor is lying to you."

"...What do you mean?"

"So, yes, some of my ancestors were slaves," she began, "and likewise certain ignorant or hateful people would have used the term 'savages' to describe most of my ancestors, but slavery has been illegal for a very long time. How long do witches live?"

"About eighty to a hundred years," Hunter replied.

"Then he's lying to you," the human concluded. "The place where my family lives now outlawed slavery over a hundred and fifty years ago. The place where my family came from, as far back as we can trace, outlawed slavery two hundred years ago. The last country in the entire half of the planet I live on to outlaw slavery did it over one hundred and thirty years ago. If he was in the human realm when this was happening, he'd be dead by now."

"Then why would my uncle say he saw it with his own eyes?" Hunter asked, desperately.

"Because he's a liar," the human insisted. "He probably found a book about what the human world was like a few centuries ago and used it to... Why would he even tell you that?"

"... Because I admitted to feeling bad about what happened and that is wanted to help you?" Hunter admitted. "And he said that he can help you. After the Day of Unity, he can give you all the help you need!"

"No thanks," she said as she put the finishing touches on her glyphs.

"You sure?" Hunter asked. "I can get you and Blight spots in the Emperor's Coven. It's great, you get to sleep in until six in the morning and—"

"I'm not interested in leaving all my friends behind and while I don't have a palisman yet, if I did I'd kill everyone in that castle before I let Belos so much as look at it and I'm sure Amity feels the same way," the human dismissed. "and for future reference? While some jerks would treat me pretty bad for my skin color or where my ancestors came from, I haven't really had to deal with that and boiling someone's motivations down to their ethnic or racial history is really, really offensive in the human realm."

"Oh, shoot I'm sorry," Hunter said as he blanched.

"It's fine," the human finished. "And... Masks up, it's go time!" She declared before covering her mouth with some of the slime that manifested from the Titan's gift. Hunter pulled up his own face covering and the human activated her glyph array, generating a mist infused with the essence of the sleeping nettles placed before it that caused Kikimora and her hand dragon to fall asleep so that the captured palismen could be retrieved from her.

It was the early afternoon. Amity had spent the morning getting the hang of flying on her staff and casting spells with power borrowed from Ghost. It was amazing, Ghost felt at once as if she was Amity's long-time best friend but also a part of her.

But, Amity had business to handle. She packed up the leftover palistrom shavings—after getting Ghost's approval for using them to help Luz—and a small, pressurized bottle containing roughly half a liter of Titan Breath that her father had been more than willing to part with when Amity said it might help Luz with something (though she'd been vague on the how and why.)

She wasn't sure when Luz would be ready to... Ingest, the sources of magic so to speak, but having access to them was important, and having access to them as soon as demonly possible would make it easy to schedule out when they were doing this...

Also, Amity wanted Luz to be the first person outside of Lilth and her family whom she introduced to Ghost. Once everything was packed up, she sent Luz a message, "COMING OVER BATATA, XOXO" and a string of hearts.

Hmm. Weird. Luz normally messages back pretty quickly... Maybe she was in the middle of something?

Regardless, after sending the message out Amity mounted her staff and went on her first crosstown flight: Destination, the Owl House. Upon arrival she found Hooty... Seemingly asleep? He was inhaling like he was snoring, but instead of exhaling he was just saying "hoot."

"Um, hello? Hooty?" Amity asked as she approached.

"No! No, I hated that episode!" The house demon shouted as he snapped awake. "Oh, hi Amity," he greeted moments later as if he hadn't been asleep at all.

"Uh, hi, Hooty," Amity began awkwardly. She was trying not to be so judgemental but even ignoring the time he ate her alive, something about the house demon was just... Unsettling. "Is Luz home?"

"Oh yeah, she's sleeping on the couch," Hooty confirmed.

"...It's the afternoon," Amity questioned. Luz was normally up pretty early. "Is something wrong? Is she sick?"

"Oh no, she just had a late-night adventure," Hooty said in his usual loud tone. "She got home just after sunrise and then spent most of the morning working on something so she's pretty out of it."

"Can I come in?" Amity asked. "To check on her?" Amity wanted to be relieved that Hooty said it wasn't anything serious but Hooty was... Hooty.

"Okay!" The Hooty agreed as he slammed open.

Amity stepped into the house and her eyes immediately turned to the couch, where Luz was sleeping peacefully, King curled up on her chest and snoring. The sight was adorable and Amity breathed a sigh of relief in that Luz was okay.

...Then she noticed something in the corner of her eye. A pile of blue-tinted bark and wood chips was on the table before the couch. Obviously palistrom. Had Luz also carved her own palisman?

Looking around for any sign of a wooden figure or staff, Amity saw on the other end of the table, sitting on a layer of old newspaper...

"Is that an egg?" She asked aloud.

Maybe too loud, as King startled awake with a "Weh?" the young demon looked around, saw Aamity, and then mumbled "Luz! Your girlfriend's here." Then he leaped off of Luz and scurried off somewhere, presumably to go back to sleep.

Luz snorted as she slowly sat up and blinked awake. "Hey, swee'tato," she mumbled.

"Hey, Luz. Sorry about waking you."

Luz yawned widely. "It's okay. How are you?"

"I'm fine," Amity replied. "I just came over to drop off the Titan Breath and palistrom and also," with a gesture of her hand, her staff vanished as the cat at the head animated and landed in Amity's hands, "introduce you to Ghost!"

Luz was immediately wide awake, eyes wide as she let out an "Aww!"

Ghost let out a "Merow" that Amity intuitively understood to be Ghost asking "Let me down," so she set her Palisman down, and Ghost immediately leaped up onto the couch and started pressing her head up against Luz's side.

"Oh, you want me to pet you?" Luz asked.

"Mow," Ghost replied.

"She said yes," Amity translated.

Luz started petting the white cat palisman, who purred, and... Amity couldn't help but purr along, so happy that her palisman got along with her girlfriend...

"Of course I do," Amity heard in the rumbling of her cat's breath. "My witch loves Luz, so I love Luz."

A tear came to Amity's eyes and she relayed the message to Luz, which prompted a lot of awing and cooing from both young witches.

After a few moments, Amity was sitting next to Luz with Ghost curled up in her lap.

"So you carved her yourself?" Luz asked.

"Yeah," Amity confirmed. "I stayed home from school yesterday, it took a couple of hours, and... I had so much trouble getting started. I knew what I wanted, but my mind kept wandering and I couldn't make myself start and..."

"Oh, yikes," Luz said sympathetically. "Executive dysfunction sucks."

"So I ended up asking Lilith for help and, she talked me through it and... I'm not regretting being her student again," Amity admitted. "She's a much better teacher when she's being supportive."

"That's good to hear," Luz acknowledged.

"After I got started, she provided guidance and when I was done caring she helped me apply the paint and lacquer. And when it was dry, she presented me with my staff and..." Amity blushed. "I couldn't bond with her at first."

"You?" Luz asked incredulously. "But you're so confident and cool. Even when you're scared out of your mind you can quickly come up with a plan to take care of it."

"At first I said I wanted to be a great witch, but that wasn't specific enough," Amity said. "Then that I wanted to be an author, but that's not so much a goal as it is something I thought might be nice. I said I wanted to be able to protect all the people I love, but..." Amity took a deep breath. She was safe with Luz, she could let herself be vulnerable. "It's not so much that I want to be a protector as much as I'm just.... So scared of losing you, or losing Willow, or Boscha, or Ed and Em I..." Luz put an arm around Amity. "It was only when I admitted that I don't know what I want to be when I grow up, that all I wanted was for whatever happens to be because of my choices that Ghost came to life."

Ghost let out a "Mew!" that to Amity's ears sounded like "Together we'll be as free as the wind."

"But... It looks like you've been busy," Amity gestured to the pile of palistrom wood shavings and the egg, light green with an intricate pattern of grooves in the shell. "Care to share?"

"So, palisman adoption day at Hexside went well for... Everyone but me," Luz admitted. "When it was my turn to try and bond with a palisman I... The thing I want most is to be a witch, but... Then I said I wanted to replace the portal key so I could see my Mom in person again but thats just a short-term goal. I went to the back of the line after that so I wouldn't hold up anyone and when everyone else had their palisman I tried again: 'I want to be the best witch I can be.' 'I want to prove that wild magic is safe.' 'I want to grow up and marry Amity...'" Luz seemed to freeze as she realized she'd just admitted that out loud. "Um, forget you heard that."

Amity blushed again. "No, I like the idea. I can't see... You're the only person I've ever... I never felt anything like, before I met... But if it happens it has to be on our terms, no one else's. When we're old enough."

"When we're old enough," Luz agreed. "But, yeah. Long-term goals have never really been my strong suit, it can be so hard to commit to just one thing... I ended up going home empty-handed, but a little rascal stowed away in my bag so when I discovered him last night I took him back to the school and while I was there I figured I might as well try again and then... Well, the habitat the palismen were being kept in got stolen by the Golden Guard while I was in it."

"...Are the palismen okay?" Amity asked as she held Ghost closer. There was only one thing the Emperor's Coven could want with those innocent creatures.

"They're fine," Luz replied. "I fought with and then argued with him for a while, then Kikimora attacked his airship trying to kill him and take the palismen for herself, I saved his life, we teamed up to get the Palismen back from her, then we fought again but he ultimately let me leave with them" Luz finished. "He told me his real name. We might be friends now."

Amity laughed. "Only you could make friends with someone in that kind of situation."

"Yeah," Luz admitted. "The weird thing was, it seemed like he wanted to be friends. He even offered to get us places in the Emperor's Coven."

Amity looked down at her Palisman. "The Emperor can have Ghost when he tears her from my cold dead hands."

"Yeah, I figured. Told him as much, too," Luz continued. "Anyway, when I got home it was morning and I just wanted to crash but then Eda came in. She said that some witches were too... Independant to bond with a palisman that was originally made for someone else, and that she figured that if I was gonna get one it needed to be one made for me," Luz gestured to the items on the table. "So she went out and got me some palistrom."

"...She robbed the Garden Club, didn't she?" Amity asked.

"She and King," Luz admitted. "I think her love language is crime."

Three months ago, Amity would have had a problem with that, but the Garden Club was sponsored by the Plant Coven and all palistrom in the care of the Plant Coven was the property of the Emperor and frankly, Belos didn't deserve it. If Eda hadn't stolen it this palistrom would have probably been used for some nefarious purpose. Or made into a palisman who only existed to be eaten.

"And...  wasn't sure what to carve at first. I ended up calling my Mom and talking to her, explaining how palisman worked and stuff. she told me some stuff from when I was a kid and... Suddenly it just clicked and I knew what to do."

"So you carved an egg?" Amity asked.

"Yeah. My whole life there have been people who had a problem with me being me," Luz lectured. "As far back as I can remember. Never anyone whose opinion mattered but... Even when they had a point, even when they meant well, cause sometimes I did uh, you know, cross a line, the thought was always to try and change me." After checking to see if it was dry, Luz picked up the egg. "But I didn't let them. I am who I chose to be: The Good Witch Luz, child of the human realm, student of the demon realm, warrior of peace, and snuggler of golden-eyed goddesses. If any palisman is gonna be right for me, it has to be one who got to choose who they are the way I chose who I am. I carved my palisman into an egg so that when I manage to bond with it the egg will hatch and they can be anything they want."

"Wow, that was... Profound," Amity admitted. "Ghost," she said while looking down at her own palisman. "Are you happy being a cat?"

Ghost responded by giving her a look. A one-eyed look. The most judgemental, catlike one-eyed look ever looked by a cat. Amity understood immediately. "Seriously? I'm perfect just the way you made me."

Amity responded by petting Ghost's head.

"Eda helped me with the actual carving," Luz continued. "She told me about how her dad helped her carve Owlbert, and how he used to be the best palisman carver on the isles but got quiet when I asked more about him. Now all I've gotta do is... Figure out what I want. That might take awhile, but it's okay." Luz kissed the egg. "I love them already."

Amity put a hand on Luz's shoulder. "Don't worry, you'll figure out what it is you really want the most before you know it. You're too amazing not to."

"Yeah," Luz agreed quietly. "There is... One thing that might have worked, but... I didn't even know I wanted it until I already had it."

"Oh?"

"It's... Probably silly, but... Like I said, my whole life people have been trying to change me and... Sometimes explaining myself, my feelings could be hard and... We've been over how I didn't have friends, really, until I came to the Isles and..." Luz gulped. "It could be pretty lonely."

"...I get it."

"I figured you would. Anyway, first started when we went back to the human realm," Luz continued. "When my Mom and I were talking. When she admitted that she used to be a lot like me, when she, was supporting me the way I am, I felt... And then at the old graveyard when I was standing up for myself... I realized that the one thing I'd always wanted was what Mom had given me earlier that afternoon." Amity could sense a complex mixture of emotions from Luz. Some bad, a little touch of sorrow, but mostly good feelings. Joy. Love. Pride.

The shell of Luz's palisman egg cracked and purple light began streaming out. Somehow Luz didn't notice even as Amity went wide-eyed.

"The thing I wanted most... Was to be understood."

The egg shattered and the room was bathed in purple light as a black and violet ball of energy took its place.

"What!?" Luz asked. "How? I didn't...?"

"The goal," Amity added. "It's not... The point is to make a connection. I guess... I guess that counted!?"

Luz, clearly not expecting this and, honestly, from what Amity could feel, panicking a little bit stood up holding the energy ball in her hands as she started pacing the room. "Is this normal? Did I do something wrong, I... What's going on!?"

"I don't know, this didn't happen with Ghost!"

Ghost's "Mowmerow" translated as "Of course not, I had a shape already."

Eventually, the light dimmed down and a dark purple staff grew from the orb, which moved so that the staff it rested upon in turn rested in Luz's hands.

King returned from wherever he'd been. "What's going on? I just got back to sleep." A second later he noticed Luz's staff. "Oh... Eda! Get down here!"

There was a commotion from upstairs and a clearly tired and grumpy Eda stumbled into the room. "Okay, what is so dam—Oh," her entire mood changed as soon as she saw the staff in Luz's hand. "Already?"

"I didn't mean to!" Luz shouted.

"No kid, this is a good thing," Eda said radiating obvious pride. "Now, what creature will your new partner be? My money's on a tarantula."

"It's obviously gonna be an otter," Amity replied.

"Fools!" King declared. "There's only creature powerful and fearsome enough to be Luz's palisman: It'll be born in the image of the Titan itself!"

"...You know, for a second there I thought you were going to say it'd come out looking like you," Eda deadpanned.

"Also possible," King agreed.

Eventually, the orb of energy faded and Luz's staff vanished as the palisman settled on a form and animated. In a final flash of light, there appeared a... Snake.

But not just any snake, the creature was rather, stocky, for lack of a better phrasing, by snake standards. A pair of off-white heart-shapes framed by dark purple made up its face, with purple eyes framed by green sheer and ears and a mouth shape that made it somewhat resemble a cat... Or an otter, Amity thought petulantly. The dark purple continued all down its back, with a layer of lighter purple on its signs and a very pale shade of lavender or lilac coloring its belly, a light green ball of some sort sat at the tip of its tail.

Luz was starring at her palisman with wide, sparkling eyes and it warmed Amity's heart to see her girlfriend so unambiguously happy as the snake, which could fly under its own power without wings, swam through the air around her as if to get a good look at her witch. The snake gave a hiss and a rattle and then zoomed off to look at Amity. The suddenness of it startled the witch, but... It only took a moment before how cute the curious little creature was overwhelmed the startle.

Then it transformed from a flying snake to a flying otter, albeit in a form that was still clearly the same creature, before floating off toward Eda to examine her as well. When it was done with that it assumed a spider-like form, then approached King. Once there, it turned into a smaller, cuter version of the young Demon, who immediately hugged it.

"I have only known them for a moment, but I love them and they must be protected at all costs," he declared.

The creature hissed again and Luz translated: "She says she loves you, too."

"What manner of creature is she?" Eda asked.

"She's a snake-shifter!" Luz declared. "I wanted her to be able to choose to be anything, so she chose to be everything."

"Huh," Eda declared, the pride she was radiating reaching its apex. "An unpredictable, one-of-a-kind palisman for an unpredictable, one-of-a-kind witch."

"Her name is Stringbean," Luz said. "And she's perfect."

As Luz said that, Eda's palisman owlbert approached Stringbean, who was currently sitting with Ghost in the form of a smaller, fluffier cat. He hooted something to Stringbean, who hissed something back. Stringbean then assumed the form of an owl, and Owlbert placed a wing over her and... It was a good thing Amity hadn't thought to get up from the couch in all the excitement, because if this got any cuter she'd pass out.

"Where's my phone?" Luz asked all of a sudden. "I need pictures or video or something to send to Mom."

"Yeah, pictures," Eda agreed while summoning her scroll. "Pictures of my apprentice with her staff. And then later, we need to celebrate."

"I'll bake a cake!" King insisted.

Eda smirked. "I was thinking I'd teach Luz how to fake her own death but cake works."

And through it all, radiating happiness like the beacon of a lighthouse, stood Luz. A warm smile lit up her face.

Chapter Text

"Thanks for coming over on such short notice, Tiny," Eda said as Luz adjusted to the fact that she was in bed surrounded by people. Eda and Tiny, of course, but also Amity, King, and the three palisman currently in the house.

"This is impowtant," Tiny Nose declared, "and it's not like I had anything else impowtant to do today, just help Tibbles with a book scam and that can wait."

"You work with Tibbles?" Eda asked.

"Book scam?" Luz replied.

"Yeah, he found some human books and movies in a cwate and has been making copies," Tiny Nose explained. "Got some kid fwom Hexside to edit the authow's profile pic on the back so she looks like a witch and been trying to sell them, Hired me for impewsonations but... Not sure why he keeps doing it, only one pewson evew buys them."

"...You know," Luz observed, "he'd probably get more of a market if he admitted they were bootlegs of human world stuff."

"Pwobably," Tiny admitted. "Now, we should probably start with the palistwom."

Luz looked over to where the palismen were resting. "You guys are sure you're okay with this?"

Luz didn't understand Ghost's meowing, but Stringbean's rattle to her ears sounded like "Go on, it's fine. I want my witch to get better."

Her palisman saying 'my witch' tickled Luz's heart. She might be trapped in the Isles, away from her mom and her new sister and in a realm ruled by some pro-conformist jerk, but even so she was living her best life right now.

"Ghost says it's okay," Amity confirmed. "And I made sure she was okay with it before I even brought the stuff from her branch over."

"Alright, let's go."

The palistrom pieces, both what Amity had brought over and what was left over from Stringbean, had been put in a cloth bag with a drawstring for safekeeping. Eda reached into said bag and pulled out a rather large piece of bark.

"Here, this is the biggest piece we have," she explained as she handed it over, "So no matter how bad the effect is you know that the other bits of palistrom won't be as bad."

"Smart," Luz agreed before shifting one arm into symbiote mode and letting the goo covering her hand engulf the piece of bark and slowly pick it apart, breaking it down until it could be absorbed. This process took about a minute, and when it was done...

Luz couldn't help but hiss when the coven sigil acted up, lines tracing up her body as it did its best to seal the magic she'd just taken in, but after a moment it faded.

"Okay, that... Wasn't do bad," Luz admitted.

Tiny drew some spell circles and then started checking Luz over with a stethoscope and blood pressure cuff... Why she needed to use those when she'd also had spells was beyond Luz. She finished by checking Luz's forearm to examine the Coven seal.

"Stwess response nowmal," the small biped declared. "If nothing else happens in a day, you should be able to do two or thwee pieces a day without too much problem but take a bweak if you'we not feeling well. Now we wait fow ten minutes, then do the bweath."

"Um, how did it look?" Luz asked.

"Like the kid at the covention," Eda confirmed. "You need anything? Some water?"

"Um, no," Luz said. The pain from the sigil activation wasn't all that bad and it was fading fast. "I'm fine. Maybe a hug?" In an instant, Luz was glomped by Amity, King, and three palismen. "Yeah, this is nice"

"Yes, hugs are nice," Stringbean rattled as she curled around the back of Luz's neck. "Love to hug. Love to hug my witch. Love my witch. Love the people who love my witch."

Luz translated what her palisman had said and the resulting cooing from both her and Amity made King leave both the hug and the room.

He was back, however, when the ten-minute break was up. Now it was time for the Titan Breath. That was a bit trickier to set up because it was a gas, but eventually, Luz stumbled on the idea of attaching a hollow tendril to the bottle's nozzle and letting it inflate like a balloon and then diffuse into the slime.

Honestly, it was kind of funny letting a little slime ball full of air flop around on a tether connected to the end of her wrist but after a minute it'd deflated as the Titan Breath had been absorbed into her and then the hurting started. Luckily, they'd prepared a small pank of wood for her to bite down on so she didn't scream.

It felt like forever, but once it was over checking the time on her phone revealed to Luz that it had only been a minute. She was tired and sweaty, and everything hurt but she hadn't passed out so that was good.

"Pain potion please," she begged and Eda had shoved a vial in her hands before she'd even finished asking.

"Don't take that yet," Tiny ordered and ran her tests again. "Much mowe significant stwess wesponse," she declared. "But not as bad as with after the Titan Blood last week. You can take the po—" The vial was unstoppered and its contents were down Luz's throat in literal instants. "Okay, so... You'we gonna twy this with all the humows?"

"Yeah," Eda said. "Unless this burned out the Sigil."

Luz checked her arm. It had not. "Can... Can I get some help rebandaging it?" She asked. "I... Don't have the energy right now but it still really, really itches. Like, worse than normal actually. And I still can't get a straight answer out of anyone who... Oh, Darn it!"

"What!?" Amity said radiating a spike of concern.

"I should have asked Hunter last night when I had a chance," Luz finished, a little upset that she'd upset Amity.

"Hunter...?" Amity asked.

"The Golden Guard," Luz replied. "I told you, he told me his name."

Tiny Nose pulled a role of bandages out of her bag but, being tiny, passed them off to Amity who carefully and lovingly applied them over Luz's forearm to both partially alleviate the itch with pressure and remove the temptation for Luz to tear her skin open.

"Is this alright?" Amity asked.

"It's perfect."

"Not too tight?"

"Just right."

At that, Amity, somewhat awkwardly, placed a kiss on the bandages just over Luz's sigil.

"Alwight, Luz, I want you to west fow at least the next houw," Tiny Nose finished, "and then avoid doing anything stwenuous fow the west of the day."

"Nothing strenuous, got it," Luz agreed. Unless something came up she'd have no issues abiding by that. "Thank you."

"No pwoblem," Tiny said and then started packing up.

"So, nothing strenuous..." Luz mused. "Guess I can't go flying with Stringbean until tomorrow."

"It's okay," her palisman hissed. "My witch's health is important."

"Thank you for being so understanding, Stringbean," Luz said appreciatively. "Now... What else to do today...?" She wondered to herself as her newborn Palisman slithered through the air and turned into something fluffy in need of pets... Newborn... New to the world, so much to learn and experience, and... "Hey, Amity?"

"Yes?" her golden-eyed goddess answered.

"Have you... Read anything to Ghost yet?"

Amity clearly realized where Luz was going with this as she picked up her Palisman. "Hey, Ghost? Would you like to hear one of my favorite stories?"

"Oh no," Eda muttered with dread as she started heading for the door even as Ghost meowed in such a way that it was clear that it was answering yes even without translation.

"How about you, Stringbean?" Luz asked.

"Yay, story!" came the happy rattle.

Judging she was strong enough to do so, Luz leaned over and reached under her bed to pull out her copy of the first Good Witch Azura book.

"Oh hey, that's one of the books," Tiny observed just as she was finishing up.

"...That explains a lot," Amity said evenly, "but it's very disappointing."

Chapter Text

Amity was hard at work. She'd finished up with her homework, and now she was practicing with her instrument. Her bard classes were coming along well, even if she wasn't as good at bard magic as she was with abominations. And Luz had, singing her strange rectangular human crystal ball, managed to find Amity a copy of the sheet music to the song they'd danced to that afternoon out in the human realm. I was... A little beyond her current skill level, admittedly, but being able to play it was a goal to aspire to.

Speaking of Luz, Amity's awesome girlfriend was training for a race: As Amity had been informed, King was not in fact the King of Demons whose power had been stolen but rather a lost child that Eda had found and partial amnesia mixed with recollections of stories Eda had told him when he was younger lead to his obvious fantasies. Well, he got some of his memories back after being forced to confront that he was living a lie(earlier the night when Luz had confronted the Golden Guard, Amity had been told) and recalled something about his birth family. Since the winner of the race, the Glad Prix where students from all three main magic schools raced on their staves, got to be on crystal ball all over the isles Luz figured that if she won with King assisting her he could send out a message that his birth family might see.

So Luz was busy with that, and Amity was keeping herself busy with other things even as she hoped to be able to attend the race in person and give her support. But until then, Amity spent her time outside of class or work studying and practicing.

There was a knock at her door. Answering, she was greeted by an Abomination Butler who tersely moaned "Come to the sitting room" before waddling off.

Rolling her eyes, Amity proceeded to down as she was, instrument in hand. Clearly, her mother was expecting her to help entertain the company or something, not taking a moment to make sure she looked perfect up and carrying her instrument that was incongruous with the expected presentation would be a subtle but obvious protest.

As she made her way to the sitting room, however, Amity realized that she may have made an incorrect assumption. Her mother was nowhere to be found. Instead, there were two occupants. One, her Dad, standing at one end of the room rather awkwardly. The other was a dark-skinned witch with purple facial hair and a wig made of abomination slime. He was dressed impeccably as well, notably with a purple cape over his shoulders.

"Headwitch Deamonne," Amity acknowledged with a degree of surprise that she hoped she'd managed to disguise. The head of the Abomination Coven was the last person she expected to see in the house. Yeah, Blight Industries was technically a subsidiary of the coven but she was under the impression that her Dad and the headwitch had something of a rivalry.

"Your father has been looking for a tutor for you for the past few weeks," Headwitch Deamonne began. "He claims that you're capable of abomination metamorphosis?"

"Yes sir," Amity replied nervously. The coven heads answered directly to the Emporer and left and right-hand men. She had to handle this meeting very carefully, there was a probable enemy, a very powerful one, in her home.

"How many times have you become an abomination?" Headwitch Deamonne asked.

"Twice, sir," Amity confirmed.

"At will?"

"No, sir."

Head Witch Deamonne gave out a quiet hum. "There are three witches who could teach you how to master this rare talent. One is myself. One is my predecessor as the head of the Abomination Coven, but in his old age he's more demented than a low-budget horror movie, and one is a former member of my coven who left to work in Swag Coven behind my back last year and Titan knows where she's disappeared to by now. I can tell it burned your father terribly to come crawling to me to teach you... And I said no."

That broke something in Amity's brain, even as she noted her father bristling in the corner of his eye. "Then why are you here, sir?"

"Because the Little Prince will not shut up about trying to recruit 'The Blight Girl' and 'The Blessed Human' into the Emperor's Coven," the coven head replied. "I overheard him talking to the Emperor one day about being allowed to offer you special privileges like getting to keep your palisman. And Emperor Belos actually considered it."

"...Okay," Amity replied evenly.

"And it would bring me nothing but a pleasure to do a bit of headhunting and snipe a recruit out from under his nose, so I decided to give you a shot," the older witch finished.

"Careful Darius," her father interrupted. "Amity's always been a talented witch and her power has skyrocketed in the last few months," he said with pride.... He was proud of her? "If you bring her into the Abomination Coven she'll have your job before you know it."

"I'll believe it when I see it," Darius replied. He then gestured to Amity's instrument. "You play music?"

"It's just a hobby, sir," Amity defended.

"And I'm sure the Golden Brat's raving about you and the human using powerful bard magic to attempt to banish a soul-stealing spirit of some sort has no merit to it?" Amity froze. "Relax, the law simply says that you have to join a coven by the time you come of age and only forbids mixing magic, there's no law against knowing more than one kind. Otherwise, the Emperor's Coven would all have to arrest themselves... You aren't mixing magic, are you?" Darius asked.

"No sir," Amity lied.

"Besides, even if there was a problem if the Emperor himself doesn't care why should I? Now, may I examine your instrument?" Darius asked.

"Of course," Amity agreed with an awkward smile. Not agreeing would probably be bad. As she gently handed it over, hoping to delicately navigate this conversational tightrope, all she could do was hope that he didn't examine it too closely.

He took the instrument and began looking at it carefully. He traced his fingers along it, he plucked the strings a few times, and he even sniffed it. "Is that lavender?"

"A little personal touch to the slime," Amity said while not quite lying.

"Speaking of which," Darius continued and Amity's blood froze, "the quality of this slime is impeccable. I could probably make something better but it'd take time and I'd need to source rare ingredients. May I see the recipe?"

"I'm sorry, the recipe is a proprietary secret," Amity lied with her face as straight as she could make it.

"Shame," Darius observed. "Still, I can tell that this is a work of quality. You poured your heart and soul into this, didn't you?"

"Yes I did, sir," Amity agreed honestly.

"I doubt you'll be surpassing me anytime soon," the head witch quipped, "but it seems that you've already surpassed your hack of a father. Everything he's made in the last thirty years has been unimaginative soulless swill fit only for the ignorant consumer, good only to be mass produced as cheaply as possible and sold at the highest legal markup."

While that was a true statement in regards to the quality of the Blight Industries product line, Amity couldn't help but be insulted on her Dad's behalf even as her father's face took on the characteristics of a particularly disgruntled tomato. That was what her mother wanted to sell, what else was he supposed to do?

"I'll have you know we have an exclusive contract with the Emperor himself producing abomiton soldiers," her Dad pointed out.

"I've seen them, anyone with even basic skill at abomination magic could destroy them easily," Darius quipped as he handed Amity's instrument back to her. She spelled it away before the head witch decided to take a second look. "Regardless, I've seen what I need: Tutoring you will be a worthwhile sacrifice of my limited free time."

"Thank you, sir," Amity said while internally panicking.

Thus started several consecutive days of spending much of her afternoons training with Darius Deamonne. Training that consisted mostly of dueling the head witch using only abomination magic and without the aid of Ghost.

Naturally, for all her talent and power and hard-earned skill, Amity couldn't compare to a full-grown witch who had mastered the art and science of abominations.

And the worst part was, he was so passive-aggressive about it. Making these little comments.

"Oh come on now, I know you can do better than this."

"You got my hopes up and now you're dashing them."

"Weren't you Lilith's star student? She'd be so disappointed with this performance."

"Professor Hermunculous must be losing his touch."

It wasn't true. Amity knew it wasn't true. She knew these weren't fair fights, she knew it wasn't her fault that she couldn't beat him, she knew he was just saying it to get under her skin, but... It was working. Amity had spent years working herself to the bone to be the best but the only praise she'd gotten had been worthless platitudes or tiny tokens of arbitrary favoritism like the Top Student badge. Not once had her mother ever said she was proud of Amity. Every mistake or shortcoming was punished, every success was met with higher expectations, and... Amity had been raised to see everything as an opportunity to prove herself. To justify existing. All of that and no... I'd left her feeling worthless, and it was only recently, with her relationship with Luz, her rekindled friendship with Willow, her healthier relationship with her siblings, her more honest friendship with Boscha, and her renewed apprenticeship under a significantly less aloof and professional Lilith that she was starting to get out of that mindset and feel some value in herself.

Darius Deamonne's comments cut her to the bone and tore open those wounds. She actually cried herself to sleep one night. She wanted more than anything to just spend an afternoon being cuddled by her girlfriend and told everything was all right, to have her right to exist affirmed, to be told she was awesome and worthy of being loved, and that she deserved to have good self-esteem.

But even if Amity had enough free time to visit the Owl House, Luz was busy. She was training for the Gland Prix to help King reach out to his birth family. An afternoon could be the difference between victory and defeat and Amity wouldn't be so selfish as to risk taking something so important away from a small child. Her problems could wait and... There was no way Darius would make her train the day of the race, right? On a weekend, a big day for all three major schools... Not to mention he was probably getting behind on coven-head work spending every afternoon... Doing whatever this was.

He was, in fact, making her 'train' on the day of the race. Amity had managed to send off a message to Luz, "CANT MAKE THE RACE, LOVE YOU GOOD LUCK ABRAZOS Y BESOS MI AMOR TE AMO," but that was the most she could do to support her girlfriend and her girlfriend's found family and it was all she could do to constrain her disappointment.

Disappointment that left her distracted and performing worse than usual in these duels with the head abomination witch if the fact that the witch in question, in abomination form, was currently dangling her by the ankle while giving her a disappointed sneer.

"Really? I didn't think you could possibly do worse than you had been," he said as he looked down on her "And yet, here we are. Are you just failing to live up to your potential? Or were you lying to me about making that instrument yourself?"

Amity had been upset by the comments before, but now she was angry. She thrashed at Darius but he just held her out further and 'tutted' at her.

"I expected better from the daughter of Alador and Odalia," he said haughtily. "Your father might be a hack but at least he has some standards and everyone knows how much of a stuck-up perfectionist your mother is. Are you as much of a disappointment to them as you are to me?"

That question was a punch to the bile sack that cooled her blood like ice water. She stopped struggling as her vision blurred, and all of her control over her emotions was lost.

"And now you're crying," he observed dismissively. Then he dropped her and shifted back to flesh and blood. "We're done. When you get home today, do me a favor: Tell Alador that his daughter will never be anything more than a bottom-feeding grunt at best in my coven." He turned to leave while she tried and failed to compose herself, only to stop. "What's this?"

As Amity wiped the tears from her eyes and looked up she saw that Darius was holding a photo. Amity checked her pocket and found it empty.

"The human," Darius observed. "You're close to her? More than just friends I take it?"

With all of Amity's thankfully not yet decayed grudgby skill, she was able to leap over Darius and pluck the photograph from his hands. She landed on her feet and examined it to ensure it wasn't damaged... No, perfectly fine. A photo from Grom, her and Luz together surrounded by their friends, one of the happiest moments of Amity's life. She returned it to her pocket and sighed in relief.

"Touched a nerve there, didn't I?" Darius quipped. "You know, the thought occurs to me. Emperor Belos might have pardoned the Owl Lady but I doubt she's kept her nose clean all this time and the Titan wanting her spared petrification doesn't mean she can't be jailed for any other crimes. I wonder if I should bring the human in for questioning on her mentor's illicit activities."

...If Luz was taken into custody by the Emperor's forces, that was... There's no way she'd be safe. Not after the bloody nose she'd given the Emperor fighting him at the Comformatorium. Images of Luz petrified or worse intruded into Amity's mind and something broke in her brain.

She wasn't even fully aware of what was happening as she jumped at the older witch and threw out her now-lavender fist. Darius grabbed it with his own hand transformed into dark purple abomination slime.

"There we go," he said. "That's what I've been—" Amity interrupted him by striking at him with her other fist, now shapeshifted to have blades protruding from it like that Logan guy she'd met in the human world. Darius was forced to let go of her and back up, transforming fully into an abomination as he slithered back. "Okay, that was—"

Amity then brought both of her hands together to form a large spell circle to blast the witch with her fire-conjuring spell

Darius flattened himself to avoid the pinkish-purple flames and then reformed. "I said abomination magic only!"

"You also said we were done! Then you went and threatened my Luz!" Slamming her hands on the ground she used what she knew of plant magic to shoot herself in the air with a thorn vault and then pulled on her connection to Ghost to summon her staff and, using the momentum of the thrust to spin around using the head of the staff to draw a massive spell circle and drawing on both her own and ghost's magic create a fireball big enough to fill the training room. "Dodge this!"

When the flash cleared, Amity landed, her body being currently made of slime allowing her to eat the impact more easily. She almost took a breath of relief until a wet squelching sound made her turn just in time to see the tiniest bit of purple slime expanding out into Darius's full abomination form. The coven head then expanded his limbs in order to grab Amity in... some kind of wrestling hold that Amity didn't know the name of. The one where their arms go under your arms and upper around your shoulders.

As she struggled against his hold, the abomination master commanded her to "Calm down!"

"Not until you aren't a threat to Luz anymore!"

"For Titan's sake, child I was bluffing!"

"Liar! You've been a complete... cabrón! This whole time! Why should I believe you!?"

"Abomination metamorphosis is fueled by anger!"

"...What?" Amity stopped struggling and Darius let her go before slithering away and returning to his witch form.

"Everyone has a light side and a dark side, Amity Blight," Darius lectured. "To become a living abomination is to willingly become a monster. The power awakens, and the first few times must be activated when you're angry and desperate enough to let just a small bit of your dark side out. I've spent the last several days trying to push you to your limit, trying to make you angry enough to change but... I had the wrong trigger."

Amity felt herself becoming flesh and blood again and slowly backed to a wall before sliding down it. Her staff vanished as Ghost animated and lept into her lap, and Amity spent the next few moments hugging and petting her cat.

Ghost's meows translated as "slime-witch is a jerk."

"Look, for what it's worth, I'm sorry. I know that what I put you through was rough, but trust me it's a lot more pleasant than how most people master the talent."

"How did you get it?" Amity asked, bitterly. After what he did he could stand to relive some pain.

"The first time I transformed I was brooding the afternoon after I had a falling out with... some friends."

"Who?"

Darius sighed. "Your parents."

Amity did her best not to show her surprise. "What?"

"Believe it or not, Odalia used to be a halfway decent person," Darius explained. "I was friends with both of your parents all through Hexside, Alador and I collaborated on a few personal projects... I even encouraged him to man up and ask your mother out. That was a mistake."

"How so?"

"Not long after they got together, Odalia started talking about starting a business like her parents and grandparents had. Alador mentioned her could probably give her some of his trust fund for start-up costs and you could practically see the snails in her eyes." Darius snorted. "She didn't start out as a gold digger, but greed has a way of changing people. She started talking about marketing his inventions and over the next few months he went from a creative witch with a passion for abomitech engineering to a two-bit hack producing soulless drivel as Odalia pushed him to make more and more marketable weapons that they could sell after graduation. I realized that she'd changed, that she was exploiting him, but when I confronted him about it, well, he wasn't prepared to listen and a friendship that first formed when we were toddlers in Hexside's baby classes went down the tubes in a single night. I was angry, and while brooding over it I transformed for the first time."

"And you mastered the skill?"

"When my mentor, the man to hold the title of Golden Guard before the Little Prince, was murdered in cold blood," Darius said with a dark expression on his face. "Which is why I'll say this: I swear on his grave that I was bluffing when I threatened the human. I know full well how much it hurts to have someone you care for stolen from you like that, and knowingly putting someone through it is perhaps the one line I will never cross. And Amity? 'Your Luz' is lucky to have someone so protective in her life."

Darius's emotions were hard to read as if he was very experienced in keeping them to himself, but when he said his mentor was murdered... The pain, anger, and sadness he felt for just those few moments was unmistakable. So, as much as she didn't want to give him any slack, she believed him. "I'm sorry for your loss... But I still don't want to have anything to do with you after today."

"More than fair," Darius admitted. "And if you can transform on purpose you shouldn't have to. Just... Focus on how it felt to be that angry and will the change to happen."

Amity stood up, gently placed Ghost down, glared at the Headwitch, and focused on just how furious she was at the threat to Luz and... She felt the change as her body became slime. After a moment, she let it go and her body changed back.

"There you go," Darius replied with a smirk. "And it gets easier with practice. After a few years, you'll barely have to think to pull it off."

Amity didn't respond.

Darius sighed. "Look, I get it, you have a right to be ticked off but... Oh, Titan take me... I'm sorry. I assure you I didn't mean anything I said these last few days, it was just a ploy to... You know, in the last few days from what little I saw of you you seem like the best of what both of your parents used to be, they should be proud of... None of this is working, is it?"

"It is not," Amity deadpanned.

"...What if I bought you something expensive?" The older witch offered. "Teenagers like that, right?"

Amity thought it over for a moment. "Titan Bone."

"What?"

"A friend of mine is working on a project that would go much smoother if they had some Titan Bone," Amity explained without technically lying. "But it's hard to get ahold of and I'd rather not ask my parents for help with this, Mom will get all kinds of intrusive about it. It shouldn't be too much of a problem for a Coven Head to get some, however."

"That is..."

"They don't need much," Amity insisted. "As little as a tablespoon would do the job."

"Alright, I'll see what I can do," Darius agreed. "Now then—" A crow flew into the room. Darius answered it. "Eber? I'm busy and... What? already?" The abomination head then waved a hand at Amity, clearly dismissing her, and she left the training room, the abomination coven headquarters, and mounted her staff to fly home. It was... A bit of a flight.

By the time she got back to the manor, it was almost certainly too late to catch the end of the Glad Prix, which had Amity annoyed. Checking, Dad was busy in his workshop, and her mother was nowhere to be found, but as she made her way to her room she was greeted by her siblings.

"Hey Mittens," Emira greeted. "How was training?"

"Over," she declared. "For good. I can transform into an abomination on command now."

"Awesome," Edric said with a grin. "Hey um, we know you've been having a rough time these past few days so we got you something."

When he said that, Amira handed Amity a leather-bound book sealed by a tightly clasped strap.

"What is this?" She asked.

"A new diary," Edric explained. "To replace the one we, you know..."

"This one's password protected," Emira explained. "Once you set the password that's the only way to get it to open."

"Thank you," Amity replied as she took the diary. "I... Did you catch the Gland Prix?"

"Yeah," Emira confirmed.

"How did Luz do?"

"She came in third," Edric confirmed.

"Oh," Amity replied disappointed.

"She had a strong lead for most of the race," Emira added, "she would have won but..."

"The little guy, King, threw up and sent her off course," Edric finished.

"Oh, that's... sad," Amity admitted. "The whole reason Luz entered the race was so she could get King on crystal ball to try and reach out to his birth family."

"Well, that explains the stream that popped up in my pensta feed," Edric added. "I liked and shared it so it could be in yours, too."

Amity pulled out her scroll and checked, seeing a short stream of the young demon making a heartfelt plea for contact with his missing Dad... And also admitted that Eda was the one who raised him and he wanted to take her name before handing the aged witch a stack of adoption papers and Eda, the cantankerous wild witch who got so offended at being called motherly, busting into messy tears as she signed them and hugged the child who wanted to be her son and... Wait...

"Is that the new Head Bard in the background? How are they a part of this?"

"No clue," Emira replied.

"I'm heading over to the Owl House," Amity declared. "I haven't seen Luz outside of school in days and... I have questions."

Chapter Text

Luz had a bounce in her step as their party of four trekked back to the Owl House. She was a little confused about where this Raine came from, but Eda had said they were a friend and Luz trusted Eda... Even if the tickle of her ESP told her that Eda was hiding something. King was riding Eda's shoulder and Eda... For all that, she was clearly hiding something

As they got within eyeshot of the Owl House, Hooty stretched out to greet them and gasped quite loudly upon seeing Raine.

"Hello, Hooty," the tanned, androgynous, green-haired witch greeted nervously.

"Hiya Raine!" Hooty replied cheerfully. "Gee, I haven't seen you in..." Hooty seemed to freeze. After thirty seconds, Eda poked him. "Sorry about that!" he declared. "I just realized that I have no frame of reference for the passage of time, hoot hoot. Still, it's been a while. You haven't been here since you broke up with Eda."

Now it was Luz's turn to gasp, as yet more of Eda's mysterious backstory was revealed to her. King, for his part, started laughing as the two adult witches blushed Amity-red... Luz made a note to make sure her beloved girlfriend never found out about that thought.

"Well, yes, that did happen but... That was a long time ago and we're on good terms now," Raine replied. "Right?"

"Yes," Eda confirmed.

"Then you'll be happy to know that Raeda has been replaced as my favorite ship," Hooty continued as if he wasn't undulating into a minefield. "I'm all about Amluitzy now."

"That's the worst one!" King shouted at the same time Luz shouted "I told you we went with Lumity!"

...When all eyes turned to Luz, she coughed and added "I mean, I told you, shipping real people is cringe."

"Ri~ight," Hooty responded. "By the way, how'd the race go?"

"Came in third," Luz replied. "But Eda streamed King's message on penstagram instead and she signed the papers."

"Oh, that's great!" Hooty said ecstatically. "We need to celebrate!"

"Well, knowing Eda," Luz teased, "the best way to celebrate making the adoption official would be a jailbreak. Do we know anyone in prison right now?"

This was apprently the wrong thing to say, as both adult witches froze with awkward expressions on their faces and Luz suddenly got the feeling that something was wrong even more strongly than earlier.

"Okay, who's in jail and how much time do I have to prepare before I bust into the Conformatrorium for a third time?" Luz asked.

Raine was the first to respond. "It doesn't—third time?"

"We'll handle it, Luz," Eda insisted. "We don't want you involved in this."

"Eda, I think you know me well enough that if you don't tell me I'm going to get involved anyway, and in ways you can't prepare for," Luz replied.

"C'mon Kid, you're smarter than that," Eda replied.

"The Selkidomus hunt?" Luz quipped back.

"...You aren't still feeling like you're a burden, are you?" Eda asked with sudden concern. "Because you're not. You don't have to be involved in every little thing to be... C'mon, Luz, you're family."

"No, I don't," Luz said honestly while kicking herself for choosing that example. "Especially since Piniet started paying royalties so now I can contribute to the food budget."

"Seriously when did you and King write a book?" Eda asked.

"It's just... I kind of have a habit of stumbling into these sorts of schemes, Eda," Luz replied. "Also I'm basically low-key a superhero at this point and, well, great power and all that."

"What's a superhero?" Raine asked

"It's a human thing, Rainestorm," Eda explained quickly. "Look, Luz, this... You have a point, but this is a much bigger deal than what you normally get into."

"I beat up the Emperor," Luz deadpanned. "I don't think it gets bigger than that."

"And I'm more afraid of Cam than I am of Bonehead," Eda finished. "If something happens to you we both know she'll tear the portal open herself and beat me within an inch of my life."

"You're being ridiculous," Luz countered. "She'd beat Belos within an inch of his life."

"Okay, but still," Eda countered while looking around awkwardly, "it's fine, we have it handled and—hey look a distraction!"

Luz rolled her eyes."Like I'll fall for—Amity!"

As Luz noticed her girlfriend flying in from the same general direction Eda had gestured in, she bolted back up the path so as to greet her as she landed. Amity for her part literally leaped from her staff and landed in Luz's outstretched arms. Maintaining the momentum, Luz twisted to twirl Amity a round a few times before hugging her tightly and placing a kiss on her, both actions being eagerly reciprocated by Amity. After a few moments, they broke apart, Luz set Amity down, and Amity leaned on her while purring. Amity's purring was music to Luz's ears.

"Dang," Eda observed. "You act like you haven't seen each other all week."

"We haven't," Amity replied.

"You go to school together," Eda deadpanned.

"Seeing each other in class doesn't count," Luz insisted. "I've been training for the race and her dad finally got her a tutor for her to turn into an abomination. How's that going by the way?" she asked while facing Amity.

"I'm done now, for good," Amity confirmed. "I can change at will but... Don't ask me to do it now. The training was kind of rough."

"I'm sorry to hear that, Sweet Potato," Luz said while giving Amity a little nuzzle. "But you got it down so fast, you're so awesome."

"Thanks, Batata," Amity replied with a smile. "You're awesome, too. Third place in your first flying race?"

"You caught the race!?" Luz asked excitedly.

"No, but Ed and Em filled me in and I watched, liked, and shared King's stream afterward before flying over," Amity explained. She then shot the newly rechristened King Clawthorne a thumbs up, which the young demon returned. "But um... I have a question... How do you know the head of the Bard Coven?"

"Who, Raine?" Luz asked. "Apparently they used to date Eda, I don't have all the details but... Something's up and Eda's not telling me," she finished as she turned back to her mentor.

"...You're not gonna let up on this, are you?" Eda asked with a resigned expression

"I am not."

"Okay, fine," Eda relented in the same tone and cadence as a teen agreeing to clean her room. "But inside, and not right away. I need a few minutes to decompress. Today was very emotionally taxing for... a couple of reasons."

With that, they were led into the Owl House, and Eda gave Hooty instructions to go on high alert until further notice. She then set King down on the couch, told Raine to make themself comfortable, and marched into the kitchen to make tea.

"So, Raine... You used to date my mom," King started.

"Yes, yes I did," Raine replied neutrally.

King hmmed. "I don't know where I was going with this."

"How does it feel to call Eda 'mom' King?" Luz asked.

"It feels right," King said confidently. "Not sure I'm ready to call her that to her face yet but..." King was clearly happy.

"So, I think I know how King came into Eda's life," Raine began, "but where do you come in? Luz, is it? I take it you're her apprentice, the one the Emperor says was blessed by the Titan?"

Luz rolled her eyes. "Don't believe everything Belos says, he's a liar."

"Oh, I'm quite aware," Rainge replied darkly.

"I mean, he might have been accidentally telling the truth," Amity added.

"What?" Raine asked.

"It's complicated," Luz dismissed, "anyway I first met Eda when Owlbert stole my book and I ended up chasing him through the portal between the human realm and the demon realm."

A scandalized hiss emerged from Luz's lowered hood and Stringbean floated out. "Papa Owlbert did what?"

"It's fine, Stringbean," Luz reassured. "Owlbert and I are friends now."

"Still," Stringbean hissed, "that wasn't very nice." Stringbean then floated down to Amity's lap, where Ghost was resting, and rattled "Ghosty, come help me talk to Papa Owlbert."

Ghost stretched in a way that seemed akin to a shrug and then padded off after Stringbean to, presumably, find and chastise the owl who had become something of a father figure to Luz's palisman.

"So that happened," Luz observed. "Anyway, Eda wouldn't let me go home until I helped her break into the conformatorium to steal back something Warden Wrath stole from King, so we did, I freed some prisoners, started a riot, discovered I had powers, and... Well, I really didn't want to go to that summer camp and I always wanted to learn magic so... I became Eda's apprentice."

"A lot of things are starting to fall into place," Raine replied neutrally. "So... You're a sorcerer, I take it?"

"Nope!" Luz replied cheerfully. She then drew a spell circle to cast the light spell. Luz wasn't sure exactly how much of it was from practice versus just getting stronger from absorbing more magic but she was able to cast the spells she knew with normal-sized circles and not too much of a drain now. "I wasn't born a witch, and I don't have a bile sack so I can't cast any of the main magics since, um, no spell phlegms, but I can do elemental magics as long as I... Ooh, I need an example."

Luz reached into her pocket and drew out her glyph cards before passing a light glyph to rain. "Tap it."

Raine obliged and was rewarded with a simple ball of light.

"The glyphs are this ancient form of magic that witches used before they figured out how to cast spells with their bile," Luz explained. "They're some kind of language that manipulates the ambient magic of the Boiling Isles and I rediscovered them... With a little help."

"We're pretty sure, from overwhelming circumstantial evidence," Amity added, "that they have something to do with the Titan."

"At first I could only do magic with the glyphs," Luz continued, "but then I got magic of my own through some... Complicated stuff and with a bit of trial and error we figured out that I can use my own power to cast any spell I know the glyph or glyph combo for." She drew another circle and then held out her hand, conjuring some flowers. "I can even fake a couple of the main magics. I don't have answers to any of the advanced plant spells but one of the four basic glyphs is for conjuring live plants and you can get pretty far with just that if you're creative." She then handed the flowers she'd conjured, a bouquet of lavender, to Amity who gave a quiet giggle as she took them. "I can also contribute magic to communal spells and rituals."

"That's all very impressive," Raine said genuinely. "So Eda said you go to school with... Amity? Amity Blight, Alador and Odalia's youngest?"

"Yes, Headwitch Whispers," Amity answered.

"Please, call me Raine," the bard replied, "so, you'll be enrolled at Hexside then, which tracks are you in?"

"All of them!" Luz declared proudly.

Raine blinked. "How?"

"She did in one day what I never could," came Eda's voice as she came back in with a tray of tea mugs. "On her very first day, she and some kids she met in detention convinced Bumpipoo to let the kids learn whatever magics they wanted instead of strictly following the Emperor's boneheaded one magic one witch policy. I couldn't possibly be more proud of my apprentice."

"To be fair, we did defeat a greater basilisk that had already drained the rest of the students and staff," Luz added sheepishly. "That kinda gives you a pretty big boost to persuasiveness."

"Lots of kids are multitracking now," Amity confirmed. "I'm mostly an abomination specialist, but I also study plants, potions, and bard magic."

"You know, Boots," Eda added, "Raine wrote the song I taught you and Luz."

"You taught them one of my songs?" Raine asked with a blush.

"They needed a love song," Eda replied. "Something pure. So I taught them Raine's Rhapsody... Hey, why don't you two get your instruments and show Raine what you did with their song."

"After you explain what's going on and who we know that's in jail," Luz insisted.

"Dang it," Eda. "Okay, fine. So... You remember that group of bards that showed up and wrecked the petrification machine back at the Confomrtatroim?"

"No," Luz replied. "I heard about them but I never saw them."

"Oh right, you only came out at the very end," Eda realized, "Boots, you saw them."

"They called themselves the Bards Against The Throne," Amity explained. "There were four of them. They appeared during the protest-turned-riot, declared they were there to rescue Eda, used a bard spell to summon a localized storm that destroyed the petrification, and then their leader dueled the Golden Guard..." Something seemed to occur to Amity. "The leader of the bards used a viola and... When Eda taught us the song, she said it was originally written for the mandolin and the viola. She plays the mandolin, so... Now that I think about it, they had light green hair too and... You're the Leader of the Bards Against The Throne, aren't you, Mx. Whispers?"

"You're much more observant than most witches, Ms. Blight," Raine noted, "and I told you to please call me Raine."

"Sorry, the force of habit," Amity acknowledged.

"But yes, I am the leader of The BATTS," Raine confirmed. "the other day, as we were rescuing a Wild Witch who had been captured by some coven guards when we got into something of a jam and Eda helped us out. Going forward, she started aiding us and we were able to really ramp up our efforts... Until today. Just a few hours ago I got a tip-off about something big... That turned out to be a trap."

"Oh boy," Luz replied.

"The other BATTs were captured by Eberwolf and Darius Deamonne," Eda added. Amity spilled her tea. "What?"

"Darius is the one who was training me in abomination metamorphosis," Amity explained.

"Oh, that must have been rough," Raine observed with sympathy

"It was... The talent is powered by anger," Amity began, "so the last few days he's been making me duel him while insulting my performance and... My self-esteem has been pretty bad lately."

Luz could sense the bad feelings coming off of Amity. "I'mma kill him."

"Luz, no... He admitted today he didn't mean any of it and he offered to buy me something expensive after seeing just how badly the damage was, so I'm extorting him into providing us with some Titan Bone," Amity explained. "So at least wait until then. Besides, just being here with you is making me feel better."

"...So when's the wedding," King asked. During the conversation he'd left the couch and was now sitting atop a pile of his stuffed animals, accompanied by a trio of palisman. The demon and the palisman had all clearly gotten bored at some point and were playing some kind of game. "Seriously. I think Hooty's an ordained minister."

"How is Hooty an ordained minister!?" Eda demanded.

Hooty proceeded to crash in through a window. "I took a correspondence course!"

"When!?" Eda asked again.

"When King and Luz were writing their book," Hooty replied. "I got the letter confirming my certification two weeks ago, hoot hoot. But King, that is not an appropriate question to be asking. Even if it's obvious they're going to be married someday, right now they're just kids and should be allowed to be kids and figure this out on their own."

"I was joking!" King insisted.

"To answer King's question," Amity began, "when we're old enough and not a second sooner. Like Hooty said."

"And on our terms, no one else's" Luz agreed.

"Then I dropped my grom photo that I keep with me, and... He sort of... Threatened Luz."

"Luz, you're not allowed to kill him, I call dibs," Eda interrupted.

"He was bluffing about that, too," Amity shared. "Or at least that's what he says. He said that he knows firsthand what it's like to have someone you are about taken from you and that he wouldn't do that to someone and..."

"...That might explain something," Raine observed. "After he captured my apprentices, Eda and I fled into the woods and.."

"You know how my curse futzes with bad magic?" Eda added. "We tried to use that with Raine's Rhapsody to take Darius and Eberwolf out: Emperor Bonehead has a plan and needs all nine Covenheads to pull it off and it's not like he can replace them on short notice. But... We had to stop because it was affecting us too."

Eda was clearly not telling the full story there, but Luz didn't press.

"Then Darius caught us," Raine finished. "I was fully prepared to give myself up so Eda could escape, to fight them both on my own or die trying, but Darius got a good look at us, said 'Don't do it again,' and left with Eberwolf."

"We got back to town just in time to see the end of the race."

"That... That's bad," Amity said clearly panicked. "He knows you and Eda were involved in a rebellion, he... When he threatened Luz I didn't know he was bluffing. I tried to kill him, I... He got a call from someone named Eber right before he sent me home. If you got back... This couldn't be more than half an hour before you walked into the trap. If I'd..."

"Boots, don't do this to ourselves. I've been there and done that when it comes to asking what-ifs and all it does is lead to sleepless nights," Eda gently chastised.

"Besides, you did more than enough," Raine confirmed. "Your reaction to his provocation,s that conversation... It must have reminded him of his own pain enough to have second thoughts. And for as much of a jerk Darius can be, he's still a witch of principles. He won't expose us as long as we don't get caught again."

"And dealing with stuff like this isn't your responsibility," Eda added. "It's like Hooty said, you're just kids and should get to be kids. Let us worry about breaking Amber, Derwin, and Katya out of the Conformitorium."

"They got Katya again?" Luz asked. She'd just sent the witch her feedback on her latest fanfic.

"Luz," Eda insisted, "let us handle it."

"Fine," Luz agreed reluctantly. She then finished her tea and took a moment to read the leaves, as had become something of a habit. The weather was going to be good tonight.

"Now, why don't you get your instruments and show Rainestorm what you can do?" Eda asked.

"Alright," Luz said as she stood up and started heading up the stairs. Amity followed after her.

Once they got to her room, Amity asked "You're already planning to break them out tonight, aren't you?"

"You know me so well," Luz said with a smile.

Chapter Text

Later that night, after King was tucked into bed, Raine fell asleep on the couch, and Eda wandered off upstairs after her fifth apple blood, Luz and Amity, who had stayed over citing a need for GF cuddles to recover from her stressful week, snuck out and flew to the Conformatorium.

Luz shifted to her symbiote form on the way, while Amity had changed into some borrowed clothes that had a hood she could use to disguise herself.

"Okay, the first time I broke in here most of the prisoners were in cells at the top of the tower," Luz explained, "so we'll start from there and work our way down."

"Got it," Amity replied. Luz could feel she was a little nervous.

"Yeah, we've got this," Luz said to reassure her. Then the two flew in through the top window, the same one Luz climbed through on her first day in the demon realm. Landing, the two banished their staves and... "Well, that was lucky."

The sight that greeted them was Warden Warth standing before a cell with three witches in it. He seemed to have been in the process of taunting them when Luz and Amity came in and he turned to face them.

And got one good look at Luz.

"Ah, Titan take me,"

"That can be arranged," Luz quipped. "But if you'd rather do this the easy way, we're here to liberate the rebels captured this afternoon so if you could just... Go."

"You know I can't just—"

"I know about the basilisks," Luz added. "In fact, I should probably be beating you up on their behalf right now considering how they were treated but I'm kinda in a hurry." She emphasized the statement by clenching her fist and making her cloak billow without wind.

Warden Wrath proceeded to summon a scroll-like device and speak into it: "This is Warden Wrath, all Conformatorium Guards take a fifteen-minute break effective immediately." He then turned around and started trudging down the stairs while mumbling about how he was going to get fired at this rate.

"That was easy," Luz mused before moving to the cell. Standing in front of the cell Luz could recognize one of the witches inside as Katya.

"Hey," Luz greeted. "don't worry, we're gonna get you out of here. Your leader's safe and..." Luz then noticed that the lever on this cell was up. "This cell isn't locked." She then demonstrated by placing a finger under one of the bars and then gently flicking it up. She'd never get used to how strong she was in symbiote mode.

Cell open, the BATTS stepped out. The short one with the roden ears looked at Luz suspiciously before Katya noticed and spoke up, "It's alright, Amber. She's a friend. She's Eda's apprentice."

"Oh, okay," the... Luz couldn't tell if she was smaller or just younger, replied. That meant that the last one had to be Derwin.

"Do you know if there are any other prisoners?" Amity asked.

"There shouldn't be any," Katya said. "They've really cut back on the arbitrary arrests ever since the riot and we've saved almost every captured wild witch in Bonesborrogh in the last week."

"Okay, do you guys have palismen?" Luz asked.

In response, Katya summoned a staff with a stag beetle figure on top but the other two remained empty-handed.

Luz called back Stringbean. "Okay," she said, "we've got three staves for five people so who wants to ride with who?"

Derwin ended up riding with Katya while Amber rode with Luz as they flew back out the window they came in through.

"Okay, Raine's at the Owl House so we'll take you there but um... Raine and Eda sort of told us to let them handle busting you out so um... Act cool," Luz said.

"Wait, why did they—"

The question was cut off by the three staves being grabbed out of the air tendrils of dark purple slime, riders and all.

As they hit the ground in the woods not far from the Confomrtorium and were released, Luz checked to make sure Stirngbean was okay. She was fine, looking around everyone was fine, but...

"Well this just got a lot more complicated," came an elegant and... Somewhat campy voice.

Amity looked away from the dark-skinned witch who had spoken and made an effort to pull her hood down past her face but was interrupted.

"Don't bother, Blight," the witch said, "I recognize your palisman."

Amity then stood and shifted into her cool and cute slime form. "I guess that means the Titan Bone is a bust," she quipped.

"Now see here—" Luz did not let the witch, now identified as Darius, finish as she instead leaped at him and swung her fist at him as it shifted into a blade not unlike Jean-Luc's. Darius ducked it by transforming into an abomination and flattening himself against the ground before slithering away. "Okay, that was uncalled for."

"No, it wasn't," Luz replied as she flipped back and landed on all fours. In addition to weaponization abilities, she'd also become as flexible and agile as Jean-Luc... However she did not have the equilibrium to do any of the wall or ceiling crawling that it did, so her Spider-Man impressions were rather limited at the moment.

As she retreated, Amity charged, Two abomination-witches wrestling in a way that took full advantage of their fluidity of form for a moment before Darius countered Amity's spiked fist with a sword materialized from his mass, forcing her to retreat.

When Amity was clear Luz called Stringbean to her hand while she split her cloak into tentacles which she set to stretch out and place plant glyphs around Darius which activated and generated a mass of vines that stretched out and wrapped around Darius.

He escaped, slashing through them with his blade but they bought Luz enough time to draw a spell circle with her staff, channeling her power and Stringbean's into a gout of white-hot flames that Darius went wide-eyed as he summoned a giant abomination to eat the blast.

"Alright, seriously, you need to—" Darius was cut off by tufts of grass on the ground undulating as the soil they were embedded in rose up and became dirt abominations, just like the ones Jerbo invented. From the corner of her eye, Luz saw Amity, having shifted back to human form directing them as spell circles traced her hands. "You have been mixing magic!"

"I kind of had to," Amity declared as the dirt abominations moved to engage Darius. "I can't beat you with just abomination magic. I think we've proven that conclusively. If nothing else, you're more experienced than I am." Darius was forced to parry blows from the half-a-dozen dirt abominations. "You can turn any abomination I summoned against me with a blink... But you need abomination and plant magic to control these! Your coven sigil means you can't turn them against me."

"Well you're certainly a clever little brat," Darius began as he struggled against them, "but—"

"And then there's what happens when I add a third magic!" Amity proudly declared as the circles framing her hands grew a bit wider. "Abominations, puke!"

"Wait, what?" Darius asked as the dirt constructs he was surrounded by opened their mouths and projectile vomited a noxious smelling, green, sap-like substance all over him. Darius proceeded to make a wide variety of incoherent noises to express his disgust as the sap spread over his form and hardened into a tough, opaque shell fully encasing the abomination coven's head.

"...So did you not need our help?" came Katya's voice from behind them. Turning, Luz saw that the three BATTs had summoned their instruments. Amber looked to be just about to play something.

"Nah, we had it," Luz answered. "But we should probably get going. Now." She then walked over to where Amity was standing. She'd called Ghost to her hand and was now leaning on her staff. "You okay, Sweet Potato?"

"I just dueled one of the greatest experts of abomination magic in recent history for the second time today... Wait, what time is it? It's not after midnight is it? The point is, I'm exhausted. Spent. If that hadn't worked..."

"Well it did work, and you're amazing Hermosa."

"Thanks, Batata," Amity said with a big smile. "I'm getting a lot of mileage out of my potions theory class."

"It is," came an androgynous voice from off to the side. Turning again, Luz and Amity saw Raine Whispers standing at the edge of the clearing. "After midnight."

And Eda was standing next to them, and she was mad. "What in the Titan's name are you two doing out here!?"

"Um... Jailbreak," Luz said as an explanation. "Kind of turned into a duel. Wait, is it still a duel when it's two-on-one? Anyway, we rescued the BATTS."

"We told you to let us handle it," Eda reminded them.

"Yeah, but... This is my third jailbreak and Warden Wrath is afraid of me, I figured I could just handle it easy, but then... Why was he even here?" It hadn't occurred to Luz to ask during the duel. "Also why are you here... And sober. You were five apple bloods in when..." Eda was still mad. Eda was still mad and now Luz felt really, really bad.

"I faked it," Eda replied. "I was drinking the mild stuff so that Raine and I could plan a jailbreak once we were sure you two were down for the night. Now, that... Grr, ugh... Luz, do you... Understand just how much danger you're in just being here on the Isles?"

"...Not that much?" Luz replied.

"Comparitively none," Amity added. "It's insane how much danger there is in the human realm. Even with the Emperor taking an interest in her with his lies about the Titan she's safer here than she is back there."

"Plenty," Eda asked. "You are in plenty of danger because the Bonehead-in-charge took an interest because you helped me escape his clutches. Because you gave him a bloody nose that day and I can't keep you safe if you just go running off into... I told you so you wouldn't go and..."

"What Eda is trying to say," Raine helpfully interrupted. "Is that jailbreaks and rebellions aren't your responsibility? They're ours. Dealing with Belos and his corrupt system is something that we, full-grown witches, should be doing so that withlings like the two of you can inherit a better world. At your age, your only concerns should be um... We're passed Grom season, right?"

"Yeah, Amity was queen," Luz replied. "It's when we got together. But if I can help, then I should help, right?"

"I get that that's how you feel, Luz," Eda added and... she was more sad than mad now. "But... I know you just want to help, and that most of your adventures here are just.. That. Fun adventures. Or else something that just sort of happens around you, but... This kind of thing is different. If I tell you to stay out of it, that means stay out of it. This is... Give me your phone."

Luz didn't like Eda's tone when she made that demand. "...Why?"

"Because I barely know how to parent, " Eda said. "Stuff like love and affection and nurturing come surprisingly easy, but... I have no idea how to... I'm going to call your mother, and I am going to ask her what sort of punishment she'd give out for this kind of thing."

"Uh, no," Luz said as panic started to build up in her. "She, she doesn't need to know about this. I... Totally learned my lesson, I'll never do this again." Luz's Mom had been very understanding but if Eda said things the way she'd said them just now then, "if she... She might change her mind about letting me stay here when the portal's fixed if you... I promise I'll be good."

Eda seemed to see the fear in Luz's eyes. "Fine. Promise me that if I tell you to let me handle it again that you won't stick your nose in and I won't tell Cam. But if I get even a hint that you did something like this again without a damned good reason..."

"I promise," Luz said a little too quickly. "No more jailbreaks, no more... I'm sorry."

Eda started taking a few deep breaths and.... pulled an Elixir from her hair before downing the whole bottle in one gulp. Had, had Luz really stressed her out that much?

Luz was interrupted from those thoughts by the sound of cracking. The resin imprisoning Darius was starting to give, and a moment later it shattered entirely.

Darius quickly returned to his flesh and blood form, breathing heavily, then froze when various instruments and palismen were immediately pointed at him. "Oh, Titan take me."

"That can be arranged," Raine declared with dead seriousness. "How does it feel to have been beaten by two school girls, Darius?"

"Why are you even here?" Amity asked.

"I was trying to thread a needle," Darius declared petulantly. "It's so very hard to rescue rebels who were on the Emperor's radar without getting caught yourself."

"...Okay, now I'm confused," Katya said.

"Eberwolf and I have been plotting to take down Belos and dismantle his empire ever since he killed Hunter."

"What happened to Hunter!?" Luz demanded.

"Not the Little Prince, human," Darius dismissed. "The previous Golden Guard. My friend and mentor. I'm not sure what's going on but not long after my mentor's cold-blooded murder a toddler starts living in the palace under the Emperor's care, with the same name as a man who I watched succumb to his injuries. They're clearly related, they both call the Emperor their uncle, and the new one gets groomed to take my mentor's position... I don't know what kind of sick game Belos is playing, but..."

"If you're a rebel too," Raine asked, "then why set a trap? Why not just warn us?"

"Well for one it's not like I knew you were in charge of this little... I was going to say band but that's a little on the nose. Trust me, it would have made things much easier if I did. Our plan was to capture the rebels, let them be in custody just long enough to be registered as such, then bribe Warden Wrath to let us 'handle things personally' and then take them away to join our rebellion. Then I would have let them contact you so you could be properly looped in."

"...He's telling the truth," Amity said. "At least as far as I can tell."

"This an uh," Eda pointed at her head, "type thing?"

"Yeah," Amity confirmed.

"Okay, you've explained why you're against the Emperor," Raine observed, "but what's Eberwolf getting out of this?"

"Is outrage that the Emperor would murder a loyal soldier in cold blood not enough?" Darius replied. "Eber values loyalty, proof that the Emperor doesn't was all he needed."

"...Eda, he's outnumbered and exhausted," Raine declared. "I think my students and I can handle him if this is a trick. I'll call you in the morning, you can take the girls home."

"Gotcha, Rainestorm," Eda replied. "Boots, you okay to fly?"

"Yeah," Amity confirmed. Then she looked back at Darius. "I still want the Titan Bone."

"Alright, fine, whatever," Darius said dismissively, and then... Eda leads Luz and Amity back to the Owl House.

"Boots, you go on up," Eda said once they were inside, "I need to talk with Luz for a little bit."

Amity froze until Luz said, "Go on, it's okay." Then she reluctantly went up the stairs.

"Okay, Luz... I am very upset with you," Eda began.

"I know, I'm sorry," Luz replied. "I... I just..."

"Luz, I get it. You wanted to help and you got an idea in your head and just acted on it, I'm the same way, but... That doesn't make it any less frustrating when you go and rush into danger after I tell you not to," Eda said.

"I'm sorry, I'll try to be better," was all Luz could say. She was wracking her brain to try and figure out how to make it up to her mentor when Eda pulled her into a hug.

"But just because I'm mad at you," Eda said, "that doesn't mean I don't still love you. I want to make sure you know that."

"Eda, I... I'm sorry," Luz said again. At this rate, she was going to start crying, "I..."

"Hey, calm down," Eda said. "As long as you keep your promise, we can just end it here. No punishment, no more hard feelings. Okay?"

"Okay."

"Good. Now get up to bed."

Chapter Text

Amity finished up her personal studying for the day and got up to stretch, thinking that she'd send a message to Luz to ask how she was. Luz had seemed a little distant ever since the jailbreak. Not distant distant, but clearly preoccupied about something. Amity didn't want to pry, she knew that Luz knew she could come to Amity if she needed anything, but that didn't mean part of her didn't worry.

She was roused from her thoughts by tapping at her bedroom window. Given that she was on the second floor and there was no way to get up to her balcony from the outside, this was somewhat concerning.

Turning to approach the window, she saw... Hooty. This prompted blinking even as she approached the window to try and find out what the creepy bird tube wanted.

As she opened the balcony window, she was immediately greeted with a high-pitched "Hiya, Amity!" as the demon stretched and undulated into her room. A brief glance outside showed that his body had burst up through the ground which would probably annoy her mother.

Backing back into her room, Amity was compelled to ask "Why are you here?"

"Oh it's about Luz," Hooty began. "Ever since the thing that happened the last time you slept over she's been trying really hard to stay focused and productive so she doesn't do something 'stupid and impulsive' again. Right now she's trying to get more info out of her echo mouse in hopes that she can get to work on replacing the portal key but she's not having much luck."

"...Really? Why doesn't she just ask me if she's having trouble with it?"

Hooty undulated in a manner reminiscent of a shrug. "Anyway, she's really, really stressing herself out and could probably use a break so as her friend I made an executive decision: She needs to take a break and relax, and as her GF you're the best equipped to convince her to do that. Will you accept this most important mission?"

"Of course, anything for Luz," Amity agreed.

"Good." Hooty then started retching and Amity was hit by a terrifying revelation as the house demon deposited a large owl pellet on her carpet. "I'll leave you to it: I've gotta get back before Eda wakes up, she's been up all night working on ways to help Raine and only just got some shutye, and King's bloodwork should be done soon." He then pulled back from her room and into the earth with the speed of someone releasing a stressed elastic band.

Just as he left, the owl pellet burst open to reveal a rather traumatized-looking Luz, who rolled around in a panic before her eyes locked onto Amity.

With wide wet eyes and outstretched hands, her Luz who was radiating fear begged "Hugs?"

Amity, of course, obliged. "It's going to be okay, Luz."

"It was so cold," Luz said weakly.

"I know," Amity replied.

"And so dark."

"I know."

"And... There are no bones or organs in there, Amity. It's just rows and rows of teeth."

"I know."

"Disturbingly human-like teeth organized like they're on shelves, but there are no shelves. Just, just floating there in rows in the void."

"It's gonna be okay, Luz."

"And I saw the face of God," Luz finished. "They were an axolotl for some reason."

"...Okay. That one's new," Amity admitted.

That admission seemed to snap Luz out of it as she started laughing at the absurdity of the situation. Amity just continued to hug Luz while she laughed it out and kept hugging her when she stopped laughing.

"Okay," Luz said after a few moments. "I think I'm okay."

"You sure?" Amity asked.

"Yeah," Luz replied.

"Okay," Amity said as she released Luz and helped her up.

"Sorry for going to pieces on you like that," Luz said sheepishly. "I know you handled it better than I did."

"Not as much as you'd think" Amity admitted. "And even if I had handled being... Owl pelleted better than you, who cares? Remember, I went to pieces because I thought you were going to say no when I gave you my note. You've done things I never could, Luz, you don't have to feel bad about having trouble coping with something like... That."

"Thanks, Amity," Luz said. She breathed in and out. "Did Hooty say why he dropped me off here?"

"He said you were working too hard," Amity explained, "and stressing yourself out. He asked me to try to convince you to take a break and relax."

"I'm not..." Luz began before trailing off... "Okay, I just... I don't want to upset Eda again so I've been trying to focus all my energy on productive stuff so I don't just decide to do something stupid again, but I have to be careful about that because  If I'm not that's how you get bringing fireworks to school, so when all my homework was done I turned to the journal and I can't get the echo mouse to show me anything else and..."

"Luz," Amity began, "I... I don't think Eda meant for you to completely change your behavior. Just... When you get an impulse to do something dangerous, stop and think it through."

"Are you sure?" Luz asked.

"I'm positive," Amity continued. "And if that's not enough, you can just ask her... I'll help you talk to her if you want."

"...Okay," Luz agreed.

"No, if you're having trouble with the echo mouse why didn't you just... Ask me?" Amity asked next. "I know plenty of tricks to get info out of an echo mouse."

Luz's expression became blank for a moment, then she smacked her own forehead. "Ah, geez, maybe I do need a break."

Amity giggled and then leaned in to give her girlfriend a comforting kiss...

And just as their lips touched, the door to Amity's bedroom was thrown open and Amity's face began to burn... As did Luz's, as Amity could see in the corner of her eye.

"Hey, Mittens I heard a commotion earlier is everything alright...?" Emira asked only to trail off as she saw that Amity wasn't alone. "Oh, okay... Next time lock your door."

"It's not what you think," Amity said quickly as she, still blushing furiously, turned to face her older sister directly. "Uh, Hooty, dropped Luz off here, he um..."

Luz picked "He thinks I've been working too hard lately and uh,"

"He thought I could convince her to relax for a little bit," Amity finished.

"...Look, you don't have to justify it to me," Emira said with a hint of amusement. "You don't have to make excuses. You two are adorable, you clearly care about each other a lot, and if you're as good for Luz as she is for you then you're clearly meant to be together. Just... The next time she sneaks over, let me know ahead of time and I'll cover for you... What is that?" Emira said pointing to the remains of the owl pellet.

"That's a giant owl pellet," Luz said. "From when Hooty ate me alive and threw me back up. Because that's how he forced me to take a break and dropped me off here."

"...Speaking of changing the subject," Emira deflected with clear discomfort, "Um... Have you two had your first real date yet?"

"Not yet," Luz admitted while gears turned in Amity's head.

"...Why don't we do that now?" she asked.

"Huh?"

"You need a break so... You and me, we'll just go out somewhere and have fun together for a bit," Amity explained. "Us, together, on a date. Our first date. What do you think."

"I don't know," Luz replied, "shouldn't our first real date be something... Um..."

"It doesn't have to be perfect," Amity declared and found herself only slightly surprised that she meant it completely. "We don't have anything to prove to each other, ourselves, or anyone else. As long as we're together and enjoying ourselves then it'll be more than perfect."

"Okay, our first date... Yeah, let's do it," Luz agreed. "What'd you have in mind?"

"I have no idea," Amity admitted enthusiastically. "I haven't gotten to that part yet... Em!" She declared while turning to her sister, "You and Ed are both a lot more experienced with this kind of thing. Any suggestions?"

Emira hummed for a moment. "You two like dancing, right?" At their confirmation, the older teen continued, "Well there's this outdoor... Pavilion I guess? Or maybe a yard? In the evening in town, some people play classical style music and others slow dance. There's no cover charge or dress code or anything, if you behave yourself and like music and dancing then you're welcome there. There are also some tables to sit at and a bar where you can buy like... Not hard drinks but like, juices blended up with club soda or the like. I've been there with a couple of dates, it's nice."

"That sounds amazing," Amity said.

"Yeah!" Luz added.

"I'll write down the address for you," Emira said with a smirk.

After being given the location, and cleaning up the remains of the owl pellet, the couple left. It was a bit of a walk, but they elected to go on foot anyway to enjoy each other's company more. Amity asked Luz if there were other human books like Azura, ones that were meant to introduce kids to fantastical worlds and stuff... This led to a rant about a story about a neglected orphaned boy who was whisked away to a magical boarding school after learning that his deceased parents were magical only to find out that their murderer was still out there and wanted to go three for three. The story was apprently somewhat... Problematic, but...

"Anyway, despite the narrative flaws and the really... The awkward situation with the elves," Luz finished, "it's still a good story with a very uplifting message about how love is stronger than death, the inherent immorality of bigotry, and how what matters most are your choices, not the circumstances of your birth or the labels other people stick on you... And then the author went on social media and started saying a bunch of transphobic garbage."

"...That's uh... The one where...?"

"Where you hate people who don't identify with their gender assigned at birth," Luz explained. "There are all kinds of conspiracy theories, the dangerous ones not the fun ones, about trans people and... How do you write something that says 'being a bigot is wrong' and then turn around and be a bigot?" Luz asked rhetorically. "It ticks me off... But I have to wonder at the people who grew up with those books. That's gotta be like, some kind of betrayal, right? Imagine being a trans kid, finding the courage to be your real self because your favorite childhood story said it was okay to make your own choices about who you are and then it turns out the author hates you and everyone like you."

Amity shook her head. "I can't even wrap my head around that. Hating someone because of... No one cares about that sort of thing here. Your gender is your business, no one else's."

"Anyway, the author went into a massive jerk credit deficit on that first comment and has been digging herself deeper and deeper ever since," Luz finished, "the only people who still like her are other bigots, and most people who still like the books are just sort of ignoring that she exists."

"Jerk credit?"

"You know how sometimes celebrities or other famous people get a pass for bad behavior?" Luz replied. "And how it tends to vary: a normal famous person only gets a couple of faux pas or heat-of-the-moment things excused but someone who is known to be a cool dude who does good things and generally behaves themselves can get away with some outrageous stuff when they finally have to cash out. This author was just a normal famous person with the normal amount of credit so she sort of tanked herself by admitting her hate. Meanwhile, someone like... If you read a headline that said Captain America punched a cop, your first instinct is gonna be to wonder what that cop did to tick off Captain America."

Amity laughed. "I'll take your word on all of that."

They continued walking and then a young voice called out, "Ms. Amity!"

One of the children she read to at the library was rushing towards her. A blonde, pigtailed witchling.

"Oh, who's this?" Luz asked playfully as the girl approached

"This is Lydia," Amity introduced. "Lydia, this is my girlfriend, Luz."

"She's pretty," the small child said.

"Thank you," Luz said.

"And how are you, Lydia?" Amity asked.

"Mommy says I'm not old enough to summon the Dark Lord," the girl said sadly.

"Ahh, that's too bad," Amity consoled. "Speaking of which, where is your mommy?"

As if on cue, a haggard-looking woman approached, seemingly an adult version of the witchling in question.

"Liddy, I told you to stop running off like that," the woman chastised.

"Sorry, Mommy," replied the child.

"She wasn't bothering you, was she?" The woman asked Amity and Luz.

"No," was Luz's response.

"Not at all," was Amity's.

"Alright, I'll get her out of your hair then," and then the witch led her child away.

Just before they got out of earshot, the little witchling could be heard to say "Mommy, I want uppies."

Amity chuckled to herself. She loved children. She was about to take Luz's hand to keep walking when she noticed that Luz was spaced out a bit, almost wistful looking, and radiating just a bit of sadness.

"Luz? Are you alright?"

"Uh, yeah," Luz replied. "Just got lost in thought for a bit. C'mon, we should be almost there."

They were, in fact, almost there and Luz seemed to be feeling better as they arrived. The area wasn't fenced off or anything but there was a clear boundary line with a proper pavilion under which tables sat, which was also the entryway. Going in, another such pavilion, though much smaller, was visible a short walk away and off to the side, and under that one was what appeared to be the juice bar Emira mentioned. The rest of the area was mostly open, save the strung lights overhead and that filled with slow-dancing couples, but at the far end of the yard was a stage upon which stood a string courtet and, playing the harp...

"Huh, I didn't know Tiny Nose was a musician," Luz observed.

"Fair, to be honest until Eda called her over to help with the special project I didn't know she graduated from medical school," Amity countered.

The couple was about to join the dancers when for the second time that evening someone called out "Hey, Amity."

Turning, Amity saw Boscha approaching... Only for the three-eyed witch to stop when she noticed Luz. "Oh, you're here with... Luz."

"Yeah," Luz replied. "Our first real date. Are you here with a date?"

"No," Boscha said evenly. "I... I'm meeting my parents here. To celebrate winning the Grudgby game last week."

"Oh?"

"Yeah um... I like this kind of music. Mom and Ren like this kind of music. They like to dance, this place makes the best bloody temples in town. Probably the only place in town where we can all enjoy ourselves, so..."

Luz gave Amity a side glance, so Amity explained: "A bloody temple is a virgin cocktail made with cinder ale and concentrated pomegranate blood that has been flavored with sugar and lemon juice."

"Huh," Luz replied. "I think we have a drink like that back in the Human Realm."

"Well uh... I'll leave you two to your date then," Boscha said awkwardly before walking off.

With that exchange done, the couple went out to dance. As always when they danced together they immediately fell into perfect synch with each other, stepping to the rhythm without much need for one to lead the other. When leadership was needed, they each knew when to take the role and when to cede it. Amity could feel almost intuitively when Luz wanted to twirl, to be spun, or to be dipped, and based on Luz's movements she knew the same of Amity.

Amity loved this. Dancing with Luz... It was like everything else in the world, all the problems, faded away. It was an almost intimate means of communicating their purest emotions and, when they were together like this, that they were together was all that mattered.

They danced together for nearly an hour, occasionally receiving compliments on the harmony of their movements before they had to take a break.

"Would you like a drink?" Amity asked.

"...Yeah, I could probably use one after that," Luz admitted.

"Okay, you find a place to sit and I'll meet you with drinks," Amity instructed.

"Alright. And um..."

"Don't worry," Amity said with a smile. "I have thoroughly memorized the list of food that you can and can't eat." She was currently in the process of going through all her favorite recipes to see what she could adapt to be both Luz-safe and suitable for a human palette.

There was a short line at the bar and, while Amity was waiting she got an alert on her scroll. Checking, she'd received a DM on Pensta from Boscha.

The message read "thought you might want this," and attached was a candid photo of her and Luz mid-dance. Luz was leaning back while Amity held her up by one arm. They each had a slight blush as they looked up at each other with huge smiles and loving expressions. Boscha had used a filter that darkened out the background and surrounded them with sparkles in orange and pink and blue and purple and white.

...Amity knew that Boscha didn't care for Luz. She could feel some kind of... Jealousy, from the three-eyed witch, but despite that she was still so supportive of Amity's relationship with the human. Coming from Boscha, this was a big deal. She'd have to come up with some way to thank her.

...Well, a "thank you" message back was the place to start.

Once Amity was at the front of the line and saw what they had to offer, she quickly made an order and, upon receiving it and paying for the drinks, went off to find Luz.

Luz had found an empty table, but when Amity approached to join her she found that Luz had that wistful expression and aura of sadness about her again. A quick glance revealed that Luz was looking at the table where Boscha was sitting with a pink-haired three-eyed female witch, her mother, and an androgynous red-haired witch, her other parent.

Amity sat down and passed a drink over to Luz. "I ended up getting you the bloody temple that Boscha mentioned earlier. Seemed like the safest bet," she said, trying to play it cool. As Luz tried the drink and seemed to find it satisfactory, Amity sipped her own, a blend of equal parts black tea and diluted and sweetened lemon blood served on ice. Invented by a skullf player by the name of Arn Wald when he was living out in Palm Strings, the appropriately named Arn Wald's palmer was a rather refreshing beverage. "So how are you enjoying our date so far?"

"It's everything I could want," Luz said with a genuine smile.

"So is there anything on your mind?" Amity asked.

"Nope, nothing at all," Luz replied but the tone of her voice betrayed that she was lying. Amity's look must have given away that she wasn't convinced. So Luz sighed. "Yeah. But, it's nothing you need to concern yourself with."

Amity sighed herself. "Luz, you've done so much for me. I wish you were a little more willing to lean on me."

"Don't give me that," Luz replied. "You've done plenty for me, too. I know I can come to you if I need help, but... This isn't something you can help me with."

"Tell me anyway," Amity said. "Even if I can't help you, I still want to know what the problem is. If nothing else I can give you some emotional support."

Luz took another sip from her drink. "Okay. You see, what... What's happening is that... I... want to go home."

"Oh... Okay. We can finish our drinks and then I'll walk you back to the Owl House," Amity agreed. Cutting their first date short wasn't what Amity expected but if Luz wasn't feeling it anymore then it would be best to end it on a high note.

"No, not that," Luz denied. "I mean... I miss my Mom. It's... It's the other reason I spent so much time with the echo mouse the last couple of days and... And Doctor Strange is taking a while to get back in touch with her and..." Luz took a deep breath. "And the trouble I had with getting information on Phillip's portal from the mouse, and... I guess, the thought got into my head that... What if I... Never get the portal open again?"

"Oh, Luz, don't say that," Amity reassured. "Well figure this out. I know it."

"I know, but I can't help it... I just... I know I can just call my Mom but that's not the same as seeing her in person, you know?" Luz asked rhetorically. "And... This was a good idea. The date. I always enjoy spending time with you but... My mind keeps wandering back to this stupid intrusive thought and..."

Amity reached out to take Luz's hand, to offer her a bit of comfort. "Do you want to call it here?"

"No," Luz said. "I'd hate it if our first date ended on a low note."

That decided, they finished their drinks and went back to dance some more. This time they danced closer together, almost hugging, and the increased contact seemed to do Luz some good as her spirits were certainly lifted by the time they decided to call it a night for real.

As they walked the path through the woods from town to the Owl House, however, Luz's emotions turned slightly melancholy once more. Before Amity could reach, however, Luz spoke up. "Amity... I don't know what my future's going to be like. If I'll ever get to see my Mom in person again or if I'll be stuck on only this side for the rest of my life but... I know one that."

"Oh?"

"I know that whatever my future holds," Luz finished, "it is so cool that you're going to be part of it."

Amity blushed and giggled. "I love you too, Batata." Then she leaned in to kiss Luz and could feel the contact of their lips chase away what remained of Luz's sadness, at least for now.

Upon arrival at the Owl House, they found the most peculiar sight. Hooty was stretched out and crying ugly tears, while being hugged and comforted by Eda who, as it seemed, had transformed into some kind of red-feathered harpy woman. Her voice echoed as she voiced platitudes to the demon.

"...Did I miss something?" Amity heard Luz whisper to herself.

King scrambled about the yard till he found a decent-sized piece of rock and then shouted "Weh!" This resulted in a multicolored shockwave that shattered the rock completely.

"I missed a lot!"

Chapter Text

Not for the first time that day, Amity looked down at her beloved girlfriend. Luz was sick, and though it scared Amity to death she couldn't help but... Taking care of Luz when she was sick was one of the first things she imagined doing as Luz's girlfriend.

Luz had been in and out of consciousness all day after falling ill the previous night, and when she was awake she was somewhat delirious but right now, she was resting peacefully. The last time she was conscious she'd played with Echo Mouse for a bit and the mouse when prompted by the silly song Luz sang played a portion of Phillips's diary and Amity had to promise to send a warning to Eda and King, who were off questing on Luz's behalf after what was in all likelihood the immediately preceding diary entry gave them a lead. Luz has had to be wrestled back into bed after that first entry. Even without using her powers, Luz was deceptively strong.

But, after that promise, and after taking out her scroll to send the message, Luz had relaxed and fallen back asleep. Stringbean had assumed a form akin to a living stuffed animal and was being held in Luz's arms, periodically letting out hisses that Ghost had translated for Amity as contentment at providing comfort to her witch in her witch's time of need. Stringbean was such a wholesome palisman.

Luz's phone went off. Luz was too deep in sleep to notice it, yet, but Amity answered it anyway just in case. It's not like it was all that different from a scroll when you think about it.

"Mija, are you alright?" came the voice of Luz's mother. "You were supposed to call me this morning."

"Luz isn't feeling all too well right now, Señora Noceda," Amity replied. "She's been asleep most of the day."

"Amity? What's wrong? Is she alright?"

"She has... Well, it started last night... Has she told you how the plan to remove her Coven Sigil has been going?"

"That you've been feeding magic stuff to her alien side, like with the Titan Blood, to try and overcome it from the inside," Luz's mother replied. "I'm not sure I like that idea, but I guess it's better than flaying the skin off her arm."

"Well, I was able to... Convince someone with connections to supply me with some Titan Bone," Amtiy explained. A little globule, only a teaspoon or two, of a rich and dark purplish blue substance that glowed faintly in the dark. "And they delivered yesterday so last night we got everyone together to give Luz the and well, Titan Bone is the marrow of the Titan, it's almost as potent as the blood so... Her reaction was pretty bad." Amity would never be able to unhear Luz's screams. But, she didn't lose consciousness and was able to get a heavy-duty pain potion down. "But she was fine afterward... Until she wasn't. She started rapidly developing symptoms and... Dr. Nosa," it was still so weird that Tinella Nosa of all demons had graduated medical school, "ran some quick tests... She thinks that Luz was exposed to spores of the common mold at some point in the last few days and that the severe stress of her sigil's reaction compromised her immune system just enough for the spores to take root and spread."

"The common mold?" Luz's mother asked.

"It's a fungal infection. It causes congestion, chills, fever, headache, delirium..." Amity wracked her head for any symptoms she missed. "It's not normally all that big a deal, most witches are over it in a day, but there's no cure and we've got no idea if it might react oddly to Luz's biology. I'm not gonna lie to you, I'm scared, but... Her symptoms are progressing normally so far, she's sleeping peacefully now, and her doctor's scans say her body is recovering and fighting it off well so..."

"Gracias a Dios por las pequeñas bendiciones."

"Sí, gracias al Titán," Amity replied.

"Your Spanish is coming along well, Amity."

"Thank you," Amity replied. "Luz says I should be fluent enough to hold a casual conversation in a few weeks."

"Could you let me talk to Eda, if Luz is out?"

"Eda's not here right now," Amity explained. "We found a diary entree that gave us a lead on where we could find some Titan Blood, a place called Eclipse Lake up on the Knee, and the only way to stop Luz from rushing off to get it despite her condition was for Eda to agre and get it for her." Amity sighed. "Silly, wreckless, Luz. I'd complain but that kind of thing is part of what I love about her."

"Same."

"My first instinct was to volunteer to go as well but, well, that was old Amity talking." Amity sighed. "I was raised to see everything as an opportunity to prove myself... More like to justify my right to exist, really, and that all interactions were transactional. At first, when we started dating instincts were to do everything in my power to prove that I deserved Luz's love but... Looking at it in hindsight, I wasn't thinking of myself as Luz's partner: I was thinking of myself as a servant and Luz as my master and..." Amity took a moment to breathe. "She was quick to break me out of that. And I've grown, I understand now that that's not a healthy mindset, that I need to think of myself as equal to her if I want to do right by her. I've got nothing to prove, she loves me regardless and I love her the same."

"Well put," Camila observed. "I can't get over just how much more mature and confident Luz sounds when I talk to her. It's clear that you've both been good influences on each other."

Amity laughed. "I can't take credit for Luz's growth. She's had a lot of positive influences and a lot of opportunities to learn and grow. Your daughter is an amazing person and we're all lucky here to have met her."

Amity could hear Camila hmm on the other end of the phone before she changed the subject. "So if Eda is out... You're not watching Luz alone are you?"

"Well Gus, Willow, and Hooty are all still here and are supposed to be helping, but they got distracted going through Eda's collection of music tracks from the human realm... They were supposed to be looking for something to help Luz relax but the last time I went down there they were playing a rap album over the ambiance of a hail storm on a tin roof." Amity paused for a moment. "I think I'll stick with rock music."

At that moment Ghost padded into the room and let out a series of "Mows" that Amity understood as "I succeded in getting Clover's attention and she convinced her witch to return to the task at hand, preventing the soup pot from boiling over, but Emmaline is just as excitable as her witch and as always I fear that approaching the eldritch monstrosity that is the door may result in it devouring me." The palisman then approached for ear scritches, which Amity happily gave with her free hand.

"Okay, Ghost just said that Willow's back on track so there's that. And um... There was a second diary entry. The mines leading to Eclipse Lake are full of fools' blood, which is a dangerous Titan Blood derivative. I messaged Eda and while she hasn't replied, the notes say she's read it so they'll probably be back soon. Worst case scenario, if Luz takes a turn for the worse, I can call Lilith. If it's an emergency she'll be here in a heartbeat. Otherwise, all we can do is wait for Luz to ride it out."

Amity looked back at her sleeping girlfriend and, for a moment, wondered what she might be dreaming of.

Luz found herself floating somewhere dark. As she blinked her eyes open, she realized she was lying on the surface of a body of black liquid in a dark but vaguely green-orange-tinted space. Little cube things were floating up and down.

The liquid under her felt solid, as weird as that was to say, but when she tried to sit up she found that she didn't have the strength to do so, forcing her to just lay back floating.

"Okay," she asked herself, "Where am I?"

"The Realm In Between," came a voice from all around her. It was vaugly familiar. A deep and powerful voice, but also warm and gentle.

"Your voice sounds like the way a good hug feels," Luz observed. She should be scared, but... Something about the voice's tone made her feel safe.

"Why thank you," the voice replied, "that's the best compliment that I've ever received."

"So, what exactly is the Realm In Between?"

"It's exactly what it sounds like, a realm in between... Well, a lot of things. The Human Realm and the Demon Realm. Reality and Dream. Life and Death."

Luz blinked. "Am I dead? Did I die? I'm not the only person to ever die of the common mold, am I?"

"No no no no," the voice reassured her. "You're perfectly fine. I've been wanting to talk to you for quite a while, Luz Noceda. There's something to a connection between us, Luz, and right now you're just the right amount of delirious and deep asleep that I was able to tug on it and bring your conscience here. You'll wake up no worse for wear soon enough."

"Okay, that's good to know... But, a connection?" Luz asked.

"Not a strong one," the voice said in a reassuring tone. "If it was a little stronger I could manifest my spirit to you and have this conversation face to face instead of the omnipresent voice schtick but we'll have to make do with what we have."

"Okay but... How do I have a connection with you?" Luz asked. "Who are you?"

"Well, to answer your first question, to start with you've been passively absorbing my power since you first stepped through the Portal all those months ago. I think you can guess the answer to the second question from there."

That left Luz if anything more confused until the gears in her head clicked into place and started trying. Then her heart skipped a beat. "Oh, Titan!"

"Oh, me!" the voice, the voice of The Titan, replied playfully.

"Oh, um... I'm sorry about the... Power stealing thing, Mister The Titan Sir."

The Titan gave a heart, deep-bellied laugh. "Don't worry about it. Even after my spirit passes on my body will continue to produce potent magic in abundance so long as even a shard of bone remains. Even if it didn't, the amount of my magic you've taken so far... Well, no offense but it's a bit like a mosquito sucking on the toe of a dinosaur."

"What about um... the humors, Mister Titan Sir?" Luz asked.

"I'm dead, Luz. Not all the way, but any chance I had of coming back to life has long passed. My flesh and blood and bone and bile... It's just meat. I'm glad that new creatures were born from my body, that they live on me, that they found use in what I left behind. And even if I wasn't... I can't think of a single greater use of the power left in my flesh to help a child in need. Use it."

"Are... Do the glyphs, um..."

"The Glyphs are mine, yes. Every Titan had their own symbol for the four primary elements, forming their own language of magic. If someone else manages to learn them, then they can use the glyphs to cast magic by drawing on the power of the Titan the glyphs came from."

"...Did you... Let me find them?" Luz asked.

"Yes."

"Why?"

"Because you wanted to learn magic," the Titan replied as if it was obvious.

"That's it?" Luz asked

"That's it," the Titan replied. "While there are some things I'd appreciate it if you could take care of for me, well, chances were those were going to happen anyway—and that's not a prophecy thing, that's just a common sense thing—I gave you a chance to find my glyphs because I saw you and how you interacted with the people on the isles. A kind, friendly young woman who... Maybe needed a little guidance, but whose heart was in the right place and who looked upon everything in this world with wonder." The Titan asked. "I figured you deserved a fair shot. I'll admit, I was a bit more hands-on with making sure you had a chance to find the Light and Fire glyphs than I would have liked but well, those were emergencies... And putting the Ice Glyph in Eda's freezer was sort of a freebie."

"A freebie?"

"My plan had been to let you find it in a snowflake up on the Knee but after you and Amity got lost, well, fire was more important. But you found the Plant glyph entirely by yourself," The Titan finished. "And you've been figuring out combos really fast. In just a couple of years, you might memorize them all."

"Thank you," Luz. "For letting me find the glyphs and, for... Everything else."

"Believe it or not I haven't done that much," the Titan replied. "Sure, I let you find my glyphs but you did still have to make the connections and find them. You figured out how to use them on your own, you figured out the combos on your own, it's your own power that let you take in mine, from the air around you and from my humors. And you've been working very hard to make the most of the power you had and the power you've gained. You've actually been crediting me with a few things I haven't done," the Titan continued. "Your magic coming in when it did had nothing to do with that prayer."

"Yeah?"

"Truth be told, I don't really... Care for being worshipped or prayed to," the Titan explained. "I mean, I am what your people would call a god, an Elder God at that, but... So were all the rest of my people. It's just normal for us. I don't mind being praised or thanked on those times when I can exert enough of my remaining power to push a boiling rainstorm away from a city or the like, but that cult that Belos established? Urg, if I still had skin it would be crawling."

"So he is lying?" Luz asked.

"Through his teeth," the Titan answered. "Believe it or not I did try to talk to him once, but if he heard me he wasn't listening. He's just using my name to justify hurting people. Witch's and biped demons are supposed to mix the nine main magics and the elemental magics that anyone can use, together to find the ideal combination that's best for them. Even if it's just to make whichever of the main nine you like best a little stronger. Belos has convinced people that doing that will damage their souls and is using those blasted sigils to keep them too weak to properly rebel. Not to mention outright stealing magic bit by bit, piece by piece, from everyone so marked."

"Why? What does he get out of it? Other than power?" Luz asked.

"...It's better if you find all that out on your own," The Titan replied. "Suffice to say, he's a very small man with a very big ego to feed."

"Okay... Now, you said you'd been wanting to talk to me... About what?"

"It has to do with... Well, the nature of your powers."

Luz hummed. "Yeah, I'll be honest I'm not super happy about that. After the stuff with Adeghast, I decided that I wanted to become a with the hard way and... I'm happy with the magic I have but part of me is worried that I'm taking without earning."

"You been in Eda's homemade apple blood?" Came the Titan's voice. "Power isn't really something you earn or deserve, for one. It just sort of happens as the consequence of something else. But, in so far as such things can be earned you are more than putting in the work."

"But—"

"No buts," the Titan interrupted, "you were born with the potential to develop certain abilities, those abilities began to manifest upon contact with the ambient power around my body, and now that they have matured they give you certain advantages that would allow you to acquire more power quickly. Some would tell you that this is unfair and... To an extent, they have a point, but the world is rather flawed. Unless and until someone can create a perfect world, nothing will ever be completely fair. Your life, from what I've seen, hasn't exactly been very fair prior to coming to the demon realm, for example." The Titan paused, as if gathering his thoughts, "But, to get back to the point, you're not... Abusing your power. You're not just going around glutinously consuming sources of magic power for your own gain and getting by solely on that. The first few uses were by accident, and now you're only taking in what you need. You're using your advantages as a tool, and you acknowledge that they are advantages."

"Okay," Luz acknowledged.

"Think of it like with money: In a perfect world, either everyone would be rich or no one would be, depending on your perspective, because everyone would be prospering. But the world isn't perfect, so some people have more than others. Do you hold Amity's wealth against her?"

"No, of course not," Luz said defensively.

"Because she doesn't care for it," the Titan continued. "She doesn't think her family's money makes her better than anyone else, she has the same interests as the average teenage witch. While she's had some advantages due to her family's position, she's also had some setbacks and for the most part her success is the result of her efforts and I get the feeling that she's going to pay it forward. Compare this to her mother, who at some point got the idea that having a good head for business and marrying into money made her better than everyone else and who has mostly gotten by on manipulation and the exploitation of others. Your symbiote powers put you in a similar position, being able to consume things to increase your power gives you an advantage, but you're more like Amity than you are Odalia and I am certain that once you've mastered the power you have, and that you'll gain, that you're going to do great things with it."

"Thank you," Luz replied. "It means a lot to hear that, even if it wasn't a big concern."

"No, the thing is... Okay, let me start by asking you... Do you know the difference between White and Black Magic?"

"One's good and one's evil, right?" Luz replied.

"Not quite," the Titan replied, "You're thinking of Dark Magic and Light Magic. White Magic is clean, it involves raw energy and invocations of higher powers. White Magicians live apart from the world as they interact with it. Black magic is more... Visceral. Vulgar. It's magic that works with life and death, flesh and blood. Black Magicians live in the world as they work with it, and so are changed in turn as they change it."

"So... I'm guessing that... The confusion comes because Black Magic is more... Icky?"

"That and there's a greater temptation to exploit others for your own gain," The Titan confirmed. "When you could theoretically use a person as a battery, it can get easy to see people as batteries."

"Okay, so... My powers have something to do with..." Gears turned in her head. "The demon realm... That's all Black magic. All the magic here is bound up in organs and fluids, even the magic in the air is produced by your body. And I'm taking all of that in me so..."

"Very good, Luz," the Titan praised. "In the demon realm, it's just magic, but by the greater classifications of the cosmos everyone here is a black mage though since their biology is built around it it's not readily apparent. Also, do keep in mind that in nature there are no binaries: When you use my glyphs you're taking pure energy from a higher power, me. So that makes it White magic, but the energy comes from my body so that makes it Black. Sometimes it's not that easy to put just one label on something."

"Don't I know it," Luz mumbled.

"Now I tell you that to provide context... Have you heard the term 'King in Black?'"

"Yeah, wasn't that the name of the like, God of the Symbiotes? Didn't Venom kill him over the summer?"

One of the cubes floated over her face and lit up revealing a man with blue skin, a fanged mouth, and white hair.

"Knull," the Titan said, "He is... A King in Black. The King in Black of your dimension. But the position of King in Black exists in other universes and... Well, someone either becomes a King in Black by inheriting the position... Or being appointed it by the Celestials."

"So it's a job?" Luz asked. "Like... Like the Sorcerer Supreme?"

"Kind f, yes. Going back to speculating to a perfect world: Knull and Earth's Sorcerer Supreme should have been colleagues. A King in Black's job is to use life and the living to defend and maintain the multiverse from within much as it is the job of Earth's Sorcerer Supreme to defend your home reality from extradimensional threats. And, like Earth's Sorcerer Supreme, it's a tough job. Knull accepted the power, but rejected the responsibility and tapped into dark sources, channeling his control over life into a fragment of the Anti-All, creating from that font of primal anti-life the Living Abyss that his spawn are born from and with it shaped weapons to kill the Celestials and other divine and cosmic beings to steal their powers."

The image on the face of the cube changed, however, to silhouettes of massive creatures wanding across continents and wading through the boiling sea.

"Which brings us to the Demon Realm. You see, the Celestials believed they'd made a mistake. In appointing sole responsibility to your dimension on one individual. So they experimented here, in a dimension where raw, wild magic was more plentiful. Just like they did with life on your planet, they guided the course of evolution in the Demon Realm until my people were born," the Titan finished. "An entire race of beings who embodied life and nature itself, who even dead generate life and magic in abundance."

"The Titans were... A whole race of Kings in Black?" Luz asked.

"Yes," the Titan replied. "Which brings us back to you. You have the Living Abyss in your system. A portion of it is part of you. And Knull created it to channel the Anti-Life's abilities to corrupt and consume to steal powers, especially those of gods, hence it reacting to the ambient magic around my body and waking up. At first, your powers were almost antithetical to my own, hence my glyphs exploding and causing magical backlash when you used them in conjunction with your anti-life aura."

A thought occurred to Luz. "...About that backlash... Amity's not gonna have heart problems or anything in like thirty years because of that, is she?"

"Trust me, she should be fine," The Titan reassured. "Now, once your powers fully matured and you manifested your proper symbiote-hybrid nature, however... Well, then the power theft part started. As soon as that happened my ambient magic started feeding the evolution of that side of you, and there came a chance that..."

"I'm... Part spawn of a King in black," Luz connected, "and I'm absorbing the powers of a different King in Black, so... Am I going to be a King in black? Well, Queen."

"Sort of, you had the chance to gain that power... But as soon as you absorbed some of my blood, it became certain. Whether it happens tomorrow or in a hundred years, you will have the power of a Queen in Black. Whether you turn out more like me, Like Knull, or something else entirely... That's all in the air."

"Do... Do you want me to take over for you?"

"Oh heavens no!" The titan denied. "I mean, if you want to assume that responsibility I won't stop you, but it's a tough job and, like I said, the fact that the King in Black of your dimension had to do it alone might be why he went bad. In the prime of Titan civilization, there were so many of us that we basically got the job done by just existing. Even dead, the fact that our bones remain and still generate magic means that part of the job is done. And my child still lives. When he is grown he'll have children of his own, and so forth."

"...So do Titans reproduce asexually?" Luz found herself asking. "And... Take a really, really long time to grow up?"

"Yes and yes."

"But... What wiped you out in the first place?" Luz asked. "How do you know it won't happen again?"

"I mentioned Black and White Magic before going on a lecture on the nature of the Kings in Black," The Titan said.

Luz filled in the blanks. "...There are Kings in White, aren't there?"

"Yes. Beings of pure cosmic energy who exist beyond the planes of conventional reality and who protect and maintain the cosmos via the use of pure energies and direct manipulation of the narrative of existence. A race of beings you might have heard of, Luz," the Titan said, "tell me, what do you know about The Beyonders?"

"They're the people who invented the Cosmic Cubes and that bad things happen when they get too interested in what goes on on Earth," was Luz's rathered concerned response.

"I'm glad that you mentioned the Cubes, because that's an important part of the story. You see, that's how they make more of themselves. The Cube contains the same energy the Beyonders are composed of, eventually, it becomes self-aware and becomes a being in its own right, and then the resulting Cube Beings eventually mature into full Beyonders."

The image on the cube above Luz changed to a glowing blue cube crashing into and shattering against cold, barren earth. It was left in four large pieces, and one very small one.

"A Cosmic Cube was lost in this dimension and broken," the Titan explained. "There was no life on the planet where it ended up, as its atmosphere was too thin to shield it from the light and heat of the star it closely orbited. But, like many things in this dimension, that same star was saturated with powerful wild magic. Its light mixed with and altered the cosmic energies in the remains of the shattered Cube, and gave birth to... Well, they called themselves Collectors and Archivists."

The image changed to five figures, all shredded in the moon and star-themed pajama-like robes. Four of them were inhumanly tall, towering over the fifth whose proportions were more like a human child.

"These, for lack of a better term, Starborn Cube Beings somehow instinctively understood that the purpose of the Beyonders was to preserve life... But they took it a little too literally," The Titan said. "They would seal away living beings so that they would never die... But took sadistic pleasure in the act of hunting them down to archive them and if a creature sare resisted they'd exterminate all life on their planet themselves."

"That's horrible," was all Luz could say.

"At some point," the Titan continued, "they came to the Demon Realm to archive some of the oldest and earliest species demons... And discovered that my people were more powerful than them. And that, through some strange quirk of fate, our magic could negate theirs completely. So they used trickery, deception, and manipulation to kill my people starting with our children."

"...There are words I want to say right now but my Mom would be really angry with me if she found out I said them," was what Luz said dangerously calm.

"It got to the point that it was just me and my youngest, yet-to-be-hatched child left," The Titan finished. "After I hid my child away, I made absolutely certain that the Archivists would never be able to hurt him or anyone else ever again. There is one Archivist left, he's... Not a threat and the rest can never return."

"Okay," Luz replied, "so... I don't have to worry about that I guess."

"Which brings me back to the topic at hand," The Titan said somewhat apologetically. "That took longer to explain than I thought it The reason I wanted to talk to you, Luz the Human, is that... As I said, whether you assume the responsibilities of the role or not, sooner or later you will be a Queen in Black. And there's someone out there who is looking to exploit you for your powers. I don't know who, my ability to see things outside of this realm is limited and they're using dark magic to obscure themselves from me, but... Be careful, and keep an eye out for suspicious beings as your power grows."

"Okay, I guess," Luz replied. "I'll keep that in mind and... Wow, um..." She suddenly felt like she was fading. "What's happening?"

"You're waking up," The Titan said. "Until we meet again, Luz. Hopefully next time I'll be able to manifest to you properly."

The next thing Luz knew she was jolting awake. She blinked a few times and felt at her head as she sat up, feeling something was off about her scalp and...

...There were mushrooms on her head.

"I wonder if this is permanent?" She mused to herself.

"It's not," came Amity's voice prompting Luz to look over.

"Oh, hey Amity," Luz greeted with a smile. "So is this normal?"

"Yeah," her girlfriend replied. "It means you're passed the worst of it and you'll be okay. Here, let me," Amity then reached out and sort of ruffled Luz's hair with two hands, making all the mushrooms fall right off. "There. How are you feeling?"

"Hungry and like I need a shower," Luz replied. "Preferably in that order."

"Okay," Amity said. "Willow made some soup for you. Do you need help getting up?"

"No," Luz said as she climbed out of bed. Stringbean, no longer needed on Teddy Duty, resumed snake form and floated up by Luz's shoulder, rattling "Yay, my witch is okay!"

"Your mom called while you were asleep," Amity explained on the way downstairs. "I explained what was going on but she'll probably want you to call her back."

"Okay," Luz acknowledged. "I had the weirdest dream. I was floating on top of a black lake and I was talking to the Titan. He told me about my powers, the history of the demon realm, and some cosmological stuff. He was nice."

"That's good to hear," Amity replied.

As they got downstairs the door swung open and King scrambled in. He took one look at Luz, shouted "Luz!" and bolted to her for a hug as Eda, in Harpy form, struggled to get in through the door.

After the hug, which was "too tight, too tight!" King gives a summation of how the quest went.

"The bad news is, all the Titan Blood at the lake is dried up," he explained. "The good news is, we might have a new brother."

"Huh?" Luz asked, confused.

"Well I couldn't just leave him there," Eda said as she finally got through the door and revealed that she had a figure dressed in a coven scout uniform over her shoulders like a sack of potatoes. "Poor guy was digging his own grave when we found him," she finished as she sat the figure on the couch. A red cardinal who was familiar to Luz started buzzing around them.

"Oh hey, Little Rascal," she noted.

"His name is Flapjack," the figure said with a bit of pretentious petulance, prompting Luz to glance at him and get a good look.

"Oh, hey Hunter."

Chapter Text

Hunter had never been more confused. He'd snuck out to try and steal the Titan Blood at Eclipse Lake before Kikimora's squad could retrieve it, in order to prove that his uncle could still trust him after he failed to retrieve the palismen from Hexside.

Kikimora, however, was absurdly paranoid and in keeping his distance from her lest he get blasted by fire had almost immediately been captured by the Owl Lady and her talking dog. The Owl Lady had, so he thought, gone completely senile and was convinced that she could turn into a harpy. As their prisoner he was led through the mines that lead to Eclipse Lake, stopping periodically to do such things as run headfirst into a wall of ice or get shot ou with a mining beam to try and force the harpy transformation. They completely ignored his warning not to touch the fool's blood and were only saved when the Owl Lady got a message on her scroll, read it, and declared that "Boots" said that "Sad Lad" was right. He was apparently Sad Lad, so who in the Titan's name was Boots?

Shortly afterward, Kikimora's contingent of scouts and abomitons caught up and he was able to escape and head for the lake only to find that the supposed font of Titan Blood was dry as a bone. Knowing the price of failure was steep, and that it would be even worse since he snuck out of the castle without permission, Hunter did the only thing he could do: Dig his own grave to save his Uncle the trouble.

The Owl Lady, seemingly not in fact senile as she was in harpy-like form, approached not long after and tried to deter him from that course of action. When that failed, she picked him up and carried him like a sack of grain all the way back to her shack in the woods, stopping only to eat some voles for some reason.

The only good thing to come from today's events was that, at some point, Hunter started to understand his palisman's chirps, Flapjack's attempts to comfort him.

He had reluctantly explained all of this when under interrogation by the human, the youngest Blight, and two more witchlings, one about two years younger than the others, dark-skinned, and excitable, and one short but muscular about the same as as the human and Blight.

Hunter didn't know what kind of mind games they were playing, acting all friendly and curious and concerned for his well-being. While the human sat there in her pajamas in the middle of the afternoon eating soup.

"So, you can't go home," the human... Luz, said between spoonfuls, "Because Belos is an evil son of a bad word who'll kill you for failure even though you weren't actually on a mission so Eda brought you here because you need a place to stay?"

"Yes, that's the gist of what I said... Mostly," Hunter admitted. "But... My Uncle isn't evil, he's just... Got really high standards."

"Is he the one who gave you your scars?" the muscular witch in the glasses asked.

Hunter shrunk in on himself. "His condition can make his temper volatile when it acts up." Then he bit his tongue, as far as he knew only the... Luz knew about his condition.

"The condition where he has to murder and eat innocent palismen?" the young dark-skinned witch asked nervously while holding a blue chameleon, presumably his palisman, close to his chest. Well, never mind then.

That was another thing. A number of palismen were here. Flapjack was fine, but cute and innocent or not they were still made entirely of wild magic and...

One of them, a flying purple snake with a green ball at its tail was hissing and rattling at Flapjack. He could only make out his own palisman's side of the conversation, however, as the cardinal chirped back.

"She carved you herself...? Wait, how could you pick your own form...? An egg? My carver never would have thought of that in a million years... I was made to be a friend to someone that needed one. My first witch's story... Doesn't end happily and I was alone for a long time. But when I met Hunter I just knew he needed me like my first witch did, maybe even more, and I knew I had to step in." Hunter wasn't starting to tear up at hearing that. Then he had to laugh because Flapjack responded to the last rattle with "Of course you can call me Grandpa Flap!"

"Is that your palisman?" He asked Luz, gesturing to the snake.

"Yep!" She said happily. She then put her mouth a the edge of her bowl and drank what remained of its contents down like someone raised in a barn. "Stringbean the Snakeshifter! I carved her with Eda like, the morning after I foiled your palisman heist" Not how he'd put it. "She's.. Perfect, my perfect little power noodle" she said while cooing as the snake came by to be scratched behind the catlike ears that she had.

That tickled something in Hunter's brain... Something he'd read a few years ago. "A snakeshifter? Those are..."

"Special? Perfect? Adorable?"

"Extinct," Hunter replied. "Not counting your palisman, of course. From what I recall they were an ancient species of beast demon, originating in the Hecktaceous Period. They're theorized to be the evolutionary ancestors of all members of the Basiliscus genus of demons."

"Basilisks?" Luz asked.

"All recorded species," Hunter confirmed. "Greater, red scale, green scale, yellow eye, lesser, and boney. And a couple of other serpentine beast demons, like nagas. There are also some theories that the lamia and gorgon families of biped demons may also be related but that's a little harder to test."

Luz responded by tickling the scales on her palisman's belly. "Awe, you chose to be like Vee, didn't you?" Rattling. "Yes I do love snakes but you'd have been the best snake no matter what kind you chose to be." Hissing. "Okay, yeah, that's a good point."

The white cat palisman took one look at what it's snakeshifter cohort was experiencing and trotted up to Blight. It mowed once, then flopped down to present its belly which Blight immediately started scratching. So that's her palisman and...

"I spoke with the Emperor," Hunter began as he took his last shot at being able to go home and keep his life. "He says... He says he'd be willing to let you both keep your palismen," she said to Luz and Blight. "And that he spoke to the Titan. Blight... You're like Lilith, you don't need a sigil like most witches do. He said he's even willing to let you skip through the ranks once you complete scout training. You'd be second only to me and be allowed to do research or pick and choose your missions."

"Are you really trying to recruit us here and now?" Luz said incredulously.

"Getting you two to join might be my only chance at this point," Hunter replied.

"You're literally afraid for your life, that he'll actually kill you, his alleged nephew, for failure," Blight replied. "Why would anyone want to work for him knowing that?"

"...I might be able to talk him into letting you have private rooms at the castle?" Hunter offered sheepishly.

"Hunter, the Titan came to me in a dream and told me that your uncle is a lying liar who lies," Luz said, "and I know that was probably just the common mold messing with me, but that's more trustworthy than anything I've heard from Belos since I got here."

"For all we know the second we step into the palace with you we'd be arrested and the scouts would take Ghost and Stringbean away from us," Blight added.

"So then we'd have to rescue our precious babies, burn down the palace, feed Belos his own bones, it'd be a whole day," Luz continued.

"We have better things to do with our time," Blight finished.

"Besides, even if we believed him," Luz concluded, "I'm not going to betray Eda like that after everything she's done to me."

Hunter sighed. "It was worth a shot." Now the only way to regain safety at home would be to...

His thoughts trailed off as he noticed it, propped up against the wall in a corner. A briefcase-like shape with a massive yellow eye on it. The portal!

Hunter leaped to his feat.

"Hunter, don't!" Luz shouted as she realized what he saw. He hesitated for just a second as he considered whether he was willing to betray this hospitality...

And then the next thing he knew, his ribs hurt and he was pinned to the ground. As his senses came back to him the bespectacled, muscular witch was on top of him with a fist raised.

"Don't even think about it," she said confidently, her beelike palisman floating over her shoulder and buzzing as if to back her up.

"Okay," Hunter agreed while suddenly feeling uncomfortably warm in his face area.

Camila stood nervously in the clearing with the old shack as a flamboyantly dressed middle-aged man took surveillance of the area, casting what she assumed to be scanning spells and using the amulet around his neck, and the eye inside it, as some sort of focus.

"Thank you again for coming out, Doctor Strange, sir," she said. "I know you must be very busy."

"Oh, think nothing of it," the man replied. "The truth of the matter is I find coming out to small towns to solve magic problems to be a relaxing break from my day job. Except for Gravity Falls... Every week with that place."

"Oh?"

"The town is a hotspot for supernatural activity in North America," Strange replied. "Mostly harmless as long as you don't poke the wrong thing, but... My second cousin twice removed Tad Strange, who ironically is the most normal person in my extended family, lives there and I made the mistake of letting him give out my number."

Camila immediately thought back to all of the 'animal emergencies' at the clinic that turned out to be minor or non-existent issues that the pet owner could have solved with a quick internet search. "I understand completely."

"Still, this might take a little time but a portal that won't open is a relatively simple matter," Strange observed. "The hardest part is figuring out where in the cosmos it's meant to go too."

"Somewhere called the Demon Realm," Camila answered.

"At the risk of sounding pretentious... Do you have any idea just how many dimensions are called 'The Demon Realm?'" Doctor Strange asked rhetorically. "It's like naming a town Springfield, you can't go exploring the cosmos without tripping over a 'The Demon Realm.' Sometimes literally. I'm going to have to get something a little more... Concrete, but it's fine. I relish a challenge and this should end much more enjoyable than my usual duties of vanquishing Dark magicians, cataloging arcane lore, keeping the true nature of giraffes a secret, and protecting this reality from extradimensional incursions."

"What was that about giraffes?" Camila asked.

"Forget you heard that," Strange said by way of asside. "Anyway, I think I've gotten everything I can get from examining the physical structure. There's certainly some sort of dimensional barrier here but the magics aren't like anything I've encountered personally. I may have to do some digging in the libraries back at the Sanctum Sanctorum. Shall we return to your home for the conference?"

"Of course, Doctor," Camila agreed as she started walking back up the path.

"Please, call me Stephen," he replied as he followed.

Back at the house, they found Vee and Masha very carefully setting up the computer and a webcam in the living room. Vee was in her human form.

"Okay, Mrs. Noceda," Masha greeted as they came in. "We should be all set up as soon as you plug this USB jack into your phone," they said while holding up the cord in question.

"It's a good thing Luz thought to take her laptop back to the Demon Realm," Vee added.

"I'll say," Masha added. "I imagine this would be a lot more awkward if everyone was passing a phone around." They then walked up and extended a hand. "Doctor Strange? My Name's Masha and it's an honor to meet you, sir."

Stephen hesitated for a moment before taking their hand. "Ah, yes, Loki's apprentice. You know, there are a few seats open at Strange Academy if you'd be interested in more varied and... consistently scheduled tutelage."

"President Laufeyson told me about that place," Masha replied. "They said that of the three students they sponsored to go there, one failed to receive any accommodations necessary to physically get into the school until midway through the second semester, and another one was killed in a fight caused and escalated by a combination of poor communication and the incompetence of the staff. I'll take my chances with the apprenticeship."

"Fair enough, I've been meaning to talk to Jericho about some of the stuff that happened while I was indisposed," Stephen admitted. "And if you're Masha, then this must me that you," he said while pointing to Vee, "are the refugee?"

"Um, yeah," she said. "I'm Vee... Vee Noceda," she clarified nervously but happily.

"Now, before we call Luz," Stephen began, "would you mind if I examined you with the Eye of Agamotto? Any information at all I could gain about your realm of origin or its inhabitants could prove invaluable when it comes to opening the portal from this side."

Vee gulped. "If it'll help Luz."

The sorcerer's amulet levitated until it was at his brow. "You may want to close your eyes, this will be bright." Vee obliged and a bright light shone from the amulet for a few moments before dimming down. "Hmm... Odd."

"What?"

"You claim to be a demon," Stephen noted, "but your nature is closer to that of an elderspawn."

"...Like symbiotes?" Vee asked.

"Sort of," Stephen clarified. "An elderspawn is any offspring, creation, or descendant there-of of an Elder God that is not classified as a deity or similar existence in their own right. Symbiotes are elderspawn of Knull, an alien Elder God, while the Gigantes are one of the elderspawn races of Gaea, an Elder God from here on Earth. Admittedly, there are some... The similarity between your inherent magic and that of Knull, but I doubt you're in any way related to the klyntar."

"...When Luz was here last, her girlfriend Amity said that all complex life in the demon realm was born from the decaying bodies of creatures called Titans," Masha added. "And I'm guessing not the Greek ones."

"I'd need to see one of the bodies of these creatures personally to confirm, but that would do it," Stephen acknowledged. "Now all that's left to do is call our lost child."

Camila plugged her phone into the computer and sent a video call request to Luz. After a few minutes, the computer monitor lit up with an image of her missing girl, sitting in the room she'd shown off in that first video she'd sent. It seemed like Luz's own laptop/phone rig was at the foot of her bed while Luz sat crosslegged further up.

"Hola mamá, hola hermanita!" Luz greeted. "Hey Masha, and hello Doctor Strange." Luz seemed somewhat excited to be talking to the sorcerer, even via a video call.

"Hola mija, ¿estás sola?"

"Well, Hooty's here," Luz replied, "but Eda's out. She took Hunter clothes shopping." Hunter, the young man who... Okay, the story was a little confusing but if Camila understood it he was raised in a cult but recently ran away after becoming convinced that his abusive uncle would kill him and Eda had given him a place to stay. She wished the boy well. "King's taking a nap. But I've got Stringbean with me!" The adorable little snake creature floated into the camera's view with a happy rattle.

"What is that marvelous creature?" Strange asked.

"Stringbean? She's my palisman! When witches on the Boiling Isles reach a certain point in their education they receive a staff made of palistrom wood. Sometimes they carve their own, sometimes it's carved for them, and sometimes they adopt one that used to be bonded to someone else." Luz explained. "Atop the staff is a figurine of an animal, and when the witch bonds to their staff by declaring their heart's desire the figurine comes to life. My mentor Eda helped me carve Stringbean and we're bonded, friends and partners till the end!" The snake in question gave a triumphant hiss as she flexed upward. "That's right, Stringbean, from the shell to the grave."

"What a wonderous and wholesome way of acquiring a familiar," Strange observed with a smile. "If you hadn't told me what they're made of I would have assumed that they were a talisman that was your pal."

Luz gave a goofy smile. "They are! Eda told me that palistrom wood is named after palismen, not the other way around. Anyway, there should be one other person—"

There was a loud "Hoot!" and the sound of a door slamming open followed by someone running up the stairs. The door to Luz's room burst open and a voice called out "I'm not late am I?"

"Right on time, Hermosa," Luz reassured the offscreen person before scooting over and patting the spot next to her. Moments later Amity entered the frame and took her seat. The cat-topped staff she was carrying quickly transformed into a white cat and curled up before her. Stringbean immediately flew down to curl up next to the cat.

"I'd have been over sooner," Amity said, "but my mother somehow found out I was going to be meeting an 'important person from the human realm' today and insisted on reading my palm to find out how it would go."

"That sucks," Luz said sympathetically and wrapped an amry around Amity. "Anyway, introductions. This is my awesome girlfriend Amity, and Amity, this is Doctor Strange."

Amity got an expression on her face. "Question... Is that a 'Superhero' name or something else? I've been meaning to ask but it never came up before now."

"It's fine," Strange said, "I get that question all the time. My real name is Stephen Strange and I am in fact an actual medical doctor. I don't really have a 'superhero name' as you so put it. The closest thing would be the official title of the position I hold."

"Position?"

"I am the Earth's Sorcerer Supreme," Strange explained, and suddenly Amity flinched. "I take it that that term means something to you?"

Amity did not answer, so Luz spoke up. "Amity has something of an... Issue with sorcerers. She's trying to get over it but... Turns out that a lot of her knowledge of them came from this old book in the Local library that has some misinformation. Like that all sorcerers get all of their power from deals with dark entities, or that blood sacrifice is a lot more common than it is."

"The book listed among the worst of them all an ancient being, warped into something no longer human, who called themself the Sorcerer Supreme and achieved his power by hunting down and devouring not only other sorcerers, but witches, other magic users, and the occasional supernatural creature in order to steal their knowledge and abilities for himself," Amity finished. "Luz says that's wrong, that's not what the Sorcerer Supreme is like, but..."

"It's not wrong so much as it's misleading," Strange said, causing both girls to go wide-eyed. "It sounds like that book was describing what sorcery was like during the Hyborean Age, roughly ten thousand years ago give or take a few centuries. In that ancient time, what we here on Earth call demons, Earth's more malevolent Elder Gods such as Cthon and Set, and alien entities such as Shuma-Gorath or the so-called Great Old Ones were far more active. They formed cults about themselves, and were more than willing to trade knowledge and power with those who worshiped them and committed sacrifice or acts of conquest on their behalf."

"Additionally," Strange continued, "this was a rather brutish time. Agriculture was in its infancy, predatory megafauna was everywhere, and what few civilizations that existed maintained their power and territory exclusively by the sword. The desire to be stronger at any cost was present in many of the less fortunate and Dark and Black magics are a quick route to power if one is desperate enough to risk corruption or if one can stomach the more gruesome extremes they can reach. Meanwhile, most practitioners of White Magic hoarded their secrets jealously, refusing to let the common rabble share in their power and thus were preventing the existence of more moral alternatives."

"What's the difference?" Amity asked. "We don't really have... Color-based classifications of magic. Well, we do but that's... complicated."

"Dark magic is magic that is inherently harmful or corruptive, either to the user or to the things it is being worked on. Black Magic is magic that is derived from life and death. Flesh and blood, sex and violence." Camila noticed that Luz gained a contemplative expression. "It's vulgar and visceral, and practitioners of Black magic almost always live in the world as they interact with it, meaning that any changes they wreak on the world will affect them as well. Light magic is magic that is inherently helpful and affirming, like most healing magics, while White magic draws on higher powers and clean energies. White magicians usually live apart from the world." The Doctor shrugged. "Of course, there are no hard binaries in nature and thus none in magic: If I were to cut myself to use my blood to power a spell, that would be Black magic. But that same blood sacrifice used to summon a nature spirit to aid in the working of the spell would be White magic. I am a White magician, but I was the Master of Black Magics before I was Sorcerer Supreme."

"Dark and Black magics are not inherently evil, and White and Light magics are not inherently good, but stereotypes persist to the contrary for a reason: When your power comes from flesh and fluid, it becomes easy to see living creatures as sources of power and when all you can do is twist and destroy every problem becomes something that looks like it can be broken."

"Thank you, that... That explanation is helpful," Amity replied. Luz, for her part, seemed to have gears turning in her head. "And, as for this alleged ancient Sorcerer Supreme?"

"When you've studied and practiced sorcery enough, the sorcerer will begin to develop inherent magical abilities," Strange explained. "For example, when I use telepathy or astral projection, those aren't spells I'm casting. Those are my inherent powers and I'd be able to use them. This will be important later."

"I've got my fingers crossed for shapeshifting," Masha interjected.

"Okay."

"As for the Sorcerer Supreme... While there is a degree of inherent power in the title for the most part it simply refers to, well, the acknowledged authority on mystical matters in a given dimension. I am the Sorcerer Supreme of Earth, but my wife Clea is Sorcerer Supreme of The Dark Dimension."

"And how does one obtain this acknowledgment?" Amity asked.

"Generally speaking, there are three qualifications and one must meet them all," Strange replied. "One must be the most powerful magic user of that dimension. Now, note that this does not mean you must be native to that dimension, and additionally despite the way the title is worded one need not be a literal sorcerer. The Sorcerer Supreme of Limbo is originally from Earth, and one of the young magicians I have lined up as a potential successor, while of a strong magical bloodline, mostly uses artifacts to work magic."

"Magik and Sister Grimm," Luz noted.

"The very same," Strange confirmed. "Sir Isaac Newton, meanwhile, was an alchemist." From the corner of her eye, Camila saw Masha reach into their bag and pull out a notebook that they started writing things down.

"...That would have been Eda, here, before she lost her magic," Amity mused.

"The second qualification," Strange continued, "is that one must have the widest breadth of knowledge of magic in that dimension. Now, this must include native magics, but is not nessesarily limited to it."

Amity looked over to Luz. "I think that's Luz?"

This prompted a snorting laugh from Camila's daughter. "Good one, Amity. I've still got miles to go."

"Do you? You're the only person in the history of Hexside to officially study every track, even before Belos took over and instituted the coven system," Amity countered. "And you're doing good. You're soaking up magical theory and spell knowledge like a sponge. You've taken well to every lesson Eda gave you, you've memorized all her salvaged books on wild magic."

"Not all of them," Luz mumbled. "Not yet anyway."

"And then there's the glyphs. You've been working hard to figure out how they work and how to combine them into new spells. You probably know more about how our magic works than anyone else on the Isles and you're only going to get better," Amity finished. "If you're not there yet you will be in a couple years, tops."

"I appreciate the vote of confidence."

"Finally," Strange concluded, "and this is somewhat unintuitive: The aspiring Sorcerer Supreme must prove that they are willing to accept death without fear or hesitation."

"...Yikes," was the simultaneous reply from all four teens on both sides of the call.

"The position comes with a handful of responsibilities, such as archiving mystical knowledge and keeping such things out of the wrong hands," Strange added, "and but comes with a few perks such as arrested aging, improved memory and mental fortitude, and a tangible increase to raw magical power. However, in some dimensions the Sorcerer Supreme gains additional duties and, conversely additional boons. To cite Illyana again, the Sorcerer Supreme of Limbo is also the ruler of Limbo, the two positions are inextricably tied together."

"Okay," Amity said to Luz, "maybe you aren't just like this Magik hero."

"Yeah," Luz replied, "who in their right mind would want me in charge of this place? If I ever rule the Boiling Isles it's proof that something's gone horribly, horribly wrong."

"The Sorcerer Supreme of Earth, meanwhile, is changed by a trinity of Elder Gods, the Vishanti, to protect the universe from extradimensional threats in exchange for those same beings providing part of the power of each spell they cast and, on occasion, divesting them of magical debts though that's only done sparingly." Strange paused and took a deep breath. "But... the Vishanti don't care if you're good or evil. All they care about is that you meet the qualifications for the job and are willing to uphold its duties. In the Hyborean age, the position of Sorcerer Supreme was usurped by the Cannibal Sorcerer Kulan Gath."

"...Wasn't he the body-stealing lich who turned the world into a sword and sandals dark fantasy universe for a few days back in the 80s?" Luz asked while clearly chilled.

"Yes, yes he was," Strange confirmed. Camila shuddered, she was a very little girl when that happened, and it... hadn't been pleasant. "Gath spent his youth enslaved to cruel and arrogant sorcerer... Technically, he didn't even have a name, Kulan Gath was the name of his master. Knowing each day that he could be killed on his master's whims, the young slave boy steeled himself and one day bludgeoned the sorcerer to death. He then took the sorcerer's name for himself, assumed his identity, and learned all he could from his occult library, at first for the sake of being strong enough to never be hurt again... But he was eventually consumed by the lust for power for its own sake. He sought out the Sorcerer Supreme for tutelage but was turned down. Out of spite, he began trading his own knowledge for that of others... But during a brawl with a rival who didn't want anything he had to offer, he tasted blood and discovered the inherent power he gained from his study of sorcery: to absorb the knowledge and arcane power of others, one bite at a time."

"He devoured every magic user he knew of until the breadth and depth of his abilities rivaled that of the man who had rejected him as a student... And then he ate the man alive, gaining the knowledge and power of the Sorcerer Supreme and, having long since made peace with the fact that he could die at any time, gained the position. From what it sounds like, that is the man Amity's book warned about. And I assure you," Strange finished, "he's the black sheep when it comes to my line of employment."

"Thank you for telling me that," Amity replied. "It... Does a lot to set my mind at ease and... I'm sorry, that took some time to explain and it sounds like your time is very valuable."

"Think nothing of it,' Strange reassured. "The truth is, that coming out to help with magic problems or educate others about sorcery is a much-needed break. I spent the last few weeks preparing for a high-stakes poker tournament where the prize was an antique Chinese oil lamp that, once every thousand years, can permanently restore one lost power to one person three times, by lighting it and blowing out the flame, regardless of whether you still possess the source of that power or even if it exists. Among the other players of the game were Doctor Doom, the Red Skull, and an avatar of Nyarlathotep the Black Pharoh. In comparison, this has been quite the chance to destress."

"...Did you win?" Luz asked nervously.

"Yes," Strange said confidently. "As of last night, the lamp in question is safely secured away in my rainy-day vault back at the sanctum. It'll probably come in handy in an apocalypse or two. I've even got some people in mind for who to use it on, just in case. Anyway, to the matter at hand: We have a locked portal that needs opening and a local teen stranded in another dimension. And unlike the last time I had to come out to Gravesfield for this problem, I won't have to spend a week explaining to a vapid princess that her home dimension was not the source of all magic in the multiverse and the moral and ethical implications of the genocide she was guilty of."

"...There's a story there but I don't think I want to hear it," Vee noted.

"Yeah. So, the problem is the portal. The key is missing, and even if we had it it's broken," Luz explained. "We've found some leads on how the portal was originally made in the diary of Phillip Wittebane—"

"The Witch Hunter!?" Masha exclaimed.

"The what?" Amity asked.

"The Brothers Wittenbane," Masha replied. "I pointed out the statue of them in town when you were here. The older brother was allegedly seduced by a witch and his younger brother who went after them... did I not mention their names? And Luz, you lived here, how do you not...?"

"We only moved here a couple of years ago and I made a pretty bad first impression so..." Luz answered with a nervous laugh. "Anyway... He keeps mentioning the friends he's made in the Isles, so... Maybe... Maybe when he got here and saw that the witches were just regular people he changed for the better?" She asked hopefully.

"This is astounding!" Masha declared. "The answers to a mystery four hundred years in the making... This is... This is academic immortality. This is... Going to look amazing on a scholarship application." They started writing things down furiously. "Not to mention that as the current manager of the Gravesfield Historical Society, I have a duty to record this..."

"So you got the job, then?" Amity asked.

"Luz, have you deciphered anything at all about Phillip's older brother? About Caleb Wittebane?" Masha said without replying to Amity.

"Nothing yet but I'll keep you posted. Anyway, the problem is we need Titan Blood to make a new portal key and some of the details of how the portal was made are sketchy... And Titan Blood is absurdly hard to find," Luz finished.

"And that's where I come in," Doctor Strange added. "I may be able to force the portal open from this side, but I need to know everything I can about the Demon Realm. I've already been informed that the complex life on the isles was born from creatures called Titans and a brief glance at Vee here using the Eye of Agamotto revealed that the inhabitants appear to be elderspawn rather than what we'd classify as true demons on Earth which suggests that the so-called Demon Realm is in fact nothing of the sort which, thankfully, narrows things down significantly. Now, does the dimension have a more specific name?"

"No," Amity answered. "Technically the dimension doesn't have a name at all as far as I know. The Demon Realm is technically the planet's name. The land mass we live on is called the Boiling Isles, but that's the best I can do."

"The sky is usually pink," Luz added. "The architecture and topography look vaguely like a Hieronymus Bosch painting. The ocean is constantly boiling, and a lot of land masses are islands or archipelagoes that formed around the decaying bodies of Titans who are... just absolutely huge. I'm pretty sure that they're dead Elder Gods. The Boiling Isles formed around the most intact Titan body and—"

"You've been living on a carcass this whole time?" Camila interrupted.

"...So I'm not super religious but I would appreciate it if you didn't talk about my god that way," Amity said in response. "But yes."

"Lo siento por la blasfema."

"Gracias, entiendo que esto te resulte extraño."

"That's all useful—" Doctor Strange was interrupted by a ringtone going off. A quick piano cord followed by high-pitched whistling accompanied an instrumental that managed to be both upbeat and eerie.

With a long-suffering sigh, the sorcerer withdrew a cell phone from his robes and answered. "I'm sort of in the middle of something, Mayor Cutebiker... Yes, I understand that.... Yes, the Avengers PR team does appreciate the endorsement you gave for my services... I told you, Tyler, I was dead during the summer of 2012." He pinched his nose. "Fine, I'll 'get on over there' momentarily."

Strange hung up and sighed again. "You aren't there for one borderline apocalypse and you never hear the end of it..."

"...I'm just going to state for the record that it still freaks me out how casual you all are about how often your world almost ends," Amity said.

"You either get used to it or you go insane," Strange replied. "I have to go, I need to go negotiate a territory dispute between the forest gnomes and the manotaurs. Again."

"...You mean the minotaurs?" Camila asked.

"I wish," Strange said with a defeated sigh as he conjured a portal, and the living room was suddenly filled with the scent of an old-growth forest from the Pacific Northwest. "Before I go—"

A distant cry came out from Strange's portal, though for the life of her, Camila had no idea what "Shmebula!" was supposed to mean.

"Before I go, Luz, Amity... Anyone. Is there anything else of significance you can tell me about the demon realm?"

Luz scrunched up her face in concentration. "Oh," she suddenly said cheerfully, "it's the orignal home dimension of the giraffes!"

You could hear a pin drop in the time it took the sorcerer to react. "That... Is very useful information to have," he concluded.

Chapter Text

"So how are you any better than my uncle when you're doing this?" Hunter asked.

Luz, still riding out the after-effects of absorbing a piece of palistrom, rolled her eyes. "For one, Hunter, this is just raw palistrom wood, not someone's custom-made best friend. Beany and Ghost even gave permission to use their leftover scraps."

Stringbean hissed "That's right!" even though Hunter wouldn't be able to understand her.

"For two... I don't know why Belos eats palismen, but given his track record he's probably lying about being cursed," Luz continued. "I, meanwhile, am doing this to burn out the sigil that one of your buddies forced on me."

"Oh, that guy wasn't one of ours," Hunter replied. "Was an imposter who knocked out one of Lilith's scouts and stole his uniform. He was locked up in the conformatorium but someone busted him out. I do not know how Wrath still has his job," he mused.

Luz blinked. "But... How and why... Why would someone outside of the Emperor's Coven want to give me an... What purpose does... Ug, uh... Brain hurt!" She shouted in frustration as she tried to process that revelation.

"The Emperor was really mad when he found out," Hunter added. "Those things were never meant to be used on humans."

"He's probably mad because humans don't normally have much magic to steal," Luz deadpanned.

The door to the Owl House swung open with Hooty's cry of "Company!"

In stepped Willow, "Luz, I've got good news and bad news," the witchling declared. "The good news is, I got the goods."

"You got the goods?" Luz repeated.

"I got the goods," Willow confirmed with a confident nod. "The bad news is... Terra Snapdragon, the head of the Plant Coven, is in town for the Coven Day parade."

"Ugh, Terra Snapdragon," came Eda's voice as she walked into the room. "That miserable old hag is still alive? And why are we talking about her?"

"She um, noticed me buying several bags of expensive potting soil and fertilizer and got curious," Willow replied. "I told her I was working on a secret project for extra credit at Hexside, and... She recognized me from the news coverage of the riot."

"Ah, beans," Eda replied. "She gives you any trouble? Because if she did we can go take care of it now, bury her in the garden before we put in the new crop of agave." Eda paused for a moment. "Which reminds me, I'm doubling your cut of sale this month, Willow. That should more than pay back the cost of the goods."

"What are we talking about, now?" Hunter asked.

"Moonshining and bootlegging," Luz replied.

"That was you!?" The runaway shouted. "I was up all night three weeks ago trying to figure out where the black market liquor was coming from!"

"Kid, no one's been buying my potions since I lost my magic," Eda justified, "and someone broke-slash-stole the portal key so I can't sell human treasures either. Gotta do something to keep the water running."

Hunter had the decency to look ashamed.

"No, Ms. Snapdragon just said... to please tell my friend the human that the Emperor is looking forward to meeting her."

Luz blinked. "But... I've already met him. And beat him up. Did I hit him so hard he got short-term memory loss?"

"Who knows," Eda said with a shrug. "Probably just trying to psych you out. So, Willow, you got the goods?"

"I got the goods," Willow confirmed once more.

Stepping outside, Willow led the group to a wagon filled with three forty-pound bags of soil labeled "Terra's Choice" and two similarly large bags of fertilizer named "Snapdragon's Best."

"Wow, egocentric much?" Luz observed.

"I need an extra large cauldron," Willow declared.

"Hooty?" Eda called out.

"Ma'am!" the bird-tube replied before ramming his head directly into the ground. After thirty seconds of undulating he burst back up through another part of the yard tied up in a tight bunch before unfolding and depositing a cauldron big enough to boil a missionary in on the ground. "Found it in the sub-basement, hoot hoot."

"We have a subbasement?" Luz asked.

"Forget you heard that!" Hooty shouted with shifty eyes before retracting back to the door.

After the cauldron was thoroughly scrubbed and then rinsed off, the soil and fertilizer were dumped into the cauldron which was then set over a fire as Willow started stirring it with a large, oar-like staff. Clover had initially sat on Willow's shoulder but after a few moments buzzed off to play with Stirngbean.

Shortly afterward, Gus flew in. He was still getting the hang of flying on his staff but he was getting better, even if his means of flying was more surfing than riding.

He landed. "Hey, Luz, hey Willow, hey... What's your name again?" he said to Hunter.

Hunter sighed. "Hunter. My name is Hunter."

"So, Willow," Eda started as she put her scroll away, having taken it out and sent a message off as Gus arrived, "could you walk me through what exactly you're doing? I've gotta admit, I wasn't able to spy on all that many plant classes before I dropped out."

"One of the more moderate level applications of plant magic is a simple ritual where the interaction between a few plants produces a hybrid vine that extracts impurities from a sample of soul," Willow lectured happily. "And then produces those impurities in concentrated form for testing or study. This is actually how most potting soil on the Isles is made in the first place. What I am doing is scaling up the ritual and modifying it so that instead of impurities..."

"It'll draw out the Titan Earth," Eda finished. "Good thinking, Kid."

"So we're doing this today?" Gus asked.

"If Luz is feeling up to doing it today," Willow confirmed. She then hummed to herself, "Snakeroot," while throwing a root into the cauldron.

"I should be able to handle it," Luz replied. "I mean, I already took in my palistrom for today but it was just a small piece, I'm fine."

Hunter seemed startled by the implications "Wait, you're going to—"

Suddenly Amity came flying in on her staff, shouting "Luz! I have a. prob.. Oh, are we doing this?"

"We're doing this," Luz confirmed.

"Wanna help?" Willow asked as she added some mustard seeds and a bulbous buttercup.

"No," Amity answered. "You're much better at plant magic than I'll ever be."

"Suit yourself," Willow replied while adding what looked like holly leaves and houndstounge.

"You're... Going to... Absorb Titan Earth?" Hunter asked incredulously. "The very flesh of the Titan mixed with that of the first plants and fungi to grow from it and the minerals of the boiling sea? That's... That's... Gotta be some kind of sacrilege."

"You literally use it as fertilizer," Luz quipped.

"Yes, respectfully, to give new life from the Titan's death as the Titan itself has been for millennia," Hunter replied while Willow added dogtooth violet, poppyseed, ivy, and garlic to the cauldron. "Not, not... Just.."

"I need to absorb magic to burn out the sigil," Luz replied. "And I can't afford to be picky. Besides, The Titan is okay with it."

"You can't know that!" Hunter countered.

"Yes I can, he said so in the dream where he contacted me," Luz replied. "And Doctor Strange's lecture on sorcery the other day confirmed some of the information that the Titan told me that I didn't know before that dream so that was probably real."

Everything got really quiet for a moment.

"Luz," Amity began slowly. "This is... The kind of thing that you tell us as soon as it happens instead of... We are bad at keeping each other in the loop."

"Um... It's done," Willow said awkwardly. "I just need to... Clover?"

As she called her palisman, the large bee flew from where she and Stingbean, since having been joined by Ghost and Emmeline, and transformed into a staff that fell in Willow's waiting hand.

Planting the base of the staff firmly on the ground, Willow conjured a large green spell circle as her eyes glowed to match and a massive vine slowly curled out of the cauldron and slithered and stretched toward Luz before a giant meaty-looking flower budded off the tip before blooming, containing a pile of a coarse, dark-reddish brown almost black looking substance.

"Poke it," Willow said, "if I did it right, it should be spongey, like peat."

Luz obliged, and it was spongey. "So it's supposed to be a dark browish-read almost black, right?"

Hunter walked around Luz to get a good look at it. "Yeah, that's Titan Earth... Oh, Holy Prophet of the Titan."

"Never call me that again," Luz replied. "In fact, if you're going to get weird about it forget I said any of that."

She then let the symbiote goo engulf her hands and carefully scooped up the Titan Earth. Just as she let the goo start absorbing it she heard Eda shout, "Luz, wait for Tiny!"

Huh. She had thought that she was forgetting something.

"Oops."

Titan Earth hurt a lot more than the palistrom did, but less than Titan Breath did. She managed to avoid screaming as the sensation of something clawing through her veins that she'd come to be familiar with occurred but she did end up stumbling and landing on Hunter.

"I'm okay," she said afterward.

"You're heavier than you look," Hunter grunted as he summoned his staff to use as a sort of lever to push them both up into a standing position.

"Why did you do that instead of just getting up the normal way?" Luz asked as she regained her balance.

"Don't question my methods," Hunter replied, stern-faced, as Flapjack animated and flew off to join the growing convocation of palismen, which Clover had returned to once Willow had no further need of her aid.

Eda gave a long-suffering sigh. "You are so lucky that I don't have it in me to ground you right now. You sure you're okay?"

"Yeah," Luz confirmed.

"You don't need a pain potion?" Eda asked.

"No, I don't need a pain potion," Luz denied.

"You sure?"

"Yes, I'm sure. If I need a pain potion I'll tell you I need a pain potion," Luz would have rolled her eyes if she didn't know they were just concerned... Or how bad the Titan Blood and Bone had hurt to absorb.

Amity walked over and took Luz's hand. "You know you don't need to put on a strong face for us, right?"

"I'm fine, Hermosa," Luz replied. "Honest. I'm... I'm getting better at handling this and it only hurts a little bit more than the magic from palistrom does."

"I don't like that you're getting used to pain," Amity said with a sadly scrunched face.

"It is what it is," Luz replied. "and that's four humor's down. Titan Bile's the only one left. Anyway, you said you had a problem when you got here. What's wrong?"

Oh, uh, it's nothing important," Amity tried to deflect. "I'll figure something out."

"You sure? You were acting like you needed help," Luz answered. "If you need help all you have to do is ask."

Amity looked like she ate a lemon, then sighed and started. "Blight Industries has a float in the Coven Day parade this year. They're going to show off the new generation of Abomitons," Amity muttered something in disgust. "When I got home from school today my mother sprung on me that she expected the whole family to be present and I lied and said that we had made plans to watch the parade together and, well, since she's still under that Everlasting Oath not to interfere in my relationships she had to let me off the hook but... If we're not seen together watching the parade I could get into a lot of trouble later."

Off to the side, Eda pulled out her scroll again as she got a message, but Luz focused on Amity. "Okay, so we go to the parade together."

"You sure you're feeling up to it?" Amity asked

"Amity, I'm fine," Luz insisted again. "And unless parades in the demon realm involve the audience fighting something even if I wasn't I think I can handle sitting next to my girlfriend for a couple of hours."

"Well," Eda announced, "I just got a message from Rainestorm. They got pressured into doing a performance for the parade and Terror Snapcase is acting creepy. They could really use some support and their students are still laying low, so... I guess we're all going... Except for Blondie."

There had been no sign that the Golden Guard was missing or was being looked for, but it couldn't be ruled out that this was just to avoid the public asking questions. So Hunter didn't make many trips into town, especially in places where running into members of the Emperor's Coven was likely, and wouldn't until they could come up with a good cover story and disguise for him. A Holiday and parade celebrating the emperor and the coven system? Likely to be crawling with scouts working security.

"You gonna be okay here alone for a few hours, kid?" Eda asked Hunter.

"I'll be fine," Hunter dismissed. "I've gone days without interacting with anyone before." That did very little to reassure anyone.

"I could stay with him?" Willow offered. "My family doesn't really do anything for Coven Day."

"I can stay, too," Gus added. "My Dad's usually busy on Coven Day."

"Okay, it's settled," Eda declared. "Goops and Willow will keep an eye on Blondie and make sure he doesn't burn my house down while the rest of us are at the parade. We'll head out... As soon as Tiny gets here and checks over Luz to make sure she's not downplaying anything."

"No trust," Luz quipped. "No respect or regard, either."

"Luz, we both know that if I didn't trust you I never would have let you enroll at Hexside," Eda replied. "I don't have time to sit next to you in all your classes to make sure you don't get brainwashed."

"Fair enough!" Luz declared.

Then she heard Stringbean hiss, and she could have sworn that the palisman had said "Then it's settled. We attack the fairy nest at midnight."

Chapter Text

Hunter wasn't really sure what was going on. He'd hidden up in the tower for a few hours while they were having a party to celebrate Lilith getting a new job. One of the guests was a former coven scout who might recognize him so...

Later, when he went to the kitchen after everyone left, Lilith was leaning over the table working on a display of Deadwardian Balisters and in such disarray that she didn't notice him. It was... So surreal, to see prim and proper dignified Lilith acting like... Was there even a word for how obsessive and disheveled she was?

Not long after, Luz had some in and smooth-talked Lilith into taking her cryptid hunting or something. Even donated some of the abundant magic she'd gained by consuming palistrom wood and the Titan's humors to power some kind of detector.

Then, not long after they left, the Owl Lady's parents arrived. The dog-demon, King, who had been legally adopted by the Owl Lady at some point, was very excited to meet his grandfather but the Owl Lady had run upstairs and locked herself in her room for some reason.

This left Hunter just sort of standing there awkwardly as an elderly woman doted on a small child and an elderly man stood there somewhat amused by it all.

After a few moments, the old man's palisman, a cardinal who honestly looked a lot like Flapjack except yellow, flew over to greet Hunter's own partner. The two birds chirped away, and what bits of Flapjack's end he picked up told him that they knew each other.

"Excuse me, young man," the older witch greeted, "is that your partner?"

"Yeah, that's mine. His name is Flapjack."

"I thought so," the older witch asked.

"Do you... Know him?" Hunter asked.

"Sort of," the old witch replied. "I have had some dealings with the Bat Queen, and met many of the palismen who are safeguarded in her sanctuary. One of particular interest caught my eye, as he matched a drawing from the Clawthorne family's records, one that stuck in my mind so much that I modeled my Toast on it, depicting a palisman that my... twelve or thirteen greats grandmother Evelyn Clawthorne carved as a gift to the man who would one day father her child. I inquired about it, and after a few more visits the Bat queen confirmed that Flapjack and that palisman were one and the same and that he had been in her care ever since the death of his first partner back in the Deadwardian era."

"Oh," Hunter replied. "That... I didn't know about that... I..." Knowing that his partner had first been carved as an act of love... That he'd been alone for centuries before he... "He said he was carved to be a friend for a witch that needed one. He... He found me and stepped in because he thought I was like his first partner, I..."

"Yes, that sounds about right," the old witch said with a bit of fondness. "Records from that time are sparse, but what I know is that Evelyn was famed for kindness and curiosity that bled into the palismen she carved. I don't know your situation, young man, but if Flapjack chose you then you're in good hands."

"Thank you, sir," Hunter replied thoughtfully.

"Oh, I'm sorry," the older witch said. "I forgot to ask you your name."

Hunter thought for a moment, before concluding based on what he'd seen of Lilith's reports that Hooty simply would not have let the Owl Lady's parents in if they weren't trustworthy. "It's Hunter. And, it's not like you need to introduce yourself. Everyone's heard of Del Clawthorne the Palisman Carver."

Del laughed. "It's nice to know that even retired my reputation still proceeds me. But tell me, Hunter, how did you come to be staying with my daughter?"

Hunter avoided eye contact. "So technically she kidnapped me. I had to leave home in a hurry and I had nowhere to go. I was just about to lay down and die before she insisted I stay with her and physically carried me here."

"...Well yes, that sounds like my little Pumpkin," Del replied. "She's been presenting herself as a dangerous rebel for as long as I can remember but she never could pass up a chance to help someone in need, no matter how many laws she has to break to do it."

"So far I'm convinced that she just likes breaking the law," Hunter deadpanned.

"That too," Del admitted good-naturedly. "How are you settling in?"

"It's... Odd. She doesn't exactly live up to the reputation of the dangerous wild witch in the forest, she's... No offense but your daughter is completely insane," was Hunter's only way of phasing it. "Her apprentice, Luz, isn't much better. The Emperor said she was someone blessed with strange powers by the Titan who was being led astray by the Owl Lady but she's... I think humans are just like that. I've been... Second guessing some stuff for a while, and it's gotten worse since I got here, and... Before all of this I knew who and what I was supposed to be but the more time I spend away from home the more I realize that everything I knew was wrong, I..." Hunter swallowed. "Starting over is scary."

"Don't I know it," Del replied and for the first time that afternoon, Hunter got a good look at the man's closed eye socket and scarred hand.

"Can I ask what happened?"

"A terrible accident," was all he said by way of details. "Not something that anyone can be blamed for. But I haven't been able to so much as whittle since, let alone carve a palisman. At first, I wasn't sure what to do, and I had other, much more important things to be concerned about, but eventually, I figured something out."

Gears turned in Hunter's head. "Your business with the Bat Queen, sir?"

"Yes," Del confirmed. "I've been working with her for the last... Long while. If things go well, if our efforts come to fruition, then in just a few short years there should be a solution to the palistrom shortages."

"...That's amazing, sir."

"And once that problem is over, I'll be able to teach a new generation of palisman carvers," Del continued. "I might not be able to carve anymore, but I can still pass my skills and the benefit of my experience down to other witches looking to make sure everyone can have a partner to guide them."

Something clicked in Hunter's head when he heard Del say that. He looked over at Flapjack and the other cardinal. "I think that's what I want to do."

"Oh?"

"Flapjack finding me was the start of, that start of what really got me thinking about my life. I... There are probably plenty of witchlings in bad situations. If I can make sure they have a guide, well, it's not what I thought my life would be like but I was raised to believe I was helping people and... Helping people is what I want to do." Hunter forced a short laugh. "Besides, I'm a little curious about how palismen work."

This prompted a good-natured chuckle from the older witch. "Well, I'd be glad to teach you."

"Thank you, sir."

Shortly after that, an unnatural chime of some kind rang out, distracting all in the room.

"Huh, Luz must have forgotten her phone," King noted before scrambling down from and searching under the couch for a moment before emerging with Luz's weird human-realm scroll thing. Tapping the screen and holding it up to the side of his face, he greeted, "Hellow, Mrs. Luz's Human Mom... Yeah, that's me, Luz isn't in right now... I'm doing great, I got to meet my grandpa!" the childlike glee in the young demon's voice was palpable. "Oh, she's upstairs... Okay, yeah." King put a paw over the device and looked up, "I'll be right back, she wants to talk with Eda."

With that, the demon proceeded to scramble up the stairs with the device in hand.

TLOA

Eda was not having a good time. Lilly had gotten a job as a curator at the Bonesborrogh Museum, and Eda had agreed to host a small party to celebrate. It went... about as well as could be expected... And then Lilith's old mentor, Flora Dysplora came by to drop off some of Lilly's things after her office was cleaned out and set Lilly off and left Eda's sister commandeering Eda's kitchen to work on a display for the museum in a misguided attempt to show Flora up.

So into it, she was, that she hadn't even noticed that Blondie was here, which was good because Eda had forgotten to tell her about him.

Then Luz, having learned a little too well from the smooth-talking lessons she got for acing a potions exam, and after asking Eda about time magic, smooth-talked "Cool Aunt Lilith" into helping her look for time pools.

(She also insisted that possums were real. She even said that Boots could vouch for their existence. Like Eda was going to believe that.)

Then her parents arrived. She couldn't turn them away, with Luz gone she didn't have "busy with my apprentice" to use as an excuse and King was so excited to meet his new grandfather, but Eda couldn't face her father. Not after what she did. So she locked herself in her room while plotting a way to sneak out.

...She wasn't having much luck on that front. She was starting to eye a robe that Lilly had left here, planning to sneak out while disguised as her sister, when a knock on her door distracted her. Coming from near the floor, she knew it was King and not her mother trying to get her attention.

"What do you want?"

"Luz's mom is on the phone," King replied. "She wants to talk to you."

With a sigh, Eda unlocked the door and opened it just wide enough to take the phone before closing and locking it again. "Hey, Cam," she said with the device to her ear, "this is a bad time."

"Sorry," the human replied. "I know King said your parents were over but... Luz mentioned that there was some bad blood between you and your mother."

"No, that's all taken care of," Eda dismissed. "It's not her it's... I haven't spoken to my father in over thirty years."

"...Eda, did... Did he do something?"

"No, no no no no no," Eda insisted. "It's... When I was a kid, I cost him his job and ruined his life. I can't... How can I look him in the eye after that."

"...Eda, I seriously doubt that anything you could have done as a child when you were, what, Luz's age? I doubt you could have ruined his life."

"Did Luz tell you that I'm cursed?" Eda asked.

"She mentioned it, said it was sort of like a chronic illness," Camila confirmed.

"Well, the thing is," Eda continued... "So I only figured this out recently. The curse was cast from a scroll, and trapped in that scroll was a powerful demon I've been calling The Owl Beast... Though I should probably give her an actual name at some point... Anyway, some absurdly tall jerk in a pajama-like robe trapped her in the scroll Titan knows how long ago, and when the curse was cast on me, we sort of fused. She's part of me now, and I'm part of her. We're stuck together for good. Usually, I'm in charge, and we still look like me, but... I didn't use to get this distracted by shiny things, and while I can fall asleep on a chair or couch if I'm tired enough I can only get properly comfortable in a nest."

"Aye, sounds rough," Camila added.

"There are some other side effects, too," Eda added. "Let's just say that if we can get the portal open again by autumn I could really help you scare the pants off some folks come Halloween."

"I'll keep that in mind."

"But the really bad part was... when I was stressed out, or just went too long without taking my elixirs, I'd change. I'd slip into the dark recesses of my mind while she took over. My body would change to be like hers and... I know now that she was just scared and confused, lashing out against threats... A few weeks after I was first cursed, Dad lit off some fireworks that reminded my headguest of the magic used to seal her away, and... My Dad was the best palisman carver the Isles had seen in decades. Now he can't even hold a carving knife."

"That doesn't sound like something you can blame yourself for," Camila replied. "And if he's here now then he's probably forgiven you."

"That's the worst part Cam, I don't think he ever blamed me in the first place," Eda explained. "It'd be easier if he was mad at me, I..."

"Let me ask you a question," Camila started, "the little demon boy, King, Luz tells me you adopted him... You love him, right?"

"Of course I do," Eda replied.

"And you're basically Luz's second mother. Do you love her?"

Eda laughed awkwardly. "Yeah... Look, I'm sorry about that. Wasn't exactly planning on that when I agreed to let her stay here but, well, things happen."

"It's fine. Like I said that night in the car, Luz has more than enough love for two mothers. Honestly, it's nice knowing I have someone else keeping an eye out for her," Camila admitted. "But that brings me to my point: Being a parent is hard, and something I've learned is that you can't take care of them if you're not taking care of yourself. This might be a little hard to hear but... It sounds like you're determined to make yourself sad."

"Cam, it's not that—"

"You need to talk to your father. To end this, one way or another, before it's too late," Camila said grimly.

"...Too late?"

"He's not going to be around forever, Eda," Camila explained. "You're putting this off and hurting yourself when you need to talk to him and get closure. It could go well, it could go bad, but anything is better than torturing yourself like this. And if you wait too long, you'll miss your chance and you'll be hurting like this for the rest of your life."

Eda gulped. "It's not that easy, Cam."

"I'm sure that if Luz was there she'd be telling you that she'd give anything to have one last talk with her Papi."

...It occurred to Eda, in that moment, that she had never once heard Luz say anything about a father. Or any parent other than Cam.

"Okay, fine," Eda finally broke down. "You're right. I'll talk with him. But, before I head down... What was it you called for?" She could still put it off for just a bit longer.

"It's about Luz, actually um... Doctor Strange got back to me, and things aren't looking good."

"Oh?"

"Following the lead about giraffes really helped him narrow things down," Camila explained, "he says that he's ruled out the Demon Realm being one of the splintered realms or having any connection to the negative zone or the Darkforce Dimension, but he ran into a dead end: The trail goes ended with, and I quote, 'the only Gravesfield witch who was actually a witch.' Er, uh, what we call witches over here, not..."

"I get it."

"So when he came back into town this morning we went to the historical society, the library, and so on to see if there was anything on her but... All we could find was that just before she was hung she recited a series of nonsense words... They wrote them down, taking it as proof of her infernal nature. We were set to take it as a dead end when Masha, Vee's um... I think they're going with 'Theyfriend,' noticed that when it was written out phonetically it looked like something called a Caesar cipher, where you move letters around to encrypt a message. After some experimenting with how many letters to shift around we got dying prayer."

"To who?"

"The witch's last words, translated, were 'As I die I commit my soul to Bill Cipher, who freed me from drudgery and gave me the power to live ridiculously. Praise be to his angles and eye.'"

"...I have no idea who that is," Ed admitted.

"Neither do I," Camila continued. "But Doctor Strange did. Supposedly he was killed ten years ago and, even if he hadn't been, he's not the kind of person you ever want to deal with unless you're holding all the cards and even then it's risky. He said he could try a seance but he would like to save that for an absolute last resort so... Back to the drawing board."

"Ugh, well, Luz left with Lilith earlier to chase a lead on how the portal was made but..."

"He's reaching out to some other magicians and calling in a few favors among 'the Illuminati' but he says that from where he's sitting now it could be months or even years before he can get the portal open from this side."

"...Do you want me to tell Luz? Because... That would..." Eda gulped. "She'd be devastated."

"No, I don't want to discourage her," Camila replied, "Especially not so close to... Anyway, the point I'm getting at is... How secure is the situation, on your end? Legally speaking."

"I'm not sure I understand what you mean, Cam?"

"Like, I know you were able to enroll her in school," Camila started, "but in overall terms of guardianship could... Could someone from the government come in and legally take her from you? Put her in some sort of fostering program?"

"Only if they wanted to die," Eda quipped. "If they somehow avoided getting eaten by Hooty, overpowered me, and Luz didn't kick their keisters herself, Boots would level the city to get her back."

"Yes, yes, Amity's definitely a keeper but, I'm serious... Are you considered her legal guardian, on your side of things?"

"We're not exactly all that formal about those things here. You had to go through some hoops to adopt Vee, right? And it wasn't official until a bit after the paperwork was filed. Over here," Eda explained, "adopting King was legal the second I signed the paperwork and even that was mostly a formality, he did it because that's what he wanted. If he just said he wanted to use my name that would have been good enough for most people. Luz... After a while, Luz stopped being 'Luz the Human' and started being 'Eda's girl.' As far as anyone around town is concerned, she's my kid. If I told my parents that she's my kid, they'd probably be doting on her like their flesh and blood grandchild and I'd eat my foot if she wasn't written into the wills by the end of the week." Eda paused to collect her thoughts. "The only way I could be more her, her parent is if... Cam...? Are you asking me to formally adopt Luz?"

The was a sighing on the other end of the phone. "My daughter is trapped in another dimension, Eda. And I'm sorry, I know she loves it there, I know she fits in there, but everything I've been told about it scares the life out of me. The only thing giving me peace of mind is knowing that Luz is safe with someone who loves her. I'd be sleeping a whole lot easier if I knew that that arrangement was as secure as possible."

"Cam, I don't know what... I love her but that's kind of a big ask," Eda began, "I could run it by her but..."

"And even if you could get the portal open tonight," Camila continued, "and she could come and go whenever she wanted again... We both know she'd rather stay over there. She has friends there, she goes to school there, she has a life there... With how well she's doing it's almost like she was supposed to be born over there instead of over here."

"Cam, don't be like that you know she loves you," Eda replied.

"I know," Camila said. "But she doesn't love it here. She admitted to me that I'm the only reason she came back and that she feels safer over there... And who can blame her? She's never been arrested for being excited while brown over there."

Eda blinked. "Excuse me, what?"

"It was her last year of middle school," Camila began. "Her class had a field trip to New York to visit a museum and she was so excited because the museum had a whole exhibit on magic complete with replicas of some of the artifacts that Doctor Strange uses. Some puta mas absoluta who I am sure was named 'Karen' didn't like that a brown girl had something to be excited about and called the police, claiming that... Well, she used slurs but didn't use the right ones and we'll leave it at that. The gist of it was that she lied and claimed she overheard Luz talking about plotting to steal magical artifacts from the museum. Luz was in cuffs by the time one of the officers realized that not a single other person at the museum corroborated the story and that maybe the words of someone who can't talk about Latinos without treading into hate speech weren't reliable. NYPD offered me a payout to not sue for false arrest and emotional trauma, which was great because the middle school principal was a completo bastardo and insisted that I get Luz tested for all kinds of behavioral and developmental disorders before he'd let her come back and said I'd have to pay for them out of pocket."

"...Is this where Supervillains come from?" Eda asked. "Because I'm suddenly tempted to come over there and perform a couple of highly specific and precisely targeted themed crimes."

"They're not worth the hassle," Camila replied.

"She's mentioned that before, but... She didn't say that it was because of that."

"She doesn't know," Camila replied. "She's got a bad habit of blaming herself for problems or accepting blame for things... And she's been punished or ostracised over little things that shouldn't matter all her life. With the middle school principal putting the blame on her, she assumed she must have done something wrong... I thought about telling her the truth but she was upset enough as it was, this would just have made it worse."

"Cam," Eda said, "Luz is a big girl. She knows that not everyone is nice and that some people are just jerks. She can handle this."

"You're probably right, but..."

Just then, Eda got a notification on her scroll.

"One second, Cam," she said while checking it... A DM from Lilly... In all caps. With no punctuation.

"CALL LUZS DOCTOR"

"Cam, I've gotta go," Eda said as her blood froze.

Luz woke up with... Definitely not the worst pain she'd ever had. That was what had happened before she passed out, but... Still hurting pretty bad. Especially in her chest, which was very concerning.

The last thing she remembered... Phillip. He had absolutely not changed for the better. He was exactly as bad as you'd expect of a witch hunter, maybe even worse. He was charismatic and manipulative and like an idiot, she fell for it. She and Lilith had been conned into helping him retrieve a mirror related to someone called...

She snapped up, eyes wide open. The Collector! And... Her dream, with the Titan... The Archivists, eh... No, no, the Titan said the last archivist wasn't a threat to anyone anymore and this was centuries ago, it's probably fine, but... Why hadn't she connected the dots sooner?

"Good, you're awake," she heard a voice, an older woman's and...

Turning, she saw Eda's mom. A somewhat heavyset woman with a clear family resemblance to Eda and biceps for days."Um, Gwen?"

"Yes, Poppet," the older woman confirmed, and... No, Luz would ask about the nickname later. Gwen turned and called out "She's awake!"

Within moments the room was filled, Luz's vision being dominated by King, Stringbean, and five concerned-looking bird palismen: Owlbert, Mike, Flapjack, Hawksley, and a second cardinal that she didn't recognize.

"Where," Luz got her bearings. She was in the living room of the Owl House, on the couch. Someone had taken her shoes off, but she was still fully dressed. Including her witch's cloak, which she'd figured out how to summon without having to go full symbiote and had used along with a helmet she'd looted from a skeleton to disguise that she was human after traveling back in time... Elsewhere in the room were Lilith and Hunter, who were both slumped up against different walls and both trying to sit up The windows were plated up, like the house was on lockdown. "Where's Eda?"

"As soon as your doctor said you were going to be okay," Gwen explained, "and she got a promise from each of us that we would not leave you alone for a second until you woke up, she went into town with Del. She said she had something very important to do and this convinced her to get it done now."

"Oh," Luz said, not sure how to feel about Eda not being there when...

The kitchen door opened and Tiny Nose walked in. "Oh, good, you'we up. You'we test wesults are back... But fiwst, how awe you feeling?"

"Everything hurts, especially my chest," Luz answered. "Like... Um..."

"Thewe's a heavy-duty pain potion on the table," Tiny said and Luz noticed it as it was pointed out to her. "You can take it as soon as we go over a few things. Fiwst, what's the last thing you wemembew?"

"I was about to confront Phillip Wittebane after he conned me and Lilith into helping him while planning to sacrifice us," Luz said, "and I guess I spooked him or something because he threw a bottle of something at me. On reflex, I guarded with my cloak, the bottle shattered and... My cloak is witch's wool, but it's all mixed up in my symbiote side. Whatever was in the bottle got sucked up and my coven sigil flared. The last thing I saw before I passed out was Lilith breaking Phillip's nose."

"Titan Bile," Lilith said as she, clearly somewhat tired, finally stood up. "I grabbed a shard from the bottle for testing, the residue was pure, undiluted, raw Titan Bile."

Luz immediately pulled the bandages from her wrist and... "Titan take me, it's still there! Five humors and half a bag of palistrom shavings and..."

"It can't possibly take much more magic than you've already taken in," Lilith insisted. She looked so tired.

"Um, Lilith, are you okay?" Luz asked.

"Mike and I really pushed ourselves to get you back home safe," Lilith explained. "But I'm fine. Once you were in safe hands I drank an elixir and an entire pot of bitter bean blood." Considering that Lilith's coffee was just as strong as Luz's own, that was not exactly reassuring.

"She was like, two-thirds Raven Beast by the time she got here," King quipped. "Hunter almost had a heart attack."

"I did not!" Hunter insisted.

"So I have questions about why he's here," Lilith said. "Starting with... Why he's here?"

"Ask your sister," Hunter deadpanned.

"It's cool, he's one of us now," Luz explained. "And, um... Dr. Nosa, you said you ran some tests?"

"Yeah. Could someone go into the kitchen and wheel in the scans?" Tiny replied, which prompted Hunter to rush off.

"Scans?" Luz asked.

"They'we kinda like... I think humans call them X-ways?" Tiny answered. "I used a spell to see inside you then pwinted the image on a sheet of papew."

"Will that explain the chest pains?" Luz asked. "Because I'm very concerned about the chest pains."

"Yes, but don't wowwy those should go away in a day ow two."

Hunter rolled in some kind of bulletin board on wheels and parked it where Luz could see it from the couch. On it were pictures that were... Basically, Luz in layers, which was all kinds of cool to look at but he found her eyes drawn to what appeared to be a picture of her internal organs.

"...That's not supposed to be there," she said while staring at a growth on her heart.

"I figuwed as much," Tiny replied. "Luz, it seems that the intwoduction of Titan Bile into youw system has twiggered you to grow youw own bile sack."

"...I was not expecting that," Luz said flatly.

"Now in tewms of stwuctuwe," Tiny continued, "youw's is mowe like a Titan's than a witch ow biped demon, but you onwy have the one. It's a little undersized, and more compwessed against pwabably since you have two full-sized lungs," the small demon mused. "I took a bile sample, it's not quite titan bile but... it's weally close. Even has the spell phlegms mixed in alweady. Testing youw blood, which is vewy slightly almost unnoticeably purple now, showed twace amounts of diluted Titan Blood. Youw ciwculatory, skeletal, pulmonawy, and musculaw systems all have similaw mutations. Luz, I'd need a live Titan to compare but... I think you'we part Titan now."

"...How?"

"Thewe's no way of knowing for sure," Tiny continued, "but I hypothesize that youw howwible eldwitch monstew side was able to weconstitute the Titan's decaying genetic matewial fwom its humows and insewted it into youw alweady hybridized genome. This would have stawted when you fiwst absowbd the Titan Blood and accelewated with each humow. With the full set," she finished, "thewe was enough to pawtially Titanize the cowwesponding organs."

"So I understood about half of that," Luz admitted.

Just then the windows unboarded themselves as the door swung open and Eda came in accompanied by an older man that Luz didn't recognize. "Ah, shoot," she said, "I was hoping to get back before you woke up."

"...Well, you didn't," Luz replied. She didn't mean to sound sad, but... "Where were you?"

"It's not important right now," Eda said nervously.

"Was important enough," Luz mumbled.

Eda sighed. "Okay, fine, you left your phone here and Cam called. She admitted to me that she had some... Concerns about how secure our situation here was, in terms of, you know, guardianship and... Asked me to do something. I said I'd run it by you but then... Seeing you like... That... again made me realize that I wanted to do this too, and soon, so..." Eda started rummaging through her hair. "Now um, this is all up to you. If you're not comfortable with this we can just toss these in the fireplace and, and I made sure that even if we do do this that it won't invalidate your relationship with Cam and... You won't have to change your name, you won't have to change what you call me, this doesn't have to change anything if you don't want it to..."

Luz realized what Eda was talking about just as her mentor produced a stack of papers and a pen. Papers much like the ones she'd helped King fill out not that long ago.

"And again, it's ultimately up to—" Luz had signed the adoption papers, 'Luz Noceda-Clawthorne,' before Eda even finished.

It seemed to take her mentor, her second Mom, a moment to realize but... after that second, there was a lot of hugging, especially when King jumped in.

"Welcome to the family, Poppet," Gwen greeted.

"No," the older man said, "I think she was already family."

"I'm sorry, who are you?" Luz asked him, which prompted Eda to let her go and stand next to the man.

"As of a minute ago, in the eyes of the law, he's your new Grandpa," Eda explained. "This is my Dad, Del Clawthorne. He was the best palisman carver who ever lived and now he's getting ready to train whoever the next best is going to be."

"You flatter me, Pumpkin," the man, Del replied.

"He taught me everything I know about palismen," Eda continued, "and he helped me carve Owlbert the same way I helped you with Stringbean."

"It's nice to meet you, sir," Luz said with a smile only to wince as the chest pains got slightly worse. "Sorry."

"No," Eda replied, "I'm surprised that you're even able to sit up, so... Tiny? Is there anything you haven't told her yet?"

"Nothing that I can't wite down fow latew, all the impowtant stuff is done."

"Okay, so I think what needs to happen is that you, young lady," Eda said as she turned back to Luz, "should take your pain potion and then get up to bed. I'll carry you if you need help. We're... almost certainly doing a late dinner tonight, so I'll bring some up to you while you take it easy and then you can just crash and try to sleep this off. Does that sound good?"

"Yeah," she said as Stringbean pre-emptively went into Teddy mode. "But first... If I have a bile sack now, then... I should be able to..."

Her eye caught one of Eda's potted plants. That would do. She held out her hand, thought about some of her lessons in plant class, focused the power at her fingertips, and drew the circle while she pictured what she wanted. Just like Eda taught her, and...

The flowers in the pot suddenly got a whole lot more lively as the blooms perked up and took on a more vibrant color.

Casting the spell had maybe been a bad idea because, much like after casting her light spell after the Titan Blood, she was suddenly exhausted, but as she smiled at her handiwork all she could say was "worth it."

Chapter Text

"...So now I can eat more demon food," Luz finished, "but I'm still lactose intolerant, which we figured out the hard way."

Amity placed a comforting hand on her girlfriend's shoulder. Then a thought occurred to her. "Wait, if you can eat demon food now then... I could bake you a fairy pie!"

She smiled at Luz, who smiled back at her... But there was clearly something forced about it and Amity could feel some... Apprehension.

"Sounds great," Luz said as she was trying and failing to keep said apprehension out of her voice.

"Luz, you know, um, that I can..."

"I know," Luz replied while blowing. "Look, um... I know that way back when I said I'd try anything you made me and I know they're you're favorite but..." Luz suffered from a whole-body shudder. "I can eat eyeballs, I can eat spiders and fruitblood and... Honestly a lot of stuff I never thought I'd try a few months ago, but... I draw the line at fairies. I know they're not really, I know they're just animals and bloodthirsty pests in the wild but they look like little people and I can't bring myself to eat something person shaped... Especially when they're still alive."

"Okay," Amity acknowledged.

"I'm sorry," Luz apologized regretfully.

"It's fine."

"And, I want to stress this," Luz continued, "this is a me thing, not a you thing. I know this sort of thing is normal here and I'm not looking down on you for—"

"Why would I ever think that?" Amity asked, now a little offended.

"Because that's a thing back in the human realm," Luz replied, "there are people who have certain... Food preferences and they make a big deal out of thinking they're better than other people because of what they don't eat. Not, not everyone's like that, but I just... Wanted to make sure..."

"Luz," Amity said, "something like that wouldn't even have occurred to me if you hadn't..."

"I'm sorry," Luz said again.

"It's fine," Amty replied, "and it's fine that you don't want to try fairy pie. I'm sure I have plenty of recipes that you'll like better,"

"...Maybe you could teach me how to cook?" Luz asked with slight hesitation.

"Huh?"

"Has estado aprendiendo español para mí y lo has hecho muy bien. Quiero aprender algo importante para ti, mi amor," Luz replied.

Amity smiled. "Está bien, si eso es lo que quieres, entonces me encantaría enseñarte, mi amada."

"You know," a voice interrupted from behind them, "if you keep acting like this you're gonna give everyone sugar sickness."

Turning around, Luz and Amity saw first that Boscha was behind them and second that they'd attracted some attention from the other students gathered for club sign-up day.

Amity felt her face heat up but, not as much as she was used to. Luz, for her part, gave a nervous laugh. "And we were doing so good with not forgetting about other people when we uh, get romantic."

"Well, I should go," Boscha replied, "Skara jumped ship and now we don't have enough players to meet reserve regulations. If we don't get some new blood to replace her we're going to have to bench the Grudgby team and Titan take me if I let that happen."

"Actually," Amity began, "we were looking for you before we got distracted."

"Oh?"

"Yeah um... I've been thinking," Amity. "I... Told Luz why I quit the grudgby team, and she's convinced me that I can't just keep blaming myself for one mistake."

"That wasn't a mistake," Boscha countered. "Who cares if we got hurt, we won."

"Yeah, well... The point is, I was wondering if I could rejoin the team?" Amity finished. While she'd gotten a lot of use out of her potions classes, the 'spend more time with Boscha' part of the plan had been something of a failure. "Like, just as a regular player. You're a better captain than I was."

"Oh, okay," Boscha replied. "You're in."

"Um, no," Amity said quickly, "I want to do this by the book. A proper tryout, to make sure I've still got it."

"Always a stickler for the rules, eh Queen?" Boscha said with a laugh. "Okay, if that's what you want our sign-up booth is just over there," Boscha said while pointing up the walkway. She then turned to Luz and awkwardly asked. "Um, do you want to try out, too?"

"No," Luz replied, "I um, well..."

"She has an objection to the use of the rusty smidge," Amity explained.

This prompted the three-eyed witch to blink. "Why?"

"We will be here all day if I have to explain," Luz answered. "Also um... Me, on a team with her..."

"Running around in cute uniforms..." Amity continued.

"Sweating?" Luz finished.

"Yeah," Amity concluded with a slightly warmer face. "Not a good idea if we actually want to win."

"Fair enough," Boscha acknowledged. "Well, right this way."

"I'll catch up with you later, Hermosa," Luz said. "Gwen and Del are still in town and they want to do a grandparents' day with me and King." Luz then planted a quick kiss on Amity's cheek and then sped off.

"What was that about?" Boscha asked as she led Amity to the sign-up booth.

"Luz's Mom back in the human realm was concerned about how legal Eda's guardianship over Luz was, so Eda adopted her," Amity explained. From what Luz had said, she was a little nervous talking about it with Camila after the fact because she'd impulsively signed the forms 'Noceda-Clawthorne' but Camila was fine with it. She'd even offered to look up the paperwork so they could change Luz's name in the human realm if that's what Luz wanted.

"Oh, good for her," Boscha observed. At the booth, she looked down at the sign-up sheet. "Hmm. Not that many takers."

"Well," Amity said as she signed her name, "you've got me."

Hunter looked off in the distance, in the direction of Hexside. Willow, or the Captain as he'd taken to calling her, was trying to establish a flyer derby team. They'd talked about it a couple of times, he'd met the students who were interested in joining the team (under the name Caleb, just in case, which Flapjack had suggested and had gotten some side-eye from Luz) and even helped them in a few practice games though as he wasn't enrolled at Hexside he wouldn't be able to join the team himself officially.

The Owl Lady had offered to enroll him, but he wouldn't be able to officially start until the next semester and regardless, the Emperor had spies everywhere. Even with a fake name, it was too risky.

...Well, the Owl Lady's parents had noted that he bore a passing resemblance to a young Del. The idea of dying his hair and passing him off as a distant cousin had been floated but this wasn't a children's cartoon, such disguises wouldn't fool anyone.

So he stood and wondered how things were going. Did the team end up going with the name he suggested?

Suddenly, he heard a twig snap. It was coming from the path into town... It couldn't be Luz, she and her friends usually flew here on their staves and when they didn't they tended to run down the path. Besides, she was in town with the elder Clawthornes and King.

Summoning Flapjack to his hand and drawing upon his training Hunter snuck through the woods to try and observe the intruders. From the treeline, he could make out three robed figures, one child-sized, one average, and one tall and broad-shouldered.

The child-sized one appeared to be crawling on all fours, and the largest one gave a slightly effeminate whine as they realized they'd stepped in mud and tried to scrape it off the bottom of their boot.

Something clicked in Hunter's mind as the small one responded with a growl: Those were Darius and Eberwolf. He wasn't sure who the third witch was, but...

...There's no way the Emperor knew he was here, they'd been too careful but... His uncle knew that The Owl Lady still had the portal and... If Luz was right about his Uncle being a liar, then he might have been lying about the Titan ordering him to pardon the Owl Lady and the rioters and now he's trying to recapture her or maybe take revenge on Luz... He didn't, he didn't want to think that his uncle might be the bad guy but he had to admit that the human made some good points. Since coven scouts had consistently failed in this regard, his uncle must have decided to go for the big guns.

So, with Flapjack's help and his light dash spell, Hunter charged and tackled the largest witch off the path.

The Owl Lady insisting that he get more than four three of sleep a night, however, had made him go soft. He was rusty, and quickly ended up glued to a tree with abomination slime.

"You just can't stop getting into fights with teenagers, can you Darius?" quipped the third witch. That voice? That was the new Bard head, right?

Darius gave a long-suffering sigh. "What are you doing here, Brat?"

"I could very well ask the same of you!" Hunter demanded in his most authoritative voice, desperate to maintain control of the situation despite the circumstances. This was so much easier when he had a mask.

The small one, probably Eberwolf, growled something and Darius replied "The Golden Brat disappeared from the castle suddenly and without warning, shortly after Kikimora snipes a mission from him, only to turn up weeks later in the woods outside the Owl Lady's house? There's no way this is a coincidence."

"And I'm supposed to believe that three coven heads are just going for a casual meetup with the most infamous Wild Witch on the Isles?" Hunter asked back.

"Look, seriously what are—"

Darius was interrupted by several witches on their staves flying overhead, only to turn around, float right above the path, look down at the scene in question, land, and start threatening the three coven heads with said staves.

The Captain, of course, was at the front of the pack with Gus right behind her, with Viney and Skara behind them.

"What are you doing to him?" Willow demanded.

"Hey, he attacked me," Darius defended. Eberwolf just laughed.

"Likely story," Willow insisted.

"Caleb wouldn't do that!" Viney declared.

"Who in the Isles is Caleb?" Darius shouted.

"Um, me, I'm Caleb," Hunter answered awkwardly.

Darius started rubbing his temples through his hood. "Titan take me this is going to be a long day."

"Careful, now," the suspected Bard head... Whispers? Said. "Last time you had a misunderstanding like this it only took two schoolchildren to beat you."

"You are never going to let me live that down, are you!?" Darius snapped.

"Not a chance."

"Okay, just what is going on?" Called out a voice from up the path as The Owl Lady came marching down and... "Ugh!" she grunted. "Blondie, the bedsheet brigade are on our side. Mudboy cut down Blondie, he's one of us now."

"I did not consent to that name," Darius whined petulantly as she snapped his fingers and the slime-binding Hunter retreated making him fall to the ground.

Gus helped him up, "you okay, buddy?"

"Yeah," Hunter replied. "How'd it go at school?"

"Great!" The Captain answered as the other teens turned and formed a circle around Hunter. "Professor Hermunculus tried to be a jerk about things because he's mad that I switched from abominations to plants but we proved ourselves so as soon as we find a permanent fifth member the Emerald Entrails are good to go."

"Or at least someone to fill in till next semester, right Caleb?" Skara added

"We'll uh, we'll see," Hunter replied.

"So, let me get this straight," Darius said from his new position next to the Owl Lady who had seemingly filled him in on a few details while Hunter was talking with his friends. "Caleb has been learning about how the world works, making his own choices, and has friends his own age now?"

"Yes sir," Hunter replied.

"Well it's about time," Darius said with... Was that pride? "Tell me, do you have a way to keep in touch with these young witches?"

"No sir," Hunter replied.

"Well, you do now," Darius said as he approached only to once again have a bunch of staves pointed in his general direction. "Seriously?" With a roll of his eyes, he summed a scroll and floated it over to Hunter.

"...Do you just carry an extra scroll around?" The Owl Lady asked incredulously.

"It always helps to be prepared," Darius replied defensively.

"For this!? ...although that reminds me, I should probably get one of those for Luz... Anyway!" she said as she turned to the teens. "The Bedhsheet Brigaid and I are working on a top-secret project. I will neither confirm nor deny what it is or who it is under those robes. You assorted gremlins can hang out here as long as you stay outside for the next little while, and if you tell anyone about this meeting I will do whatever it is the imperial propoganda department says wild witches do to naughty children."

"...Eat our skin?" Viney asked.

"That's why everyone thinks that!" the wild witch declared with a shout of triumphant realization.

"Did I miss something?" came yet another voice from above them. Looking up, Luz was floating above them, sitting on her staff with King asleep in her arms.

"Not as much as you'd think," Eda answered. "How'd it go with my parents?"

"Great!" Luz replied. "King got all tuckered out, but Gwen taught me some beast keeper spells."

"So you're on speaking terms with your parents again?" Whispers asked.

"Yeah, I'll fill you in later," the wild witch replied. "And how'd that thing you were doing with Boots go?"

"I don't know," Luz said. "She hasn't messaged me yet." A buzzing went off and Luz pulled a device from her pocket, "spoke too soon." She spent the next few minutes alternatively typing or looking at the device before looking down at the Owl Lady with a grim expression. "Can Amity stay over tonight?"

"Yeah," The Owl Lady replied immediately and without hesitation.

"Thank you."

Amity was breathing heavily, she was tired, and she was still trying to figure out when and how she'd scraped her knee, but... She was happy. Part of her had missed this.

Boscha had been somewhat disappointed by the low turnout in terms of sign-ups but there had still been enough takers who could live up to Boscha's strict standards that she was spoiled for choice when it came to filling Skara's spot.

"Not that it matters," Boscha insisted, "Your tryout was just a formality and you know it."

After the tryouts, Bocha had insisted that Amity join her at her clubhouse, which had been rebuilt after the 'body swap' incident Luz had mentioned on the Knee, to just hang out as they barely spent any time together anymore. Part of Amity had missed that, too.

"I wanted to do it by the book," Amity replied. "I haven't played in a while, there could be someone better than me."

"Not likely," Boscha said with a scoff. "You've always been the best at everything and if you weren't you wouldn't rest until you were."

Amity sighed. "That wasn't me. Not the real me. That was... My mother expected me to be the best and I just wanted her validation so... But now I know I don't need to be the best at everything, I just need to be the best me."

"Huh," Boscha replied. "You've changed but... You seem happier now."

"Much happier," Amity confirmed.

"...Now that you're spending all your time with the people you want to be friends with instead of the people you were forced to be friends with?" Boscha asked.

Amity winced. "I'm sorry, I never should have said that."

"No, it's true," Boscha said. "I... The day we first properly met, at your birthday party... I saw how sad you were and that felt wrong. Nobody should be sad on their birthday, so I decided then and there that I was going to be your best friend ever but... When you ran away," Boscha continued, "and I read the diary page about just how... Little it took to make you fall for, for Luz I realized that you must have... That I must not have been a very good friend and I thought back on our relationship and realized that... I was mostly just dragging you into what I wanted to do."

"Look, I mean, not everything. We have grudgby in common."

"Yeah," Boscha acknowledged. "Anyway, I swore a promise to the Titan that if you turned up again if you were okay, I'd try to be a better friend and..."

"Boscha, you've been a great friend," Amity replied.

"Am I?" Boscha asked. "I gave up on demanding respect from people because you don't like doing it. I encouraged you to ask out the human even though she's not good enough for you—which is totally fine, by the way, you love who you love," she suddenly backtracked, "I've done my best to be supportive of you and... But this is the first time we've hung out in months."

"Boscha, I'm sorry," Amity said. "I should have made time for you."

"But you didn't," Boscha replied. "And I get it. I must be a crummy friend if you'd rather hang out with Willow after what she did."

"What, the fake abomination incident?" Amity. "I mean, I understand why she did it and I didn't exactly help by going out of my way to belittle her. And, well, I'm the one who lost her head over a stupid badge." Amity felt a twinge of regret for how she'd treated her first and best friend for all those years.

Boscha looked at Amity wide-eyed before blinking. "No, uh, do you not even remember?"

"No," Amity replied confused at Boscha's bewilderment. "I can't think of anything else."

"Your birthday party, when we were little," Boscha continued. "You were so happy to see her, just ran up and gave her a bear hug, then a few minutes later you take her to, you're room I think? And then a few minutes after that she leaves and you're miserable for your entire birthday party. I don't know what she did to you but..."

"Boscha, no," Amity was quick to correct as a few things clicked into place. Amity... Amity had reasons to treat Willow badly, but they weren't good ones. But not she recalled Boscha encouraging it, even going out of her way to pick on Willow when Amity didn't and... "Willow didn't do anything wrong. My mother didn't like that I was friends with her. I wasn't supposed to invite her and when I did my mother gave me an ultimatum: Break things off with her or she'd do it for me."

Boscha just looked at her incredulously for a moment before bursting into hysterical laughter... But the emotions she was radiating weren't good ones.

"See," she said as she finally calmed enough to speak, "that just proves my point. I never even asked what happened."

"Boscha, I..."

"And worst of all... You're happy, right? You're happy with Willow and what's his name, you're happy with Luz and her weirdo found-family... You're happy, for what I think is the first time since I've known you," Boscha observed, "so why can't I be happy for you?"

"Boscha? Are you alright?" Amity asked, suddenly very concerned for her friend.

"...I don't think this is gonna work out," Boscha said after a moment. "You on the team or... You and me in general."

"Boscha, that's... We can still make this friendship work," Amity insisted.

"What friendship?" Boscha asked. "You admitted to my face that you never really saw me as a friend and I don't blame you... so why are we trying to force it?"

"But, no I want to—"

"This isn't about want, this is about need," Boscha insisted. "You need to stop focusing on me and spend your time with the people you want to spend time with. And I... Need to get over you, and I can't do that if we keep holding onto a friendship that we both know never existed."

"Get over..." And then everything clicked. The feelings Boscha let off whenever Luz came up and... Now that she thought about it, they were oddly similar to how Amity felt when Luz admitted that Em and Ed had hit on her at the library way back when. "Boscha, you...?"

"Yeah. Don't worry, I won't get weird about it," Boscha replied. "You made your choice and I was never even in the running. Just... I should have done this weeks ago, but... I'm sorry. Sorry for putting you through that tryout for nothing and... I'm glad we had this talk though," she continued. "I never would have worked up the nerve if we hadn't, so thanks for that."

Amity found herself losing her words.

"I'm heading home now," Boscha said as she summoned her staff, topped with a crab-shaped Palisman. "Do you still remember how to lock up?"

"Uh, yes," was all Amity could make herself say.

"Alright then... Bye."

Boscha left, Amity locked up, and then she pulled out her texter and messaged Luz.

"HEY"

"HOW DID IT GO?"

"BAD"

"WANNA TALK?"

"NO"

"RU OK?"

"IDK. CAN I CRASH 2 NITE?"

"YEAH."

"THANKS. I THINK I NEED CUDDLES."

Chapter Text

Amity ran up the path as fast as she could. This was... This was... Terrible feelings were bubbling inside her and she needed to talk with someone to sort them out. She needed her Luz.

Barely paying Hooty any mind as she burst through the door, she found Luz kneeling on the living room floor furiously sketching at something.. And then Amity was hit with a wave of regret and anxiety and some complex form of sadness that snapped her to her senses. "Luz? Are you alright?"

Luz, noting Amity's presence, quickly said "Yeah, I'm fine, just..."

"I don't think she is," said a masculine voice and Amty took note that Hunter was on the couch, messing with a scroll and taking a picture of his palisman as the cardinal seemingly slept atop a bunched-up sweater. "She's been weirdly hyperfocused and productive all morning and said something about missing out on some sort of annual ritual she does with her mother. Ah, shoot. I meant to send that to Willow... Well, Gus will probably appreciate it too."

"Look, today's gonna be a bad day for me," Luz admitted, "but I talked with Mami, she understands, and... I just need to keep busy so I don't think about it. I've already discovered a couple of new glyph combos, gone back over all my notes on how the portal door works, and I think I've got a few healing spells down pat."

"Healing spells?" Amity asked.

"Well now that I have a bile sack and can do the nine main magics I got to thinking about um... I want to learn and master them all, obviously, but you've gotta start somewhere," Luz explained, "So when I was trying to prioritize I ended up thinking about how my life's been going lately and figured 'yeah, I'm probably gonna need this' so..." Luz finished by waving her hand.

Thinking back to all the fights and adventures they'd been in in the last few months, it occurred to Amity that Luz made an excellent point.

"She took a break while practicing the spells to practice palm reading," Hunter interrupted. "On me. She's not a very good oracle."

"I'm a great oracle!" Luz defended. "I can predict the weather months in advance with tea leaves."

"You predicted that I'm going to learn a horrible family secret some time in the next fortnight," Hunter deadpanned. "Explain how that's supposed to happen when I'm not living anywhere near my only living relative?"

"It could happen," Luz insisted.

"Stick to tea leaves," Hunter quipped.

"So, Amity... You wanted to talk about something?" Luz asked while turning back to her.

"...You're sure you're okay?" Amity asked uncertainly.

"I'm going to be fine," Luz insisted. "Now tell me your problem so I can see if I can help."

"Well, it started when... Today's the day of the Bonesborough Brawl," Amity began. "I've always wanted to enter and this year I'm finally old enough."

"What's that?" Luz asked.

"A tournament," Amity explained. "Witches and demons from all over the county meet up and duke it out with magic and martial arts in a series of matches to prove once and for all who the best fighter around is. My Dad was the Champion once when he was younger and... it's like the coolest thing he ever did in his life. I... I want to understand him better. I want to be like him, just a little bit, and... Anyway, I went to talk to him about entering and, maybe him coming down to watch me fight, and..."

"He said no?" Luz asked.

"No, I never even got to ask him," Amity continued. "As soon as I approached him he stopped working completely," which meant that things were serious, "and said that he had something very important to talk to me about, and... And..."

Tears welled up in Amity's eyes and she tried to force herself to calm down and... Luz had grabbed Amity's wrist, which was halfway raised to her mouth. Well, that was embarrassing. She hadn't tried to bite herself since making up with Willow.

"Amity, what's wrong?" Luz asked.

"My parents are getting a divorce," Amity choked out.

Luz responded by pulling Amity into a hug. "That's rough. Are you okay?"

"...No," Amity admitted. "I... I hate my mother but... She's still my mother. I never thought that, that she and my Dad would..."

Luz patted Amity on the back. "Did he say anything else?"

"No, no... I sort of ran off after he told me," Amity admitted. "I can't process this, I... I need..."

"A healthy distraction?" Luz suggested.

"Like King suggested for you?" Hunter observed.

"Quiet, peanut gallery," Luz deadpanned.

"A distraction..." Amity mused... Yeah, something that would keep her occupied all day. She could deal with this mess later. Tomorrow. Today, she'd... "Like entering the Brawl?"

"If that's what you want to do," Luz replied, "then let's do it."

This was going so much better than Amity had expected. In the ring, no one else had stood a chance against 'The Might Mittens.' Not when she had her wits, her grit, and her Preciosa amada acting as both her personal cheering section and patching her up after each match.

Honestly, the hardest part was... Luz had briefly considered entering the brawl herself but realized Amity would need someone to heal her and decided to fill the role herself which naturally precluded being a competitor... But she'd already assembled a combat outfit, involving fingerless gloves, a sports jacket Eda had gifted Luz which the older witch had gotten from her days as the star of Hexside's grudgby team, and messing up her hair a little bit which had, well... Gotten Amity's heart racing even as Luz began to gush over how "pretty" the outfit Amity had assembled out of some of Eda's unsold human clothes was.

Amity had been quite pleased when Luz had elected not to change out of the "Spellraiser" outfit despite no longer planning to compete.

The tournament was winding down, and only the final round remained. If she won here, if she beat this one last opponent, then she'd be the Champion. She'd bring home the belt. Just like her Dad.

An alarm tone went off and Amity turned to Luz as the bad feelings Luz had been radiating earlier pulsed again. "What was that?"

"Nothing, just... Just a reminder for the thing," Luz dismissed. "It's totally not a big deal, just... Focus on winning right now, Mi campeona para ser."

"Are you sure?" Amity asked.

"Yeah," Luz insisted. "Look, it looks like they're getting ready for the last match," Luz said while pointing to the ring. "Go get'em, Hermosa," Luz commanded while planting a kiss on Amity's cheek.

Semi-Reluctantly, Amity marched off to take her position.

Breathe in, breathe out. Luz was fine. Luz knew well that if she had problems she could just tell Amity. She had this match in the bag. She'd win. She'd get her belt. Then she could spend the rest of the afternoon with Luz, and focus on her own problems tomorrow.

"For the final round!" the announcer declared, "we have the fresh young competitor who has won the assorted organs of the crowd with her tenacity, I present the Mighty Mittens!"

The crowd cheered for her. It wasn't the first time she'd been cheered on by a crowd, but it was the first time where it was both all for her and something she could be proud of. And as such, she made her entrance with pride.

"And her opponent," the announcer continued, "our reigning champion... The mighty... the muscular... the menacing... Warden Wrath!"

Wrath entered the arena, in his work uniform sans mask, and made a show of handing last year's belt off to one of the coven guards who worked with him, who seemed to be his entourage for the event. He then exhaled a gout of fire into the air as he took his position.

Again the crowd cheered, though a very deep voice "Go Daddy!" cut through much of the generic cheering indicating that Braxas was here. A sweet kid, despite who his father was, Amity adjusted her plans to make sure she didn't beat Wrath too badly if his son was watching and... What was that?

From where she left Luz, not even a second after Braxas had shouted... All of the bad feelings that had been radiation off of Luz all day just spiked tenfold and weren't going down. From the corner of her eye, Amity saw Luz suddenly bolt for the woods.

"And... Begin!" The announcer shouted, snapping Amity's attention back to the fight.

Amity's first thought was to forfeit, it was pretty clear that Luz was not okay, and addressing that was more important than some stupid belt. There was always next year.

However, just as she opened her mouth to announce her surrender she was tackled to the ground by a very large biped demon who was clearly expecting to earn his victory... But Amity's priorities had changed and the fact that she had to do this the hard way made her blood and bile boil.

She transformed, and with a single slimey punch sent Wrath flying off over her and then deformed and reformed herself to get up before shifting back to flesh just in time to see the demon land... Outside of the ring. Well, okay then.

"...Mother of Titan was that fast," the announcer declared. "It seems that our New Champion was saving her A-Game for the final round! Witches and Demons, winning by ring out, I present our new Champion the Mighty Mittens."

She was presented with this year's championship belt and was made to take a picture with it held above her head before it was fitted to her and then the crowd swarmed the ring as people congratulated her. From the corner of her eye, she saw Warth get up and she could have sworn she heard him say 'I'll get you next year,' before grabbing his son and stalking off but all she wanted to do was get done with this...

Eventually, she got fed up with it enough to summon Ghost and fly off. People would probably talk about that, but whatever was wrong with Luz was more important.

Following the feelings Luz was leading off like a beacon, Amity eventually found her sitting back against a tree in a clearing and landed so that she could walk up to her.

Luz looked up and very quickly wiped tears from her eyes. "H-hey Amity. S-sorry for running off like that. I got something in my eye and didn't want to make a scene," Luz shakily lied through her teeth. She looked at Amity's waist and saw the championship belt. "Oh, great. You won," she tried to congratulate. "I knew you could do it."

"I had to, Wrath wouldn't let me quit."

"Why would you quit?" Luz asked while suddenly adding panic to the bad feelings radiating off of her.

Amity sighed. "Luz, what's wrong?"

"Nothing," Luz insisted.

"Luz," Amity began. "My ab... My mutant power," with how.. Uncomfortable Amity was and, to a degree, still was with the revelation that witches were a subset of humans and that the official history of the origin of her species was wrong, well, admitting that she was one of these mutants would probably drive home exactly how serious she as right now. "You've been feeling bad all day, I know you have, and you've been acting a little off all day. I tried to ignore it because you said you were okay, but you're clearly not. You don't have to tell me what the problem is if you don't want to," Amity reassured while thinking back to how Luz didn't pry about Boscha the other day. "But I know that there is a problem, and I want to help, so please be honest with me."

Luz sighed. "Okay. You're right, I just... There's not really anything anyone can do and I didn't want people to worry." She took out her phone and handed it to Amity. "Check the alert."

Amity did so and got a message that read 'Gravesfield Graveyard with Mom, 5 PM.'

"It happened a long time ago and, it's totally not a big deal but... today is the anniversary of the day that," Luz began only for something to catch in her throat. "The day that my Dad... Passed away."

Amity was stunned, and could only look at Luz with a feeling of horror that that was what Luz had been trying to downplay all day.

"When, when he was alive, my Dad would always give me and my mom flowers on our birthdays," Luz continued. "And, after he.... died, Mami and I would... Pick flowers and visit his grave and spend the day together but... I'm not with her, and I don't have any flowers." Luz swallowed. "And... I called my Mom this morning, and... She understands that this isn't my fault, and she says that Papi would understand but... That doesn't make me feel better."

"...Luz, I'm sorry," Amity said after a moment. "I just came in and dumped my problems on you when..."

"No," Luz said with a sniff. "Your problems are just as important as mine. And I wanted to help you, especially after what you said about, wanting to be like your dad, to have that... If I can't have that connection with my Dad, I want to make sure you can have it with yours..."

"I appreciate that," Amity replied, "but you have a bad habit of putting others before yourself." Like right now. Amity's parents might be splitting up but... In comparison... "If you want to help me, the best thing you can do is let me help you."

"There's not anything you can do, Amity," Luz answered. "I just... I need to keep busy is all."

"There's plenty I can do," Amity insisted. She animated Ghost and then sat down next to Luz. Pulling her girlfriend into optimal cuddle-while-sitting position, she beckoned Ghost to hop up on Luz's lap. "Summon Stringbean."

"Okay." Luz dutifully summoned her staff and allowed the palisman atop it to animate. Immediately the snake floated up to Luz's face and gave a concerned rattle. "I'm fine, Beany," Luz replied. "Just having a bad day."

Stringbean, being a good palisman, clearly did not believe a word Luz said. She quickly assumed an otter-like form and joined Ghost in snuggling up on Luz's lap.

"Okay," Amity began. "Luz... You're so strong, in so many ways. In a lot of ways you're stronger than I could ever be."

"Amity...?" Luz replied a little bashfully.

"But one thing I've learned from you... It's that you don't have to be strong all the time," Amity finished. "That it's okay to be yourself, to let yourself be vulnerable, to... Feel. If anything is a good reason for you to be... Not okay, this is. You don't have to bottle it all up."

"...I don't want people to worry," Luz replied. "I mean, it's not a—"

"It is a big deal," Amity interrupted. "You wouldn't be hurting this much if it wasn't. And we worry because we love you." This wasn't working, she needed to change strategies. "Tell me more about your dad."

Luz sniffed again. "He... He was always supportive. He was quick to praise my art, he taught me how to draw all sorts of things, and he was always willing to listen when I wanted to talk."

"He sounds like he was a great dad," Amity replied.

"Yeah. He.. He was an EMT with paramedic training," Luz continued. "That um... He drove an ambulance. Do you know what that is? It's kind of like the rescue griffins that take people to the healing coven. He and his partner would drive out to emergencies, give emergency care to people who get hurt or really, really sick all of a sudden, and take them to the hospital for more treatment. My Dad saved lives. He saved people. He was a hero. He was my hero."

Amity raked her fingers through Luz's hair. "He reminds me of someone."

"But then he got sick," Luz said. "Leukemia, er, blood cancer." Amity briefly flashed back to that day in the human realm, when Luz swore when talking about that country that was hoarding a cure for cancer. "He was fighting though. He was determined to get better. We even moved to Gravesfield to be closer to a hospital that specialized in this kind of thing. Things were looking up, he was having more and more good days, but then..." Luz swallowed. "Not long after we moved, he... Got worse really suddenly. I got home just as the ambulance was taking him away. I'll always remember the siren."

Amity held Luz closer. "Luz..."

"We all thought that he had a good chance. That he'd have more time... But... Mom says that his last words were for her to tell me that he loved me," Luz continued, "but... I never got to say goodbye. He... Right before he got worse, before he died, he got me a book he thought I'd like... Azura. And he was right, I loved it and... It really helped me get through those first few weeks when I just wanted to cry all the time but... I miss my Dad, Amity."

Whatever resistance Luz was putting up crumbled and she started crying freely at that point. Amity just held her tight. "It's okay. Just let it out."

And Luz did. She cried, while Amity held her and their palismen did their best to act as comfort animals. Steadily, as she cried, the bad feelings radiating off of Luz dimmed. They didn't go away, but by the time Luz was out of tears to shed there was some noticeable improvement.

"Sorry to go to pieces on you," Luz said while wiping her eyes.

"You have nothing to apologize for," Amity insisted.

"I wish you could have met him," Luz continued. "I think... No, I know he would have liked you."

They sat there, together, for a time until they were interrupted. Without warning an abomiton stumbled into the clearing. It glanced at the girls and then produced a light and siren that clearly distressed Luz as she covered her ears and closed her eyes.

Amity stood to deal with it, to send it away or something, when more slime appeared in the clearing and erupted revealing her father appearing in a burst of abomination teleportation.

"There you are!" He declared with... More emotion than she was used to hearing from him. "Mittens, you can't just... Run off like that."

"I'm sorry," Amity said even though she really wasn't, "but can we have this talk later? I'm sort of in the middle of something."

"No," he said sternly. "This... When you ran off this morning, I thought you just needed time. I came looking for you after an hour to see if you were ready to talk but... you weren't in your room. Or anywhere else in the house. Or the library. I even went to Edalyn's house but the... A disturbingly powerful house demon said no one was home. I called the twins, we searched the town, and Emira said she saw you at the Bones..." It was then that he noticed the champion belt she was wearing. "You won the Brawl... My desire to chastise your recklessness is now struggling against my paternal pride."

"Go with pride!" Luz shouted from behind them.

"...I needed a distraction," Amity insisted. "And... I've always wanted to enter and maybe bring home the belt. I... I wanted to be like you."

"...Amity, you are like me, in a lot of ways," her Dad replied. "You don't need a belt for that... But, in a lot of ways, you're also like your mother." That hurt to hear. "The way she used to be. Which, brings me back to this morning... I can't let her make you into what she is now."

"...What?"

"...Your mother loves us, in her own way... Or at least she did once," her Dad explained. "I... I have to believe that. But the way she shows it... When you ran away, it was a wake-up call. I talked with Odalia, because we needed to change things but... It became clear, over time, with how she was acting that... She didn't want to. And that's not even getting into the incident with that red fellow." Her dad mumbled something bitterly. "I managed to get her to make a fe concession, to try and... Be a better family, but recently she's gone back on them and... I overheard her talking about a 'New Business Partner.' I think she's seeing someone else already."

"...Oh," was all Amity could say.

"...And then the twins approached me in my lab one day," he continued. "About some... reading they had been doing, ever since Edalyn told us what she'd learned about the necklace your mother made you wear. About... Just how harmful Odalia's behavior was and how... Amity. I know that I haven't been the best father, and I'm sorry. I'm trying to be better."

He awkwardly extended a hand, as if to shake on it... But Amity hugged him instead. "It's a start."

Her dad hugged her back and continued. "I confronted Odalia the other day, while you were at school, and... It was awkward and we had a rather loud argument but... When I was finished making my point, Odalia conceded that it would be for the best if... We agreed that ending the marriage amicably might be the best thing for our family. We, we don't want this to disrupt the day-to-day lives you and the twins are leading, so you'll be staying with me in Blight Manor, while Odalia moves to a house in Latissa that she inherited from her parents. At this point, we're mostly talking about decoupling assets but... This shouldn't affect you any more than it has to."

"Okay," Amity acknowledged. This... Wasn't as bad as she thought or... Maybe she just had more perspective now.

"There will, however, be a slight change to your inheritance," her Dad continued.

"I don't care about that."

"Still, I just want you to know," Alador continued, "you're still your mother's sole heir, but in going over our assets I realized that we somehow completely neglected to arrange for the twins to get anything. They said they don't mind you getting everything, but I still set some of the Blight Estate's liquid assets into trust funds for them. Better late than never."

"And that's fine," Amity replied. Even a fraction of the estate would be enough to... Well, it'd be enough to make sure that she and Luz were taken care of no matter what when they were grown up.

The hug came to an end and her Dad looked back to where Luz was sitting. "Is she alright?"

"She's... Having a bad day, too," Amity explained. "It's... Really personal, but the gist of it is she was neglecting her problems to focus on mine and it sort of came to a head."

Her father hummed. "I take it that you'll be staying at Edalyn's again tonight?"

"Probably."

"Alright then." He then addressed Luz directly. "Um... Luz, right?" he began. "You've been very good for Amity, and I want you to know that you are always welcome in our home... In fact, why don't you come over tomorrow night? Paternal pride has managed to win out and I'm thinking we'll have a special dinner to celebrate Amity's victory."

"Sounds great," Luz answered.

"Alright, I'll... Mittens, before I leave you two alone, are you alright?"

"I'll be okay," Amity replied honestly.

"Alright then. I'll... See you when you get home tomorrow... Are fairy pies still your favorite?"

"Yeah, but we should probably do something else," Amity noted. "We can go over it tomorrow."

Her father left with the Abomiton and Amity returned to her seat next to Luz.

"Are you okay?" Amity asked her girlfriend.

"Yeah, I think so... Er, I will be," Luz replied. "Thanks, Amity. I... We should probably get out of the woods before it gets dark." Just then, Luz's phone rang. "Huh, I get reception this far from the portal?"

Answering, it turned out to be a video call from Camila. "Hola, mija," Luz's mother greeted. "Oh, and hola Amity."

"Hey Mom."

"Hola, Señora Noceda"

"Luz, I know I said that your Papi would understand that you can't make it but... That's not good enough for you, is it?"

"No," Luz admitted.

"I figured. But then, the thought occurred to me... Just because you're not here, that doesn't mean you can't be here," Camila then moved the phone so that the camera revealed a headstone that read 'Manny Noceda, a loving father and husband' with what Amity suspected were his dates' of death and birth based on the human calendar.

Vee was also present, in her human disguise, arranging flowers over the grave. "Is this good, Mama?"

"It's perfect, Vee."

Luz started tearing up again. "Thanks, Mom," she said with a sniff.

"Do you want some privacy?" Amity asked.

"No" Luz insisted. "Stay."

"Yes, stay. You're family, too. Sé que a Manny le hubiera encantado conocer al alma gemela de nuestra hija."

Chapter Text

"Okay, so first we need to cut the onions," Amity explained. "As finely as you can."

Luz pealed and began chopping the onions that had been laid out for her. "So why did you pick this recipe?"

"Well, I don't know what your experience with cooking is," Amity explained, "and this is simple enough. Also... After the other day, I figured some comfort food might be a good idea."

"I have a little experience," Luz said. "Mostly helping my Mom... oooh! Maybe when we get the portal working again, I can ask her about teaching you how to make empanadas?"

"I'd like that."

"Okay, I'm done chopping," Luz said. "Now what."

"Now carefully pour the onions into the mixing bowl with the bread crumbs and the ground Khalkotaur." Luz did so and Amity continued. "Next pour in the garlic powder, boiling sea salt, black pepper, and newt's eye mustard powder that I premeasured for you."

Luz added in the spices and Amity walked over to the Blight Manor's kitchen's refrigerator and returned with a single griffin egg and a carton of milk.

"Now this is koi milk," Amity explained. "It's made from these weird protein-rich fatty legumes that grow near koi ponds up on the swampy toes. The recipe typically uses just regular dairy milk, but this doesn't have lactose. Crack in the egg and then pour in that molasses," she said while pointing to an egg cup of black syrup, "I'll measure out some milk."

Luz did as instructed, and then Amity handed her a measuring cup with the milk, which she poured in with little prompting.

"Anything else to add?" Luz asked.

"Nope," Amity said while handing Luz a large wooden spoon. "Now stir to combine. Try to mix it as much as you can."

Again, Luz followed her girlfriend's instructions and stirred to combine the ingredients. She really put her back into it and after a few minutes, she had a dense meat slurry. "Okay, I think this is as good as I can get it."

"That looks exactly right," Amity confirmed. "The next step is to move it into the loaf pan and try to shape it into a log-like shape."

Luz once more did as she was told and, once that was done the pan was placed in the preheated oven. "Okay, now what?"

"Now?" Amity began, "Now we make the gravy."

"Alright, how do we do that?" Luz asked.

Amity gave a smug smirk, then with a flick of her wrist produced a packet of powdered gravy mix from inside her sleeve. "There are all kinds of ways to make gravy and even different definitions of the word but this is what I like best."

"Really?" Luz asked.

"When I first found this recipe it said to use your favorite brown gravy, but that was back when I was first learning to cook so I took a shortcut the first time," Amity explained. "The next couple of times I experimented but... Nothing worked out quite as well as the first time so I went back to the instant mix... Also, my mother hates 'poor people food' so, you know..."

Luz laughed but then had a thought. "Speaking of, how are you holding up?"

"It's... an adjustment," Amity admitted. "But... Not as big a deal as I thought. Mom moved out for good last night, she's in a hotel in town until she and Dad finish going over the assets but she should be moving to that house in Latissa sometime next week." Her parents had apparently inherited it from her maternal grandparents, who Amity had never met, but they'd never really found a use for it. "Before she left she told me that everything she did was for me and that I'd thank her someday but she understands that now going away is for the best and... I feel like if she meant that, though, she would have told me she loved me... I can't remember her ever saying that."

Luz immediately moved to hug her girlfriend. "You okay? You know I can pick up bad feelings, so... If I can't lie to you about that sort of thing you can't lie to me."

Amity snorted. "Yeah, I'm fine. Okay, this is a pretty simple thing to do, the instructions are on the packet but there is something I do to punch it up a little. I'll let you decide if we do that this time though."

Luz read the instructions and then poured the measured out some water into a saucepan and set it on the stove to boil. "So, what do you do to punch it up?"

"Usually, when it comes time to add the mix to the water," Amity began as she reached into a cabinet, "I also throw in about half a teaspoon of my homemade skullapeño salt." Amity then withdrew a small sealed jar filled with coarse salt and just barely visible bits of dried and powdered peppers.

"Okay, yeah, let's do it!" Luz agreed.

Once the gravy was done, they had a moment to talk. "So, um, how are you doing?" Amity asked. "With your studies? Learned any new spells?"

"Oh, yeah. Phillip might have been a jerk but now that I know he used glyphs I realize he had a couple of designs hidden away in his diary and I found even more," Luz added. "I was experimenting with combos a bit this morning... One of them is for petrification," Luz said with a wince. "Yikes... One's also for this reddish goopy monster arm spell that's... A lot like a spell that Belos used. When I fought him."

Amity winced herself. "Oh."

"I have two theories," Luz continued. "One is that Lilith was right, he's a symbiote or a hybrid like me that somehow ended up here on the Isles. He found the glyphs too, and either eating palismen lets him cast glyph spells he nows without drawing them like when I borrowed Owlbert, or else he's absorbed Titan Blood."

"But, if the Glyphs came from the Titan..." Amity began.

"In my dream," Luz continued, "the Titan said he let me find the glyphs... Because he wanted me to have a fair chance to learn magic, but he also said I found the plant glyph on my own. And Phillip found the glyphs, but he's a total jerk. He did say it took him a long time to find them all, though, and he learned the Light Glyph from me... So Belos could have found them, too," Luz concluded.

"Okay, that makes sense," Amity admitted.

"My other theory is that it's just a big coincidence," Luz admitted. "Hunter says that a lot of glyph spells are similar to advanced elemental magics from the Savage ages. Most witches haven't delved all that deep into elemental magic since the main nine were discovered and fleshed out and that was doubled down on when Belos declared all the more advanced elemental spells wild magic. It'd make sense for a tyrannical cult leader to not want anyone else to be able to do what he can do."

"It's probably that one," Amity insisted.

"Yeah, probably," Luz agreed.

Just then, Edric and Emira entered the kitchen. "Mittens, there you are. You won't believe what—Oh, hey Luz," Emira greeted.

"Hey Em, hey Ed," Luz greeted back. "Amity's teaching me her meatloaf recipe."

"Speaking of which, it's time to check on that," Amity said. "Do you know how to use a meat thermometer?"

"Yeah," Luz confirmed.

Checking that the meatloaf was brown and that it was the correct internal temperature, the next step was to carefully pour the gravy over the meatloaf so that it was pulled over with the excess gravy welling up around it before putting it back in the oven to finish cooking.

"Okay, now what is it I won't believe?" Amity asked her brother and sister.

"So Dad asked us to oversee the abomination butler packing up Mom's office," Edric began, "and um... We found a hidden cabinet in the wall that was just filled with junk food."

"...What?" Amity asked.

"Like, all the stuff she gets mad at us for eating," Emira continued. "A bunch of different candies, Hex Mix, those cupcakes with the cream filling that are 'loaded down with enough preservation potions that not even a trash slug could digest them.'"

"Those chips you like," Edric added. "Not the skullapeño ones specifically but like, that brand."

"Poor people food," the twins finished together.

"That absolute hypocrite," Amity observed with... Not an angry laugh, but not a happy one either. More resigned than anything else. "She didn't have a secret minifridge full of pizza bagels, did she"

"No," Emira denied. "We checked."

"Whatever she has against those, she's honest about it," Edric added. "Unless they're hidden somewhere else in the house."

"But still, she's so obsessive about eating all that fancy, expensive garbage that comes in these tiny portions..." Emira noted.

"...But only a little bit, not the three to seven courses that stuff like that is supposed to come in," Edric continued, "or you know, even the good version of that stuff half the time."

"And then she goes and eats junk food behind all our backs," Emita finished.

"You know," Luz chimed in, "I remember reading somewhere that when it comes to things like wine or liquor, rich people who are comfortable or confident in their wealth will mostly just drink what they like even if it's the cheap stuff but people who feel the need to flaunt their wealth will make a big show of getting the fanciest and most expensive stuff even if it tastes like a sick moose peed in a glass of spoiled juice."

"Luz," Amity said with a sigh, "I love you but that is not a mental image I needed right before eating."

"Sorry."

"What's a moose?" Edric asked.

Luz proceeded to describe the animal to Amity's elder brother and soon after the meatloaf was done.

After checking it over again, which revealed that much of the gravy had been absorbed into the loaf ("That's supposed to happen," Amity reassured,) the dish was left to rest for a moment and then portioned out.

Luz stared at hers, nervously. Unable to eat. Had her attempt lived up to Amity's standards?

Seemingly unaware of Luz's turmoil, Amity took a fork to a piece and raised it to her mouth. She chewed it for a moment, a thoughtful expression on her face, before swallowing. "You did perfect, Batata."

Chapter Text

Luz woke up, confused about where she was... It was like, the floor of some kind of museum. It was dark, and there were paintings everywhere.

"Where am I?"

"Somewhere we really don't want to be," came Hunter's voice.

Looking over to him... Okay, yeah, it was coming back to her. They had to make a trip to the night market so Eda could pick up enough witch's wool to make a little cloak for King. They went as a group for security, since 1: Night market and 2: The closer it got to the day of unity the more coven scouts were in town, and 3: Hunter was getting stir crazy. In the dark, it was determined that it'd be fine if he had a hood, so...

"Okay, um... Last I remember you pointed out a squad of coven scouts moving in an 'emergency apprehension' formation..."

"Where-in the squad is in an active attempt to apprehend potentially dangerous criminals believed to be actively committing treason and who may be armed," Hunter explained.

"And you remembered that um, our older friends," Raine, Eberwolf, and Darius, "were doing something in town, and even though I told you I promised Eda that I wouldn't do stuff like that you insisted on checking it out." Luz was really, really worried about how Eda was going to react. "We ended up getting into a fight with the scouts just as they were declaring an arrest, which let our... Friends escape," never mention the rebels by name outside the privacy of the Owl House. At least not in their capacity as rebels. "Then um.. I sort of got thrown into a ritual circle and something broke, and now we're here. But um... where is here?"

"Judging by the portraits," Hunter explained, "we're in the Emperor's mind."

"That's bananas!"

"I don't know what those are."

Luz blinked. "But... The demon realm has bananas. I've seen you eating one."

"What?"

"The long, curved fruit with the peal and the stem at the end you pull to peal it?" Luz asked rhetorically.

"...There are clearly gaps in my education," Hunter admitted neutrally.

Luz pulled the jacket Eda gave her tighter around herself, feeling admittedly unsafe at the moment. "Okay, how do we get out."

"...We don't," Hunter replied. "Mindscape traversal spells are tricky and are almost always cast on a third party. Getting us out would require whoever cast the spell in the first place to take us out and..."

Well, odds were that meant that Darius, Eber, and the BATTS were probably already working on it. Or at the very least had told Eda so she could work on it.

A walky-talky that Luz and King had been playing with earlier went off, Eda's voice coming through. "Luz? Are you there? Can you hear me?"

"Yeah. I hear you... Um, before you get mad, um... Caleb—"

"I'm the one who ran off and I more or less dragged her behind me," Hunter interrupted in his subservient soldier voice. "I take full responsibility."

"Look, we'll worry about that later," Eda continued. "Do you know where you are?"

"In the Emperor's mind," Luz replied.

Eda responded with a string of words that made Luz hope desperately that King wasn't with her. "Okay, we can get you out, but it's gonna be tough and we're going to have to scrounge up a power source. Sit tight, try not to get dragged into Bonehead's subconsciousness, and whatever you do don't get caught by his Inner Self. I'll check in on you in a little bit." There were assorted animal noises that Luz couldn't make out. "Oh, and Owlbert says that your respective palismen love you and are currently plotting regicide. Well, Stringbean is. He's trying to calm her down but..."

"So, um, Caleb," Luz said using the suspiciously familiar fake name that Flapjack had given Hunter, "what's an inner self?"

"Well, in a healthy mind, the inner self is... A second you that exists in the mindscape," Hunter explained. "It's sort of a gestalt embodiment of instinct and emotion... But, for all intents and purposes, Inner Emperor Belos would be Emperor Belos... And if he finds us, the Real Emperor will gain conscious awareness and even a degree of control of what's happening in the mindscape."

"...That sounds bad," Luz admitted.

Just then, Luz heard what sounded like a young boy's laughter.

Down the hall was what appeared to be a young boy, dressed in old clothes and a wooden version of Belos's mask. He just... Appeared all of a sudden.

"Is um... That the Inner Belos?" Luz asked.

"Not unless he has absolute perfect control of his mindscape," Hunter replied. "And the only place you could learn how to do that burned down in the Deadwardian era. All records were lost. He's old, but he's not that old."

"So what is he then?"

"Probably a manifestation of a strong, deep-seated emotion?" Hunter guessed. "Maybe... Guilt?" He said hesitatingly. "He um... Made a lot of sacrifices to get to where he is now."

Hunter still hadn't fully accepted that his uncle was evil but acknowledging that he had things to be guilty about was a good start.

"So what do we do now?" Luz asked only to realize that the mini-Belos had walked up to her while Hunter was explaining and was now tugging on her sleeve as if to tell her to follow him. "Um..."

"We die. We die horribly or otherwise end up in deep trouble."

Turning to see what Hunter was talking about, Luz saw that he was looking behind them at a silhouette that strongly resembled Belos with his mask on. However, as the figure approached Luz started picking up negativity from it on her ESP.

...But it wasn't like one person's emotions. It was... Countless. Almost too many. But, Luz could just barely make out sadness, grief, concern... For her and Hunter... And fear, loathing, for... The child.

"That's not the Inner Belos," Luz said.

"What else could it be?" Hunter asked.

Luz, not wanting to risk giving away all that she was capable of, reached into her pocket and drew out a pre-drawn light glyph. Activating it and sending the ball of light over toward the figure, it was revealed to be a monstrous horned figure vaguely resembling a skeleton composed of disgusting, rotten-looking green slime. And throughout its body with the faces of small animals.

"Wait, I recognize some of those," Hunter said with dawning horror. "Are those... Palismen?"

"Get away," came the fearful warning of dozens of whispering voices. "Before it's too late."

"I think so," Luz admitted. "They must be like, the souls of all the Palismen Belos ever ate all mashed up into one or something. Which means..."

The hand tugging on Luz's sleeve suddenly grabbed her by the wrist. And was much bigger. Turning back around the child had been replaced by the form of the actual adult Belos. She'd seen his face reveal at the Coven Day parade but up close the nasty green scar across his face was especially disgusting.

"Those vile creatures have been a thorn in my side for far too long," Belos lamented. "I had a whole game of cat and mouse planned out, but I guess it's partly my fault. I suppose old biases die hard, as much as I want to think I'm better than that. I won't underestimate your intellect again, Luzura."

"It's just Luz," she corrected. Luzura was her... Admittedly rather uncreatively named Azura SI. She'd used the name when she and King were writing but the only time she'd ever seriously introduced herself by that name was to... "No..." But, it all made sense. What Hunter said about the 'last time' Belos was in the human realm or, just now when he said that the only place he could have learned how to... Do what he's doing was lost in the Deadwardian... "No."

"Figured it out?" Belos asked rhetorically. "In truth, it took me quite a while to piece it together myself. I wouldn't learn about Time Pools myself for a few more years, and I wouldn't know for certain until I absentmindedly asked Hunter about a book I'd caught him reading. His comments about your reaction to Titan's Blood confirmed it."

"No, no no no no," Luz said while pulling her arm free and backing away.

"Speaking of," Belos said while turning to Hunter. "I'm so disappointed in you," he declared in a sinister tone.

Hunter immediately started shaking and the fear coming off of him almost outweighed that of the amalgamated palismen. "I... I'm sorry, Uncle," he said while trying not to stutter through his soldier voice.

Before Belos could respond to Hunter, the palisman-creature behind them struck the floor, causing it to break away and making Luz and Hunter fall through.

After falling for a little too long, the teens hit the ground in the clearing of a dark forest. "Okay, now where are we?" Luz asked while sitting up.

"...Not Uncle's subconscious," Hunter said while clearly trying to regain his composure. "We'd... It'd be chaotic in there. This is probably a deeper layer of consciousness and... Huh, the portraits here are a lot less stylized."

It was then that Luz noticed the trees all had what looked like... "They kind of look like memory photos," she observed.

"The basic principle behind memory photos is similar to mind-walking spells," Hunter explained. "If we wanted to, we could even see his memories, exactly as he first experienced them... Huh, here's one of you and Lilith."

Luz moved to where Hunter was standing and saw that he was right. That was her and Lilith... In the Titan's skull. Back in the Deadwardian Era. Luz poked the picture, saw her finger phase through it, and then stuck her face in it.

There she was, talking to Phillip Wittebane as he wrote something in his diary with Lilith solving a puzzle door in the background.

"Philip, why did you bring us here?" Memory Luz said.

"I needed a sacrifice," he replied nonchalantly.

Luz pulled herself back out of the memory. She didn't need to see the rest.

As she was processing that shattering revelation, the walky-talky crackled to life again. "Luz, checking in, are you still there?" came Eda's voice.

"Yeah."

"Okay, we've got a plan," Eda declared. "We're working on it now, are—"

"Eda, Belos saw us," Luz interrupted. "We only got away because like, all the palismen he ate are in here too, and they saved us, and, and... Eda, Belos is Philip!"

"...The dead jerk?"

"Not dead, but yeah!" Luz confirmed. "I don't know how, but..."

"Okay, kid, breathe. We're gonna get you out of there. Just... Try to stay safe."

Another voice came on after Eda. It was distorted, but the cadence was familiar. "Luz?" came what she suspected was Raine. "I know you're scared, but I have an important job I need you to do. While you're in the emperor's mind, try to find any information you can on what it is he wants to use the draining spell to achieve. Why he's willing to risk killing nearly every witch and demon on the Isles to achieve his goal."

A horrible realization dawned on Luz. "That is the goal!"

"What!?"

"Philip Wittebane was a witch hunter!" Luz shouted into the device. "A, a sociopathic, hypocritical religious fanatic devoted to condemning and executing people for 'conspiring with wicked spirits' or harming people with magic on spectral evidence because they're different, because they're a convenient scapegoat for the witch hunter's problems, or because the witch hunter felt like it! When Aunt Lilith and I went back to the Deadwardian era he was manipulating people into helping him while actively setting them up to die because he hated witches so much, he, he...Who does the draining spell target?"

"...Everyone on the Isles with a coven sigil."

Luz glanced at Hunter, who glanced back at her before pulling back his sleeve and looking at his own sigil. The realization was chilling. Belos had fully intended for Hunter to die, and... If they couldn't stop his evil plans, if Luz couldn't burn her sigil out, then...

"Okay. It's fine. We just have to stay calm," Luz insisted. "We... We just... This isn't my first apocalypse," she said. "First one I've been involved in, but..."

"Oh, you're more than involved," came a disturbingly British voice from behind them. Turing, there was Belos again. "I never could have come close to pulling this off if it wasn't for your help, Luzura."

Luz responded by blasting him with the fire-conjuring spell, grabbing Hunter by the wrist, and bolting.

She ran until she was out of breath and then ran a little more, sure that by the time she was forced to stop they were far away from inner Belos.

"What did he mean," Hunter asked between breaths, "your help?"

"In, in the past," Luz explained. "I um... Lilith and I sort of got conned into helping him find something called the Collector's mirror but... He has to be bluffing," she finished uncertainly. The last archivist wasn't a threat. The Titan said so. "So um, while we're here, let's see if we can learn anything else about his evil plans—that looks promising!" she said while pointing to a random picture of what looked like Belos in some kind of lab.

Reluctantly, Hunter followed her and they entered the memory finding Belos leaning over a table of some sort. Moving around the memory to get a better look was something Luz immediately regretted. On the table was what appeared to be a humanlike skeleton that had been picked apart at some point. Belos almost absentmindedly grabbed a small bone from it and laid it on a sheet of some disturbingly organic material along with the lungs of a massive creature, an opaque crystal sphere of some kind, and what Luz recognized as a large shard of palistrom wood before folding the material around them and... That was... selkidomus hide?

Then another figure appeared. A shadow in the wall, a crescent moon for half its face, pajama-like robes... It was like a stylized, two-dimensional version of what the Titan had shown her when talking about the archivists, and, looking closer Luz saw The Collector's mirror on the table, propped up against the wall.

"Philip, I'm bored," they said in a childlike voice. "Are you ever gonna let me out so we can play?"

"Now, now, Collector," Belos chastised as he finished tying up the bundle, "you know I can't let you out until after the draining spell and the eclipse I need to cast it won't be for over a decade."

"Draining spell this, draining spell that," The Collector complained. "I wish I'd never taught you that spell."

And that froze Luz's blood. If... If Belos had learned the draining spell from The Collector, and he only had The Collector because of Luz then...

"Ooh! Are you making another Grimwalker?" The Collector asked, the memory continuing to play uncaring of Luz's personal crisis. "You break the last one?"

"Yes. Hunter became too interested in the well-being of the young Abomination specialist, oh, what's his name? He was prioritizing that apprenticeship over his loyalty to me, and such treachery can't be tolerated."

"...What?" Hunter asked. "I... How?"

"Are you going to name this one Hunter, too?" The Collector asked. "I'm not gonna lie, I don't get what's so funny about that."

"What else would I name a witch hunter?" Belos mused. "Now, maybe if I create one as a small child and raise him properly he'll be more loyal than the others." Belos then walked to a plot of soil and began to bury the bundle. "Someone else will have to be head of The Emperor's Coven in the interim... Perhaps Lilith? I know she'll end up as Luzura's 'aunt' by some means, but until then it never hurts to keep a close eye on someone."

"...That... That's me," Hunter said while staring at the bundle. "That's... He's not my uncle he, made me in some kind of ritual. I... What am I? What's a grimwalker?"

"A homunculus in the image of a deceased person," came the voice of Belos from behind them. "A galdorstone provides power for the ritual and becomes the grimwalker's heart. Palistrom wood takes the role of keratin: skin, hair, nails, the lining of glands and organs, and numerous other structures in the body. " Terrified, the teens turned to face Belos as he continued. "The remaining aspects of the grimwalker's flesh and organs are derived from selkidomus scales and stone sleeper lungs. A bone of ortet, the deceased individual, is cultured to form the skeleton and gives proper shape to the grimwalker. It's a shame," Belos finished almost sadly, "out of all the grimwalkers, you were the most like him."

"...Caleb," Luz asked. Keep him talking, stall for time, find an opening, and... Darn it why didn't she have any coffee today? "Your brother. Caleb Wittebane."

Belos turned and focused on her intently. "Well well well, someone's done her homework. Tell me, how did you learn that name? I presumed that it was from my diary that you learned I existed at all, but... I never wrote about Caleb."

"I, I'm from Gravesfield," Luz answered. "Just like you," she further explained while trying to keep her non-magical bile down. "I... Everyone knows the legend of the Brothers Wittebane," she said, ignoring that she'd never been filled in until Masha told her. "Who came to town as orphaned children, who became witch hunters, how the elder brother was spirited away by a witch and the younger brother gave chase never to be seen again. There's a statue of the two of you in the town square. It's... I have a friend who would give their right hand to be able to solve the mystery."

Belos laughed and if it weren't for the horror of the situation they were in you could almost mistake him for a kindly grandfather with the tone and posture he took. "It's good to know that after all this time we haven't been forgotten. I imagine I'll receive quite a warm welcome when I finally return home."

"Yeah... There's just one thing I don't know," Luz continued while Hunter, having caught on to what she was doing, began to sneak around and grabbed the staff of Memory-Belos, which was leaning against a wall. "What... What happened to Caleb?"

Belos took on a grim expression. "That damnable jezebel Evelyn happened! She ensorcelled Caleb with her wicked spells and led him away into this perdition. But, I was able to grab some meager supplies before they left and chance after them, though I was unable to keep up with them between her own staff and the palisman she tempted Caleb with. If I ever see that detestable cardinal again it'll beg me to devour its essence by the time I'm done with it..." That made Hunter flinch. "It took me years to find him and by then her seduction and corruption of my brother was complete. He'd even laid with her so that she could use his seed to create her hellspawn." That was information that Luz did not need. "Regrettably, I did the only thing I could do to save my brother's soul and prevent Evelyn from exploiting him further, and... Well, Evelyn didn't care for that. I had to flee as she attacked me and she spent the rest of her life making mine difficult. She even stole my portal and it was centuries before it resurfaced again, in the hands of her distant descendant who is even more of a thorn in my side but... You'd know all about that already, wouldn't you?"

...Eda? Eda was... Distantly part baseline human? That would have been fascinating to learn about in any other situation that Belos admitted that he murdered his brother in cold blood because he was mad that said brother got a hot witch GF and moved away from a town whose favorite pastime was murdering whoever fits in the least well that month.

"You know, Luzura, you... Remind me of him. With the right clothes, if your hair was a little longer and pulled back, you might even be able to pass for him in his younger days, though obviously only in silhouette," Belos continued. "I'd... Hate to let this world ruin you as it ruined him. You might be of the witchbreed, but you're still human." Luz had no idea what 'witchbreed' meant. "Come with me when I return to the human realm. I'm sure that if you take created for your part in my cleansing of this realm will see you hailed as a hero regardless of whatever status you may have had when you fled here."

Luz narrowed her eyes. "How do I know I can trust you after all you've done?" She'd never trust him, of course, but she needed to keep him focused on her until Hunter saw an opening for whatever it was he was going to do.

"Please, Luzura, we're human. We're better than that," Belos said with obviously false good human. "I only treat the witches the way I do because I know they would do the same if it was the other way around," the man blatantly rationalized. "They're all wicked, sinful, conniving, every last one of them. It's in their nature."

"You say that," Luz countered, "but if I stay here it won't be the witches that kill me." Her defiant declaration was supported by tearing the bandages from her arm to reveal the coven sigil that she'd been branded with.

"Those things were never meant to touch human flesh," Belos said. "I can't remove it, but if you return to the human realm with me you'll be spared its effects." He looked thoughtful. "You can even bring the Blight girl."

"What?"

"If any witch is able to overcome her inherently sinful nature," Belos began, "it would have to be the one who channeled power so holy and pure as to render severe harm onto Lucifer himself." Luz resisted the urge to correct him that Mephisto only pretended to be the real Satan. "Clearly your influence. I suppose the nature of hymnal music has changed significantly in my absence but clearly, the Divine intervened on your behalf that evening and who am I to deny Him?"

"...Yes. That is exactly what happened," Luz lied with as straight a face as she could muster.

"Even if she hasn't risen above her evil tendencies," Belos continued, "she would have to be at the very least the least destructive and offensive of them all. If sparing her life will let me save yours," from the spell he was casting in the first place, "then it's acceptable. There would have to be... Restrictions on her behavior back on Earth, of course, but... Well, it's not like she can make more witches. Not with your shared vice."

It took Luz a moment to realize what exactly Belos had meant by that... But when she did, she got angry.

She transformed, but she didn't just attack him mindlessly this time. Instead, with arms stretched out as far as she could and hands slayed out so her claw-tipped fingers could give as much volume as they could she drew the largest spell-circle she could manage before hitting him with the fire conjuring spell once again.

This didn't quite take him by surprise as the first one had, but the resulting fireball was still too big for him to dodge even by turning into slime.

This, apparently, being a good enough opening for Hunter, in a burst of yellow he dashed, grabbed her, and dashed again moving them past Belos as he reconstituted himself and out through the portrait that was their exit back into the mindscape.

Once outside, Hunter took a seat on the pilfered staff. "Get on."

Luz got on behind him and he took off, flying... Much faster than she thought was safe, all things considered, but...

"So I take back what I said," Hunter began awkwardly. "You're not a bad oracle."

"I appreciate your attempt to lighten the mood but I don't think this is the time for jokes," Luz replied.

Before Hunter could respond, the staff he'd stolen from Memory Belos vanished from underneath them, sending them tumbling to the ground into another memory.

This one was a meadow somewhere. Belos... No, Philip was there. His nose was unbroken, so this was before meeting Luz, and he seemed to have set up a circle of candles around a sketch of someone with their eyes crossed out. He was holding an open book.

"It's a good thing I thought to steal the diary of that witch before coming after Caleb all those years ago," Memory-Philip said. "I couldn't have known that it'd be an entirely different sort of witch who dells in this detestable realm, but it's valuable in its own right." He turned a page. "The heathen's writing describes her infernal patron as an interdimensional muse willing to trade knowledge of the true nature of reality to worthy souls... Arcane secrets... Arts and sciences well beyond anything I've ever dreamed could exist... And luckily for me, she wrote down instructions for the ritual he gave so that she might summon him. Let's see if he knows how to build a portal."

Closing the book, Philip cleared his throat and recited "Triangulum! Entangulum! Vene foris dominus mentium! Vene foris videntis omnium!"

Whatever happened next Luz didn't get to see, as she and Hunter were both grabbed by the middle and dragged out of the memory by two of Belos's goopy, rotten-looking limbs. He had transformed into a horrible, glowy-blue-eyed thing that... Resembled the amalgamation of palismen souls but was somehow even more horrifying.

He dropped them both on the hard ground and slowly melted back into his previous form.

"It's amusing," he said, "that you honestly think that you can hide from me, escape from me, defeat me in the arena that is my own mind. But I grow tired of this game of endless pursuits. The only way you're getting out of here is by my will, do you understand that?" Belos declared. "If you will not be reasonable, if you insist on letting this realm destroy you the way it destroyed my brother, then I will have no choice," he insisted, "no choice but to bestow onto you the only mercy I could afford him. Do you understand that?"

Luz responded with a raspberry. If she was going to die here she wasn't going to give him the satisfaction of letting her fear show.

Belos sighed. "Can't argue with crazy."

Before he could do anything, however, Luz was saved by the timely interference of the amalgamation of palisman souls appearing seemingly out of the aether to tackle Belos with a cacophonous cry of "Leave them alone!"

Luz got up, helped up Hunter, and got ready to try and bolt again when she realized she didn't have the walky-talky anymore. She must have dropped it in the fall. She heard it click to life just as she saw it, "Luz? Luz, are you there?" Eda's worried voice called out.

Dragging Hunter behind her, Luz ran to where it landed and picked it up. "Yeah, I'm here."

"Okay, good. We're almost ready to get you out we just need you to wait just a little bit longer."

"It's kind of a bad situation all around, Eda," Luz replied.

"We're working as fast as we can," Eda answered. "Just do whatever you have to do to stay safe for just a few more minutes."

"Okay," Luz replied... Then she saw Belos had thrown the palisman amalgamation down and, having manifested a staff, was about to bast it.

Those poor creatures had suffered enough. Luz didn't know if they could even be hurt or killed, but her gut told her to act so she did.

Throwing out her free hand, she extended a tendril of symbiote mass out as fast as she could to try and pull the palismen out of Belos's line of fire but... Something unexpected occurred when her goo touched their slime. The creature looked back at her, and then she felt countless beings feeling spite all at once, directed directly toward Belos as the amalgamation melted and slithered toward her along her tendril and—

Her sigil flared and she reflexively retracted her tendril, which dragged the palisman creature back with it, and then... Physically it was gone.

The sigil calmed down pretty fast though, more uncomfortable than painful.

"We're sorry," countless voices whispered in her ear. "We don't have much power left to give. A palisman should be an inferno but even all together we're barely a campfire, sparks and embers really."

"But we have knowledge," one voice specifically said. "We've been part of him for a long time, we know everything he knows about magic."

"And we all had witches before he got his filthy hands on us."

"Some more than one," one palismen said, "I was passed down from parent to child for generations."

"He only took the best of the best for his Coven."

 "Take it!" they all shouted at once. "Take everything we've got!"

"Use it to stay safe."

"Use it to hurt him like he's hurt so many others."

Luz's mind was suddenly flooded with... Well, a lot of information to process. She mostly moved on instinct and autopilot when Belos realized what had happened and moved to blast her.

With a raised hand and a spell circle, an energy shield similar to what Luz had seen Viney use except in the dark colors of Luz's magic rather than Viney's uniform healing coven blue appeared and ate the blast.

With a circle on each hand and a glyph combo in mind, Luz summoned more of the same mud monster arms she'd found when experimenting with Philip's glyph notes and that Belos had used against her, a good half a dozen, around the tyrant and set them to grab him and hold him in place. Holding one hand out, a bit of the knowledge from the palismen filtered through her mind, and a gust of cold wind carrying shards and slivers of ice manifested from the spell circle battering Belos while he was held still.

"That was for Blue Fang," one of the palismen whispered in her ear.

Unfortunately, this didn't do much to stop Belos for long. Mostly it just seemed to make him mad. With a strange pulse not only was he freed from the grasp of the monster arms but the forest around them vanished as well.

"I told you, Luzura!" He shouted. "This is my mind! Becoming the master of this domain was something I achieved centuries ago as a mere precaution! You cannot win here! Since you will not listen to reason, I am forced to—"

Belos was cut off by Luz and Hunter vanishing from his mindscape and appearing in the living room of the Owl House. The rather crowded living room, and not only were King and Eda there, but also Darius, Eberwolf, and Raine.

With the danger having passed, at least for now, Luz's adrenaline seemed to run out all at once. As did, it seemed, Hunter's as he immediately began to freak the heck out and was only prevented from running out of the house by Darius grabbing him.

Luz wanted to freak out too, but... She couldn't. There was stuff she needed to say but... She couldn't make her mouth work. It took a few moments to find the strength to open it, and then when she did a whole lot of little balls of light spilled out.

The voices of the palisman, a chorus of whispers, rang out in her mind. "Thank you." "We're free?" "I can't believe that worked." "Please, make good use of the power and knowledge we gave you." "Tell Steve that Nibbles doesn't blame him."

After a moment, she realized that... Every single palisman that Belos had consumed had come back with her and now they'd passed on... And suddenly she was exhausted.

She began to fall backward but was caught by Eda. "Kid? You okay? You're safe now, so just..." Eda's grasp became a hug, and King jumped on her to hug her as well, and... Luz just let herself be comforted by her mother and brother while she processed everything that had happened tonight.

Chapter Text

"And then..." Luz began, "he tried to get me to join him by... Offering to... And he didn't say it in so many words but I'm pretty sure... Offering to..." Luz looked down at the small demon sitting on her lap to provide emotional support and was mindful of his age. "To spare Amity and let me keep her as a... pet."

"A pet?" Lilith asked.

The rebels had to leave quickly after the incident but promised to be in touch and that they had a plan. Eda had sent a crow to hound Lilith until she picked up and Lilith came over as soon as she could.

"You know... a pet?" Luz emphasized.

Eda rolled her eyes and whispered something in Lilith's ear.

"He dies," Lilith said.

"There's a line," Luz deadpanned. She'd been angry in the moment but now having her relationship with Amity boiled down to just a vice to tempt her with left her feeling disgusted and vaguely unclean.

Hunter ended up crashing after his panic attack but after a couple of hours of fitful sleep that Luz tried not to be jealous that he'd even managed to get up, whipped out his scroll, took a grim-faced selfie holding up his bare forearm, and started texting. He was apparently done now, as he dismissed his scroll. "Okay, I revealed my real identity to the Emerald Entrails who didn't know, provided as much proof as I could of my identity, and warned them about the sigils so... They're all going to tell as many people as they can."

"So speaking of sigils," Luz began, "where's my palistrom?" She had a decent bit left. If she absorbed it all at once, that would... Well, it'd hurt like a son of a gun but it'd probably burn out the sigil, right?

Eda grimaced. "We... Had to use it all as a power source for the potion to get you and Blondie back."

"Oh," was Luz's only acknowledgment. She then looked down at her arm, still unbandaged from last night. Maybe it was just her imagination but... The itching was a lot worse. "Okay, I need a heavy-duty pain potion and a pairing knife."

"Luz, you are not cutting off your sigil," Eda insisted.

"It wouldn't work, anyway," Hunter added. "The actual sigil is only the surface level of the spell. That thing reaches down to the bone and spreads through your body via the circulatory system. You'd need to take off your arm at the elbow for that to work, and, well... Healing magic can't regrow limbs."

Luz then looked at Eda and Lilith. "So, about removing limbs..."

"You're not using the pain-sharing spell to take part of the curse, either," Eda deadpanned. "Look, Raine and co have a plan, no one's gonna die, just... If Bonehead knows for sure you've been to the past and knows you won't sign up with him, then... That's probably why he's been going softball with us. We need to get you kids out of here."

"No," Luz denied. "I have to help, I have to stop him."

"Luz," Eda began gently, "come on. You promised not to get mixed up in this stuff, remember?"

"Unless there was a really good reason," Luz countered, "and there is, I have to..."

"Why?" Lilith asked.

"Because, because..."

"Because you're both human?" Lilith questioned.

"What, no!" Luz replied. "It's not, it's... I'm... After everything I took in with my symbiote powers, and... The palisman souls... I kina accidentally took them in and they gave me all their knowledge of magic, so... I didn't really earn it but I'm the strongest witch on the Boiling Isles. And, I already beat him in a fight once, so like... If anyone can beat him it's me, so..."

"Luz, we don't need to 'beat' him," Lilith said. "There's been unrest and distrust among the people ever since the petrification ceremony. According to Darius, even much of the Emperor's Coven now feels like the day of Unity might not be so good. The Coven Heads are only still involved because Belos has them convinced that its true purpose is to merge the Demon and Human Realms and that they'll all be Royalty in the new world and even they don't know that killing everyone is the plan."

"But—"

"It'll be centuries before there's another eclipse like this one," Lilith continued. "If we expose his plans and stop the draining spell, that's it. People will turn on him and he won't get a second chance."

"Lilith, the palismen got some of their magic knowledge from Belos. If... Once the draining spell starts the only way to stop it would be to move the moon. Or destroy it," Luz declared. "He only has one shot... But so do we, and..."

"Luz, that's important information and we'll be sure to pass it along, but this isn't your responsibility," Lilith insisted.

"Yes, it is," Luz insisted.

"Why?"

"Because I helped him!" Luz admitted. "He... He learned the draining spell from The Collector. He never would have gotten it—"

"Without us," Lilith interrupted. "I fell for his manipulations just like you did, and I should have known better. I was the adult in that situation and it's not even the first time he manipulated me... Well, from my perspective at least."

"He manipulates people," Hunter added bitterly. "If it wasn't you, it would have been someone else. It's what he does. He fooled everyone for years."

"...Even me," Eda said as she got up and moved to sit next to Luz. "Lilly must have told you, how once upon a time I wanted to join the chief bootlickers. I was a rebellious little heck-raiser, but I still feel hook, line, and sinker for his propoganda and it wasn't until after I ran away from home that I started thinking about it and realized it stunk worse than my favorite appleblood." Eda hugged Luz. "This isn't your fault. All you falling for his crud back in the past means is that you're one of us."

King stood up and turned to face Luz. "Okay, now let's ask ourselves what would have happened if... If you'd never come to the demon realm. Yeah, that works... You can't use the time pools to go back because you're not there. Chances are, he'd have found someone else to help him get this mirror. But that person wouldn't be as awesome as you and Aunt Lilith, so they'd have died horribly," King said cheerfully. "But... Eda would either be petrified or the Owl Beast for good by now without you. Willow'd still be struggling with abominations instead of kicking all kinds of butt with plants. Amity would still be a bully."

"I'd still be the Golden Guard, following orders without question," Hunter added. "Or dead, because I failed him or he thought my loyalty was in question."

"I'd either still be a pointless bootlicker, or I'd have shared Edalyn's fate," Lilith concluded. "And the special privileges that Belos gave me... That's clearly because he remembered that I didn't have a coven sigil when we met in the past. So without you, I'd have been branded and Mike would have been eaten."

"So who cares if you helped him?" King finished. "Even if this was your fault, well, it's also your fault that there are people here who know how to stop it."

Luz wasn't convinced, but it was a nice thought. "Thanks. Um..." She searched her pockets. "Has anyone seen my phone? I should... Call my Mom. She needs to know."

Hooty stretched into the room and coughed, depositing Luz's phone and a black letter on the coffee table. Luz stared at him as if to ask why, but he just curved as to give the impression of a shrug.

She took the phone while King took the letter and made the call. It took a couple of rings before her mother answered.

"Mija?" She started sleepily. "It's pretty early."

"I know Mom, but... Something came up. Uh, remember, a little bit ago, I mentioned going back in time and learning that Philip was lying in his diary to make himself look better and was, in fact, just as bad if not worse than you'd expect one of the Gravesfield witch hunters to be?"

"...Yes. Luz, are you alright?"

"No," she said bluntly. "I'm not. He's... He's Belos. The Evil Emperor of the Boiling Isles, and... He's going to kill everyone."

Luz's Mom was clearly awake now.

"What? How?"

"There's this Eclipse... A week from today, in the evening. And he's going to use it to cast a draining spell on everyone, that'll suck out their magic through the coven sigils and when they run out of magic it'll take their life next. He's plotting a total genocide."

Her mother didn't respond for nearly a minute. "Luz, don't, don't you have one of those coven sigils?"

Luz swallowed. "Yes. And I'm scared to death," she admitted. "I haven't been this scared since we found out that Papi was sick but... It's not my first apocalypse. We have a plan... But..."

"I don't like buts here, Mija."

"But we only have one shot to save everyone," Luz continued. "So I need you to do me a favor."

"What?"

"I need you to call Doctor Strange, and ask him if he can put a rush on getting the portal from the Earth side," Luz said. "Because... The draining spell doesn't work across dimensional barriers. If we can get the portal open then we can maybe evacuate at least a few people..."

"Or send in reinforcements, " her Mom suggested. "Mr. Logan did say to call if there was anything they could do for us and stopping a genocidal lunatic sounds like something the X-Men would want to help with on principle."

"I'm pretty sure that's a Tuesday for them, but... Yeah, yeah! And... I think this qualifies as a major emergency for the Avengers hotline and... Yeah, do it. And um... If—"

Luz was cut off by a sound she hadn't heard in a while. The sound of the portal door snapping to life.

She wasn't the only one who turned in time to see it float in the air and unfold. This could only mean one thing: Belos had fixed the key.

"And um, give Vee my love," Luz said as quickly as she could, "tell Masha that Philip murdered Caleb and their theory that Philip got mad when Caleb got a hot witch GF is right, and if the plan fails I want you to know that I lo—"

The line went dead at the exact second that the portal vanished.

Luz swallowed. "So um... Things just went from bad to worse, but... Maybe Doctor Strange will get there later today, find the portal open, and beat up Belos for us?" She started laughing nervously.

"Yeah, hopefully," Eda said while clearly playing along to try and reassure Luz, which she appreciated. "But we can't really count on that, so... Chances are he's going to be sending people to come capture us and we need to get out of here. And, as much as I hate to say it, we might have to split up because a part of six will attract too much attention and the town is swarming with Guards. I'll call the BATTs to figure something out and—"

"We could go here," King said while holding up a map. While Luz had been talking to her Mom, he'd been reading the letter. "This Letter that Hooty ate instead of telling me about, it's... From some people who saw my stream! They say they know about my heritage and want to teach me their ways and... They're a clan of Warriors! They could help us stop Belos!"

Lilith took the map and then looked over it. She then waved Eda over and the two huddled conspiratorially for a moment before turning back.

"Alright, here's the plan," Eda declared. "Luz, you and Hunter will take Hooty and King and follow up on this lead. You're gonna need to hop a ship, but..."

"I know a captain who might take us!" Good Ole Salty, she'd worked with him on the selkidomus hunt, and... Technically, he worked for the Golden Guard, so... "Yeah, I can do that." She'd be helping solve the problem, they'd finally get some leads on King's birth family, and... "Yeah, let's do it!"

"Yeah!" King shouted.

"What do you think, Hunter?" Luz asked.

When Hunter didn't respond, Luz turned to see him staring at Hooty.

"I think you can guess how I'm voting on this plan," Hooty declared from his porta-Hooty birdhouse backpack.

"...I saw everything," Hunter whispered, and, walking around him Luz saw he was glassy-eyed. "I thought last night would be the most traumatic experience of my life. I was wrong."

"I thought that when I saw him do it, too," Luz replied. "Then he ate me... Hooty, what in the name of the Titan are you?"

"I am the oldest and most powerful bug demon on the Isles, hoot hoot," he said in his characteristically innocent tone. "I am older than the Isles themselves, born a parasite in the Titan's still-living body. I have seen everything."

"Hooty, you're scaring me," Luz replied nervously.

"That's okay, I'm scaring myself, too," Hooty replied without changing his tone. "So I'll cut it short: I'm a friendly birdworm-shaped eldritch monstrosity who will never let anything bad happen to you if I can help it because you are all my family and I love you."

"...So, are we going or not?" King asked, which slightly killed the mood but at least ended the awkwardness.

Chapter Text

Salty was, of course, more than willing to take them out to the location marked on King's map. However, his crew had left him once the ship was no longer in the employ of the Golden Guard (which made Hunter wince) Luz ended up volunteering to help with a variety of shipside activities to keep things going smoothly and so that the old sea dog wouldn't have to do it by himself.

"Hmm. I wonder if a career on a ship might be a good fit for me," she mused aloud to herself after completing a chore. She was pretty good at it and honestly, it was more fun than you'd expect.

"Sort of figured you'd be Blight's house-spouse," came a... Not nessesarily playful, but not serious or mean-toned Hunter's comment from behind her.

"Oh, Hey Hunter," Luz replied while turning to face him. "That's also an option but... Neither of us really knows what we want to do when we grow up," Luz admitted. "But um, we've still got time to figure it all out and... Well, if we win we'll have time."

"Yeah... I've been meaning to talk to you about that," Hunter began. "If... Do you know what a galdorstone is?" That's what a grimwalker's heart was made of, right?

"Nope," Luz replied. "We haven't talked about them in school and there haven't been any references to them in any of Eda's books on wild magic."

"There wouldn't be, they aren't wild magic. No um... Well, there are a lot of different theories about where they come from," Hunter began. "Some sources speculate that they might be the hearts of ancient witches or demons who attempted some kind of ascension ritual, though no one can seem to agree on what they were trying to ascend into or whether they succeeded or failed." Hunter lectured. "Some say they're gemstones produced in the bodies of powerful prehistoric beast demons like primordial dragons or Hexasaurus belosia, others claim they're formed when Titan Blood and Bile end up in a body of mineral-rich water and coalesce as the water evaporates. Some say that they're the Titan's gal stones, and one source says they were created in an occult ritual by the giraffes."

"Neat," Luz said with a smile.

"But where they come from isn't exactly important, compared to what they do. They're... A renewable source of magical power. Kind of like a palisman, but not alive. But, whereas a witch's palisman lends them power and helps them cast spells," Hunter continued, "when a witch taps the power of the galdorstone their own magic is multiplied several times over... Except illusion magic, for some reason."

"Huh? Why not?"

"No one knows," Hunter replied. "People who look down on illusions say it's because illusions aren't real and zero times anything else is zero but... I mean, Illusion magic also includes summoning and manipulating props and skilled enough illusionists can give them limited corporeality."

"Like how Gus can have his illusions take notes for him in class?" Luz asked. "...I need to ask him to teach me that trick."

"Anyway... We saw me... Being made in Belos's mind," Hunter started, "and not even he could have faked his memories so he was telling the truth, we saw everything he listed off... So my heart's a galdorstone."

Luz immediately picked up what Hunter was putting down. "I get it, on the Day of Unity you want me to carry you piggyback and you can use your galdorheart to supercharge my spells and we can curb-stomp Belos together... I think I saw something like that in an anime."

"No," Hunter corrected. "I... And it's not just the galdorstone. I... Stonesleepers and selkidomi are both powerful species of beast demons. There should be palistrom all throughout my body, enough for a half-a-dozen palismen at least... The only part of me that even resembles a normal witch... Human... Anything! Are my bones, and even then the way everything in the body is connected I can't help but think there's bleed through." Hunter sighed. "The point is that, even if I can't use it, I'm basically made of powerful magic. So... If we can't stop the draining spell..."

"We will stop the draining spell," Luz insisted. She had to believe that.

"But if we can't," Hunter insisted. "...There's no reason why we should both have to die."

"...No," Luz said as she realized where he was going with this.

"I mean I don't know how much you can absorb at once, but..."

"Hunter, no."

"And if I'm going to die anyway, this much power should be more than enough..."

"No!"

"So if the draining spell goes off I want you to—"

Luz slapped Hunter across the face. "Hunter I don't-Know-Your-Middle-Or-Last-Names! You are not a resource to exploit, you aren't a list of ingredients and spare parts to harvest, and you aren't emergency snacks. You are my friend! Eres parte de mi familia, hermano mayor. I do not want to hear anything like that from you ever again, do you understand me?"

Hunter touched his cheek where Luz's palm had made contact. "Understood."

"Good, because I'd rather die than do something like that to you." Luz's skin crawled at the thought of it. "I couldn't live with myself... You don't have to go and be self-sacrificing like that."

"I'm sorry," Hunter replied. "Just... Making plans for the worst-case scenario... I wanted to be practical."

"Are you okay?" Luz asked. "You aren't... Thinking of hurting yourself, are you?" She wasn't picking up anything like that from him but... Her ESP wasn't the most reliable when her head wasn't on straight and after last night...

"What? No!" Hunter insisted. "Just.. It's like in survival training. In a worst-case scenario, a squad lost in the wilderness might run out of supplies and be forced to make a decision on which of their own they have to eat so the rest can survive long enough to be rescued and we have lectures on how to prioritize."

"Wouldn't it be the one who starves to death first?" Luz asked. Like, the fact that they had serious discussions of that was horrifying but her confusion was distracting her.

"...Oh, that makes so much more sense," Hunter replied.

"Do I even want to know?"

"You do not."

"But are you okay?"  Luz asked. "That was a... Pretty big shock and we talked about my problems but not yours."

"I'm having the mother of all existential crises right now," Hunter began. "And I would appreciate it if you kept the grimwalker thing under wraps until I'm ready to tell people, but... If I'm... Basically a clone of a human, that means... Humans don't normally have innate magic, right?"

"More or less," Luz replied.

"So, I'm not a magicless witch, I'm... There's nothing wrong with me," Hunter concluded. "I was just being judged by the wrong standards."

"Yeah!" Luz replied only to think. "...You don't... Resent me, do you? Being a human who somehow gained the magic of this place when you're someone who was born here who doesn't have any, right?"

"What? Of course not," Hunter insisted. "Besides, I saw how... I'm never going to forget your screams, Luz."

"Look, I don't blame you for that," Luz said.

"Yeah, but... Trust me, I could never go through that," Hunter continued. "Not by choice, even if I could, and the fact that you kept doing it to try and burn out your sigil... You're a brave witch, Luz. I think you've earned your magic."

"Thank you," Luz replied. "And um... I'm sorry I slapped you."

"It's fine," Hunter said. "Another upside to the horrible night we had? If I'm a copy of Caleb, and Caleb and Evelyn were the ancestors of the Clawhornes then... It means I have family out there other than Belos, so... There's that."

"You don't need blood ties to be part of the family," Luz replied.

"Yeah, but..." Hunter gestured to the ship they were on, currently in the process of meeting either King's birth family or at least people who knew of them. "I doubt that King would give up you or Eda for anything, but he still wants to know. It's kind of like that."

"Okay, yeah, that's fair." Luz then took out her phone. She might not have reception back to the human realm but the clock still worked. "Hmm. It's getting pretty late. I wonder what happened at Hexside today."

"Probably nothing major," Hunter quipped.

Gus looked back at the witches behind him. His friends and Teammates in the Emerald Entrails, Willow, Skara, and Viney. Viney's friends Jerbo and Barcus. Amity and her siblings, the Banshees, Matt, Matt's older brother Steve Tholomule the coven scout turned monitor, the illusion teacher, Professor Hermunculus the abomination teacher, and even Principal Bump. They and everyone else on campus had just gotten done fighting off the Emperor's Coven, who'd come to the school to forcibly brand everyone with Coven sigils but, thanks to Hunter's warning, they were ready.

Gus then looked at the magical artifact in his hand, something that boosted illusion magic considerably. Then down to the witch he claimed it from as a trophy, Adrian Graye Vernworth: Head Witch of the Illusion Coven who had led the Emperor's Coven scouts on their mission.

The witch in question was currently in the fetal position, crying. Gus didn't even have him trapped in an illusion anymore.

He turned back to his fellow Hexolios and smiled. "You know, I'm feeling really good about myself right now."

"...So, do you think this whole thing is um, what's the phrase, fishy, too?" Hunter asked.

After making it to "Titan Trapper Island" and being welcomed by the so-called Titan Trappers, a cult of demons who claim to exist to hunt the titans themselves(though admittedly none of them had ever seen a living Titan except, supposedly, their leader) which made no sense as the Titan's had been virtually extinct for long enough that the Boiling Isles had experienced a microcosm of the earth's social, evolutionary, and geological history in rough parallel with it.

King had been escorted away to be taught the ways of his people, which involved being trained in the use of a grabby scythe thingy made mostly of paper mache and bone. Hunter and Luz, meanwhile, had been escorted to a big, tall, and important-looking building with a spiral staircase with the skeleton of a massive, crocodilian-headed biped next to it and told that the leader of the Titan Trappers, someone named Bill, to see if he'd agree to mobilize the Titan Trappers to help fight Belos.

"...Yeah, a little," Luz admitted. The stories the Trappers said of the nature of Titans didn't... Okay, Luz was maybe a little suspicious of the Titan given that what he'd said in her dream regarding the Archivist had been... Misleading at best, but even her most cynical thoughts were still better than the mindless, malevolent, destroyers that the Trappers seemed to think they were.

"I don't know," Hunter said. "Something about the way they move is just a little off. Especially their tails: Too stiff."

"And they're all wearing clothes," Hooty added. Somehow, Luz had forgotten she was carrying him. She blamed it on her lack of sleep. "King hates clothes, he says that anything other than a cloak or cape or his collar feels weird on his fur. And none of them are saying anything about him not wearing clothes, either"

"Yeah, that's all weird," Luz agreed. "But, I mean... I'm not picking up any bad feelings from them..." Although part of Luz wished that Amity was here. Her empath abilities were a lot better at that than Luz's ESP. "Let's just see if Bill is willing to help us."

Climbing the staircase they eventually found themselves in some kind of throne room full of archaic but deadly-looking weapons. However, some impulsive testing on Luz's part revealed that they were flimsier than a mall katana.

"Tarak is that you!?" Shouted someone who sounded like a stereotypical crotchety old man. "I told you to stop that."

"No, sir," Hunter said while motioning to Luz to follow him. They approached and found perched upon the throne a diminutive and somewhat demented-looking demon, roughly King's size but dressed in robes and with a black candle burning with blue flames resting atop his aged skull. "I am called Hunter and this is Luz Noceda-Clawthorne—"

"Clawthorne?" The small demon, presumably Bill, asked. "Like... The lost child, King Clawthorne?"

"Yes," Luz confirmed. "He's my little brother. We just got here and—"

"Nobody tells me anything," Bill interrupted. "So, where is the little tyke?"

"Uh, he's with Tarak," Luz replied. The larger, winged Titan Trapper who had greeted them on their arrival, told them of Bill and was currently introducing King to the ways of his people. He wasn't King's Dad, but he'd quickly slipped into the role. "He told us to come speak with you... You are Bill, right?"

"Yes, yes, I'm Bill," the demon confirmed.

"Well, you see... Belos, the—"

"The upstart ruler of the Carcass Kingdom?" Bill asked. "What's the blasted corpse worshiper doing now?"

"He's going to kill everyone, sir," Hunter replied. "In less than a week there's going to be a rare eclipse and he intends to use it to cast a draining spell that will suck the life and magic out of almost the entire population of the Boiling Isles."

"Well, that's what happens when you worship a dead monster," Bill quipped.

"There are people trying to spread the word, and a rebellion opposing him, but we only have one chance to stop the draining spell," Luz explained. "We can use all the help we can get, and we wanted to know if the Titan Trapers would help us."

Bill shrugged. "Sure."

"... That's it? Just a sure?" Luz asked. "You don't... Want us to pass any trials to prove our worthiness."

"King's a Titan Trapper," Bill replied. "His enemies are our enemies. Besides, it's not like it'll be hard. We train to fight titans. What are a few witches in comparison... Not that any of the youngin's down there have ever seen a live titan."

Luz suddenly got a bad feeling about this. "Have you?"

"Once," Bill replied. "There's one titan left. The Last Son of the Boiling Isles." He gestured to a poster... Saying the same. "Do you think I used the right font on that?" He asked. "I can't help but feel there's something off about the kerning but then again my eyes aren't what they used to be."

"And you've seen this titan?" Hunter asked. "Where?"

"The creature is hidden somewhere on the body of its dead parent, really morbid if you think about it. I saw it a few years ago, I was bored and went on a scouting trip to your shores. Even the little ones are dangerous, this one nearly blew out my eardrums with its horrifying battle cry." The demon shuddered. "Oh, if I could get my hands on that little monster..."

"You'd do what?" Luz asked, suddenly getting.

Bill hopped down from his seat and beckoned for Luz and Hunter to follow him as he marched across the room to a door. "The Grand Huntsman, an ancient being who taught the first Titan Trappers how to fight the titans, is currently imprisoned. The only way to free him requires the freshly shed blood of a live titan."

Bill opened the door and led them through and Luz was immediately revolted by the first things she saw.

Skulls. Dozens of skulls, all just like King's.

Bill paid them no mind as he walked past them to a shrine built around what looked disturbingly like The Collector's mirror, except broken and, to her further horror Bill took off his own skull revealing an ordinary, if ugly, witch's face tattoed with a stylized blue sun on his forehead as he approached the mirror. "Oh," he said as he reached a gloved hand out to touch the mirror, "when the Huntsman is freed..." He laughed in a non-benign way.

Hunter nudged Luz and gave her a look that said 'Oh, crud, we need to get out of here.' Luz... This had to be some kind of mistake. Her little brother couldn't be a Titan. This was ridiculous. This was all just one big, super horrifying coincidence.

"And it'd be good for the whole world," Bill continued. "Even the baby titans are holy terrors. They have voracious appetites. They march around demanding praise and worship as if they were little monarchs and that cry... How does it go again?" He mused to himself. "Oh, right. Weh! The whole world will be better once I spill his blood, free the Huntsman, and mount his skull here among all his siblings."

...King was a titan. He was a baby titan, he was The Titan's last child, and Luz, Hunter, and Hooty were currently surrounded by the remains of his murdered brothers and sisters on an island full of people who would slaughter him like a goat the second they found out what he really was. Her blood was ice cold, this... Forget the draining spell, forget Papi getting sick, this... This was the most scared Luz had ever been.

Bill turned back to them as he tried to replace his... Was he wearing a dead child's skull as a mask? Were they all walking around wearing the remains of murder victims? Regardless, Bill tried to replace the skull only to pause. "What's eating you? Never seen a witch out of costume before?" He joked.

"Well, you see, it's just... Well..." Luz tried to lie, only for Bill to go wide-eyed.

"...King's not wearing a costume, is he?" Bill said, a wicked smirk coming to his face and an absolutely evil gleam came to his eyes as they narrowed.

It was like someone flipped a switch. All of the fear in her body became anger, more anger than she'd ever felt, as the ice water in her veins was replaced by an intense burning sensation near her heart. In less than a second, she changed and her claws embedded in the wall as she pinned Bill to it by his throat. ¡Deja en paz a mi hermanito!

"I don't know what that means!" Bill replied quickly as he began to radiate terror so palpable that Luz could taste it. A dark, primal part of Luz cherished the flavor of the demented gremlin's fear.

"I'll break it down for you then," she seethed. "You're going to stay the hell away from King. If anyone affiliated with the Titan Trappers so much as hurts his feelings," she said as she opened her mouth almost painfully wide to show off her fangs and flicked out her tongue to taste his mounting horror. That same, dark primal part of her was egging her on. "If you ever come near my little brother again, I will Eat... Your... BRAIN!"

"And I'll eat the rest of you when she's done!" Hooty shouted.

"What they said!" Hunter added awkwardly.

"Am I clear?" Luz finished.

"Crystal," Bill choked out. "Now if you would please put me down I think I need to change my trousers."

Luz dropped him and left his freaky murder shrine for the throne room where she blasted out one of his windows and flew out on Stringbean, noting only that Hunter and Flapjack were following her as she looked for King.

Chapter Text

King was having an absolute blast. Sure, his Dad wasn't here but he was still here among his people. Learning their ways. And it was fun. Tarak was even going to play catch with him, right after his initiation. They were on their way there now, right after Tarak got a crow call telling him it was time and... Why were Hunter and Luz flying all over Titan Trapper Island? Luz was flying around haphazardly until Hunter got her attention and pointed down to where King was standing.

Luz came in hot and landed in what she'd previously told King was a 'superhero landing,' clutching her staff and... Why was she transformed? Don't get King wrong, Luz looked really cool when she was transformed and King hardly ever got to see her like that but Luz usually only changed when there was danger.

"Luz," King asked. "What's wrong?"

"I got a message from back home," Luz said a little too confidently. The way she talked when there was something wrong but didn't want to admit that there was something wrong. "We need to get back. Now."

"Surely it can wait but half an hour?" Tarak asked. "The time of King's initiation is at hand."

All around them, even as Hunter landed, more and more Titan Trappers began crowding around them, and one, who from Tarak's descriptions was probably Bill, was setting up near the altar or shrine or whatever it was that Tarak had been leading him to. Luz turned around and saw all of them but she seemed to focus on Bill. "We just went over this!"

...That was... Luz's voice was always a little different when she was transformed. Kinda like Harpy Eda now that he thought about it. But this was something else entirely. Something dark and scary. Like if the Owl Beast just started talking all of a sudden.

"It'll take more than one witch's threats to keep me from glory when the foretold time is so close at hand," Bill replied. "Not when you'd have to fight us all to stop us."

Suddenly Tarrak grabbed King. He was a lot rougher than King would have expected but then Luz spun around and slapped Tarak hard enough to take his hexing skull off. Tarak dropped King who landed in Luz's arms and King stared up in horror at the now...

Oh. Luz didn't decapitate him. Because he wasn't a demon like King. He was a witch. Wearing a skull like King's as a helmet. Tarrak's moon-tattooed face contorted in anger.

"What? What's going on?" King asked. If... If the Titan Trappers were witches then... What was King? Why were they dressing up like whatever kind of demon he was?

Luz twirled her staff to form a large spell circle and suddenly the earth beneath their feet started to shake as stone walls shot up around them, a big area immediately around them and a narrow hall shooting off in the distance toward the teleporter thingy that had taken them to Titan Trapper Island in the first place.

These walls had separated them from the Titan Trappers, but the was enough of an opening that they could come around. Luz handed King to Hunter and a short of splotching type effect made Hooty's backpack-thingy slide off her where her cloak split open into tentacles that settled the house demon onto the teen boy's back.

"Hunter, Hooty, take King back to the ship. If I don't come out the other side right after you," she handed Hunter a stack of glyph cards, "destroy the teleporter on the other side."

"Luz, what's—"

"You can't just expect me to—"

"I promised I'd—"

"I don't know how well I can control myself right now!" Luz shouted and... King was pretty sure her mouth wasn't supposed to open that wide. Or that her fangs were supposed to be that long or... For there to be so many of them. Or that her tongue would be that long, either. "Go! I'll cover you!"

Just as she said that, some Titan Trappers managed to make their way through the opening left by Luz's hasty conjuring of the walls and Hunter dashed off with his gold light thing, holding King before mounting his staff and flying off, King looking back over Hunter's shoulders. Titan trappers saw Luz blocking the path and attacked her with spells that made King's heart skip a beat only for them to bounce off of her like... Right, when her powers fully came in while fighting Belos they fused with the Witch's Cloak Eda had knitted for Luz, most magic can't hurt her.

The Titan Trappers seemed to realize that wasn't going to work and immediately dogpiled Luz only to get thrown back as she gave out an unearthly scream and dozens of writhing tentacles exploded from her body throwing them off. The last thing King saw before Hunter got too far for him to clearly see Luz was her slamming her staff on the ground and conjuring a bunch of monster arms like Belos had used to drag him and Lilith away the day of the petrification ceremony, the arms grabbing at Titan Trappers and throwing them about.

"Hunter," King asked, "Hooty... What's going on?" King was confused and scared and...

"Well, you know how your blood test came back inconclusive... And how the blood sample was blue?" Hooty asked.

King shuddered in remembrance of the huge needle Tiny Nose had used. "Yeah."

"Look, we're not the best people to explain this to you," Hunter began, "but... Um..."

"The good news is, we know where your dad is," Hooty interrupted.

"You do!?"

"Yeah. Turns out he's closer to home than when thought," Hooty continued. "The bad news is, he's dead."

"What!?"

"Hooty, you're not helping!" Hunter shouted. "Um... You know how I spent my whole life thinking I was one thing and it turns out I'm something else?  Well um, welcome to the club, Buddy."

"I don't get it," King said. If anything he was even more confused.

"You're not a Titan Trapper," Hunter explained. "You... You're not even a Demon. You're a titan, King."

"I'm a what?" King asked again. No, that was crazy. He wasn't, he couldn't be...

"A titan," Hunter repeated.

"...So my Dad is..."

"The Titan," Hunter continued. "The Boiling Isles so... You know, silver lining... If Luz is right he's not... All the way dead..." Hunter laughed incredibly awkwardly but King couldn't make himself respond.

By then they'd gotten to the... Transporter thing and used it going from Titan Trapper Island to, from what King had been told, was the clear other side of the world. The side of the Boiling Isles... King's Dad's body. His Dad had... Been right under his feet the whole time.

Hunter waited for what felt like a minute and then started planting glyph cards around the base of the thingy.

"What are you doing!?" King demanded.

"Luz said to destroy the gate if she wasn't right behind us," Hunter replied.

"Yeah, but you can't just do it!" King insisted before he tried to leap up and take the cards from Hunter.

The two boys struggled for a bit before the gate activated again and Luz fell out and face-planted on the ground next to them.

"I'm okay," she said as she pushed herself up.

"Are you?" King asked. "Luz, back there you were like... Did you get cursed?"

"What? No!" Luz insisted. "I'm fine."

"But..."

"To be fair, Luz, you did get kind of monstery there right before we flew off," Hooty added which made Luz pause.

"...There's nothing wrong with me," she insisted nervously. "It's just... I'm part space alien, and the alien side tends to get a little monstery when they're angry, and... I've never been that angry before." Luz didn't sound all that sure about that. "But... Hunter, Hooty, did you tell him?"

"They told me," King answered.

"Well, Bill figured out what you really were and... I couldn't let anyone hurt mi hermanito," Luz insisted. "I was so scared that it all flipped back into pure rage. So... Maybe I'm a monster," she said as though she was really uncomfortable with the idea, "but I'm the kind of monster who makes sure nothing bad happens to mi familia. And I think the Titan Trappers got the message but we should still probably blow up their transporter thingy just in case."

With that, they finished planting the glyph cards and then got back into the rowboat they'd used to get from Salty's ship to the small island in the first place. Once they were far enough away Luz pointed her staff back at the structure and with a glow all the glyphs went off at once, destroying it in a burst of fire, ice, and choking vines.

"...You think Salty has any of that gumbo left from last night?" King asked. For once he wasn't really hungry but the silence was too much to bear.

"You'll have to ask him and... Honestly I'm not hungry right now," Luz answered. Why did that make Hunter flinch? "You know, there's one good thing that came from all of this."

"What?" King asked.

"Well, you're the son of the Boiling Isles Titan," Luz said, "and... I'm part Titan because I took in the humors of the Boiling Isles Titan. So, in a way, I'm your real sister."

That just made King more confused. "But you were already my real sister."

This prompted Luz to pull King into a hug, "C'mere you little peach"

Luz's arms, her warm hug. This was safe. This was normal. "Luz... I don't want to be alone tonight," King said. "Can... Can I sleep with you?"

"Sure."

Luz hadn't exactly gotten much sleep since traveling into Belos's mind and... The things she'd done on Titan Trapper Island made her want to sleep even less, but it's not like she had much of a choice with her little brother curled up on top of her like a cat.

So she lay there, desperately wishing that her stupid neurodivergent brain would let her stop focusing on the horribly traumatic things that had happened over the last few days. After a few hours, she started counting sheep only to get distracted by the thought of how such an idea could have gotten started in the first place. Like, what do sheep have to do with sleeping? What does counting have to do with sleeping and wow it's been a while since she's had any caffeine.

She wasn't quite sure how late it was when she finally drifted off but she hadn't expected to find herself floating on that dark lake surrounded by floating cubes again.

This time, she was able to sit up, and as she did she saw that she wasn't alone. She saw their feet first, and looking up first saw black pajama pants decorated with the glyphs, a Bad Girls coven shirt framed with a brown bathrobe itself framed by large bony wings, and finally a skull-like face. Like King's, but with more teeth, two more horns, and one of the eyes was replaced with a little tiny hooty.

"Hello again, Luz," the Titan said. His voice was still warm and gentle but now there was an undercurrent of sadness. "I think I have some explaining to do."

Chapter Text

"Okay, explanations," Luz said as she processed that she was once more talking to The Titan. "You can start with... Why didn't you tell me that you were King's dad?"

"Well, I didn't know how much you'd remember," The Titan replied. "You were delirious with the common mold, after all. And I couldn't count on you just not assuming that everything I told you was a dream. Chances were, if I'd told you and you'd told King he wouldn't have believed you."

"...Okay," Luz replied. "That's fair."

"Of course, if I'd known that just a few days later your world's Sorcerer Supreme would confirm half of what I told you I might have gone for it," The Titan admitted.

"Yeah, okay... Um... You said the... Why didn't you..."

"Warn you about Philip?" The Titan asked. Luz modded, so he continued. "If I had told you... Either you would have still gone to the past but tried to stop him... Or just never gone to the past, right?"

"Probably," Luz admitted.

"In which case, well, it'd cause a paradox." The Titan explained. "The Boiling Isles only exists in its current form because of Belos's actions. Maybe the world would be better... Or maybe it would be worse. At the very least, many of the witches and demons you've met and befriended would likely never have been born and even if they had, without Evelyn stealing the portal door and burying it where Eda would one day find it, you'd never have had a chance to come here and meet them."

"Okay, that's..." Luz suddenly found herself trying to picture a world where she just went off to Camp Reality Check and never met Eda, King, Gus, Willow, Amity, or... Vee... Hunter... Vee and Hunter who for absolutely sure would never have existed without Belos.

"And I'll be honest, and this might be selfish of me," The Titan admitted, "but I much prefer the timeline where my child has a mother and a big sister who love him and who he loves back to one where he wouldn't have one and might not have either."

"Yeah," Luz agreed. "Me too."

"Not to mention that it might not have done anything at all," The Titan continued. "Time Travel is tricky business. Sometimes you can change things, sometimes what you did in the past is what always would have happened, and sometimes nothing changes for you, you've just created an entirely new timeline branching off from where you came in. Honestly, I didn't want to roll those dice."

If the best-case scenario was nothing changing in the world Luz knew, but Belos was still helped by a Luz... And Luz wouldn't have gotten splashed by the Titan Bile. She wouldn't have grown her own bile sack, so she'd be less powerful, so if she had to fight Belos her odds would be worse.

"Okay, yeah. This... Probably isn't the best possible timeline but I understand not wanting to risk a worse one or... Time travel makes my head hurt," Luz finished.

"I am sorry," The Titan continued, "that I had to mislead you. And that you found out in the way you did. That had to have been the worst possible way you could have learned."

"No," Luz said. "I figured it out on my own when he called me by the name I gave him in the past and got confirmation from his memories afterward. If he'd just dumped it all on me at once after everything, then... That would have been worse... Honestly, I think I'm more hung up on him trying to bribe me into joining him by offering to let me keep Amity as a..." Luz shuddered.

"That's not something you should feel bad about," The Titan reassured. "Belos wouldn't understand love, especially romantic love, even if it was spelled out to him in giant flaming letters. The only person he ever truly cared about was Caleb and he still murdered him in cold blood when Caleb grew and matured and changed for the better, into something that went against the hate that Philip had nursed all his life. What you and Amity have is beautiful and pure, something you've already put a lot of effort into building. That Belos can only see it as something vulgar and sinful to use to tempt you, see her as your possession instead of your partner, is his problem, not yours."

"Thanks but..." After tonight, Luz wasn't so sure she deserved to be loved by someone like Amity. "There's still one thing I'm confused about. You said that the last Archivist wasn't a threat, but...?"

The Titan sighed. "When I took my last stand against the Archivists, the Collectors, I was filled with unfathomable rage. My friends, my family, my children, were all gone except for King whose egg wouldn't hatch until long after I would be gone at this rate. In my rage, I acted rashly: I trapped each archivist in this realm and imprisoned them in a sphere of magic so that they would never escape, with only a mirror to see into the world outside the in-between realm... And if that mirror were to break, the Archivist would die in pain and their magic would be stolen to strengthen the spells imprisoning their siblings."

"Oh, wow."

"And I made sure that each mirror was broken," The Titan continued. "Except for one. The mirror of the last Collector, though... They're just The Collector now I suppose... He was the one I hated the most. You see, The Collector appeared to us in the form of a child. They said that his family had cast him out and that since he no longer had to preserve things he wanted to know if he could play with us. We took The Collector in, my people did, and our children adored playing games with him... Until their siblings came and all the young titans disappeared. We'd been tricked, and I wanted The Collector to suffer the way I had, so I arranged for a demon born from the body of one of my ancestors to bury the final mirror deep within my own skull never to be found again, but..."

"But what?" Luz asked.

"It was only after I used the last of my strength to drag The Collector down here, that I laid down and died, that I had the time to think and realized facts that didn't line up. The Collector... Had seemed genuinely surprised and concerned when our children went missing. He seemed upset to realize that his siblings were 'taking them away' but in my rage, I ignored it until... The Collector wasn't in on the plan. His siblings used him to lure us into a false sense of security, then killed not only our children but his friends. In a way, he was just another victim of the Archivists." The Titan seemed to conjure a pair of chairs from the dark muck beneath them. He sat and gestured for Luz to take the other seat, which she did. "I don't regret killing the other Archivists. They deserved everything that happened to them and worse and it's my sincere hope that their crimes in life lead them to The Below Place to suffer the mad ravings of The One Below All for eternity, but... The Collector is an innocent child. I don't even think he understands what death is. I lost control, and I hurt the wrong person. And now Belos spent the last few centuries manipulating the poor kid with a promise of freedom that will never come."

"...I get it, though. I kind of lost it out of anger, too," Luz said.

"That's the other thing I wanted to talk to you about," The Titan said. "Are you alright?"

"I ate a man alive tonight," Luz deadpanned. "So I'm gonna have to say no. I'm not alright."

"So, Luz, I'm not going to tell you that what you did was okay," The Titan said. "Right and wrong are complicated, no one but you can decide that. But from where I'm sitting? Killing Bill and tearing your way through the rest of the trappers isn't like what I did to the Collector. These weren't innocent people who you attacked by mistake: You knew exactly what they were and what they were planning to do."

"But I ate him," Luz said. "I was just so angry and... It'd be easy to say I lost control but the truth is I think part of me wanted to, to... I..." Luz took a deep breath. "I got caught up in having cool powers and, later in being able to use magic and... I guess I was focused a bit too much on the good ones like Toxin or Agent Venom that I forgot about what the rest of them are like. I forgot what symbiotes were, so it didn't occur to me that... Being part symbiote means I'm a monster."

"Luz, you're not a monster," The Titan insisted.

"I ate a person," Luz insisted. "Not only am I a monster, I'm a hypocrite! I had that whole conversation with Amity about fairy pie, I, I..."

"Okay, Luz: May I ask you a question?" The Titan began. Luz nodded, so he continued. "Is Eda a monster?"

"What? No, of course not!" Luz insisted. "How can you even ask something like that?"

The Titan summoned forth one of the floating cubes and held it so that one face was... Facing, Luz. Suddenly an image was projected onto the screen, of Eda holding a small, octopus-like creature pinched between her fingers.

"Well, that's the last time I take an outside referral," the image of Eda said before she swallowed the creature alive.

"...Adegast, the puppet demon." Luz had encountered him on her first full day on the Isles. He was a rival of Eda's who had appeared to Luz in the form of a wizard and convinced her she was a chosen one before sending her on a fake quest using illusions and puppets in order to get her alone to use her as bait for a trap for Eda. In hindsight, Luz hated that she was so naive as to fall for such an easy adventure, and... "Eda ate him..."

"To make sure that someone who tried to harm her and people she cared about couldn't hurt them again," The Titan continued. "And let me tell you: Bill was much, much worse than Adegast. The puppet demon was just a criminal. Bill was a manipulative cult leader who found the skulls of my children and the prison that contained their executed murderer, put together an incomplete story, and convinced himself that he could gain eternal glory and phenomenal power by releasing the Collector, who he had no true understanding of. He created a cult to gratify him, while lying to them all the while—he knew full well that my people weren't evil—and at most his ritual might have connected King to the Collector's prison. Spilling his blood on the broken mirror of the so-called Grand Huntsman would have done nothing, that archivist is dead. In a way, Bill is more like Belos than anyone else you've ever encountered."

"Yeah, but..."

"If you don't think bad of Eda for eating Adegast to make sure he couldn't hurt the apprentice who she'd only known for a few days," The Titan continued. "Then you shouldn't think bad of yourself for eating Bill to protect your little brother."

"I guess but... I still feel bad," Luz said. "I never want to be that angry again"

"And that's your right." the Titan reassured. "Taking a life is a serious matter, even when justified, and you're a child. Not a trained soldier. I'd... really suggest you see about getting a therapist when this is all said and done."

"If we all make it out of this in one piece," Luz mumbled.

"You might have better odds than you think," The Titan said. "Belos is going to have the Collector in my Skull, right next to the portal on the day of Unity, and he has no intention of releasing him. If you can't stop the draining spell, the Collector can. If King lets him out. And no, he doesn't need to spill his blood."

"...That's..." Luz started... "Good to know. Anything that gives us better odds is... Thank you." Then Luz started feeling funny. "Uh, what's going on?"

"You're waking up," The Titan said. "It always seems like you're waking up too soon when I can bring you here, but especially now when you most need the rest but, what is there to do about it?"

"Wait, um... Before I go, is there anything you want me to say to King?"

The Titan looked thoughtful, almost playful, for a moment and then told Luz what he wanted her to say.

King was woken up as Luz began to stir. So he climbed off her and stretched while she sat up. She blinked the sleep from her eyes and looked down at him. "Hey, little guy. How are you feeling?"

"A little better than yesterday," he admitted. But only a little. "You?"

"I talked to the Titan in my dreams again," she said. "I talked to your dad."

"You, you did?" King asked. "Did... Did he say anything about..."

"We've got a lot to talk about when we get home," Luz said, "but first... There's something he wanted me to tell you."

"What?"

Luz smiled as she began. "He said to tell you that it's really crumby that he can't be there to play catch with you, and that if he could brioche the barrier between life and death to spend time with you he would, but at the very yeast he can take comfort in knowing that you have friends and a family who loaf you very much."

It took King a moment to process that before he realized "Bread puns!" he started, like, half laughing and half crying, whatever that was called, and jumped up onto Luz who hugged him. He was feeling a lot of feelings right now, but... His Dad loved him.

Chapter Text

Odalia sipped her wine in the sitting room of her familial home in Latissa. It's a shame she and Alador had never made the time to come out here. It's not that she regretted focusing on building up Blight Industries over things like traveling, but she never really understood just how much dust can accumulate over time until she didn't have an abomination butler to clean it for her. Oh well, it's not like hiring a team from the janitorial coven to take care of it cost her that much. Alador had bought out her share of Blight Industries and she did not let it go cheap. She had more than enough to live on until after the Day of Unity.

Speaking of which: "How are things going on your end?"

Her business partner slinked out of the shadows. "Yes. I've made the necessary arrangements: If you are correct and our Queens to Be and their friends will be spending the next few months in the human realm, my contacts and proxies will ensure that she has everything she needs to grow stronger.

"Why is this necessary, again?" Odalia asked. "If Mittens's little scheme worked, her... Luz should be the strongest 'witch' in all the Boiling Isles. After a while, power for power's sake becomes a little gouache, don't you think?"

"It's the interaction of the living abyss in her body and the Titan's ambient magic that is causing our princess to grow into a Queen, My deat Odalia," Mephisto explained. "Her eldritch side awakening and evolving in response to consuming the power of a compatible Elder God. She's grown very strong in the last few months, but she's leaning too far toward The Titan's nature: It's the synthesis of The Titan's power with that of Knull that will allow for Luz's apotheosis and right now, though her symbiote side is strong her power make-up is skewing a little too close to The Titan's. We need to bolster the other side of the equation a little if we want it to go just right..."

"And how exactly do you intend to do that?" Odalia asked. "How do these creatures, her two non-human parents even work?"

"It would take all day to explain every last facet of those fascinating creatures," Mephisto explained, "but suffice it to say they have several ways to grow: The first is a function of their transcendent slaying orignal purpose: By killing beings such as myself, or angels, fae, gods, or cosmic entities a creature born from Living Abyss can drink of their power for itself. They can additionally absorb mystical or cosmic energies they are exposed to. Luz is already doing this. Another... Hormones. Andrenaline, phenethylamine, and a few other chemicals that are produced from the bodies of living creatures. How much a symbiote needs, if they do, varies, but... This probably isn't an option for Luz. She can't well feed on her own hormones, and she doesn't strike me as the type to just go around eating people. Well, not without a damned good reason at least."

Odalia shuddered. "Yes, that is... Rather unseemly."

"Symbiotes have the properties of absorbing things, however, to improve themselves. DNA and other biological information from a host, for example, or from something they ate," Mephisto continued. "Or raw materials: Certain metals or exotic elements. Certain energies have a greater effect than others as well: The living abyss is highly conductive to dark magic, both feeding on and amplifying it... I can make arrangements for Luz to be exposed to such things... But the biggest, most valuable source of power for furthering her evolution? Empathic energy. Negative empathic energy. Symbiotes are parasites in every sense of the word, able to grow stronger off of the rage, sadness, anxiety, grief, stress, and disgust of their hosts. Luz might not be able to feed off her own hormones, but her own feelings are a different story. And, well, the poor girl is awash with strong emotions in both extremes... I'm afraid her homecoming won't be as restful as she likely wishes it to be."

"It is such a shame, what we're putting the girl through but... We're making the mother of all omelets here." Odalia replied after another sip of wine. "She'll thank us when she's Empress."

"Speaking of which, how did your meeting with Belos go?"

"He was surprised that I'd managed to figure out the true purpose of the day of unity, but open to listening to me when I offered to help," Odalia replied. Draining magic from the entire population of the Isles to ascend the coven heads and a few other allies to a higher state of being and appoint them as royalty over the Demon Realm entire? The Emperor had to be some kind of mad genius. "I'll be upholding my end of the deal tomorrow, but... Well, I took a gamble and told him of my visions of Mittens and her... Luz on his throne in a decade's time. He told me that he had no intention of ruling the empire personally for much longer after the Day of Unity, and said he would appoint the two to be his heirs. He wants them both to be on his side in a place of honor at the ceremony in a few days. Everything is coming together splendidly." A true empire ruling the world, under the guidance of a God-Empress of Odalia's making, her daughter the Queen consort, and Odalia herself reaping the benefits of that union. What wasn't there to love?

"And you're sure you can go through with this?" Mephisto asked.

"Oh, sure. The older and weaker witches will die from the draining spell," she continued, "but anyone who doesn't last until the end of the ritual clearly wasn't worthy in the first place and it's not like I'm personally at risk."

Mephisto smiled at her. "I can't help but think that our business relationship will be a long one."

Amity was on pins and needles all day. This morning, Luz had messaged her that she was back on the Isles after a sudden departure a few days ago and that she'd contact her again when she was settled in but that was hours ago and... All Amity knew was that she was scared. She hadn't seen Luz in days and if the rebellion failed the world would end tomorrow.

Naturally, she was thus quite jumpy when the abomination butler appeared and beckoned that she come to the sitting room.

Especially since... Would Dad do that? He did it with Darius but... That was a very formal meeting... Sort of. But... When she was freaking out over being Grom Queen and had convinced herself that giving Luz her gromposal was a mistake that ruined their friendship he came to her in person. So... This was either really important or really bad. Or both.

With her staff in hand and a flask of her custom abomination slime concealed at her hip just in case, Amity steeled her nerves and went down.

...Her nerves were not steeled enough. Heck, she should have mithrilled them. Or adamantined them or... What was that miracle metal from the human nation that was hoarding its cancer cure called?

In the sitting room, sitting awkwardly, were her father and siblings... And her mother. and Darius Deamonne.

...And about a dozen Emperor's Coven scouts with spears at the ready.

"Oh, there you are, Mittens," her mother said. "I was just telling your father how disappointed the Emperor is with how abomiton production has been lately. And really, Alador? Trying to call it off entirely? What could have possessed you to do that?"

"When we first founded Blight Industries," her father began, "our business model was to provide people with practical devices meant for home and personal defense. Over time we expanded into outright weapons, but... There are limits, Odalia," her father insisted. "I have... Qualms with what Emperor Belos is using the abomitons for. I won't have any part in it."

"Well it's not like you have a choice," her mother said. "By imperial decree," she declared while producing and unfurling an official-looking scroll stamped with the Emperor's seal, "sole ownership of Blight Industries and all related assets, intellectual properties, and proprietary technologies has been awarded to me. You'll be starting up production again effective immediately and working double time to make up for the delay," she said. "Or else."

The Emperos' oven scouts brandished their spears threateningly.

"Our old friend Darius has kindly offered to supply a handful of abomitech experts hand-picked from his coven to help keep things going smoothly."

...Darius had told Amity that her mother had been the reason his friendship with her parents had broken down. And based on his opinion of her father's life's work, any abomitech specialists he hand-picked would probably be artisans ill-suited for working on mass-produced machines at factory pace... He was here to gum up the works for the Rebellion.

"Fine," Dad replied. "But, please. Leave the children out of this."

"The twins can do whatever," Amity's mother said in a tone that proved to her that Ed and Em were correct about Odalia not caring about them. "But there are big plans for Mittens."

Amity gripped her staff tighter and took a defensive position as she asked "What?"

"The Emperor was so impressed by you and your partner, Luz," she said with unnatural emphasis as if to draw attention to the fact that she'd remembered her name this time, "defeating that nasty brute who tricked me that he wants the two of you by his side on the Day of Unity so that he can bestow onto you both a special honor."

"No," Amity insisted.

"This isn't a negotiation, Mittens," Odalia dismissed. "You will be escorted to the Emperor's Palace to take your place of honor on the Day of Unity."

"I know what the Day of Unity really is!" Amity shouted. "There's... There's a draining spell, and..." How did she explain what had been put together from Luz's hurried text and Hunter's Penta message? "The Emperor, he's going to—"

"Yes, yes we all know about the draining spell," Odalia replied, and... Something in Amity snapped.

"You know!?" She asked at the same time as her father and the siblings.

"Yes, of course," she said as if talking about her preferences in tea.

"And you're okay with this?" Amity asked. "With... So many people are going to—"

"Blah, blah, blah, Mittens," Odalia interrupted. "You like cooking, don't you? You know you have to break a few eggs to make an omelet."

Amity responded by trying to blast Odalia with her fire-conjuring spell.

Odalia ducked at the last minute so that only her hair bun was burned. Some of the coven scouts surrounded Amity with their spears but a pose and a gesture was all that was needed for a stream of abomination slime to knock them all on their butts.

"So unbecoming, Mittens," Odalia said with barely contained rage radiating from her despite her even tone. "Just because you have the Emperor's Favor doesn't mean you're above discipline. Do I need to have my spirit fetch the belt?"

Amity flinched involuntarily which gave enough of an opening for someone to take control of her slim from her and suddenly she was wrapped in chains of her own making.

"¡Te odio, maldita cerda, espero que mueras!" She shouted at her mother as she struggled and tried not to fall over.

"Mittens has been learning human language from her partner," Odalia said to the guards who had either not tried to seize Amity in the first place or who had since gotten back up. Truthfully Amity couldn't tell who was who with those uniforms. "It's such a poetic-sounding tongue."

Her struggling stopped as she was grabbed from behind by Darius. "Given her volatile reaction, I think I'll transport her myself," he said. "She'll probably calm down once we get to our destination and she sees her partner." He then whispered in her ear "Keep struggling, this needs to look real."

Amity did so and, keeping in mind what a jerk he'd been to her a few weeks ago took the opportunity to reverse headbut him in the jaw. He said it had to look real.

He yelped, and her Dad stood up. "Darius, I... Let her go or I swear by the Titan I'll—"

Amity didn't get to hear him finish his threat, and she and Darius both fell down a pool of abomination slime the head abomination witch had conjured while talking. Amity... Wasn't quite sure how to describe where the teleportation spell had taken them."

"I apologize for that display," Darius said as he rubbed his jaw. "Belos, as it seems, is intent on using you as both the carrot and the stick to try and get Luz to return to the Human Realm with him after he kills everyone." He released his hold on her slime allowing her to free herself and reclaim it. "We knew about seizing Blight Industries but the attempt at taking you into custody seems to have been tacked on at the last minute and I had to improvise."

"Okay, um... what's going on and where are we?" Amity said as her brain caught up.

"The Emperor spontaneously decided to use you as bait to lure out your girlfriend," Darius said condescendingly slowly. "And I improvised a rescue on top of my prior attempt to sabotage the attempt at accelerating abomiton production because if I didn't your girlfriend would knowingly walk into the trap and we aren't exactly comfortable in our ability to stop her. As for where we are—"

"You are at the secret headquarters," a new voice interrupted and Amity realized that there were quite a few people here. "Of the Covens Against The Throne," said the speaker, revealed to be Raine Whispers as Amity turned.

"Whispers I didn't agree to that name, we've been over this," Darius said sternly.

"AKA..."

"I don't care that I was outvoted, that's still a stupid name."

"The CATTs!"

Several of the surrounding people hissed.

Darius sighed. "Okay, you know what, I need to take five. One of you show her around."

He walked off after that and Amity looked around, trying to determine if she recognized anyone else before suddenly being glomped.

"Hey, Sweet Potato!" came the wonderfully familiar voice of her beloved girlfriend whose hair was a little longer and pulled back. It was a good look on her.

"Luz, it's so good to see you," Amity replied, suddenly feeling relief. "I got your message and Willow showed me Hunter's and..."

"It's been a heck of a few days, Hermosa," Luz said sounding... Very tired. "I'll get you caught up in a little bit but... I'm just so glad to see you right now."

Chapter Text

"And that's the last of the equipment," the blue-furred, simian-like man in the lab coat said. "Now I just need to..." with a flick of a button, a variety of machines surrounded the old shack whose door held the portal to the Boiling Isles and came to life with flashing lights, whirling motors, and rotating satellite dishes. "And we are getting readings on dimensional frequencies... Not any dimension I'm familiar with," the man said, "but cross-referencing it against the frequencies of the dimensions that Stephen has narrowed it down to should give us a working idea of where in the multiverse this 'Demon Realm' is located."

"Thank you, Dr. McCoy," Camila said. "Everyone. It... It means so much that so many of you came to help."

"We're superheroes, Ma'am," said the man perched in the tree behind her. Dressed in iconic red and blue, Dr. Parker, the Amazing Spider-Man... He wasn't Captain America, but when it came to bringing hope just by being here he was the next best thing. "It's what we do. People are in danger, we help. However, we can."

"Honestly there should be more of us here given the scale and nature of the crisis," said a blonde girl who couldn't be older than twelve, dressed in a tight blue uniform with a 4 logo encircled over her sternum. "An Earthling makes first contact with another dimension and their first instinct is xenocide? We should be here in full force just to show those people that not all humans are like that but between the goof-up with the Cotati drawing the Avengers to space and Uncle Doom's latest tantrum keeping most of my family busy..." She started looking over one of the screens on the equipment that had been set up around the shack.

"The word's still spreading. Until then, we make do with what we have Val—"

"It's Brainstorm when I'm on the job unless you want me to call you Uncle Pete."

"Fair enough, Brainstorm," Spider-Man agreed. "But personally, the scale doesn't matter. I'd be here if it was just the one kid in trouble. I've got girls your daughter's age myself, Mrs. Noceda... That reminds me," he said as he landed next to Camila. "You might need these," he said while handing her a pill bottle with a label that was a big science word she likely couldn't pronounce if she tried.

"What are these?" she asked.

"Hormone supplements," the wall crawler explained. "Adrenaline, phenethylamine, a few other things. Logan said your girl is part symbiote... Somehow? So's my April. Symbiotes feed on this stuff, usually from hosts, especially if they're young and still growing or if they get sick. However, hybrids don't have hosts, and... Well, a synthetic hormone pill a day is a lot easier and cheaper than binge eating an entire bodega's worth of candy bars every few days."

"...What happens if she needs these and doesn't take them?" Camila asked, suddenly concerned.

"Increased aggression," the hero said with none of his trademark jovially. "Not all the time, but she might be a bit more willing to joke about inflicting violence on someone. Under high-stress situations, or if someone makes her mad, she might make more serious threats or... April punched a cop once."

Camila carefully pocketed the pill bottle to discuss their use with Luz once her daughter was safe.

"Worst case scenario," he continued, "if she needs this stuff and goes too long without it, and something makes her really, really angry... Symbiote instincts might take over and a hangry symbiote is likely to just straight up eat a person."

"Duley noted," Camila said nervously.

"That out of the way, we are really cutting it close to the wire," the hero continued. "Magic team!" he called out. "How are things on your end?"

"Magik still isn't back from checking the Libraries of Limbo, Strange got a phone call from a distrubingly British sounding ringtone, and I'm only here because my apprentice threatened to let it get out that I was fooled by a shapeshifter," said Former President Laufeyson. "I respect their cunning, but I also hate them for it."

"...Okay, I know you saw me walk up," came Masha's voice from up the path. "Anyway, Mrs. N? There's a sitch back at the house."

"What's wrong?"

"You know those two old guys who were in town a few months ago looking for ghosts, helped us out when we went to get Luz back from Hopkins?" Masha began. "Well, they're back in town. We ran into them earlier that day, turns out the smart one was in the Boiling Isles for a bit and Luz agreed to an interview. Vee is trying to explain what's going on, but..."

"But nothing," came the deep voice of Stanford Pines. "This young woman explained it adequately enough," while gesturing to Vee, who was following behind the man and his brother. "I'm something of an expert in portals and extradimensional—"

"Standford Pines?" The young girl who called herself Brainstorm asked. "The author of The Journals on The Nature of The Paranormal In Relation To Transdimensional Physics?"

"Yes, I am that Standford," the man in question confirmed.

The girl walked up and extended her hand, "Valeria Richards, I'm a big fan."

Stanford took the girl's hand and shook it. "Call me Ford."

"Val," the girl replied. "My Dad read me... Your book was basically my bedtime story when I was little."

"And you're Dr. Reed Richard's girl?" Stanford asked.

"Yes sir."

"Well, then that's high praise indeed," Stanford admitted. "So, what sort of OS is this equipment running on?"

"Hey, Ford," the man's brother, Stanley if Camila recalled, "You think that colleague of yours could help?"

"He's more someone I kept stumbling across than someone I have a means of contacting," Stanford dismissed. "I don't even know what Earth Dimension he's native to. Besides, given his, let's say temperament, he's just as likely to make things worse as he is to actually help."

"He can't possibly be that bad," Stanley pointed out.

"Stan, you and I... We're complex people, right? We're capable of growing, we contained multitudes, right?"

"I guess," Stanley replied.

"Imagine if we... didn't," Stanford continued. "Imagine the two of us... As we were ten years ago before we met the kids. And as... Completely flat characters, our best and our worst without any of the traits that give us dimension, that make us real people."

"Okay."

"Now imagine those two caricatures smashed together into one person, and round it out with crippling, nihilistic depression and an intellect to rival Doctor Richards," Stanford finished. "This is a man who could change the world—the universe—in a heartbeat but is too busy destroying himself with drugs, alcohol, unprotected sex, and random acts of violence to do anything truly productive because he can't cope with his pain and refuses to accept help."

"...Ah, Geeze. He sounds like Bill."

"You're not far off if what we derived from that tome before disposing of it is accurate, though given the choice I'd take Sanchez," Standford concluded.

Doctor Strange then returned from wherever it was he departed to, melting out of the treeline. "Sorry about that. Blade called to inform me that a clone of Dracula has managed to steal an unabridged copy of the Darkhold so I had to refer him to someone who could provide more immediate help. Genocide takes precedence, obviously. Then Elsa Bloodstone called, apparently some lunatic injected himself with all the major strains of true lycanthropy and now she's stalking a 'super werewolf' across New England." There was a pause for a moment. "She didn't say where in New England though, so I'm probably going to have to release a statement to the press later. Anything happen while I was gone?"

"The man who my vice president requested I pardon of an absolutely massive number of theft, fraud, smuggling, and embezzlement related crimes and his twin brother who actually committed those crimes showed up," Former President Laufeyson quipped. "Apparently he's an expert on the subject."

Just then, a massive circle of light appeared on the ground and a woman materialized from it as it faded. She was young-looking, maybe mid-twenties. Blonde and dressed in revealing black clothing while holding a sword. "The Libraries of Limbo have no references to the Boiling Isles or any realm that could be such as described. Belesco didn't know about it either when I went to beat any knowledge he might have on the subject out of him."

"Well, nothing is still something when it comes to tricky business like this," Strange admitted. "If it's never had contact with Limbo then that actually narrows it down by a lot. As of now, with all the tools of science and sorcery available to us the only way to narrow it down further would be something of immense power from that same dimension."

"...Like Titan Blood?" Vee asked.

"What?" Strange replied.

"Titan Blood it's... the blood of The Titan," Vee continued. "the strongest source of magic in the Demon Realm. We found a vial of it that someone hid in the old graveyard and it's been in a safe at the house ever since. The glyphs Luz uses for magic don't work in the human Realm without it... So."

"That would be of immense help at this stage," Strange said.

Before anyone could run to the house to retrieve the vial, however, a staticky sensation was felt as a man clad from head to toe in blood-red armor framed with a royal purple cape floated down from the sky.

Camila had to repress a shudder as he touched down on the grass. She knew that the man in question had supposedly changed, but she was old enough to remember some of what he was like before the Phalanx invasion before the Genetic Diversity Protection Act was passed, before he willingly submitted himself to trial for his crimes and paid his debt to humanity. He may be a kindly grandfather figure now, but this was still a man with blood on his hands. Even now, rumor has it that he still murdered Nazis for a living.

"Ladies, gentlemen," Magneto greeted. "It has come to my attention that you are attempting to prevent a fanatical madman from committing genocide. I hope you don't mind if I throw my efforts behind your own."

Chapter Text

"...And that's everything that's happened," Luz finished.

Amity was... Luz had tried to tone down the worst of the worst but either she didn't do it enough or Amity's mutant power let her see through it. "Are... Are you okay?"

Luz sighed. "No. I'm not. ...I ate a person, and... everyone's telling me it's not my fault that Belos did all this, even the Titan pointed out that with how funky time travel can be this might be the best way for things to have happened but... Knowing up here that it's not my fault," Luz said while pointing to her head. "Doesn't mean I don't still feel like it is down here," she said while pointing to her heart.

Naturally, this prompted Amity to pull Luz into a hug. "Luz I... You're probably tired of hearing people say that..."

"That Belos is a manipulator and this is what he does?" Luz interrupted. "A little. Look, I get it. I'll be fine. Maybe not anytime soon, but... After I told Steve what his palisman told me he gave me the number of his therapist so if we make it out of this alive I might be able to get some help. Also, umm, I don't have a reason not to try fairy pie anymore," she finished with an awkward laugh.

Amity was clearly not impressed with the joke. "Luz, this Bill guy... It sounds like he got what was coming to him, but... You don't have to make jokes, it's okay to feel bad about it. Now, if you're serious about wanting to try fairy pie I can make you one when this is over but only if you're serious."

"...I am not," Luz admitted. "I just... I never want to be that mad ever again, and... Part of me is worried that if it happens again the next time I could hurt someone who doesn't deserve it. Or someone that I care about."

This time, Amity was the one who laughed. Not awkwardly, not mockingly, gently. More of a reassuring giggle than anything. "I don't think that's something you need to worry about. I don't think you could hurt someone you love on purpose. Even. if you wanted to." Amity then gave Luz a gentle squeeze that made Luz a little less afraid of herself for a moment. "Now, what I want to know is... Why did these Titan Trappers want to hurt King?"

"Cause I'm a titan!" King declared, which prompted Amity to jump.

"When did you get here?" Amity asked.

"I've been here the whole time," King replied. "But Luz really needed to vent so I decided not to say anything till she was done."

"I'm here too!" Hooty announced from the corner where his Porta-Hooty box was currently seated.

"...I really should have noticed that," Amity admitted.

"Don't feel bad, Hermosa," Luz comforted. "I have trouble noticing people when I'm frazzled, too."

"Okay, and... Wait, did you just say you were a titan?" Amity asked while suddenly turning to face King.

"Yep!" King confirmed.

"King is the son of The Titan," Luz explained.

Amity appeared to have blue-screened for a moment. "...Did I ever apologize for crushing your cupcake?"

"Yes," King replied. "Same day. Besides, I got over that pretty quick... And like, I forgave Hunter for putting me in a cage and threatening to drown me in the boiling sea so..."

"Man we're a forgiving group," Luz observed to herself. "Like, in general. I think everyone I'm friends with has tried to hurt or exploit me at some point."

"...My girlfriend is The Titan's prophet and her little brother is The Titan's son," Amity said almost robotically. "I.. Um..."

Luz suddenly got very uncomfortable. "Um, Amity? The Titan doesn't like being worshipped, and... Yeah, I'm not exactly prophet material."

"Please don't get weird about this," King added. "Look, I'm over the whole big scary Tyrant thing. I just want to be treated like a normal kid, okay? Eda wants to keep this secret for a while so people don't get weird about it but, well, you get future-sister-in-law privileges."

"Okay, got it, no weirdness, no special treatment," Amity agreed. "And... Thank you for trusting me."

"Although now I have a question," Luz said as something occurred to her. "Hooty, you said that you were born inside The Titan's body when he was still alive. So... How come you never recognized King as a titan?"

"Do you think I ever got a good look at him from the outside?" Hooty asked incredulously. "He was already starting to rot the first time I saw the sun. And also like... You know he's really, really big, right?"

"The last time I saw him," Luz said, "there was a little Tiny Hooty where one of his eyes was supposed to be."

"...Mommy?" Hooty asked. "She passed... I can't count how many centuries ago. I remember... When I was very little she told me she was the host's seeing eye-worm."

Luz blinked. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine, hoot hoot!"

"So, you know what we've been up to," Luz changed the subject while turning back to Amity. "Other than your mom being your mom how have things gone for you?"

"Well, the day you left the Head Witch of the Illusion coven showed up with some coven scouts to brand everyone with Coven Sigils but because Willow and Gus's flyer derby team shared the warning Hunter gave them we saw it coming and all of the students and staff... Well, let's say that Belos's stooges didn't stand a chance."

"Nice!"

"I have to give special credit to Willow and Gus," Amity continued. "Willow if... If I hadn't seen her at the riot at the petrification ceremony, I'd have trouble believing that this was the same witch I was friends with all those years ago. She... she's so strong I can hardly believe it and she keeps getting stronger. And Gus... He left the Illusion Head crying in the fetal position and stole a magic-boosting artifact from him."

"Yeah," Luz said fondly. "Our friends are awesome."

"After that, Principal Bump canceled classes until after the Day of Unity. He activated the school's defenses and offered it as a shelter for students and their families who would need to hide and didn't have anywhere else. Edric, Emira, and I went home and told Dad what happened and he canceled production for the abomitons but... Well, you already know how that went."

"Yeah," Luz acknowledged. "Don't worry, your mom isn't going to get away with it."

"Yeah... Before that, though... I spent some time upgrading my instrument and practicing with her. I even gave her a proper name." Amity drew the spell circle to summon it and her instrument appeared in her hands. At first glance, it didn't really look all that different except for a name emblazoned on the front: Dulzura.

"Sweetness?" Luz asked.

"Well, she's a sweet instrument," Amity said playfully. "Almost as sweet as the witch who helped inspire me to make her."

"Ahh, you're sweet," Luz said before planting a kiss on Amity's cheek.

"Also," Amity continued with a smile and a blush, "Dulzura... Azura... I couldn't help myself."

"Yeah, I would have done the same," Luz agreed. "Ooh, Katya offered to teach me some of the tricks she learned from Raine. Maybe she'll be willing to teach you, too?"

"That'd be cool," Amity agreed. "But... Give it to me straight, how good are our odds of getting out of this?"

"The CATTs have a plan," Luz began. "They're gonna tell us first thing in the morning, and everyone seems confident that it'll work. And well... We have a secret backup plan," Luz whispered conspiratorially. "Eda, King, and I. It's... Not the best plan, but it's extra insurance. Everyone's confident. We're going to stop the draining spell, beat Belos, expose his lies for everyone to see, and he fixed the portal key so once we beat him we can take the portal back and... How about, after all is said and done," Luz said with a smile, "you and I go on a nice, quiet, drama free slice of life date in the human realm?"

"What do you have in mind?" Amity asked.

"How about... A walk in the park?" Luz started. "Then... There's an ice cream parlor with some decent vegan milkshakes, we could split one like in the cartoons, and then... I don't think there's anywhere in Gravesfield to go dancing but Masha did say that playing classic rock in the park was a regular thing so... Back to the park, I guess? We'll figure it out. Whatever it is, it'll involve plenty of hugs and victory smooches."

"Yeah! ...Or, hear me out... We could dress up in animal jammies, eat snacks, and binge-watch anime," Amity suggested and Luz briefly saw a field of hearts.

"Mi Mamá tenía razón, somos almas gemelas," Luz said more to herself than anyone else.

"Por supuesto que lo somos, mi Batata más preciado," Amity replied anyway.

The exchange was naturally followed with more hugging and a kiss on the mouth. Whatever would happen come the Day of Unity, they'd be ready. They'd get through this, together.

Chapter Text

Luz was nervous as she, Hunter, and Amity landed at the outskirts of Bonesborrogh, King riding alongside her.

The plan, as it turned out, was to corrupt the draining spell using Eda's curse. A powerful concealment stone would disguise Eda as Raine and she would take their place in the ceremony that would start the draining spell. However, this would require Eda to be branded with a Bard Coven sigil, something Eda had been morally opposed to her whole life and that would put her in direct danger if the plan fails and the spell goes off.

Eda had insisted that she was willing to make that sacrifice, noting that corrupted bard magic was all she could do anymore anyway and she could still make and use potions even without a matching sigil, but... Raine had looked Luz in the eye and made her a promise that they'd make sure Eda was okay when Luz confronted them about it.

And, well, Luz trusted Raine. Raine was nice.

That all resolved, the next order of business: While Darius's hand-picked plants had been able to sabotage abomiton production, the facts of the matter were that there were far too many functional abomitons at Belos's service. Since Luz needed something to do to occupy her time lest she go crazy from nerves, Amity was worried about her Dad after last night they'd been assigned a mission to meet up with a couple of witches in town and infiltrate the Blight Industries Factory to retrieve the master control device that could be used to shut all of the abomitons down, make sure Alador was okay, and if possible oust Odalia before making a beeline for The Head in order to execute that shutdown. King was with them, of course, because if the CATTs' plan failed then they'd need to get him to the Head ASAP to try and free the Collector, and Hunter was with them because... Well, technically he was leading the mission.

"Okay," Luz said, "Hunter you're in charge so... Who are we meeting?"

Hunter smirked. "They should be here in three... Two..."

A pair of somewhat excited but also very familiar voices rang out on cue. Luz didn't catch what they were saying but she didn't need to catch it to recognize her two best friends.

Greeting Willow and Gus took a few moments of hugging, and Gus and Hunter did this secret handshake thing they'd invented at some point.

"Luz," Willow asked, "Amity... Are you alright? Luz, you just disappeared for a week and Amity, we heard about..."

"I'm fine," Amity said. "Luz... Will be," she continued after a glance at Luz to see that it was okay to answer for her.

"What we need to worry about right now," Luz continued, "is getting into the Blight factory."

"The most efficient way in," Hunter began, "is to go in through the front door. But for that, we're going to need disguises." Hunter then took off the backpack he'd been wearing and revealed that scout uniforms were contained within it. There was even a little one for King. And, at the bottom, a recreation of Hunter's Golden Guard uniform.

"Gus, if you would?" Hunter asked once the disguises were donned.

"Right away," the young illusionist agreed and drew a small spell circle, and with a poof Stringbean, Ghost, Clover, and Emmeline were disguised as the sorts of spears carried by the Coven Scouts while Flapjack came to resemble the staff that Hunter had previously used.

"So, according to Darius, when I first... Went missing, it was someone else who noticed first and when asked about it Belos improvised that I was on a long-term undercover mission and that's why no one was looking for me. I guess he figured either I'd come back or die without my old staff," Hunter started. "Because of this, he couldn't really go back on that when he found out where I was and what I was up to. Which means..."

"As far as anyone knows," Luz put it together, "you're still the head of the Emperor's Coven."

"Exactly," Hunter confirmed. "Emperor's Coven Scouts are providing security to the factory, so I should be able to get us in easily. Blight? You know the layout of the place, so you're with me up front. Luz, you're up in front too, your job is to watch Blight's back. Gus, back of the formation, focuses on maintaining those illusions and if things go off the rails then give us cover. King, you're our secret weapon so stay in the middle of the information where it's safe. Captain, protect King."

After a chorus of agreements and the actual formation of a formation, the group entered town and made their way to Blight Manor and its attached factory.

The first major obstacle was encountered at the property line. A pair of Coven Guards standing in front of the building.

"Stand down," Hunter ordered authoritatively. It was weird hearing him in Golden Guard mode after getting to know him as the awkward, dorky older sibling type.

"Uh, Golden Guard, sir, uh... where have you been?" one of the guards asked.

"Those details are classified," Hunter insisted. "All you need to know is that now that I'm back, my hand-picked retinue of scouts and I are taking over the Coven detail here at Blight Industries."

The other guard didn't seem to care for that "But sir, we're under strict orders to—"

"Are you questioning your superior?" Hunter asked calmly but sternly.

This was apparently quite terrifying to the guards, one of whom quickly stammered "No sir."

"Then stand down," Hunter ordered again.

The two guards did so this time and the... Luz mused to herself that her friend group needed a cool name... Luz's Angels was too egocentric. Hex Squad sounded cool, but Hunter didn't go to Hexside. Whatever, she'd bring it up when they had a minute. Anyway, the group entered the property and made their way toward the factory.

The exchange was repeated almost word for word with two scouts outside the factory but then they were in.

...There was no way these conditions were safe. There wasn't anything overtly dangerous as far as Luz could tell, but the frantic pace the workers were going by and how tired everyone looked... Well, she'd said it once and she'd say it again: crunch time was toxic and unsustainable.

"Attention!" Hunter bellowed. "Given the importance of abomiton production for security for today's event at the Head and the future of the Boiling Isles, in my capacity as head of the Emperor's Coven, I am assuming direct control of imperial operations at this facility." There was certainly a reaction. People stopped working, and scouts stood at attention. Luz tried to give Amity a look and found her girlfriend doing the same in her direction. If Luz felt the sudden spike of fear then Amity certainly did. "Now, where are Alador and Odalia Blight?"

As it turned out, Amity's dad was holed up in his personal lab while Odalia was in the house proper. Given both proximity and that securing the master control remote was one of their main objectives, they went there first.

"I said I needed to be alone!" The clearly exhausted witch shouted as they entered and secured the door behind them. He didn't actually seem to be working on anything, however. He then stood at attention when he realized that the Golden Guard was in the room.

"Yeah... About that... Blight, you're up," Hunter said and Amity immediately broke formation and took off her mask.

"Dad!" She greeted as she ran for him.

"Mittens," he replied as he pulled her into a hug. "You're alright, but... How? And..." He looked back at the rest of the group, particularly Hunter, "I'm confused."

"The Golden Guard, Hunter, is on our side," Amity replied. "So is Darius. There's a... A Rebellion, to try and stop the day of Unity... Dad, it's bad... The Draining spell, he's going to kill everyone."

"What do you need?" Amity's dad said evenly.

"We know that there's a master control remote that can shut down all the abomitons," Hunter interjected. "And we need it. Ideally, we need to shut down production, too."

"...Where are Ed and Em?" Amity asked suddenly.

"The Twins are taking shelter at Hexside," Mr. Blight replied. "I got them out of the house as soon as posisble, before Odalia changed her mind about getting them involved. As for the master control, it's in the safe deposit box in the study, but your mother has the key."

"...Not my mother," Amity said. "she's just Odalia. I... I don't remember her ever acting the way a mom is supposed to, I... when this is all said and done, the only thing I want to have to do with her is to dance on her grave when she dies."

With a deep sadness, Mr. Blight sighed. "I understand."

"We'll dance on her grave.," Luz added.

"Huh?" Amity asked.

"If you're serious about wanting to dance on her grave, we should do it together," Luz said, "because that's gonna be a big emotional thing no matter what... And we can do a couple dance, to show that you're happy without her. Like a waltz or a tango, or... Ooh! I could teach you Merengue!"

"...What's that?"

"The song and dance of my people," Luz replied.

"Then I'd love to learn," Amity agreed readily. "...Even if I'm probably not going to actually dance on Odalia's grave."

Mr. Blight cocked his head to the side like a confused dog. "Luz?"

"Hey, Mr. Blight," Luz greeted and confirmed with a wave. "Nobody here is actually a coven scout. Are you okay?"

"I've been better," he replied, "and please, call me Alador."

"Okay, so, it seems that what we need to do next is confront Odalia," Hunter said.